9+1 Q&A with Organised Scum

What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.

I’ve always been pretty obsessed with music, even as a very small kid. My mom had to ban me from using her ironing board as a percussion instrument, which sucks, because you can get a great sound out of those things.

I stole my brother’s copies of Nevermind, Rage Against The Machine and Louder Than Bombs when I was 13 and it was around that time I realised I would like to play guitar in a band.

Provide us with some info about your latest release…

Our last single was called Another Goalkeeping Question For Peter. It was an attempt to do something a bit poppier with still something of an edge. Theme wise, the song is about the way Capitalism does its utmost to make you feel like your identity is largely derived from your job or your work, which I think is bullshit and, along with other things, tends to make people unhappy.

Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?

Too much to list really, especially where all three of us are concerned. I’ll stick to recent stuff and say that I’ve been loving the new Lay Llamas album, as well as the Sacred Bones artists like Amen Dunes and Jenny Hval. Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pig, Pigs are also amazing, and of course, our fellow Kaleidoscope artists deserve a mention here.

I recently saw Mandy by Panos Cosmatos, and whilst it’s probably a bit early to call it an influence in any way: it’s definitely one of my favourite films of the year.

In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?

I think that we do a good job of assimilating different, sometimes quite unrelated musical styles in a way that makes us a bit original, I hope. That’s the intention anyway.

Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…

I’ll take 3 copies of Fastlove, Pt. 1 by George Michael.

Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?

I can be a bit of a perfectionist, so I generally prefer a studio environment where you can work on things gradually and redo things. But performing live is also great if you have a good crowd, so I’m not sure it’s that strong a preference.

Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?

We took part in Mondo NYC’s showcase conference a few years back and we somewhat unintentionally ended up stalking Bob Boilen from NPR around New York for a lot of it.

I also handed Daniel Glass of Glassnote one of the postcards that our manager Andy had designed for us as flyers, but since they featured a centaur creature whose penis was clearly visible, I believe he may have made a decision there and then to blacklist us from the music industry.
Frankly, I don’t blame him.

Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?

I would nominate one of our unreleased tracks called A Life in the Day – it’s very atmospheric and trippy and was well mixed by Kaleidoscope maven Gareth Williams.

Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?

Sure. We’re releasing a 4 track EP ‘Compliance’ early this year. It’s being mixed as we speak. I’ve also written 3/4 new songs which I’m working on and I’m hoping 2019 will be the first double EP year for the Scum.

Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…

Who poses the greatest material threat to your sanity: Elon Musk or Kanye West?

I’m glad you’ve asked me what is a slightly strangely worded but nonetheless important question. Especially for younger and more impressionable readers of this blog. Kanye West and Elon Musk are both dangerous right-wing ideologues who think that personally enriching themselves through the sale of trainers and production of spacecraft respectively will help to solve the world’s problems. I am personally sceptical about this, but would say that Musk is more likely to make me go insane, since he doesn’t understand what ‘off the record’ means, and shares Philip Scofield’s dream vision of a media landscape in which celebrities can instigate popular witch hunts against people they think might be paedophiles based on their own personal suspicions and stuff they’ve read on the internet.
(To be clear, I don’t exactly relish having to say this stuff about Scofield. Gordon the Gopher was a real hero of mine when I was 4 or 5 years old and, whilst I always found Scofield to be a little wooden, especially when contrasted with Gordon’s more natural acting style, it’s hard to forget the joy which they gave me at a formative age.)

Curated by: Christos Doukakis

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