Artist: LIARS
Label:
Mute Records
Label Mates: Moby, Art Brut, Goldfrapp, Mekons, Richard Hawley. Here's the deal. Here's the BiG DeaL. That
shitty four-piece you've been in with your mates since Year 8 eventually managed
to get some daft industry type to hand over a blank cheque and to tell you were
going to be famous. Very famous. You wouldn't have to talk to your former classmates
at school. You wouldn't have to get up early. They only thing they didn't tell
you was that music was more than just writing songs and shaking your balls on
stage. It was about being there on time. Releasing something on time. It was about
being famous on time. And sometimes you just enrol on a Photography or Microbiology course and start arsing around on a four-track, rope in a couple of muscians from Nebraska, latch on to the much hyped Post Punk Dance scene, record your first full-length in a couple of days, issue a couple of low-key EPs, change-line up, reform, ditch label and sign for trusty and reputable Mute Records - home to Moby, Art Brut, Goldfrapp, Throbbing Grsitle, Richard Hawley, Pole, Miss Kittin, Mekons, and just about every other street-wise space-cadet that didn't make it onto either Domino or Warp. And then, just when you thought no one was looking, you slip in a tour of the US in September with Interpol and release one eerie, thrashing nightmare of a single to drag all manner of ancient noize demons kicking and screaming from the underworld. Interview with Angus Andrew. Single 'Plaster Casts of Everything' is out now.
How did the band first come together?
We met at a party at school in LA and began writing songs between classes. After school we moved to NYC and began Liars.
What were the first songs you started playing together?
We never played other people's songs...we were always trying to write and record on a 4-track. The first one we wrote was a punk song called " Something to Talk About". After that we must have written 100 before moving to NY. After that we wrote at least another 100 in Brooklyn before our first recording.
What do you remember about your first gig?
There was a bar in a subway around 59th St in Manhattan. We were told to clear out the garbage and empty kegs to make room for a stage. I was so nervous i couldn't handle waiting to play. They kept telling us to wait and wait. By the time we started I had taken all the wrong stimulants... I don't recall much after that.
How did you get signed?
We toured the US for 3 months playing every house and bar we could find. By the time we got back to NY there were people calling us from labels. It was at the last show of that tour in a junkyard in Brooklyn that we met Paul Smith from Mute.
How did you blow your advance?
When we met Paul Smith from Mute we were so broke we asked him for cash out of his pockets. He didn't have that much so we got him to go to an ATM and get us $200 each. At that point in our lives that was an incredible amount of cash! I'm pretty sure we paid rent with that advance.
The first famous person you met and the circumstances that led to it?
After signing with Mute we were introduced to lots of great musicians and artists. I remember being manhandled back-stage to meet Nick Cave. The A&R's introduction was painstaking, something like "Here's Angus Andrew, he does all the things you used to do on stage"...
Best thing about Mute Records?
Daniel Miller. He's an O.G. Just read the liner notes to Mute Audio Documents. He makes and knows important music.
Daftest story you've ever been tempted to invent about yourself for the press?
We invent daft stories for the press all the time. Just the other day I told a reporter that we'd hired a member of the Strokes to play in our band. He didn't even ask me which one!
Does your label or your management support or discourage unruly rock n' roll behaviour?
It's never come up. I suppose early on we were told we could break stuff playing live without having to worry about the cost but beyond that I suppose they just want us to be healthy.
Where's the strangest place you've been asked to play?
We've played on a boat in Portugal, in a kid's kitchen in Arizona and in a temple in Japan...But recently we've been asked to play at Madison Square Garden in NYC [with Interpol] and that has to be the strangest place I can think of us playing.
What's the closest you've been to rewriting a famous song?
I once re-wrote "Totally Wired" by the Fall.
What was the last major decision your label or your management made that you were reluctant to accept?
The delay in release of Drum's Not Dead. It took ages, then, on tour somewhere in Italy we were called and told it would take much much longer. We freaked out but then reluctantly accepted the facts.
Who chose the producer and what did they bring to the recording of the 'Liars' album'?
Well, we never really work with a 'Producer'. The best thing for us is to have a friend come in who knows how to engineer the recording. For this record we chose to bring on our live sound engineer for the job, Jeremy Glover. He understood us so well as people and artists that he was able to synthesize the process very quickly.
Here's the deal: you've made an excellent record and some unscrupulous hack handling the press release is about to screw it all up. What words would YOU use to describe the release?
Direct. Honest. Immediate.
If it were all to collapse tomorrow would you go back to your old job.
My life was a always a string of meaningless jobs. From dishwasher to weak-sauce salesman. I could never go back to that. If it all collapsed tomorrow i'd go back to Australia and work with animals or children.
'Liars' -
'Plaster Casts of Everything?' single out non Mute.
relevant
sites:
http://www.liarliarsliars.com
Nosey Bastard for Crud Magazine 2006© | 
