BMX BANDITS
Interview #1 : Life Goes On 

Our first ever interview with the magnificent BMX Bandits was around the release of their finest hour, the single 'Serious Drugs'. Singer Douglas Stewart talks about the aforementioned song, Kurt Cobain, Teenage Fanclub, the birth of his first child and Kermit the Frog!!!

What are the BMX Bandits up to at the moment?

"Right now we're writing a whole load of new songs for the next album which I'm afraid we don't have a title yet. The other thing for me, is I'm gonna be a Dad, in less than five days. So I've been taking off quite a bit of time for that to prepare. Things like putting up little cots, buying little toys and clothes for a person that doesn't exist yet".

Is this any reason for the last few BMX Bandits singles having a child like inspired cover?

"I think that was just some sort of bizarre coincidence that sort of happened as a premonition".

What inspired to write a song like the moving Serious Drugs?

"I suppose it's just like this idea of someone whose relying on anti-depressants to kind of make them feel better or waiting for someone to make them feel loved. A few years ago, I was going through a really bizarre phase in my life and I was on what can be described as anti-depressants for awhile. It wasn't directly auto biographical but the idea came from not wanting to be on these but feeling that what you needed to really feel about yourself was somebody to believe in you. That's what the songs all about. It's like the persons trying to relay his feelings to someone he really cares about and she's telling him to get some stronger tablets because she can't be bothered with it. But as you can tell now, I'm a really happy guy!!!"

How would you like the song to be interpreted because there was a lot of confusion the first time around when Radio One banned it for wrongly suspecting it was a pro-drugs song?

"I think pop music is still not really perceived as a serious art form and to be honest I can totally understand that. Like we was down at a building recently and it had a satellite set up, so we just used it and turned on MTV a few times and I just discovered all these bands that I've never ever heard of. I can understand people who are not young people, turing on MTV and going, 'What is this complete junk?' It seems that the music seems to have really taken a back seat and the things that are really important attitude and visual things, obviously like videos are more important now. There's a lot of people out there who want to be rock stars, and this is in the indie scene as well because they wanna act out some child like dream. You know, whenever you used to stand in front of your mirror and pretend you were Mick Jagger or Joe Strummer or something and now there just trying to act out. They've read the books about Keith Moon and Led Zeppelin and all those sort of things and they wanna be like that. It's not for a love of music and I think that's kind of sad".

Realising later on, he has totally avoided the question Douglas kindly comes back to it later on!

"I think if it had been like a play, try to deal with something like that they would have thought that was quite a valid and serious subject to write about but you know when certain people hear the word 'drugs' in a title, they automatically assume it's gonna be about going out and taking heroin and ecstasy and funnily enough a record that was going out a telling kids to go take a lot of ecstasy got to number one and got a lot of airplay".

Ebenezer Goode was the song of course!

"I wanted it to be a tragic kind of comedy love song. You know I think in Serious Drugs there's some sort of humour in there although it's maybe quite dark".

How did you achieve the 'warm' soothing ending on Serious Drugs?

"I think that idea came from Joe and Norman sticking some bits together but it was my song and I like the idea of having a reasonably hard hitting subject matter against a very soft, melodic song to play the two off each other and I thought in a way it makes the song more hard hitting. If it had been some hardcore thing like (screams) 'get some serious drugs', it would have been too down at your throat, not be any subtly at all. I think if it had been a play or something like that.

How did you feel about the Gigolo Aunts covering the song?

"Yeah, I was really pleased they wanted to do it. It's really nice. The way they done it was a much different to the BMX Bandits. It was a much more like a stadium rock version or something. I was speaking to the guy out of Gigolo Aunts and he was saying while they were touring, even when they were doing this stadium tour with the Wonder Stuff, it was the most popular song in the set. The funny thing is, most people think it's there song, but that doesn't really bother me!"

How much of help was Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake with the song?

"I kind of like worked out the lines of the melody and sometime about seven O'clock in the morning, maybe it was even earlier, I sung it down the phone to him. Then I went up to his house and he kind of like made a couple of wee changes, mainly in the 'trouble with me' bit. We changed the melody a bit there. Me and Norman basically put down a backing track and Norman left and then Joe and me finished of the track and Joe came up with the Sax bit at the end.

Who does the vocals?

"In the re-issue it's Norman and the first version it's Joe but their pretty close vocals. We changed the vocalist, Norman's got a slightly rougher texture in his voice, I think he's really good for portraying emotion. It sounds more, I don't think fragile's the word I'm looking for but it sounds more like his voice can break at any minute which I find is really good for putting emotions into your songs".

With Douglas been best mates with Norman, I grab the chance to find out a bit of Fanclub gossip. How is morale in the Teenage Fanclub camp these days? (The Fanclub had just been on the end of a minor backlash from the music press who gave the thumbs down to the album, Thirteen)?

"I would say they're probably the happiest they've been since the first album with the new line up and things. Norman's written more songs in the last year than his probably written in the last three years. He's written loads and loads of new songs. Like the last LP all the songs he wrote were on it and that wasn't many, this time he's written loads of songs and I think they're are really up about stuff, really enjoying rehearsing and working together. The last album was kind of like a troubled project but I think they're gonna bounce right back".

Does it hurt that the public's perception of the BMX Bandits hasn't really changed that much since the C86 era?

"Sometimes I think it kind of infuriates me that a certain group of people, probably like the NME and the Melody Maker see us as some kind of joke band. The thing is, almost anywhere else in the world that doesn't happen. Like I think most people in Scotland know the history of the band and know how a few other bands developed out of the BMX Bandits and in places like Japan, Europe and America we're not seen as this kind of joke band at all so it doesn't really bother me at all. When we started up we were related a bit to the Soup Dragons and they were really, really hailed by the press as being this amazing band, their first single was acclaimed to be the best single ever released. When it was released it was a flexi-disc. I think when you get all of that right at the start and when you are young and naive you kind of believe it. And now funnily enough they've became more of a joke band then we ever were or he has 'cos there's only one of them left! But because we never had much attention from the press, we were just likely to go our own way, we didn't have to care. We know the chances are they probably wouldn't even review the record and if they do, they're probably gonna hate it no matter what we do, there's no point in worrying about it. We've been able to develop in our own way without having to worry what the press thought of us which has been pretty liberating. So it's definitely had it's advantage but unfortunately it's not had the same financial gains! But I'm kind of happy just working at our own pace".

What do you think are the implications of the death of Kurt Cobain?

"Kurt Cobain died because he was miserable but there are all these people thinking he died for the kids, which he didn't really. I think he died because he was basically unhappy and pretty misunderstood. I kind of remember thinking around the time of 'Nevermind' and it was such a success, it was gonna introduce the world to a lot of really interesting bands because it kind of open the door to more alternative music. I thought bands like Sonic Youth would start and be a lot more successful and too a certain extent that's only happened a little bit. But instead you're starting to get all these new heavy metal bands, which are basically like the same old heavy metal bands, only wearing different clothes and got a more right on attitude. But the music's still absolutely dire!"

"I feel really sad about Kurt Cobain's death, I met him a couple of times and he was a really good guy. That sounds like a corny thing to say but he was a good guy, a nice guy and I think it's sad because he died. But I think it's a shame in a way, like Kurt Cobain will be seen as cooler as Thurston Moore just because Thurston Moore hasn't committed suicide and is not likely to. I don't think it makes him a more valid artist. I always remember when Gerry and Norman were touring with Nirvana in Europe, one thing Kurt apparently said 'sometimes I wish I could be in a really cool band like Beat Happening or the BMX Bandits!' That's just bizarre! I'd be willing to swap bank accounts! He just didn't care about how many records you sell, he just wanted to be in band that you felt was doing something really honest. I think he felt Nirvana were cheapened by things like the MTV coverage or the kind of people that was buying the music who didn't care about him or didn't understand. I mean, Kurt had a really personal message in his music and I bet not many people listened to what he was trying to sing about, his own pain, his own obsessions".

Finally, what is the best thing about the BMX Bandits in your opinion?

"I think there's a lot of honesty in the things we do. Even honest to realise some of the tings we've done are like failures. I think we've done things that I think, bloody hell that was really dodgy. But I think we've done some things that are pretty good as well and things that I'm quite proud of. Even in the songs, I've got a good quote from Kermit the Frog which kind of sums it up the BMX Bandits opposed to bands who want to be the kind of the big hedonistic, kind a rock star sort of thing!

He says, 'I've got a dream too but it's about singing and dancing and making people happy. That's the kind of dream that can get better the more people you share it with and I found a whole bunch of friends who had the same dream and it kind of makes us like a family. I mean that sounds a bit gushy but it's true!"

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