BMX BANDITS
Interview # 3 : THEME PARK

This interview with the BMX Bandits took place prior to the releases of their third Creation Records album, 'Theme Park'.

Here they come, once more. Back to put a spark, a fizzle and a hearty dollop of charm back into the a sometimes cynical pop scene with what is the best thing they've ever done, a new LP Theme Park. There are a feast of delights ranging from pure bubblegum to power pop with a load of lo-fi odd balls thrown in for good measure. It's a real pick'n'mix. Pick your own favourites. I'll go for 'I Wanna Fall In Love' which is basically an effervescent bubblegum girlie pop song. Gone are the, way too conventional, idea of bothering to fill out songs with boring verses and as it goes straight for the jugular with the most upbeat set of pop choruses you could ever imagine!

Then there is the roving kitsch duet 'Before the Blue Moon' which comes across like Nancy & Lee backed by one of those wicked African guitar riffs John Peel and Andy Kershaw are so fond of.

Singer Duglas Stewart spoke to ESP about the making of the new album.

"A big part of this story belongs to Kim Fowley, the larger than life character who produced around half of this album and whose spirit carries on throughout the rest. Kim Fowley the legendary LA performer, producer, songwriter and scenester has been making classic rock'n'roll for around 38 years. His back catalogue , his wildman reputation and the fact he looks like a 6'8" hybrid of Karloff and Klaus Kinski makes him a rather intimidating figure. Being around Kim is like sitting on top of a keg of gunpowder waiting for it to explode - it's a little scary but also real exciting.

With our last 2 albums things were getting a bit too polite and polished, possibly even too cerebral. It was time for a change. Enter Fowley, who was in Glasgow to play a live show, with us as his band. Francis invited him to go into the studio with us to produce some new songs. The result was like a welcome kick in the teeth for us. 4 songs all co-written by Fowley, 2 of which appeared for Francis' Shoeshine label and the other 2 were the start of Theme Park.

21 hours into this marathon session we had recorded and mixed 3 songs when Kim decided we needed a fourth. We're Gonna Shake You Down was written, recorded and mixed in 3 turbo charged hours. The song is a three and a half minute rock'n'roll fairytale that tells the listener where we've been going, where we're at and where we're going. After hearing the results Creation asked Kim back for more.

Kim's method of producing isn't always easy to take. He'll lie on the couch speed reading his way through a tower of magazines (he needs to do 2 things at once to focus his mind), eating cold fish and chips and shouting out orders to the players, not requests but orders. One half hour break for food in twenty or so hours can be expected and toilet breaks are only expected if you really have to go. Key Kim phrases that will stay fondly in my memories forever are "come on you retro-shit heads push the pig" and "I want this take to be the dog's piss with blood in it... Hey, that was dog's piss but where was the blood?"

Kim was also incredibly amusing with hundreds of gob smacking stories ranging from his ex-Hollywood actor father living as a God with a tribe in the Amazon Rain Forrest, posing as a mass murderer with the Bonzo Dog Band in post-Manson LA, rapping with Dylan and being with the Beatles when Paul wrote Here, There & Everywhere.

The word is over used but I've no doubt Kim is a genuine genius and when you work with a genius you pay a certain price. At least it wasn't Phil Spector - Kim didn't threaten to shoot us although he claimed with a twinkle in his heavy lidded eyes that he once killed someone with a drumstick. We learnt a lot from Kim and he reconfirmed some things we always sort of knew. A few bum notes or dirt on a track don't matter, it's rock'n'roll. What matters is that it sounds authentic, that it sounds real. Making this album felt very real".

Duglas and fellow Bandits, Sushil and Francis pick out some of their favourite tracks from Theme Park.

Duglas on I Wanna Fall In Love :

"We heard Kle (aka Alan McGee's personal assistant) singing karoake at Norman Blake's wedding. She's got such a great uninhibited and unaffected pop voice. This song is one half of a boy looking for love/girl looking for love story. Will they ever meet? Francis and I have always fancied ourselves as a Goffin and King type team writing for other vocalists. It's a real thrill to hear, such a great vocal make a song you've written come alive".

Our Time Has Come:

"I had this tune for about 3 years and it had a few different sets of lyrics. Francis came up with the Cavernesque middle eight. Kim rightly thought the lyrics I had were too sentimental and slushy so I wrote a new lyric that was sort of a tribute to Kim's own classic International Heroes".

Lonely Love:

"Francis is such a diverse and prolific tunesmith from Nuclear Summertime to this. As well as the Bandits he's also written songs recently for Radio Sweethearts, Frank Blake, Speedboat and co-written for Teenage Fanclub. Don't it make you sick! This is my most personal lyric on this album, although the lyric was started by Francis, it's about splitting up with my wife. It actually felt liberating not having most of the songs telling of my own personal insecurities and traumas this time. Gabrielle's guitar playing is so wonderful here. Only someone from Latin America could make his guitar sound that way. We tried to capture the spirit of classic Chris Montez recordings. As Kim would say "Retro Shit heads"

Sushil on Before the Blue Moon:

"Was written as a duet for Duglas T and Anita Lane originally - A Nancy & Lee for the nineties. We couldn't afford Anita's plane fare never mind her fee. We found a perfect match to Duglas' deep tones was Kle. The Velvet Underground in Jamaica could have sounded like this or maybe it could be a Lee Perry country and western track. We had a lot of fun mixing this track and wheeling in the special FX department and Lawerance's Moog. Caked in space echo and sprinkled with moon dust and ready to serve to all lovers of space-rock.... keep walking"

Francis on Nuclear Summertime:

"Before our pre-production rehearsal with Kim I had thought that Nuclear Summertime was ready and finished. It's original title was 'Teenage Summertime' and had deliberately silly, teen lyrics a la Beach Boys. Kim suggested changing Teenage to Nuclear, and tweaking some other lyrics and all of a sudden lines like 'Beach Barbecues' and 'Red hot sun' took on a darker, twisted meaning. Genius. I love Gabrielle's solo. He went for it first take with the band all playing at the same time and it rocks with dumb, teen energy!"

Francis on Motorboat:

"Motorboat is a Kim Fowley song from his '73 album, 'Living in the streets'. Kim's got a thing about songs lasting 3 minutes or more. He reckons anything shorter won't get played on the radio. So when we came to record this track, he wrote extra lyrics, 20 odd years after he recorded it first time round! He also had us tack on that crazy ending. Sushil is playing a sitar and gibbering some noises, while I had an acoustic and a tambourine at my feet. It's pretty ridiculous but what the heck - it took it over 3 minutes".

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