Photo:
Allow me to introduce The Burn, five (well four actually, the drummer is of course awol) lads from Blackburn who do a fine line in blues tinged psychedelia and possess a harmonica player with one of the finest beards in the business. Danny and Mick (both play guitar and sing) do the talking ahead of their Bandwagon gig at the Zanzibar.
Can you sum up The Burn in a nutshell for us?D -"Our influences come from everything from The Band, Neil Young, Leadbelly and all the dead early blues players."
So a traditional sound then?
D -"Well no cause then it's like, everything from New Order, Joy Division, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, all thrown in the pot. Well they're influences anyway. I'm not saying we sound like any of them."
How long have you been together?
D -"Four years. We've been signed for two."
So an album should be appearing soon.
D - "Got a single out on the 17th March and the album's out on the 31st March. It's called 'Sally O'Mattress'."
I did read something about that…M -"I bet you did…she's coming tonight, literally. We'll definitely introduce you."
(Apparently Sally was known locally for her willingness to assume the position and was instrumental in helping some of the lads in the band 'grow up'. She's now going out with the drummer.)
D -"The album's done and dusted, we're proper workaholics, up at 4 or 5 in the morning doing our parts."
So you're all top quality session players now?
D -"Oh yes, absolutely shit hot, flawless."
M -"We recorded with Hugh Jones and he worked us really hard. He kind of came alive at night so we were always fucked, watching shopping channel and MTV and then it'd be 'Right, you're in now!' "
D - "We were in The Chapel studios in Lincolnshire, it's in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by acres of fields, one pub and a shop a few miles away. You can just totally focus on your tunes. Well you can't focus on anything else, there's nothing else there."
Are you happy with it?M -"Definitely. It's a big sound, really fresh. We've been lumped in with a load of bands, The Coral and The Music and all that, but I'm sure once people hear the album it'll stand up on it's own, whether it's better, worse or whatever."
So, do you take criticism well?
M - "It's nice to be liked, but not every one's going to love it, it's as simple as that."
D -"We don't shape our music or what we do around what people write about us and we never have. Of course if someone says it's the worst thing you've ever heard you're like…(pulls a face), and if someone says it's the best thing they've ever heard you've got a spring in your step, but we can't take it on board and let it alter what we do."
How's the tour been?
D - "We're just doing five dates but it's been great, we've been getting a really good response. London we had a good crowd, Nottingham we had a good crowd, we're packing the gaffs out in our own right."
And how's Liverpool treated you?M - "We played Liverpool a few times before. We did the University, I don't know who booked us in but there was nobody there. Uni had broke up! There was no fucker at school! It wasn't a massive crowd but it was actually one of our better gigs."
D - "We did a few gigs with the Coral last year as well, they were good. There were meant to be three shows but on the first night all of our lot got arrested. I know it sounds a bit daft but it wasn't our fault."
M - "We were trying to break up a fight, there were some Doncaster lads causing trouble and we had to stop it. They ran out their hotel room naked. We had to fight naked men and it put us off."
D - "We were meant to do some more shows but we thought, we'll just leave it."
'Drunken Fool' is released on the 17th March on Hut Recordings.
Photos by Shelly Turner
