What has changed the most in two and a half years for England's Ned's
Atomic Dustbin? While their music has taken on a new direction, and
the groups five members have admittedly different tastes, the biggest
change might just be in the bands style of dress! "Absolutely!" laughs
vocalist John Penney. When Ned's burst into living rooms via MTV, this
unique British invasion force sported knickers and paint stained T-shirts,
now... "you can't be the only people that don't change. We are wearing
clothes that are a little more with the styles now. I've personally
got an incredible collection of shirts. Very show biz! Gone are the
shorts. I don't like my legs and I don't think I'll ever wear shorts
again, unless I have to, like if it's hot and my nuts are sweating off.
Now we don't all dress alike, but I think we've grown up and we want
to be taken more seriously."
Among the growth the band has gone through also, not so remarkably,
also is in the direction of their music. This occurred during the long
overdue time between albums, when the group became absorbed in other
styles of music. "Absolutely," John exclaims again. I think the biggest
reason for our change is that we toured for almost three years, taking
off only three months in that period to record our second album. It
took time to catch up on different shit that was going on. And during
that period our tastes got very diversified. It's amazing that we're
still together as a band. But that is the beauty of our band, all of
our different tastes."
For the new album, BRAINBLOODVOLUME, the five members including guitarist/skateboarder
Garath "Rat" Pring, bassist Matt Chelsin, bassist/guitarist Alex Griffin
and drummer Dan Worton worked on almost thirty songs before releasing
eleven. "Actually, thirty plus were written but we only recorded fifteen
or sixteen," explains John. "A lot of the songs didn't work out. We
really weren't happy with them and they weren't fully recorded. The
ones that we did finish will be on B-sides and collections. Some were
tests at being different. We needed to be crap before we could be good.
It's like getting the shit out and then starting fresh."
One of the biggest tests was in the attempt to create a new sound but
still remain Ned's Atomic Dustbin at the end of the day. What finally
changed was in the use of instruments and the way the instruments were
used. Ned's originally had a sound that was very low-end heavy, due
to use of two bass lines in the songs, with two bassists instead of
the tired old rock n' roll use of twin guitars with lead and rhythm.
"Its not deliberate. We were looking at what made new songs sound like
old songs and it was the use of two bass lines and starting off with
Alex's bass riffs. We started to change things. Rat played keyboards
on the track 'Flute' and used acoustic guitar on some other tracks.
Finally we told Alex that he didn't have to play bass anymore and he
was relieved."
In the end, it wasn't Alex's use of guitar that made the songs have
a new feel, but rather his re-examination of his original instrument,
the bass guitar. "He started to putting the bass through different effects
and playing it different and getting sounds like a lead guitar or even
a keyboard. He really fell in love with the bass again, by finding new
ways to play it."
Does that mean new versions of old songs at shows and does that mean
a live album?
"New songs new style! Old songs old style. I don't like live albums,
you can't put sweat on vinyl (or CD). I hate live albums. Catch our
show instead. We really like to play live." The band has experience
with live shows, having toured almost the entire world, playing everything
from small clubs to the Reading Festival in England. "Every gig is the
same. It makes me feel elated! I actually like large shows better than
a small club. I feel closer to the people like I can touch them at festival.
It's an emotional thing. People don't sweat, they get filthy. And when
you throw-up it's into dirt and when you pass out it's onto the ground
instead of a floor."
Peter Suciu