One
of the things I admire the most about Duncan’s former band The Boys, is how great
the band remained throughout their career. For me, each of their albums got better and better when it seemed
for many of their peers the exact opposite was happening. They started off as punk with a pop edge and
ended up with straight power pop gems To
Hell With The Boys and Boys Only. Duncan Reid’s debut solo album Little Big Head picks up right where those
two albums left
off. Tremendous power pop the
likes of which this earth hasn’t seen for a long time and was long overdue for. Memorable songs with no fillers, the
way our rock n roll forefathers intended it. A friend of mine described Duncan Reid’s music as “beyond
brilliant”, who am I to squabble?
Interview by Jay Castro
Let’s
start with: where you are originally from and what (or whom) motivated you to
want to pick up an instrument and learn how to play it?
I’m
from a little, historic town in England called Canterbury. It’s famous for its
Cathedral which is the centre of the Church of England, the official religion
here. Nothing ever happens but it was a great place to grow up. We lived on a
Council estate, which was housing given to families who couldn’t afford their
own place. It wasn’t rough though, or at least, it didn’t seem rough to me. We
were always outside in the street, kicking a football which we were mad about,
playing cricket or riding our bicycles.
As
little 7 year old boys we would ride for miles on our bicycles, sometimes going
to the seaside for a swim, which would take all morning to get to. We’d get
hungry at mid day and knock on some strangers door to ask for a sandwich. Can
you imagine today? A parent’s nightmare.
Or
we’d raid the local apple farms, stealing from the trees. My little brother
even managed to steal a ton of trout from the local fish farm, sneaking in
there with his fishing rod. One of the bigger boys picked on him once so I
waded in all tough and hit the bully. I broke my little finger so I’ve never
thought it a good idea to hit anybody since.
London
was only sixty miles away but it was in another universe which I moved to when
I was 16.
There
were only two things I ever wanted to be- either George Best, a really famous
and brilliant footballer, or Paul MacCartney. I was never big or fast enough
for football so it was the singing bass player route for me.
You started your
musical career with The Boys in late ’75, ’76 when you were a teenager. One of the things that separated that
band from other British punk at the time was that you kept politics and out of
your music. As a solo artist do
you still subscribe to this mantra?
If so why?
Well,
I have so far but maybe I should have a go at it. I’m always looking for new
ideas for song lyrics. I’ll have to look for a cause to bang on about. Maybe
I’ll write a song about bus passes!
Do you feel like
Rock ‘N’ Roll music has had, at least in part
a “good guys finish last”
motif. Even pop groups seem to be
getting more attention for their ridiculous behavior rather than their actual
art. Take for example when Andrew
Oldham puffed up the Rolling Stones as a darker more brooding version of The
Beatles, or even Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his 13 year old cousin. Did you feel your career overshadowed a
bit because the groups you were in never had anyone that purposefully cut
themselves on stage or cursed on live national television?
Well, The Beatles started out as goody two shoes, nice boys
and it didn't stop them getting big now did it? The Boys were actually quite an
outrageous bunch. Big party animals. Although extremely talented I think the “party
at all cost” approach prevented The Boys being as
big as they could have been. Much more effort went into having a good time and
finding the next drink than went into being as good as we could be. Like The
Faces, who had a similar approach, we were still bloody good though.
The songs on Little
Big Head have a very timeless feel to them. Have you written these songs in the last few years or did a
version of them exist in rough sketch form for a long time now?
All of the songs were written in the year leading up to
making the record. I'd made a record with Honest John Plain and Vom Ritchie
from Die Toten Hosen called The Mattless Boys (as all the Boys including Casino
Steele but not Matt Dangerfield were on it). That was the first record where I
was happy with my song writing. Afterwards, I got myself some home recording
software and the songs kept tumbling out. I thought they would either be for a
new Mattless Boys or even Boys record as that was being planned.
Events overtook that though, so when I left The Boys, I
found I had enough for an album and so made one! The two songs written after I
left the band and just before recording started were Montevideo and All fall
Down.
The video for the
song “Aren’t Women Wonderful”
features a lot of great classic movie clips. You have also produced and financed a number of films and
television shows if I’m not mistaken. Does film influence your music a
lot? What are some of your
favorite film/television projects you’ve worked on?
The video was made by a Brazilian lady called Andrea Stern
who is a film student in England. I think that's why it has so many film
references in it. I really like the video. It goes perfectly with the song as
it has all those classic actresses in it.
Yes, I've been involved with a lot of films and TV. Many of
them I wouldn't want to own up to! One I'm very proud of is Hotel Rwanda. It
won many awards and was nominated for 3 Oscars. It's a true story about a man
who, through circumstance and against his will and judgement, becomes a hero,
saving the lives of countless people. It's very moving and leaves you full of
admiration for the real man it's based on.
I went to a screening in Los Angeles where, after the film,
the star Don Cheadle came out and answered questions. After a while he said
"Here he is. The man the film is about." There was a loud gasp as the
whole audience rose to their feet. It was a bit like going to see a Superman film
when Superman comes into the cinema after.
There is a church in LA which gave me an award as an
"Outstanding Humanitarian" for my role with that film. They clearly
don't know me!
With this being
your first solo record, was it difficult not having a group there with you to
bounce ideas off of or fill in some gaps when you arrived at a creative
impasse?
When it works I think the group dynamic is the best way to
make a record. It happened with the early Boys albums. Songs were written and
bought to the rehearsal studio but a lot of input came from everyone during the
rehearsal period. That happened less with the later albums and I think they
would have been the better for it.
As I mentioned before, I'd made pretty detailed demos at
home of all the songs on Little Big Head but I still had Tony Barber in the
studio dissecting them and putting them together in a different way. Tony has
worked with loads of people from The Buzzcocks to Nirvana. He's getting better
and better as a producer and I've learned so much from him.
We've started making the second album with my new band
playing on it and its sounding meaty. I would like to find a songwriting
partner. It would speed the process up, but the new songs seem to be coming
together fine using the old method.
The song “Rolling
On” is a retrospective or your
life. You go through your personal
life and career in a way that would suggest you have no regrets. Is this an accurate interpretation or
are there any one or two things that really stand out to you as wishing you would
have done differently?
I can't complain about the hand life has dealt me. There
have been some hard times but when I look back at all of the things I have done
and all the places I've seen I know I've been lucky. And it's still going on.
It's like I've been given this licence which allows me not to grow up.
I'm sitting here in Stockholm right now looking at the
waterfront. Tonight a load of people will turn up (I hope!), I'll play to them,
it will be great fun and during and after they will make me feel special.
If you complain about that you really are a miserable
bastard!
I read an interview
where you told the story of The Boys touring with the Ramones and you and
Casino Steel had to teach Johnny how to play the song Baby I Love You and even
come on stage and play it with them during their show. This obviously was a huge bonding
experience, because from what I’ve read those guys weren’t
exactly the easiest guys to get to know!
If you could take any band/musician with you in the supporting slot on
the tour who would it be and why?
I think it was John Plain who taught Johnny to play Baby I
Love you because he didn't know it. Johnny was completely foxed by the fact it
had a minor chord. The Ramones didn't play those. Cas played the string parts
on his organ and we sang backing vocals making us the only two people to play
live with The Ramones who were not called Ramone.
The Ramones were an odd, unhappy bunch. They say
"don't meet your Heroes". Very true.
I would always take TV Smith with me on tour.
A. He's
a great act,
B. He's
a great guy,
C. I
love playing One Chord Wonders with him, and
D. There's
only one of him so it’s easy.
In your musical
career, you have played all over the globe many times over. Is there a place that you consistently
anticipate playing? If so where is
it and what makes it so special?
Boy, there are so many. I can't wait to get back here to Sweden. Talk about pretty
girls. And they like getting drunk too! Audiences in South America are wild and
I love the Japanese. So polite and then they go mad while you play. They look
after you so well in Germany, and Italians are so stylish. I wish they all could be London fans
(there's a song in there!).
What’s
in store for the near or not so near future? Any plans for another record?
We are really busy. We have tours of Norway, Germany and the UK leading up to Christmas. I'm
working on getting to the US next year and in the meantime we have already
started recording the next album. I've written the majority of it. We'll fit
the recording around our availability and that of Tony Barber and look to get
it out next year.
Coming soon is a new video of "Kelly's Gone
Insane" which we will use to try some digital marketing experiments. All
part of getting the name out there.
Where can people go
to hear your music or purchase the wonderful Little Big Head album?
If people want a signed cd direct they can email me on duncan@littlebighead.co.uk.
Otherwise it's at places like Amazon, Spotify and all the usual download
places.
To see all the fabulous Duncan Reid and The Big Heads
videos, go to their YouTube channel:
Follow Duncan and the band on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/DuncanReidTheBigHeads?ref=hl
Visit Duncan Reid
and The Big Heads official website!
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