Anton Newcombe has a reputation that could make even the most hardened journalist quiver; luckily, reputations are made up of the opinions of Other People, who, today at least, seem to be wrong. Anton is personable, charming and polite (if you can swear politely); he's intelligent and talks at length about the things that excite him, enthuses about his wife and son and is a delight to talk to. Our of revered respect, I’ll let his answers speak for themselves.

R13: 'My Bloody Underground' is the first new album in over 4 years, what did you do during that break?
Anton: Well there was an EP called, "We Are The Radio", which is great, but I've been doing a lot of things: I've been taking care of my son, we've been touring around the world and I got married and helping other bands produce their material. I'm a productive, civic-minded member of society…ok I was lying, I was doing a lot of drugs!
R13: Yes that's what we want to hear!
Anton: Of course, oh and watching Cash In The Attic.

R13: Were all of the tracks on the new album recorded and written recently, I've heard that some come from a while back?
Anton: They were all recorded since August 12th when we played our last session, the neo-classical piece and another track were recorded retrospectively, one in 1996 and one when I was 9 and I just kept them in my head but everything on the record was recorded on the spot, no rehearsal, no writing, just make it up.

R13: The album was recorded in Liverpool and Rekjavik, what's so special about those two cities?
Anton: Well one of them has the Beatles and the other one has Bjork so that's two special things about those two cities respectively.

R13: Does Liverpool still have a creative vibe then do you think?
Anton: I know a couple of people in Liverpool that are really great and then there's just like a whole bunch of Beatles tourists and I just want to puke and do a shit on every single one of them, but I'm more civic-minded than that. I think they're good for business because the UK basically abandoned that town since the Blitz, just because it's the Capital of Culture they're just rebuilding it now. From 1943 on it's been a long time to live in a bombed-out council flat era. I love it so much, I love the Bunnymen, but I like Manchester too.


R13: What do you like about Britain?
Anton: Its Britishness, it's quintessentially British.
R13: How do you define Britishness?
Anton: Just, I'm not prone to hyperbole but the sheer audaciousness; it's like an agricultural haberdashery, it just boggles one's mind

R13: What influence did the Icelandic musicians have on the record?
Anton: My son's Icelandic so I think it's important to maintain culture so I decided to make songs in his native tongue because he doesn't need learn “Swedish Light” which is English - in case you don't know the English language doesn't come from England whatsoever, not in any shape or form, it was adopted so you could all be ruled and that would be the definition of the word, "subject" on your passport. I wanted him to have that since there are only 300 000 odd people on the planet who speak it and a lot of the bands from there are singing in English because they want to break out of "the 300 000 people club" and I figured I'd go in the opposite direction just to make a statement.

R13: Do you speak any other languages?
Anton: I only speak English to people that I can't speak any other language to. I can speak Urdu, find me a little bodega in Delhi and I'll just let it rip!

R13: You created a new label, 'A Records' for future recordings, why did you feel that this was the way to go?
Anton: I've actually been creating labels because I want to be productive, a productive member of society, I don't need to go on Pop Idol to figure out how somebody else can rip me off. I'm creating jobs, who cares why?!
R13: Well if you can do it, do it!
Anton: It's definitely because I can

R13: Will you release material from other bands on that label?
Anton: We "ltd"-ed a label called Fucking Brilliant Records so I'm basically working on that for other bands because any negative connotations that might be associated with people's misperceptions of who I am and what I'm about and what my motives may or may not be. I wouldn't want to scare people away with that.

R13: What other bands have you got lined up for that then?
Anton: I don't know…My Bloody Valentine, a bunch of people.
I mean they're hiring garbage truck drivers to run EMI, it isn't going to work, it's ridiculous.


R13: Do you think record labels are a restrictive force these days?
Anton: I think society being whore-ish is a major force. I mean, this is nothing to do with orientation, this is a metaphor based on reality - guys have tried to pick me up; I'm a heterosexual, it all depends on what you do. Like people offer you money and it was just never my thing; I didn't want to peddle my arse as a kid. I don't think these people understand what the function of business is - on either side - you get a record deal and just because they throw some money at your manager and your lawyer and that's going to change your life and you can tell people in your home village to fuck off cuz now you've made it big. That is nothing to do with working hard and putting in the hard graft for the long haul and that attitude has just destroyed everything because basically everyone's a whore now, in life, they say, "I'm not going to put up with all this shit and I'm going to fuck this person over because it's in my best interests." I'd beat the shit out of someone if they tried to do that to me; it's nothing personal, it's just the way I was raised. I really believe in the power of egalitarianism.

R13: Is that why the majority of your material is available for free from your website?
Anton: Exactly. It's art, it's supposed to be heard and I'm not a communist, I'm not a socialist. It's just art.

R13: Do you think it's possible for new bands to make money like that though?
Anton: Well, we either work together or we die together basically. If they are all just feeding off each other they're going to be going nowhere; they're going to be watching the fucking sun set on them, on their empire. It's basically a fact; it's like close rank. It's like the Internet too, it's like just because you have my email it doesn't mean you should fucking use it. Everybody thinks that they're walking along like a young Caesar and that's no joke, it's the end of our era for Western Culture because everyone's walking around like they're the king of the world and they think that they're going to jump into their SUV and drive away from the apocalypse and that's just not going to happen. It's just a fantasy that they sell people that you can buy your way onto the spaceship and avoid the dead planet smacking into us, it's just bullshit.


R13: Do you think the music industry in particular is going to have to change to stay afloat?
Anton: It's not the writing on the wall but the thing is, I've been programming since I was 9 years old, I don't need to go to a seminar from some fucking kid that just got out of Stanmore on how to rip people off and make the next yahoo. I already know way beyond this, they're going to shut down the Internet, it's going to be cable and pay per view everything fucking thing you do. They're not terribly concerned with the demise of HMV, you know? And you know, they'll just put the next crap craze shop there - "buy a bucket of chlamydia - it's 99p shop". But I'm not really concerned with that stuff

R13: Do you find the world more inspiring or irritating then?
Anton: I find it equal parts inspiring and irritating but what I really enjoy about my perspective verse everyone's myopic perspective is that I force myself out, instead of sitting developing negative opinions about hypothetical situations and imaginary faceless people based on life experience, I'm going out finding interesting people: old young, of every race and creed and being amazed by life's rich pageant and just fighting the good fight. Everyone else can fuck off basically, I'm not really interested in who they think they are. If people pull class on me, I pull rank on them and with every fucking bowler hat dude on the tube I'm like, "you're a subject of the Crown, look at my passport motherfucker, you're property, fuck you!" And in fact I'm landed gentry, they can fuck and suck my arsehole and that's the fact of this society that sucks and it's also amusing because there are beautiful, funny people. My wife's Welsh and we're just cracking up at Cash In The Attic, just laughing at people; it's great - those little magic moments.

R13: If you could change anything about this world then, what would it be?
Anton: If I could change anything in the world, I'd change the universe. It's not technically in my world, but I could change it if I had that choice. I mean you want to ask me what would you do if a genie granted you a wish? I would like a thousand more wishes please thank you …perspectives!

R13: Talking about your beliefs, you've always mentioned having an interest in cults and religious sects like Scientology, do you believe in any deity?
Anton: I believe that I don't need objects. My God is everything and nothing, my God is everywhere, where is your God? Nowhere. It's about perspectives, the quantum reality of where my head is at and it's not crazy, it's just a little bit advanced, evidently.

R13: Asking a very narrow-minded question then, who would you like to be the next president?
Anton: I just want better government, I want great government, we just need it now more than ever. I'm sick of watching soldiers - ours, yours, NATO's, everyone's - dying to protect some kind of oil interest, it's all bullshit. I've had enough of it, I don't care what the financial aspects of it, or the geopolitical ramifications are - fuck this! I've had enough of it. I made a commitment this year: if I could stop a fight, I'm going to stop a fight; if I can stop an argument, I'm going to stop an argument; if I can stop a war, I'm going to stop a fucking war. If I can, I'm going to do it. I don't care if Britney Spears is juggling with Gandalf the wise elf, who Harry Potter is boning or any of this crap. I just hate to see people running around in this rat race forever and getting no quality of life out of it; it can just sicken one's heart, if you have a heart. I mean, seriously, I have the most beautiful wife on the planet and I'm pleased as punch.

R13: Do you feel that you will continue to make music under the Brian Jonestown moniker indefinitely or do you think there a point at which you'd like to start afresh and focus on something else?
Anton: I did start a new group, we're called The Serious Matters, but yeah, I will continue to make music as I see fit. I'm not sure that it's just music, it might be other performance art. I'm not sure if it's rock n'roll or what it is, it seems to transcend, it's something more than indie rock, a bit more heavy that Sigur Ros or The Fall or shit like that. It's not that I'm just ripping people off and it's not based in publishing or commercial respects at all and it's not communism or socialism and it's not a cult. So I don't know what the hell it is; I don't care, that's the beauty of it, I don't have to define it. I know it's better than Amy Winehouse!

I'm doing 5 records, I'm working on the French one right now, I'm also trying to do something which is very important which is to have a life which is something that is lost on every other fucking wage slave hooker in our society, I'm spending time with my wife too and spending time with my son.

R13: What are the other albums that you're working on then?
Anton: 5 at once, the French one I'm working on at the moment is quite exciting as I don't speak French but I have no worries about it because I understand it so I'm doing it, I'm just trying to make one piece of relevant art to contribute to the culture.











R13: Did you ever imagine it lasting this long? 13 albums is quite astounding by anyone's standards.
Anton: I did more before I started out this group so it's been a while. There are other things that are important, I want to have a successful marriage and see my son be happy and I love to cook and I'm a great great, great sculptor and I'm excellent at painting and I can do any number of crafts and I'm an equestrian, I'm athletic, I'm smart, kind, reverent, obedient, justicious, I mean, it's just whatever. But I don't think about these things too much. I drink when I'm thirsty and I sleep when I'm tired and I eat when I'm hungry and all that stuff.

R13: What's been the best thing that you've got out of your time in the band?
Anton: Oh I've done everything that I set out to do and my integrity has remained intact, no one else can say that, not John Lennon, not anybody, they're dead! I mean I lived longer than he did, so think about it, you can't argue with results, all those heroes, think about it for a minute, they're dead. And even everybody at the fucking record labels, they're all gone from their jobs, I've had my job longer than they've had their job so they can call me if they want, they can also lick my arse because it doesn't wipe itself. I don't give a shit what people think.

R13: Are you going to be playing any festivals this summer?
I can't say.
R13: I really hope we'll see you over here again soon
Anton: I hope so too because it's such a lovely country.
R13: Apart from its political system…
Anton: No it's nice that there's healthy debate in some parts, there are some MPs that really lay it on the line, like George Galloway is out of control. I really wish he was my dad, it would be so fun at dinner, you'd be terrified. I like that, George Galloway just spits that stuff out, when he's gets going he's great, he doesn't care about other people's opinions, it's just like the theatre of life. He should get an award right now!


And on that note, we let Anton get on with his evening and thank him for allowing us a brief glimpse into the mind of someone who is undoubtedly a creative genius.