Anton Newcombe needs no introductions. As founder member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, he has a recording career spanning a decade-and-a-half, and next month sees his band release their thirteenth full-length album, My Bloody Underground. Recorded between Liverpool and Reykjavik at the back end of last year, as well as the latest incarnation of his band it also features contributions from several little-known Icelandic musicians and ex-Ride frontman Mark Gardener.
Of course, most people won’t associate Anton Newcombe with a long-standing recording career. Instead, he shot to fame – if those are the right words – for his role in the documentary Dig!, which was largely centred on the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s deteriorating relationship with The Dandy Warhols. Anyone familiar with this cinematic gem, then, will be only too aware of Newcombe’s difficult personality, something DiS is about to encounter first-hand.
Dig!, we are already forewarned, is absolutely off limits during the interview; so much so, in fact, that we are told Newcombe will simply abort the interview if we even dare to mention it, so for the purpose of today, we don’t. What we didn't realise, however, was that a simple question about his band’s long-term recording career would produce a similar effect…
It’s a cold Friday morning in the middle of February, and Anton Newcombe is holed up with his teenage Welsh bride in London’s Colombia Hotel. We’re his final appointment of the day; indeed of this whole promotional exercise. As soon afterwards he’ll be flying back to the States…
- - -
Hello, this is DrownedinSound, how are you doing?
Hey man, I’m doing fine. I’ve heard great things about that website which is probably a lot different to what you’ve heard about me…
You’ve got a big following on DiS, Anton. A lot of people are genuinely interested in both you and the band.
Right. Well that’s cool. If you just e-mail our website we can send you YouTube links to videos we made for all of the songs on our new record if you or your site wants to use them. They’re not the finished article but we thought it would be good to let people in on the recording process for the record. We shot 19 videos – art pieces mainly, I guess, as they don’t specifically relate to anything. We just did them in Iceland as our way of saying we can do whatever we fucking want.
Your new album is called My Bloody Underground and is said to be your tribute to The Velvet Underground, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus And Mary Chain…
Get the fucking Mary Chain out of it. We already had bands before they did. I was listening to the same music that the Reid brothers were in 1984. That’s why I saw them with Bobby Gillespie; their first fucking US show. I don’t understand why you’re thinking My Bloody Valentine either…
You’re quoted as saying it.
Well, if you listen to their Ecstasy And Wine record that’s a fucking tribute to The Cramps. I don’t know what you’re thinking about My Bloody Valentine because I can provide recordings and videos that go way back before Spacemen 3 and all that shit; I just don’t think you understand Californian culture.
So what are you trying to say?
That it’s not like the Sex Pistols who invented punk rock y’know? It’s all just bullshit, youth culture run amok. It’s not like I consider myself a punk rocker; it’s more a case that I’ve been into the best music of all time forever. Since I was two years old I started buying records and now I’m 40 years old. That’s 38 years. It didn’t just happen as part of some neo-shoegaze revivalist bullshit. Before there was Oasis we got offered a deal by Alan McGee in 1992.
Really?
Yes really. Ask Joe Foster (co-founder Creation Records). You can ring him, so you’ve gotta understand we were doing this way before the likes of Mark Gardener started Ride. This is one of the reasons he’s on our new record; we’re friends, we go way back, but he was influenced by us. We’re not Johnny-come-latelys who thought they’d give this sound a go because it’s currently in fashion y’know.
I don’t think anyone has ever accused you of doing that.
They have, believe me, they have. I was detuning guitars way before Sonic Youth existed. No seriously, I was deconstructing and detuning guitars in 1978 aged 11 way before Thurston Moore had picked one up and Kevin Shields was learning how to play Cramps records, so you do the math. I was trying to create sounds for my band in my garage then. I wanted to make sounds that no-one else was doing back then. Even the neighbours complained to my mom at the time because of the noise…
So are you saying that My Bloody Valentine would never have ended up with the sound they did if it wasn’t for you?
Well, I mean, I love Kevin (Shields) and I think it’s great that he’s got his new record to go; the word on the street is that he’s finished the cover artwork so… people get mistaken between what people’s rights and privileges are, y'know? I mean, he’s not a fucking monkey at the zoo, so if he wants to take as long as he likes to make a record that’s his prerogative.
But going back to the original question…
I don’t know really. I mean, I’d be hard-pressed to create anything that would be halfway as decent as anything on his last record. Him, Bilinda and Colm are just wonderful people y’know. He’s already contributed more to music than any of the bands in fucking NME put together. Fuck the Gorillaz. Fuck Amy Winehouse. This is his reality. If he wants to fuck off for 15 years more power to him; he’s not a machine. I’m just glad that he’s felt comfortable enough to share some of his art.
You can hear a definite Loveless influence on two of your new album tracks, ‘Who Cares Why’ and ‘Just Like Kicking Jesus’.
On the demo versions on the website maybe but wait ‘til the mastered version hits the shops; it’s gonna blow that stuff out the water. You have to understand that he developed his thing with Pro Tools after me and my friends had already started doing it. We were using Sound Designer and they developed Pro Tools. He just made a much better audio sculpture than we could at that time. He did it masterfully within the audio environment and technical realm he was given, period, much better than I could ever do it. But I was doing that shit way before him; what he had were the skills, the programs, the timing. It’s like all the ducks were in a row, says the hunter. He had all those things together; I mean, I don’t feel jealous – it’s more about feeling in awe.
So the 'My Bloody' segment of the album’s title isn’t about My Bloody Valentine then?
You have to understand that the word 'Bloody' is an English slang cuss word for 'Fucking', so in actual fact this record is My Fucking Underground. I just thought it would be funny to call it that; I guess it’s my sense of humour fucking around with the English language.
Something else you have in common with Kevin Shields is the fact that you both seem to be constantly striving for some kind of unachievable perfection in sound.
Well if you listen to the new record you’ll probably realise it was all recorded in one take. We just made them up as we were going on, took a bunch of drugs, did some more on the end of a track, went out with friends, created some more of the track, y’know. I gave everyone a pep talk at the start; it was along the lines of “You’ll never have to play this live or even again if you give it your best shot”. We’d put on an LCD Soundsystem record for an hour and then I’d just say to the band “Right, let’s beat that!” Y’know, that kinda thing.
You’ve already mentioned your long-term friendship with Mark Gardener but this is the first time you’ve worked with him on a recording. How did this come about?
We were meant to be doing this festival called Truck in Oxford and there was a flood this year (last year – Ed). Mark’s house was one of the ones that completely got flooded, and the whole festival site was underwater and I got a phone call to say it had been cancelled. My response was “Oh no it hasn’t!” and we got in touch with the Oxford Technical College, because you can’t have 8,000 lunatics descending on the city raving and going mad with no show while all the local police were helping old ladies move their stuff; and so they let us have the festival in there instead and I made my band learn a couple of Ride songs and both Mark and Andy (Bell) asked if they could play on the songs with my group and I said “Yeah!”…
Andy Bell too?
Yeah, I know, it was the first time those two had played together since 1994. Andy’s just the greatest guy. I mean, I love him so much, but the main thing was all those people who’d come down for the festival had a show to go to. Anyway, as a reward for helping us out, we offered Mark a trip to Iceland to record with us and he agreed to do it…
Which two tracks does he appear on?
‘Monkey Powder’ and ‘Who Cares Why’.
What made you record a lot of the album in Iceland?
My son lives over there, and we’ve always travelled around a lot anyway so I guess it was an opportunity to broaden everyone’s horizons.
Whereabouts are you based at the moment?
Right now I’m based at the Colombia Hotel, W2, Lancaster Gate, Westminster, London… but I mean, that’s what I do, move around, so who cares, y’know.
How long are you staying in the UK?
I’m leaving pretty much straight after this conversation. I’m gonna have lunch with my wife who’s Welsh and my friend who’s come to see me then we’ll probably watch one more home improvement show on one of your UK television channels…
You’re not a fan of UK television then, I take it?
Well, it kinda blows German TV out of the water because that’s shit. I think someone like me would have a great future making good television programmes in Germany because they really suck at it. I mean, they build the best cars on the planet but they can’t put together a decent TV show!
Going back to the new album, some of the titles seem quite controversial – ‘Bring Me The Head Of Paul McCartney on Heather Mills’ Wooden Peg (Dropping Bombs On The White House)’ being the most obvious – yet there’s no real reference to the titles in the songs themselves.
Have you listened to the lyrics?
To be honest, on the recording I have they are largely indecipherable.
Well let me…“Oh God it’s dropping down from heaven and it’s bringing the word/the wicked fucking sound that you never have heard”… you’ve got to figure it out man. Y’know, “Lock up your fucking daughters for Jesus’ sake”. What is it? I mean, I’m not going to spell it out for you, and the rest of the shit that’s in Icelandic is even heavier. It’s like with the song ‘Golden-Frost’; what we’re singing is “You fucking demons, give me my money and go back to hell, I rebuke you fucking devils, give me my money and go to hell…”
So who are you referring to in that song?
Everyone. Every single fucking hole on the fucking planet.
Seriously.
Yes, fucking seriously. This world sucks – it’s not like you’ve won the lottery by texting in double 6-0-5-9-2-3-1-4 and they give you £1,000 by being born in this fucking world! This is shit; everybody’s a fucking asshole. Period.
But surely there must be some good in the world somewhere, right?
My wife has an interesting physique and I find it pleasing.
What about the music you’ve been making over the years? Surely you must look through your back catalogue and feel proud of what you’ve achieved?
I’m not my fucking music! It doesn’t matter whether I’m the creator or not; that’s what you don’t get. Van Gogh was not his paintings – he was a fucking freak that cut off his ear. His paintings are here but that nigger’s dead, period. Henry Ford is a fucking Nazi and you’ve got people delivering your fucking pizza in a fucking Ford! The pizza’s got nothing to do with the car, it’s just your myopic perspective! It’s like you are not the story just because you may call yourself a journalist. That’s in your head.
I don’t how see any of this relates to your music, Anton.
Well that’s a fact. I don’t care what Leonardo Da Vinci shat after having lunch. It has nothing to with looking at David or Moses or any of those sculptures. I don’t care who Medici screwed; it has no effect when you’re looking at those paintings. When you’re looking at or listening to a work of art it has no effect who the creator screwed in the ass with the bone of a chicken that he ate on Saturday night in 1300BC as to whether or not I can enjoy the Rosetta Stone or something…
- - -
Sometimes I put them all on shuffle mode on iTunes. Mostly I only listen to them all when I feel like having a good cry. I open up the memorial book of Princess Diana and I put on the whole collection of my entire works and I look at the mounds of flowers at Buckingham Palace gates and I just weep. I mean, what are you asking me? It’s absurd…
Surely there has to be at least one defining moment of your career that you are most pleased about? A definitive album even…
Who fucking cares? I mean, you’re talking to a raving fucking lunatic that just insulted the memory of Dodi Fayed so who are you to ask?
Someone who is a fan of your music.
Well I don’t care if you’re a fan. I’m your friend. I’m just saying I’m not what I do, and what I did in 1996 or January 2004 or yesterday really has no effect on what I’m going to do next. As soon as I’ve finished this phone call – my wife is beautiful, my son’s better looking than anybody else in the family – I’m probably going to fuck her brains out but I’ll probably have dinner first. I mean it’s pretty overcast here so…
It’s pretty cold this time of year too.
Oh no! Maybe you should go to China where people can’t even get off the train platform 'cause it's snowing and overcrowded. I mean, you could be in Basra now getting the shit blown out of your Rover by a roadside bomb, so let’s put it into perspective again. There’s equality problems. You could always put on another jumper!
Good point…
…and I haven’t got a lot of respect for the armed services either. They are there for no fucking reason as far as I’m concerned. I couldn’t give a flying fuck about what record I liked. They’re all on the internet, it’s all for free, you can download it however many times you like… I mean, I don’t know what else I can do. It’s music, you’re supposed to listen to it, not have me talk about it. Let Amy Winehouse talk about her music, I don’t give a damn…
But back to your music and the way it has evolved over time…
You could go back to 1978 and see where I came from. I’m more interested in exploring theories of space, mankind and humanity. I’ve been completely underwhelmed with humanity for a long time and I create things because they speak against that mechanised mentality; that factory-and-farm-bred mentality that the educational process spits out, in a nationalistic football faggotry way of bullshit buggery, and the thing is, they can all go to hell.
Do you think these humanitarian issues are a worldwide problem?
Yeah, it’s definitely worldwide, but for now let’s deal with the humanity problems that concern us. I’m completely underwhelmed with Western culture; I mean, I was promised robot maids, trips to the moon, flying cars, everything you could possibly imagine! My whole fucking life, everything my country – my culture – has ever told me is a big fucking lie. I think people eventually give up and only do things because they feel they have to. Protesters only protest because they’ve nothing else to do.
So you’re basically saying that to protest against something in the 21st Century is akin to making a positive career move.
You know what, if you don’t protest against something before you’re 18 you’re basically full of shit, and if you’re still protesting by the time you’re 30 you’re wasting your time, unless you’re George Galloway or me, then you’re spot on mate!
You’re still protesting now then I take it…
Well here’s what I did: I put all my music on the internet for free, and I got over 90 million downloads, so you can’t argue with the results. I have Spyware, which means there’s a trade-off, in that I have each and every one of those people’s email addresses. What that means is I can say to them all “I did this for you…”. What that also means is I can phone up the ambassador for the Royal Albert Hall in London or Madison Square Gardens in New York - any venue anywhere in the world – and fill them in 30 minutes as I have 90 million users' e-mail addresses, something no-one else - even Dylan or U2 - could achieve. And that is the problem with this hairy-backed fucking business. Give me back my money motherfuckers, go back to hell motherfuckers…
When you put it like that, do you ever regret not signing to a major record label as 90 million sales could obviously earn you a lot of money?
Fuck You! Seriously, Fuck You. FUCK YOU! Why would I regret not signing to a major record label? I’ve outlasted every fucking label, even EMI. Fuck. Off. This conversation is over…(Slams receiver down).
- - -
The album My Bloody Underground is out through A Records on March 31.
For more information on the Brian Jonestown Massacre and to download all of their albums for free, visit the band’s website.
So the rumours of
him being a bit unstable, were just that then...
I can't work out how to download the albums eitherr
their website has changed, yeah?
...
Anton Newcombe is full of shit, but hey since when did musicians have to be nice, mentally stable people?
My Bloody Underground is incredible.
I HAVE to buy Dig!
Possibly
the best article I've read on DiS.
^^This
Brilliant!
What a brilliant interview
Thanks.
that is fantastic
what a great interview!
what
a twat
Jesus
Christ
come on
he's a true music lover. he was buying albums at 2. i wish i could make that claim.... good interview.
so what?
i bought an album when i was 2.
it was Wham!'s 'Fantastic', but even THAT doesnt give me the right to be a complete tool ;)
what just
happened??
Wow
What a grade A cunt.
so much of this is hillarious
one of many highlights;
How does it make you feel though when you listen back through all of your work?
Sometimes I put them all on shuffle mode on iTunes. Mostly I only listen to them all when I feel like having a good cry. I open up the memorial book of Princess Diana and I put on the whole collection of my entire works and I look at the mounds of flowers at Buckingham Palace gates and I just weep.
:D :D :D
the best bit is
"But surely there must be some good in the world somewhere, right?
My wife has an interesting physique and I find it pleasing."
That is frickin hilarious. Laugh? I almost shat.
"I was detuning guitars way before Sonic Youth existed"
Complete twat who doesn't really justify his twatishness with his fine but not life changing music but this interview did make me laugh and he makes a few valid points.
Ridiculous timing
I watched Dig last night, pretty coincidental. He actually comes across even more insane in this interview... I guess his insanity has just been increasing for the last few years.
You guys sounded like you were winding him up
so he would do exactly what he did do.
i rolled
him a fag once!
and i didn't even realise till afterwards.
Awesome
Nice work Dis.
The people who are saying he is a twat really do not understand. So glad he exists, a total original.
He really doesn't like people he doesn't know does he, I can understand that.
I've heard him on local radio/seen BJM live
it's really impossible not to wind him up. Seriously. I would say Dom did everything in his power *not* to get him frenzied.
BJM are ok, but no where near the myth Anton has created for himself. BJM *need* a major label; they need some quality control, eh.
I think it's sad that
people use his mental illness to make headlines. How many interviews are there where people ask these questions and he reacts badly? All of them, basically.
He goes off on one about how he's giving his music away for free and then DiS asks if he regrets not having 90 million albums sales in profit instead? C'mon, that was just inflammatory. Sometimes, when he'd disregarded a question that he clearly had no intention of answering, then DiS would press on it, that was obviously going to wind him up.
I dont like this band, nor Anton from what little I know of him, but what exactly did they expect? Sometimes it was like they were saying 'how about answering the actual question, asshole?'
At no point during the interview
was there any intention on my behalf to wind him up - I didn't need to do that as he made a pretty good job of it himself. That is why certain topics (Dig!, previous band members, other BJM-related artists) were not broached at any point during the conversation.
The final question was anything but inflammatory - it was a more tongue in cheek response to what he'd answered previous to that.
Thank god for mental illness
Anton Newcombe
fantasy friend.
Ask Joe Foster...
Guy sounds like a complete moron, albeit a highly entertaining one. I love how the interview starts all nice and light and then gradually descends into the deluded ravings of an egotistical madman.
I don't agree that the...
interviewer purposefully deployed inflammatory methods to get him to sound mad/deranged. Take the example that when the interview commented on the weather he got angry. He just seems like he reacts badly to ANY question.
Good grief
I don't agree that the questions were designed to wind him up - not even the last one... if you can't trade the odd tongue-in-cheek quip you have a problem.
So great article, but damn it he needs help.
Does anybody know how to downlaod the albums?
All I get is they come up on in some winzip thing but I can't get them on to itunes or anything.
I
still can't do it either.
does anyone else
think he looks like George Best in that photo?
nut-job/genius
wow
guy's got issues
he's fried his brain on truckloads of drugs
who knows which came first the chicken or the egg?
the guy is well paranoid sounding, with some form of messiah complex. i like some of his music and he's written one of my favourite songs ever, but the stuff he claims for himself is absurd.
buying records at 2, outdoing kevin shields, ride, sonic youth.
yeah you're talented but you're not the king and why do you need to be?
i suspect mr. gourlay suffered from not kow-towing in fear and gradually making his questions into ass-kissing nothingness ; instead he tried to actually continue the interview and extract something of relevance from the guy's big gob
i tried to download them too
some kind of weird alien language
file-not-recognised type issues
mebbe
it is a test
for true believers
Anton is funny. I like Anton. He is a crazy man. The world is full of such dullards that dude stands out a mile.
We should be grateful he remains underground. Too much successs might go to his head.
The Wheel? shit man, I was rolling rock downhill since the dark ages. Taught those cavemen everything.
No danger whatsoever of Anton losing his edge.
Thank heaven for that.
Try
playing them through the VLC player. (it's worked for me before) It's an easy one to download and use if you don't have it already.
Ha...
... that guy is a genius... a nutty borderline serial killer genius.
Anton is
actually a really nice guy with a lot of great things to say... I interviewed him once and we spoke for 2 and a half hours, so long that the tape ran out... But yeah, he is a nice guy, but if you poke him with a stick don't expect him not to bite...
Yeah...
I was talking to a guy who went on tour with him and said he was really sweet, but really volatile.
Excellent interview
I like how it finishes so abruptly. Anton Newcombe is clearly a very interesting man, but most of his answers had no relation to the questions asked...
Personally ,
I think the interviewer showed the patience of a saint while talking to an ego maniacal idiot. Mind you, it would be worse if he had arrived at these personality traits as a result of some modest success. It would appear, however, that he would be like this even if he had been working at KFC all his days. I guess that makes him an interesting guy to talk to. Reckon I would still have to kill him after 5 minutes though. Well done Dom.
nice interview
is the bjm site playin up for anyone else. i havent been able to get on for about a week
So he invented MBV
then?
he's wrong about bell & gardener
they've played together several times in the last few years, the first was in 2003
http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/music/2003/06/gardener.shtml
But right about...
being the reason Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine exist?
OK then, better let him off on that one!
the dandy warhols are from portland.
ok.
what...
...a fantastic piece.
That guy is hilarious.
Hahaha
He is even more deluded than I thought. And terrible attempt at controversy with the princess Di thing. He had to actually reiterate it.
I don't think there was one question on here that was intended to wind him up. If you take the questions out of context and apply them to, say, Sugababes, people would be saying "What a boring interview, why didn't you press them on such-and-such"
As it is with Anton, he seems to think that everything is a reason to get defensive. I think he's pissed off that he's never going to match the musical achievement of his heroes, as he hates when any influence is mentioned. He inverts it, "I am the influence!".
Yes. Ok. Shut up.
Cracking article
Top work, Dom. I'm impressed with how you held your own!
"enraging Anton, unintentionally"
apart from the EMI comment - which was an obvious wind-up.
other than that, this is a great read!
I didn't mention EMI -
He did.
ok then, "major label".
Surely a valid question though
in the context of his previous answer?
for almost any other interviewee,
maybe! ;-)
but you could surely tell from his state of mind by that point, that he was probably not going to respond well to it.
i'm not complaining tho - it's a great ending.
space
anton is diluted. spaceman 3 wipes him off the map. on sonic youth comment,he was detuning at 11? really? i guess thats why he drinks so much. he has to mask the pain of not being the creative force given to all musicians on the planet. I bestow my musical forces upon thee...i am antonian. the great giver of musicals. what a fucking loon.
truth is i still think he's a great songwriter. as a person he's fucked. or he's just shattered from his drug use. whatever. california culture is so sophisthtikated.
Yeah I agree!
Im sure he heard of Spacemen 3 before they had heard of him, if you know what I mean, same with the Mary Chain.
oh
and another thing...he likens himself to george galloway? george galloway has a long standing career as a politician. the only political action anton has ever taken is copy and pasting articles on myspace.
wow
lovely man. and clearly better than everyone else on the plant. also: i heard he invented sliced bread "I was there at the beginning, man! i was slicing bread before Hovis even existed! Fucking Hovis stole my idea. You should all be thanking me..>"
Amazing
I love him.
That's the best
interview i've read in ages...insane.
Why
the racist language?
"His paintings are here but that nigger’s dead, period. Henry Ford is a fucking Nazi and you’ve got people delivering your fucking pizza in a fucking Ford!"
Wow... That is a real contradiction in terms, isn't it?
Apart from that - as long as he is happy with nothing but his woman's physique, and that does him, then fantastic.
Listen to..
... all the above videos all at once and it's much more interesting than each of them on their own. Or maybe you'd prefer the sonics of a dentist's drill?
Also: the title of this article is erroneous. That man is always enraged, provocation uneccessary. I hope Dom Gourlay had a long lie down post-speak, anyway.
Anton loves Joel too- The Dilettantes are coming
Catch Joel Gion and his band over the next 10 days- He loves Anton too.
It's about a good song- the rest is dips and chips, and deli trays. Anton gets that- Joel too- it's all about a great song.
Mar 21 2008 8:00P
Sonic Cathedral - Free Show! London, UK
Mar 22 2008 8:00P
The Dream Machine Festival Sheffield, UK
Mar 23 2008 8:00P
Korova Bar Liverpool, UK
Mar 24 2008 8:00P
The Barfly Glasgow, UK
Mar 25 2008 8:00P
Flapper Birmingham, UK
Mar 26 2008 8:00P
The Social Nottingham, UK
Mar 27 2008 8:00P
The Cellar Oxford, UK
Mar 29 2008 8:00P
Psychodahlia Club London, UK
http://www.myspace.com/thedilettantes
how old
is his wife?
Cripes!
This was an utterly brilliant read.
And really cheered me up on a totally shit morning...nice work Dom.
I really don't see how anyone could think that the writer was baiting Anton at all. He clearly looks for an excuse to be outraged.
I interviewed him too
here:
http://thelineofbestfit.com/2008/03/18/an-interview-with-anton-newcombe/
^he's so nice in this interview
i guesshe just got kinda pissed off with that DiS interview being his last of the trip. i guess he had to do alot of interviews and recycle the same subjects.
i fucking love anton newcombe
a cunt and a king. a musical genius and a shit talker. a refreshing amount of self belief and a true outcast.
and he's totally genuine.
my hero.