The Friday Interview #1 The Godfathers

Something for the weekend sir?

As debut interviews go it is a distinct pleasure, and an honour to feature the talents of a band who have recently been basking in the reflection of very positive reviews of an album that critics, and more importantly fans, are calling a career best.

So without further ado here is Peter Coyne of the Godfathers.

The new album ‘ A Big Bad Beautiful Noise’ has been touted as a return to form, which gives the impression that you had went off form, which I wouldn’t necessarily agree with, but with it also being called a career best how are you feeling about that?

It’s been very complimentary.

Everyone is buzzing about it and we have had nothing but complimentary reports about it from all around the world. So we’ve got to be really pleased about it. We all put a lot of work into it and are just pleased with the results, and that people are enjoying it.

A career best though?

I don’t know, maybe, probably, definitely yes.

Was the feedback expected? When you are working in the studio you might think ‘I’m enjoying this, it’s sounding really good’, but you never really know what the reaction will be from the public?

We knew we had made a really good album, a great album in fact. We knew that. Once it was recorded and started to get mixed and the tracks were coming back the tracks were sounding monster. That was the word we had in our heads right from the start. We wanted this album to be monster.

So with this album it had to start big with that title track, and finish big with ‘You And Me Against The World’ and all the songs had to be all killer no filler in the middle, but with every song, you don’t know with Big Bad Beautiful Noise, the album, where it is going to lead next, which I think is really good and that’s one of the strengths of the album. You just don’t know.

It’s a sonic journey, and of course we are The Godfathers and we always try and make great albums, but I think this is definitely up there with our best stuff.

Do you think that doing two burst of a week each in the studio complemented the material?

Definitely, we wrote the songs, rehearsed, recorded, but there was always room for manoeuvring. One of the last songs we wrote for the album was Miss America and Mauro came up with the tune and we sort of started shaping that, and I came up with some initial lyrics that I wasn’t really happy with, so after recording for a week we had two weeks off and I finished the lyrics to a satisfaction I was happy with and then for the last week of the recording we actually finished off recording that number. So it was a sort of mix of…

A combination of fast material and then reflective material based on what came before?

No, a combination of stuff we had rehearsed and knew that we knew that we could go in and record quickly, and a mix of other songs Like Miss America or You And Me Against The World which were not more problematic to record, but took a bit more time just by the nature of those songs. But again we are all really pleased with the results.

Looking back over your whole career, is the speed in the studio something that compliments what the Godfathers do? That sense of urgency when you play carried over?

We have a reputation of being a serious live band, so when we go into a recording studio we record pretty much live and you have got to use all that stuff, the experience, to your advantage.

Or otherwise what is the point of having all that experience?

Of course!

As a band you have always also been knows to reflect the world back at the listener, a bit of social commentary is part of who you are. So in a perverse manner, with the world being in a bit of turmoil just now, is that acting as a muse for you?

I would say so. I mean the two tracks we just talked about there. Miss America and You And Me Against The World, and the title track in particular, they could only have been written last year, or in fact Big Bad Beautiful Noise was written two years ago, but you’ve got to sort of sum up what is going on out there. Not all the time as that would be boring and predictable, but with everything in flux the way it is I think it is the duty of great rock and roll bands to comment on what is going on and reflect it back at the audience who are listening.

Otherwise you’re not part of it all.

We couldn’t have predicted who was going to win the American election back in June when we recorded it, but I think we definitely have our fingers on the pulse of what is happening in the states, and it is the same way with You And Me Against The World which is about all that fall out with brexit, this one against that one, and you know it’s basically a love song at its heart and in its nature, but it starts off really dark and it ends really positively.  That’s a lot of things I like in The Godfathers. Where it’s like you can’t tell what is going to happen next. It does start off dark. Really dark, but finishes gorgeous and really beautiful. Love is the glue that holds the whole world together.

Of course, to touch on the global political climate,  just now we have governments saying we shouldn’t listen to experts, but at the same time they don’t want artists to have a platform either. Do you think this an ongoing deliberate attempt to divide people?

Governments don’t want you to listen to experts when it suits them, but when it suits them they do want you to listen to the experts. I would say don’t listen to the government.

Listen to yourself.  

My views on politicians run similar to one Jeremy Paxman had. I have the same relationship with them as a dog has with a lamppost.

In a recent interview you had to clarify the lyric ‘I started shooting politicians around a quarter to nine’ and said that it is not about Jo Cox, which to be honest I didn’t expect it to be, but does it concern you that some could take it out of context and use it to push an agenda that you don’t agree with?

No. no, I don’t worry about things like that because I know that people will understand that we have totally honest motives about writing a lyric like that, and in any case as I said earlier Big Bad Beautiful Noise was written about two, two and a half years ago, and so had nothing whatsoever to do with that horrible murder of that person who I thought was quite a nice girl as it happens, and it just saddens me that some sicko does this.

It could happen to you, me, it could happen to our sisters, wives, girlfriends. Anything could happen. It’s a mad crazy world out there.

Did you know he came from a Scottish town? Not exactly a hot bed of radicalism. He moved away and we have to consider that he was mentally ill?

Yes. He was mentally ill. Had to be! If he wanted to start shooting politicians I have a couple of targets, better candidates for a bullet. I’m not going to say who they are, but people should know exactly who these people are.

Of course, you have to be careful not to mention names, but really what you are saying is that they should look at their behaviour and actions and be judged on that alone.

Yes!

Jumping back to the music to lighten the mood though; While this album is very well received, Juke Box Fury was well received too, but I read in some interviews that were less than happy with it as time has moved on. Was that in general a difficult time for the band?

Yeah, well I think it is okay that album, but it was a compromise record. I think the album cover is better than the stuff that is in it. I like all the stuff I was on. I like Back Into The Future, I Can’t Sleep Tonight, The Outsider, Theme To The End Of The World, you know there are a few songs I really like on that record, but the other ones I’m not so keen on to be honest with you.

I just thought it was a really weak option for the Godfathers to put out as an album. And I am so happy that we have been able to correct it with something massive, and something brilliant, like a Big Bad Beautiful Noise. That’s the Godfathers in actual actuality, the Godfathers delivering, that’s the Godfathers firing on all cylinders.

There’s a lot of water under the bridge since then. Has all the acrimony gone now with the ex members who moved on? It was quite heated at the time.

I don’t really talk about things like that as I’m not interested in talking about it.

A chapter that is finished then?

Yeah. They might have one view point and I’ve certainly got another.

I will jump to something that isn’t relevant to that at all then. You did The Germans with Rat Scabies and Chris.  Why did that not come to being a project recorded and released? Was it just a kick about thing for a short period of time?

No it wasn’t. Not as far as I was concerned. Again I though there was some really great songs kicking about with that band! We did make some fantastic demos of our version of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn which was stonking, We Don’t Want Your Love, Safe, and War Machine. They are all pretty good demos and we could have made a great album, but I was just so disappointed. They asked me to be in that group and I didn’t even want to be in the group in the first place with them, and the least I would have expected was the respect to have actually finished of a record and putting it out properly.

A wasted opportunity! Bloody stupid!

It must be difficult looking back on it and knowing you had good quality material, everything is in place, and then it all falls apart.

Does ego play a part? A lot of good music can come from the friction of having egos in a band. Have you been in that position? For instance working with your brother? There are blood relationships in bands that do ultimately provide good quality music from the strong personalities clashing.

Everyone in a band has an ego. Everyone! You have got to have an ego. To get up there on stage and think that you are better than everybody else needs ego. Even if you are not necessarily the best, you still have to think it and you still have to do it, but luckily The Godfathers can deliver on an egotistical viewpoint of the world, and turn it into brilliant rock and roll music.

Well all the friction is okay if the end result delivers.

It’s creative tension. You know if you get four librarians in a band you are going to get some boring bloody music I’d say.

You are the last man standing from the original line up of The Godfathers. How does that feel? Does it feel that, while not diminishing everyone else and their role in the band, you are at the front now?

You are The Godfathers in essence?

No. I never see it like that at all. I always look at it that I am a member of a band. I wrote the lyrics, but I am part of a group. It’s not poetry. Those lyrics only turn into great songs when you have a fantastic group behind you, and Steve and Mauro on guitar. Birch on bass and Tim on drums, all five of us working together towards an agenda it’s amazing sometimes. We just started this UK tour and it has been absolutely fantastic. We have had some brilliant nights in Middlesbrough, Birmingham, London.

You know. I just keep saying this to people. We are on fire just now and we just delivered what could possible be the best album the Godfathers have every recorded. So I have no complaints whatsoever about what is going on with this group, but it is a group. Everyone shares, and everyone contributes.  

From just watching the soundcheck I got that impression. That you are a band. There was no shyness shown in anyone coming forward and saying look let’s try this, let’s do this and no issues about. It came across as a solid unit.

There are no shy members in the Godfathers.  

Which is obviously a strength?

Yes it is.

And with that I left Peter and Mauro debating the merits of the strength of the current music scene. Semi heatedly, as expected. 

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