1.First of all, could you tell us about your band? When was it formed?
- The band was originally formed in 1982 in the days in England when pubs used to close for the afternoon. Some friends had been drinking in the pub and had to find something to do to keep them occupied until the pub reopened. They decided to make music to pass the time, The Hotknives was born.
2. Who are in the lineup?
- The line-up of the band is Mark Carew - lead vocals/bass, Clem - drums/backing vocals, Stuart Brown - guitar/backing vocals, Richard 'Bosky' Allen - keyboards/vocals
3.Does the band's name have a meaning?
- Hotknives is a way of smoking cannabis. There were lots of people doing this around the time that the band was formed and so the band name was inspired by this.
4. As a band, who/what are your influences?
- We have many influences, predominantly Jamaican ska and reggae, two tone ska, punk, psychobilly, northern soul, indie and bands such as The Police, The Cure, Blur etc.
We're particularly into songs with strong melodies.
5. Are any of the band members working with other bands on any projects?
- Mark is the lead singer and double bass player with psychobilly band - The Long Tall Texans; he also plays bass with the Astro Zombies. Stuart sometimes works on projects on Cuban music in Cuba. I'm going to be working on a project in the future with a couple of guys from my previous band - Too Many Crooks.
6. What do you think about your new album?
- We're very happy with our new album. It's had some very positive reviews and we feel very lucky to still be listened to in the ska scene after a 10 gap from our previous album.
7. Did you feel something different about your new album that you didn't feel about your last album?
- About Time was going back to the roots of the band with some of the songs. We worked with a producer - King Glover - who we hadn't worked with before and we're very happy with the sound of the album. I think the dynamics between the happier songs and the more melancholy songs might be more with this album. The engineer who mastered the album described it as schizophrenic!
8. If you were to cover a song, which song would you want to cover?
- We've recorded a couple of covers : - D'yer mak'er by Led Zeppelin on our previous album 'Screams Dreams and Custard Creams'. We also recorded Martha and the Muffins - 'Echo Beach'. We're touring as a package with Mark Foggo in October and we may do a cover of Ian Dury's 'Hit me' for the tour.
9. what do you think about ska scene in the world today?
- It's great that the ska scene is always regenerating and finding its way to new countries, it's a great subculture. It's such an infectious genre of music that you can't help but dance to it.
We play mostly in Europe and we're lucky enough to get to see lots of different styles of ska bands from all over the world.
10 Do you have any plans to tour Southeast Asian countries? Like maybe Indonesia?
- We'd love to tour South East Asia, if any promoters out there are reading this interview, please get in touch. The nearest we've been so far was our tour of Japan in 2008 and we had an amazing time.
11, Any final comments for webculturezine?
- Thanks for the questions, keep on skanking and cheers from England!
WEBCULTUREZINE
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