Question: You take a twelve-legged, party-crazed disco-punk monster from Detroit and you book it into London's most notorious rock'n'roll hotel in London, with a ready supply of alcohol and all kinds of goodies. What is liable to happen? Answer: The participants are not all THAT likely to be, like, coherent to deal with probing invective from quizzical journalists the following morning.
So, something of a dilemma presents itself seeing as W&H's mission this morning is to penetrate the heart of the maniacal dance-crazed rockers we know better as ELECTRIC SIX by er, having a genial chew of the fat with drummer Corey Martin. We pick up, we dial, WE SCORE.....!! "Hi Corey, this is W&H, how's the shit kickin'?"
"Sorry, sir, you're back with reception....I'm afraid they seem to have moved rooms....I'll put you through to the relevant one..."
Er, ahem, thanks....
This time we DO get one of the band, but it's not Corey, as he's still asleep. Hell, can you blame him, this IS the Columbia Hotel after all and the rock'n'roll myths must be propagated. Instead, a bleary, but mellow voice answers...
"Hi, this is John....I'm the new guitarist.....Corey's still in, ah, bed, he's a little worse for wear. Can I rap with you for a little while instead?"
Indeed you can, sir! Realising this is actually guitarist (and new boy
SERGE JOEBOT, though he likes to be addressed as simply "John"), W&H are more than happy to rap away to our heart's content.
Ya do know the Columbia's the most legendary rock'n'roll hotel in London, dontcha? There's more TV's gone through windows there than you've had hot dinners. How's it treating you so far?
"Well, it's my first stay," says John quietly.
"It's pretty mellow here these days, though we were talking to these cats who were doing electrical work here earlier on. Corey ended up having a few drinks with them, so he's kinda sleepin'....I don't think I'll try to wake him."
Good move, methinks. So, what do you make of England anyway? We seem to be taking to the Electric Six for sure...
"This is my third trip here," reveals John.
"Yeah, there's good things about England. There's the public transport, that's cool...English girls," he says saucily, in an American approximation of a 'Carry on' leer.
"Hell, I even like the full English breakfasts now I've gotten used to em'.....as long as I don't have to do anything for the rest of the day, y'know."
OK, of course you guys have been throwing yourself headlong into the Festival Season. I didn't see it, but I believe one of your PR team dressed up as a robot and brought down the house when you played at Glastonbury. Is that true?
"Yeah, the band used to do the Robot thing way back before I joined and they reprised it for Glastonbury 'cos it's such a legendary show. The crowd did go nuts over that. It was a memorable moment."
Right. Well, we're here predominantly to talk about your new single "Dance Commander." I know the lyrics are mostly Dick's (Valentine - vocals) domain, but lyrically the song seems to be questioning the idea of democracy in a big way and there are heavy subversive overtones. What does the song mean to you?
"Well, I'd take it more literally in that it's about the Dance Commander overthrowing a city," replies John.
"He goes on to force everyone to dance and it's a cool tune to do live 'cos it allows me to rock ot like crazy onstage, so I'd see it more as a musical call to arms. I see what you're saying, though. It could be taken on that level, too."
Revolution seems to the key, though. Even the sleeve artwork seems like a pastiche of the Cuban Victoria de la Siempre posters?
"Yeah, something like that, sure, but really it's open to interpretation," says John, veering close to one of the most loved rock'n'roll cliches.
" I mean, Dick's the lyricist and he's aware of what's going on in the world and he puts his own spin on those things."
Alrighty. The single's B-side is "I Am Detroit", of course. It's an interesting point in itself as E6 are somewhat removed from the whole White Stripes reconstructed blues thing the city's become famous for, even though you share a record label. Do you feel enirely divorced from all that?
"Yeah, well speaking as a former member of Wild Bunch audiences (Electric Six mutated from their initial incarnation as The Wild Bunch and still often refer to themselves under this name - ed) , the band always rocked especially hard and seemed like something very.....wrong. In a good way," replies John, pausing to choose his words carefully.
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"Y'know...they stood apart. What separated the band began with the suits and the fashion sense. Plus they always had the best parties....oh yeah, the parties.....legendary," he finishes dreamily, lost in reverie.
But do you fraternise with the Detroit hip set or do you detest them?
"No, I like 'em, though I'd personally veer more towards the psychedelic strands in Detroit. For me, it's bands like The Witches, The Alphabet...lots of good songwriting."
A-ha. But, c'mon, Detroit's always had the toughest sounding rock'n'roll bands from the Stooges and MC5 on. Is it in the water?
"No, man, I'm paraphrasing Iggy Pop here, but Detroit's rock and roll sound is the sound of factories and the landscape here's still horrendous."
Yeah? I've always been fascinated by a load of bands from the US midwest. Pere Ubu, for example, they had that thing about factories and industry as an essentila part of their make up, hailing from Cleveland on the industrial shore of Lake Erie...
"Yeah, exactly, and Detroit's horrendous in that way, too," says John.
"For instance, there's this area called River Rouge and it's like something out of 'Blade Runner', the landscape's so desolate. Even the clubs in that area are just beyond belief, crawling with toothless hookers and shit like that. The landscape is just decay, so it should be no surprise that the grittiest music comes from Detroit."
OK, but back to the inside world of Electric Six. I keep hearing terms like "total entertainment" in conjunction with your music. How much of what you do is deliberate piss-take? How serious are E6?
"Oh, it;s all serious," says John sincerely.
"We all adapt our different personas because we're really serious about the entertainment side of our show, but Dick's deadly serious about his songwriting. He's very aware of current events and likes to put his own take on what's going on in the world. It's not all about gay bars!"
Right, well you've got a huge tour coming up with dates stretching out right up to Christmas. You guys nust enjoy being on the road with such a monster itinerary. Tell me about your likes and dislikes about being on the road...
"Oh man, dislikes don't really come into it," John fires back.
"There's so many angles to everything on the road, because it's so amazing seeing different countries and meeting people and the crowds are so responsive. Certainly for myself it's a big thing because I've been playing guitar for fifteen years and it's finally beginning to pay off, so I see this as our big adventure together."
"I do get homesick momentarily," he admits after a pause, "but my feeling is if I'm gonna be stuck on that bus for a month at a time or whatever, then I'm gonna get as much out of it as I can and that's my Philosophy."
OK, well we gotta go for now. Final question: do Electric Six wanna take over the world?
"Yeah! No question! We'll take it if we can get it. Why not!?"
Why not indeed. If they keep this up, we'll all be in their command. Damn the torpedoes: the besuited, robot-loving, disco-punk mutant chart-toppers are coming through! You'll know where to send the bill for all those knackered tellies, won't you?
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