Terminally Groovie

Since the last album and the Reading '93 appearance things seem to have gone downhill.
What do you hope to achieve with the new album?

Well, we don't know yet. Because we took so long off, which was obviously the best thing for us in the first place anyway, because the record we've come back with is far better. We're just hoping to gain more people again, to keep the ball rolling, get some new people and lose some of the old.

Do you feel you've still got the same fanbase?

I don't, no. I think all that sort of scene has gone, to be honest. Some of it's still going to be there, but you don't see so much of the scratty kids anymore.

A lot of the bands from that late eighties indie scene have split up now. Do you think you will be able to get it back?

We've always said that if the record's strong enough it doesn't matter whether you're part of the scene or without it. Prime example - Blur. They were all washed up and finished and then they came back with a great record and completely revived their career. So whether you're aiming for the new fans or the old fans, if the record is strong enough then you've got every fighting chance possible. It's too early to say, now. In about two, three months time we'll know what's going on.

The new record's got a much harder edge to it, more samples. Was it a conscious effort to change your sound?

Definitely, yes. I think if we'd have stayed the way we were going, the way we were, we would have just gone down the pan straight away, Basically. It was a conscious decision to come back with something that sounds fresh and obviously sounds better. Because, in the time we were away we wrote one album and binned it, because it was rubbish and the same. So then we just sat there and thought 'well, let's start again'. We thought we'd been away for one year, might as well leave it another year.

So are you testing the water with the new single, 'Stuck'?

Yeah, testing the water, seeing if it'll chart. Radio 1 have actually picked up on this single and they've put it on the B-list. It's only taken two albums and about seven singles before we got Radio 1 to play anything, which seems a bit strange. But now they're interested in it, more balls rolling.

Did you get much success with 'All I Ask Of Myself...'?

It did its job. It came out to test the market, but the market wasn't there. In a way it was our fault for releasing a record that was deemed too heavy for radio. But once again the Americans picked up on it and it did well on their radio. And now 'Stuck' is going down well on their radio.

On your last single you had remixes by Black Dog. How did that come about?

It was either that or go away and write more B-sides. But by this point writing songs had just got to us, we'd written something stupid like thirty or forty songs and just couldn't cope with writing any more. And we'd always dabbled with doing remixes ourselves and we just thought it'd be nice to see what someone else could do with the song, so we gave them the song and it came back sounding absolutely nothing like the song we gave them, which I thought was quite good. We've switched again on the new single and we're doing acoustics on the B-side, something else we've never done before. We only did it because we were invited to do a Johnny Walker show. We only had three days to get ready for it and I had a broken wrist, so it was quite entertaining, like.

Do you think the name 'Ned's Atomic Dustbin' hinders you at all?

Definitely. This is why Radio 1 playlisting the single couldn't have come at a better time, because instead of somebody seeing it and thinking 'Ned's Atomic Dustbin, know what it sounds like, write it off already', they'll be able to hear it and they'll go 'oh, is that what it sounds like now?' It's definitely a hindrance.

Ever thought of shortening it to N.A.D.s?

No. Bit of a suggestion of genitalia, isn't it?

What about being called Rat?

Well, I've been called that since I was three years old and it just sticks with me. It was my mum's idea, no-one else's. God knows why.

Are you going to do 'Kill Your Television' when you play live? It is THE Ned's song, after all.

That's the most annoying thing ever, that is. We stopped doing it, about two years ago. We didn't miss it and at the end of the day, if the crowd expect it and you don't give it them, then sorry. Play it on the vinyl. It becomes too much. Those songs were written in 1988/89 and the amount of times we had to play them and stomach them, it just got to us in the end.

What's next, after the album?

We're touring England in late August. We're doing four shows. Then it's off to Europe and then Asia coming up again over Christmas, which is usually a good laugh.

How do you go down over there?

Different countries, different receptions. Belgium, France, we always do quite well, Germany we've always struggled but it's been getting better. Asia? Love it. First time we went to Japan we had all the stuff like 'they're too polite, they just stand there and clap' and it was nothing like that. It was even more mental than an English gig.

Do you think the songwriting has improved since the first album?

Definitely. We've learnt to play the instruments now, we understand a bit more about studios. It's inevitable, really.

Is it a whole-group thing?

It is, yeah. Last year we went through a bit of a sticky patch where no-one was really speaking to each other. It's always entertaining when that happens. That wasn't so much writing together, it was not writing at all. But now it's all together.

Does one person come up with the depressing lyrics?

Oh yeah, Jonn does that. He just doesn't see the point of writing a happy song. Because you never really feel like writing anything when you are happy. You always feel like writing when you're in a strange mood. Well, you could take loads of Prozac and see what happens, but I wouldn't recommend it. Seven pints always does me.

The music is darker on this album than previously. Was that contrast difficult to get?

No, we just went to a really depressing place to write the songs. We went to Wales, it's as simple as that. The happier songs were written in Brighton, so work it out from that. It's just what the mood feels like. But we wrote more and better songs when we were in Wales, when we were really sick of it.

How much longer do you think EMF can get away with wearing shorts?

I don't know. We gave up the ghost, so I think they should. I always thought we looked a bit stupid in shorts anyway. We only wore them because we were hot. We never actively encouraged people to wear those stupid Ned's shorts we made. They were always ill-fitting.

So are you hopeful that you'll get round people's preconceptions of Ned's Atomic Dustbin?

If they hear the record, that'll get them round it.