1. 2 Sick Monkeys - a brief intro please about where it all began and why the unorthodox 2 piece approach.

Well me & Fred have known each other for over 20 years, having first played together in Punk band called 'Cut Throat Razor' between 1987 + 1993. Around Autumn 2000 Fred needed someone to play a couple o' tunes with him at a drum workshop he'd organized where Darrin Mooney (Primal Scream/Gary Moore Band) was headlining. I hadn't long been playing the bass (used to play guitar) and had no band so I thought it'd be a good crack. We had a couple of practices, wrote a couple o' songs and played the 'gig'. We carried on jamming after that and realised that we had loads o' tunes, it all felt pretty good and we didn't really feel that we needed anyone else to fill the sound, so we just stuck with it...and here we are 7 years down the line.

2. Would you say its easier working with just one other band member or more difficult in the fact that when you disagree there could be major problems about which decision to go with?

A bit o' both really. It can be a bit of bastard when you have 2 totally opposite ideas on something cos you don't have anyone else to split the vote.
But on the plus side, you haven't got to teach loads of people the songs or hope they can all make a practice or gigs. And we can also do the odd instrumental (which we like doing) without having someone stood around like a lemon.

3. Describe your fellow band member in 5 slanderous words.

Tinky, winky, dipsy, lala, po

4. Chipper Chumpchop, Hackneys naked Butcher believes he can hear his sausages communicating with one another and plotting to take over the entire country. I think the sausage conspiracy should be taken seriously by the authorities and drastic measures need to be taken to stop this all out attack on the the great British public. How do we deal with this threat and do you feel guilty when partaking of the sausage (no homosexual pun intended)?

I never feel guilty when partaking of the sausage (no homosexual pun intended either) maybe we could get together a Great British Breakfast Army kitted out with forks, bread (fried, of course!) brown sauce, eggs, bacon and camping stove (no homosexual pun intended there, either) and go sort the fuckers out!! Maybe?

5. After a few conversations with you I feel the punk spirit is alive and kicking. Where do you think this feeling comes from and how can we old bastards pass on this passion and energy to the younger brigade?

I was 11 years old (1978) when I first heard The Pistols, Clash, Buzzcocks etc...from my older brother, he wasn't a Punk, he just loved music and was always buying records. And hearing all those early Punk records was ace, you just wanted to jump around the room. And if I hear a good record now it makes me wanna do the same...the Punk spirit may mean many things to many people but I think we can probably all agree that once you've got it you don't ever lose it!!
As far as the youg 'uns are concerned I suppose the obvious thing really is to just keep at it. Kind of like supporting your Football team, it doesn't matter how bad things get, you never stop believing that this week is the week when it starts to turn for the better. Like you do with the SAS Tour and FungalPunk, sometimes things don't go how you want 'em to but you keep coming back and pushing it and pushing it and that's where (hopefully) the younger brigade will see the spirit, passion and energy of what Punk means to people and that it definitely aint just about the bands...we're all in this together. Everyone.
Promoters, Venues, Punters, Labels, Bands, Zines...etc..
Although, I will add that there are some fantastic kids out there (some in bands, some not) who, thankfully don't buy into the whole MTV-type thing where you like something for 5 minutes and then bin it.

6. Best 2SM's track to date and why?

I've got quite a few but I'll limit it to 3, please feel free to chop 2 of 'em out for breaking the rules ha ha ha
1) Live It Up (Fuck It Up) first track on the album and probably the best one, short and sweet, in and out in about a minute and a half and I think it sounds ace.
2) Nowhere Nothing - We kind of wrote this one a bit differently to most of the others, sort of pieced together and Fred wrote the tune (normally me) and I stole the lyrics from someone's suicide note...although, I don't think there's any fear of getting sued ;-)
3) Where's The Progress In That? - I wrote the lyrics for this (I don't write many) and really chuffed with 'em, plus nice riff and a sort of rockabilly beat to it...Nice!

7. What is the main driving force behing 2SM and what are the main goals you are trying to achieve (if any)?

Basically to get better and better and play gigs where loads of people show up.
It would be great to earn a bit of cash from it all, not a lot, but enough to be able to give up work for a year 2 and really tour like bastards. At the moment we're doing roughly 80-100 gigs a year which can be pain in the arse when you've gotta get back from Carlisle to go to work in the morning ha ha But, hey, if that's the way it's gotta be......

8. Electric giblets - a great bed warming idea for the elderly or a masonic symbol of sexual prowess. Please elaborate.

To be honest it sounds like the name for a heavy metal band...there's a Monty Python sketch with loads of name's of bands just like that. But as I'm 40 this year I like the idea of it being a bed warming thing for the elderly. I'm assuming as they're electric you just plug your giblets in and stave off hypothermia for another day.

9. The punk scene has so many genre's and sub genre's that really don't cross-over thus dividing the scene. Is this a problem you have come across and how do you think these seperate entities will affect punks future?

I think variety is good personally, it's usually people's agendas that are the problem. Remember all that straight edge stuff, not necessarily a bad thing, people should be free to do what they want (you don't wanna drink? don't drink...you do wanna drink? then drink...it's your choice) but then you got some people who got all elitist about it and all of a sudden there's rules of what ya can and can't do, who you go and see and who you can't if your lifestyle is (or isn't) a certain way. It's a shit explanation, sorry mate, but stuff like that is more of a problem.
Maybe this one's a bit better (and shorter ha ha ha) say you had us (2SM), The Scabs and Flat Back Four on the bill? All 3 of us sound totally different, yet all sit happily under the Punk Rock umbrella...so, variety and sub-genres = good. People with agendas and too many rules = bad.

10. If you were put in charge of a young punk band what strategy would you use to get gigs, decent paydays and CD success. What advice would you give them when setting out on their punk career?

Write a Christmas song for an x-factor/big brother loser, get an emo haircut and sell out...you'll make loads of cash!!! ;-)
Nah, basically, it's just play, play and play some more, anywhere and everywhere!!! If someone says they've got a PA set up in a shop doorway, then turn up to the shop doorway and play, you may have to stand knee-deep in tramps piss but a gig's a gig.
You've got to get out there, no one will come looking for you if they don't know who you are, so put some work in and show you that you mean it.

11. Bubbles 'O' Filth - oceanic astrologer and media queen once spent 2 weeks inside a limpet so as to edify her soul and cleanse her buttocks of various barnacle species. How would you combat a posterior barnacle attack and are kung fu starfish a legimate form of martial art?

How the fuck are you supposed to answer this? ha ha ha ha ha I'd imagine kung Fu noises are what you'd make when removing a barnacle from your starfish...fair play to Bubbles I say...that's dedication, that is!!

12. Finally push the 2 Sick Monkeys for all they are worth and persuade us to check em' out as soon as we get the chance?

Right then, 2 Sick Monkeys - 2 Piece Punk Rock band from Swindon, Wiltshire. We've played over 300 gigs, including 3 European Tours (4th one this November) and have played with bands such as Anti-Nowhere League, Discharge, The Buzzcocks, Goldblade, 999, Citizen Fish and loads more. Almost everywhere we've played we've been asked back and we guarantee you a great show (see the live reviews on our myspace blog).
We are nearly always playing somewhere...so no excuse for not seeing us ;-)
Check us out and get free downloads at:
www.2sickmonkeys.com
www.myspace.com/2sickmonkeys
www.purevolume.com/2sickmonkeys
www.reverbnation.com/2sickmonkeys

 

BACK