Stiff Little Fingers
Stiff Little Fingers make their Soundwave debut much to the excitement of a lot of fans around the country. The band is definitely going through a major resurgence with their crowd funded album project reaching its target well within the day. Front man Jake Burns was awesome and the sort of guy you could talk to all day or better still hit the pub with for a few brews. Jake talks about the new album and coming to Australia for Soundwave.
Do you get much opportunity to take a break before the onslaught being 2014 kicks off?
We’re actually in the recording studio as we speak well in to making an album. I’m in the studio in Los Angeles as we speak and I fly back to Chicago on February the sixth. I’ve got all of a week to do my laundry before I get on a plane and head to Auckland where the tour starts off. I’ve got all but a week off, so they’ve been good to me!
Is the recording of the album going to plan or have there been a few surprises?
Everything seems to be going very well and we’ve been in the studio for about five days now and all the drums are down, Ali is working on the bass tracks and Steve and I are starting on the guitars. We’re all scheduled and probably a little ahead of the game, which is great as there is always the possibility of a nasty little surprise.
Being older and much wiser are you much harder on yourself and pickier when it comes to making an album?
The fact is that is that it has been ten years since made the last one and a lot of that was down to when it was my fiftieth birthday in the middle of that ten years, I had already written half of an album by that stage, I sat down and thought this is not the sort of stuff I should be writing as a fifty year old. It was the sort of stuff I could of written when I was twenty, so I threw it all out. I don’t think you necessarily become harder on yourself but in terms of listening to the material these were the same tricks change for the middle section and realistically by this time I should know how to write a better song than that. So, I do think you become harder on yourself but I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing.
Congratulations on your milestone birthday, do you find you get a little more nostalgic about the band more these days?
I think there is case of moving on, you have to, but there are a couple of things which have happened that have been nice. We were given an award by the Northern Irish Music Association, which coming from your home country is kind of nice. It was a legends award which made me laugh because I’m convinced you only get legend status because you don’t have the decency to die. It’s because you’ve hung around so long that it’s something that says old! It was heartfelt and kind of them and we accepted it in that spirit, that was a nice thing. In general we’re concentrating on making the new album and lots of touring to do. We start in New Zealand and then shows in Australia and then we’re on the road right through til May and that’s without even touching the United States. If anything I’m rapt that there’s still that level of demand and from people to keep coming to see this band after this length of time. That in itself is reason enough to keep going.
To reach the target set for your crowd funded album project within a day must of been a huge buzz?
It’s a double edge sword. It is very exciting and as my wife said as we kept watching this figure climbing and climbing that this is like election night and nobody is going to bed until you reach one hundred. I honestly thought we wouldn’t reach one hundred percent in a day and of course we did, which was very flattering and humbling that the audience had that much belief in us. In the past when we have been in the studio we had been spending EMI’s money and it’s not like we’re going to throw it away willy nilly, so this time round it’s the audience’s money and we’re making an album with the audience’s money. We best damn sure we get it right and suddenly they are now our bosses which is great.
Does that create extra pressure now that the fans are the boss particularly those with high expectations given that they have contributed?
Quite possibly, I think it does. I think of it in the terms that we don’t want to let them down because they’ve shown such a huge amount of faith in us we just want to make sure we can repay it. Any other pressure is what we would put on ourselves.
Did you ever think an album funded project by the fans would ever happen?
If you thought I would be still doing this after thirty seven years I would have laughed at you. I think it is a great thing given the rise of digital media and the internet and the impact on traditional record labels. For a long time people were floundering about wondering what the next move was going to be. So when this concept of crowd funding came up the more we thought about it because it actually does make you independent again. This is where we started where we pressed and paid for our first single, going to Rough Trade they were a small independent label so this is what it is like all over again, which makes it really exciting.
It is definitely exciting with all the different pledge offers available.
It sure, two of the more expensive pledge items was Chicago and go drinking with me for two nights. I was thinking really? Someone would want to do that? Yeah, ok we’ll give that a go. Both were purchase and I’ve done the first one and I think I had more fun than the guy did. He flew over from Wales and we went on the streets of Chicago for a couple of nights. I said to him I feel like I’ve made a friend and we’ve kept in touch via email a couple of times and I’m sure I’ll get to see him when we play in Wales. It is a great two way street.
Are you excited about playing Soundwave?
We were here five or six years ago and when we were here it was getting a bit chilly which from what I’ve been told is not going to be a problem. We’ll be playing a greatest hits set which I think you have to do when you’re playing a festival. It’s not really a greatest hits set because we’ve never had a hit. It’s not just the festival setting but when we came across in 2008 that was the first time we played in Australia and even then we only got as far as Sydney and Melbourne. This time we’ll be playing in five different cities so that’s why we’ll play a greatest hits style of set which is something we always try to do. I always refer to The Rolling Stones and if I went and they didn’t play Satisfaction I would be pissed off. It would be the same if someone came to our show and we didn’t play Alternative Ulster. Chances are they may have never heard us play it regardless of how many times we’ve played it or whether I don’t feel like playing it. I thinking of Mick playing Satisfaction and surely he must be thinking, really? Again? He still does it! If it is good enough for Mick Jagger it is good enough for me.
Catch Stiff Little Fingers in New Zealand, then nationally on the Soundwave bill. Full tour details over at their website.
Website: Stiff Little Fingers
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StiffLittleFingers
Whether it is rummaging through vinyl at record stores such as Clarity and Title finding hidden gems to scouring the internet to find that album by the next big thing or chasing bands to get that elusive autograph and photo his passion is music all the way.
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