sorry, I failed you, I didn’t raise you right”. But then, if your music doesn’t somewhat scare your momma, you’re not doing it right! Tere have been songs I’ve been unable to put on our albums as my mother-in-law always buys our albums; I really wish she wouldn’t do that! Tere’s one song we do called I Wish I Was You So I Could Fuck Me; My wife’s mother stopped making me Beef Stroganoff for a while after she heard that song. Do you have a favourite tune you like performing live? It depends on the audience. I do like
songs remind you of the good times or the better times, buddy. What can I say?! USA Today said out Kiss My Grass record was the worst record of the year in 2003! Tat takes some doing! As you play loads of covers, do you have to pay a lot in royalties? You have to pay royalties to the songwriters; it’s something like 85p per record subdivided by the number of songs on the record. Tat gets paid before I see anything, so I don’t really know how much I’m losing. Whenever you play a live set you have to fill out a
I’m Keeping Your
Poop..for an audience that’s never seen us play before; when it gets to the chorus I love seeing that moment of being caught between attraction and disgust. I watch them straddle that one. For a folk audience I really like playing Highway to Hell because it scares the shit out of ‘em. We’ve got a version of We’re Not Gonna Take It on our new album that I’m looking forward to playing live; we’ve done it like a campfire song, and the way we sing it you can really hear the words. Tat track could have been written by Woody Guthrie, man; it’s got that whole We Shall Overcome vibe. What sort of reaction have you had from the press? Well we’re hoping We’re Not Gonna Take It gives us a level of credibility we’ve always lacked. Did you know that the guitarist from Chumbawumba gave one of our albums one star in Record Collector in 2006? I’m sorry none of these
18 / January 2015 /
outlineonline.co.uk
“Tey’d never make a film like Spinal Tap about country music!”
form for PRS saying what songs you played and who wrote them. In a Hayseed show it’s usually half songs I wrote and half other people’s songs. Te thing about being in the music industry is you can’t rely on one source of income; it’s best to have a lot of little things going at the same time and that way your kids can eat chicken most nights. You’ve recorded some songs in other languages and have toured all over the world. What have you learnt on your travels? A reasonable amount actually. If you turn up and you ask people questions about their town people always want to tell you about it. What historically has made this town tick? What drives the economy now? What’s real life on the ground like for an average dude in Turso or wherever? I know more about it than a lot of politicians do because my job has allowed me to go
an hang out with these people night after night. It’s been very interesting and I feel really lucky. Have you had the opportunity to learn about traditional music from different countries? Most folk music honestly is generally pretty similar across Western civilisations; it’s all based on the same 12 note scale, roughly the same time signatures, the melody lines tend to resolve in roughly the same way; it’s all based on Bach really! Te stories are all about roughly the same things. If you go to places where people have a higher standard of living their songs are darker, and when people have shittier lives their songs are a lot happier. If you go to Mexico it’s all happy, and if you go to Norway it’s all “BURN DOWN THE CHURCH!” You play covers of a lot of older songs, but what modern music do you like? Left to my own devices, I’d sit and play piano all day. I do quite like Ben Folds, he writes quite quirky songs, and I actually think Bruno Mars’ record is cool! I think he’s a pretty good singer writing decent songs. He’s not 100% my thing, but I think he’s pretty good at what he does. Other than classical music, which I what I mostly listen to, that’s about it. It’s
pretty hard to talk about Rachmaninoff or Bach, but they’re hard to top! Do you consider Hayseed Dixie to be a folk band? No, I’ve always thought of us as a rock band. It just so happens that we play instruments which are more associated with folk music. I never thought the presentation, the attitude or the music of the band ever had anything to do with folk music, or anything like what people from Nashville would compare to country music. Tey’d never make a film like Spinal Tap about country music! Lizz Page
MORE INFORMATION Hayseed Dixie play the
Waterfront on 18th January. Tickets from
www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk
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