Interview taken from HermAphrodite #6?

‘Ultrasound’ is a name fairly easy to analyse, to see as being apt for the band that it fits around.

Complex. Sees right through you. Working at a frequency and on a level apart from most others. Come at you in waves. Can be used to create abstract pictures of life. Way off at one end of the spectrum. Etc.

But it wasn’t chosen to fit that criteria, the hidden meanings come second.

Richard says it was a kind of subconscious thing, which has grown to fit them.

Richard - " Also I think we've partly become our name... When we were thinking of our name we were thinking about that as well: some band names just seem so apt, don't they, like 'Suede.' It's whether or not they've called themselves 'Suede' because it'd fit or whether they've become that..."

we contemplate this for a moment

Richard - "...bit of both really..."

me - " What were the alternatives ?"

Richard - " Aah, there were lists and lists of them..."

Tiny - " And every one of them was an adequate band name, but not us."

And he knows how important it is to find a name that fits. Cos he's still struggling to do that himself, for himself. Andrew Victor Wood - Tiny.

The NME interview with them said that Tiny gave himself nicknames.

Including Chuck...

me - " We've been wondering about 'Angela'."

Eleanor - " Yeah."

Tiny - "Angela was the name I gave myself when I was four. And I refused to answer to any other name. Me mum was calling us Andrew I'd be like... ( looks at ceiling incredibly intently ). I changed my name by deed poll to Angela in the 80's."

Eleanor - " Have you thought of changing your name to 'Tiny' by deed poll ?"

Tiny - " No. I don't like it. But everyone's always called me that so..."

me - "You could sit there with a baby naming book until you find one that you like..."

Eleanor ( helpfully ) - "Tarquin."

Tiny - " I love 'Jarvis', but that one's already taken... I went through periods where my best friends at school, I'd want to call myself by their name."

Richard agrees with him on that one.

me ( to Richard ) - " And are you happy with your name ?"

Richard - "I wasn't until I was about twenty, I used to hate it, I think everyone does.I like my full name."

me - " And are you one for being 'Rickie' or anything ?"

Richard - " No, I hate being called any abbreviations of Richard, I think they're all horrible. I keep being called 'Dickie'..."

Eleanor - " I'd slap them."

Richard - "I once told a teacher of mine at school to call me 'Richie' as a joke, and he did, for about five years."

Tiny - " I had this teacher at school that I'd known for years, we were quite close, and she said after all this time 'by the way, what is your real name ?' Everyone just knew me as Tiny."

me - " You wouldn't want to be a symbol or anything ?"

Tiny - " No... I knew somebody who wanted to change their name by deed-poll to a dice..."

There's the feeling comfortable in yourself. Your name. Your identity. It being yours, rather than other people's...

Tiny - "Brett Anderson is a 'Brett Anderson' as well."

At present Tiny still seems to be playing around when he's onstage. Finding the gestures that work. Borrowing ideas from other people, making them his own.

me - " I also read that you said that there's a Brett Anderson in you... Does that mean you'll be slapping your arse with the microphone stand onstage ?"

Richard - "I'll be slapping his arse..."

But that's as far as it goes.

Were Tiny to borrow anything from Brett The Performer, it would probably be the feyness. Though they did share a similar haircut for a while.

me - " Will you be different onstage, will you be 'getting into role' ?"

Tiny - "No, I'll be getting into the songs."

me - " Are you going to be getting changed as well before you go on, or is this 'you' as you wanna be seen, always...?"

Tiny - "No. Personally I can't get into the idea of changing to go onstage. The songs are me my life, they reflect what I'm about. I tend to wear my 'stage clothes' all the time."

Richard - "I tend to wear things that are quite similar to what I usually wear, but just a bit more boring."

A first, for rock'n'roll, I think. The dumbing down of the guitarist's appearance... Though he does say that it helps to focus attention on his guitar playing. ( Which is, as later was confirmed, frenetic. And no, his clothes do not detract from it...)

It wasn't always thus.

There was a time, when an early incarnation of Ultrasound used to perform with outlandish stage-props. I mention sellotape on nipples to Tiny. And, um, cream buns...?

Tiny - " Oh, and there was make-up and hair, and twigs... Cos you know when you first start out people aren't bothered, cos they've never heard you on the radio... It was an all-out assault to try and get people's attention."

me - " So has it made you better with dealing with an audience, controlling them ?"

Tiny - " I think so, yeah."

It's taught him about what works onstage and what doesn't. Personal experience, as well as years spent in observation of other starrs. He knows the timing of gestures, and how sometimes the small can work far better

than the wildly expansive.

Tiny - "Julio Inglesias, he just makes really small movements all the time, and gradually over the space of a whole verse, his arm will just come up and he'll do this gesture... and you follow it all the way through."

He mimes watching open-mouthed. That’s the sort of reaction he wants... And he’s quite happy to keep powering on with this until he gets it.

What comes across, from reading their press, is that the band seem to have a very powerful mix of cynicism and incredible self-belief. When Richard disappeared for sound-check duties, I enquired of Tiny whether that combination of traits had helped them to survive...

Tiny - " Yeah. Definitely. Just Richard's face helps me to survive."

Aaaw. He pulls a Richard face. Aaaw.

Eleanor - " Just like a puppy."

Tiny - "Yeah, he's like a little spaniel."

So sweet.

Seriously.

And him and Richard do make a really good partnership.

Tiny - "Songs like 'Best Wishes' or 'Stay Young' are as good as they are because we both write them. He writes the internal set of lyrics and then I write the external view of what he's done. On 'Stay Young' he said, 'I've got this line; I wanna stay young, never grow old and never go back home. Can you fill the rest in ?' So that's how it came about... And 'Best Wishes' came about like that as well. "

Eleanor wants to know if they ever fall out about it.

Tiny - "We've never argued, no. There's some things where he's thought of the lyrics for and I wish I had, I wish I'd been given the chance to, but he did them before me because he always writes quicker."

me - "So you're kind of pushing yourselves, you bounce off each other...?"

Tiny - "Definitely, yeah."

And then they do 'come up with the goods.'

There are 2 B-sides with Ultrasound's first single for Nude records. Every single time that 'Best Wishes' had been mentioned in the music press, for at least a month before I actually spoke to the band, the journalist also always found time to wonder why 'Kurt Russell' wasn't the lead track. ( A jaunty little cowboy pop-song about heroism and loving support... )

Tiny - "I used to read in the press about how bands had gone into the studio to do some B-sides, actually purposefully went in to do B-sides. And I just think you can release whatever on whatever."

Mmm. But it is a damn good song tucked away on a flip-side. From the journalist's point of view.

As Tiny sees it though, the song isn't hidden. That now, with the advent of CD singles, you do listen to every single track on the single, not just the lead one. And he prefers the lead track, as the lead track. And the choice of release should be, ultimately, the band's decision.

Yeah. I agree with him on that.

And the B-sides topic of conversation is one which I'd become embroiled in two weeks previously with Strangelove. You've gotta write something that's good enough to put out, but not so good as you'd want it to stand on its own as an A-side. AAARGH.

Tiny - "You can't purposefully write a 'not very good song'."

Particularly not if in this band. The constant competition seems to work well in killing the bland.

and then they're leaving

me - "One more question for you - I was singing 'Same Band' today, and she said it sounded like the Star Wars theme ( de-duh-de-DUH-duh... )..."

Tiny - "Aaaah. You're the first person to actually mention it, yes it is."

me - "So did you do that on purpose ?"

Tiny - "No we didn't actually. But I noticed it - when Richard's written a tune I'll hear so many things. And it IS that. But I KNOW he didn't do it on purpose.... There's another one actually, it's really epic and intense, but the actual chorus is 'So Here It Is Merry Christmas' by Slade..."

And if that isn’t reason enough for you…

Last revised: 26/07/01