The Neutrinos

Spotlight by Severine

They met at a farmers' club barn dance, they've performed in the South Pole and one member even grew up on a pig farm! Yes it's The Neutrinos, a funky, slightly quirky alternative/punk band from Norwich.

Since the release of their latest album "One Way Kiss" in 2007, the band has been successful at home and abroad, and in just a few days time (July 12th), they'll be performing at Exit Festival in Serbia.

So this week We7 caught up with singer Karen and guitarist Mark from the band...

The interview

How did you guys meet? What was the idea behind getting together and playing music?

Mark: We met at a farmers' club barn dance. We dug the music with its toe-tapping, knee-jiggling intricacies, the delicious movement and interplay of the circle dancing and the righteous call to "get it right or the squire will crush you". I think we all instinctively knew that if we could only combine this approach with our inherent love of the album "Give Us A Wink" by 70s glam rockers Sweet, just a hint of dressing up and get friends to give us really complicated help for no sheckles, that we could produce music and expression way beyond what commonly passes for adequate!

Karen: I grew up on a pig farm and I'm still in shock from the "Apaches" farm safety frightener film I was shown at school. It showed how the kids drank farm-poison, got crushed under tractors, drowned in slurry pits, dry-drowned in corn silos and got brain-crushed by falling barriers. It was alright for the suburban kids, they didn't have to go back to their death-trap, house-of-horrors home life on the farm.

Having shown this film to the boys in the band, we went on to write our album "One Way Kiss".

You've played at a lot of different places – club nights, art college gigs and even derelict shops – what's been your favourite place to play up until now?

Mark: The South Pole at the place where the scientists go to find actual neutrinos – we were stuck there for 7 months, deep underground, 3 shows a twilight, partying on rum-laced snow juice and lollies.

Karen: White Trash Fast Food in East Berlin. I became part of the fabric of the building whilst onstage. I was unwittingly sporting the national German colours of yellow, red and black, finished off by a good pair of British Marigolds in bright yellow. I wore them for the colour then realised how seductive they where, I had the audience in my little rubber palms!

Are you looking forward to a summer of playing at festivals?

Karen: We are playing at Exit Festival in Serbia on July 12th. It's won loads of awards for Best Continental Festival and The Guardian said it was what Glasto should have become, kill the on-site supermarkets! We get buzzed in on Friday, fall around in the heat, watch the Gossip and Nightwish(!) then go meet the Serbian bands and fans. I'm so pleased that our stage times don't clash with Gogol Bordello and Juliette and the Licks. We can get them on stage with us as long as they can swim against the tide of the one way system.

Your records have had a lot of support from some big radio DJs and big industry people (Mary-Ann Hobbs, Alan McGee). How do you react to this?

Mark: Any kind of support is valuable and it is nice when someone feels something in the music which motivates them enough to tell others.

Karen: It's a big compliment; they have to listen to a lot of shit.

Tell us about your album "One Way Kiss"

Mark: It is a sterling effort and rewards repeated listening. If you listen ultra carefully you can hear your own imaginary album in there as well.

Do you have any plans to record more this year? I hear you have some recording sessions in Berlin planned.

Mark: We have begun preliminary recordings with Mill Jonny which are very fresh and exciting with a real special bounce to them. We have detected and are exploiting a significant animal theme.

Karen: We will be recording our next album in Berlin. We want to work with people on this album who have no apparent fear boundaries and who aren't jaded by the state of the music business. The other key thing is to make music that makes people feel something. Apart from that we will be running round the streets of East Berlin breathing in the ghosts of the city, mixing them with our farming backgrounds and the little dead kids in "Apaches" and giving them all donkey rides. The "Butcher Of Common Sense" recordings have begun.

Who are your favourite bands? Which artists do The Neutrinos aspire to?

Mark: I wish I had written some of David Bowie's songs, especially "Life On Mars" and I wish I had helped out with the music for "2001 A Space Odyssey" directed by Stanley Kubrick, I could have done some crazy singing as HAL dies, had I been born. "Out Of Time" by Blur is a beautiful song, and I like sighing over the chord progressions. Supertramp have written some songs that were plugged into my psyche at birth. And Peaches kicks ass!

Karen: I would be happy to put together a tiny choir with Bjork, PJ Harvey, Peaches and Goldfrapp, although Goldfrapp would need to drop the attitude, or else she's out. In a fight who do you think would win? The artists who I aspire to the most are like Quincy Jones who played his trumpet 15 hours a day to get good. I want to be a 15 hour a day girl.