Projekt A-ko is the band formed from the ashes of 1990s indie lionhearts Urusei Yatsura. They exist mainly in the shadows, playing a gig here or there, slipping a new track onto the internet every now and then. And by jolly, do they ever rock our tiny minds.
Projekt A-ko play Club Beatroot in Stereo, Glasgow on the 30th November. But before then, we managed to catch up with Fergus Lawrie of the band for a chat about Berlin, Manga and Total Sonic Annihilation…
Who are you, and where are you?
Fergus Lawrie of Projekt A-ko, slumped at the computer with a mild hangover- went to see Howl’s Moving Castle last night, and then some excellent improv noise stuff from Giant Tank courtesy of Instal 2005.
Why should people dig your grooves?
Well, maybe they
shouldn’t. Believe it or not we’re very tentative about introducing our
music to the public domain, we generally only do stuff we’re asked to
do rather than going round loudly proclaiming ourselves. It’s easy
enough to track down good music on the internet these days and I’d
sooner people who can care about the band find their way to us rather
than us being forced upon an innocent population who only want to hear
the next piece of bland force fed music industry lapdog excreta.
Whatever happened to Urusei Yatsura?
Band breaks up, it happens most days and its not very interesting, any cliches you can think of probably apply.
Maybe it was the three album rule, a lot of my favourite groups did
three then split – usually a good one of material from before they were
signed, a shit one made under record label pressure that’s heavily
promoted and bombs, and then an ‘interesting’ experimental album made
under acrimonious circumstances while the record label desperately
tries to offload them. That’s not how it happened to us though…and
I’m still waiting for the third MBV album, and Radial Spangle, and I wish a lot more bands did follow the three album rule rather than milking it to death.
By night, Projekt A-Ko are hard-rocking indie wunderkids, but by day they are…?
Like
most people I have a job that doesn’t pay enough and spend my spare
time applying for positions that will probably end up paying less.
Steve Lamacq like you. Have you ever seen him eat?
No. He said he liked my Killdozer T-shirt, but I think he was being sarcastic.
You’re named after a comedy manga series of films. Do you think
that A-Ko’s parents are really Wonder Woman and Clark Kent, or is that
a crock of crap, and why?
I’d prefer to think not, American
comics and cartoons are so mundane and one-dimensional compared to the
glory of Japanese manga and anime, it’d be a shame to lump A-ko with
such square jawed whitebread US bozo parents. I think their child would
be seriously fucked-up and rebel against the powers that be, whereas
A-ko seems far too sensible.
I wouldn’t wholly endorse the cartoon series either, its a bit daft.
Chose the name for the band originally because like the cartoons, it’s
a bit similar to Urusei Yatsura but not as good.
Our Teenagers Need Healthy Touch. Do they? What exactly is healthy touch, anyway?
The
phrase was on the cover of a Christian magazine which showed an
awkward-looking teen sat in a chair being hugged by his (standing)
parents who had expressions of moronic beatitude. It was one of the
creepiest things
I’d ever seen. I don’t know what Healthy Touch is
beyond that, I just hijacked it for the song, I guess there’s a kind of
sleazy insinuation in the phrase as well which I think the song
exploits and undermines.
What year did the Berlin Wall come down?
1989. As Urusei
we did a tour around Brandenburg (former East German territory around
Berlin), in ’98, the area still seemed stuck in the past, apart from
7-11s and McDonalds springing up everywhere. We played farm
cooperative socials, big barns with farmers swilling beer at long
tables, old, massive, opulent soviet style theatres in front of
children’s English classes.We survived on pizza and beer, at one venue
they made the soup vegetarian by picking the sausage out of it. It was
a total waste of time, but we had a laugh.
Preach about something you love (not related to the band) in 100 words or less.
At
the moment I’m adoring my Total Sonic Annihilation pedal which I got
from Death by Audio. It’s a weird device that takes regular electronic
effects and makes a feedback loop that forces bizarre grunting howling
obscene noise out of them. It’s not related to the band because it
isn’t music in any shape or form, just anguished, terrifying pure
sound. You can only ‘play’ it by improvising and there are no chords or
melodies which is a huge relief for me after carrying song structures
around in my head like multiple three-dimensional crossword puzzles for
the past decade.
What’s on the Projekt A-Ko iPod?
I don’t have one yet.
Elaine has an iPod shuffle but I don’t know what’s on it, I think Sonic
Youth, Electralane, Grandaddy, Sebadoh and more. Ian downloads Mark
Kermode‘s film reviews every week.
Favourite movie soundtrack?
Barbarella is pretty awesome.
Motorhead have Cheese And Chive Ruffles on their rider. What’s on yours?
Lemmy
What’s the future for Projekt A-Ko?
Bum around, record a bit more, maybe watch some telly. We’re playing Stereo in Glasgow on the 30th November.
What are you going to do right now?
Try and find out who the dead body is that I woke up next to today.
Download Projekt A-ko tracks for free at the official Projekt A-ko website
Did we mention that they’re also playing Club Beatroot at Stereo in Glasgow on November 30th?
[interview by Stuart Heritage]
