Music > Interviews

The Neutrinos

10/12/18

 How did the band come together?

We’d all been in different bands but had worked together in various combinations, for example both Jon (Baker, bass) and Mark (Howe, guitar and vocals) were involved with Community Music East. So, I think we were drawn to each other - musical like-minds, a certain kind of aesthetic, which I think was galvanised as Sal became more involved with the visual element. As a group of people we manifested a certain kind of work ethic, not afraid of working really hard in order to make the thing that you want to have happen, happen!
 
We’d all been releasing records, going up and down the UK, touring Europe, we were experienced but wanted something different… we didn’t know what that was but the drive and impulse was there.
 
We were writing material together and working with Simon Attwood on guitar and Paul Weston on drums before Mark joined the band…. Speaking of drummers, so very many: Gareth Trice, Steve Barney, Lee Tallowin, SimonBob, Joe Hancy, Pip, Cath Evans, Tom Johnson, Taz, Trix - currently our wonderful Norwegian friend Jeron Gunderson. None of our drummers exploded, as far as we know.

 
Where/when was the first gig?

Fat Pauly’s (a dark demi-monde 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 went to see De la Guarda in 1999 at The Roundhouse which had a tremendous impact on me, it was 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 wereincluded. It was the most exhilarating performance that I'd ever experienced and definitely one of those moments that point at what's possible; the importance of allowing the imagination to roam without pinning things down too much, then looking at what it would take to make an idea a reality.
 
How did this approach lead to you becoming so experimental?

The Neutrinos appear to have been constantly changing and developing both musically and stylistically. We’ve always been experimental in our musical approach, we like pushing the musical and instrumental boundaries, we enjoy experimental vocal stuff, extending our skills, that process never ends. I also think the ‘experimental’ label just reflects who we are, it’s an insight into our heads… 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! I remember Katie Tunstall saying, ‘You are not always in control of what comes out,’ I totally agree. Stylistically, we like to blend and bend musical styles and approaches, of course, this doesn’t necessarily win us a large audience but it keeps 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 a little predictable and somewhat conservative even, you know, 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/playing experience as pleasant and enriching for ourselves as possible. One of the places that has always really supported us and helped us grow as musicians and artists and to whom we have a huge debt of gratitude is Norwich Arts Centre. For us 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 - an example of 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 - All kinds of landmark events in their own right, but inevitably for us, compromised - it is very difficult to maintain a profile in London without committing to a huge amount of time, travel and forceful effort and definitely one of the things that inspired us to think differently and creatively about what we were doing and what we wanted to achieve.
 
White Trash Fast Food - Berlin - fascinating, dark, moody and very exciting, between acts there were ladies wrestling in a paddling pool full of spaghetti and screaming hordes.
 
Knitting Factory NYC - I remember thinking ‘God people look the same wherever you go’ and then realising that I was actually looking at our friends Dave Guttridge, Karen Hill, John and Emma Skinner 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 having a conversation about her ‘Impeach My Bush’ album - it was very liberating and useful to hear a whole bunch of people talking coherently and intelligently about music. We got one of our best reviews ‘A force of nature’ and I was called the saviour of women in rock n roll. We did loads of interviews, the most memorable was at the top of the CN Tower.
 
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.
 
De Nieuwe Anita with our friends in Amsterdam. Relaxed, permission to try new experimentation in music; gentle, sophisticated and cool.
 
Ghent at the Gensefeesten a 3am show with thousands of people on the streets of Belgium, all drunk but no trouble, no fighting. SimonBob had heat-stroke and Jon had to carry an amp up a ladder with a blind man.
 
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 with the amount of space we had at Summerhall 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 to hand the show over and design something which involved us not 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, photographs, 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 its history and stories and particularly constructing music and art to fit the space, was enjoyable for us, for the audience and, because of the install nature of the show, would mean that we'd only have to load the van once. After a bit of experimentation at various unconventional venues in Norwich we began to establish an approach to performance that integrated our collective experience, interests and aspirations.
 
Another trigger was, ‘Singing the Building’ at Sage Gateshead - this was a project that Jon was involved with and many of the ideas from that translated really well, singing in the underbelly and hidden corners of the amazing Norman Foster-designed building.
This naturally translated to another Foster building, The Sainsbury’s Centre. We were invited to play their late nights, and took full advantage of pushing our art friends who worked there, to allow us to perform gigs in the dark, in locked corridors, muck about with the tannoy and play monstrous sounds behind the inner skin of the building. Thanks guys!
 
We played Empty Shop gigs in Norwich - look, there is a band in the shop window. Look, there is a band in the cupboard. Where is that noise coming from? We need to thank Jason from Kinki hair salon for initially allowing us to do that.
 
Westlegate Tower (during the refurbishment), perhaps the first of the promenade shows, dabbling in extremes of light and shade, very quiet and very loud within the concrete shell of what used to be a McDonald's restaurant replete with residual fat dangling from outlets in the ceiling…
 
Our House - Sound and Vision 2013 - the first time we experimented with repeat shows in quick succession. Our house made a very small venue so we thought, okay, let’s do three back to back shows so that lots of people can experience what we are doing. I love how practical issues can open up news ways of working.
 
Concrete Dreams was an exhibition/installation you created for the reopening of London’s Royal Festival Hall. How did this come about and are you planning anything else similar?

Concrete Dreams happened for us because the Assistant Director of the Southbank saw KlangHaus 800 Breaths and it inspired her. She was in charge of the re-opening celebrations of the newly refurbished Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery and had to somehow invite the public into the buildings and show them the heritage, the history and wow them. We were doing just that in the roof spaces next door in the Royal Festival Hall, as I’m sure she didn’t put it herself, ‘it was a no-brainer’, haha.

 
Do you ever get nervous?

We’ve learnt to interrogate the nerves a bit and we’ve been able to work out what they are for and to embrace them to some degree. It's one of the products of doing long runs and repeated shows, it's a very intense process, highly organised and with an incredible amount of things to think about at any one time. Of course, nerves are necessary, and to some degree they promote spontaneity and responsive performance.
 
Have you made it yet?

Haha. I've got this vivid memory of standing backstage, waiting to go on thinking, ‘We don’t have to ‘make it’…so liberating, noticing that we were in control and that we remain in control as far as possible. This is simple but important, particularly in the context of the music business, which on the whole, we have managed to sidestep. I suppose we’re more into music than the music business, would be a simple way to put it. Not that there isn't a great deal of business around KlangHaus for example, much time is devoted to maintaining relationships, asking questions, establishing detail, planning, negotiating and so on but we recognise and regularly tell ourselves and each other that the music and the music making is at the heart of what we do.
 
What can we look forward to in from The Neutrinos in the future? Any new recordings in the pipeline?

Haha! Yes, we've been chipping away at some new things and collaborating with David Pye at Eve Studios in Stockport and Jonny Cole at The Mill Studio. Recording tends to be a slow process for us and one of the main challenges has been to try and convert or represent the KlangHaus experience, which is very much about being there in the room with us, in a way that makes sense. Our intention is to slowly reveal and release over the next few months. Hopefully, we have found something of a flow around creating and recording new material.
 
Naturally we are looking at ways of developing KlangHaus and it has always been our intention to take it international and there are several opportunities to do this in the pipeline.
The band are also very interested in immersive technologies, those ideas, kit and approaches which can effectively enhance the live music experience.
 
On January 26, we are celebrating our 20th anniversary with, something like a gig, at NAC, once again! We will be joined by the wonderful Graceland, a few surprises and further assistance from some of the amazing people that have helped us over the years.
 
Will there be another 20 years?
 
We have a saying, ‘The world may fall into the sea, but we’ll still have the band.’
 
Saturday 26 January 8pm
The Neutrinos 20thanniversary concert + special guests Graceland
Norwich Arts Centre St Benedicts Street Norwich NR2 4PG 01603 660 352
Tickets £9.50 advance, £11.50 on the door www.norwichartscentre.co.uk

Pics from Andi Sapey, Alex Bone, Gemma Pope and Xavier Marquis in that order