harumph, my bad

I’m late in putting this up because I’m a lazy git, but here’s my tiny mobile phone interview with a couple of members from Calvinball and Apologies, I Have None. From last week. Yeah, sorry about that.

FLFD: So first off, where did the band names come from? I know Calvinball is a Bill Watterson reference…

MATT from CALVINBALL: Yeah, from Calvin and Hobbes. Dave [co-vocalist and guitarist] is a big fan and when we were living together, he got me into it and when we had to come up with a band name we thought we’d just rip the comic off and steal it from that. Calvinball is the least organised game so as the least organised band, it fits.

FLFD: With Calvinball the sport, the rules are different every time. Does this apply to Calvinball the band?

M: Yeah. We never sound the same twice because our voices get progressively fucked as the numbers of gigs go on. [laughs]

D: And where does the name Apologies, I Have None come from?

DAN from APOLOGIES, I HAVE NONE: We’ve had a couple of different names since we started and they’ve all been awful. Naming your band is one of the most difficult things to do and I’m glad it’s done now. The name… Josh (the other half of AIHN) and I love Grade, and we ended up getting the band name from one of their lyrics [from "Tension Between Stillness and Motion"].

FLFD: How’s the tour been so far?

M: Really really good but really boozy at the same time. Pretty much every gig’s been awesome – some gigs get more people than others but we’ve had people coming out nonetheless. We’re getting fed, we’re getting looked after, and pretty much every band we’ve played with has been awesome - Burnout 27 were awesome tonight.

D: The gigs have been on the positive side of DIY punk because you’re getting fed and paid every night and nobody’s flaked on us or screwed us over in the ways we’ve all experienced before. The attendance has been up and down but it’s been a positive experience.

M: It’s been a bit of a shambles, but it’s been an enjoyable shambles.

FLFD: Do you think a lot of UK bands are reluctant towards doing fully DIY tours?

M: Well, you don’t really see too many British tours these days – normally a US band comes over and a British band will support them and that’s how it all gets sorted. We just couldn’t be bothered waiting for, say, some band off No Idea to come over for a tour or whatever, so we thought to just do it ourselves.

D: Part of the core of this tour comes from… ONSIND are from Durham [the third band on the bill] which is up north, Calvinball are from Sheffield further south and Apologies are based in London so it’s been a challenge for us all to go north or south and play for different audiences. For three bands from different parts of the country, it’s worked out pretty well.

FLFD: So what’s next after the tour?

M: We’re playing The Fest.

FLFD: How did that come about?

M: We were playing in Leeds and Tony from No Idea was there, and afterwards we were drunk and he said “you guys should come over and play Fest!” We were like, yeah yeah, whatever… and then, we emailed him to find out whether he was joking or not and he seemed pretty stoked on us playing over there. To be honest, I haven’t really got a clue what he was thinking but it’s gonna be good to see a bunch of bands that probably aren’t coming over to the UK anytime soon. Iron Chic, Good Luck…

D: O Pioneers!!!…

M: Yeah, it’s gonna be fucking awesome. Then after that, we’ve been asked to do a couple of split releases so we’re probably gonna do that.

FLFD: Can you say who with?

M: We don’t know yet! Well, there’s going to be a split with an American band and then probably one with Fashanu from the North-East.

FLFD: And what’s next for Apologies?

D: We don’t know at the moment… we’ve really only got plans for constant touring – the thing is to just keep playing shows with good bands. We’ve got no massive plans for world domination or anything and we don’t want to push our band in people’s faces… we know there’s a certain level you can reach in a band like ours but we just want to keep playing to people and having fun. Next year, maybe a full-length.

M: Basically, if our bands can keep on playing shows and getting drunk without going bankrupt, we’ve become a successful band.

D: That’s really as much as you can ask.

After the interview, I handed Matt and Tam a bag of Soor Plooms, the greatest Scottish sweet ever made. Matt gave them 5Ks and Tam wanted to let Kerrang! know that Apologies, I Have None think it’s a shit magazine and that he hasn’t read it since the nineties. Thanks guys and hope you enjoyed the sweets!