Primavera Interview // Male Bonding

As well as all the shoe gazing and electro frippery that has been so dominant recently, there are artists who continue to operate at the noisier end of the spectrum. Artists like Male Bonding. Channelling a particularly raucous type of punk rock (and just a little bit of Nirvana), they signed to legendary label Sub Pop and released one of the albums of the year. Noize got to hear first-hand what men should do together and why you should never throw anything at a concert.

Noize: Is there enough male bonding in the world?

John: Sometimes too much.

Kevin: We were talking about girl skaters in Barcelona, we saw some earlier which we thought was very cool.  And apparently a lot of male skaters don’t like girls skating, and that’s not cool. So that’s a bit too much male bonding going on there.

John: Better gender bonding, I think.

Noize: Do you guys get up to much “female bonding” on tour?

John: No, not at all. We all have girlfriends at home. In fact, I think I’ve only spoken to one girl all tour, apart from today, and that was about three weeks ago. It’s quite strange, we mainly just talk to guys. Male bonding I guess!

Noize: Touring with Crystal Castles must have been pretty interesting?

John: It was, it was very interesting. It was a good experience without necessarily being an easy experience. In some of the shows, their crowd would get quite hostile towards us, you know, throwing glasses and calling us names. Some of the shows were really good, even though it was a bit up and down.

Kevin: It probably toughened us up at bit as well, but the band themselves are really great. They’re a really good live band, they put on a really big show and they’re actually really nice people. They took care of us, it was cool.

Robin: The nicest people we’ve ever been on tour with really.

Noize: If people are chucking stuff at you, do you find that a challenge? Like “No, fuck you, we will win you over”?

Kevin: I think normally yeah, we do, but that really pissed me off. We’d just finished our set, and it hadn’t been a horrendous reception as such, and then this glass hit me on the nose. And I just felt I was staring at this crowd of people, and I wanted to go and punch the guy who did it, but it was just this massive, smiling group. It would have been like finding a needle in a haystack.

John: I mean, if anyone throws a glass at you while you’re playing, they should really expect to be punched. If I saw someone do it I probably take my guitar into the crowd and try to take their head off with it. Fuck being nice about it.

Robin: If you were in the crowd and saw someone do it you wouldn’t tolerate it either. You’d be like “What the fuck are you doing?”

John: That shit doesn’t inspire me to play harder and faster, it just makes me wanna stop playing and get nasty.

Noize: Ever had any comedy items thrown at you?

John: No, not yet.

Kevin: Yeah, it’s just been the usual. Glasses, lit cigarettes, drum cases…..

Noize: Drum cases?

Kevin: Yeah, they stole them from the side of the stage and then chucked them. They would have gotten points if they’d brought their own.

Noize: You’re on the same bill tonight as Teenage Fanclub; who’s the weirdest band you ever shared a stage with?

John: There was one band we played with at the Scala, I can’t quite remember their name. Allo, Darlin’ I think they were, but it wasn’t too crazy. They could have been weirder. Generally, we haven’t had anything really out there, but we all love Teenage Fanclub, we’re massive fans. So it’ll be weird in that way. In fact, I’m not quite sure why we are playing after them to be honest.

Noize: Anyone you really wanna see while you are here?

Kevin: Yeah, Lou Barlow. It’s today I think. We also want to check out Beach Fossils. And maybe also Eat Skull, they’re good.

Noize: Kevin, we hear you’re pretty mean on a trampoline. Ever ask for one on a rider?

Kevin: We haven’t got to that level yet. It would be good on stage though. You know, as I was playing. I could set one up in front of the drums, and when I went towards Robin I could get some quality air. I reckon I could still hold down the bassline.

Noize: What would be your fantasy festival line up?

Kevin: We could get Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on there, that’d be cool. Could also be a bit of a horror show. Maybe some spoken word…we’d probably just wanna show films though. Life Is Sweet by Mike Leigh would be my choice, plus we’d have an ET special in one of the rooms. Just because.

Interview by Derek Robertson

Photos courtesy of Primavera Club