How did you form?
We started in the autumn (sorry fall) of 1998, a few months after I left the Wiija Records (Cornershop, Huggy Bear, Comet Gain) band Velocette. They had been 4/5's of the original line up of Comet gain (along with David Feck), but had left when they decided we should be more pop (and a bit more professional) and David had wanted to be more punky/lo-fi/whatever. In a moment of sublime stupidity I left Comet Gain, along with Sam, Sarah and Jax (later Kicker keyboard player), because I thought my then rudimentary drumming style would be good enough and that Velocette would remain poppy. When Sam started talking about bands like The Verve and The Wannadies and trip hop, I sort of lost heart and along with that and legal stuff, I didn't really contribute all I should - though I did want the band too succeed. The engineer didn't like my drumming and said it's him or me, so I got the push.
I knuckled down and practised my drumming and then started Kicker - to prove that I could do it I suppose...
I asked Jill Drew (cover star of the Comet gain single 'Strength) and Andy Jones (who I'd met at various gigs) if they'd like to start a band, just to see if I could write a tune. Laura joined not long after, (Ben Phillipson, an old friend, joined after our first album, 'fivefortyfives'). Fortunately it all worked out - I think - and we pretty much wrote together. Then Delia at the Rough Trade shop asked if she could hear a demo we had recorded and our first single was out, before we'd done a gig I think....
What were you listening to when you recorded Our Wild Mercury Years?
francoise hardy, beach boys, felt, gene clark, byrds, jaques dutronc, john cale, V.U., nico, postcard records, vashti, fairport, ronettes, marianne faithfull, phil ochs, michael polnareff, loving spoonful, kinks, bobbie gentry, go-betweens, soul music, yo la tengo, chart pop..hmm a real mixture really.
What, if any, struggles did you have during recording?
Laura and Cat left during recording, which was a blow, especially Laura - but she did a cracking job on her guitar parts. The release date was put back a few times too - mainly due to Track and Field's increasingly busy schedule
Do you meticulously plan out your future, or do you take a backseat in the ride?
Umm, not really. I don't think we're even allowed in the car - it's full.
What do you find most inspiring when writing music?
It's the idea of all music as soul music - soul with a small s, not the genre - and basically being sincere about what you write, no matter what anyone else might say or think. It may sound a bit pompous, it's not supposed to, and this is purely a personal thing, but I think it's important to avoid trying to be something you're not, just because it might help you sell a lot of records. People are pretty savvy to inferior copies of a successful formula, I think. Or at least to insincerity. There won't be any disco beats on a Kicker record just yet. Which means there will be Wink There seem to be a lot of bands that have an offbeat at the moment. And too many guitarists who play on the downstroke.
Can you pinpoint a single event in your lives that changed the way you perceive music, or has there been a gradual effect?
Easy, as far as I go. Watching repeats of the Monkees on TV when I was a kid. That and hearing Velvet Underground. I know that Jill always wanted to be in a band called Kicker - so you know who named us!
What do you find most appealing about playing live?
The togetherness of it all, everyone playing at the same time, us against the world, all that old stuff. That's a buzz.