wonderful Norwegian friend Jeron Gunderson. None of our drummers exploded, as far as we know.
Where/when was the first gig? Fat Pauly’s (behind Anglia Square - it smelt bad. The glamour!) in late 1998.
You have been very visual right from the very early days, why did this approach appeal to you? I come from an art background, I studied at the Royal College of Art. I saw De la Guarda in 1999 at The Roundhouse which had a tremendous impact on me, crazy Argentinian theatre with a live band, people swinging on trapezes above our heads in the (indoor) rain and it was just so shocking when the performers burst through the paper ceiling and abducted audience members. We sang, the performers came and danced with us, we were included. It was the most exhilarating performance that I'd ever experienced and definitely one of those moments that point at what's possible.
How did this lead to you becoming so experimental? The Neutrinos appear to have been constantly changing and developing both musically and stylistically. We like pushing the musical and instrumental boundaries, we enjoy experimental vocal stuff, extending our skills, that process never ends. We don’t just think the same thoughts every week, which means different music comes out. We don’t always like the music we make! Katie Tunstall once said, ‘You are not always in control of what comes out,’ I totally agree. Stylistically, we blend and bend musical styles and approaches. This doesn’t necessarily win us a large
audience but itkeeps us engaged, challenged and it’s a laugh!
In recent years you’ve been playing with the very concept of what a rock gig is. The traditional gig format had become unsatisfying to us. It can be an amazing experience and outlet, but it can also be predictable and conservative. Load the van, drive the van, unload the van, support band, middle band, headline, encore, security staff chuck you out, load van, drive van, get home at 4 in the morning etc. So, we definitely wanted to make the gigging experience as pleasant and enriching for ourselves as possible. Norwich Arts Centre has always been really supportive and helped us grow as musicians and artists, we owe the venue a huge debt of gratitude it has been a real home from home, a place to experiment and take chances.
Tell us about some of the unusual and interesting venues you’ve played in. Which provided the biggest challenges? OutReal Parties in Hackney 2000/2001 - a huge party space with lots of zones, holes in walls, stairs to nowhere, various sound systems resulting in everyone having a good time in different ways whilst saving rainforests.
Lots of London visits - Cargo, Water Rats, Little Backyard etc. All kinds of landmark events in their own right, but inevitably compromised - it is very difficult to maintain a profile in London without committing to a huge amount of time, travel and forceful effort.
White Trash Fast Food Berlin, fascinating, dark, moody and very exciting, between acts there were ladies wrestling in a paddling pool full of spaghetti.
Knitting Factory NYC. I remember thinking ‘people look the same wherever you go’ and then realising that I was actually looking at our friends from Norwich who’d turned up to surprise us. It was the coldest we’d ever been, walking over Brooklyn Bridge, on the way to a gig at Arlenes Grocery, wind like a knife. Exit Festival, Serbia 2008 - it was so hot we couldn’t think.
Kitchen, Toronto as part of NXNE, meeting Peaches post-conference and chatting about her ‘Impeach My Bush’ album. We got one of our best reviews ‘A force of nature’ and I was called the saviour of women in rock n roll and did loads of interviews.
The Funkhaus in Berlin, a magnificent former GDR radio station building - this is where music and art came
together in the same room for me and where life suddenly made sense.
Ghent at the Gensefeesten a 3am show with thousands of people on the streets of Belgium, all drunk but no trouble, no fighting.
Small Animal Hospital 2014, the first full KlangHaus which was a miraculous convergence of energy, collaboration, support, risk, trust we were unbelievably fortunate to be able to fully test our idea for forty-six performances during the wondrous insanity of the Edinburgh Festival.
Southbank - KlangHaus:On Air in 2016 and then KlangHaus:800 Breaths in 2017 and then this year’s Concrete Dreams - perhaps our biggest challenge so far because we had create something that didn’t involved us playing live.
KlangHaus has been a huge hit, tell us how it started, developed and changed. It grew quite naturally out of the process behind our last album The Butcher Of Common Sense. We took a group of artists to Berlin, played with music, photography, film, the fabric of the building its ghosts and stories… It became obvious to us that working in that kind of way; nosing around buildings, researching their history and stories and
OUTLINEONLINE.CO.UK / DEC 2018-JAN 2019 / 11
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