Haze Meets: Clint Boon (Part Two)
The second half of our chat with Clint Boon, chatting about new Manchester festival 'Off The Record' and finding new music.
What about venues in Manchester, have you got any favourites? I love the Ritz, it’s a great place to perform and it’s a great place to watch a band. I’ve not played the Albert Hall yet, but I love that venue, it’s breathtaking. And then smaller venues, Soup Kitchen’s great, the Kraak Gallery which is now Aatma, you know the really seedy little ones, there’s something so great about going into a cellar to watch a band. You know standing in mud and fucking beer getting thrown, there’s something quite exciting about that. That’s where I saw Cabbage, I saw them do Aatma and then at Soup Kitchen. I still like the little sticky venues. I miss the Roadhouse, we’ve still got the Night and Day which is great there was a period where it looked like that might be coming down. I think in terms of venues we’ve probably got more stages to play on now in the city than ever. If someone did a survey of it I bet there’s never been so many venues. Well there’s another new festival starting as well isn’t there that’s strictly for new acts? (Off The Record Festival) That’s right, I’m part of that, I think we’re picking 3 unsigned bands each and then on the day I’m not sure how many bands, but we’ll do a chart and the favourites will get to play on the day. Any ideas who you’re going to pick? I don’t know, because it changes, if you’d have asked me in January February I’d have said Cabbage, cos they were fucking unknown and brilliant but they’re well on their way now so. I mean some of the bands I’m listening to at the moment, local bands are Carnations, Kashmere, Luna, Foxtails, Jade Assembly, Sonic Bliss Machine these are some of the bands that have just come on my radar.
What I’ll do I’ll probably judge it, because it’s a quite important prize, I might just judge it on, listen to them and think which band do I think I’d like to be in? which band are making the music I would like to be making? I’ll probably just score mine on that, like a theme. Which bands can shake up Manchester a bit. So a band like The Tapestry who’ve been around for a while, they’ve got that spirit, they’re like Cabbage but not as daft, fucking full of energy and they’re great people. So I don’t know, I’ve no idea what direction I’ll go in but I’ve got to pick three bands, it’ll probably depend who’s on my radar when I come to it. The other thing is, a band like Tapestry doing a gig like that, it might not look right, they’ve been around for a few years, they’re a certain level. If we was to present them on a brand new music festival, it might not be the right look for them. So I think it’s more likely to be people you’ve not even heard of yet. There’s some great stuff knocking about. Me and my Mrs have just started doing Mrs Boon’s Tea party again and we always put an artist on there, people like Ryan Jarvis I’ve got to see him perform live a couple of times, Feed the kid, Crows, these are bands, they’ve been around for a while, but it’s good for me to eventually get a chance to see them perform. It’s fucking brilliant, there’s some brilliant brilliant music about. There is, it’s just about finding it Oh yeah, I think if you look for it, it’s there. I’ve started doing this set to go podcast so that’s a good way of me doing it cause until I started doing that I didn’t really have a vehicle for unsigned music. So when I used to do the evening show on Xfm I was able to put in local unsigned bands but I’ve been doing the drive time for so long there’s no way I can get new music into that so for a long time, when new bands have sent me a CD or an mp3, I’ve just sat on it and not done anything with it apart from encourage them and tell them it’s great. But now that I’ve got the set to go podcast it means that every 2 weeks I can stick 10 tracks out by new acts and say I believe this has got potential, it’s ready to go, it’s set to go. So through that I’m learning more about what’s kicking about and it’s just reinforcing that idea that not only has the city got more venues than it’s ever had, it’s got more great upcoming bands. With a city like Manchester you’ve got that momentum anyway, because it’s Manchester and people come here for the music so you’ve got that, then you create venues and it gives the kids places to play, so they start the bands. Making music’s easier than it’s ever been, you know making music at home on your computer, on your guitar or whatever, record it and get it online, sell it online, it’s fucking great it’s never been so accessible. Having said that, that means you get, in 1975 there might have been a few hundred people around Manchester making music and now you’re talking tens and tens of thousands. It’s one of my pet hates, when people say it’s not like it used to be, it’s not as good as when it was Madchester. I always say it is, it’s actually better now, you’ve got to look for it, follow the right websites, the right podcasts, listen to the right radio shows, BBC 6 introducing in Manchester, Michelle and Nat they’re always breaking new music. You don’t have to look too far for what’s the best new music around if you’re willing to look. If you’re just sat driving your taxi, whinging about it all day you’re not going to find it. There was an article on the guardian about the Maccabees split how they were the last big british guitar band that could have headlined a festival, surely that’s not the right attitude for a music journalist who’s supposed to be finding new bands to fill that role? Whoever’s written it has stopped searching for the next big thing as well because, out of the bands that I’ve just listed, there’s probably 4 or 5 of them who’ve got the potential to be headlining national festivals. These are bands that if they get the right deal and the right support they can be doing those headline slots at some point. But if these high profile publications are being so negative and basically saying there’s no point it’s going to be discouraging Yeah, it’s just such a negative way of doing it, you’ve just got to lift a few stones here and there. If I wanted now, to go and find the most exciting 10 new bands in Wolverhampton, I could within an hour find it on the internet and I could come back to you and say there’s 10 fucking amazing acts here for you to listen to. It’s there init. If people like that who have the power of the pen they could find them bands and help to make them. So it is there, we all know it’s there, you’ve just gotta look for it. It’s just a lazy way of thinking of it really Yeah, well The Maccabees were a great band, they’ll be missed. I think Maccabees and Foals what they’ve done in the last couple of years they’ve become this generations, Britain’s Talking Heads. Started off as a quirky little indie band but they became this unpredictable massive thing. I think Two Door Cinema Club as well have only just started to make that transformation, even though they’ve been massive for years I think it’s only recently, the latest Two Door music I’m listening to now, I think they’ve looked at Foals and Maccabees and thought hang on now, we’ve done enough of this African quirky guitar thing sort of sound. Let’s take it in a darker direction. Like the new Two Door Club sounds like Foals, it’s great. And I’m not knocking them, Foals were always a brilliant band to watch, they could become the biggest fucking band for decades if they carry on doing what they’re doing. Do you think they’re ready to headline Glasto? Not now, but maybe by next year, they’ll probably put another album before then. The thing is with Foals, you never hear people "saying oh they’re alright" they’re always blown away. They’re just gonna get bigger and bigger. They could become this generations Beatles if they play it right. If you could have any 3 Glasto headliners next year who would it be? Oasis, which if you think about it, they could do it, big film coming out, two brothers with a great excuse to celebrate something it could happen. Maybe Cabbage, they obviously won’t headline but maybe a couple of years down the line they’ll find themselves in some sort of Glasto slot. Doves, get Doves back together. All the comebacks this year, which has been your favourite? Does the Stone Roses count as a comeback? I’m gonna say no, too obvious Alright let me think, I love the Chilli Peppers single, I’ve not listened to much off the album but I love the sound of that single, it just reminds me of something really 1970s, it’s something about his voice, the echo in his voice it really takes me back to something in the 70s in a really nice way.
I’ve not really heard much of the Radiohead album I’ll check that out. I saw Muse at Glastonbury and it was just fucking phenomenal, they’re just one of them bands when you’ve heard em through Xfm as long as I have. You hear Muse and Chilli Peppers and Foo Fighters several times a day, you can, not dislike them, but you start to take them for granted and Muse it was like they almost, come back to me, the goosebumps when they do it live. For Three of them fucking hell they’re can’t be a more powerful three piece band on the planet. REM would be a good one to get back together as well, get them back together, get them on Glastonbury, that’s one of the dream bands. That could happen at some point, they’re all still alive and healthy, I don’t think they’ve fell out I think they just decided it was time to switch it off for a bit.