The Members Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 10th 2010 3:30PM by Luke Slater
Comments

One of the more established bands to be playing SXSW, '70s British punk stalwarts the Members broke up in the mid '80s but reformed in 2008, releasing a single -- International Financial Crises -- early last year. We caught up with the very curt guitarist-songwriter JC Carroll.

Describe your sound in your own words.

The members are "the sound of the suburbs." We will always be associated with the 1979 million selling post-punk anthem.

How did your band form?

The members were formed by Nick Tesco in 1977.

What are your main musical influences?

Punk and reggae.

How did you come up with 'The Members' as a name?

The member is also slang for penis...

What made you get the band back together?

We decided that with so many young bands citing punk as an influence we would show them what it was really about.

How has your outlook on the music industry changed, individually and as a band over the course of your career?

We belong to a generation that never received any mechanical royalties from our original contracts, so we hope future generations of musicians will not suffer the same fate.

What are your aims and hopes for the band now?

To continue to tour, record and to show the "young boys how the original punk rockers can play."

What's your biggest vice?

Alcohol.

What's in your festival survival kit?

Pop-up tent, Muji rubber mac, baritone ukelele...

What are your musical guilty pleasures?

I enjoy turn of the century musical hall and post-war calypso.

Beatles or Stones?

No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

I have played at Midnight in the Land of the Midnight Sun, I've played at Spring Break in Daytona Beach, I have been locked in a Dutch immigration prison cell, fined by highway patrols, refused entry to Canada, threatened by gangsters, intimidated by armed guards, cussed by rednecks, refused service at truck stops, I've been spat at, showered with coins and bottles I've made love to some beautiful women been chased by jealous boyfriends, stalked by transvestites, and I've stayed in plush hotels in Paris and cockroach-infested immigrant dives in southern Texas.