Interview - The Twang

As a new website, we were always promised band interviews, only to turn up and discover it wasn't the whole lot, it was the drummer / stand-in guitarist / bassist's cousin. This wasn't always bad though - I managed to get two of The Twang - the least scary ones - the week they'd achieved the NME front page and they seemed like normal lads, whereas most of the media had been making the whole band out to be pisshead yobs who you'd cross the road to avoid. I was particularly pleased with Matty's comment at the end that he'd enjoyed the whole ordeal. Shame it was ruined by my crap editing, but nowadays I have learnt you don't actually have to include everything which is said...



Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv/ in April 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd


JON WATKIN AND MATTY CLINTON - THE TWANG

THE TWANG Phil Etheridge, Martin Saunders, Stu Hartland, Jon Watkin, Matt Clinton

I’m slightly deafened. The building three doors along has its security alarm blasting out and I think it can be heard across the Channel. I’m sat at a modest wooden table at Southampton's Joiners Arms with Jon Watkin and Matt Clinton of The Twang, who both shake my hand with a polite “Hello Suzy” before pulling up a chair each and setting down their pints.

Phil Etheridge, Twang vocalist, once told the BBC: “There's not that many lad bands around so I can see that the media are going to want to blow that up.” He wasn’t wrong. Currently The Twang are being made out to be something like samurai sword brandishing, alcohol-addicted hooligans, banned from playing most of their hometown of Birmingham, who speak only in swear words and might possibly help themselves to your car if they feel like it. Oh, and they like the Happy Mondays and they wear hoodies. The bastards.

In fact Matt and Jon look remarkably human. As far as rock stars go, they seem pretty normal, and just a wee bit tired. They’re dressed casually in zip up tops and jeans. Drummer Matt’s leaning on the wall to prevent himself falling face-first into a sleep on the table.

Time to start with an easy question. What's on your dream rider?

“It’s usually bread, meat, salad, loads of beer, bottle of brandy, two bottles of wine,” says Jon, easygoing and chatty bassist, indicating the top of the bar which is covered in bowls of said food.

“It’s gone before we’ve even practically gone on stage,” says Matt. Is that you or your support bands nicking it?“We do a rider pretty much every night,” says Jon. “But it doesn’t go far. 20-24 bottles between like seven, but when there’s other people there it’s not much.”

“My dream rider’s a crate of Magners,” says Matt. The tour manager’s already brought him over a bottle which he’s pouring out. Just for you or the whole band? “Just for me,” he says with a chuckle.

“A crate of Magners? What else?” asks Jon.

“Clic.”

“Champagne. He’s getting a taste for champagne, innit. Dream rider… I don’t know. Nothing I can talk about!” they laugh again.

Tell me about ‘Wide Awake’, the big swaggering and shimmering tune which needs to be blasted out loud to get the full effect.

“Wide Awake? I’m fucking practically asleep!” says Matt. It went in at no. 15 in the UK singles chart the other week. How happy are you with that?

“Good,” says Jon.

“It was wicked,” says Matt.

“It’s kind of weird doing some of these things ‘cause it’s all new to us like," says Jon. "Never had a single out before. We saw it in the shops the other day and we were like, we talked about doing that, and the other day it happened. 15… it’s good isn’t it? I had a bet with my mate. He was convinced it was going to go to number one. He bet me fifty quid it would. So he owes me fifty quid.”

“He owes me a tenner as well ‘cause I had a bet with him,” says Matt. I want to meet this man. I think I could get some spare cash off him.

“Yeah it’s good man. For your debut single, it’s pretty decent just to get in the charts. I mean how many bands are out there? Just to get in the charts is an achievement,” says Jon.

Do you think you were helped by the BBC Sound of 2007 poll? You were number two.

“Was we?” asks Matt in surprise. Yes! “I didn’t even know.”

“He doesn’t know anything,” laughs Jon. “He goes home and I meet up with his sister and his brother and they tap me for all the information ‘cause he don’t know anything!” His phone’s ringing and he apologises. You can get it if you want Jon. He says they’ll ring back in a minute. “Yeah it did well, it’s going down well live innit?”

“Yeah, it goes down really well live,” confirms Matt. “Everyone’s heard it.” It’s been on Radio 1 a lot. Jon’s phone’s ringing again, so he leaps up to get it.

Previous jobs. What other ones have you had? Too many to list, by the sound of things.

“I’ve probably had about fifty jobs since I left school. I just get the sack from all of them,” says Matt. What do you keep doing? Or can you not say? He grins and taps the question card on the table. “Yeah, I can say. I just kept going out on the lash and not turning up the next day.” You can do that in this job, that’s all right. “That’s why I’m falling asleep today,” he admits.

“Do what?” says Jon, sitting back down.

“I had a job packing garden forks,” says Matt. “I lasted two days.”

“His mum’s got a lovely garden fork though. What was the question on that one?” We update Jon and ask if he’s had any good ones (jobs, not forks).

“Er… not really. I was a – I was pretending to be a painter and decorator. It’s the only trade you can do and pretend to know what you’re doing and earn half-decent money.” Probably better paid than fork packing. “Fork packing. Sausage packing.”

“I think I was on about £4.50 an hour as well or something for it,” grumbles Matt.

“You did them meals, you liked that job didn’t you. Packing frozen meals.”

“I liked that job. I just used to eat them.”

“Never had to pay for any lunch.”

“Packing meals on wheels. Packing food into boxes,” says Matt. “Apparently I was the quickest though so I’m happy with that.”

“You’re a drummer. He was packing it like that,” laughs Jon, giving a quick demonstration. “Drumming techniques. The last job I had I worked in a shop and it was great. Good lads, we got on well. I went back to see them the other day. It was mad going back to where you worked ‘cause they’re all asking you stuff. You’re living a different life now in a way. And not in a nasty way, but they’re still in there doing that life and I’m completely removed from that now. A lot of things are kind of surreal. You think sometimes ‘is it happening?’ It’s good, man.”

Jon reckons The Twang has been going for about five years now, with him, Matt and lead singer Phil Etheridge there right from the start. They were originally known as Neon Twang but the first word was dropped, allegedly because venues were put off by their riotous reputation. Backing singer Martin Saunders was invited to come along and join in practices.

“He loves his music so it was a natural thing. We said to all of our mates, if you wanna come…We’ve had mates down and they’ve tried to play keyboard and they’ve tried bits. Saunders just stuck at it. It’s hard to stick at it cause it’s hard graft sometimes, you’ve been at work all day and you wanna just chill out, you start watching EastEnders and you can’t, but (there’s something on the recording which sounds suspiciously like a burp, and it wasn’t me) he stuck at it,” explains Jon.

Then Stu Hartland moved into a shared house along with Jon, and luckily for The Twang he turned out to be “a shit-hot guitarist.”

“We got to know him for about six months wasn’t it, went out and had a few drinks with him,” remembers Matt. The shared house became Party Central, the place to be for a good time. “Whenever the pubs closed, just go back there."

“It was wicked, that house was. Dancing on the tables ‘til about 3 in the morning. And yes, he just joined then, Stu. I used to play guitar and Phil used to play bass and sing, then when I started playing bass more and more, like we were doing gigs where I’d play guitar, then for some songs I’d swap and play the bass, then gradually Stu came in…”

“You’re a better bass player aren’t you, than guitarist,” says Matt.

Jon breathes in slowly and deeply. “Yeah.”

“No you are though!”

“It’s easier innit? You only have to hold one string at a time. For a bit we had me and Stu playing the guitar and they’re totally different sounds. Like I’m a very thin sound and not much reverb or delay but Stu’s like massive, the sound. So it didn’t really work did it? There was a clash. So it was just natural really as the songs started coming we’d practise with me on the bass and I just carried on playing bass. I don’t know, it took ages!”

Birmingham. “That’s where we’re from,” says Jon.

“I thought it was,” says Matt. I’m sensing sarcasm. What’s the music scene like up there? There’s a lengthy pause.“Er…”

“Doesn’t seem brilliant does it,” says Matt after a while.

“Obviously we haven’t really been involved in it for a while now. Well not since just before Christmas really. Hopefully it’s going well. When we were a band [Jon realises what he just said, laughs and corrects himself] when we used to play the venues we didn’t get involved in the scene did we? We used to just practice.”

“Plus our lock up, it were just by ourselves in a snooker hall. We weren’t with other bands and that, so we didn’t really meet…” says Matt.

“It was like a lot of lads who we do know in bands, they’re all in like different bands every week, you know what I mean. They split up and it’s like the drummer goes to that band, and they’ve all been in each other’s bands. I’ve never been in any other bands. Matt’s done a few things like but not while you’ve been in the band have you?”

“When I was at college, shit like that,” confirms Matt.“So we’ve never really like, scene’s are like, I dunno. It’s all right.”

Any other good bands you can recommend from round the area?“The Priory,” they say instantly. “From Wolverhampton. I keep telling everyone. Once they get into them, they’ll love them,” says Jon.

“They’re amazing,” says Matt.“I’ve told NME about them, I’m like listen to them, once you’ll get into them you’ll love them. The Scarlet Harlots, they’re good lads.”

“They’re not doing anything else with themselves are they?” asks Matt.

“I don’t think so, no. Who else? Untitled Music Project.” I’ve heard of them, but don’t know their stuff.

“They’re good man, they’re interesting,” says Jon. “Bit wacky, in’t they? They do like songs backwards and 30 second songs. I quite like mad shit like that. It’s more interesting isn’t it, you know when they do stuff it’ll be fucking mad.”

As for festivals, The Twang are doing Leeds and Reading this year. They’re looking forward to it.

“Can’t wait,” says Matt. Do they usually go as punters? “I’ve only ever been to the V Festival a couple of times.”

“I’ve been to Leeds,” says Jon. “I went to Leeds for a day.” He coughs. Who was playing? “Oasis.”

“Happy Mondays?” suggests Matt.

“No, the Mondays weren’t there. Oasis were there, I can’t remember who else. We always go to V, it’s near us. We’re all lazy fuckers and we can’t be arsed to do anything. V was only just down the road and we’d all just jump in the van and drive down. Stafford isn’t it? It was only just outside of Wolverhampton. If it was too far we couldn’t have been arsed to drive.”

Matt’s not really paying attention. Instead he’s looking at the autographed posters high on the wall showing who’s performed at the Joiners before. “Kasabian have played here,” he blurts. He apologises and gets Jon’s attention. “Kasabian have played here,” he repeats with some surprise.

“Supporting as well,” notes Jon. “But yeah we’re looking forward to them, man. You can’t not look forward to playing Leeds and Reading.” I ask if they’ve got a weekend ticket as a band so they can hang around.

“I don’t know to be honest,” says Jon.

“Our tour manager’s saying we’ve got to go as soon as we’ve come offstage,” says Matt.

“Oh yeah,” says Jon, but he doesn’t sound entirely happy.

“We’ll just make our own way home,” says Matt. Hitchhike?

“We’ll probably just have passes or something, I don’t know,” muses Jon.

“Can’t walk off stage and just go home,” says Matt.

“You can’t, can you. You wouldn’t want to, even if you’re not playing, you don’t want to…”

“Unless we’re playing the next day,” Matt points out quite rightly.

“Well we will be playing the next day won’t we? We’ll be playing Reading or Leeds.” For one of them.

“It’s another thing that’s new to us, we’ve never played the festivals so we don’t even know what you’ve got to do and why.” The band aren’t happy that a few things they though were possible turned out to be very much not, such as flying back from a gig in Amsterdam. Instead they have a very long drive ahead.

“It’ll be shit driving back,” says Matt. “In Customs now apparently if you book a van and it’s got so many people on the van, if there aren’t that many people they want to know why. So we’ve all got to do about a 15 hour drive back from Amsterdam at 10 in the morning.” I wish them luck with that. “On Saturday!”

You’re doing Wireless as well aren’t you? “Wireless,” they confirm. “Editors are playing it,” says Jon.

“That Ibiza thing as well, what’s that…” says Matt. “I don’t know, I’ve just heard about it.” That’ll be cool. Bit of sun.

“Oh yeah man. Manumission or something?” I can’t remember who was there last year. It might have been the Automatic and Editors or something like that.

“Yeah I think they did. I know Editors did it. I think Happy Mondays did it as well one year. Probably did Ibiza, I mean…”

Which Twang would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?

“Him. Matty,” says Jon. “He’s disgusting. He smells.”

“I smell good,” complains Matt. Across the table, he looks quite clean and shaven, and I tell Jon I don’t believe it.“You know the saying don’t fart in a lift? He’s never heard it.” Matt starts laughing. “Probably Matty, yeah. The others aren’t here, they can’t defend themselves.”

“I’m just not going to bother because you’re probably right,” says Matt, putting his cider down on the table with a clunk.

“I could think of another thing but I’ll say Matty.”

“Cheers.”

“He does smell,” Jon says quietly.

The recent tour’s gone very well indeed. At the time of the interview, they only had a couple of dates left.“It’s gone quick but when you look back it seems ages ago,” says Jon remembering that day some six weeks ago when they were packing their suitcases to leave home… "First day like. It’s gone well man. I found the middle bit between like Scotland and coming back to England was a bit –“

“Oh I hated that,” says Matt. “I’m sick of packing my case as well.”

“I was talking the other day man about hotels. It is nice having a nice hotel but at the end of the day, it’s still a hotel isn’t it. But you can’t complain,” says Jon. At least you don’t have to sleep in your van. “I know yeah! You can’t complain.”

Matt can. “I just left my phone at the other hotel,” he says miserably.

“And we won that NME Award in the middle of it. We done the NME Awards, which was the maddest day of my life,” says Jon, offering little in the way of comfort to his phoneless mate. Presented by the Long Blondes, wasn’t it?

“Yeah. People have been telling me that he [Dorian] was trying to take the piss out of us when he was presenting,” says Jon.

“Yeah, you can tell,” says Matt. “I watched it back and you can tell.” Apparently they congratulated The Twang on being the best band from Birmingham since Ocean Colour Scene - although that's not necessarily an insult, depending on your taste in music.

“Cause they won it the year before. I think the band who won it the year before presents it. So you’ll be doing that next year,” Jon tells Matt.

“Maybe I’ll be presenting them with an award,” says Matt thoughtfully.

“You never know. But the tour’s gone well man. First tour, I’ve enjoyed it. It’s like you’re learning stuff as well. Roadies and that, man, they’ve all got like mad little tricks and their own little humour. They’ve all got their own little jokes.”

“Fucking mad,” Matt agrees.

“Our guitar tech’s a bit mad. Funny though. And they’re great, man. So yeah, it’s gone well.”
It’s been pretty much sold out all the way through, hasn’t it? “Yeeeeah…” says Matt.

“Every venue. It made me laugh. He doesn’t say it now, but when we started the tour Phil was like "This is a real surprise, man, that you’ve all come, it’s a real surprise that you’re here". I was like "It’s sold out." How is that a surprise! But I know what he meant though, he didn’t expect it to be like it has.”

“I’m looking forward to the next tour though,” says Matt. You’ve already sold out a few.

“The Astoria, man,” says Jon.“That’ll be a mad one.”

“Again they’re like ‘it’s amazing’ and I’m like [not bothered] ‘Have we?’ Not in that sort of way but…” I say it’ll hit them when they walk out on stage, see the size of the audience and think ‘oh, it really has sold out.’ They're not fazed. “We’ve played to them size crowds though, in't we,” says Jon.

“But not for us!” points out Matt. “Not for our crowd.”

“We done the Kaisers gig and that was same kind of…”

“That went well though, the Kaisers gig,” says Matt.

“Yeah. And the next tour will be mad won’t it.”

You’re back in Birmingham sometime then aren’t you? “Yeah, The Sanctuary.”

“Birmingham was a bit weird for me, the gig there. I was told that your homecoming gig, your first one would be strange.”

“Half the crowd were people who you know as well,” adds Matt.

“When we used to play there, no-one gave a shit, you know what I mean? Now we went back there and it was like, cause of the hype…”A lot of people trying to get on your guestlist? “Oh, it was a nightmare weren’t it man!” says Jon.

“I ended up just turning my phone off ‘cause it was doing my head in,” says Matt.“I was telling people I couldn’t sort it all day. ‘Cause everyone really in a way should be on it, and it’s like do you turn your sister down over your best mate? Our tour manager just said put down who you want on it and turn your phone off. Might do that next time.”

“That’s what I did in the end,” says Matt, voice of wisdom. “Have you got any cigarettes Jon?” he asks politely.

“No. But yeah man, it’s gone well.”

The Twang were two days off London Calling in Amsterdam. A bunch of wicked British bands take over the city, entertain the locals, bring along a bunch of excitable fans and generally have fun. They mentioned their road trip, but are they looking forward to the rest of it?

“Looking forward to it man,” nods Jon. “What’s that?” says Matt, not paying attention again. He looks at the card. “Oh!”

“It’s supposed to be a good venue. Everyone who’s been there has said how great the venue is so I’m looking forward to it.”

“I’ve never been to Amsterdam,” says Matt.

“We went last year, man,” says Jon. “I didn’t realise… if I’d have known, I wish…”

“We could have just said a couple of weeks ago.”

“Flying would have made it so much better man.” We’re back to the bus journey.

“40 minutes on a plane and 12 hours on a bus,” Matt reminds me. “Yeah. Just land at the airport, taxi it to the venue… oh, man. The journey there won’t be that bad.” Jon pauses. “I hope!”

You might be able to catch up on some sleep on it. Matt starts to speak – I think he’s suggesting drinking throughout the trip - but Jon interrupts.

“You can’t sleep on there man. There’s no ledges for your arms. They’re like slanted ledges so you put your arm on it – " he demonstrates.

“That’s why we’re looking forward to our next tour as well. We’ve actually got a tour bus so we can sleep on it instead of fucking sitting in a van for hours,” says Matt.

“I’m either going to try and sleep or just drink all the way home just to make it bearable.”

“Probably just drink all the way home, it’s the best way isn’t it,” recommends Matt.

Got any other bands you’re looking forward to seeing there?

“I don’t know who’s there to be honest,” says Jon.

“The Rakes are there, aren’t they,” says Matt. “No, I’m thinking of a different festival.” The only band I know offhand who’s going is the Pigeon Detectives.

“Oh are they there? Yeah man. I wanna see them.”

“The Long Blondes are there, aren’t they?” asks Matt.

“The Pigeon Detectives, I like their last single,” says Jon, then he forgets which one of us is the interviewer. “Do you like them? They're from Sheffield aren't they? [Leeds] Do you know what slot they’ve got? Do you know Harrisons as well?” I’ve heard of Harrisons, don’t know their stuff.

“They’ve supported us on a couple of dates,” says Matt.

“They’re signed, they are,” says Jon. “I think their album’s out soon. Yeah man, I’ll watch the Pigeons if we’re there. It’ll be mad won’t it, Amsterdam.”

“I don’t know anything about it, what time we’re on or anything,” says Matt. Strangely that admission doesn’t surprise me.

“We’ve got a few lads coming over as well,” says Jon. Going to do some sightseeing? “If you could call them sights! We probably will see a few ‘sights’!” he laughs.

“A few brothels. For me anyway.”

“With the red lights in them. No, we won’t. We ain’t got much time there to be honest,” says Jon. “We ain’t got much free time. We’ve got one night. And then in the morning man we’re on the van at ten as I’ve said about fucking four times.”

They’re really hung up on this van thing. “We’re just going to be drinking all the way home,” Matt says again.

The Twang recently did a session at Maida Vale for Zane Lowe’s radio show.

“I didn’t know we was doing it until about five minutes before we had to go up there,” says Matt.

“We were in Maida Vale and they did it as a link like,” says Jon. “He’s been really good to us, man. He’s a sound geezer, proper.”

“Wicked.”

“He’s been sound to us like. I listened to that show on the net the other day ‘cause I missed it and he gave us a right big up, man. I know I keep saying it, I used to keep walking to practice listening to Zane’s programme every night on me headphones. And to have him like even heard of you is mad, do you know what I mean. At first I wasn’t sure whether he liked us, ‘cause sometimes you have to say you like them when you really don’t.”

‘Cause there’s a lot of hype round The Twang at the moment. “Yeah,” says Matt.

“He’s a nice geezer anyway. I’ve only spoken to him a few times but he’s fucking sound. That Maida Vale was mad weren’t it.”

“Amazing,” says Matt.

“You’d never even know it was there,” says Jon. He asks if I’ve ever been. Sadly I haven’t.“It doesn’t look like anything from the outside,” explains Matt. “You go in there, the geezer, the sound engineer recording, he’s done Nirvana and all that. The Doors and people like that in the same room, and I’m thinking ‘fucking hell’.”

“The room they recorded in, they’ve done like the Smiths,” says Jon. “The Smiths were in there. Nirvana were in there. Jimi Hendrix has been in there. Led Zeppelin. The Beatles. And you’re stood in a room like –“

“-that’s where they recorded us.”

“And there’s that much history in one big mad building, it was like really good…” The support band’s cymbals are crashing in the background as they carry on setting up, but the half an hour's over so it's a good place to stop.

“I quite enjoyed that interview,” says Matt, which should probably be added to NME's Twang dictionary, meaning ‘Thank fuck that’s over. Now I can go and get some dinner.’ “I don’t normally say anything.”

Just one last thing – they’re NME cover stars this week, which must be the page 3 of the indie music world, but with slightly fewer tits (er, although that depends on your view of whoever's on there).

“Yeah I know. It’s mad,” they say.

“We all went and bought copies this morning,” says Jon, commenting on his ‘fat face on the front’.

“Shame your head’s behind Phil’s though,” says Matt.

“I’m not bothered,” shrugs Jon.

The gig at the Joiners tonight is sold out. Jon nicely offers to have a few words with their tour manager to try and get me in. They say if I’m along by myself, they’ll have a drink with me in the bar afterwards. That wasn't the behaviour I expected from a couple of 'hooligans'. Sadly, despite their best efforts ‘sold out’ means ‘sold out’, so it’s time for me to go home while they disappear across the road for a curry. I don’t want to ruin The Twang’s tough image and leave them open to a kicking, but they seemed like a normal bunch of guys thoroughly enjoying the rock and roll ride - wherever it may take them.

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The Twang
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