A Free Man

A Free Man is still wandering the wilds of southwestern Sweden, but before I left Blighty I lined up a chat with East London road warriors Blah Blah Blah. Their new EP “Death To The Indie Dancefloor”, which the Guardian called “Arctic Monkeys performed by Madness circa “Baggy Trousers, is out today. I’ve been impressed with what I’ve heard of and from Blah Blah Blah and I’ve got to say that Jay had just the right attitude for A Free Man interview. Equal parts cheeky humour, proper manners and shameless flattery.

AFM: First off, let’s make the standard introductions. Who’s who in Blah
Blah Blah?

J: I’m Jay I sing and play guitar, Chris plays bass and backing vocals and Tom hits things, does backing vocals and don’t you think he looks like Harry Potter?

AFM: How did you guys get together as a band?

J: Chris insisted I let him join me on bass as he had no real purpose in life. Tom we met when he got confused one night and got onstage with the wrong band. I’m not sure that he’s realised that he’s not in a function band yet. He calls me Amy. I think that must be the function band singer’s name. He should have gone to Specsavers.

AFM: I’m struggling to pin your music down, which is most likely a good
thing. The best description I’ve come up with so far is that Blah Blah
Blah occupy that musical chasm between Blur’s wilder music, Suede’s
cheekier and Goldie Lookin’ Chain’s saner.

J: That’s really nice of you. Would you like to come for tea? I like loads of different music and we try and have fun with all different genres so you’ll find elements of punk or samba depending on what song and what part. Indie has been hijacked to mean schmindie and I guess, if anything, we’re nicking back the true meaning of indie and legging it out of the shop before we get caught.

AFM: You guys are a prolific live band, with shows on an almost nightly basis. Does that leave you any time to record? Or to eat? When can we
expect to see the Blah Blah Blahs on vinyl, or whatever material music
is played on these days?

J: Thanks very much. We’ve substituted sleep for recording and we haven’t eaten for a year now. It’s done our waistlines the world of good. We’re putting out Death To The Indie Disco on vinyl on April 7th. You can get it as a download too but you’ll miss out on the hand-sprayed artwork if you do that. I could come around and spray computers if anyone wants?

AFM: I’ve heard rave reviews of your live shows, with some folks going so far as to describe you as the best live act in Britain right now. What’s going through your head when you’re on stage in front of a crowd?

J: Thanks again. You’re saying very nice things. I think I like you. We enjoy it and we want whoever is watching to enjoy it so we try and give everything we can each time we play. We’re not into shoegazing or being miserabilists on stage. We’ve got all day to be like that.

AFM: What’s your most embarrassing live show moment?

J: I’m often found with my flies undone. It’s not intentional but it does show up my bright underpants. I’ve got over the initial embarrassment of sharing a stage with Chris and Tom.

AFM: What’s your favorite song to cover?

J: We just did an acoustic cover mash up of Primal Scream meets Marvin Gaye for Xfm. That was fun.

AFM: Where’s the best venue that you’ve ever played?

J: Busking beside the burger van at Wireless Festival. I still get stopped on the tube by people that saw that. We’ve even ended up playing wakes, and weddings but in terms of “rock n roll” dreams the biggest gigs we’ve played so far with the biggest response was playing shows like Manchester Academy with Kate Nash and Liverpool Academy with Jack Penate. Am really looking forward to playing places like Sheffield that we haven’t played enough yet.

AFM: I think that you guys hail from London? Which part of The Big Smoke
do you call home? What should we know about your ‘hood?

J: We don’t wear hoods though a couple of us wear caps. Our cap is mostly all over.

AFM: What other Londoners should we be paying attention to?

J: Talk Taxis, Jay Jay Pistolet, there are loads but my minds just gone blank at the moment. I really like Dockers MC a poet that’s doing great things.

AFM: Fantasy time - If you could add any musician, living or dead, to
the Blah Blah Blah roster, who would it be?

J: Elvis. That man knew how to make a sandwich but otherwise Buddy Rich, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones……

AFM: And finally, you guys seem to have a legion of smitten female fans. What’s your secret for success?

J: Socks in Tom’s pants and airbrushing.

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Good to know, that. Thanks to Jay for taking some time out from a busy road schedule. Blah Blah Blah’s “Death To The Indie Disco” is available from today in the UK from hmv.com.

MP3: Blah Blah Blah - “Hopeless & Lazy”
MP3: Blah Blah Blah - “Cheated”