Interview taken from HermAphrodite #4?

‘You know that little piece of land across the brook that runs up between our farm and Mr. Barry’s? It belongs to Mr. William Bell, and right in the corner there is a little ring of white birch trees - the most romantic spot, Marilla. Diana and I have our playhouse there. We call it Idlewild. Isn’t that a poetical name ?’

L.M.Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’

Named after a place from one of the lead singer’s favourite books, ( “I read it when I was fourteen, and I’ve always had the name in my head” ), Idlewild were formed in Edinburgh in early 1996. They’ve since given us three independent singles, and a mini-album on Deceptive, all under-pinned with a signatory clattering style.

One of their first London gigs saw them merit the description of sounding like ‘a flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs’ ( ‘it was completely scrappy that night, falling apart - I thought it was quite just... and quite funny” ). Live, their stage-shows are rock’n’roll templates of whirling tension and tuneful chaos. In person, they appear to be happily residing on the friendly side of shy.

For this interview, I spoke to Roddy, their lead singer, on a support tour with the Warm Jets ( whom they successfully upstaged in terms of performance skills, attitude, and undeniable pleasure to be onstage ).

Roddy is a veritable model of politeness, a well-spoken sweet-voiced avid reader from the Scottish countryside, whom just happens to make very tumultuous music and go completely mental onstage.

You could very cheerfully take him home to meet your family. Just don’t let your family go and see him play...

(Photo by Ian Ritterskamp.)

So then. How do the band described as being ‘hyper-wired garage-punk’ themselves encapsulate with words the music that they’re making ?

Roddy - “At the moment it’s noisy pop. Hopefully with a little bit of intelligence to it. Hopefully.”

It wasn’t always thus.

You can, like, hear the words now when they play...

In true punk fashion, Idlewild formed out of a mutual love for music, not out of ability. The band have learnt to play. They’ve grown through constant gigging and rehearsing. And none of them knew each other before going to Edinburgh.

Roddy - “ I lived in a small town in Scotland, and moved to Edinburgh to do film at University. And I met Colin and Rod in the first week at a University party. And none of us were really enjoying University - well I quite liked my course but they didn’t like theirs, they dropped out in the first year. We just formed the band out of being friends really. And initially we had one of Rod’s friends playing bass, but he couldn’t play at all, and it was really difficult, and he was a friend... None of us could really play to begin with, but then we all got a little bit better, so eventually we just had to tell him...”

And, that out of the way, they brought in Bob, whom they were already friends with. And whom Roddy describes as being ‘a really talented bass-player’ - convenient. Really.

Roddy - “ I don’t really like it when bands change line-ups but we only did one single with Alan in anyway. And um, basically we’ve just being playing constantly for the last two years - we’ve put out three independent singles and the mini-album. So it’s just been sort of gradual. I resent it sometimes when people say we did a few gigs and then got signed, because we really did just two do two years of playing and rehearsing and writing songs all the time...”

me - “D’you remember where you were when you first heard yourselves in the radio ?”

Roddy ( grin ) - “Yeah. I was in my bedroom, reading a book. And I don’t listen to the radio that much, but I just put it on. We’d sent Steve Lamacq from the Evening Session our single, and by chance he put it on. It came on, and um, I was a bit surprised. And afterwards he went on about how much liked it, and if anyone from Idlewild was listening to please give him a phone. ( shy smile ) It was quite exciting I suppose. But that’s about it, the story so far. After this tour we’re going to be recording, we’ll have a full-album out in August, and we’ll be playing a lot. I’d just like us to record a really good album. I don’t have any illusions of grandeur or anything like that - I don’t think I’m good, I just want to record the best album we can and keep on playing.”

me - “So you’re not out for world domination quite yet ?”

Roddy - “Weeeeell... it’d be nice to be popular. But it’s not going to... make me cry if we’re not.”

They find the actual process of being able to record and put music out exciting enough at the moment.

This has always been a part of their lives, if not the most important.

me - “Were you in a band before ?”

Roddy - “Briefly, yeah. I lived in America when I was younger and I played in a punk band when I was fourteen called The Jobbies ( ??? ) from Mars. And I played in wee bands with my friends at home, but never had a serious band. Not like this. Though we don’t take it that seriously. We do. But not that much.”

me - “You are enjoying it ?”

Roddy - “Yeah.”

>>> Part 2

Last revised: 26/07/01