Interview taken ( & edited ) from HermAphrodite #3?

So then, Dream City Film Club. Are you doing this year’s Sound City ?

No.

Oh.

Because it’s ‘horseshit’.

Ah.

And that is a comment inspired to a certain extent, by Radio 1 bitterness.

Michael - “ Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they’ve got it in for us, they just don’t particularly like what we’re doing.”

Only John Peel will & does happily play their stuff.

Steve Lamacq only did ‘Porno Paradiso’ on the Evening Session because he ‘had his arm twisted by Eddie Izzard’, ( a man quoted as describing Michael as a ‘starr’ ) guesting that evening with a few of his choice records.

But then, as Michael said, their first single was called ‘Pissboy’. ( And I want the t-shirts... )

And they have no intention to change their sound in order to make it more commercially radio friendly.

Michael positively enjoys ‘pissing people off’.

The Dream City Film Club have the utmost confidence in their abilities and songs in order to be as big as they feel their due. ( Which is biiiig. ) And whilst they are not contented to be coming at ‘great success’ from an underground level - radio and television patronage would make their task easier - they don’t mind doing it this way. It just requires more patience. And probably less Smash Hits interviews...

They don’t want to have to change, in order to be daytime radio starrs.

And Michael very much doesn’t like the medium of entertainment to be used purely for saccharine-sweetness; he does not want to be making music to make people feel good, he wants to be making them think.

On that he is adamant.

The Dream City Film Club do not want to be the aural equivalent of a Meg Ryan movie.

Oh no. Michael would rather watch something that’s more ‘nasty’. Or ‘a porn film.’

Becca - “ Why?”

Michael - “ Because I find it more interesting.”

Andrew - “ It’s disturbing, it gets into your subconscious.”

Which is an aspect which they hold dear to their music-making.

Michael - “ You do want to upset people slightly.”

Oh, and that reminds me, ‘The Lady And The Tramp’ has just been re-released at the cinema. And so I gleefully remind them. Tis one perhaps Michael will be avoiding.

Though it is agreed that the old Disney songs were bestest.

And that the Disney billains are utterly utterly evil ( as I suppose they have to be ).

And that is a bit weird to make a feature-length cartoon which features a gargoyle who confesses to a crush on a goat ( ‘The Hunchback Of Notre Dame’ ).

And from the Disney thing, I’m moved to ask if they do covers. ( I like the idea of them sauntering onstage, black clad, cigarette in hand, and then bursting into a chorus of ‘Hiiii-hooooo, hiiiii-hooooo’, like the 7 Dwarfs. )

No, they most certainly do not do covers. Because certain people ( all turn to Lawrence ) do not like them.

Though that might be something to do with the band’s playing of a couple of Stooges songs onstage sometimes, and his having only just been told that Michael didn’t actually write them, as he’d been led to believe.

And would they mind other bands covering their songs?

Well, no, as long as they did it well.

Andrew - “ And it wasn’t Kula Shaker.”

Becca - “ Well yeah, but think of the money...”

Andrew - “ Naah, I’d just want to kill them if they did.”

me - “ But then you could afford to have hit-men, so it would all balance out.”

Dream City Film Club are not a bitter band, not really. It’s just that they don’t like quite a lot of things. But then, quite a lot of people don’t like Kula Shaker. And quite a lot of people seem to have despaired of David Bowie and his ‘new direction’.

Michael - “ I’m not saying that cocaine and heroin make great music, but before 1977 I loved David Bowie, but once he came off it... Became a stable man. Married that giraffe... He’s lost it, man, the guy is obviously mad. It’s the prozac that’s done it to him.”

Well, okay then. You are entitled to that opinion ( though maybe the ‘giraffe’ comment is a leetle unfair ).

But on the Placebo point of view though, I think they might be a little more lonely.

Michael - “ Don’t get me wrong, I think their ( Placebo’s ) music’s shite, but...”

me - “ BUT...?”

Michael - “ They’re nice blokes, I really like them as individuals. Stefan is... ( goes quiet, then puts on an American drawl ) If I was gonna fuck a man, it’d be him...”

Lawrence - “ Tell him. ( thinks about it ) In fact, I’ll tell him.”

Michael - “ No, I did tell him once, and he just looked at me and went ( strange Stefan accent ) ‘Can I kiss you?’

At which point he realised he had Michael’s hair?

Michael - “ I’ve got more hair now than I’ve had for two years... I’m debating whether to grow my hair or shave it all off. Cos if I do that, I can rub my hand over my head like this, and it’s really relaxing.”

me - “ So you become your own Stress Ball?”

Michael - “ Yeah, ( pause ) that’s a really good way to look at it.”

me - “ So the rest of you will start stroking his head?”

Lawrence - “ While listening to French instructions...”

Andrew - “ This could be a whole new experience for the band.”

So then, um, its my fault if the next time you see the Dream City Film Club, it’s in the Healing Field at Glastonbury, with passers-by attempting to achieve inner peace by using Michael’s head as a spiritual conductor.

As new directions go, it wouldn’t be so bad, but I do like what they’re doing for the world at the moment.

So I would urge you to seek them out as swiftly as possible.

Dream City Film Club.

They make music that wants to wrap its liquid arms around you and kiss to make you bleed.

Last revised: 26/07/01