High Voltage

Stalwart prog enthusiasts, 65daysofstatic have plied their trade for the best part of a decade and having just released their fourth studio album, We Were Exploding Anyway, Yorkshire’s finest are still evidently still keen as mustard. Midway round their European tour, High Voltage caught up with 65days’ Paul Wolinski…

You've been together in one form or another for nearly 10 years now.  How do you stay enthusiastic about the band?

Loads of coffee and vodka. Also, we've just written this new album that we feel is the most exciting thing we've ever done. It took us quite a while to make, which meant we didn't tour as much as we would have liked last year. But now the recording part is over, being back out on the road feels like the reward. We have the best job in the world. If we were to lose the ability to remain incredibly enthusiastic about it at all times it would mean we have fallen into that rockstar abyss of self-indulgence from which few ever return. It's really deep, man.

You guys are from Sheffield which is a dirty steel-making town.  Do you feel as though your music is influenced by your heritage?  Or would you say you're an 'ungeographical' band?

Only two of us are from Sheffield originally, but we have been based there for a long time. Sheffield is a crazy balance of being supportive and incredibly unsupportive at the same time, so has probably been more helpful to us than we'll ever know. A kind of tough love... That being said, I don't think where we have found ourselves based is an overriding feature of our identity. We're living in the future and, like everybody else, influences from all over the world are hitting us every second of every day. I think to understand and appreciate where you come from is very important for people individually, but  for bands it shouldn't necessarily have to define you. At least not nowadays.

You're a fearsomely passionate live band and have been very vocal about your love for playing live.  Which do you prefer though, recording or performing?

Performing, definitely. Recording is incredibly rewarding too, and I don't think it's really fair to compare the two things because they are very, very different disciplines. 'Performing', for us, is intrinsically tied up with 'touring' - which involves just as many non-musical skills if you really wanna start doing it seriously. Basically - whilst our records are hopefully going to be around a lot longer than we are, nothing can beat that tangible, instant joy of interacting with a crowd, seeing them smile, and then trying to deafen them.

You’ve pulled huge crowds at Manchester Academy 2 but the last time you played in Manchester, you played The Deaf Institute, a much smaller venue.  Do you prefer playing smaller venues?  And do you see fluctuations when it comes to crowd sizes?

We have come to appreciate the different strengths and weaknesses that different size shows provide. We did a tour of America a couple of years ago where we were literally playing arenas to 20,000 one night and then arts centres to 15 people the next. In the giant shows, what you lose in intimacy (essentially playing into a huge, black cavern with lights in your eyes) you make up for with the feeling of your music bouncing around so loud in those huge spaces. It's pretty satisfying. And then at the other extreme, you can't beat the sense of chaos and intensity when you're in some tiny venue, trying not to knock out the front row by accidentally swinging your guitar too hard.

Where do you feel you are best received?  The North?  UK?  Europe?

It's hard to say. And I'm not sure it matters in any case. The fact that we can go to cities further and further afield from where we started and people come out to see us play the music we've written is incredibly flattering. And the fact that they continue coming to cities that we've played what feels like a thousand times is equally reassuring.

You've had to cancel the SXSW shows due to 'financial reasons'.  How difficult and frustrating do you find the financial restraints and how do you think this effects the wider industry?  How do you think the industry helps or hinders artists today?

SXSW was a shame, but we didn't lose sleep over it. More than ever it seems to be a place for all the people in the music industry who aren't in bands to go and pretend that they're coked-up rockstars for a week. For a band, it's a nightmare. We have forever operated within massive financial restraints and can't see that changing anytime soon. The industry is slowing killing itself and, to tell you the truth, I  don't really care any more. I don't give it much thought. It'd be good to sell some records, to continue to make a living... I'm not even sure what 'the industry' really is anymore. There's certainly a lot of idiots that we try and steer clear of. Also, the internet is finally learning how to provide bands with really direct ways to reach people who are likely to be fans and build a community around them, without any middlemen whatsoever. I guess that can only be a good thing. THIS IS A VERY CONVOLUTED ANSWER, YO!

You've got an album coming out, We Were Exploding Away.  How do you deal with your releases?  Are you protective over people downloading your music?  And how do you think the industry can combat the downloading issue?

It's out now. It's good. The record didn't leak until the weekend before its release, which is really impressive. We'd assumed it had leaked earlier because we kicked off the tour and the sets were and are very new-song-centric, but the reaction was so good that we thought people must already be familiar with the tunes.

It's not really a case of being protective about people downloading our music because there is absolutely nothing we can do to protect ourselves. The only sensible solution is to not have our heads stuck in the sand and ignore it. That's why we streamed the whole record on myspace and gave away a bunch the songs for free on our website... Get people excited about the music. I don't think the industry can combat the downloading issue. They should adapt, rather fight it, I think. If there is a future, I think that it is making a more concentrated effort to connect with the real music fans who always prefer to have physical products, who appreciate all the extra material around an album release, - nice artwork, heavyweight vinyl... Making things that are worth people's money, rather than just a cd in a cheap jewel case featuring only things that you can grab off a torrent in a matter of seconds. Bands and labels have to try harder. Maybe that's the way it ought to be. Music's important.

When making the new album, were you influenced by any artist in particular?  And how do you expect it to be received?  Would you it was a departure from previous 65days stuff?

We were influenced by everything. Not just artists. Every single thing that happened to us during the two years we were writing. Every single thing that happened to us prior to that, even. This album has helped us reach some kind of new confidence plateau. I don't expect it to be received in any particular way. I will wait and see. On one level, I don't think any of us care because we knew that we did the best we possibly could have done within the confines of the time and means we had. I guess it could be called a departure, but that sort of implies that we'd been standing still. I'd rather see it as a continuation. Or evolution of previous 65 stuff.

How was the recording of the album?  Difficult?  A shit load of fun?  Stressful?  And why did you pick the title, We Were Exploding Anyway?

Difficult, a shit load of fun and stressful. We picked that title because it made sense to us at the time. I know that's not a very helpful answer, but that's the way it's always been with 65daysofstatic. We don't really have high brow conversations abouts the concepts and meaning underpinning all the things that we do. We trust in each other and accepted a long time ago that we're far more articulate commnunicating ideas with big fuck-off beats and sheets of guitar noise rather than actual words. We must have gone through a hundred or more titles before we came to that one, and it just felt right. Because we were. Isn't everybody?

You're not playing Manchester this time around … any particular reason?

No. I love Manchester.

And finally, what new stuff have you guys been listening to recently? Any new bands that are raising eyebrows in the 65days camp?

Nedry, who are on tour with us right now, are fantastic. I'm a big fan of the new Autechre album too. We've been on tour for coming up to  six weeks now though, so I am a little bit out of the loop, to tell you the truth.

And what about your tour buddies, the mighty Kong?  Did they piss on you?

They're fucking crackers and amazing. Touring with them was an insane amount of fun. They didn't piss on us. They are very polite underneath the masks and vomit.

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