Five Minutes with John Hassall and The April Rainers
I met up with John Hassall and The April Rainers before the final gig of their tour at Nambucca, London. We managed to have a considerably long and intriguing chat before they serenaded the crowd with their summery frolics from ‘Wheels To Idyll’, their debut album that’s set for release next week.
You’re all living in Denmark – what about it affects the music, is it different than writing in England?
John: It’s kind of interesting, having a mixed band of different nationalities. I guess it has had an effect, with the different cultural influences. But it works, you know, you’re learning about each other’s cultures at the same time as being in a band as well.
Why are you all in Denmark?
John: We’ve both [gestures towards James] got Danish wives.
James: Yeah, I met a Danish woman about eight and a half years ago and I moved over there when I finished university. Then we got married, so I’m pretty much there now. And John did the same, but five years before me. He was doing it before it was cool! Jakob was born there, and Erlend came there to study, and he stayed for some reason!
What are your current views on Brexit, what do you think might happen?
John: Well…. I think it kind of depends on whether Angela Merkel gets back in again, because I’ve heard if she doesn’t get in again, then it could be bad news for Europe – which I’ll be very sad about. I mean for us, Norway’s out of Europe anyway. It’s got its own private agreement with every country in Europe, right? So that’s probably what would happen to us.
James: Well, I don’t know about that…
John: That’s what they’ve said will happen to us; it’s the same as Switzerland. They’ve got a private agreement… but you never know because it’s the same with Denmark, as with the rest of the world in that it’s going more and more right wing: the Dansk Folkparti which is the UKIP equivalent is doing really well. Its very worrying times.
Yeah, my Grandad’s a member of UKIP…
James: So is mine! I think the main thing is the uncertainty. You’ve got all of these people that are supporting Brexit, saying, “it’ll be fine, it’ll be fine”, but the fact is that no one knows! And mine and John’s status as EU nationals is in the balance actually. The other day, I think the European parliament voted to require Americans to need a visa when they come to Europe, and I think I can see the situation becoming pretty similar for British people in the future. So I’m personally going to seek for citizenship so I can kind of just come and go. I’m going to go for dual citizenship.
John: You have to take the exam for that!
Well, that got a bit deep! We’ll just have to see what happens…. So, I was watching an interview of you guys and it said that you wrote some lyrics with the poet Steev Burgess. What’s your favourite lyric from ‘Wheels to Idyll’, all of you?
John: Do you know Steev?
I’ve read some of his stuff.
John: He’s great. It’s a really good question. Steev’s lyrics, or any lyric?
Any! From the whole of the album?
John: Right, erm…
James: I have my own favourite lyric actually. One of my own lyrics on the album is one of my favourites, from ‘If I Die (We All Die)’ – “I’ve reason to pry, you’re living in a sty – the pussy kind that you’ll find under your eye”
John: Mine’s about this businessman who’s in Hyde Park, getting pissed and the line goes: “He turns his briefcase open, can read the word ‘resigned’/ Now all the rules are broken, he don’t care about the time”. I kind of like that image that he’s just sat there getting pissed, he’s broken the rules, and now he’s just gone beyond it and he doesn’t care, he’s just sat there… I quite liked that one. What’s your favourite?
My favourite is probably the ending of ‘Intercity 125’. Travelling from my hometown to London makes me happy because I’m excited to get back to the city, but I’m also a little dejected because everyone on the tube just looks so depressed, hating life! It’s a very different sort of atmosphere to my coastal hometown.
John: Yeah, that’s sort of what the song’s like. If you’re into poetry then you’ll definitely be into Steev’s lyrics. It’s quite rare, like I don’t like much poetry, but I love Steev’s poetry.
Alright, back to Denmark. What’s the music scene like? Is it different to here?
Jakob: Yeah, it’s good. Erm, I don’t know, it’s very commercialised like everywhere else. But I think it’s a very broad music scene.
Is there anything that you would recommend to listen to?
Jakob: A band called Low Leaf, Yune are pretty good! J. Bruno is good.
[Laughter]
I think there are fewer and fewer regular bands like we are. There’s a lot of duos playing backtracks.
Yeah, like a lot of just drums and guitar?
Jakob: They focus a lot on the sound and not so much on the song writing. I think it’s very good actually, better and better. A lot of reverb!
From that, what do you think of the whole state of music at the moment?
Erlend: Ed Sheeran.
Yeah! Talk about Ed Sheeran!
Erlend: What I think of Ed Sheeran? I don’t think I really know a song by him. I think I could hum one maybe, how does it go?
Do you like it?
Erlend: No.
[Laughter]
Erlend: We were at the hotel last week and they had music videos on TV and we saw like ten different Ed Sheeran music videos for a couple of hours. It was really depressing. Bless him!
[More laughter]
Yeah bless him!
James: I think it’s a little bit upsetting, the state of music at the moment. I personally am not looking for new bands. I tend to go back in time, and there are always surprises in the past!
Erlend: I actually find that there’s a lot of spontaneous stuff that people are recording themselves at the moment and it sounds really good.
Jakob: It just sounds like there are ten million bands on Soundcloud.
James: C Duncan! C Duncan and The Lemon Twigs. I like them. I think The Lemon Twigs have got a lot of really good ideas.
What’s your least favourite artist at the moment?
James: I listen to Ed Sheeran and I don’t see what’s bad about it, I just don’t think it’s written for us, it’s not written for me. I think it’s kind of a little bit hypocritical to be fair. He must be doing something right!
What do you guys think about the stuff that Pete and Carl have been doing? Like Pete’s solo stuff, The Jackals…
John: I actually love The Jackals. I’m not just saying this because you’re his [Billy Tessio of Carl Barat and The Jackals] sister, but I love The Jackals. I love ‘Glory Days’; it’s a great tune. I think it’s a brilliant album. That’s actually one of my favourite albums of the last ten years. Pete’s got an awesome album.
Yeah, you can’t beat a live Jackals gig. Me and my mum always enjoy ourselves a bit too much.
John: Yeah, my Dad was threatening me to come down tonight! Threatening me!
James: Aww, your Dad and my Dad could have had a little chinwag! I like your Dad!
John: That’s the thing, all of the fans take pictures with him because he looks so weird. [Laughter] They don’t know he’s my Dad; they just take photos with him. And then he’s like “Ahh yeah I’m his Dad!” and then they want even more photos!
How has it been touring for This Feeling? I think they’re one of the best things that’s happened to music in ages, they’re putting on some really great bands.
John: I think you’re right – I think they’re doing a great job and they’re bringing up new bands, which no one else is doing right now. In the old days, it used to be the job of the NME to go out and find bands but now that’s changed.
James: We had a band support us the other day called The Assist. They were really good! I’m sure it was in Bedford because there was a Polish guy outside with his teeth knocked out. So that’s how I know it was Bedford.
His teeth knocked out?
James: Yeah, there was a fight. At one of the gigs it was a Polish night, they put on Polish hip-hop. To cut a long story short, two paramedics and some riot police turned up apparently.
Riot police?! A riot van…
James [sings]: “Up rolled a riot van…” Yeah, The Assist, they had some really good gear changes in their music and key changes and everything. I thought they were pretty cool.
When I was listening to the album, you just feel like you’re sat in the sunshine! So do you feel like you’re going to enjoy playing it at festivals more than at venues like this?
John: I think that album got put back a lot. It’s actually coming out next week, just in time for the spring. And its also fifty years from 1967, which was the summer of love, right? I think it’s actually a summer album. At the same time you might enjoy it in the wintertime because it gives you a bit of that summertime. It will be great to play some festivals and hear some tunes outside.
What festival dates are confirmed?
John: We’ve got one called Stanford Calling.
Me trying to be funny: Is that in Stanford? [Laughter] I reckon you’ll be booked for lots more because the album’s so summery!
John: Thank you!
What do you guys read, do you read a lot on tour?
John: I don’t read much literature on tour; I’m reading Buddhist study material a lot. I chanted with Billy actually, I bet he was pretty freaked out! I’ve been reading Gogol, he’s got some short stories, and it’s really great. It’s about this office clerk who has this dream of buying a new jacket. So he spends his whole life, about 6 months focusing on this jacket … and it gets nicked! It’s amazing.
James: I’m reading John Kennedy Toole’s Confederacy of Dunces – American from 1964. It has a pretty interesting history, the novel itself. It wasn’t published until long after the writer’s death; he didn’t get any success during his life as a writer so he killed himself. His mother twenty years later took the manuscript to a publisher and said, “please look at this, please read it” and the publisher was like, “ahh, god do I have to?” And he read it and he thought it was amazing. It’s such a funny book – you should check it out.
Jakob: Right now I’m reading Catcher in the Rye. I’ve been reading quite a few classics lately. Also some Bukowski, I could read it over and over again.
James: I thought Catcher in the Rye was meant to be really irritating!
Jakob: I haven’t finished it yet – it has been pretty irritating. He’s quite irritating!
James: Yeah, he’s a dick!
Jakob: He’s like Larry David!
Erlend: I’ve been reading John Steinbeck, East of Eden.
I read that just so I could put it in my Personal Statement! Had to be done. My favourite classic cliché in it was Wuthering Heights… On that, this week was International Women’s Day. Which women inspire you?
John: My wife. She actually did a talk for that, in Denmark, she did a speech, she’s not a feminist, but she was asked to do it as a mother and a daughter and she’s a strong woman. I think that’s what it’s about really, I think its about not just women but men as well and being strong individuals and being more politically aware of your own lives and what you’re doing to create value in your own life. So yeah, my wife! If I’m ever in doubt with what I should do or a decision I always ask my wife.
James: Ohhhh yeah, I ask my wife!
[Laughter]
John: Oh please can I do this! But no, I do really trust her opinion and I think that’s how it should be.
How did you meet?
John: We met working in the theatre. Which is actually where Carl got me a job, so we met basically through Carl and he kind of match made us! He went up to my wife and was like, “if you don’t get with him tonight…”, so he was very instrumental in our coming together.
James: I love Joni Mitchell! Nico. If you can write an album like Marble Index, then you’re inspirational to me.
This was a question request – If you could make love to any animal, which one would it be?
John: [Laughs] This is from Billy isn’t it?
James: Mermaids! Obviously.
Is that even an animal?
Erlend: It’s not an animal and you can’t have sex with it.
John: Well, I would say woman because we’re all animals.
James: I mean, apart from the obvious – praying mantis – I’ve never really considered this question… I’d be interested in knowing
Billy’s answer to the question.
Jakob: An electric eel.
John: A common garden worm.
You could make it into the shape you wanted I suppose…
John: Ahhhh!
James: Oh! You mean like make it into a donut? I thought you meant like- this is getting quite graphic!
Erlend: I’d go with a bear. You get a good snuggle afterwards.
Bears are deadly – they can kill you!
Erlend: You can train it.
James: Yeah I think that’s ethically questionable.
John: In fact, in Denmark until last year, it was the only country where bestiality was legal.
Oh my Godl! So what are your opinions on bestiality? I’m joking!
John: I mean, I don’t advocate bestiality!
[Laughter!]
James: Are you a sponge or a stone?
Any advice for bands today?
John: I think if you can get to the point where you’re sort of rather than trying to do it for your own benefit, but get to the point where you’re doing it because you enjoy playing music and playing it for other people rather than being about sort of me me me which is personally for me right now, that’s not good for me I cant do that. For myself as well, not just for other people! But doing the best I can do personally.
James: We listen to his advice!
Interview by Alicia Carpenter
Photo Credit: Amanda J Window
First published on The Hype Media: http://the-hypemedia.co.uk/wordpress/?p=1329