Johnny: Er, I'm alright yeah ... I'm a little bit tired today!
Yousif: It's well publicized that you've been compared with Television. Are you pissed off with it yet?
Johnny: Erm (long pause)… whatever you do, people are gonna say stuff that isn't right and I don't really care to be honest! You know what I mean? (sniggers) In two, three years time people are not gonna fucking be talking about Television, no-ones gonna be asking me about Television. I don't really care, you've just got to blaze your way through it. Look, anytime you do something right people are gonna tell you you're doing it wrong you know, in that you're making a mistake or sort of like a very english mentality that anytime you try and....
Yousif: Yeah, they'll knock you down for it.
Johnny: Well yeah you know I mean, (long pause) I dunno...if you try and be something slightly more than the status quo, then they get very upset by that. They'll build you up to knock you down even harder. I know it's a cliché but, the bigger you are, the harder you fall. Well, perhaps. I've just got a really good band (chuckles) and I've got really good songs! And we play them, you know what I mean? It's just very simple! I don't take any of the other stuff seriously you know? All the people from the press saying all that about me. It doesn't really make any difference to me. You ask me a question and I'll tell you the truth and that just goes with my life you know? I mean, I deplore tact y'know? Because tact is just another word for lying isn't it? It's just pointless.
Yousif: Do you thrive under pressure?
Christian: (just entering conversation after his phone call) Ooh that's a good question!
Johnny: It is isn't it! I think I do yeah. What kind of pressure? Give me an example.
Yousif: Outside pressure, inward pressure within the band, pressure within the media.
Johnny: Well what kind of pressure do you think I feel?
Yousif: Hype to become the next big thing of 2004 perhaps?
Christian: But that's not pressure though, that's just hype.
Johnny: That's just nonsense.
Yousif: Well people expect you to be this and that ...
Christian: Well what do you expect us to be?
Yousif: Ok. Well for example, if I'm watching MTV2 and they're talking about ‘Razorlight’, the next big thing and they sound like da-da-da and so on' I would expect big things.
Johnny: Well what do you want from us? You want us to be a good band and you want us to play music that you like listening to y'know what I mean? And that's the important thing y'know. That's what you want from us. People want to be entertained and people want to have a good time and people want to fuckin' transcend their lives and people want to be inspired, that's what they want from you.
Christian: And that completely overrules expectation to listen to a band.
Johnny: I'm not goin' up there thinking what people expect me to do, I'm just going up there and really trying to find something y'know?
Christian: People wanna know what they want, not what they expect.
Johnny: But you know what people want, to see a great band y'know.
Yousif: And that's where you come in?
Johnny: Er ... Yeah!(in conversation with Christian) I spilled a bucket of paint this morning..
Yousif: What's your plans for the rest of the year including the new album? Have you thought of a title for it yet?
Johnny: Well the album comes out at the end of April. And I've thought of a few.
Christian: (to Johnny) No, you can't break the seal.
Johnny: No, there is a title, but I'm not allowed to reveal it. It's like with the promo and old demos knocking around people thinking it's an album and it's not. The sound that's gonna come out when it's ready, which'll be when it is, is gonna be a fuckin' fantastic thing ... and ... it will be named as the name. And you'll know when it's there.
Yousif: Now that you've signed to Mercury, an imprint of a major - Universal, who else were chasing you up in terms of signing you?
Johnny: Oh, every record label in the world was trying to sign us, but we just went with the ones that understood us the best I think and it was a straight forward decision. It's like ... you know (sniggers) ... you just go with the people you believe in and who believe in you.
Yousif: You've made some demos at Toerag studios I believe. What was it like working with Liam Watson and John Fortis?
Johnny: Well John's a wonderful, wonderful musician and I think he's fantastic. Liam is similarly ... err ... y'know the quality those two brought was staggering really. But it's not gonna be as good as the record is gonna be because we've had to take a step on from there really.
Yousif: Didn't you say that if you were going to record the album you wouldn't do it there as it would sound too sixties?
Johnny: I probably said that, and it sounds like something I would say. I'm pretty sure I did say that, I remember saying that.
Yousif: Where do you take your inspiration for your songwriting skills from? The one thing to notice is just how good it is. I see it on 'In The City' and 'Heartbreak Soup' as examples of great songwriting craftsmanship.
Johnny: Well ...I can tell you how I wrote both of them if you like. On 'In The City', I wrote a story on a few pages and then I just put the chords on them and that was it. It was quite an instinctive thing. ‘Heartbreak Soup’, what you do is you just write the first line and you get a feeling from the first line, and you take it from then on. But ‘Heartbreak Soup’, I'm very in love with that song. I dunno if everyone gets it, for me it's the story of your relationship's folding with a girl and you try and call her up and telling her that it could work but it's not gonna work. But at the same time I'm writing to explain to her where I've come from and from the day I was born to where you are now, and despite what people may think it's a hard life.
Christian: Is it an attempt to end a relationship?
Johnny: Well, no I think it's this girl that she thinks that when you've got a record deal and this and that ... blah blah blah ... everything's great but the way it's always been for me is just heartache and heartache and that's all there is. But you know from the beginning, ‘Heartbreak Soup, there was no need to talk that was all I could do being grown up ... spaghetti and ketchup, pizza and chips, its just what I had grew up on eating. It sounds really anti-glamorous but what I do with songwriting is I study and I work and sit on a fuckin' desk and you write and you write and you write. And that's the only way you do it y'know. And the more you do that, the more you find good things you find dropping into your head. Things just drop into your head when you're on tour, when you're walking down the street, whatever. You've just got to put those hours in.
Yousif: People might have different ideas though. Sometimes it just comes to them naturally.
Johnny: Yeah the best things do come to you naturally. But that's not coming to you naturally. What's happening there is your sub-conscience is creating it. And that means your sub-conscience is doing the writing instead of your conscience which is a very strong thing. But your sub-conscience needs the tools to be able to write a song and the more you write, the more your tools stay sharp y'know? I'm just trying to tell stories really.
Yousif: I hear you produced a single for a band you really like called Go Rambo?
Johnny: Oh, I didn't end up producing it in the end unfortunately because we were on tour and stuff. The band have changed their name, they're now called Angels Fight the City. And they're a little way off at the moment! (laughs) They've got a beautiful tambourine player and he's stunning!
Bjorn: What's his name?
Johnny: What's her name? (all laugh out loud) Err … she is J.S. Is a fantastic songwriter. “I needed you baby in my arms like a supermarket waits for a suicide bomb.” Y'know ... you can't argue with stuff like that can you?
Yousif: Who or what are your favourite bands or songs at the moment?
Johnny: My favourite song at the moment is “God Bless the Child” by Billie Holiday. I've been listening to Anita Odeva's version of it constantly. What else? “Something's Got a Hold On My Heart” the Gene Pitney version ... and yeah. My favourite song ever is “Don't Let Me Ever Be Misunderstood” by The Animals.
Yousif: Here's one for all of you now. If you could organize your own festival, who'd be on the bill and who would headline?
Christian: It would be us and Mr. Fun (all laugh) and that was just from the top of my head!
Yousif: I've heard worse! Woody Allen for instance.
Christian: No no! I want him to play clarinet for us! He's an amazing player!
Johnny: Why don't we get him to play clarinet on 'Golden Touch'?
Christian: (shouts) Yeah, that would sell it! That would get to No.1!
Yousif: I've also heard other ones by the guy that wrote the Oingo Boingo and Simpsons theme ... what's his name again?
Christian: Danny Elfman.
Yousif: That's the one! Danny Elfman! Who else would you put? Come on! Ideas! Brainstorm here!
Johnny: I should like to see the Teardrop Explodes, I should probably like to see ...
Carl: Jesus and the Mary Chain.
Johnny: Yeah, I would like to see Hawkwind.
Bjorn: Oh yeah, that'd be great! Especially if he wears his frog suit!
Christian: At that time or now?
Johnny: I should really like to see very early Talking Heads, I should like to see The Who, I should like to see The Doors from '67 Carl: Ramones '77
Johnny: Kinks '64
Christian: Pink Floyd '77
Carl: Razorlight, 2003!
Johnny: Actually Razorlight 2006 would be good as well! I'd like to see Leadbelly in 1944, I'd like to see ... that's a pretty good line-up already. I wouldn't mind seeing David Bowie in 1973 either.
Bjorn: Elvis Presley in '55
Carl: The Sonics.
Yousif: Well said! Is it true that there was ...
Christian: No! That's not true.
Yousif: You haven't even heard the …
Johnny: (now shouting) WHAT WHAT? SPEAK MAN SPEAK!
Yousif: LET ME FINISH!
Christian: Nothing's ever true and don't threaten us.
Yousif: Is it true that there was bootleg Razorlight merchandise being sold in North London?
Johnny: Don't know anything about it.
Bjorn: There were bootleg pins.
Johnny: Yeah there were, yeah.
Bjorn: There were cd's and everything like that.
Johnny: (now reciting a self-thought poem at the top of his head) This town is full of counterfeit dreamers, maybe I'm one too, because I just keep my head up behind my back because I don't know what else I should do. But the streets are like rock and they may be nothing to you, but I'll tell you where I come from if you tell me what I'm supposed to do and I've been up all night. (Room falls silent) A round of applause please!
Yousif: I would but look ... (have mike and minidisc player in hands)
Bjorn: (applauds)
Yousif: What do you think of the current music scene at the moment?
Johnny: It stinks. You can go and see the White Stripes for twenty-eight quid, that's all I wanna say about that.
Carl: Well we saw them last week.
Johnny: If you're asking me about how good the music scene is when you pay twenty-eight quid to see the White Stripes, that fucking sucks. I just think it stinks and that they don't put things out on records anymore, what's the point of that? Not to do anything with the music scene but they're fazing out the Routemaster buses and those trains where the doors open and shut. I mean what the fuck is that about man?
Bjorn: And gentlemen don't wear hats anymore. It's atrocious.
Johnny: Absolutely. A journalist from the Independent once told me that everything's been downhill since 1966.
Christian: No, I'd say since about 1870 – the Industrial Revolution.
Johnny: Yeah that's where it all went wrong.
Bjorn: Before then, everything was so nice! People were getting raped, slavery, genocide ...
Johnny: I do look a bit tired today don't I? I got plastered last night! First time in a long while! I went home and drank Champagne in the bath! It was quite an aristocratic drunkenness!
Yousif: How noble of you! If you could kill any member of the band who would it be and how would you do it?
(all laughing)Johnny: IF I could? What do you mean ‘IF’?
Bjorn: WHEN you kill a member of the band, who would it be and how!
Johnny: I could kill any of you if I wanted to! I wouldn't really want to kill anyone in this room, because we hate each other, but we love each other. I have a genuine love for all you three and I just you to have the best lives you can possibly have and I'm being sincere, and I just think that we should always be honest and truthful and there's no point, we'll be together for the rest of time y'know? I have a genuine compassion for you and that's it. If you died by having an accident I'd be over the moon, but you know ...
Christian: You're not going to instigate it are you?
Bjorn: I would kill myself by dipping myself into vat of acid. No sorry, a vat of molten chocolate
Yousif: How very rock 'n' roll! What do you think of your stuff being sold on Ebay?
Bjorn: All hail in the world of capitalistic free enterprise.
Christian: People that buy it for thirty quid now think that it'll be a hundred quid within a year and ...
Bjorn: Yeah, capitalistic free enterprise.
Yousif: Have you got anything profound to say to your fans or any words of wisdom before I wrap this up?
Johnny: Er ... Hi Mum! ... err ... Where are you? (everyone laughs)
Christian: Are you listening?
Bjorn: Don't watch TV, TV is bad for you. TV Pacifies. TV is the enemy of people.
Johnny: Stop being such an indie kid and do boxing lessons, learn to fight, but never get hit. Tell the truth, fight the world in what you believe in, quit your job ...
Carl: Don't ever listen to rock stars!
Johnny: That's true! Never ever listen to rock stars!
Bjorn: Eat organic food.
Johnny: Don't give in. Don't be tactful, If you ever make eye contact with a member of the opposite sex in a bar more than once and you don't go and talk to them, then something desperately wrong with you. Never wait for buses, walk instead 'cos otherwise you're just waiting for the bus to catch up with you. Try not to leave buckets of paint in front of the bed.
Bjorn: Don't fall asleep when you've got candles lit.
Johnny: I did it the other day. (laughs) Always trim the wick of the candles before you burn them. Listen to sixties reggae ...
Christian: Never live in Camden Town. No matter HOW tempting.
Johnny: Or Shoreditch! No matter what the compulsion may be! Er ... Don't ... (very long pause) Don't forget ...what it's all about.
Christian: I don't think we know in the first place.
Johnny: Everybody knows, you know when you're born that's when you know what it's about.