My album, which is called ‘Fight My Battles For Me’, has been released
digitally today. However for some reason all the mp3 stores are calling
it ‘Fight My Battle For Me’. Such is life.

Anyway if you want to splash out on shiny new mp3 versions with erroneous titles go to these places:

eMusic (by subscription - this is a really good site)
http://www.emusic.com/artist/..Pagan-Wanderer-Lu-MP3-Download../11785256.html

Amazon £4.99
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fight-..My-Battle-Me-Explicit/dp/..B0022W2BVA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&..s=dmusic&qid=1240258936&sr=8-1

It’s also on iTunes for £7.99 - I think it’s on the non-DRM version.

Maybe
the wrongly titled versions will become collectors items in years to
come. Like when the Manics released ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children
Will Be Next’ and there were about 150 copies printed with the word
‘Then’ wrongly dropped in the middle of the title. They now sell for
hundreds of pounds. Fuck knows why.

Anyway, don’t forget you can already buy FMBFM on CD from my website or from Brainlove.
http://www.paganwandererlu.co...uk

http://www.brainloverecords...com

The CD will be in your local record shop on May 25th via Cargo.

MORE NEWS:
The 15 Films project has now reached 10 films.
http://www.brainloverecords...com/pwl/

I would draw your particular attention to number 11, a really ace live in the studio version of England Expects found here:
http://www.brainloverecords...com/pwl/11.html


CRYPTIC NEWS:
Something very exciting and interesting coming up on my new, much more regularly updated, blog later this week. Stay tuned.
http://paganwandererlu...wordpress.com/

So the internet is the future, right? No. Actually the internet is the present, and exciting though it is, it's pretty much part of the furniture now. The only people who think it's the future are the people who never really got it to start with. People like me.

Anyway as an attempt to make peace with the omniscient spiderweb of doom, as its fractal tentacles tighten their grip around our very perception of reality, I've decided to make a video to go with every song on my album. I'll upload them one per week for the next 15 weeks. These aren't going to be 'proper' videos as such, just something to point your eyes at whilst you listen to the songs. Seeing as I've never made a video before in my life I might get some people to help me. You might even like to make one? Why not e-mail me?

I've spent most of this morning making an hilariously bad attempt at a 'real' video in iMovie (surely the Songsmith of video editing software). I'll upload that at some point but for now here's the first one...


Vimeo link (better quality)

It's a live in the studio acoustic version of 'Stop Traveller! Stop and Read!'.

The inimitable John Brainlove has made a web page Fight My Battles For Me - 15 Films which will host them all. There'll also be other bits of trivia and at the moment there are some nice drawings up there to gawp at.

Twitter

I've also started a Twitter account. So if you want to be privy to every inane thought which goes through my head for the rest of my life feel free to sign up.
http://twitter.com/paganwandererlu

while you're at it why not join the newly-renamed Facebook Group, join my mailing list, or have a look at my bank account?

BeardAid

In other news Bearded Magazine's excellent 'BeardAid' subscription service is going to be releasing an 8-track download only EP of early Pagan Wanderer Lu stuff in March. You'll have to sign up for £2 a month for which you get a copy of each new edition of the magazine and a monthly exclusive download record from a band who've you've never heard but are probably awesome. It's like one of those things where you give a man a fish and he milks it every day for life, but for indie music...

Mine will be out on the 14th March so make sure you sign up by then or you'll have missed it. Don't worry, I'll remind you.

Dear Friends,

A great day is upon us! The cds of my album 'Fight My Battles For Me' have returned from the big factory and are currently sitting in boxes excitedly waiting to see where they will spend the rest of their days once they've been bought by discerning music fans like you.

You can buy it online NOW ahead of the release date in March by clicking here:
http://paganwandererlu.esmartmusic.com/shop/shop08.html

And as a special offer you can also buy it together with the new EP 'The Omega Point' for £15 including P&P.

Because I consider each and every one of you a personal friend, let me lay it on the line. By purchasing the record today you are helping me and Brainlove Records fight the battle (see what I did there?) to claw back a few precious millimetres of Britain's collective musical psyche from the Bad People Who Rule Our Lives. So thanks in advance.

In other news I've started a new blog which will be much more active than this myspace one. There's not much on it at the moment but there will be. I plan on writing about whatever I think about. Making videos, giving away songs. Ranting when drunk. That kind of thing. Not just PWL music news.

So use an RSS machine to download it now:
http://paganwandererlu.wordpress.com/

Happy new year as well,

Andy/p.w.l. x 

Dear blog readers,

I am pleased to announce the latest in a long line of PWL handmade releases... 'The Omega Point EP'. This is a limited edition EP (100 numbered copies). The tracklisting is thus:

1. 2.0///The Bridge of Sighs
2. Come Shake My Hand, You Sinister Genii!!
3. Billy
4. The ending makes what came before a story
5. Brighton Pier

'Bridge of Sighs' is taken from the forthcoming album 'Fight My Battles For Me' (which, as I write, is days away from going to the big factory). 'Ending... story' is a new version featuring the Volunteers.

It's available to buy now from my web shop - to order it go to www.paganwandererlu.co.uk
It'll also be available at gigs - such as the one I'm doing tomorrow night at the Good Ship in Kilburn.

NB - buying this CD directly contributes to solving the global economic crisis.

credit cwtsh,

p.w.l. x

PWL Interview

Below you can read the full transcript of an interview I recently did with Martin Butler. Thanks to Martin for sending this to me.

Martin Butler: So let's get the boring questions out of the way first. Why are you called Pagan Wanderer Lu?

Pagan Wanderer Lu: Because that's the name I chose about 8 years ago and I'm now stuck with it. I no longer even think about the name, it's just what I'm called. Only when I tell someone for the first time in one of those 'Oh so you're in a band…' conversations does it occur to me that the name might sound a little odd.

MB: You basically avoided answering that question.

PWL: Yes I did. Well spotted.

MB: Okay. We'll move on… When did you start writing songs?

PWL: I started writing songs before I started learning an instrument. I would sit with these notebooks and write lyrics straight off the top of my head. The melodies would change as I wrote and the songs had no structure so when I read them back I would have no idea how it was supposed to go. As soon as I started learning guitar I started writing and recording songs onto a basic cassette recorder, then later on a 4-track machine. I filled about 10 C90 cassettes with songs before there was even such a thing as Pagan Wanderer Lu.

MB: Any chance we'll ever hear those songs?

PWL: None whatsoever.

MB: In '(Sick of) Playing Solo' you refer to 'those fucking awful tapes that I made when I was seventeen'…

PWL: Those are the ones.

MB: That song's interesting because it spells out quite explicitly your ambitions as a songwriter and it's very self-aware. What are your aspirations for PWL?

PWL: Before I answer I need to say that song's very old. I no longer think of this in terms of a 'career'. I went through a phase of being quite focussed on 'making it' – which for me meant making a living out of music. I'm no longer thinking like that, now I just want the records to be out there and people to hear them. Realistically there's no money in the kind of music I'm making so I'm happy just to do it for the joy of doing it. It's a compulsion and a highly enjoyable one, if I could make a living from it I would but I will continue to do it whether I succeed at that or not.

I find it incredibly tedious when bands talk about their 'music career' or money in interviews. It suggests they're dull people, and that their music will also be dull. Plus it's a betrayal of the fantasy of what it means to be a 'rock star' - for want of a better word…

MB: What do you mean?

PWL: Well… erm…. It's like when you're younger and you buy your first single and you do the 'miming in the mirror' thing you don't imagine the person who made that record… for me it would've been Jarvis Cocker. You don't imagine that person sitting around referring to their record as 'units' and sitting in on business meetings. You imagine this carefree creative existence where every day is spent fiddling about making music and doing other incomprehensibly exciting things. You think of that person as being special, not just someone who picked up a guitar for the same reason most people buy lottery tickets. You don't want to know about how such-a-person had to go and do a shit gig in… I dunno… Sludgely-on-the-Clog in order to pay their council tax. It's just dull.

MB: So Pulp were your first love? I can see that in what you do.

PWL: I hope so. Whenever I reflect on what I'm doing I might think 'oh well at the moment I'm being influenced by… I dunno… Animal Collective or something' but really it's all traceable back to Pulp. Both in attitude and execution. It's got to have content without being preachy and dull. It's got to have personality, but ultimately it's always got to be a pop song. You can tell from how long he spent releasing records with very little success that Jarvis Cocker was committed to what he did for the sheer pleasure of doing it…

MB: I was listening to your album and most of it doesn't really strike me as obviously pop.

PWL: To me 'pop' just means that at some point during the writing of your song you thought to yourself 'Let's put in a really good bit here'. A bit where the first time people hear it they think 'that's cool', and then the next time they hear it they're looking forward to hearing that good bit again. The more of those 'good bits' you have the better a 'pop' record it is. As far as I'm concerned any piece of music can be a pop song - even it's some abstract noise thing. And furthermore any piece of music that doesn't attempt to be a pop song is pretty much worthless.

MB: And yet you list Autechre as one of your influences. They're about as far from being a pop band as I can think of…

PWL: I disagree. The last few Autechre records have maybe been a little sterile in some ways. But when I first started listening to Autechre it was just before 'Confield' came out. I remember getting 'EP7' and the Peel session cd and 'LP5' and just lying back in my university room and being almost giddy with excitement at what I was hearing. The rhythms and inhumanity – at that point anyway – were just totally liberating and unprecedented. I couldn't begin to imagine how this record had been made. That was incredibly beautiful in itself. Having spent ages figuring out how… erm… Kevin Shields got his guitar sound and getting reasonably close to recreating it. Close enough at least to see that it wasn't actually magic it was just some effects pedals or something. Still being able to be surprised and baffled by new music. I get that less and less these days. Though I've been getting it recently with that Christian Fennesz album 'Venice'…

MB: I've not heard it.

PWL: It's not important. The point is that the 'pop' aspect of Autechre, to me, is the newness. The sheer… I dunno… 'effervescence' of ideas. Not knowing how it was made. Which bits are man, which bits are machine. Thinking 'how did they do that?'. That's what still excites me. When I first heard 'Common People' it was a complete piece of music. I didn't have the knowledge to break it down into its component parts. I didn't have the knowledge or language to analyse it, I didn't really notice that this one sound was a violin, this one was a synth... I didn't even understand what the difference between a bass guitar and an electric guitar was. It was the very beginning of my relationship with music so it was all just this massive 'sound' hanging together. It was all as one… (he gestures as if indicating a sphere) if that doesn't sound too… you know…

MB: Do you feel it spoils a song to know too much about it?

PWL: (thinks) It can do I suppose. It depends on the song. I don't think I've spoiled 'Common People' by dissecting it. The only time I hear it nowadays is in indie-clubs and all I do then is my Jarvis Cocker dancing. (gives a small example and laughs) I'm not thinking about how Russell Senior's violin part is influenced by John Cale's Velvet Underground work. I like that I know that now and didn't when I was in front of the mirror age 15 or whatever. It's a mark of a truly great record that it has these… layers where you can keep peeling away and discovering new stuff but it retains its inherently pop nature…

MB: …like an onion?

PWL: (raises eyebrow) Erm… I suppose. Maybe more like a gobstopper? You keep sucking away and finding new colours. If you suck the same one too long you OD on the flavour and feel sick. But it's still a gobstopper and if you go back to it after a break it's as sweet as it always was.

MB: And if you suck it for long enough it disappears…

PWL: (laughs) I think we may be taking the analogy too far now.

MB: I agree.

PWL: The point is that it has depths which you don't need to understand or even notice in order to enjoy it. Both the superficial, immediate impact is enjoyable and on further inspection it reveals more about itself.

MB: Do you think your music achieves that?

PWL: That's not for me to say really… It's what I aim for but whether I succeed is for other people to decide.

MB: How do people respond, generally, at gigs and things?

PWL: They clap? (laughs) It's hard to tell at gigs. Sometimes I feel like I've been singing to a room full of people who are not listening at all then a load of them come up to me afterwards and want cds or whatever. Other times I feel like I've gone down really well and not a soul says a word afterwards. It's odd. I don't really feel I understand what people do or don't like about PWL. Sometimes I think people see it very differently than I do.

MB: How so?

PWL: Well… (long pause) I don't really know to be honest. I can't quite put my finger on it. I think I'm far too conscious of what I perceive to be the shortcomings of what I do to really accept that people like it.

MB: What do you think those shortcomings are?

PWL: I'd rather not get into it… I think it's easier to explain by… erm… Put it like this. If I'm watching a band do a gig and I'm not enjoying it or I'm bored or something then I start thinking about what's wrong with them or their songs. I'll think 'oh well that bit was too long' or 'they were all playing the same melody' or 'the lyrics are boring' or 'the tune's no good' or most often 'this sounds like every other go damn band I've ever heard'. I pick out what I consider to be… almost the Top Ten ways a band can fail to be interesting. Then I try and keep them in mind when I write.

MB: What is the Top Ten?

PWL: (laughs) Well it's not been published in any form. It's not definitive. It also probably contains more than ten things. Also I regularly contradict things. Like for example I hate it when songs are too repetitive or stick to the same structure or sound throughout. I always go on about 'Blueberry Boat' (by the Fiery Furnaces) and how that got me excited about songs with changing structures and different parts. It made me want to incorporate that into what I did, and I thought it was a pretty radical thing at the time but later I realised that something like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' – which is regularly voted number one in the list of best 100 things that have ever happened in the history of the world or whatever… That song is incredibly complicated, multi-part, utterly bonkers and yet people love it. Can you imagine a song like that getting released these days? Being promoted to the extent that it make number one? Never.

Anyway the point was that I break my 'no repetition' rule regularly. On something like 'Ten Cities' say where it's the same loop all the way through just building and building. If another band did that I'd probably think 'bah… unimaginative losers'. But I forgive myself.

MB: Why?

PWL: I dunno. Ego?

MB: We're back to 'Playing Solo' again… you, perhaps jokingly, credit your ego as the reason you remain a solo artist. How serious are you about that?

PWL: Not that serious. I'd love to be in a band. I'd love to have a band playing with me as Pagan Wanderer Lu. In fact I started one last year but it's kind of on hiatus.

MB: Why is that?

PWL: Well it's not a reflection on the people in the band. They're all great. It's just a case of the lineup not being what I'd want. We ended up sounding like a 'guitar band' (disgusted expression) and that's not what I want at all.

MB: Do you dislike 'guitar bands'?

PWL: It'd be pretty dumb to answer yes to that question. But the temptation's strong to dismiss rock bands or indie bands because they're so incredibly 'done'. It's nothing to do with the guitar as an instrument. It's more that you don't expect to be surprised when you see four lads take the stage with their Gibsons or whatvever and say 'hello we are The Desks'. You don't expect to hear something new. I won't go as far as to say you never will but if you bet on it your money would be safe. You can be confident within the first 30 seconds of a band's first song that it's going to pretty much sound like that for the next half an hour.

The 'guitar band' format is stagnant. There are exceptions like Battles or whoever but they're using guitars along with new technology to make something different. But for most people a guitar band format is almost making the statement that… I dunno. It's like saying that you don't agree with progress.

MB: I think you might be taking that a little far. Don't people in bands just make the music they enjoy? Not everyone wants to be original and new.

PWL: No, and that's fair enough. I don't want to dictate what people should do. It's more the fact that when you say, for example, 'I want to be in a Rock and Roll band' you're ignoring what rock n roll was. It was new. It wasn't exciting just because of how it sounded or cos it was loud or used the pentatonic scale. It was new. When Little Richard shouted 'a whomp bop a loo bop a whomp bam boom' into the microphone it was an affront to all music that had gone before. It was glorious in its simplicity and dumbness and yet it was so powerful it was perceived as being almost dangerous. It's fucking retarded to think that by getting onstage and doing exactly the same thing you are ever going to create something as powerful. Without wanting to make too grand a proclamation I actually think my generation may be the first since pop music began to have been denied our 'rock n roll'.

MB: I think I know what you mean. I suppose Acid House and Hip Hop are the last really 'new' musical movements.

PWL: Exactly. And we just missed them. They were over by the time I was old enough to have heard them and were on the way to becoming co-opted bankable versions that your parents could enjoy. There were no underground clubs for me growing up where I could go and hear any decadent new music. Whether that was punk or jazz or rock and roll or anything.

MB: What about electronic music? You were saying you love that because it's new and exciting…

PWL: You got me. The problem with electronic music, perhaps, is that it exists mostly in recorded form. I've never seen Autechre live but I've seen videos and heard recordings and things and it's not… Well people aren't dancing I suppose. There's not much in the sense of a community vibe. The inhumanness doesn't translate into a live context. I've seen people attempt to re-create some of the visceralness of live instrumental music into electronic music which can't be played live by, for example, just throwing themselves around, like Germlin does. He responds to the music with his body – it becomes a sort of performance art. But not everyone can relate to that. It's not enough for me just to be noisy and energetic. I think to push things forward you have to have something which anyone can like if they try it. I think that's why rock and roll and punk and acid house worked because there was a communal context in which people could enjoy it.

MB: How does Pagan Wanderer Lu fit into all this?

PWL: Fuck knows. (laughs) I don't really see my live shows as where the main interest is. They're not as 'live' as I'd like – but they're more live than Germlin. Not that that's a criticism of him because I really love what he does, including how he performs.

MB: What are you aiming for with the shows?

PWL: I've no idea. I still see them as opportunities to play the songs to people who don't know them. I've no sense of how people who have heard me before might or might not find the gig enjoyable. Whether I bear repeat viewings. But I try and avoid thinking about that too much because it becomes a 'career' consideration. Not an artistic one. The live show is what it is. You hear the songs as they're written. I think the way my writing's going it will become less of a 'guy playing to backing track' setup in time, but that'll be much further in the future.

MB: Your album's finished. What do you think of it?

PWL: I'm pleased with it. The idea was to approach it as if it would be the only 'real' Pagan Wanderer Lu album ever released. I may have released a lot of this stuff before, but really the people who ever heard any of that could fit inside a double decker bus and have space for a minibar. So I needed to try and think of it from the point of view of someone who would be new to the entire record. And also with one eye on it as a historical artefact – not to sound to grandiose. If I should ever die, God forbid, and this record survives… will it be a good document of what Pagan Wanderer Lu was? And I think it will. It's not the newest set of songs like 'Perfection RIP' was, it's another 'best of'/overview sort of thing like 'Independent Scrutineer'. It sums me up lyrically, musically. I think it's good. I hope other people do too.

MB: You told me earlier that you've already started the new album.

PWL: Sort of. I have a tracklist and a title. It's something to work towards. All the records start like this. All the songs on that tracklist have some content – either lyrics written, bits of music recorded. Some have the entire music written and mapped out in my head but nothing's actually been finished yet.

MB: What's the title going to be?

PWL: It's a working title - 'European Monsoon'.

MB: Why that?

PWL: I saw it in the paper. Apparently this summer people were comparing the rainfall in Europe to a monsoon. I'd just made a list of ten songs I had ready to record and I thought 'ten songs is an album, better give it a title'. Then I saw 'European Monsoon' in a headline and thought it sounded like an album title. Not a very good one, mind. So that became the working title, not really intending to use it. But now I've actually written a title track so I probably will end up using that title.

MB: What will it sound like? Any change of direction?

PWL: I don't know. That's the beauty. Consciously trying to aim for a new direction is a bit lame. I just write what comes naturally and the new bits of technology I get dictate the outcome a little so it's better to just play around and surprise yourself than consciously think 'I must do something new' I find the music naturally progresses anyway.

MB: We've talked about the music a lot… what about the lyrics? You have a reputation as a political songwriter but I've seen you deny… or at least reject that label in interviews.

PWL: I think 'political songwriter' has certain connotations, none of which are good. When I see 'political songwriter' I think Billy Bragg – sloganeering, preaching to the choir, telling people what to do, mawkish overwrought lyricism. This kind of egotism – writing about the Iraq War because you think that's what you're supposed to write because it's iconic and Jimi Hendrix did that song that got use in that film about Vietnam… I don't know. 'Political Songwriter' just conjures up this pathetic, over-serious image…

MB: To be fair I see you more as part of a tradition of people like Jarvis Cocker for whom politics is a… backdrop against which you might write. You certainly don't write exclusively write about politics. How would you prefer to be seen?

PWL: Again I don't think it's up to me to say that. Partly I avoid spelling it out because you set yourself up for a fall. If I say 'I think I'm like Jarvis Cocker' then someone who likes Pulp will listen to me and if I fall short of the great man's standard then they go 'wannabe' and throw my cd in the bin. Or at least that's what I imagine they do in my head.

What I'll say is that there are maybe… (counts in head) Two songs on my album that I was categorise as 'political'…

MB: Which ones…?

PWL: I was hoping you wouldn't ask. I think 'England Expects' is the most obvious one. Then maybe 'The Memorial Hall' in part, though the whole point of that song is that war is about more than politics….

MB: What about a song like 'Our New Hosptial Sucks' or 'The Black Death'?

PWL: Yeah, fair cop – though neither of those are on the album. 'Hospital' was almost intentionally taking a political song too far. It's about Private Finance Initiatives which are amongst the most offensive misuses of power ever seen carried out by this government, yet they're also really tedious to explain. So the only way to describe them in song was to do something which was… kind of silly?

MB: So is it irony? A parody?

PWL: No, I dislike irony too. I think what it is is an over-the-top rant which is very aware of the fact that it's an over-the-top rant.

MB: You're getting into the realms of… meta-irony now. Almost like you're trying to have your cake and eat it. Writing a political song then trying to frame it as not being over-earnest, yet denying your being ironic. I don't think that's clear from the song, 'Hospital' sounds like it's a serious protest song.

PWL: Well okay… if you're right then I guess that's a fail on my part. Though I think it's clear from the use of the word 'sucks' that my tongue was at least slightly in cheek when I wrote it.

MB: Sorry, I'm not criticising the song. I like the song!

PWL: It's fine. These questions are important. Very important in fact. We live in a time where there's a lot that a 'political songwriter' should be writing about. Yet at the same time we are conscious of the kind of painfully over-earnest writing that has happened before, people don't like it when 'pop stars' preach at them AND irony has been done to death. So how do you write with an awareness of these things and still create a song which says what you want it too without people going 'I don't want to be preached at by a record'?

MB: Do you have an answer?

PWL: Yeah, write like Jarvis Cocker on 'Common People'. (laughs) Use humour. Likeable characters. A big chorus. Be self-deprecating. I think it's actually a very British thing to be able to write in that way. I'm not aware of any American writers who do the same thing.

MB: What about Kurt Vonnegut?

PWL: Well I was thinking more of songwriters. But yes, Vonnegut as a 'political author' is perfect. He's my favourite writer for that very reason.

MB: I've noticed references to him in what you do.

PWL: I'm not saying that no American songwriters write in that way, just that I'm not aware of any. Bright Eyes is a songwriter I like for his politics and he's incredibly earnest and passionate, almost to the extent that I feel awkward listening to him cos he's so heart on sleeve. But it works for him because he's so talented.

MB: What did you think of his last album?

PWL: Cassadaga?

MB: Yeah.

PWL: I thought it was shit.

MB: Me too.

PWL: Hopefully it's a blip.

MB: Yes. Anyway… You say only two songs on your album are about politics. What are the rest about?

PWL: Now you're asking… 'Bridge of Sighs' is an odd one. It's partly about this theory in physics called Omega Point theory, partly about being addicted to social networking, and partly about Venetian architecture.

MB: Okay… what's the connection between the three?

PWL: I'm not sure there is one. But I tried my best… (laughs)

MB: I'm intrigued by 'Ten Cities is not a european tour' it seems to be about a musician being far away from home, yet looking at your website it seems you first wrote it long before you were really evening playing outside of Cardiff.

PWL: It's called fiction.

MB: (laughs) Okay.

PWL: The song is partly about that. Partly about the idea of artistic work as 'Work' with a capital W. And partly about a particular point in a relationship. It wasn't written like most of my stuff. It was very spontaneous. Written in parallel with the music. One part of the song would be written and record before the next bit was started. Part of it was I just working out a tune and singing the names of objects I could see. That's how the 'cardboard… suitcase' line came about. Those two words fit nicely so I re-wrote bits around them to fit them in coherently.

MB: Do you always write that way?

PWL: No. Normally it's more measured. But it's often nice to just throw some music down and force yourself to make a song from it. You surprise yourself that way.

MB: You talk about being surprised a lot. Do you think it's important for music to always seek to be new?

PWL: It's important to me. After seeing soooo many bands over soooo many years it's hard not to get a little jaded. Often you can appreciate the newness in something even if overall it's not that good.

MB: You make it sound as if novelty is the same as talent.

PWL: Talent is hard to define. Novelty isn't. If you consider instrumental virtuosity to be the be-all and end-all of musical achievement then you can go and buy one of those three disc albums of Frank Zappa's guitar solos and I'm sure you'll have a great time. I don't think the new is inherently 'good' – but 'good' is totally subjective and no one will ever agree on what it is. For most people their favourite indie band is the one they hear first. It will happen that, for most, that's the band that is most heavily and expensively promoted when they're young. So right now it's probably the Arctic Monkeys – who I actually quite like. But the reason they're successful is because someone has decided they're going to be successful. They write good songs and you can see why they appeal to people but how talented are they? Compared to whay? They sound a fair bit like the Jam to me and whilst I don't like the Jam much they surely deserve more credit for their similar-sounding songs because at the time they had a sound which they'd helped to define. It was new.

Now it transpires that Arctic Monkeys guy is doing another band that's all balladry and Scott Walker strings. What that says to me is that he's a nostalgia boffin. He doesn't hear Scott Walker and think 'How can I combine this with something else to make something new?', he just thinks 'I want to make a record that sounds like that'. If someone painted a good copy of the Mona Lisa you couldn't deny they had talent but you wouldn't get excited about it, or even necessarily think of them as an artist. Perhaps that's it. Indie rock has ceased to be an art form.

MB: So what is it now?

PWL: A mating ritual? (laughs)

MB: Do you think there's anything wrong with experiencing music solely as a part of your social life? Simply liking a song because it reminds you of a good night out?

PWL: No. That would be like saying it's wrong to drink beer outside the context of a real ale tasting festival. I'm a fan of the idea that music predates language – that we could sing before we could speak. That means it's inherent to how we evolve. It would certainly explain why people get so passionate about it. Equally I'm only half joking when I say it's a mating ritual. People get very competitive. Rock stars like their groupies. Perhaps we're all in bands for the same reason peacocks have big tails?

MB: I find that idea a little depressing.

PWL: Why?

MB: Well… the idea that we're all just doing this to get laid.

PWL: It doesn't quite work like that. I'm sure some people think 'I will form a band so girls will like me'. But what I'm saying is that the urge to perform and create music stems from the same hard-wired urges which lead us to pro-create. In some people it will manifest as wanting to be an actor, or a footballer. It doesn't degrade the endeavour unless you consider sex to be inherently degrading or unseemly.

MB: But surely the artistic urge is a nobler one?

PWL: If it is then it's only by accident.

MB: I'm not sure what you mean…

PWL: Well…deep breath needed. Have you read a book called 'The Spire' by William Golding?

MB: No, I haven't.

PWL: The basic premise is that this Deacon in an abbey – I don't know if I'm using the right terms, it could be a bishop in a cathedral. Anyway his name is Jocelin and he, as a clergyman, is celibate. Yet he falls in love with one of the local peasant women. This young girl. It's made clear through the writing that he feels lust towards her without realising or acknowledging it. And the greater his lust the more he feels the urge to build an enormous spire on the cathedral.

MB: Obvious visual pun there…

PWL: Well exactly. He's basically creating a massive stone erection. He misinterprets this burning sensation in his back – which turns out to be TB or something – as being an Angel watching over him telling him to complete the spire. Really it's all his frustrated sexual desire.

MB: So what does that prove?

PWL: It doesn't prove anything. I just feel that it illustrates my point. Artistic desire can be derived from these subconscious sexual urges – after all no one really knows how their mind works. It doesn't degrade the work. It's still beautiful once it's made.

MB: So the spire, even though it's, as you say, a massive stone cock is still beautiful?

PWL: Well actually part of the plot is that the foundations of the cathedral are weak so the spire ultimately destroys the entire building.

MB: Nice. I wonder what the parallel would be with rock music?

PWL: Someone shagging a groupie and getting an STD?

MB: Indeed.

PWL: I fear we're going off topic a little.

MB: I can't even remember how we got on to this…

PWL: You said it's depressing that I think the urge to make music stems from our desire to find a mate.

MB: Do you think people have realised yet that this isn't a real interview?

PWL: Maybe. Hopefully they appreciate the effort I'm making. I've never really felt challenged by any of the few interviews I've done so I'm trying to give you a persona of someone who has thought about what I do as much as I have and is willing to raise some of the problems I feel about my own work. I hope that it'll be insightful for anyone who cares enough to read this far.

MB: You don't think this is a little self-indulgent?

PWL: No doubt. But it's been done before. Mark E Smith did it. David Byrne even shot a film of where he interviewed himself. At the end of the day no one has to read this.

MB: Well now that the cat's out of the bag how about I ask you something really difficult…?

PWL: Go on then.

MB: Do you think these convoluted musical structures and strange sounds are just a way to cover up your shortcomings as a musician? Is novelty a mask for a lack of talent?

PWL: (long pause) Ouch.

MB: Sorry.

PWL: No, it's okay. It's an important question. We've touched on it already. I think you need to answer it in two ways. One is to answer it generally for all music. The other is just in reference to me here now.

MB: Okay.

PWL: You don't need to keep interrupting now that people know you're just a device…

MB: I know, but I like to think that the dialogue format is conducive to a wider discussion. After all isn't this how Plato structured his greatest works?

PWL: Now you're just showing off your knowledge of classical philosophy.

MB: Technically you're the one showing off.

PWL: True. Anyway the question of talent vs. novelty. What you're suggesting is that a novel approach to music – a deliberate attempt to create something which is different from what preceded it – in some way betrays a failure to live up to some ideal standard of what music should be. This inherently relies on the idea that there is a right or wrong way to make music. Which is patent nonsense. If you went to Africa you would hear music so far removed from western tradition as to be almost considered atonal or dissonant. Yet if you wrote it off as a failed attempt to write western style music – perhaps a failure to discover the pentatonic scale? If you came back and said that all African music was therefore inferior you'd be branded narrow minded or, at worst, a racist. African music is entirely 'novel' to western ears (or at least it was until the 70s and the whole Peter Gabriel/WOMAD thing – which let's face it was bordering on racism/patronising itself).

MB: It's good that you can use parentheses now…

PWL: Yes it helps. Anyway…

That African music is not a failure to be Western it's a result of hundreds of years of experiment with form and content from a geographically separate culture. We in the west didn't accidentally hit on the 'best' form of music when we discovered rock n roll. We just made a mode that was commercially successful – and crucially which coincided with advances in technology which enabled it to be recorded and distributed. If you consider John Lennon and Paul McCartney the greatest songwriters who ever lived then do a simple thought experiment and imagine whether a child plucked from 500 years in the past and dumped in the 1960s could've potentially done the same thing given the same technologies and opportunities…

MB: You're taking this a little far now. You don't need to imagine time-travelling middle ages peasants to make this point. That there isn't an absolute objective standard for music is understood.

PWL: But it isn't though. When you suggest that novelty is a substitute for 'talent' this is exactly what you're doing. Talent is almost always made with reference to an existing mode. 'He's a great blues guitarist' – you could say this of someone because they can play every Robert Johnson song note perfect. But if that person is a great blues guitarist what does that make Robert Johnson? He wasn't a 'great blues guitarist' because he invented that music! People of his time would've considered him quite a poor guitarist because he wasn't playing 'properly'.

MB: Well…

PWL: Sorry, I've not finished. The thing that always fascinates me about this is that The Blues is always held up as this canonically important 'authentic' music. Most western music is derived from it and the artistic trajectory often seems to be, if you look at someone like Bryan Ferry for example. He started off being in this weird synth pop outfit with Brian Eno and then the first thing he does solo is an album of covers of really old songs. Almost as if he's saying 'look I can do real music as well'. It's bullshit.

MB: You're still using the interview format to allow yourself incomplete sentences and poor grammar.

PWL: Yes, and?

MB: Okay. I think you've made the point. Traditional music becomes successful because of its novelty and then, once canonical becomes a thing which must not be tampered with. And deviation from this norm, which exists only by convention and through commercial success, becomes a template for what is considered 'good' music.

PWL: Yes.

MB: You're forgetting one thing.

PWL: Yes?

MB: The question was about you. Do you, Pagan Wanderer Lu, attempt to make oddly structured electronic pop music because you, not to put too fine a point on it, are not a very good musician?

PWL: Do you really think that's the hardest question you could have asked?

MB: Can you suggest a harder one?

PWL: I can, and I will. But first I'll answer that one.

I do what I do with an awareness of my limitations. I'm not a particularly good guitarist. I'm quite a good singer, but not a great one. My keyboard playing skills are rudimentary and I'm not even that good at sound production.

MB: You're getting better.

PWL: Thank you. Yes I am.

The point is I want to make music. The desire to create is there. I cannot make an album which sounds like 'Tales from Topographic Oceans' (unlistenably pretentious double album by Yes). I can't write an opera. I can't play the bagpipes. I can't sing like Bjork. What I can do is write witty, insightful lyrics. I'll admit to shortcomings in certain areas but I've always had confidence in my words. So I do what I can with what I've got. It'd be much sadder if I wanted to be, say, a professional basketball player. Seeing as how I'm not that tall or good at basketball.

MB: I think that's a cop out.

PWL: How so?

MB: You answered the wider question of novelty vs talent with an overview of the entire history of music in the world, yet your answer to 'are you just covering for the fact that you can't play?' with an excuse. 'I just do my best with what I've got'.

PWL: What would you rather I did?

MB: How is that different from those people you mentioned earlier who only buy guitars for the reasons people buy lottery tickets?

PWL: Because my artistic goals are nobler?

MB: Now you're contradicting yourself!

PWL: I know. The important thing about this is that I've always felt that people should feel empowered to make music if they want to. Anyone can do it, one way or another.

MB: You're going to write a big spiel about how Will Oldham's early albums all sound terrible and are all full of mistakes and shit singing inspired you to become Pagan Wanderer Lu aren't you?

PWL: Yep. I was going to refer to 'Days in the Wake' by way of example.

MB: You always do that.

PWL: Listen. The important thing is that there is no good reason not to make music if you want to. It's fun. It's inspiring. You never know how good you'll be at it. However I came to make music in the way I do it's turned out alright hasn't it?

MB: I suppose.

PWL: People like it. And you haven't even begun to touch on whether that is or should be important to me.

MB: Is it?

PWL: Time's running out now. I don't have time for a long answer to that question. The short answer is 'yes'.

MB: One last thing then. What was that incredibly difficult question you came up with?

PWL: It was this: 'How much do you feel that your distaste for what you perceive to be unoriginal music, and the almost dogmatic insistence on originality and progress, stems from the fact that music like that is what sells? Music which you are, by your own admission incapable of making. Are you just reconciling your own unpopularity with a failure on the part of promoters and consumers of mainstream music? Is this in turn fuelled by the very sense of inadequacy you clearly feel at your lack of instrumental ability?'

MB: And what's the answer?

PWL: Well I think that …

(end of tape)

Hello,

I have a new track 'Good Christian/Bad Christian' on the brand new Brainlove Records compilation. You can also listen to it on my profile right now.


ORDER NOW

From Brainlove HQ: "A message beamed from the beating heart of the Brainlove universe, TWO THOUSAND AND ACE is a ltd. edition compilation CD featuring 27 amazing bands... from Brainlove favourites like Napoleon IIIrd, Applicants, Keyboard Choir and Pagan Wanderer Lu to justly adored friends of ours like Bearsuit, Capitol Kand Gay Against You to amazing new bands like Friends Of The Bride, Cats In Paris, Pseudo Nippon and Modernaire; Two Thousand And Ace is the sound of the underground in 2008..."

I've heard it. It's good.

p.w.l. x

Hello all,

Here's the latest on PWL gigs from now until the end of summer. There's loads of mini Brainlove-organised festivals happening around the place featuring the usual Brainlove posse and lots of other ace bands such as Gay Against You, Bearsuit, The Research, Cats in Paris, Team Brick and others. For full details and lineups see the Team Brainlove myspace or facebook group.

Here are the dates:

24/05/08 - London, Brixton Windmill
15/06/08 - Manchester, Rampant Lion
27/06/08 - London, George Tavern - Brainlove Club w/Modernaire & Jam on Bread
06/07/08 - Brighton, Westhill Hall
02/08/08 - Leeds, Brundell Social Club
09/08/08 - Oxford, Jericho Tavern
29/08/08 - Woolfire Festival - Winchester

I'll also be appearing at Derby's Indietracks festival in July as part of Silence at Sea.

In other news my new album is now recorded and ready to be mixed/polished. It's called 'Fight My Battles For Me' and will be released as soon as is physically possible to lavish applause and alarums. More on this soon.

See you at gig near you

p.w.l.

Hi All,

My TV debut on ITV Wales’ ’Unsigned’ (yeah I know) programme can now be seen online here:



Includes the tree of knowledge video (which must be worth watching again) and an in studio performance of ’Perfection or a Simple Life’ which is not mimed even a little.

Gig News:

2nd April at London The Fly w/The Research.

love and splendour,

p.w.l. x

Go fuck yourself you sad little man. I considered writing a song about you but you don't deserve any more of my time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7289306.stm

p.w.l.

As part of their 'One Man Band Month' I did a Q&A with Kruger Magazine. Learn about my extraordinary lifestyle here:

http://www.krugermagazine.com/content/view/1419/10994/

Also here's another one I did a while ago with Cardiff journo Lynn Roberts writing about the Swn festival:

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dd9ggppf_56g36vjhcf&pli=1