Malcolm Wilson
I like 'Why I Hate Drugs' off 'Peek & Poke' cos it sums up why I'm straight edge and how dull I find drug culture and the majority of people who immerse themselves in it.
I like 'Undressed' off 'WIT' because I managed to get my attitudes to sex and death pinned down very well there. The essential pointlessness of life, coupled to the fact that the only meaning there is is the one we construct.
I like 'Bewitched' off the first album because it's one of the happiest songs I've ever written and, as any writer will tell you, happy songs are a million times more difficult to write than sad songs.
I hated my brief fame. We had TV vans camped outside my house, reporters hounded me... people i'd know for years started treating me differently.
I don't believe that recordings should sound radically better than the artist, I think that's dishonest. For example, I'm not a great singer but if I spent enough time tweaking my vocals, I could sound like one. But I don't, what you hear is pretty much what I sing.
I do just what I want. If I want a fourteen minute track on my album, no-one's gonna try and cut it to 3.30. If I want to write about subjects that are difficult, no-one's gonna censor them.
GET OUT OF THAT BEDROOM! Join up with others and create a strong local scene. If you can't gig, DJ and if you can't DJ, do a fanzine or put on gigs for other bands.
Everyone has to find their own way, it's just that I don't want to go that way myself. If a band likes being on a major and feels happy there, good luck to them.
Bzangy Groink is my own label, distributed through Voiceprint. So far there's only one release, my last album, but I'm soon releasing two singles by new young bands that are brilliant.
At none of the companies I met in the courting process did I meet anyone with a grasp of contemporary music. A&R people hadn't even heard of Magnetic Fields for god's sake and they already had albums out on Setanta.
All I'm saying is that this shouldn't be all that pop music is, all that is allowed. Pop can do so much more!
A lot of people, especially musicians, befriended me to drop me like a hot rock as soon as I was no longer in the charts/signed. London truly is a cesspit, filled with people fighting to be king of the filth. Thank god I didn't move there.
A 26 stone Indian geek is hardly prime pin-up material. Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of bubblegum pop myself and I think there's a place for pretty boys in bands for teenage girls to lust over. I just think that shouldn't be the total focus of the music industry.