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![]() Fasten your seat belts... The Screaming Banshee Aircrew have a new line-up, a new album, and an eye on the future. The band intend to push things beyond the confines of the UK goth scene in which they made their first test flights. The timing is right: with the indie world coming round to the idea that a little something of the night is actually rather cool, there's a window of opportunity here which just might provide a suitable take-off slot. All of this seemed like a good reason to grab a few words with the band about how it all started, and where it just might go in the future. Seats in the upright position, please. Doors to auto and cross-check. Here we go... [And I promise there will be no further foolish air travel references from this point in!] First things first: what was it that made you want to be in a band in the first place? What was it that made you realise that singing along to your favourite records with a hairbrush for a microphone in the privacy of your bedroom just wasn't enough? I've had plenty of 'hairbrush moments' myself, but I've never quite got to that tipping point where I say - 'I'm going to do this for real!' Do you recall any particular moment of inspiration that resulted in the band coming together? How did you find other people who shared that 'Let's form a band!' idea? Ed:
Speaking for myself, I guess it's just an inbuilt need for affirmation.
I've always had a fear of crowds, and self-esteem issues, so doing what
I do successfully is quite an unexpected turnaround. I guess I did grow
up doing Bauhaus impressions in the mirror, and always wanted to stand
out from the crowd in some way, so in that respect the live performing
is just a natural progression from this. Jo:
For me it has never been about 'hairbrush moments', but more a sheer
love of music, and of Chris:
Performing is the only thing I've ever been good at really. At an early
age I started to learn
Neal:
Dancing in front of Top of the Pops to Ian Drury and the Blockheads,
fancying the socks off Suzy Quattro, determining that Gary Numan was
god by the age of 10 and my mum insisting that Elton John was grateful
for his mum making him play the piano, therefore I should be too, gave
me a few clues. Then its those bedroom band moments, when youre
pissing about with your mates, assigning different roles to each other,
singing way out of tune, making an awful racket while your parents bang
on the ceiling to shut you up, that make you want to do it for real.
Its a cliché but once youve done it the bug is with
you for life. You never stop looking for those like-minded people. And
when I failed my grade 6 piano exam on posture (I tucked my feet under
the stool) my anti-establishment views were set in stone. Rock n
Roll was the way it was going to be for sure.
Jo:
Shame I missed out on that valuable learning experience then, eh? I
think I was very lucky with Was
there a ripple of interest around the scene as soon as the band emerged?
I recall the Screaming Banshee Aircrew was quite well-known in the northern
part of the UK long before you played in London, which meant that there
was a bit of a buzz about this mystery band from oop north by the time
you actually hit a London stage. I think that helped the band win attention,
but was this all part of the plan, or just the way it happened to work
out? How did things originally build up? Even now it surprises me when I see relatively well known bands from the Yorkshire area advertising what is to be their 'first London gig' when I would have expected that they'd have played there years ago.
The London scene is quite a harsh and competitive environment and it's common practice for payment to be based around the number of people who turn up to see you... the infamous 'so which band are you here to see?' policy. In contrast, the northern circuit (or at least, the non-London circuit) tends to be much more up-front about such things and arrange a guaranteed fee for performances ahead of schedule. This results in London bands being able to travel north with relative ease, whereas northern bands have to shoulder very large expenses for little return, due to the likelihood that audience numbers in London will be low to start because nobody knows them. Combine this with the Londoners' general lack of interest in what happens in the rest of the country (unless it comes to their own doorstep) and you have the perfect combination for a divide between north and south. This is not always the case, and it's rather an over-generalization, but it is still common. SBA made a large loss on our first trip to London, but we've always believed you have to speculate to accumulate. It paid off in the end, as it was on our second such gig that we got offered our current record contract. At
the risk of generalising - and perhaps being rather cruel - for many
years the default line-up for a UK goth band was two or three dour blokes
in black, strumming and mumbling to a drum machine, trying to be as
much like the Sisters Of Mercy (or, if they were really adventurous,
Fields Of The Nephilim) as possible on a minimal budget. Of course,
I realise that I'm being rather unfair to a scene that was, in fact,
always far more diverse, and which threw up several genuinely good bands.
Nevertheless, there was a period in the 90s when goth more or less collapsed
under the weight of its own cliches. But the Screaming Banshee Aircrew
could never be placed in the cliche crowd. The band demostrates a fine
grasp of dynamics, has a flamboyant and energetic stage show, and a
neat line in witty and pithy songs. And you don't sound anything like
the Sisters! Were you aware that you were creating something quite at
variance with the standard UK goth band style and sound? Was it a deliberate
decision - 'See those clichés? We're NOT going there!' - or did
it arise naturally, as the various members of the band pooled their
ideas and influences? In short, how did you invent this curious monster
called the Screaming Banshee Aircrew? I
don't think there was ever any real desire to either avoid clichés
or fall into them, although from the This latest album has been a long time coming largely for those reasons, we started to worry about what our fans would expect from us and found ourselves trying to write material 'like the last album'. In short, we were in serious danger of becoming a tribute act to ourselves, both live and on recordings, and it killed off the creative process. It was only after we decided to jump off the comfortable gig bandwagon and take the time out to actually enact our long-term plans, increase our lineup to a fully live act and reverted back to our original ethos that things actually started happening again, and an album was born. In fact, of all the criticisms that have been heaped on us in the past, unoriginality or trying to be a 'standard goth band' are the ones that irritate me the most, as they are way, way off the mark. Of
course, there are influences to what we do and many of the band members
come from a goth background so those elements do inevitably feature
in our music. My own major influences are the early post-punk bands,
especially Bauhaus, and the multi-layered combination of vocals used
by bands such as the Virgin Prunes and The March Violets combined with
the strengths of many of the bands, especially the U.S./Canadian acts
we've played with. These things develop, as do individual
One particular point that I think stood out right from the start
is that the Screaming Banshee Aircrew has two vocalists - and often
not employed in the usual lead vocal/backing vocal manner. In many songs,
there's a kind of call-and-response thing going on. And, of course,
on stage there's double the up-front action, compared to a band with
only one singer. How did that idea come about? Does it take hours of
rehearsal to figure out who's going to sing which line? Or does it all
happen more or less by instinct? Ed: From the very beginning SBA was intended to be a double-fronted act, I was interested in exploring the dynamics of bands such as the March Violets and Pop Will Eat Itself and this seemed to be an element that was missing in the scene at the time, especially combining male and female vocals. It's taken a while to actually put this into place, as our previous female singer was much happier staying in the background and I suspect that Joanna was originally much more interested in singing rather than performing. Saying that, it didn't take long before Jo started trying to steal the show which can only be a good thing, increasing the onstage chaos. It was probably no coincidence that SBA started to really take off as a live act shortly after Jo joined the band. Of course, sometimes even I have to take a rest so having someone else to take over can be useful at times too. In terms of developing songs, I think it's just natural that when you work together for a long enough time you eventually start finding each other's strengths and styles and work towards them. To a large extent, when Jo or I write material we can each envision where the other's vocal will work best and leave space for them to further develop that part of the song themselves. The band has just put together a revised line-up, but it's interesting that it all seems to be happening under controlled conditions, as it were. Most bands are bounced into line-up changes when somebody unexpectedly leaves, but it seems that you've got a whole strategy here. It seems that you're bringing in new people in a bid to deliberately push the sound and presentation of the band in a new direction. So, is there a master plan? Do you have a vision for the band that is different from the way it's been so far? Jo: Well, conditions were not entirely controlled, because it did all come about as a result of our old guitarist, Screaming Nick, leaving. But then again, we weren't bounced into it, because his departure was not entirely unexpected and not all of the changes relate to that anyway. It was more the case that the need to recruit a replacement for Nick, and the period of change that ensued gave us both the impetus and the opportunity to put into motion other plans that had been on the back burner for a long time. Chris: Yeah, as Jo said we had been talking about getting a drummer and getting rid of our backing tapes for nearly a year but due to our circumstances we never got round to it. When Nick left it was the perfect time to start putting these ideas into action.
With
the sudden departure of our old guitarist from the band, due to some
long running issues, we were already unable to continue as we were...so
decided that this was the perfect opportunity to put our improvement
plans into action. In order to make a success of going completely live,
it required almost doubling the size of the band and reworking all our
material from scratch, in many cases having to strip the songs down
to their basic elements. This has been a very difficult change toimplement,
where even our old favourite tracks now sound very, very different.
As a result, we were more than a little worried about how this may be
received by our audiences. However, we've just performed our first gig
with the new lineup at the Beyond The Veil festival and it seems that
we may well have managed it, so things can only get better now. Having
a fully live act will enable us to further develop interesting material
and push the live act much, much further than a backing-track band could
possibly manage. It also opens up new territories for us to explore,
where not being a 'proper' live act would have been a huge problem. How
did you go about finding the right people to join? Do you have a bunch
of mates who you can call upon, or was it a case of doing the more formal
thing of putting ads in the music mags etc? Is it a bit of a daunting
prospect to meet new people with whom you will be Ed:
Finding other people to play with is always rather hit and miss, certainly
in our case it has The latest recruits have been a similar story; we met Don first through a mutual friend in a pub and snapped him up as soon as we found out he was interested in drumming for a band, Tori is an old friend of ours who we initially borrowed to fulfill a gig commitment when Nick pulled out of the band. Neal is the only member who has ever had to audition, and we pretty much snapped him up straight away as he's very versatile and multi-talented. Chris:
Its definitely daunting bringing new people into a band. I think the
most important factor is So
now there's a new album (almost) out. How would you describe the album
to someone who's never heard a note of the band's music before? Give
us some shameless promotional spiel! Neal: It will blind you, surprise you, tear you apart then sew you back together again the wrong way round. Its the soundtrack to the Breakfast Club that should have been. Cooler than ice with so much substance that it defies the laws of physics. Ed: It's a warped and twisted tangle of vines between the land of what once was and the horizon of what will be. Best take a rest here and enjoy the shade, as the land ahead is treacherous and full of steep climbs, heroes and dragons... Jo: No spin needed. The album speaks for itself. Buy it, you know you want to. Don: Awesome! Where do you hope the new album will take the band? Obviously the simple answer to that question is 'Onwards and upwards!', but there's a not-so-simple answer to that question, too... We've mentioned the way the Screaming Banshee Aircrew first emerged as part of the UK goth scene, and the 'scene crowd' still provides the band with its audience. But the down side of working within a scene is that although the scene crowd can give you a useful flurry of initial interest, where do you go from there? The UK goth scene these days is not large, and it's probably fair to say it's rather insular and backward-looking. This surely imposes a limit on how far any band can get ahead. At some point it must have struck you that the UK goth scene, for all the advantages it can give a new band just starting out, simply isn't big enough, or even interested enough, to allow those new bands to go all the way to the top. Sure, with a bit of luck you can get to be a big band within the scene, but that's not really saying much. The UK goth scene has many bands - good bands, with great potential - which long ago reached the limits of what the scene can give them. They've more or less stalled at that big-fish-in-small-pond level. And, because the scene is so small, even the biggest fish in the UK goth pond will never amount to more than a minnow in a puddle. So, what's the answer? As the band stands poised to take on the future, the first conundrum has to be...how do you get beyond the limitations of the UK goth scene? Jo: Essentially, I think you've pretty much answered your own question. Yes, it's certainly true that the goth scene provides a good platform for young groups to get off the ground, there's a lot of infrastructure there, a guaranteed audience, and a nurturing and supportive atmosphere, including a general idea that one should go to gigs in order to bolster the scene etc. But you are also right in saying that it is very easy to stall at the big-fish-in-little-pond level. Personally I think that one of the reasons for this is that the goth scene is very insular there is very little awareness within the goth scene of what's going on outside it and very little awareness outside of it that it even exists, let alone what is actually happening in it!
Luckily, there are growing elements out there where an obvious overlap occurs so there's no need to abandon your roots while spreading your proverbial branches into new territories. Either way, it's an interesting and exciting challenge which is a large part of the reason we do this. Tori: I came in pretty late on the new album so I wasn't around for the development, but I remember Ed playing me some rough mixes of the new songs a long time ago and I thought they were brilliant. Now that the album has been finished I can't help but think how far SBA have come since the days of the early releases, 'No Camping' and 'Titanic Verses'. Some of the songs are a lot more sophisticated simply because the band has employed new instruments, techniques, and styles - but don't fret! There's some dirty deathrock in there too! I think the album will be received well and I hope that this will give people the taste of what SBA can achieve in the future. As far as the goth scene goes, it's a lovely, safe place to be but breaking out is very hard. Before being a trainee flight attendant, I've brought people along to SBA gigs and they loved it, bought CDs, threatened to return etc. so it's not as if the music is non-transferable outside the realms of goth and suddenly becomes null and void in the ears of a non-alternative person. Now that Don and Neal are on board, we can concentrate all SBA efforts into the future. Don: Can anarcho-punks just do black? Neal: Were going on a little adventure to the outside and well let you know what happens. Well, theres going to be a lot more to it than that. Well need to point our gothic compass in the right direction for a start. Which is unlikely to happen first go. We need to play the right gigs, which is also unlikely to happen first go. Essentially when a band makes a foray into new and unexplored audiences (Eds good at that) you never know how its going to turn out, but were going to have a hell of a time finding out. Thats what rock and roll is all about. It seems Ive joined the band at what will be a most exciting juncture. Im really looking forward to what the next year will bring.
Essential links: Screaming Banshee Aircrew: Website | Myspace Photo credits: Studio shots of the band are by Duncan Grisby, except the photo of Ed and Jo, which is by Andreas Beck. The first live photo, showing the full band in action, was taken at the Cockpit, Leeds, by Markus Dheus. The other two live photos, featuring Mister Ed alone, were taken at the Underworld in London by Uncle Nemesis (go here for more). The album When All Is Said And Done is out now on Resurrection Records. |
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Page credits: Interview
and construction
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