The Mutts Interview

R13:So an introduction...
BS:I'm Bryan Shore and I play lead guitar.
SB:I'm Sam Burgess, I'm the bass guitarist.
CM:I sing and I'm Chris.

R13:So how did you get together?
CM:Three of us lived in Felixstowe and Adam, who's getting pizza was elsewhere. We travelled down to Brighton to get a band together. After a few attempts with different drummers we just answered an ad to Adam a couple of years back and just set to it. We kind of went through a few drummers at first.
BS:The whole thing of having a different drummer every week.
R13:What was wrong with them?
BS:No-one would ever work out, personality wise or what sort of music they were into.
CM:One guy wanted to teach drums in Africa which I thought was kind of funny. I don't know how you can have the balls to say you could teach drums in Africa. So, yeah, we got together with Adam three and a half years ago. Then met up with Lisa who manages us and took it from there.

R13:So how do you describe your personalities?
[laughter]
CM:The best way to start is to say we're wildly different.
BS:Oh yeah.
R13:Ok...so who's the craziest?
BS&CM:I'd say Adam.
CM:Definitely, don't think there's any doubt about it.
BS:He's got a really wry sense of humour that you can't...you don't know he's joking half the time. He's not crazy as in mad crazy.
CM:He is just a bit crazy, clinically.
R13:Who gets all the girls?
SB:Adam does alright doesn't he.
CM:Well we're kind of otherwise engaged.
SB:It's more girls' attention, they don't actually do anything.
CM:I'd have to check the chart.
BS:I've got the diary somewhere, the diary of all my entries. Sorry.
CM:Let's say you Sam, so in the future if anyone read that they'll think it's you. Sam gets all the girls.
BS:We're the two single ones, [indicates Sam] so we can misbehave, if we get the chance, which we never do, so there you go.
CM:So modest Bryan.
BS:I'm just truthful, no actually, there's loads of girls, I'm just fighting them off.
R13:With a stick?
BS:Yeah with a stick, my stick.
CM:Put that in 'Bryan fights off girls with his stick.' We've been on tour for too long we can't talk sensible anymore.

R13:You've been compared to the Ramones and MC5, would you say that's a fair comparison?
CM:I'd say the passion is definitely and where we're coming from. Rather than having a huge soundscape music it's all very stark, very to the point, very fast and genuine as well. I don't think we're coming from a different place.
SB:In the right light you look like Joey Ramone.
CM:The right light? the wrong light!

R13:You've just returned from a European tour, which show was your favourite?
SB:Cologne was my favourite one just because it was the best audience.
CM:Which was Cologne?
BS:That was the night we slept over.
SB:We had one bloke praying to us at the front, praying for the God Of Rock or whatever it was, crazy Germans man.
CM:It was all really good, they were all really magic and the people, everyone was mad up for it.
R13:In what way were the crowds different?
SB:A British audience, they don't tend to let you know they like you very much. But after the gig they'll come up to you and say that was amazing and it's like but you were just standing there. The Dutch are like it as well but the Germans, they make it known!
R13:Any interesting stage antics?
CM:In Hanover they were a bit wild.
SB:Bottles being thrown.
BS:We'd done our set and the Dirtbombs came on and people were getting so into it they thought it'd be really punk rock of them to throw loads of bottles. There's a lot of German fans [adopts accent] 'punk rock, let's spit and break things'
R13:So how was touring with The Dirtbombs?
CM:Amazing. Dirtbombs are a great bunch, really supportive, we've toured with them twice.

R13:What do you do in the spare time in between gigs on tour?
CM:We're picking up more interviews.
SB:It used to be sitting around just drinking beers and if we didn't have any beer it'd be just sitting around. But now it's interviewing.
CM:Checking out the city as well. On the first couple of tours we'd drive to the venue, sound check, wait around in the dressing room, do the show, back in the van and drive to the hotel. It'd be 'I was in Cardiff yesterday.' 'What was it like?' ' Oh, a couple of busy roads and a dressing room.' So now we like to check out the city and chat to people.
SB:Now we're doing European dates it's a lot more interesting.
R13:Do you get recognised in the street?
SB:Only in Brighton!
BS:My mum recognises me.
CM:Which is fortunate, she went through a while where she didn't know who you were.
BS:That was a dark time.
CM:There's been some freak occurences though. There's a band from Australia we played with called The Casanovas, they were doing a show in San Fransisco and there was a guy walking down the street with a Mutts t-shirt on. They were like 'No-way man, what the fuck?'. This other time my brother was camping in an Australian forest and there was someone with a Mutts t-shirt on there, in the middle of nowhere.

R13:Your new album 'Life In Dirt' is released next week on Fat Cat Records, how did you get signed?
CM:Basically we put out a 7", we financed it ourselves and gigs off our own back and fighting for it ourselves. That's the kind of work ethic of Fat Cat are into, the DIY. Just don't wait for someone else to do it, just do it and because we were doing that they were impressed with it and thought we'd carry on doing it.
SBWe've done alright for ourselves, we're still kind of self sufficient. The label obviously helps with releasing and touring but we do our bit as well. We play, we write the songs.
AW:We write rock anthems of the future now for tomorrow's people.* [*note tone of sarcasm in voice]

R13:Which are your favourite tracks and why?
AW:'No Luck'. It's a classic pop tune, it'll be recognised in years to come as something really quite special.
CM:I'd say mine is 'Stranded'. The arrangement and also the way Mark [Waterman] produced it. It's just got a magic sound and it sounds great on the dance floor, we've heard it in a couple of clubs. There's some strange synth parts underneath you can't really pick out but they're there. There's a fucked up level to it.
BS:'From The Trenches'. Mainly because I got to go stupid with the guitar. I had so much fun that day just layering loads of feedback.
R13:Is there a big difference between the album tracks and what you play live?
CM:There is a bit but the energy in the live shows makes up for it.
SB:It's all background stuff really.

R13:Why was your first release on vinyl?
CM:To be honest the reason I hoped for for it was because that's all I thought I might ever do and just to have one record that was enough at the time and then we released it and I wanted more and more...
AW:Then the world after it.

R13:Are you playing any festivals this year?
CM:Yeah, Glastonbury.
SB:Guilfest, it'll be a laugh and possibility some of the European ones but they're not confirmed yet.

R13:So you're pretty active with just returning from Europe, starting a headlining tour and releasing your debut album; but what's in the pipeline for The Mutts?
SB:We're looking to go out to America soon.
CM:September we're going out to New York.
SB:If we do New York this year they're talking about going down the East Coast a little bit to make it worthwhile, but it's just talk.
CM:Yeah, I mean there's talk of Japan and Australia. Going to go back to Europe maybe at the end of next month.
SB:We've also started writing the next album as well.

R13:So is the chance of 'making it big' sinking in?
CM:This is our first headline tour, so maybe we'll be able to answer that better at the end. I mean we're just The Mutts still.
BS:We've been doing this for four years and everything's so gradual. By the time good stuff comes around we're used to what came before.
SB:When we get a big tour bus, that'll be when I'm sat there thinking wow this is pretty cool.
BS:There's a lot of bands that get excited and drink and drug themselves stupid but we already did that when we weren't famous so we should be ok.