Posted on Oct 14, 2007 by DevotedToMusic

Neils Children are a UK band with a pure love of the sixties music scene. They are best friends with The Horrors and are a huge hit around Europe.

With a new album on their roster they are sure to have a lot of interesting things coming up for all their fans.

I Alexandra McLoughlin was lucky enough to grab a chat with the band to find out more about the band, their opinons on how music can influence fans, to find out more about Brandon’s side music projects
and more.

How long did it take you to get here?

John- About an hour.

Brandon- Driving

Who drove today?

Brandon- Keith drove.

John- He’s the main driver.

Do you ever prank each other when you’re on the way to gigs?

John- No not really no.

Brandon- We just have a laugh. We don’t prank each other.

John- Nah, nah we don’t prank each other (laughs).

What is your favourite song on your album?

John- I’d have to say erm….dunno really….all of them.

How would you rate that song? What would you give it?

John- 10 out of 10 obviously.

(Laughs)

That was a stupid question…

(Laughs)

Who designed the album cover?

John- Ciaran O'Shea. He goes under the name of Discordo. He is a graphic designer for the Southend. He’s good, really really good.

Are you working on a new album at all?

John- I’m still working on the same album funnily enough (laughs) but we’re re-recording the album that’s going to be coming out. We’re recording it hopefully at the end of the year.

Who designs your merchandise? Is it you guys?

John- Yeah we do our own merchandise usually incorporating other design features of like covers and stuff like that and logos. It’s all designed by us. We have the final say in it.

Does it take you a long time to design a T-Shirt?

John- No not really. We don’t really try unless I have an idea and I just usually do it and it looks good. We don’t sit down and try and do it we just have an idea, put it down and if it looks good we’ll use it.

Brandon- It’s normally what’s sort of going on at the time. If it’s a single that’s come out it has to be …

John- …Incorporated in it yeah.

I’ve got a couple of questions for Brandon. Why did you decide to create your own record label *Modern Pop Records*?

Brandon- I just thought it would give us a chance to do some projects with some bands that we like, that maybe we wouldn’t get a chance to do with other labels. It’s just an extension to what we already do.

How long have you had this label of yours?

Brandon- Exactly a year.

What do your friends think of that? Are they quite proud of you for being able to cope with it?

John- He aint got any friends (laughs). He only knows us! (laughs).

Poor Brandon…

Keith- Nah I think it’s fantastic. It is great isn’t it?

Brandon- Well everything that I put out has sold out and people like the new music that I found.

What bands are signed to it?

Brandon- We don’t sign bands we just do 1 off releases because I haven’t got the money to sign them completely.

And John I think you are the co-owner of his label…

John- No. No I just help him out with anything that needs to be done, just because it’s something I’m really interested in. 1 of the releases are 1 of ours so we all had a lot of input towards that. ‘Strange Idol’ is one that didn’t have so much input because that’s one of Brandon’s friends, but Brandon’s just released the first single of Electricity in our Homes which is my brother’s band so I had quite a lot to do with getting that together with him as well. It’s something different to do rather then just playing all the time. You look at the industry in different aspects and it’s quite enjoyable.

How do you manage to go touring, write singles as well as look after a label?

Brandon- You only work with the label when you’ve got a release.

John- Yeah exactly. It doesn’t take up time like day in and day out.

Brandon- I don’t do a release when I’m touring because I wouldn’t able to do it.

John- Basically we balance not just the label and stuff but everything we do throuout the year. If we’re on tour then we tour only, if we are at home and we have spare time then we write songs. As Brandon said, with the release of the records on the label then it’s only when we are available to do it because it wouldn’t be fair on the bands, we wouldn’t be able to give them enough time.

Do you have any other side projects? Any of you?

John- I used to do a solo thing. It was just messing around really, just sort of experimental music really. Other then that Brandon does acoustic music as well. The band is our main concern; it’s what we’ve been concentrating on for all these years.

Brendon, what made you want to have your own solo project?

Brandon- Erm… I dunno. I’m just a musician. It’s the only thing I can do really. I can play instruments. I just thought I’d do it.

Are your band mates supportive of you?

Brandon- Oh yeah. I only ever did 1 gig and John came….

(Laughs)

…I did a couple in Chessington and John came to that…

(Laughs)

…So yeah they are but I mean it’s not something I’m really perusing at the moment. It’s just things that I do at home.

I heard on your myspace your cover of…what is it called again?

John- Lucifer Sam?

Yeah! That’s really good!

John- Yeah. That was the first release on Brandon’s label because that a cover that originally sings Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett, he wrote that song and he died about 2 or 3 weeks before we recorded it so we recorded it as a tribute to him and as a tribute to the amazing in fluency as over our music. Even though we weren’t there in the 60s we really take something from a lot of the music keep it creative. I was really pleased with that. To be honest it seems to be a favourite especially in Europe. It seems to be a big song for us although we didn’t write it and we didn’t really play it for that long. It’s really good fun to do a cover, we haven’t done a cover in years.

Why haven’t you done any covers? Is it not really your thing?

John- Well I think that if you want to be taken seriously as a band to a certain level in a certain time, then you really need to concentrate on original material because that is what really makes you break through, sort of being a more established band is original material. I think it’s good to do covers if you can do your own take on them but I wouldn’t relay on them to form an important part of the set because as I said, I think bands should be able to write songs as well as play music. I think covers are ok but I think they should be more enjoyable then everything else really. More fun then the really serious stuff.

What are your opinions on the bands that are specifically cover bands?

John- I think its ok at weddings.

Brandon- They probably get paid more then bands like us.

John- At the same time is like if you only play covers you are not expressing yourself musically, you are just copying what someone else has done before. As I say Weddings and Bar Mitzvah’s and Birthdays or whatever it’s good because people wanna hear live music and they also wanna hear music that the DJ will be able to play and you can dance to it. It’s fine but I wouldn’t consider them in any way..not saying they’re better of worse them we are, it’s just a completely different thing. I don’t know of any mainstream bands who make a living out of doing covers.

Do you ever play parties?

John- We played for a really good friend of ours. He’s a fan of ours for his sister’s birthday. I think they’d been fans of us for ages so they said ‘Would you do it?’ and we said well maybe and they gave us some cash to cover everything. That was quite enjoyable but we don’t make a habit of it because again it’s not the same thing as being in a band.

I’ve read countless articles, newspapers and websites about music being blamed for crimes and things like that. Do you think music really is to blame for some of these crimes?

John- What kind of music? (laughs). What do you mean like Rap?

Not just rap I’ve heard that like.. There’s a band I really like called Slipknot who apparently somebody listened to their music and they went and stabbed someone or something…Music like that and Rap gets blamed all the times for crimes.

John- To be honest it’s like they used to have this thing about freedom of speech and how much you give people and to be honest I think that if your gonna go and stab someone your probably gonna go and do it anyway without listening to the type of music. I think that if you listen to music and it makes you do that you are probably quite ill anyway. I listen to f**king..It’s like listening to the 60s The Beatles influenced with drugs and playing music and then people taking it out on concepts it’s like Charles Manson listening to Helter Skelter and thinking it’s telling him to go out and kill people. I don’t think it’s to blame. I don’t think necessarily a lot of modern music as a positive reaction on a lot of people but I don’t think it’s to blame but I think if you’re stupid enough to listen to something and it makes you wanna kill someone then that’s just stupid. It’s nothing to do with music is it? What about those people who listen to it and don’t wanna kill people?

Music is also a big part of peoples dress sense right now. What are your opinions on that? Do you that it’s true? It really is to do with what the band wears or do you think there is something else to it?

John- Basically…

Brandon- It’s always been the way.

John- Yeah basically I wouldn’t say it’s really music in general I’d say it’s more to do with popular culture and that does include music, art, films and clothes as well because the young people since the early 60s have always wanted to look different to their parents. Obviously they don’t wanna wear the same stuff that other people wear so people do search out different types of clothes. Obviously it’s gonna be influenced by what we like musically. Everything is an influence I think. I think it’s important. I like to look good and I think everyone does and I like to take pride in my appearance. I think it’s important but I wouldn’t say it’s a be all and end all. If you’re a s**t band and you look great, your still a s**t band.

Thing is people can be really nasty about bands who care about their appearance like erm..there’s a couple bands who because they look great and have great hair, they get labelled as a band who’s talentless because they only care about their appearance. What do you think about that?

John- Every great band even those like The Beatles cared about their appearance and wore suits and stuff or whatever and they are still the f**king best bands in the world ever. And you’ve got bands like Coldplay who look like they’ve just walked in of the street on stage. To be honest that doesn’t make them even more credible to me. I think that music or the stage show is to do with visual aspects as well like looking good and looking like your enjoying yourselves, not looking like you’ve just walked out of Wetherspoons of something. There are some great bands that f**king look great and that doesn’t mean they’re s**t.

Brandon- But they’re not necessarily good either especially in the 80s. They look good for the time but it isn’t necessarily something the kids copy now, or even back then but it’s just one of them things your always gonna get that if a band sort of takes more care in their appearance then people without even hearing them are gonna take after it.

John- Which is stupid.

I read in a magazine about 1 band member that I like who apparently he said that he thinks that everyone likes him only because of his appearance. Do you think that is the case with some people?

John- Yeah. Who is it?

Erm.. you might have not heard of them, they’re called Bring Me the Horizon, they’re from Sheffield, it’s a guy called Ollie Sykes. He’s the lead singer. I read in a magazine that he said that people only like them because of their appearance, because of their hair.

John- I think that’s true with younger people. I think sort of 18/17 and younger I think kids do go for appearance more because at that age your still trying to find your identity. Your still trying to work out what you wanna wear and stuff like that so I’d say yes that can be the case but I think as you get a little bit older you don’t get kinda deceived by appearances so much because you can see past it. It all becomes a sort of balancing act. If they look good they sound s**t and they look sorta s**t and they sound good. I think you need to have the right balance but I defiantly agree that a lot of younger people the first thing they go for Is the image.

I saw a video clip of you on youtube doing a message to your Japanese fans and you all seemed completely insane. No offence John but especially you in there. What was that all about?

(Laughs)

John- We’d been out drinking that day (laughs). We were excited because we’d never been to Japan and we were getting the chance to go to Japan so it was absolutely f**king out of this world for us. I’ve always wanted to go personally and they said speak to your Japanese fans and stuff and by that time as I said, we’d been having quite a bit to drink. We were in high spirits and we were just f**king around basically because to me doing things like that just seems completely stupid. I feel a bit stupid for doing it because it’s like as if anybody is actully interested in what we’ve got to say. In cituations like that all you can do is have a laugh about it because if you take it too seriously you’re gonna start preaching to people and you’re gonna really believe that you’ve got something to say that’s really gonna make a difference to f**king anyone. It’s not true. I’m sure we influence people with our music which is fantastic but me standing there and saying…

Brandon- …we’re coming to Japan.

John- Yeah we’re coming to Japan, we’re gonna f**king blow your socks off or whatever, it’s like who cares?! To be honest they probably saw us pissed and thought f**king hell they look like they’d be quite enjoyable rather then us just standing here being serious. It was just us having a laugh and me being thinking the situation is completely ridiculous.

What was Japan like? What did you do apart from gigging?

John- We played some shows and we had a leaving party there. We did an interview with MTV Japan was it?

Brandon- Yeah.

John- We played some shows. We did an in store in HMV an acoustic in store which was really good. It was fantastic. One of my greatest experiences in my time in the band which is 7 years. Yeah it was great. That’s 1 thing I do wanna do, its go back just because it’s a different world. It’s good.

Did you get much time to look around and see the sites?

Brandon- Yeah.

John- Yeah a couple of days. 2 or 3 days I think we.. we had someone with us all the time chaperoning us because obviously we didn’t know our way around. It’s a pretty confusing city. I think if you were just on your own and you were just left to your own devices, you would probably end up getting lost most of the time. So we had someone showing us around most of the time and he took us to this old monastery and obviously we were staying in errr Tokyo wasn’t it? ..Yeah Tokyo. There is so much to do and your sleeping off the f**king jet lag for like f**king 3 days. It wasn’t a holiday but it was an enjoyable excursion.

Is there any other countries that you really wan to do a gig at?

Brandon- Mexico (laughs).

John- Yeah there seems to be a big thing about us going to Mexico we’ve got a lot of South American fans by the sound of it. I dunno whether it’s a lot of South American fans or just the same 2 people sending us the same 2 messages over and over again. I’d like to go to an Eastern European country, one of those really Iron curtain countries like Poland, Russia those sort of countries…probably not Russia because there is probably nowhere to play but Poland I’d like to play, Sweden I’d like to go to and everywhere else we’ve pretty much been too apart from the USA and I haven’t really got a great desire to go there.

Are you going to play any festivals next year at all?

John- We don’t know really. It all depends on what sort of schedule we’re running at with our album. It’s running a little bit behind a little bit now. I would say we probably won’t be out until February, March next year. Yeah hopefully..

Brandon- It’s out of our hands really.

John- Yeah it’s one of those things that like if we get them great, if we don’t…to be honest I’m not interested in doing them really. I’ve got no desire to play festivals really. Dunno about the other 2 but..

What about you 2?

Brandon- Um…I dunno really. No nooo I don’t think so. I think overseas festivals might be quite good. The ones over here are meant to be for sort of..you know like Reading and Leeds when breakthrough bands play, nobody’s really interested. Nobody really gives a f**k, nobody goes there that early and like not many of the new bands get that much attention so I don’t know if it’s really worth it.

John- Well when have you ever heard a band shoot to fame after playing Reading?! I’ve always heard of a band being pretty f**king well known before playing. Then they play it and maybe a few hundred more people like them afterwards but I think is you’re a smaller band you play this tent anyway..

Brandon- It works The Klaxons, The Arctic’s and stuff like that they’ll go on and then their album will go back in the charts after the festivals.

I hear you are close friends with The Horrors. Were you all friends before you went on tour with them?

John- We’ve known them for years, before they were in a band basically. I’ve known Rhys probably close to 6 years now and the rest of them again like we’ve known them ages before we went on tour with them and before they were a band. We’ve known them an awful long time.

Are you going to go on tour with them again at all?

John- We’d like to. We had a great time with them because it was like hanging out with your friends and stuff but again that’s something that isn’t in our hands really but hopefully we’ll get put up for it and someone will suggest that it’s a good idea.

Brandon- They’ve sort of reached a level where they can get bigger gigs and they can get the bigger supports and it’s just a matter of if the band sort of requested that we do it again then that’s what will happen but otherwise I think it’s out of their hands as well.

Have you ever been bottled on stage at all, because a lot get that nowadays and it’s not very nice?

Keith- I’ve had something thrown at me before yeha. (laughs).

Tell me about that then…

Keith- It was a glowstick.

Glowsticks are fine though…

Keith- Yeah but it was a really big one though. It was at the Coronet..

John- ..Supporting The Horrors funnily enough. We never get negative reactions ever. I think it’s just people getting over excited, trying to get our attention or whatever but Keith does get the occasional stuff thrown at him. It’s all in good will I think. I don’t think anyone means to damage him permantly. He had a lemon thrown in my face (laughs).

You had a lemon thrown in your face?!

Keith- Yeah and it really hurt!

John-- Twice!

(laughs)

Did it sting by any chance?

Keith- It did it burned!

(laughs)

Keith- There was a banana skin as well. (laughs).

I’ve seen band members nearly do the splits on stage because there was a wet floor. Has that happened to any of you?

John- No to be honest we’re pretty good on our feet. We dance a lot so we’re pretty steady.

Brandon- I saw someone do some wrestling moves on the side of the stage once in Belgium.

(laughs)

Was it a band member of was it someone just standing there?

John- It was a band member.

Were you performing at the time?

Brandon- Yeah!

Did that put you off at all?

John- Actually someone threw a beer at me at that gig! The thing I worry about when having liquids on stage is that we’re gonna get electrocuted. Not falling over because I can survive that but probably not electrocution.

What would you do if you did get bottled on stage and for a negative reason or it happened to one of your mates?

John- What it happened to one of my mates?

No if it happened to one of your mates who was a band member and someone threw a bottle at them, would you go and stick up for them?

John- Well to be honest we can’t really do that. You can’t stop the show and start looking for who threw the bottle.

Brandon- If it really hurts then..

John- Of course yeah!

Brandon- If it was one of our band mates and someone was being nasty of something then yeah like you would.

John- Yeah if someone tried to harm any of us then we would obviously stick up for each other but to be honest that doesn’t happen and if it does as I said you can’t stop the show, you have to play on. You can’t let 1 person ruin the night for everyone. You just have to f**king get on with it.

It happens at the Download festival apparently. Bands get bottled and someone’s wee’d in the bottle of something and then they go and throw it at them.

John- That would make me quite angry I think. That’s disgusting.

Brandon- Yeah.

What are your reasons for that?

John- Because we’ve had piss thrown at us (laughs).

Brandon- We should tip one out and throw it on you (laughs).

Well these guys who I saw on telly, when they came of stage they were laughing.

John- Well I think it’s disgusting. I don’t want someone else’s piss thrown at me just as much as you don’t.

Brandon- It’s just disrespectful because at the end of the day, it takes a lot for a band to get up on stage no matter how big you are. So for you just to do that it’s just not right.

On a nicer note, it’s getting near Halloween now you be doing any special Halloween performances?

John- I don’t think we are really. I think we’re trying records out CD at that time aren’t we? When is Halloween?

Brandon- 31st.

John- Yeah so I don’t know. No probably not. It’s not our sort of thing. It’s ok for kids but I think it’s something now that’s become..I dunno. We don’t celebrate it.

You never dress up as vampires and walk around?

John- I find that whole thing so f**king cheesy especially for grownups to do it. It’s the whole irony of listening to like…

Cradle of Filth?

John- Yeah exactly. It’s just stupid. I’ve got a little boy who’s 2 years old so I suppose in the next few years he’s gonna want to go Trick or Treating.

Are you going to go with him?

John- Course yeah.

Brandon- He’ll get well into that I reckon.

John- Yeah

What plans have you got for the future?

John- Who knows? We’ve gonna get our new album out. Hopefully play more gigs around the country and that’s it really. Go back to Japan; we wanna release the new album there. So yeah just some more or the same really.

Thank you for letting me interview you.

John- That’s cool. Thanks a lot.

Taken At:

Camden Roundhouse

Taken On:

October 13th, 2007

Interviewees:

John -Guitar / Vocals / Synth
Brandon - Drums / Synth / Backing Vocals
Keith - Bass

Related Links:

• www.neilschildren.co.uk
• www.myspace.com/neilschildren
• www.myspace.com/modernpoprecor...
• www.myspace.com/goodnightandiw...

Interviews

Oct 13, 2007 Camden Roundhouse