Photo by Jacqui Sadler
Here at SK, we like the idea of music helping to promote change, and affecting people in meaningful ways. So does English singer-songwriter Chris T-T, though he’s a lot more vocal about it than we humble scribes. 2005’s 9 Red Songs is a staunch contender for “Angriest Album Ever”, and even earned him the accolade of being the only musician ever to write a good song about fox-hunting (go on, prove us wrong – Ed.)
Now, a decade and five LPs after he started recording, we finally get into it with the man himself. Please note that the interview below is unedited. All we did was re-order some of the questions. This is straight from the man himself…
Stereokill: So, Chris, it’s been just over a year since Capital was released. What have you been up to since then?
CT-T: I toured a lot last year plugging Capital, went further into Europe and the USA than I’ve done before. I spent last summer playing festivals as pianist in Frank Turner’s band and I’ve been making a documentary about him, which I’ve almost finished. This year has been less busy; I’m demo-ing songs, writing a lot and figuring out what to do next, although I went back to the USA in the Spring for SXSW and another bunch of shows.
Stereokill: Are there musicians you’ve played with or grew up listening to who you’d say have had an effect on your music?
CT-T: I grew up inspired by Springsteen and American rock, and then got into UK indie through Carter USM at the same time as more underground American guitar music (Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr, Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth, etc.) Out of university I joined Magoo for a year… they’re from Norfolk and totally inspired me in a psychedelic direction. Then, in my 20s I got into English folk music.
Now I’m probably most into R&B and chart pop but obviously that doesn’t particularly affect how I sound, because I could never afford to record that way.
Most of the musicians I now work with, I’ve known for 15 years and met at college. Jen Macro who plays lead guitar in the Hoodrats became my friend in the mid ’90s… the same with my producer Jon Clayton. There are a bunch of people who’ve either worked or hung out together for more than a decade, like Magoo who I mentioned above, Tim Victor (Broken Family Band/Folk Orchestra) and Stuffy (Fuses/Graham Coxon). We’ve grown up together and built lifelong relationships.
Stereokill: What inspires/motivates you to be the musician you are?
CT-T: The previous answer notwithstanding, fiction and filmmaking inspires me much more than music, which is probably why I still get so obessed with telling stories in songs.
Stereokill: So, what’s next for you?
CT-T: When I got off tour last November I did some experiments making improvised music high on LSD and recording it on my laptop. Also, I’ve been playing more and more improvised piano (not on acid). So I’m hoping some new music will get released in autumn, in a ‘between albums’ sort of way, which will be either some of those “Chris T-T On LSD” tracks, or a serious improvised piano record, or both.
Aside from that, I’m going back in the studio this summer, to get on with a new ‘proper’ album. I’ve written and demo’ed a pile of songs, about two-and-half albums’ worth, strong ideas but rubbish home demos. As I said I’ll be recording over this summer, so by September, maybe even August, I’ll know better what I’m going to put out and when. Obviously I’d like it to be before the end of the year but that kind of thing is out of my hands, so I’ll just say ‘as soon as possible’.
Stereokill: You’re a pretty prolific tourer, playing all over the world with all sorts of artists. What have been your favourite tours – places and people?
CT-T: I’m not prolific enough! I look at friends who are out there the whole time and envy them. I love being on the road. Basically that’s why I wish my audience was a bit bigger and further afield – not for crossover fame or Heat magazine shit but because I’d love to tour properly, you know, six months to cross the world. I really wish the people at the core of the English folk scene got into what I do, because that would underpin a massive load of touring – folkies tour the fuck out of everything. You know, I’ve loved every tour apart from maybe one.
I just recently got back from driving halfway across the States with just me and Stephen, my manager, which was incredible.
I went around Europe a couple of years ago with Norwegian band Madrugada playing big halls – 2,000+ capacity places throughout northern Europe. Anyway, they put me up on their bus and treated me like part of the band, which was fantastic but a fucking hard party to keep up with. Robert, their guitarist, later died from an OD. That was the tour I’ve been on where everyone behaved most like real rock stars, which they are/were.
For different reasons I love touring with Jim Bob, because we’ve become real friends, his whole team, and I feel like we’re a gang when we go out. I’m going out again in September to play some piano for him, so I basically find excuses to go on the road with him. I’m always trying to bully him out across Europe where he’d be very popular because Carter were so massive – just so I can justify going out as support act.
It’s heading the same way with Frank Turner I guess, because we became real friends last year. And I guess the way he’s taking off into the mainstream, I’ll hardly see him for the next couple of years.
Another brilliant one is Thomas White, I’ve toured with his various projects, Brakes and Electric Soft Parade, quite a few times. He inspired me to be more constantly creative, which I’ve worked at since. Tom’s always drawing or writing or photographing or observing stuff in a unique way. Ha, he made a liver paté for the last tour, which I couldn’t eat obviously!
Stereokill: There’s a fairly heavy social/political element to your music – what are your political views, personally? Have they always had an effect on your music?
CT-T: Ha, self-definition.
Um, I’m a social libertarian and a fiscal communist, so my ideal state would be fairly anarchic in terms of personal behaviour and morality, with a lot of freedom for individuals, but much tougher restrictions on the accumulation of wealth beyond reasonable comfort, and the employment of one person by another. I sort of believe in “capitalism afterwards” – by which I mean I don’t hate the rich, or market forces, but I think they can have all that crazy wealth crap only after they’ve fed, housed, clothed, clean watered, sewaged and given broadband, laptops and education to everyone in the world.
I have a bunch of other side beliefs that fly off in all directions, like animal rights and deschooling, so you’d have to get me on single issues really.
In the real world, I vote Green. I’m optimistic that technology is leading us in a communised direction, at least culturally, with wikis and YouTube etc. Basically, a process towards voluntary sharing of humanity. But by contrast, I’m deeply pessimistic about our ability to survive the coming ecological carnage, so I honestly believe there will be fewer than, say, 50 million people left on the Earth in the next 100 years or so and that’s regardless of what we do now.
You just have to look at what a few inches sea level rise does to crowded, brutalised places in the east like Bangladesh to realise we’ve got no fucking hope in hell of tackling the problem. Sorry to be fatalist but we’ve left it too late.
As regards my music-making, my viewpoints have always been in there but were bubbling underneath until 9 Red Songs, which, although I’m very proud of it, was a mistake. Capital isn’t as political as it seems, it’s closer to a horror film or fantasy. It’s aiming for Children Of Men, not Prime Minister’s Questions.
Stereokill: What makes music such a force for change? Why is it so powerful?
CT-T: I don’t know what makes music so powerful, or a force for change, or even if it is. The organisation of sound is the first sign of consciousness – you don’t need to be able to interpret it to recognise it. For me it’s close to whatever people think of as ‘god’ – you’re directly creating something from nothing. But that’s rather a spiritual answer.
Stereokill: How do you feel about events like, say, Love Music Hate Racism, that have a valid cause but are also intrinsically tied to a political agenda (in the case of LMHR, the SWP)?
CT-T: I get your point but that’s a bit unfair on LMHR. Although the people might come out of that hard left scene, LMHR has worked hard to keep non-partisan and run a broad church. Their agenda is sincerely anti-racist/anti-BNP and sometimes expressed a bit clunkily but that doesn’t deny their honesty. They good peoples. I’ve written a lot and angrily about socially campaigning or actively left-wing event organisers who are rubbish at organising events, or don’t treat artists well, which really grinds my gears. But I don’t think LMHR are guilty of that either, it’s just perhaps some of the other lefty promoters who fundraise for them fall into that category.
Pisses me off though, it’s almost like they’re deliberately bad as if to remind everyone we’re not supposed to be having a good time.
Actually, after years of hating doing them, my most recent experiences of campaigning events have been much more positive than in the past, so I’m getting less biased against them. I played a Gaza benefit earlier this year and then a Trafalgar Square show for Strangers Into Citizens, both of which were really well run – mind you, both were largely stage-managed by women, which maybe made the difference. I got to meet Jeremy Hardy.
Stereokill: You write a weekly column for The Morning Star – is the choice of paper significant?
CT-T: Yeah, I like the sense of Communist cultural history of the MS and enjoy the paper. It’s an ego boost sharing pages with Benn, Pilger and Corbyn. But, well, I’ll be honest, they were the first people to ask! However since I started it and it’s been OK, a couple of papers have offered columns – but they’re not the papers I’d want to write for, so I guess, yes, the Morning Star is significant for me.
Stereokill: The general attitude seems to be that Britain is pretty fucked right now. Are our government really just a bunch of grafters and thieves?
CT-T: Overall, yes. They may not be cunts to a man but our parliament is largely a bunch of grafters and thieves, but so is big business, the media, the civil service, the military, the church and basically every fucking level of everything, thanks to the mass destruction of community in favour of capital. We don’t chime morally, but thank fuck for Ian Hislop crazy gang.
It’s hilarious that the establishment has hung us all up on some expenses fiddling when there’s PPP and so many other grand thefts and sleights-of-hand that ripped off the people to a ferocious degree.
Stereokill: So, can Brown’s government come back from this (that is, the steady erosion of support thanks to accusations of incompetence and sleaze)?
CT-T: No, Brown’s government can’t recover. If Labour wanted a shot at the next election, they’d replace him but there’s nobody with the balls and the ability. My guess is they’ll fight hard for a hung parliament – but don’t forget they’re fucking skint as well and everyone’s looking to their own seat. It’ll be vicious. The campaign won’t redeem anyone!
Stereokill: So how do you feel about the prospect of a Conservative government next year?
CT-T: A Tory government? We have generations of people who don’t know what a Conservative government means in terms of subtle social oppression and what I’ve recently been calling the ‘fuck the bottom end’ principle. I dread them. We take a bunch of things for granted, from the minimum wage and assumptions of equality to free museums, that they will stamp upon. They will stamp on the teachers, nurses and police, in order to give tax breaks to the richest fat cats. Sounds simplistic but it’s what will happen.
I hope for a hung parliament with a few independents in there, in particular a decent small clutch of Greens and some of the more socially conscious Lib Dems and Old Labourites still in place.
Stereokill: There were some fairly tense tweets the night the BNP were elected to the Euro Parliament. Is this the beginning of the end for liberal Britain?
CT-T: My despair wasn’t so much with the BNP winning – though it was pathetic and embarrassing – but with the self-indulgent handwringing hyperbole. I’ve had it with the BBC’s Dimbleby-led election coverage; it’s so cautious, stupid, ill-informed and lets commercial interests, in particular those of their rivals, dictate the agenda, The BBC is literally scared witless. So with the BNP they broadcast the first guy’s speech in full, leaving political editor Nick Robinson scrabbling online for unprepared rebuttal material. Then they run a pathetically soft interview with both the winner (I’ve forgotten his name, Andrew Cunt [Brons - Ed.]) and Griffin, where they allow Griffin’s factually twisted defense of his whites-only party to stand virtually unquestioned. I hope the editors were ashamed of themselves because they got shat on.
Simple fact to cling hold of: The BNP hardly increased their vote, in fact nobody did except the Green Party, who got a 2-and-a-half percent increase. Was that the news? Did the BBC leave us accurately and better informed? No, it was an unedifying clamber onto commercial bandwagons and scaremongering.
Ha, but you see how carried away I get!
To answer your question, I think the prevailing UK mood, especially amongst the young, is ethically, morally and socially quite progressive and non-judgemental, which is why I don’t fear the racists. But at the same time, we move fiscally to the right and the lack of caring for those struggling underneath, in particular when they don’t look attractive, is scary. It’s ‘fuck the bottom end’ again. People are monumentally unsympathetic and casually very greedy, resenting taxes and resenting the welfare state that should be so precious. This is because they’ve grown up in a society built around money and competition, instead of people and co-operation.
So many even nice people are fucking idiot materialists now and have no idea how miserable it makes them, like a slow rotting, like gangrene.
Stereokill: How are you holding up in the recession? Any crunch-beating tips you can offer?
CT-T: I’m lucky for a couple of reasons. I can write for money when I need to, so I’m helping write fundraising campaigns for charities, which both keeps the wolf from the door and makes me feel more worthwhile as a human bean. Also I can get out there and play solo for a few hundred quid and I only need to do a couple of those to keep going for a bit – solo touring is still profitable but I learned the hard way last year that, at the moment at least, a full band tour is, well, an investment.
Stereokill: Finally, then, have you got any hidden musical gems you’d like to clue our readers into? What have been your favourite new discoveries of the last couple of months?
CT-T: They’re my friends but still my favourite serious new band is Something Beginning With L, who make brilliant clever shoegazey electro. It’s two girls, one boy and they have live guitars and bass over layered samples, A sexy old-school noise and lush harmonies. I guess it’s somewhere between the electro-pop girls like Little Boots or La Roux and classic Cocteau Twins, with a bit of My Bloody Valentine when the guitars get going. It’s pretty immense. They’ve got an album coming out this year but only just started playing live.
Apart from that I’ve been listening to Holy Fuck, Pulled Apart By Horses, Keith Jarrett’s Köln Concert, Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite, Mary Epworth & The Jubilee Band, my younger sister Anna Madeleine, Jon Boden’s solo album, Future Of The Left, James Yuill and Tim Ten Yen. I played piano on the new single by Tom Williams And The Boat called ‘90mph’ though it’s not as good as the b-side ‘Too Slow’ and Frank Turner won’t let me hear his new album til they get back from the States because he’s a pussy about security.
I’ll readily admit a certain trepidation about going after this interview, because Chris is almost as active as a journo as he is as a musician – in other words, he knows our game as well as his own. That fear was misplaced, as it turns out; as you see from the above, his answers were engaging and eloquent. This level of passion, we think, is something that’s missing from a lot of music now, and that’s what makes Chris T-T a unique artist. Thanks a lot to him for agreeing to chat to us, and make sure you head over to his MySpace or read his (uniquely acerbic) blog.
Marcus Kernohan is the founding editor of Stereokill. 
