THE EMBROOKS

This article was originally featured in Issue three of Shindig magazine, (still available, e-mail : jon@mojo-mills.demon.co.uk for information). I felt I had to cover this wonderful new trio, which with The Nuthins I had shared the same stage and been amazed by their perfomances. Boasting an Ex-Head & The Hares and member of The Mystreated their musical CV pointed that The Embrooks would be the business.   The interview was written over a year ago, since two singles have been released and the band have performed throughout Europe. A full length LP will be out soon showing the many moods of The Embrooks.   This page will be updated at regular intervals with information about the band.
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Jon 'Mojo' Mills,SHINDIG  Oct.'98

SD: What was the idea in doing an off-shott garage band with Mole from the Mystreated?
Lois: An off-shit garage-band?
Mole: Off-Shoot! No that’s not the idea, it’s not an off-shoot garage band for me. The band was going before it was anything to do with me. There was The Hellcats and then there was The Lyds and it evolved from that. IT was Lois and her mate Wendy who got the band together a couple of years ago.
Lois: We got together, then we played a bit, we worked really hared and then decided that we hated each other and split up.
M: Certain people dropped out because they weren’t serious about it and didn’t want to keep it going. We wanted to keep it going so we did and we drafted in Alex.
SD: How did Allessandro come to be the new guitar player?
L: A dirty weekend in Belgium ended with Alex being forced into it. (Mojo: This was at a garage night where The Nuthins played and Alex guested with his old fellow Romans, Head & The Hares.)
AL: I was going to see The Lyds a lot as they were one of my favorite bands. It’s as simple as that. (Laughter all round)
SD: For those who don’t know Allessandro could you please explain his laugh? Has this laugh been an addition or a hindrance to your musical output?
M: A real hindrance! It gets on my nerves!
A: What?
M: He’s talking about your laugh.
A: My laugh? (Lois reads out the question to him again) Explain!? (Bursts out into maniacal laughter-hearing is believing.)
M: It’s a stupid question! IT doesn’t get in the way of anything it’S like dynamite comedy, know what I mean?
A: Yeah, we should put some in the record…
L: Yeah, on the run out grooove. Ha, ha, ha,…
A: A lead break would be better!
M: (laughts) A lung break!
SD: How would you describe the sound of The Embrooks?
A: Cool!
M: Pretty nifty really.
L: Hot!
M: Well it’s like sorta crude garage really, I s’pose. We’ve constantly avoided the fuzz thing. We’re going for a pre-fuzz, teen-blast.
SD: You do a fair few covers. I like’em, difinitely to my taste.Who chooses’em?
A:We all choose’em.
M: What did you come up with? You came up with Natasha and Love Is A Beatutiful Thing?
A: Yeah.
M: We already had songs going down from when Merv was in the band before. I wanted to do You Take Me For Rides.
L: And all the covers I suggested to do have been ousted.
M: Yeah, completely slated. It was to do with Ben that we did Fight Fire, Kind of, a he said thedrumming sounded like The Fantastic Dee-Jays. So we Thought ‘Well, fuck it! We might as do their track and do it justice’-which we’ve done.
A: And I haven’t got round any songs…
M: No, we just haven’t got round to doing them…
A: The only reason is that you haven’t got the records. You should listen more and buy more records!
M: Well, if I had more money I’d do that!
SD: The boring but usual-and for me impossible to answer question. Who are your favorite bands?
L: So why ask it,eh?
M: I could go on for years. You know I’m really into The Gestures at the moment, and I like The Knickerbockers a lot, and The Left Banke.
L: Yeah, yeah The Knickerbodkers!
M: The Left Banke are dynamite. The Podts. Fucking hell. I dunno where do you begin and where do you end?
L: The Dutch scene.
M: Yeah I’m really hot for Seeing Her by James Mean, but that’s just like one track. The Majority, Tony& The Bandits are fucking brilliant…
L: And The Ramones…
A: No. The Saints.
L: And Sham 69.
M: Yeah right, I really like Squeeze!
SD: What kinda gigs are you playing and how’s the reception? Any exciting plans?
M: What a question. What does he mean, well it(s sorta like a mid-afternoon matinee. Well we’re free for bar mitzvahs and weddings and all that. We’ll play where anyone puts us on and there’s a decent gig.
A: Our aim is to basically play and make the other bands think that they should stop playing.
M: Yeah, like The Disturbed did the other week. We played the the other week at the Dirty Water club and The Disturbed went home ‘cos they couldn’t deal with it. It wasn’t anything to do with people leaving it’s ‘dos we blew their ears off.
Unknown friend of the band: Paul said on Saturday it was to do with his bad time keeping.
M: The first band did go on kinda late, but I reckon that’s bollocks. They know that the headline slot is a bad slot,’cos the last band goes on too late and people start to leave for thelast train by then. But they knew that…
L: Mole you shouldn’t slate The Disturbed.
M: I’m not slating them, it’s just not where it’s at. They shouldn’t have done that. It was a mistake and unprofessional to do that shit. I don’t care, I thought it was quite funny really.
SD: ‘Garage music’ has many different connotations to today’s listeners. Some say it has to be ‘fuzzy’others ‘moody’,some preferred ‘screamed’others’sung’. How would the members of The Embrooks describe the perfect approach?
M: There isn’t one.
A: For garage music?
L: It’s like Domi from The Sires.
M: No. You think of Why by The Dirty Wurds, that’s screamed.
A: Screamed?
M: Yeah fuckin’ right it is!
A: It’s shite!
M: Shite. Shout. Shite. No shouted! I s’pose that what he means I don’t know what he’s talking about half of the time.There’S no one perfect approach, all of thethings mentined are cool.
L:I guess it’s raw energy that’s essential isn’t it?
M: General attitude. The attitude to the way you play is very important. ‘Gargage’covers such a wide range of music it’s like a very blanket term.
SD: We’re now in the middle of 1997.How do you think things are going for the garage scene and contemporary music scene?
M: The contemporary music scene itself is quite ropey. Although it’s better than it has been.
L: I think it’s quiet exciting myself. It has been so about since 1994.
M: The music scene is like dictated to by the music press, and it’s such a short lived thing as when something new comes along what ever was great before is releagated to the bottom of the pile. Like Kula Shaker may not be a big thing anymore. I don’t know it’s difficult to tell. And as for thegarage scene I don’t know. Is there a garage scene anyore? People are hanging on to one.
A: Yeah exactly. There are people playing the same stuff since the last five years.
M: Ten, fifteen fucking years.
L: The only good scene I’ve seen has been in Germany. It was ace. You’ve seen what it’s like in Spain haven’t you?
M: Like what I’ve seen of the Spanish scene has been more records, and therecords are shit. But a couple of the Spanish bands I’ve seen have been okay, they were pretty cool live, but their records really fucking suck! Really poor, and that’s the same for Italian bands and German bands. People’s vinyl output is so different to what they sound like on stage. If you only get to hear a band’s records you’d think the’re shit and then you go to see’em live it’s a totally different affair. I s’pose there is an intense scene here and there but what people are influenced by is more like what was going on in the ‘80s than the ‘60s. Many bands now are influenced by ‘80s garage not ‘60s garage. (Allesandro and Mole start arguing about good Italian bands. Allesandro mentions The Others being better than many London bands.)
SD: Do you like what’s going on in London. Explain reasons?
M: Like what’s going on in London?
L: Sometimes London surprises you and is really good like The Hideout.
M] But it’s such an isolated thing. (Mole and Lois-who are boyfriend/girlfriend-then disagree over London’s musical merits whilst Allesandro laughs insanely. The interview the, peters out…)
 
 

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Head and Hares
 The Before & After
 
 

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