Dear Spunk,
I hope this is something like you want, and I hope it gets there too!
I`m only a beginner, however. I interviewed the British anarchist
band, Chumbawamba (via e-mail), and here are the results!
[A.R.Grange (EGA95ARG@sheffield.ac.uk)]
A tecnologically advanced interview with anarchist agit-pop band, Chumbawamba, following their recent gig at Sheffield university!
1) So, do you see your music as propaganda?
Our music is propaganda in the sense that we're political people by nature and we always side with the underdog. we use the inroads we get into the media (through music) to push ideas/information. there's a big difference between information and education. when you give people information you are asking them to decide for themselves; education usually comes complete with opinions laid out on a plate. we're not interested in trying to tell people WHAT to think.
2) Chumbawamba say in their web page: "We want to create some sort of context around Chumbawamba, which is bigger than the band itself, bigger than the music." What do you mean by `context` here, and how do you think you can achieve it?
We mean that we're more interested in using pop and media time to push ideas (usually anarchist and other people's) than we are in promoting chumbawamba. we'd hate to think that we were using the media to push just music and individual egos. but it's funny because we play the personality game, but justify it because it's a way to get subversive ideas into the mainstream. it sounds pseudy but chumbawamba is our revolutionary cell rather than a career move. revolutionary politics have to be rephrased so that they don't sound odd to people's ears in a mostly right-wing culture. we do it with pop culture - and generally have a good time while we're about it.
3) What inspires the messages behind your music?
We only write about things which touch us and which we understand. we don't see ourselves as the mother theresa's of the pop industry - saving the poor unfortunates is best left to live aid. we wouldn't patronise the underdog because we still see ourselves as, and empathise with, the underdog.
4) How important do you think you, as a band, are at fighting such issues as racism, sexism and homophobia?
Can't say. you push ideas out but you've no way of knowing how people respond to them. after we released homophobia we got loads of letters from people who said they felt isolated, they said that the song 'homophobia' had made them feel that they wouldn't be isolated on the grounds of sexuality forever. if chumbawamba sometimes provides reassurance that the entire world isn't bigoted, i can quite happily live with that.
5 You seem to have been on the musical / political scene now for nearly fifteen years - do you think you`ve changed anything?
Changed ourselves. we're no longer satisfied with being subversive in a lefty ghetto.
6) Where do you think the revolutionary left, eg, the SWP, are going at the moment - and where would you place yourself as regards to this?
I fucking hate the SWP because they're not honest about the fact that they jump on every band wagon to push a party line. most people don't realise that the anti nazi league is a front/recruitment tactic for the SWP or that SWP stewards have handed people over to the police in riot situations. i particularly hate organisations which think that working class people are too stupid to lead themselves. the SWP and the RCP both call themselves a 'vanguard'. i have been known to threaten paper sellers.
7 You seem to have had some unfavourable reviews recently (that you`ve had the sense of humour to publish in your web page.) What is your reaction to people who describe you as such things as a "one legged man at an arse-kicking party"?)they should guard their first born child well!
They should guard their first-born child well!
8) In a review of your gig at Sheffield University earlier this year, the NME said: "there`s nowt anarchistic about playing subsidised universities". Do you have any control over where you play anymore - what is your opinion of this?
We can pick and choose venues - i choose to play venues with decent women's toilets and no ice on the insides of the window pane. the NME is full of pale middle class boys who think that anarchy has to mean chaos (actually they rarely think) we're anarchists who believe in organisation.9) And finally, the question on everyone`s lips - what the fuck does Chumbawamba mean?
It means 'we've come for your children!'