SLEAFORD MODS: AGIT-ELECTRO
“I’m on the number 36 – the bus of doom.” Jason Williamson says when Fused gets through on a dodgy line. “It takes me to work and back every day…it’s not exactly a fucking holiday camp is it?”
It’s a tongue-in-cheek start to our chat as Williamson, frontman of rising agit-electro outfit Sleaford Mods (more on pigeonholing later) makes his way home from the day job at a local council in a district of Nottingham. Plenty of material there you’d expect.
“No, not really that much. There’s local council policy yeah, but it’s more the actual office environment that gets my attention, where all the good stuff comes from you know.”
The vocalist’s thick East Mids accent (Williamson originally hails from Lincolnshire), fits with a liberal use of rough socio-geographic references and slang in much of his material. Is sense of place important in the Mods’ work?
“Yes. All of it. Most of the stuff in the songs, apart from the philosophical bits, is centred around people and places I know or jobs I’ve been in, and personal failures as well, all those things are chucked into one big melting pot.”
Take the video to track Tied Up In Nottz from the band’s latest album Divide And Exit, filmed from back of the top deck on another bus of doom. “I never normally get buses to work, but the place I work is about ten miles away so I’ve got no choice. It’s been a centre point of inspiration. There’s so much to read in people’s faces without actually talking to them. Obviously we’re not in a very good position at the moment as a country or across the world and it does show on people’s faces.”
Williamson goes on to say the situation in his hometown is symptomatic of a current national outlook.
“Nottingham is suffering; the trick that the state has played on people is to make people think that they aren’t. With New Labour extending Thatcherism and obviously things like the internet have given people a false idea about their freedom. I think people still aren’t clued up about the rut they are still in, really. As opposed to say, the early 1980s, when there was a lot of friction. People were a lot more responsive to things but now there’s a lot of despondency which may be down to the revolution in consumerism.”
Williamson has already referenced the Iron Lady twice in our conversation so far. It’s understandable that the politician figures in Sleaford Mods songs – not only does our man share a birthplace (Grantham) with Thatcher, but he was part of the rave and mod communities at points, both politically-motivated musical sub-cultures to some degree. Does Williamson still embrace those sub-cultures, and where does he think the next counter-cultural movement could emerge from?
“I’ve no idea really. I still class myself as a mod to be honest – not in the stereotypical sense, not in the way that people see mods. I’d rather class myself as someone who is trying to push it forward a little bit, and avoid the things that so-called mods talk about. I like a nice haircut but not all the other shit that surrounds the culture. I like a nice pair of shoes like anyone, and I still class myself as a mod, but I refuse to be bunged in with all those other fucking wankers.”
The music Williamson and Fearn make is basic, raw and unforgettable. Stripped down drum machine loops with punk and new wave bass lines – some frenzied, some down-tempo but still edgy – provide the perfect foil for aggressive, vitriolic and often hilarious lyrics. Gems like ‘Meanwhile back at the crap cave I trod on my cape by mistake / and fell into the fridge mate / I fuckin’ hate Northern Soul / it’s like Motown’s on the dole’ from Shit Streets Runny on 2013’s Austerity Dogs is one such cutting example.
On Fizzy, from the same album, Williamson spits ‘I fucking hate rockers, fuck your rocker shit’. A criticism of the industry it is not.
“I’m aiming that at one person I used to work with, who fucked me over on promotion. Fizzy was based on the manager of a place that I worked, and another guy there, this rocker. He was just a smarmy sarcastic cunt and rubbed it in me face. He got the sack in the end. Twat.”
The vocalist is sanguine about the contribution he and Mods beatmaker Andrew Fearn can make to music, to politics, to social consciousness in the UK and beyond.
“Hopefully what we’re doing might wake some people up, and they might take on board a little bit of what we’ve done and create something else. I can’t really see anything at the minute to be honest – it’s all going as it has done since the noughties – there’s still that massive feeling of people just aren’t switched on to anything.”
“When we first started doing this people were just like what the fuck are you doing – all you’re doing is just swearing. And still now we’re met with a blinkered eye. I mean it is picking up with us, half the time I’m thinking is that because we’re in the right magazines.”
We’d already planned to ask how the duo feels about being classed as a ‘cool commodity’ by taste-maker blogs, influential music media and gig-goers. Aren’t those currently interested in or supporting Sleaford Mods the very same people they mock, criticise and taunt in their songs?
“This is what a lot of people have said. That’s just the way the industry works; it’s the way these magazines run their engines. Unfortunately that’s just the way it is. It’s quite a narrow-minded thing but you’ve just got to accept that. There is a way around it – just be as truthful as you can to what you do. You’ll know when you’re sticking to your guns is when they turn their backs on you.”
“I don’t want to make out like everybody is completely fucking thick but there isn’t a lot of imagination about at the minute. If someone walks along with a beard and I see another geezer with a beard it doesn’t really surprise. Fashion is quite a persuasive thing. It was the same in the Seventies when everyone walked around with flares and long hair, then things changed. Sometimes the masses are one dumb sheep you know. I think it might always be that way. The people that have their hands on the controls are very fucking persuasive and very clever so it’s a real tough one.”
What kind of creative process does the duo go through?
“It’s just home-grown music – before this I was just pinching loops off records and that wasn’t gonna work because of copyright and stuff. The songs wouldn’t have seen the light of day so for a long time I was thinking I’d need something more organic and when Andrew joined up that’s when it all changed. I keep thinking about the formula, there’s always something new to find in what we do, but even though there’s hardly anything in it every time we go to the studio we’re always coming up with something else.”
You’ll find Williamson listening to artists like Mobb Deep and The Business, but the ‘punk hop’ label doesn’t quite sit well with Sleaford Mods.
“No not really its shit innit. If anything we do rap and if we’re going to connect to anything it’s more rap than hip hop, for me hip hop is the actual music. It is what it is – they‘re going to call us these things aren’t they.”
In the coming months, Sleaford Mods are on the road a fair bit, taking their message and music to the masses. “We’re touring quite a lot, Germany, Switzerland then back to London, Brighton, Cardiff, Sheffield – all over the place. And I’m working as well! It gets a bit fucking tense to be honest – just got to keep it together and hope that allows me to give up work.”
Us too, if it means no more bus of doom for the boys in the not too distant future.
Lyle Bignon
Sleaford Mods new EP ‘Tiswas’ is out now on Invada Records
Jason Williamson explains the tracks:
Tiswas: “An attack on the waning power of guitar based rock n roll and its short-sighted viewpoint combined with the armchair anarchic lobbyists who fucking point their fingers at the masses like cunts. I know works shit but I’m not putting my daughter on the street to please you cunts.”
The Mail Don’t Fail: “The dross of right wing media. Easy target I know but one that all the same is getting worse. Good people brainwashed by these cunts. Plus another stab at the slow death which is local government and its banal workings.”
6 Horseman (the Brixtons): “Part fictional account of misguided drug use to fit a stereotyped image in order to sell records. Also a stab at delusional self-images which always end in tears. The people may tow the line but they will eventually tell you to fuck off if you keep telling them you are Elvis. Also a cheeky stab at the purists who inhabit the gig scene, so informed yet so uninformed.”
Bunch of Cunts: “Random observations from a city in 2014. Bunch of Cunts also touches on the distain you can sometimes have for your fellow human beings, the despair in conformity, and the despair of your own place in conformity.”
The Demon: “The nickname for a specific leader of an army currently fighting wherever. The cause or the country or the reasons are of no relevance really. War and its on-going trail of death is an enemy of our existence, regardless of fucking wherever or whoever. Fuck the excuses. It’s a money spinner full of ego and extremely insulting methods of justification. Fuck off demon. Fuck off.”
