Roo Pescod (Bangers - vocals/guitar)
1. What are your top five albums that were released in 2013? (In order 1-5)
- Lemuria - The Distance Is So Big
- Pale Angels - Primal Play
- Jimmy Islip and the Ghosts - The Wild West Riding
- Caves - Betterment
- Worriers - Cruel Optimist
I only just started listening to the new Iron Chic record, so I've left it off the list even though I'm sure I'll be in love with it by year’s end.
2. What band did you discover in 2013 (can be a brand new band or an older band) that had an impact on your life? What made them significant?
I listened to Nirvana quite a lot recently. I never really liked them when I was a teenager because I got put off by constant overplaying of the songs on Nevermind, but elsewhere they have some pretty cool songs. I guess I feel like I can see the sense in grunge a lot better at the moment (that Pale Angels record really helped too) and I'm quite enjoying discovering that. In general I'm just mellowing out with what I'll give time to. The last three records I bought were two by Elton John and one by Billy Idol and for an embarrassingly long time I only used to listen to Epi/Fat punk and Queen.
3. How will you remember 2013? (In terms of music)
Bangers have been fairly quiet this year, so I think I'll mainly remember 2013 as the year I started playing some solo shows. Early in 2013 I went out on tour with Kelly Kemp, El Morgan, Sam Russo, Helen Chambers and Giles Bidder which was billed as an acoustic tour. I didn't want to be the worst acoustic act so I wrote a bunch of songs on the electric piano and the bass and ended up having about three times as much equipment as anyone else. It was really fun to be making such a different noise, especially because I don't think anyone in the audiences expected me to be growling at them from behind a Korg. It's fun to have something entirely separate from Bangers where I don't have to convince anyone that songs are a good idea.
4. What can we look forward to from you in 2014?
This year Bangers released our new album Crazy Fucking Dreams but we didn't manage to tour it that much because of work. We're making plans to tour a lot more next year. We're currently booking a few weeks in Europe and planning another few weeks later in the year. Hopefully we're coming over to America for a proper tour, and we've got all sorts of little UK jaunts in the pipeline.
Personally I'm moving to the coast to make conspiracy-themed surfboards under the name Tin Foil Hat, so I'm really excited to feel like I've got a lot of things going on.
I'm also doing another “acoustic” tour around Europe with the names from above, and Bangers have just started casually writing another album, so I would expect to be doing some recording even if the record doesn't get released until 2015. I'm predicting a big year, and why the hell not?
5. What records are you looking forward to most in 2014?
I'm looking forward to hearing whatever Whoanows release next year. That band is making music that I dig and I'm looking forward to hearing what comes next.
6. There is a lot of debate over streaming sites and royalties, namely with Spotify. What is your stance on the economic policies behind the current streaming services? Do you have a preferred one?
I love Bandcamp but I don't know if it really counts as there are no royalties involved. I use Spotify quite regularly as well while I'm around the house. I think the scope of music available from one source is really cool and, as I've said before, I don't really care that bands aren't being paid for it. The music that I enjoy is going to be created whether or not there are large paychecks involved. I'm as guilty as anyone of getting to the end of a tour and being bummed out that we just broke even, or wasted all the profits on hiring a van, or seeing 4000 downloads of an album and selling 200, but none of that's going to make me stop writing music anytime soon. I'm happy to keep ignoring the bad corporate music and digging out the good shit.
