Intervju med Smokers Die Younger

Bättre sent än aldrig. Här kommer en intervju med bandet Smokers Die Younger från början av sommaren. För enkelhetens skull tar vi det på engelska.

Better late than ever, right? Here is an interwiew with Smokers Die Younger and their singer James aka Golf!

The four-piece rock band from Sheffield won my heart with the song I Spy Dry Fear. The singer Golf introduces the band:

- We're Smokers Die Younger and there are four of us in the band. We're all pretty passionate about music and most of us had been doing different bands for years. A couple of these bands fell apart around the same time as each other and we just sort of gravitated together.

The easiest way of describing their music would be rock. On their MySpace they have classified themselves as Indie and Experimental. Maybe that is more fair, cause the music according to different music journalists is descbried as Hardcore Grunge Rock and Avant-Garde Art Rock (to fancy words for me who really don't have a chance with all this genres) and everything in between. So James, can you once and for all describe your music?

- I try not to really. Most of our songs take bits and pieces from all over the place and mash them up. If one or two songs do sound of a particular style then another will come along and be completely different.

On the bands MySpace I saw a picture were one of the guys pointed at a message where it stood Don't Do Crack. The band name also indicates some kind of caring about politics. I asked the band if I were right.

- That's me in the picture. We'd been on a bit of a bender in Leeds and we just thought it was funny. We're definitely not an anti-drugs band. The name's a similar thing. Everyone in the band smokes. We couldn't think of a band name so we stole it off a cigarette packet.

This isn't to say that we don't care about politics. We're all fairly politically-minded and opinionated, I'd say, and we try and keep up with what's going on in the world.

We're not really political in our music. Most of the songs deal more with internal politics and conflicts between individuals. But these are things that help shape who you are and how you relate to the wider world so I think it's still valid. It's all part of defining who you are as an individual.

We continues with this political thing.... There are many examples of bands who have a pronounced political image (like Le Tigre, Manu Chao...) Is it easier to get your politic opinions through if you have a band?

- It can be a pretty direct way to get your point across if that’s what you’re trying to do. And of course it can be handy in drawing people's attention to the issues that matter to you - especially if you’re popular. A lot of people tend to soak up everything that famous people say these days - even if it’s nonsense. People should spend more time thinking for themselves if you ask me.

As far as it being something that we aim for, I wouldn't say that we had aspirations to be on some stupid pedestal and, like I've said, we're not a directly political band. I just hope that we get ourselves across to people and that we make some kind of connection.

Do you have any influences or some bands you admire from there politic involvement?

- It's a pretty fine line to walk between drawing people's attention to the issues you care about and just using your status to impose your values on others, and most people who try it come across as smug, arrogant and annoying, like Bono. But there are some bands and individuals I admire for getting that balance right and who raise awareness through their music or what they put their name to.

Don't we all find Bono A bit annoying? But okey, what do you want with your music?

- I just hope that we can make exciting music that we can be really proud of that'll stand the test of time. Of course to be able to make a living at it would be great too.

And to the compulsory question: Where can me and my readers buy your music here in Sweden?

- We've had a few singles and an album out. We've done a fair few compilations as well. There's a full discography at smokersdieyounger.com

Thee SPC is a really tiny label and we just don't have the distribution power to get anything into the Swedish shops at the moment. But it's all available over the internet - through theespc.com and Rough Trade, among others. The album's up on iTunes as well.

What happens next? A new album?

- We've just recorded a few new songs with Alan Smyth who did our first album and the singles. Hopefully, there should be a new single called "Sketch Pads" in a couple of months. A couple of the new songs are up on our MySpace if you want a listen. And of course we'd love to come and play over in Sweden some time.

There are many, successful bands from Sheffield right now, like Arctic Monkeys and The Long Blondes. How has that affected you?

- Sheffield has always been a fairly active musical city to me and it's got a pretty great history of producing something really unusual and interesting from time to time.

The attention the city is getting at the moment hasn't really had an impact on us or the way we do things but I wouldn't really have expected it to. It's good to see people around you doing well though but often the best and most interesting bands aren't the ones caught up in this kind of thing - bands like Champion Kickboxer or 65daysofstatic.

The best thing the attention has done for us is that we sometimes get to do things like Musikbyrån and that means we get to do interviews like this!

Thank you very much, James! Hope to see you in Sweden soon:)