You have been going around 5 years, are the band where you thought
they would be when you first started? Ie Level of interest in the band,
musically and band level wise?
Actually the band has probably been round longer than that, more like
7 or 8 years I reckon. When we started we had no real ambition other than to
be a punk band and enjoy doing it, thats still the ambition today really. We
have never been into the whole networking bit, like sticking flyers into
peoples hands, kissing peoples arses for favours and name dropping the band
every 5 seconds. That to us is embarrasing, either people like the band or
they don't, there's no point waving it in peoples faces. We're really happy
with the band in every aspect I guess, we wouldn't still be doing it if we
weren't.
Tell people about the releases you have had so far, and how people can
get a copy - are you pleased how they sound?
To date we have two 'proper' releases. The 1st came out in 2001 on
skipworth records, that's called 'closer than you think' and the other came
out in 2003 on dislocate and thats called 'the antisocal e.p'. You can get
them both either at our shows or through our site. Theres always
opportunities to pick holes in things when you listen back to them but on
the whole we are pleased how they both sound...nice and raw, it's punk after
all we don't want to end up sounding like ELO or anything.
Why the name 17 Stitches? What other band names do you rate?
We get asked about the band name ALL the time and there is no real
answer to it. We tried making a reasons up over the years but the truth is
we just liked the sound of it. There are so many good band names out there
we wished we'd thought of before like knuckledust, one way system, poison
idea and, of course, Hackney sex pest.
You did a great set at HITS last year, which gig have you most enjoyed
and why? Any disasters along the way?
We actually thought we had a shite gig that day, it wasn't til we got
offstage that people were telling us how good it was. We'd arrived in
morcambe 4 hours late and 20 mins before we had to go on. The train we were
on was really badly delayed and we thought we would miss the gig altogether
so we were pretty knackered by the time we got on, also some fucker helped
his/her self to a boxload of our merch backstage whilst we played! We've had
too many disasters to mention over the years, so many it's stupid.
We've had so many gigs over the years that it's impossible to say what
one was the best, I guess the best one lately was the 'Wankered' festival at
the poison club late last year, the crowd were going nuts and we really got
into it, It was really good.
What inspires your lyrics and do politics and music mix?
I dunno if you could say politics and music mix, it clearly creates
trouble, but its gotta be better than sitting on the fence and singing
about'birds and booze', that stuff is awful. Some people have said we're a
political band but I don't think so. The songs are just about how we see
things from our perspective, It all depends what you define as 'political' i
suppose. I don't think singing that the government is a bunch of shit or
that we think that racism is a joke makes us a political band in the same
sense as say conflict. Our songs are about a variety of different things but
we don't have a manifesto or an agenda or anything, we're not trying to tell
people what to think or how to act, they are just about how we feel.
What was the first gig you went to where you really thought - I wanna
do that, I want to be in a band?
I can't even remember! Maybe peter and the test tube babies at the
powerhaus years ago? Or the pogues at Shepherds Bush Empire before that?
I've been into punk since I was 15 and the band kinda started as a mess
about so it didn't really happen that way.
What were your favourite releases of last year?
Drongos for Europe - Barcode generation.....fucking brilliant, and the
new exploited albumn was pretty good too.
Tell us about the London scene?
It's as healthy as we've ever known it, mainly due to the influx of
younger kids coming to shows over the past 2 years. There are tonnes of
punks etc. from overseas squatting or visiting here too, it's pretty mental
the amount of languages that are spoken at the average poison club gig! we
have a few regular venues for punk shows some are proper ones like the
underworld and others like the poison club that are squats and the shows
tend to be more lively in places like that.
Plans, gigs and releases planned for 2004.
We're planning a european tour in the summer and then maybe the USA
again in the autumn....all th details for that will be on the site when its
confirmed.
We have a 4 way split coming out soon with Drongos for Europe APA and
another american band TBC called 'escape from camp x-ray' thats all recorded
and gonna be released in europe in Dislocate. We're working on writing our
first proper album at the moment which we'll record and release before the
end of the year hopefully.
Any final comments?
Errrrrrrm, I hate this bit.............Yeah check the site
www.17stitches.sphosting.com and errrrm..........
a big hello to all the
yoofs that get drunk on Camden Bridge (CBR!). Bye.
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