Here's an interview I did with Motor Life Co, around 1999.
They were pretty hot at the time, throwing around all sorts of Polvo/ Pavement/ Husker Du kinda shapes.
Glasweigians are good at this sort of thing.
Only one mini-album and a couple of seven inches produced, mainly on a label by the name of MEI MEI records, whom I can find very little info on now. Suffice to say, they're probably defunct.
Main man Sean Guthrie responded to these piss poor questions(!)
The fate of Motor Life Co follows his spiel:
Give me the Motor Life Co mission statement
S: "To strive to improve our self-dicipline, conscience and appearance of school and/or self." (source: Standard Punishment Excercise, Hermitage Acacdemy, 1990).
How long have you been going, what have you done and how much do you regret?
S: Formed 1994. 3 singles out ('My Mail Order Thai Bride' (Pendejo), 'Be A Hero' (Pendejo), 'Trod On Your Head-Mine' (Mei-Mei) and one CD mini album, 'Birdstyle' (Mei-Mei). Plus a couple of tours and festivals and a Peel session. Ben most regrets sticking his head through the ceiling of an arts centre after a spectacular but very poorly-timed drunken scissorkick. The promoter was so pissed off he cancelled our taxi and we had to walk back to Glasgow in the rain. It was a poor hair/plaster interface scenario.
Have you purposefully avoided the whole Chemikal Underground and 13th Note thing? What are your thoughts on it all?
S: We've never approached CU in a business sense but they're nice folk and do a lot for independent music in general. We play the 13th Note from time to time but we don't live there or anything.
What's the story behind the band name?
S: There isn't one. Sean suggested it because he liked the sound of the words. How dull...
What kinds of things do your songs deal with and who's the main songwriter?
S: They're mostly abstract takes on abstract stuff, though we do occasionally write the odd tearjerker. We write music by kicking ideas around the studio at very high volume whilst deprived of sleep. Sean writes his words, Ben writes his words and Matt writes his words. Chris has been forbidden a microphone because he was very bad with one a long time ago.
What are your thought on playing ATP? Are you fans of the other bands?
S: Someone we know played the first Bowlie and described it as "A campsite full of bedwetters", so we look forward to a Gulag-style atmosphere with dufflecoat-clad domanatrix types whipping the masses into a frenzy with a pair of Stephen Pastels limp cucumber sandwiches kept in a flight bag (joke- Steph P is a cool guy). We're going to really enjoy Yo La Tengo,Stereolab,Tindersticks and get fucked out of heads with the Snow Patrol chaps (FACT- In 98/99 Snow patrol were credible lo-fi rockers! - Doig)
What's the Motor Life Co live experience like?
S: A brain-searing, vainglorious 8 course melange of wild and flavoursome sonic non-sequitars. When imbibed completely, it has the same effect on the ears and perception as magic mushrooms in foie gras has on the palate and brain.
What records are you all into at the moment?
S: 'The Beat Goes On' by Buddy Rich, the last Aphex Twin thing and the first Roxy Music Album. 'Mule Variations' and 'The Black Rider' by Tom Waits and the new Mogwai EP (Stanley Kubrick). Loads of Deep House stuff; Swayzak, The Hallucinator etc. 'The Soft Bulletin' By Flaming Lips, Guided By Voices first LP.
Any criminal convictions?
S: Shooting at OAPs with an air rifle when 15 years old. It gets cleared when you turn 16 so, technically, no.
What's the most inspiring gig you've ever been to?
S: The most inspiring gig I NEVER witnessed was Pixies at the Barrowlands in 1990, when I drank a bottle of Ouzo beforehand, passed out and woke up in hospital in a backless gown type affair after having had my stomach pumped. I thought I died and gone to hell and it was lime green. And The Replacements at King Tuts, 1994.
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Sean Guthrie is now playing in a band with his brother, Roads To Siam, also featuring ex-members of AC Acoustics and The Supernaturals. They are pictured above, as I couldn't find any Motor Life Co snaps. Aside from playing very sporadically, they appear to have soundtracked a couple of films, one of which looks like this:
BATA-VILLE
www.myspace.com/roadstosiam
2 comments:
Sean Guthrie writes:
Strange to see what the web throws up. Strange, but fine.
First up, some of those answers were mine, but most were those of Ben Ellis, our bass player. I have no clue what publication it was for, which is strange again, because we did very few interviews.
Roads to Siam is highly active; we just don't take our music outside the studio too much. We're musing over making a record, but we'll just have to wait and see. Nothing happens fast here.
Have a look at my blog/MySpace etc if you want to find out more.
Thanks.
Sean Guthrie writes:
Strange to see what the web throws up. Strange, but fine.
First up, some of those answers were mine, but most were those of Ben Ellis, our bass player. I have no clue what publication it was for, which is strange again, because we did very few interviews.
Roads to Siam is highly active; we just don't take our music outside the studio too much. We're musing over making a record, but we'll just have to wait and see. Nothing happens fast here.
Have a look at my blog/MySpace etc if you want to find out more.
Thanks.
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