One of my hotly tipped acts for 2008, Fuck Buttons are the missing link piece in a jigsaw of Sonic Youth, Mogwai and Portishead. Creating wonderfully evocative swathes of music, their debut album Street Horrrsing is due for release on 11th March via ATP. I managed to fire off our, unchanged for 2008, 20 Questions to Andew Hung and Benjamin John Power to discover their views on advice, hangovers and how ridiculous our ‘Stoat or a Goat’ question is…1. Describe your sound in 3 words.
Andrew: Hopeful. Loud. Free.
Benjamin: Planet Earth, Screaming.
2. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?
A: I think it was 2 unlimited. That or Shampoo.
B: I can’t quite remember, but I think it was Dangerous by Micheal Kackson (sic). It was probably bought from Our Price or somewhere like that.
3. What’s the best cure for a hangover?
A: I’m quite disciplined when it comes to drinking a lot of water before I go to sleep pissed, so lots of water before you go to sleep.
B: Hair of the dog.
4. What’s on your rider?
A: A selection of cured hams and 20 B&H.
B: Whiskey, red wine, beer, houmous and pitta bread.
5. How do you get ready for a live show?
A: Getting nervous, not drinking, not talking to anyone.
B: Sit backstage with our eyes closed hoping the sound engineer isn’t in a bad mood.
6. What’s your favourite song to play live?
A: At the moment, “Okay Let’s talk about Magic”.
B: They’re all great to play. It honestly depends on what mood I’m in.
7. What’s your guilty pleasure?
A: Guitar Hero 3
B: I spend far too much time in front of ‘Youtube’.
8. Who would win in a fight, a stoat or a goat and why?
A: A stoat because they’re really good fighters?
B: This question is ridiculous, but I would like to think that both the stoat and the goat would turn on whoever it was trying to make them fight and rip them to shreds.
9. What was the last album you bought?
A: HEALTH’s album.
B: Is Night People by Raccoo-oo-oon.
10. If you could rid the world of one song - what would it be?
A: KT Tunstall – “Suddenly I See”.
B: I’m not sure. What’s number 1 in the u.k charts at the moment? Probably that.
11. Who would play you in a film based upon your life?
A: Chow Yun Fat haha.
B: Kevin from PRE.
12. Dead or alive. What 5 acts would you have play with you at a festival?
A: Swans, Black Dice, Growing, Sonic Youth, Lightning Bolt.
B: Bo Diddley, Gang Gang Dance, Sonic Youth, Excpeter, Stars of the Lid. Can I have GG Allin performing in a padded room aswell?
13. If push comes to shove, what is your all-time favourite album?
A: Kate Bush Hounds of Love.
B: This is a tough one. There’s too many I love, but I’ve always loved Ten Rapid by Mogwai
14. What’s your most memorable on the road story?
A: Being spooned by Eddy from Cutting Pink for about 15 minutes, on a pool room in the middle of a venue.
B: It was fun hanging out with Steve and Luke from Birds of Delay at four in the morning on a motorway bridge in Paris.
15. If your life flashed before your eyes, what would be the highlights?
A: Mostly from this year…Barry Hogan saying Fuck Buttons is inspirational, working with John Mogwai, table football, being smitten, that sort of shit.
B: Playing twice at the Portishead curated ATP, and playing in a Glenn Branca’s ‘Lesson Number 3′ guitar piece the same weekend.
16. What’s the best piece of advice someone has ever given you and did you take notice?
A: The moulding of my characterization can be summarized by pieces of advice I’ve received. Each piece of advice is a milestone in my social evolution. The last piece of good advice was by a friend who said in response to me asking whether I should go to the toilet before we went into a cinema: “The wise man says ‘Go when you can’ the fool says ‘go when you have to’”. Of course I’ve applied this to many aspects of my life, not just pissing.
B: Probably Not.
17. If you had to leave a body part to science, what would it be?
A: My eye? What?
B: Hmm, probably my brain. I guess there are still hundreds of unsolved mysteries about how the mind and memory work so I guess ‘they’ could do with all the brains they can get.
18. What’s the best book you’ve read and film you’ve seen in the last 6 months?
A: Best book is Franz Kafka’s selected stories. This year has been gash for films… I can’t think of a good film…
B: I actually really enjoyed “The Holographic Universe” by Michael Talbot, and I’ve only just recently seen 2001: A Space Odyssey which I not only loved but it totally freaked me out.
19. What three things could you not live without?
A: My parents, baths and my laptop in that order.
B: Food, warmth, fresh air.
20. Tell us a fact about yourself we probably don’t already know.
A: I continually struggle with my (dis)belief in superstition.
B: I have one younger brother, named Adam.
Links
Fuck Buttons [official site] [myspace]
