{"id":7396,"date":"2020-07-14T09:30:14","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T13:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=7396"},"modified":"2021-11-15T09:55:38","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T14:55:38","slug":"close-lobsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/close-lobsters\/","title":{"rendered":"Close Lobsters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Though their jangly guitars and penchant for pop melodies bore some of the hallmarks of the so-called C86 sound, more than anything else what united the Close Lobsters with the other acts on the NME\u2019s<\/i> legendary cassette compilation was an ethos of self-made ingenuity. Born in the Scottish town of Paisley (about 10 miles east of Glasgow) in 1985 out of a surprisingly thriving punk scene, the Scottish five-piece\u2014singer Andrew Burnett, drummer Stewart McFayden, bassist Bob Burnett, and guitarists Graeme Wilmington and Tom Donnelly\u2014followed the C86<\/i> inclusion of \u201cFirestation Towers\u201d with a series of releases for (appropriately enough) London\u2019s Fire Records. Their debut album, Foxheads Stalk This Land<\/i>, won accolades on both sides of the pond, with Rolling Stone<\/i> describing it as \u201cfirst-rate guitar pop from a top-shelf band.\u201d Such attention and airplay on college radio won the Close Lobsters a deal with EMI-backed Enigma Records, who released their second album, Headache Rhetoric<\/i>, in the States and brought them over to tour. The band seemed poised for bigger and better things.<\/p>\n

Sadly, it was not to be. With the \u201980s turning to the \u201990s and the future seemingly laid out in front of them, the Lobsters called it quits, partially due to exhaustion, but also because Andrew and Bob Burnett needed time to cope with the recent death of their brother. Even with Enigma shutting down around the same time, the question of what might had been was left hanging in the air.<\/p>\n

That answer has finally been answered, at least somewhat. All five original members regrouped in 2012 for Popfest in Madrid. More shows and a couple of EPs followed, revealing that it wasn\u2019t just a one-off. Finally, in February this year, the band released its first new full-length in 30 years, Post Neo Anti: Art Povera in the Forest of Symbols<\/i> (Last Night in Glasgow\/Shelflife Records). To say it lives up to the band\u2019s past would be an understatement. It bears the band\u2019s signature blend of buoyant guitars and fetching melodies, while still sounding very much like the next chapter and not simply a retread.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Close Lobsters\u2019 timing couldn\u2019t have been much worse. Like all of us, the pandemic forced the band had to put its plans on hold, with tour dates to promote the album cancelled before they were even firmed up. I caught up with Andrew on the phone to see what the future does hold for the band and to take stock of the past.<\/p>\n

How have you been doing with the whole pandemic and the lockdown?
\nAndrew Burnett:<\/b> It\u2019s very, very strange, isn\u2019t it? We had been planning to play a couple more shows to promote the album, which was released at the end of February. It was bad timing in that within about a month the entire world was in lockdown. As you know, the situation accelerated really quickly, and we didn\u2019t know how it was going to develop. So it affected our plans greatly.<\/p>\n

But you did sneak in one show in Glasgow before the lockdown, right?
\nAB:<\/b> We did. It\u2019s weird because now it seems like a million years ago and it was just a few months ago. A lot of people have reflected on it like, \u201cMy god! Is that the last gig I\u2019ll ever attend?\u201d It\u2019s all very weird, but we\u2019re all in the same boat, aren\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

So you had plans for more shows?
\nAB:<\/b> We had hoped to play some shows in Europe and the US, as we\u2019re still quite well-received in the US. But with the profound crisis of contemporary capitalism and its symptoms, i.e. Trump, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll be setting foot in the United States until some semblance of sanity re-establishes itself in North America.<\/p>\n

Have you taken any creative approaches to promote the album in lockdown?
\nAB:<\/b> We have a new remix of one of the key tracks about to be released digitally. It\u2019s \u201cLet the Days Drift Away,\u201d which has particular resonance for lockdown. It\u2019s almost scarily prophetic. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s the same elsewhere, but the sunsets we\u2019re enjoying in Scotland are spectacular, partially because there\u2019s very little air traffic. There\u2019s a notion in the song of living in end times. In the absence of being able to get together and make new music, we thought this track could do with an enhancement, so that\u2019s coming out at the beginning of August.<\/p>\n

The title of the album is quite a mouthful and refers to the Arte Povera movement, so I wanted to see if you could shed some light on that and how it relates to the songs on the record.
\nAB:<\/b> The title refers to the idea about the pathos of completion, the idea that we\u2019ve been living in the end times for quite awhile now. Prior to this pandemic, there\u2019s been this crisis of contemporary capitalism in terms of ecology and economics. So it\u2019s a statement about that, but also a self-referential thing about Close Lobsters and their reformation. We\u2019re \u201cpost\u201d and \u201cneo\u201d at the same time, and we\u2019re looking for some kind of new path, and this is the \u201canti.\u201d The \u201canti\u201d refers to the idea that we\u2019re living in a state of madness; what we\u2019re seeing with the pandemic is that it\u2019s shining a light on this issue. We can\u2019t go back to normal because the normal we existed in was insane. \u201cThe forest of symbols\u201d is taken from Charles Baudelaire\u2019s notion of modernity, where we are bombarded with signals, which we largely filter out. And do we filter out the most prescient and telling things or do we retain those? And \u201cArte Povera\u201d finally was a tongue in cheek reference to the fact that we didn\u2019t have a lot of funds to make this record. We didn\u2019t have a wealthy benefactor. The record was brought together as a documentation of the reformation of the band, but also as a means of making do with what we have.<\/p>\n

What instigated getting the band back together?
\nAB:<\/b> That\u2019s a good question because it\u2019s a difficult one. The planets were in alignment\u2014that\u2019s the best I can do. It was just the right time. We split up because of exhaustion and because great tragedy struck. A period of reflection was required and that period went on for some time. The tragedy is expressed in the song \u201cJohnnie.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was somebody in your family?
\nAB:<\/b> Yeah, he passed away. So there was an accumulation of things. We had gone to the States, and there was the idea that maybe we should stay in the States and press on. It was a very difficult decision at the time. We came home as it transpired. But there\u2019s almost this idea, do you take the right paths in life? Maybe we should have stayed in the States and persevered. Maybe there was unfulfilled potential.<\/p>\n

It seems like you made some real headway in the States, so I guess you were considering trying to capitalize on that?
\nAB:<\/b> It was certainly a consideration. Who knows what would have transpired? But as it was, we were exhausted. We had been on a couple tours and we were very, very tired. That kind of made the decision for us.<\/p>\n

Did you feel like you more well-known in the States than in the UK?
\nAB:<\/b> Very much so and that precipitated the decision to go there in the first place. We always considered ourselves better received in the States than in Europe and the UK.<\/p>\n

Out of curiosity, did you ever play in my home state of Ohio?
\nAB:<\/b> Yeah, we played in Cleveland. Were the Dead Boys from Cleveland? I have it in my mind that Cleveland is exactly like watching the Dead Boys play \u201cSonic Reducer.\u201d I\u2019ve been trying to get the band to do a cover of \u201cSonic Reducer\u201d for some time.<\/p>\n

Tell me more about Paisley. Were there other bands there when you were starting out?
\nAB:<\/b> We half-jokingly refer to Paisley as Glasgow\u2019s outer suburbs because in effect it\u2019s connected to Glasgow geographically. It\u2019s like an enclave. Many of the group members are of Glaswegian stock. But there\u2019s kind of a local controversy because some people fiercely believe that it\u2019s an independent town and others think of it as a suburb of Glasgow.<\/p>\n

But what\u2019s interesting about Paisley is that because it\u2019s a separate town from Glasgow, during the punk rock era, when punk was banned from Glasgow, a lot of the early punk rock gigs happened in Paisley rather than Glasgow. The hysteria reached Glasgow and the authorities decided they didn\u2019t want these zombies playing their shows there, so they came here. That then produced a really good punk scene in Paisley, and we came out of that as a post-punk offspring, if you like. There was a whole range of groups that we played with and referenced. Defiant Pose, X-S Discharge, The Church Grims, The Living Room, Urban Enemies, and The Muldoons are all Paisley-ish.<\/p>\n

Did you feel a connection to the other stuff going on at Glasgow at the time?
\nAB:<\/b> Not particularly, no. The only band would be the Clouds, who became Teenage Fanclub. We had a better connection with the June Brides in London. Tom and I used to run a webzine called Ferocious Apache<\/i>, and we interviewed the June Brides. We went to London and saw them play a few times, built up a friendship with them, and eventually did some shows together in London and Glasgow. But other groups of the era that we liked were the Go-Betweens, the Wedding Present, and especially for me personally, the Big Flame from Manchester.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen you make reference to \u201cThe Sound of Young Scotland,\u201d so did you feel like you had more in common with the Postcard stuff?
\nAB:<\/b> Oh definitely! We really loved Orange Juice and Josef K. We were really big fans of Orange Juice, and they had an impact on the development of the group. In a fey, camp way, Orange Juice challenged the stereotypes of the punk rock identity. So they drew us away from that and towards a more pop ethos. So yeah, Orange Juice was hugely influential; the first album was particularly monumental. Prior to that, in the early \u201880s, we were finding a new thing, a post-punk idea that wasn\u2019t sure where it was going. There were several different factions emerging. Soft Cell was a big influence for us as well; we did a cover of \u201cSay Hello, Wave Goodbye.\u201d We were finding where we were going and it was unsure before then.<\/p>\n

Did you have a epiphanic moment when you felt like found your sound or your voice?
\nAB:<\/b> I think the key point in the development of the group is when I enlisted Tom as guitarist. Prior to that, we were a four-piece and were more rocking. We used to do covers of things like Flesh for Lulu and Nikki Sudden. When we got Tom in, it opened up new avenues, and it developed into a fusion of Neu and the Go-Betweens. From that, the band developed its own persona.<\/p>\n

Getting back together, did you feel like you picked up where you left off or did it take you awhile to get your footing again?
\nAB:<\/b> It was very strange in that it was very immediate. The first show we played was in Madrid in 2012, and it was phenomenal. We couldn\u2019t believe how good it was, and we knew it was the right thing to do. It was almost like the outpouring of all that unfulfilled potential. So it was very easy. We knew what we were doing and what we wanted to do.<\/p>\n

Did you feel any trepidation like you had to live up to your past?
\nAB:<\/b> No, not at all. The crown does not weigh heavy, if I can be so pompous. We weren\u2019t particularly well-known; we\u2019re very niche, very obscure, so we don\u2019t have a lot of expectations on us.<\/p>\n

But do you feel like your reputation had grown in the intervening years? Having the boxset must have surely raised your profile a bit.
\nAB:<\/b> Yeah, it did. When we were referred to at the Popfest as \u201cthe legendary Close Lobsters,\u201d we realized this was a possibility we could explore. The idea of that prefix, \u201cthe legendary\u201d\u2014terrific! There was this opportunity to play the Popfests, so we played Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Milan, New York. But we never felt any weight on our shoulders or expectations.<\/p>\n

Did you have it in the back of your mind that this might happen some day, like there was unfinished business that the Close Lobsters needed to take care of?
\nAB:<\/b> Yes, very much so, and how it was going to be expressed was the only real question. Like many bands, we\u2019re music fans, just like our fans are. It\u2019s a love of music so it had to be expressed somehow.<\/p>\n

I read that \u201cAll Compasses Go Wild\u201d was a song from 1991. Did you have other material left over when you guys called it a day?
\nAB:<\/b> Yeah, there are a few of them that have metamorphosed from where they were then. As I said, the band was interrupted by tragedy so it\u2019s almost like a ghost ship where everything was just left as it was. The band just kind of stopped. It\u2019s interesting doing that with a song, updating it. You retain some aspects of it, but give it older and wiser nuances. \u201cAll Compasses Go Wild\u201d used to be called \u201cSteel Love\u201d and it had a humorous late-80s sensibility. Now, \u201cAll Compasses Go Wild\u201d speaks to this current malaise we\u2019re in, like lost direction, and I think it\u2019s much better as a result. \u201cNow Time\u201d is also a track from wayback. We originally recorded it in a studio in Glasgow and the building that the studio was in burned down. We were still doing some stuff then\u2014I think we played King Tut\u2019s Wah Wah Hut in 1990\u2014but then things just stopped and there were all these threads left dangling, some of which we\u2019ve picked up.<\/p>\n

As far as the new songs go, do you think your songwriting is much different either in approach or thematically?
\nAB:<\/b> We pretty much go about it in the same way, but personally speaking, as the lyricist, I think it\u2019s developed enormously. There\u2019s much more depth and resonance, whereas before it was more surreal. When I was younger, I was influenced by William Burroughs\u2019 cut up method. Now it\u2019s more structured and has more depth of meaning. For example, the first album is called Foxheads Stalk This Land<\/i>. We wanted to call it \u201cFuckheads Stalk This Land\u201d because they do! But that would have barred us from any exposure. You know The Fall song \u201cNo Christmas for John Quays?\u201d He\u2019s saying \u201cno Christmas for junkies,\u201d but instead said \u201cJohn Quays.\u201d So were influenced by that. These days the song titles are much more explicit. The second album, interestingly, we were going to entitle \u201cThese Scottish Bastards Should Have No Human Rights,\u201d which is a direct quotation of a conservative MP in the late \u201880s. Instead, we decided for the more sober Headache Rhetoric<\/i>. Now, I think the lyrics are much more expressive.<\/p>\n

Apparently, you started the album in 2014. Was there any real reason it took five years?
\nAB:<\/b> It was partially the Arte Povera, but to be honest the album itself didn\u2019t really crystallize as an idea until 2019. When we finally got around to it, it seemed natural and fitting to include the material we had recorded until then as a kind of document of the Post Neo Anti Close Lobsters from 2012 to now. That was the rationale behind it: necessity and what we wanted to produce as an album. Given that it\u2019s been 30 years since we last released an album, we wanted to make it as coherent as possible. I hope we\u2019ve achieved that.<\/p>\n

Assuming that we go back to some sort of normalcy, what do you see in the future for the Close Lobsters?
\nAB:<\/b> Ideally, we\u2019ll return to Europe and produce more stuff. We\u2019ve written some new songs, so there are some things in the pipeline, but it\u2019s really difficult to see how things are going to be in the future, particularly in the realm of live performances. So who knows?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though their jangly guitars and penchant for pop melodies bore some of the hallmarks of the so-called C86 sound, more than anything else what united the Close Lobsters with the other acts on the NME\u2019s legendary cassette compilation was an ethos of self-made ingenuity. 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