INTERVIEW: SEAN ARMSTRONG

Hace unos meses tuve el placer de entrevistar al rad  "Sean Armstrong" desde Glasgow, Scotland.  Un dude que se la pasa todo el día en su cuarto creando música, experimentando, grabando con su verguísima tascam recorder, y pasándola bien con sus tres bandas.

1.- First of all, ¿who is Sean Armstrong?

-I am Sean Armstrong. I’m 26, and I live in Glasgow. I play music in three bands; The Sean Armstrong Experience,The Sean Armstrong trio and The Yawns.

2.-¿Do exist a difference between the projects “Sean Armstrong” and “The Sean Armstrong Expierence”?

-Yes. The main difference is that the ‘Experience’ is when some of my friends help me play my songs live, but when I record the music, it’ll usually just be me.

2.- Tell us the story behind the beginning of “The Sean Armstrong Expierence”.

-I started to record songs under my own name maybe about a year before any live gigs with the Experience came about. I never thought the songs would be played live, and was quite content to just record all the time. When I started to getting asked to play live, I realised that I would need a band, and “The Experience” was born as half joke/half band.

3.- ¿Which instruments do you play and which is your main instrument?

-I wouldn’t say I can really play any instruments with any skill, but I’ll play anything that’s lying around. It depends where I am. Most of the instruments used on the albums aren’t mine. I don’t think I have a main instrument. More just what the music is recorded on.

4.- ¿Do you interact on stage with another musicians?

-A bit. I started off pretty self conscious and couldn’t really move, but now it’s better. I guess in a band you have to interact for it to be any good, and that there needs to be some give, or elasticity for the music to really breath, or something. Actually that’s bullshit haha.

5.- Your last LP “Totally stupid love” is indeed a solid and charming piece ¿Can you tell me about the recording process for the album?

-Thanks. That álbum was recorded over about a month in a bedroom. I just got a new tascam recorder and it’s been really fun. I would usually come home from work and then head to the room with a can of juice and some cigarettes to see me through. My flatmate complained about the singing in the middle of the night but he’s a dick so it doesn’t matter.

6.-
¿Why did you called your album “Totally Stupid Love”? ¿Some love issues?

-No love issues for me…it was actually when I was trying to remember the title of the film “Crazy Stupid Love” and I got it wrong and I thought, hmm maybe that should be the name of the álbum.
7.-
In your track “Sleepless” you sing “take me where the losers go to die, take me where the sleepers learn to fly” and it’s genious, everyone can understand it the way they want. Though, i would like if you explain us what you tried to say with that lyrics. ¿Do you mind?

-When I’m coming up with words I just press record and make it up as I go along. I hope some kind of more pure meaning will come out from my subconscious. But then sometimes I think that reason has just formed afterwards to justify my technique, and that I’m maybe just too lazy to sit and write lyrics. I think my own interpritation of that lyric would be, I want to see it all…I want to see all the bad stuff and also the good stuff and also the sleepers learning to fly is some kind of allusion to an afterlife. I was thinking a lot about death.

8.- ¿Where was your biggest and coolest gig until now?

-There are too many to mention all of them. Not necessarily many really big ones, but all of them have been cool in their own way. I think going to Warsaw and Berlin in March was my favourite time for the Experience, but another band that I sing in, the Yawns did a big European tour late last year too. We also recently played with Sean Nicholas Savage, and he stayed at our flat for a few days after. He’s a really good guy and it was fun getting to know him.

9.- Tell us your music influences.

 -I like lots of stuff. I aim to sound like something really far away from what I am, in the hope of getting some unique result out there in the wilderness between, even if it’s quite painfully not what I want it to sound like, if that makes any sense…

10.-¿How it’s going the independent music scene in Glasgow?

-I think it’s going pretty good! There are lots of bands/venues making and putting on music that is not commercially driven, and is therefor more artistically free. The cost of living here is relatively low compared to other parts of the UK, which means people have time to do other things apart from work. The people here are in general very welcoming and friendly and I’d definitely recommend it as a place to live if you want to play or make music.

11.- ¿What happened with your other project “The Yawns”? ¿Are still on the run?

-The Yawns are still going. We are just taking quite a while to get songs together for the second album. I hope this summer we can record it and go and tour Europe again.

12.- I always ask this question. ¿Are you into the 7th art? ¿What are your favorite movies though?

-Haha. To be honest, I haven’t seen that many movies. For a long time as a child I didn’t have a tv and recently I haven’t watched much. I don’t seem to have the attention span to sit through a whole film and am easily distracted. One of my favourites is called “Edvard Munch 1974”. It was shot like a documentary of his life but was actually made using actors.

Well this interview is coming to an end. ¿Something that Sean Armstrong would like to say?

-Yes. I’d like to say thanks and I love you all. Good vibes.

SEAN, THANKS A LOT FOR THE INTERVIEW, YOU ARE A REALLY NICE/COOL DUDE. GOOD VIBES ALWAYS.