Let's Get Physics-cal!
I've been raving about Glasgow, Scotland's WE ARE THE PHYSICS to so many people, they either respond with "Okay, I get it, Jas," a quick kick to my crotch or both. The surname-deficient quartet of Michael, Michael, Michael and Chris have been plying their jittery, angular punk since 2005, releasing a handful of singles (starting with the frantic "Less Than Three") and culminating in We Are The Physics Are Okay At Music, their full-length for the British label This Is Fake DIY. WATP's aesthetic worships spiky guitars as much as it does analog-synthesizer abuse; factor in a grand sense of humor ("Drawing Anarchy Symbols On Your Pencil Case Is Redundant") and you have a band worthy of the contents of your wallet.
Things have been going well for the Physics-ians: They made heads swivel on their recent tour of Japan (the band share a mutual admiration society with the mighty Polysics), and have shared stages in Scotland with 30 Seconds To Mars and Shiny Toy Guns. I wrote about them in AP's 100 Bands You Need To Know In 2008 issue, but since they haven't made it to America, let alone have Radiohead and Green Day open for them, I figured I'd reintroduce them to all of you once again. Michael the singer (a.k.a. to me anyway as Michael BigGlassesBadHair) took some time from watching VHS tapes (blank ones, mostly) to answer some of my probing questions as to why his band are so fecking amazing.
When compared to a lot of the stuff emanating from the U.K., WATP are like tossing a boombox in the tub during bath time. Having established that, what's Glasgow like musically? Does everybody want to be the next Alex Kapranos, or is there an inspiring music scene happening right now?
Glasgow's a wee strange volcano of music. For a while, it'll be dormant and nothing much will happen, Then suddenly, there's billions of new bands all doing something new and interesting. The decent thing about the Glasgow music scene–as incestuous as it is–often all the bands are completely different. I didn't ever see a bunch of Franz Ferdinand or Glasvegas copycats; it doesn't seem to work like that here. The bands–the good bands at least–have a genuine sense of conviction and passion which, I think, is why Glasgow seems to have a thriving musical output. Not to mention that there's nothing else worth doing. Then again, I hardly go to any gigs anymore because it's like eating a sandwich when you work in a sandwich shop.
Who are the best five bands in the British Empire right now? I'll send an intern over to kick your ass if you say Razorlight.
Us, of course. There are no other bands. Except Victorian English Gentleman's Club, Untitled Musical Project, Art Brut, Gay Against You… There's a good few, it's not as dire as the press here likes to make out.
There are a lot of elements running through your music. Are there three bands that each band member agree are fabulous? Or do you take turns being fascists on the car stereo on the way to gigs?
We all like the obvious stuff: Polysics, the Skids, Ex Models… But generally we'll all listen to our own music on our personal music box machines that we take with us on tour. Sometimes we swap cassettes, but not often.
You have that great mix of jagged guitars, electronic flourishes, breakneck tempos and some decidedly hyper vocals. If you were going into the studio in three hours to create your next album, what direction would it go?
Three hours! That's quite a long time; I think we could fit in a couple of concept albums in that space. We might even have time for some overdubs. Wait, did you mean we're in the studio for three hours, or we're going into the studio INthree hours? I suppose we'd probably have some dinner before, then do some warm-up exercises before heading in.
How does a scrappy indie band from Scotland end up in Japan for a string of dates? Do they get it over there?
I have no idea. We got a lot of interest from Japanese labels from the get-go, we played with Polysics pretty early on and Hiroyuki Hayashi (Polysics founder) kindly wrote about us favourably in his blog, so I don't know if that had something to do with it. But we never wanted to put anything out over there unless we could go over to promote it and that's how we managed to swindle our way into Japan. They seemed to get it quicker than people in the U.K. did: Our album was only out in December and most of the venues were packed with voice-breaking, yelping, Japanese kids climbing the PA, wearing various wires and cabling as fashion accessories. Which is actually how we envision the future. I have no idea how they see us; we were lucky that our label was run by an amazing guy called Daichi, who also happened to be a huge part of the indie scene in Tokyo, so he dragged all his hipster buds to see us. For the first time in our lives, we had an iota of credibility. Hopefully we can achieve a same level of dishonest success in the USA.
WATP has opened for some American bands visiting your country. You also said that the bands you played with offered plenty of encouragement. Where there particular aspects of the show that the visiting Yanks were taken by?
We've opened for people like 30 Seconds To Mars, Gym Class Heroes, Shiny Toy Guns–a real bizarre assortment of bands that we don't sound anything like, but all of them have been really kind to us. Jared Leto told us we sounded like the Cars on speed. Is that a compliment? I have no idea what they enjoyed about us, but I've noticed a similar thing happening – when they watch us play, their faces will be confused and then halfway through the set, they'll be cheering and screaming with genuine fervor. I hope all Americans are similar, the only other crowd in the world like that is in Glasgow. When they like you, they will destroy the venue to prove it to you. The bassist from Shiny Toy Guns told us if we took the music to America, the kids would shit. Which is quite worrying, it sounds like we'd have some sort of laxative effect on the nation. Surely there has to be some sort of sponsorship involved in that.
You guys are serious about your music, but you don't take yourselves very seriously. What's the worst thing anyone has ever said about WATP? Conversely, what was the most nicest thing worthy of quoting?
The worst thing? That we were serious about our music, but didn't take ourselves very seriously! I imagine there's plenty of bad things people say about WATP, all of which are most likely justified; 90-percent we agree with. The nicest thing is probably that we'd make the kids shit if we went to America.
As a music fan, what do YOU expect from a new band in 2009?
There are no other bands, really. I know you think we're just joking, but our next album is going to be a self-replicating virus in mp3 form that will delete all other mp3s on your computer so that we're the only band left. Like digital cockroaches.
Where does America fit in the WATP universe? Between money, time and the fickle tastes of our INS department, it seems that coming over is a mammoth undertaking. Any plans to license your album to a sympathetic US label?
I think America would enjoy, nay, requires We Are The Physics. I think it's necessary for us to get there if only because it's so unlikely that we will. It's a risk putting out an album by a bunch of musically retarded unknown Scottish bams, but I know there are plenty of people in America with bigger wallets than business sense and we hope to appeal to them. Failing that, someone with a really good taste in music who is genuinely into our band. That combination is difficult to find, like Hall AND Oates.
What are the next plans for WATP? Have you written any new songs?
Aye, we've got hundreds of new songs! Are you accusing us of being lazy? I just wrote one while answering these questions. Our album isn't available in the U.S. We've had sobbing confessions from Americans who've downloaded the torrent though, those illegal swine. One even sent us $10 to make up for it. We didn't have the heart to tell him that it wasn't enough, but the thought was there and it touched us deeply. But you can get it on import from places like Amazonand our label would be more than happy to ship abroad (as they've had to do before, rubbing their hands together with postal fee glee), so you can buy itfrom their site. Still no word from American labels, although I've been trying to hunt a few out who might be daft enough to want to do something with us. I've also tried to get in touch with Star Crunch from Man Or Astroman to try and guilt him into releasing our record on his own label because he corrupted my youth.
Our video for "You Can Do Athletics, BTW" was nominated for a BAFTA, but it didn't win because it's basically four guys gassing each other in a big dark room. We've been doing secret gigs as clones of ourselves under the guise of a band called DVDs to try out new material. To hide our identities, we've been mummifying our faces with toilet paper. Given that most of the people at our gigs have no idea who We Are The Physics are anyway, some say it's a pointless activity.
