intervista a Andy Kerr
mercoledì 17 marzo 2010 11.46
ok, questa è l'intervista ad Andy Kerr, ex chitarrista di NOMEANSNO, INFAMOUS SCIENTISTS, SHOW BUSINESS GIANTS, HISSANOL e attualmente in forze al duo TWOPINDIN (assieme all'ex batterista dei dog faced hermans) e all'ensemble teatrale/musicale SHE BANGS.
a fine intervista un estratto della "sua" pagina su wikipedia per un po piu di informazioni.
oh, l'intervista è in inglese...
(R.=Roby [io] - A.=Andy [lui])
R. - Your biography (where and when are you born, in wich bands have you played and how long, in wich albums of these bands did you have played, and everything you want to tell us about you....)
A. - I was born in Victoria BC Canada in 1962. When I was around nine years old I borrowed my sister's acoustic guitar and with the help of some music books taught myself how to play. Over the years I have been in a handful of bands: The Infamous Scientists, Nomeansno, The Show Business Giants, She Bang, Hissanol and Two Pin Din.
Here's the discography:
Full-length albums
NoMeansNo - Sex Mad (1986)
NoMeansNo - Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed (1988)
NoMeansNo - Wrong (1990)
Jello Biafra and NoMeansNo - The Sky is Falling and I Want My Mommy (1991)
NoMeansNo - Live + Cuddly (1991)
Showbusiness Giants - I Thought It Was a Fig (1991)
Showbusiness Giants - Maybe It's Just Me (1991)
NoMeansNo - 0 + 2 = 1 (1992)
Hissanol - 4th & Back (1995)
Andy Kerr - Once Bitten, Twice Removed (1997)
Hissanol - The Making of Him (1998)
Two Pin Din - In Case of Fire Break Glass (2008)
EPs and singles
Infamous Scientists - Noise 'n' Rhythm 7" (1981)
Infamous Scientists - Trouble 12" EP (1982)
NoMeansNo - You Kill Me 12" EP (1985)
NoMeansNo - The Day Everything Became Nothing 12" EP (1988)
NoMeansNo - The Power of Positive Thinking 12" EP (1990)
NoMeansNo - Oh Canaduh 7" (1991)
R. - what do you do in your life in addition of playing?
A. - Apart from playing music (which is no longer a job, just a hobby) I spend my time writing code for websites and taking care of my wife and son.
R. - since when the TWO PIN DIN has been formed? how many records have on their balance?have you evere toured?if yes, where?which are your future plans?
A. - Two Pin Din was started three or four years ago when Wilf Plum (ex-drummer from the Dog Faced Hermans) and myself decided to do something musically together. We has written, recorded and released one record, In Case Of Fire Break Glass. As for our future, we would like to write some more stuff, but it will be a little more difficult than before as Wilf now lives in Belgium. We have considered trying to playing "together" online but if that isn't possible we may do it how Hissanol does it, meaning sending music back and forth over the internet.
R. - why do you move to amsterdam?(just to smoke well or what?!?)
A. - I moved to Amsterdam because my partner at the time I left Nomeansno (now my wife) is from Amsterdam. And although she was keen on moving to Canada I wanted even more to make the move to Europe and Amsterdam in particular. And no, it wasn't to smoke, ha ha!
R. - why did you leave NOMEANSNO?(feel free to lie about it...)
A. - I left chiefly because I was getting tired of the life on the road and unhappy with the fact that the band had become a sort of "job". For most of my time in Nomeansno we developed our songs over a long period of time and only released them when we thought they were ready. By the end it was like "We need to write and record an album this year so we can tour in the fall." Also I was interested in re-starting my musical life from scratch. On the other hand, maybe I was like a teenager who simply needed to move out of his parents' house and see the world on his own...
R. - who are the guitar players that most influenced you?and what's your music background?
A. - Good question! There were a few guitar players who to this day still influence how I play: John Fogerty from Creedence Clearwater Revival (I learned to play guitar using one of their songbooks), Andy Gill from the Gang of Four, Greg Ginn from Black Flag and Fred Frith. Like most people, my musical background is varied. I grew up listening to pop music on the radio in the early 70's and "hard rock" in my older brother's basement bedroom. In 1978 the Sex Pistols completely woke me up and the huge wave of punk and especially post-punk music that followed the next seven or eight years formed the basis of almost everything I write.
R. - which are your preferite bands of the past and present?
A. - I'm sorry if this is a "cop-out" but to be honest the list would be too too long for any interview. I will say though that my all time favourite single is either "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5 or "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols.
R. - which are the biggest difference you found between the european and u.s.a./canadian music scene?
A. - I haven't toured for almost two decades but from what I hear from friends of mine who do is that it's about the same as when I was in Nomeansno. North America has no squat scene or youth club circuit to play. So that leaves university shows, smaller independently organized all-ages gigs and finally (grrr) clubs. When NMN first came to Europe we thought we'd died and gone to heaven. Nice folks, generally very well organized, well paying shows at all kinds of places. And a big variety in types of people and ages of people who would come to our show. (Also the food and the beer was much better too!)
R. - do you prefere to play in squats or clubs? and why?
A. - It's been many years since I have regularly played in either but if I had to choose I would say squats because they are not about the money but about a group of people working together to create something worthwhile and fun.
R. - which is the best and which the worst concert that you have ever done and why?
A. - This is a tough question. I don't know if I could name a best and worst concert. I've been lucky enough to have played at a lot of nice show and it's hard to pick just one. As far as bad shows go, one that stands out was one we did in Milano in 1988. It was in a very big squat and during our set a fight broke between the ultra-left people running the squat and the anarcho-left people who used to run it. Or the other way around. Three quarters of the crowd went outside to fight while we were playing. Ah Italia!! Haha.
R. - why the INFAMOUS SCIENTISTS disbanded?
A. - As I recall, Kevin our bass player with whom I had started the band decided he didn't want to do it anymore and John and I figured it was time to stop as well.
R. - what do you remember of the HISSANOL period?how is it born this project?are you already in contact with Scott Henderson?
A. - When I'd left NMN and moved to Europe I was still very interested in playing music, though not in a touring band. I had been good friends with Scott Henderson since I was about seventeen and we had always wanted to do something together. So we came up with this crazy idea of sending tapes back and forth to each other with various musical ideas. It was so much fun we made two records!
Hissanol has been in "sleep mode" for some years but recently we "woke up" again and Scott and I are currently working on a bunch of new stuff. When or how this will be released isn't known.
R. - some words about the SHE BANG project?
A. - She Bang was a project I was briefly involved with some years ago in Amsterdam. It was half theatre, half music with a singer, a trumpet player and myself on guitar. We recorded a few songs for ourselves on cassette and played a handful of shows.
R. - which is your preferite album in which you have played and wich one do you like less?
A. - Gee whiz, another tough question! Wrong is probably my favourite because I think it sounds good, the songs are good and Nomeansno during my time in the band never sounded any better than on that record. I don't really dislike anything I have done but my least favourite record that I played on is "The Sky Is Falling…" with Biafra. There are a few good songs on it but it was thrown together in a hurry and I don't like the production on the record very much.
R. - do you like any italian band?
A. - I'm embarrassed to say it but I know almost no Italian bands at all. I do remember Raw Power and Negazione from many years ago. And of course I am a huge fan of Nino Rota!
R. - ok, now make yourself a question and give yourself an answer...
A. - Can you recommend any new music you have heard recently?
A. - Kabu Ki Buddah from Lyon in France. Their lp "Life Is A Picnic" is great!!! All hail the "no guitar hero trio"!
There ya go guy. Hope it's okay.
Cheers,
Andy
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FROM WIKIPEDIA:
Andy Kerr is a Canadian-born musician, originally from British Columbia and currently residing in Amsterdam, Holland. Kerr is best known as the former guitarist, frequent vocalist, and co-songwriter in the progressive punk rock/punk jazz band NoMeansNo. Kerr has also recorded and performed as a solo artist, and his current group is Two Pin Din.
Kerr initially appeared on the Victoria, BC punk rock scene of the late 1970s as the singer/guitarist in the pop punk group the Infamous Scientists. Founded in 1979, the group released two EPs prior to disbanding in 1982. The final lineup of this group included NoMeansNo drummer John Wright.
Kerr went on to join NoMeansNo as guitarist and vocalist in 1983 after founding members Wright and his brother Rob conducted the group as a sporadically active two-piece for four years. Kerr's unique sound and playing style added a strong complementary quality to the group. Running a Fender Bassman amplifier through a P.A. speaker, Kerr attained a relentlessly jagged guitar tone quite suited to heavy dynamics of the Wright brothers' rhythm section. Rob Wright, the group's primary vocalist through much of its career, suffered from nodules on his vocal cords during much of the late 1980s, leaving Kerr temporarily responsible for the bulk of the vocal duties, notably on the Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed record. By the time of the Wrong album of 1989, Wright had undergone successful throat surgery and reclaimed the slight majority of the band's lead vocal parts. Kerr seems to have attempted anonymity in his involvement with NoMeansNo, favoring pseudonyms and nameless references to himself in album liner notes. NoMeansNo enjoyed modest international success among critics and fans during this time. During a nine year stint in the band, Kerr played on four studio LPs, three EPs, a live record, and a collaborative LP with singer Jello Biafra, prior to emigrating to Holland in 1992, spelling his departure from the band.
Kerr's first project after leaving Canada found him collaborating with Canadian musician Scott Henderson (of Shovelhed and the Showbusiness Giants, among other groups) in an unorthodox manner - via airmail. The pair would individually experiment with home recordings and mail each other cassette tapes of their efforts for the other to elaborate upon. Calling themselves Hissanol, the experimental group released two full-length albums on the Alternative Tentacles label, with whom NoMeansNo had previously worked.
In 1997, Kerr released a solo record called Once Bitten, Twice Removed. This album, initially on cassette only prior to being re-released on CD-R in 2000, found Kerr experimenting with a number of more traditional musical styles, including country, folk, pop, and rockabilly, as well as more familiar turns towards punk rock and pop punk.
Currently, Kerr is working with former Dog Faced Hermans drummer Wilf Plum in a two-piece guitar rock project called Two Pin Din. The group released their debut record, In Case of Fire Break Glass in 2008 [1].
Kerr was, at different times, also briefly involved with NoMeansNo-related projects the Hanson Brothers and the Showbusiness Giants in the 1980s and early 1990s. In the latter group, he performed on bass guitar. Via his pseudonyms, he is credited as playing "some bass" on several NoMeansNo records as well.
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Nomeansno - Two Lips/Rags & Bones Live 1990
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gtK_4gyf0M
Andy Kerr - compilation tape
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5iaamA1K2s
Two Pin Din - Everybody Time Share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRX3hHBcdXw
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