cottish exports The Cinematics sound like Franz Ferdinand at a midnight showing of Donnie Darko. Stop and go guitars over red velvet ambience and eyeliner… nobody does dark-wave melodrama like the Scottish. Made up of Scott Rinning, Ross Bonney, Ramsay Miller and Adam Goemans, The Cinematics were so instantly unmissable that indie imprint TVT snapped them up at first sight and hired Stephen Hague (New Order, Blur, Pet Shop Boys) to produce their first album, A Strange Education. We were so wowed at first sight that, not only did we put them in the Freshmen Five, we also bandnapped bassist Adam Goemans and strapped him into the Hot Seat until he talked. He had plenty to say. Look…
Q: Tell us about your craziest touring experience.
A: Being stranded in Austin at 5AM with no taxis, having no way home and getting a lift back to the hotel on the back of some random fella’s motorcycle. I thought he was going to take me into the woods and kill me but all he did was offer me an array of narcotics, which did nothing for my faith in the odds of my survival.
Q: What type of college class would you most want to take and why?
A: I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was younger until I went out with a girl who was an archaeologist and all she ever found was some bits of broken pottery from the Viking times. Hard to say… All I ever wanted to do was be in a band (cliche!). Maybe photography or something arty like that. Shame I’m no good at it.
Q: What city in America is the most fun to visit and why?
A: Another cliche, but New York is the most exciting place for me to visit. Most places we drive in, play a show and then drive out. New York is our party town and the place where we know the most people. It also shares a lot of similarities with London, which kind of makes it feel more like home. Not quite, but enough.
Q: What’s some of the best advice you were ever given?
A: Don’t run before you can crawl, put on your trousers (pants) one leg at a time and never trust women who are archaeologists and keep pet rats.
Q: What’s in heavy rotation in your MP3/CD player right now?
A: Right now I’m listening heavily to Skylarking by XTC, Hail to the Thief by Radiohead, Tyranny of Distance by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and Cansei De Ser Sexy by CSS.
Q: What’s the last good book you read or TV show you’re addicted to?
A: First and Last Men by Olaf Stapledon - scary because it might all come true! Nearing the end of Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis… he is a great story-teller and is unafraid to shock people with what is in his mind.
Q: What’s the first concert you ever saw and how was it?
A: I went to see Ocean Colour Scene at the SECC in Glasgow. They were not great but there was an impromptu riot outside afterwards and we all had to stay inside the arena until the police and paramedics cleaned up all the mess. I was 13 and thought it was the maddest thing I would ever see. It wasn’t.
Q: What are three items you can’t live without on tour?
A: My laptop, books and temazepam, for those long, long journeys on the road when you can’t face your bandmates any longer, lol.
Q: Who are your major musical influences?
A: I try not to be too influenced by anyone. I like to think that what’s mine is mine. But if I had to name anyone it would be all the people who I’ve played with over the years and anyone who gave their time to show or tell me a thing or two about life and the guitar. Is that pretentious?
Q: Any random messages or tips you’d like to give to mtvU watchers?
A: Random message, hmm, buy our album, haha. No, really, if I was to impart any choice nugget of advice, it would be this: if you feel strongly about something and those around you don’t encourage you, or even put you down, tell them to f**k off and do whatever you want. Unless what you feel strongly about is genocide of the Arabs or something equally as wrong. It’s nothing that hasn’t already been said, but it has worked for me.
