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l-r Ben Fox Smith, Ben Ellis
How has the tour been so far?
Ben Fox Smith: Eyebrow raising. Successful. Surprisingly so. Surprisingly, sucessfully, eyebrow raisingly so.
Ben Ellis: Lots of sweaty young people.
Ben Fox Smith: Four , usually.
Ben Ellis: That makes eight eyebrows. Usually with only half raised because it looks more enigmatic. Enigmatically, eyebrow raisingly young and sweaty.
Ben Fox Smith: Surprisingly successful. Therefore surprisingly successful.
How would you describe your sound?
Ben Fox Smith: Candy floss with glass in it.
Ben Ellis: Good one!
Next month you are due to go to LA to record your debut-
Ben Ellis: Oh no wait I remember what I wanted to say for the other question... We just want to rock longer and harder than anybody else. Even if they play for three hours and we only play for half an hour. So we're getting into the realms of the metaphysical here.
Ben Fox Smith: But time is not linear, and rock not just being a process of quadraphonic...
Ben Ellis: Granite... or quartz.
Next month you are due to go to LA to record your debut album with producer Dave Sardy, Do you feel that this change of environment will influence your style and change your sound?
Ben Fox Smith: You sound like you're reading.
Strangely enough, that's because I am.
Ben Ellis: I still think we'll sound like candy floss with glass in. Only sunnier.
Is there any particular meaning behind the name Serafin?
Ben Fox Smith: No.
Ben Ellis: Yes.
Ben Fox Smith: No.
Ben Ellis: Yes.
Ben Fox Smith: No.
Ben Ellis: Yes but we're not telling. Its from..... a girl called Sarah who had fins.
Ben Fox Smith: Mermaid.
Ben Ellis: and "Sera" means life , and "fin" means death in french, so "sera-fin" means end of life, as in death.
Ben Fox Smith: Coincidentally, our guitarist is called Darryn Harkness, "Darkness" when you take the first letter of his first name and his second name without the first letter.If you pull back our CD in reverse you get "serafin....serafin....serafin....serafin...."
Ben Ellis: And it makes this noise "woaaaaaargh".
Ben Fox Smith: Except digital.
Ben Ellis: So it comes out as 0111101111101111101111101111101111101111101111011111011111011.
Ben Fox Smith: It's the devil. You hear the devil saying 0111011101110111011101110111011101110111.
Where do you get inspiration for your songs from?
Ben Fox Smith: George Bush.
Ben Ellis: George Bush's political agenda.
Ben Fox Smith:George Bush's political member. Which is the name of our side project coincidentally. What was the question?
Where do you get inspiration from.
Ben Fox Smith: Dreams.
Some of the lyrics that you write are quite random and there doesn't seem to be a pattern, is this intentional or are the lyrics just what you come up with at the time?
Ben Fox Smith: Well as they're based on dreams, as you know, being a dreaming animal, they don't always make sense.
Ben Ellis: Same applies for my bass lines.
What was your recent single "one more way" actually about?
Ben Fox Smith: A dream. It's morbid. First time I died in a dream which apparently you can't do but I did.
Ben Ellis: We were walking down the street the other day in cambridge, and we were looking at these people crossing the road, and I said to ben, 'Are you checking out that girl over there?' and he went "No, I was just imagining what it would be like if all those little kids got run over!' and I was like "fuck you really scare me sometimes!'.
Ben, you've said before that in Stony Sleep you "felt lost" and that you were "depressed from always trying to be something you weren't." Do you feel that now in Serafin , be it through your lyrics, or the style of music you're playing, that you can finally be yourself?
Ben Ellis: Will the real Ben Fox Smith please step forward.
Ben Fox Smith: Yes, I think so, yes.
What has been your best and worst gig so far?
Ben Fox Smith: There are so many bad ones!
Ben Ellis: The best one was in Texas, just for absolute fucking insanity, we just went mad and destroyed everything.
Ben Fox Smith: It was just pure rock. It was like the finest crack you can buy, laced with nothing but crack. The worst one.... When you do a lot of gigs as a poor band, at least fifty percent of them are shit. I think the worst one actually was without Ben, was with Serafin but before his time... It was at the Square,Harlow Square... and I bet someone reading this will remember this, someone was there when my tuner started telling me all my strings were half a tone flat, so I played a song, went out of tune so I tuned using the tuner, and I tuned down half a tone to what my tuner said was correct, so I was out of tune with the other two, and I made one of them tune to my tuner, so two of us were out of tune and Darryn was in tune, but we ganged up on him and told him he was out of tune. That was most of the set gone by that time and I got very angry and threw my guitar down and left the stage in a rockstar manner in front of eight people. Then even worse than that I cam back on, and realised my tuner was fucked and threw it away.... it was just very shit.
Do you read your reviews and press, are you affected by negative reviews or would you say you use criticism in a constructive way ?
Ben Ellis: I don't think they're relevant. They're so subjective. You can do a gig and have two people review it and of the same gig one could say it was excellent and the other would say it was shit.So if they're bad I tend to ignore them, but if they're good I show them to all my friends. And frame them.
Ben Fox Smith: Keep them in my wallet. When you get really depressed you can just take out your review and a picture of your girlfriend....
Darryn and Ronnie walk into the room.
What is the funniest or strangest thing you have seen written about you?
Ben Fox Smith: That I went to school with Brian Molko. That was strange but it wasn't funny at all. Seeing as he's a decade older than me.
Darryn: You were just a very intelligent little boy!
Ben Ellis: Maybe you got put forward in class.
Ben Fox Smith: No, Brian Molko got put back ten years because he was so retarded.
Darryn: Don't say things like that Ben.
Ben Fox Smith: Im sorry, I take that back.
Ben Ellis: Sorry Brian, you look great mate. mnahahaaha.
Ben Fox Smith: I did meet him though, hes very nice.
Ben Ellis: He looks great too. mnaahahahaha.
Darryn: Ben! Hey Ben, you're going a bit bald on top there Ben....
What is your favourite song of yours and why?
Ben Fox Smith: No Happy.
A request from Halo is for you to tell me about eric and the claptons....
Ben Ellis: AHAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA that's brilliant.....
Ben Fox Smith: They're the biggest unknown band there is.
Darryn: If you're lucky you'll see them graffitied around different venues around the country.
Ben Ellis: Noone knows who they are, just that they exist.
Ben Fox Smith: They all play white strats, no bass or drums though.
Ben Ellis: They might actually be playing tonight....
What are your ambitions for this band?
Ben Ellis: We just want to be a great band. A great fucking dirty rock and roll band.
Have you got any advice for anyone who's just starting out in a band, anything that you wish you had known at the beginning that you know now?
Ben Fox Smith: Stop hoping. Seriously, then you won't be disappointed.If you don't have such high wishes it's easier to do. Become a balanced person before you enter the business.
Ben Ellis: Just keep trying if you really want it and eventually things will happen for you. If you're any good.
Ben Fox Smith: Eyebrow raising. Successful. Surprisingly so. Surprisingly, sucessfully, eyebrow raisingly so.
Ben Ellis: Lots of sweaty young people.
Ben Fox Smith: Four , usually.
Ben Ellis: That makes eight eyebrows. Usually with only half raised because it looks more enigmatic. Enigmatically, eyebrow raisingly young and sweaty.
Ben Fox Smith: Surprisingly successful. Therefore surprisingly successful.
How would you describe your sound?
Ben Fox Smith: Candy floss with glass in it.
Ben Ellis: Good one!
Next month you are due to go to LA to record your debut-
Ben Ellis: Oh no wait I remember what I wanted to say for the other question... We just want to rock longer and harder than anybody else. Even if they play for three hours and we only play for half an hour. So we're getting into the realms of the metaphysical here.
Ben Fox Smith: But time is not linear, and rock not just being a process of quadraphonic...
Ben Ellis: Granite... or quartz.
Next month you are due to go to LA to record your debut album with producer Dave Sardy, Do you feel that this change of environment will influence your style and change your sound?
Ben Fox Smith: You sound like you're reading.
Strangely enough, that's because I am.
Ben Ellis: I still think we'll sound like candy floss with glass in. Only sunnier.
Is there any particular meaning behind the name Serafin?
Ben Fox Smith: No.
Ben Ellis: Yes.
Ben Fox Smith: No.
Ben Ellis: Yes.
Ben Fox Smith: No.
Ben Ellis: Yes but we're not telling. Its from..... a girl called Sarah who had fins.
Ben Fox Smith: Mermaid.
Ben Ellis: and "Sera" means life , and "fin" means death in french, so "sera-fin" means end of life, as in death.
Ben Fox Smith: Coincidentally, our guitarist is called Darryn Harkness, "Darkness" when you take the first letter of his first name and his second name without the first letter.If you pull back our CD in reverse you get "serafin....serafin....serafin....serafin...."
Ben Ellis: And it makes this noise "woaaaaaargh".
Ben Fox Smith: Except digital.
Ben Ellis: So it comes out as 0111101111101111101111101111101111101111101111011111011111011.
Ben Fox Smith: It's the devil. You hear the devil saying 0111011101110111011101110111011101110111.
Where do you get inspiration for your songs from?
Ben Fox Smith: George Bush.
Ben Ellis: George Bush's political agenda.
Ben Fox Smith:George Bush's political member. Which is the name of our side project coincidentally. What was the question?
Where do you get inspiration from.
Ben Fox Smith: Dreams.
Some of the lyrics that you write are quite random and there doesn't seem to be a pattern, is this intentional or are the lyrics just what you come up with at the time?
Ben Fox Smith: Well as they're based on dreams, as you know, being a dreaming animal, they don't always make sense.
Ben Ellis: Same applies for my bass lines.
What was your recent single "one more way" actually about?
Ben Fox Smith: A dream. It's morbid. First time I died in a dream which apparently you can't do but I did.
Ben Ellis: We were walking down the street the other day in cambridge, and we were looking at these people crossing the road, and I said to ben, 'Are you checking out that girl over there?' and he went "No, I was just imagining what it would be like if all those little kids got run over!' and I was like "fuck you really scare me sometimes!'.
Ben, you've said before that in Stony Sleep you "felt lost" and that you were "depressed from always trying to be something you weren't." Do you feel that now in Serafin , be it through your lyrics, or the style of music you're playing, that you can finally be yourself?
Ben Ellis: Will the real Ben Fox Smith please step forward.
Ben Fox Smith: Yes, I think so, yes.
What has been your best and worst gig so far?
Ben Fox Smith: There are so many bad ones!
Ben Ellis: The best one was in Texas, just for absolute fucking insanity, we just went mad and destroyed everything.
Ben Fox Smith: It was just pure rock. It was like the finest crack you can buy, laced with nothing but crack. The worst one.... When you do a lot of gigs as a poor band, at least fifty percent of them are shit. I think the worst one actually was without Ben, was with Serafin but before his time... It was at the Square,Harlow Square... and I bet someone reading this will remember this, someone was there when my tuner started telling me all my strings were half a tone flat, so I played a song, went out of tune so I tuned using the tuner, and I tuned down half a tone to what my tuner said was correct, so I was out of tune with the other two, and I made one of them tune to my tuner, so two of us were out of tune and Darryn was in tune, but we ganged up on him and told him he was out of tune. That was most of the set gone by that time and I got very angry and threw my guitar down and left the stage in a rockstar manner in front of eight people. Then even worse than that I cam back on, and realised my tuner was fucked and threw it away.... it was just very shit.
Do you read your reviews and press, are you affected by negative reviews or would you say you use criticism in a constructive way ?
Ben Ellis: I don't think they're relevant. They're so subjective. You can do a gig and have two people review it and of the same gig one could say it was excellent and the other would say it was shit.So if they're bad I tend to ignore them, but if they're good I show them to all my friends. And frame them.
Ben Fox Smith: Keep them in my wallet. When you get really depressed you can just take out your review and a picture of your girlfriend....
Darryn and Ronnie walk into the room.
What is the funniest or strangest thing you have seen written about you?
Ben Fox Smith: That I went to school with Brian Molko. That was strange but it wasn't funny at all. Seeing as he's a decade older than me.
Darryn: You were just a very intelligent little boy!
Ben Ellis: Maybe you got put forward in class.
Ben Fox Smith: No, Brian Molko got put back ten years because he was so retarded.
Darryn: Don't say things like that Ben.
Ben Fox Smith: Im sorry, I take that back.
Ben Ellis: Sorry Brian, you look great mate. mnahahaaha.
Ben Fox Smith: I did meet him though, hes very nice.
Ben Ellis: He looks great too. mnaahahahaha.
Darryn: Ben! Hey Ben, you're going a bit bald on top there Ben....
What is your favourite song of yours and why?
Ben Fox Smith: No Happy.
A request from Halo is for you to tell me about eric and the claptons....
Ben Ellis: AHAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA that's brilliant.....
Ben Fox Smith: They're the biggest unknown band there is.
Darryn: If you're lucky you'll see them graffitied around different venues around the country.
Ben Ellis: Noone knows who they are, just that they exist.
Ben Fox Smith: They all play white strats, no bass or drums though.
Ben Ellis: They might actually be playing tonight....
What are your ambitions for this band?
Ben Ellis: We just want to be a great band. A great fucking dirty rock and roll band.
Have you got any advice for anyone who's just starting out in a band, anything that you wish you had known at the beginning that you know now?
Ben Fox Smith: Stop hoping. Seriously, then you won't be disappointed.If you don't have such high wishes it's easier to do. Become a balanced person before you enter the business.
Ben Ellis: Just keep trying if you really want it and eventually things will happen for you. If you're any good.
© 2003 Jen Thomas
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