Art and Things

Usual Players are a ska band from Watford, Hertfordshire. They have songs about rock n’ roll, their hometown and the perils of online courting. We spoke to Lewis and Ben from Usual Players about where they came from as a band, where they’re going and what influences them.

Art and Things: The soul of rock and roll is dead. Discuss.

Lewis: What a question to open with.

Well I think it’s really explanatory really. I don’t like many new bands anymore. I think most things are pretty contrived and boring. So I decided to write a song about it. Do you want specifics?

Not unless there’s anyone you want to name…

L: We’re not in the business of rubbishing people just yet. Maybe later on.

The song is just about things being very unimpressive. Or listening to the radio and going out and buying new tunes but nothing is really turning you on.

All the new music I discover is old nowadays. I’ll be given something and think ‘woah, who the fuck done this’ and it’s Little Milton or someone.

It’s basically about that and that bands these days seem a bit cliched. So it’s a bit of a celebration of the old stuff really.

Who is your favourite of the people you name in the song?

L: Joe Strummer. And the Craven Braves are named in it as well. They’re a band who aren’t all style over substance. And being from round here you just get sick of all that shit.

Do you all feel the same way about new music?

Ben: I think more or less. Lewis, Tommy and Nathan are more into what you might call ‘band music’. Whereas me and Tom are into reggae, soul, dub and dance. I stopped buying music from bands a long time ago.

I now buy different stuff and probably had my fill of band music a few years ago.

L: The worst are the Kings of Leon. When they came out they were pretending to be good old Southern country boys. But I thought at the time, they’re not. Now they sound like the Killers. They’ve gone from one extreme to the other.

Manufactured?

L: Completely manufactured. I know part of the game is to make money, but it’s a fucking joke.

Is that why you chose to do ska, as a reaction?

L: Well there’s loads of money in ska.

B: I think it’s kind of a perfect meeting point for us. Because we’re all into different stuff. From techno to punk. Our drummer is into r n’ b and hi-hop.

We wanted something we could all feel and it just fit. We didn’t start off being a ska band, there was originally all sorts of stuff but we just eventually moved into the genre.

L: Ska is an attitude as well. Like punk. We like things that have a bit of soul and a bit of belief. Honesty.

Are you quite careful in how you go about songwriting?

B: Not really. That’s pretty much how we came to be what we are. Actually I don’t know, maybe we are, maybe we’re not.

But everything sounds like the band. We’ve never written something and thought ‘that doesn’t sound like any of us.’

L: If there’s a bit no one likes we work hard to hammer it out. Or we axe it. We’ve axed a few songs.

Why?

L: Because they sounded like they were trying to hard or were not us.

So is it conceivable that the musical direction might change as the songwriting develops?

L: Yeah of course.

B: Some of the songs we’re jamming on but aren’t finished yet sound like straight soul numbers.

L: If we hear a tune we like we might take influence from it. We won’t pastiche it completely, we’ll make it our own.

We’ll never say ‘oh, no no no that’s not a ska tune.’ It can come from anywhere really.

As a band do you have a destination in mind?

L: Pub.

B: We’ve set up a label off the back of the band called One.thirtyfour Records. So we release our own stuff but can also decide on other bands we’d like to sign. It’s back to that punk ethos.

L: Well no one’s going help you are they?

The bands not trying to prove anything. But we used to have conversations about someone doing this and that. We just thought fuck ‘em, we’ll do it ourselves.

That seems to come up a lot actually. ‘Fuck ‘em, let’s just do it ourselves’.

B: But it’s not negative, it’s actually really positive. Once we’re in a position where we can control everything ourselves we don’t need to rely on anyone.

So if EMI came along and offered you a deal, you’d turn it down?

L: Well I wouldn’t take anything from them right now!

B: If someone came along and said they were going to throw a lot of money at it we’d obviously think about it. But we are signed to One.thirtyfour Records, so they’d have to buy us out. So even if something like that were to happen, One.thirtyfour Records could still carry on doing what it’s doing.

Would you every compromise on creative control?

B: My concern is angles. Majors come at things from a different angle. Like advertising for example. And we’ve said from the beginning we don’t really have an angle.

So if someone said you’ve got to wear skinny jeans and cravats we’d say no. But it is worth listening to these people.

L: But we’re not complete idiots. Few bands are in a situation to say ‘we’re all about ourselves.’ When any band starts out you got to do what you got to do.

What releases do you have out so far?

L: Just the one CD. But we’re recording stuff at the moment.

B: We record our own stuff, so we take the time necessary to be happy with our work. You have to approach every song with the mentality that it’s going to get to the top of the download charts and aim for that kind of quality.

You’ve got a song called ‘So Watford’. Is the town a big influence on you?

L & B: Yeah.

How so?

B: It’s everything really. From relationships to going out.

L: Look around you for what to write about. A lot of people write about things and it’s kind of ambiguous. Some local bands write about Watford as if it’s really shit, but they don’t fucking know really.

It’s negative but it’s positive.

B: I don’t know if things are getting worse or we’re get older. Probably it’s that when you see more you expect more.

L: I think in general people are getting worse. More vacuous. But Watford itself is actually pretty good. The problem is that when you’re eighteen or twenty it’s great. But there’s a lot of people who are our age and still act like they’re that age. They think ‘this is life’ and don’t break out of it.

Would you move away?

L: Nah. I love Watford. I’m always proud of where I’m from. It just disappoints me every day.

Things are the same everywhere. Go to Camden High Street on a Saturday night. It’s still full of pissheads who want to fight you. I was driving around Dalston the other day. I thought, ‘who the fuck would want to move to Dalston?’

You can listen to Usual Players on their My Space, where you will also find a list of upcoming gigs. They are currently recording and plan to release on CD, vinyl and download. Also check out One.thirtyfour Records.

-JF

-Photos by RJA Beaumont