I = Interviewer
F = Francis Reader (lead singer)
J = John Douglas (rhythm guitar)
I: What's the first song you're gonna do for us?
F: It's the Mekons.
J: And it's called "Ghosts of American Astronauts".
(TCS play "Ghosts of American Astronauts")
I: "Ghosts of American Astronauts", Trash Can Sinatras playing live for us there on Radio Scotland with an old Mekons song, why did you decide to do that one for us?
J: It's great.
F: One of the songs you've got to hear, you know really, so it was our duty as it were to broadcast it to you...the world.
I: You've been noted for a few clever cover versions over the last few years.
F: Clever?
J: Clever...very intelligent.
F: Mathematical cover versions...intelligence is our middle name!
I: Spike tells me you're going to do an old Lulu number one.
F: The only Lulu number one, "To Sir, With Love", it's on our album. We just did it for a laugh and it turned out well. The reason for that?
I: The reason for that? You are the people with intelligence as your middle name!
F: Yes! Of course!
I: Third album coming together recently in your own Shabby Road studios down in Kilmarnock.
F: Flooded us out now.
I: Is it? Has it suffered a bit?
F: Glencairn Square, that was the place in the news.
I: Having your own studio, does that mean you just go in and lay down some stuff at any hour of the night or do you have sort of set discipline, if you like?
J: If we go in we don't usually say 'that's 9:00, let's go up the road', we just sort of go in and record until we're sort of falling asleep or it's done. It can be quite long; long hours, long days, and other days we don't bother at all...depends how Spike's feeling.
I: The last time I saw you playing live was at Sound City last April and then there was a gap, and then of course we saw you at T In the Park headlining on the Saturday night Caledonia Stage. For anybody who didn't get along to that, what sort of experience was that for you?
J: Very nice, very nice, it was a kind of very hot day, very nice. I'd been watching a lot of the bands on the same stage just sort of through the afternoon and really there wasn't that many people arriving, it was quite out of the way you know, it was kind of like behind the kabob store.
|
|
I: It's next to the Bends, wasn't it?
J: Aye, which is kind of appropriate for us. By the end of the night there was quite a number of smiling faces watching us which was nice...it was a good atmosphere.
F: We did hear that one person fell asleep because it was late, you know. Wee boy it was, somebody's wee lad. He was only 5, so that's okay.
I: You're keeping his name on your records for the mailing list, I suppose?
F: I don't think he's woke up yet.
I: I think we're gonna wake up with another song here, what're you gonna do for us?
J: It's called "The Sleeping Policeman".
(TCS play "The Sleeping Policeman")
I: Trash Can Sinatras in session there, that was called "The Sleeping Policeman", another one that's going to appear on the new album I take it?
J: Yes.
F: Yes, yes, that's John's star moment on the album.
J: Pass the mike (microphone)...got a variety of them, like a variety show.
I: John suddenly turned into the spotlight kid during that one.
F: Steps forward...we like to record secondary man and whoever's singing at the that point gets to stand up. Just like the Glenn Miller Reunion, you know.
I: This new album, does it have a title yet?
F: A Happy Pocket.
I: A Happy Pocket...you don't want to explain that to us do you?
F: Well, it comes...originally there was a phrase of a child that used to work with us, whenever he got his per diems, his wages, he would say 'a full pocket's a happy pocket', so we just sort of took half of that really and he sort of died so we felt it was nice to use it, although we think of it sort of just as a happy pocket of people in Kilmarnock. We think you don't really need to go anywhere else to...you know, you don't need to...every time we move out of Kilmarnock to do things it doesn't seem to work, so it's just like a reflection of that, for this album. It's not a career spanning doctrine that we have, but for this album it seemed appropriate.
I: Now you mention 13 songs, does that mean that 13 are laid down and ready to fire? When's the album gonna be out there?
J: I think it's January/February.
F: March or something.
J: March, is it?
F: We've got singles coming out before it, but it's 13 all ready to go...sleeve's done.
I: Brilliant. (gives tour dates)
|
