Modesty Blaise | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Well that is cool. That is called Carol Mountain. That

0:03 Speaker 1: is the remaster of it from the three disc anniversary

0:06 Speaker 1: edition of Melancholia from Modesty Blaze. And we've got Johnny

0:11 Speaker 1: Collins from Modesty Blaze with us via Microsoft teams all

0:14 Speaker 1: the way from across upon As we say, Hey, Johnny,

0:16 Speaker 1: are you there?

0:18 Speaker 2: Hey, I'm here. How are you hey?

0:19 Speaker 1: Good? Welcome to the program. I really I really be here. Yeah, yeah,

0:24 Speaker 1: it's great to talk with you. I really like this

0:25 Speaker 1: a lot. You know, the this is something to this

0:28 Speaker 1: project Modesty Blaze. It's really kind of outside the norm

0:31 Speaker 1: of a lot of what you hear on this program,

0:34 Speaker 1: and you know, what you hear on on radio generally,

0:37 Speaker 1: at least in America. So very very interesting to listen

0:40 Speaker 1: to it. And you know, I'm impressed with There's just

0:42 Speaker 1: a lot there. It sounds like, obviously we're going to

0:46 Speaker 1: talk about the remaster and everything, but I assume when

0:48 Speaker 1: this was recorded originally, it was quite the undertaking, right,

0:52 Speaker 1: because it's very dense. There's a lot there. There's a

0:54 Speaker 1: lot of layers, probably a lot of tracks involved in

0:58 Speaker 1: recording something like that. I would think that just the

1:00 Speaker 1: vocals are so layered and just really really interesting. I'm

1:04 Speaker 1: fascinated by the production.

1:07 Speaker 3: It's a sixteen track analog production, but obviously as you

1:13 Speaker 3: can just hear from that, it's got everything in it.

1:17 Speaker 3: We do say that not only do we throw the

1:19 Speaker 3: kitchen sink in, we break in next door, rip their

1:22 Speaker 3: sink out and throw that in as well. So everything

1:27 Speaker 3: had to be mixed down, so the drums are recorded

1:29 Speaker 3: and then mixed down to two tracks, and then I

1:33 Speaker 3: remember at the end when we're putting the strings on,

1:35 Speaker 3: we just had one track and so everybody had to

1:38 Speaker 3: play at the same time and get it right at

1:41 Speaker 3: the same time. More than fifty percent of the budget

1:45 Speaker 3: for the entire album went into Carol Mountain, so it

1:49 Speaker 3: was a massive undertaking. It was eleven months of recording

1:54 Speaker 3: and you know what, I know, I didn't make it

1:57 Speaker 3: easy for myself, Matt we because I thought I wanted

2:01 Speaker 3: to do them in that particular way. But for instance,

2:04 Speaker 3: in Carrol Mountain, which is about an unrequited love for

2:08 Speaker 3: Brian Wilson.

2:09 Speaker 2: Oh, and.

2:13 Speaker 3: They here's and villains and con vibrations in different studios, Well,

2:20 Speaker 3: I'm going to use the same studio. I can't record

2:23 Speaker 3: it in different studios. I'll tell you what, I'll use

2:26 Speaker 3: completely different instruments. So it was recorded in sections. Oh

2:30 Speaker 3: there are four different drum kits on there and you

2:34 Speaker 3: can't tell, right, it's just me making things difficult for myself.

2:38 Speaker 1: Wow, when you look back on that now, obviously today

2:43 Speaker 1: we have the benefit of technology, and technology moves very fast,

2:47 Speaker 1: and you know, over the course of twenty five years,

2:49 Speaker 1: obviously technology has moved very fast, and in terms of

2:51 Speaker 1: the way that you record and everything. When you look back,

2:56 Speaker 1: I would imagine obviously if you were to record this

2:59 Speaker 1: exact same thing today, it would it would be easier

3:01 Speaker 1: in some ways, although maybe harder in others because because

3:04 Speaker 1: of the options and the choices that you have to

3:06 Speaker 1: make when recording. But I mean, you're definitely right, is oh,

3:13 Speaker 1: go ahead?

3:14 Speaker 3: Well, the I've known people and now everybody has a

3:20 Speaker 3: studio because they've got a laptop and a microphone and

3:24 Speaker 3: it's automatically one hundred times more powerful than Abby Road

3:28 Speaker 3: was when the Beatles recorded there, Right, So, so what's

3:32 Speaker 3: your excuse. There's there's an awful lot to be said

3:35 Speaker 3: for the restraint of studio time. This is costing you money.

3:39 Speaker 3: Make a decision. Musicians will will put off making the

3:43 Speaker 3: decision as long as they possibly can. I don't call

3:47 Speaker 3: myself a musician. I'm quite happy to make decisions. So

3:50 Speaker 3: in order to fit all of that onto a sixteen

3:53 Speaker 3: chart recording, there was a lot of decisions being made

3:55 Speaker 3: all the time.

3:56 Speaker 1: No doubt, no doubt. How many you mentioned to the

4:02 Speaker 1: string section that was all going on to one track,

4:05 Speaker 1: so they had to get it right. I mean, do

4:07 Speaker 1: you remember, obviously it was a long time ago, but

4:09 Speaker 1: do you remember how many takes it took before they

4:12 Speaker 1: got it right.

4:13 Speaker 2: Well, unfortunately we didn't have the luxury of taking and

4:17 Speaker 2: keeping it all, so it was only three or four

4:22 Speaker 2: I think, Oh good. The the the.

4:25 Speaker 3: End section at the end there where they're coming in

4:27 Speaker 3: and there's an orchestral section with a theremin.

4:31 Speaker 2: That was that was two takes. The other take.

4:34 Speaker 3: The other take is on the kind of like the

4:36 Speaker 3: outtakes disc and and I know because I conducted them.

4:41 Speaker 2: I conducted them at that time.

4:43 Speaker 3: Wow, And I know they all thought it was too slow,

4:46 Speaker 3: but it was what I had intended, right. Yeah, when

4:51 Speaker 3: you the horns as well, A lot of horns were

4:53 Speaker 3: all onto one track as well.

4:55 Speaker 2: Very difficult, very difficult.

4:57 Speaker 1: That had to be Do you remember how many takes

4:59 Speaker 1: that took? Probably around the same.

5:02 Speaker 3: Four, I think to be to be fair, the people

5:05 Speaker 3: that were playing were quite exceptional. I didn't know many

5:09 Speaker 3: of them before we started. But what I did was

5:14 Speaker 3: I managed to get in the in the days before

5:18 Speaker 3: people were worried about privacy. I managed to get a

5:21 Speaker 3: list of names and numbers of people from a local

5:24 Speaker 3: symphony orchestra and I just called them up, would you

5:28 Speaker 3: be free to do some recording?

5:29 Speaker 1: Wow?

5:30 Speaker 3: And we'll pick you up and take you back and

5:33 Speaker 3: feed you. And that's what we did. So I didn't

5:38 Speaker 3: know many of them before. I still know a few

5:40 Speaker 3: of them now, which is really good. So yeah, they

5:45 Speaker 3: were they were all highly competent.

5:47 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, I mean you had to find the

5:50 Speaker 1: right people obviously for you know, for an undertaking like this. Again,

5:53 Speaker 1: it's there's a lot going on there, and like you said,

5:55 Speaker 1: it's it's the kitchen sink and the kitchen sink of

5:58 Speaker 1: the next door neighbors. Now, why why did you decide

6:03 Speaker 1: to do this the remaster? This again, the twenty fifth

6:06 Speaker 1: anniversary of Melancholia? Why now? And why did it take

6:12 Speaker 1: this long to bring it to streaming.

6:14 Speaker 3: You know what, I think that the twenty fifth was

6:17 Speaker 3: a bit of a fortunate thing. Once I put out

6:21 Speaker 3: that we were going to do it, we kind of

6:23 Speaker 3: got forced into it. But I actually wanted to do

6:25 Speaker 3: it on the twenty sixth anniversary because I thought it

6:28 Speaker 3: would be funnier. You're not right, And it just so

6:33 Speaker 3: happens that the album that I thought was being released

6:36 Speaker 3: was released in two thousand, was actually released in twenty

6:39 Speaker 3: oh one, So I was wrong. We this album sold

6:47 Speaker 3: very well and did very well, and in fact has

6:50 Speaker 3: some quite obsessive fans for which I am very grateful

6:54 Speaker 3: over in continental Europe Germany, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and various

7:00 Speaker 3: other countries of Scandinavia as well and Japan, so it

7:05 Speaker 3: has some some big fans there. And we were getting

7:07 Speaker 3: a lot of questions, why can't I get this on streaming?

7:10 Speaker 3: Why can't I do you know? Where is it? And

7:13 Speaker 3: at which point we kind of and then a lot

7:16 Speaker 3: of the sort of questions, how did you record this

7:20 Speaker 3: so right? Well, if to it, let's do it properly,

7:24 Speaker 3: Let's go and remaster it properly, go through the whole

7:27 Speaker 3: process and try and answer some of those questions with

7:32 Speaker 3: the music rather than by email.

7:35 Speaker 1: Right right, that makes sense. Yeah, and I read something

7:40 Speaker 1: you said the goal wasn't wasn't reinventioned, but revealing extra

7:45 Speaker 1: detail when you went back and listened to because I

7:50 Speaker 1: you know, I can just tell you just personally, anecdotally,

7:52 Speaker 1: I've had the experience of listening to music that I

7:56 Speaker 1: listened to a long time ago and hearing things. You know, like,

8:00 Speaker 1: if I'm wearying really good headphones, i might hear something

8:02 Speaker 1: in a song that I've heard a thousand times over

8:04 Speaker 1: the course of my life. But then I maybe I'm

8:06 Speaker 1: listening to good headphones or through really good speakers, and

8:08 Speaker 1: I'll hear details that I never noticed before. I might

8:11 Speaker 1: hear something that I didn't pick up on when I

8:13 Speaker 1: listened to that originally. And I'm wondering, when you went

8:15 Speaker 1: back and listened to all of these all of these songs,

8:18 Speaker 1: did you start hearing things that you forgot about or

8:21 Speaker 1: maybe you or things that you knew were in there,

8:24 Speaker 1: but you really didn't think the listeners probably knew that

8:28 Speaker 1: those things were in there.

8:29 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what, You're absolutely right, Matt, and you

8:33 Speaker 3: hit the nail on the head really good.

8:34 Speaker 2: Headphones.

8:36 Speaker 3: We went back to the studio, Tavid Tuppy Brown the

8:39 Speaker 3: basic ploys with me as well. There were definitely things

8:42 Speaker 3: in there that he hadn't heard before. At the end

8:46 Speaker 3: of one of the string parts, there's one of the

8:49 Speaker 3: strings on one of the cellos broke and I left

8:53 Speaker 3: it in Oh, and he had never heard that before.

8:57 Speaker 2: Oh there you listen to that. That's fantastic.

9:01 Speaker 3: But I was astonished to hear it again on the

9:07 Speaker 3: huge studio speakers. And then spent a good week bemoaning

9:14 Speaker 3: to everybody who had listen. When did we give up

9:17 Speaker 3: having proper speakers in our houses. We're now listening on

9:21 Speaker 3: these tiny little things on phones and on little airphones.

9:25 Speaker 3: And I went out and bought a pair of high

9:27 Speaker 3: end headphones to not annoy the neighbors.

9:30 Speaker 2: But we've definitely lost something.

9:33 Speaker 3: I remember when I bought my first set of stereo

9:36 Speaker 3: speakers with the money from my part time job. They

9:39 Speaker 3: were huge, you know you could it took two people

9:42 Speaker 3: to carry one of them, and then ages to try

9:45 Speaker 3: and set them up in the room. And then you know,

9:48 Speaker 3: I've got the base rocking the foundations of the house.

9:53 Speaker 3: We've given that up and we've given up a lot

9:56 Speaker 3: through doing that. So I did buy some expensive headphones

9:59 Speaker 3: after the pro sess of doing this, and I have

10:02 Speaker 3: gone back and started listening to everything again just as

10:06 Speaker 3: you intimated.

10:07 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and you're right, by the way, that's an

10:09 Speaker 1: interesting observation that you make, and you're right. And it's

10:11 Speaker 1: the same in America too. I mean, we have given

10:13 Speaker 1: that up about you know, the even me. I mean,

10:16 Speaker 1: you know, I'm a radio guy. I'm a musician. You know,

10:19 Speaker 1: you would think I have some really good speakers in

10:21 Speaker 1: my home, and I don't. You know, I've got some

10:24 Speaker 1: decent headphones, but I don't have I don't have good speakers. Yeah,

10:27 Speaker 1: we have lost something with that, and also too with streaming.

10:31 Speaker 1: You know, depending on where you stream something, there's varying

10:34 Speaker 1: degrees of quality too. You know, if you stream something

10:36 Speaker 1: on YouTube, it's not going to sound as good as

10:37 Speaker 1: if you're listening to the wave file. And you know

10:41 Speaker 1: all of that.

10:41 Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean I've got I've got my little

10:43 Speaker 3: air AirPods in now so the so that the speakers

10:47 Speaker 3: are right in my ears. The other thing I've been

10:50 Speaker 3: obsessing about is this idea of moving air so when

10:56 Speaker 3: we record, we move air into a microphone and that

11:01 Speaker 3: then when it's played back, we move air out of

11:04 Speaker 3: speakers to us.

11:06 Speaker 2: Again.

11:06 Speaker 3: It's a much more analog way of doing things. You

11:09 Speaker 3: record digitally and you might put a sample on a

11:13 Speaker 3: on a keyboard and it's digital.

11:15 Speaker 2: You haven't moved any air.

11:17 Speaker 3: And that's what I've been future recordings are coming from

11:21 Speaker 3: modestly Blaze, and that's what I've been currently obsessing about

11:25 Speaker 3: the movement of air or all these into that same

11:29 Speaker 3: thing to do with the with the size of the

11:33 Speaker 3: speakers and what we've lost.

11:35 Speaker 2: I think the.

11:36 Speaker 3: Other thing is, and this may not It's something that

11:41 Speaker 3: I admit from listening to it for remastering.

11:44 Speaker 2: Was it's a really weird album, isn't it.

11:49 Speaker 3: Well, there are songs about death and stalking and suicide

11:53 Speaker 3: and all sorts of stuff like that, but with nice,

11:56 Speaker 3: happy tunes. How curious I hadn't realized that. I think

12:01 Speaker 3: that in retrospect, you can look back on things that

12:04 Speaker 3: you create, and you're a musician, you know this stuff.

12:07 Speaker 3: You look back on things and think, oh, I wonder

12:10 Speaker 3: what I was thinking. Then I wonder where that came from.

12:13 Speaker 3: What was what was that about?

12:15 Speaker 1: No, you're right, though there are some dark themes on

12:17 Speaker 1: the album, but I think that's part of what drew me,

12:18 Speaker 1: and I listened to the whole thing, and uh, it's

12:21 Speaker 1: I I think part of that is, you know, it's

12:23 Speaker 1: that Yeah, I'm not sure the term I'm looking for,

12:28 Speaker 1: but you know that those those dark themes, but with

12:31 Speaker 1: this very happy sounding music. That contrast that exists in

12:35 Speaker 1: the music. I think that's part of what makes it

12:37 Speaker 1: so interesting and compelling, you know, and and the vocals

12:40 Speaker 1: and the production and all of it.

12:41 Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean I think it's sunshine pulp twilight.

12:48 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly.

12:52 Speaker 2: It's crescular pulp.

12:57 Speaker 1: There you go, there you go. Now, So, with the

12:59 Speaker 1: modern mastering technology that you used to do this, was

13:03 Speaker 1: there ever a point where you were concerned about Obviously,

13:06 Speaker 1: the goal is to bring things forth that maybe were

13:10 Speaker 1: in the back of the mix before that you couldn't

13:11 Speaker 1: even hear, right, But I mean, were you ever was

13:13 Speaker 1: there ever a point where you were concerned about sort

13:15 Speaker 1: of losing something in that too, maybe losing the vibe

13:19 Speaker 1: of what you had originally done.

13:21 Speaker 2: Martin Nichols, who was the original engineer on it, was

13:24 Speaker 2: also the remastering engineer, and he is.

13:30 Speaker 3: This is his area and it's what he does. He

13:34 Speaker 3: these days, he mostly is doing reissues and remasters and

13:40 Speaker 3: getting stuff.

13:42 Speaker 2: Off old tapes.

13:43 Speaker 3: He does a lot of he does a lot of

13:46 Speaker 3: really really high end stuff. He's very much in demand.

13:50 Speaker 3: I pulled rank in order at the studio time, and

13:55 Speaker 3: so I'm less worried about that. You know what, though

13:57 Speaker 3: I've lost some frequency from my ears, so it's also

14:01 Speaker 3: it's also done visually in terms of graphic eques and

14:08 Speaker 3: that sort of thing. So I wasn't concerned about losing

14:12 Speaker 3: anything because I trust the people.

14:14 Speaker 2: I'm working with. Yeah, that's just I think we just there.

14:21 Speaker 3: They're just little subtle changes. I've done ab viarisons with

14:26 Speaker 3: the with the original album. I've done a lot of that,

14:29 Speaker 3: and I think that it's it is subtle. It is

14:34 Speaker 3: very subtle. And then obviously there the reconstraints that you

14:39 Speaker 3: get from streaming services are something that you really can't

14:44 Speaker 3: do a lot about it, but you can try and

14:46 Speaker 3: optimize what you do. This isn't the case of a

14:49 Speaker 3: remaster where you go into the studio and you just

14:52 Speaker 3: turn everything up as loud as it can. It has

14:54 Speaker 3: a huge dynamic range on this album, and I think

14:57 Speaker 3: we've you know, we've managed to pre punished to just

15:01 Speaker 3: enhance that world and replace it.

15:03 Speaker 1: You brought up another really important point though about it's

15:06 Speaker 1: so important to have other other ears, uh, listening to

15:10 Speaker 1: this as you're as you're doing the remastering or mixing

15:14 Speaker 1: or whatever it is that you're doing, because like you said,

15:16 Speaker 1: and because I can relate to what you said about

15:18 Speaker 1: losing frequencies. You know I've I've not had my own

15:21 Speaker 1: ears tested, but I know for a fact I have

15:23 Speaker 1: hearing damage. I wake up every morning with tonight as

15:26 Speaker 1: I can hear the ringing. Once I get going, it's fine,

15:28 Speaker 1: But I know that I've.

15:29 Speaker 2: Lost just.

15:33 Speaker 4: In the wrong places, exactly exactly, So I can relate

15:38 Speaker 4: to what you were saying about, because people who don't

15:41 Speaker 4: have hearing loss don't understand it's not simply for for

15:45 Speaker 4: some of us, it's not simply a matter of oh,

15:47 Speaker 4: you just kind of can't hear everything as well as

15:49 Speaker 4: you used to.

15:50 Speaker 1: You can, you can lose certain frequencies but maintain other frequencies.

15:54 Speaker 1: Because you know I experienced this, and I'm sure you

15:57 Speaker 1: do too. Sometimes I can't hear things very well. But

16:00 Speaker 1: there will be other times I'll hear things that other

16:03 Speaker 1: people don't even notice, and someone will say, oh, wow,

16:06 Speaker 1: you have really good hearing, and it's like, no, actually,

16:08 Speaker 1: I don't have good hearing, but for whatever reason, that

16:11 Speaker 1: particular frequency I'm able to easily pick up.

16:14 Speaker 3: Oh yes, now you're completely right on that. I've if

16:18 Speaker 3: if I've got something that is special, it's my ear

16:23 Speaker 3: and you know, I can go and listen to orchestras

16:26 Speaker 3: and say, oh, that's second French French orn is a

16:29 Speaker 3: bit flat flat. I've got that, and it's something I'm

16:34 Speaker 3: very protective of these days. I do make sure I'm

16:39 Speaker 3: wearing ear plug and various things.

16:43 Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I do the same.

16:46 Speaker 3: Just sounds really old and not very rock and rolled

16:48 Speaker 3: at all. We've both got tonight that'll do.

16:50 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah yeah. And then so the band, well, I

16:55 Speaker 1: haven't asked you the obvious question yet. Where does a

16:57 Speaker 1: name come from? Modesty Blaze? What does that mean?

17:00 Speaker 3: So it's a cartoon strip. She was like a female

17:05 Speaker 3: James Bond and in the local paper in Bristol, it

17:08 Speaker 3: used to be it was in the back of the

17:11 Speaker 3: paper every night. I used to read that. I remember

17:14 Speaker 3: saying to Dave at some point, why aren't we called

17:16 Speaker 3: modesty Blaze? And none of us could think of a reason,

17:20 Speaker 3: so we did. Transpires that that was pre internet. Had

17:25 Speaker 3: we known, we would know that would have known that

17:27 Speaker 3: there was already a Norwegian metal band called Modesty Blaze.

17:32 Speaker 3: But you know, I don't mind being mistaken for a

17:35 Speaker 3: Norwegian metal band every now and then.

17:37 Speaker 1: That's kind of fun. Well, you know, if you think

17:38 Speaker 1: about it, some of the themes in the music is

17:40 Speaker 1: probably similar. There might be some correlation.

17:43 Speaker 2: There could well be.

17:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, well be did you ever run in any problem

17:48 Speaker 1: because of the there was already a comic strip you said,

17:51 Speaker 1: called this, Like, did they ever read?

17:54 Speaker 2: We didn't.

17:55 Speaker 3: Obviously we couldn't, you know, we couldn't get the web,

18:00 Speaker 3: the web address and various things like that. Yeah, don't

18:03 Speaker 3: think it really matters. You know, we're obviously not selling,

18:08 Speaker 3: and that all of those comic strips are available available

18:11 Speaker 3: as available as books, and people tend to give them

18:15 Speaker 3: to me as presents. So great, I've got quite a

18:18 Speaker 3: collection of multesty Blazed books.

18:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh that's cool.

18:23 Speaker 3: It's difficult. It's difficult, isn't it with with with band names.

18:26 Speaker 3: You do something you're then that's then your name and

18:30 Speaker 3: anything that comes.

18:31 Speaker 2: Up you can have to deal with it exactly.

18:33 Speaker 3: Least I didn't decide at least I didn't decide that

18:35 Speaker 3: we should be called prefab Sprouts.

18:39 Speaker 1: And what was the scene like back when when you started?

18:43 Speaker 1: So it was in the nineties and I was reading

18:44 Speaker 1: something about so your your debut single was with Edwin Collins.

18:48 Speaker 1: Is that correct?

18:50 Speaker 3: Edwin produced our first single, Oh Wow. His his new

18:54 Speaker 3: studio at the time. I knew Edwin and we played

18:58 Speaker 3: with him, and he had just got his studio prior

19:02 Speaker 3: to recording Gorgeous George with.

19:06 Speaker 2: A Girl like You on.

19:07 Speaker 3: It, And there was this discussion about him having a

19:12 Speaker 3: new studio and about how he needed to get used

19:17 Speaker 3: to the studio before before recording his album. Oh right, well,

19:23 Speaker 3: well we'll come and record a single with you then,

19:26 Speaker 3: So we did. We went up to the studio and

19:28 Speaker 3: recorded a single. He used a lot of the instruments

19:30 Speaker 3: that were there already. So if you listen to our

19:33 Speaker 3: first single, which is Christina Terris and the two tracks

19:39 Speaker 3: are on the B side, If you listen to that

19:40 Speaker 3: and then you listen to Gorgeous George, there are an

19:43 Speaker 3: awful lot of sounds that are similar.

19:45 Speaker 2: Okay, only his with an enormous hit.

19:51 Speaker 1: I should mention too, for American listeners who hear the

19:54 Speaker 1: name Edwin Collins and say familiar, familiar, Where I know

19:59 Speaker 1: that name. He had a big hit here in America

20:01 Speaker 1: with Never Met a Girl Like You Before. I think

20:03 Speaker 1: the actual title officially is just a Girl Like You,

20:06 Speaker 1: but Never Met a Girl Like You Before. That was

20:09 Speaker 1: a massive hit. It's the only it might be his

20:12 Speaker 1: only big hit in America because it's the only one

20:15 Speaker 1: I can think of. I'd have to look it up.

20:17 Speaker 1: But for again, for American listeners who can't quite place it,

20:20 Speaker 1: that was a massive hit in the nineties here and

20:23 Speaker 1: here in the US.

20:24 Speaker 2: It was an enormous hit worldwide.

20:26 Speaker 3: Yeah, it hit the top five in the UK. It

20:31 Speaker 3: did him much of continental Europe as well, and it's

20:34 Speaker 3: still got a huge life. It's used for advertisements all

20:38 Speaker 3: the time on the Telly Oh.

20:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely absolutely. And did you also did you open

20:42 Speaker 1: for Robbie Williams at the O two Arena? Is that true?

20:46 Speaker 2: Weirdly, yes, very strangely.

20:49 Speaker 3: He had these six big articulated lawyers with his gear

20:54 Speaker 3: and we had our stuff loaded into the back of

20:56 Speaker 3: the small hatchback.

20:58 Speaker 1: Wow, how did that? But how did that come about?

21:02 Speaker 3: It came about through uh knowing the tour manager so

21:08 Speaker 3: and being a late standing type thing.

21:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so.

21:13 Speaker 2: It was. It was good fun. It was good fun,

21:15 Speaker 2: you know, it was.

21:18 Speaker 3: It was we didn't stay, We didn't stay and watch

21:22 Speaker 3: because Neil Young was that playing that night, so we

21:24 Speaker 3: all went off to watch Neil Young.

21:25 Speaker 1: Oh no kidding. Oh that's funny, that's cool. Yeah, I

21:30 Speaker 1: would have done the same thing.

21:33 Speaker 3: Who wouldn't go and see Neil Young? But no disrespect

21:37 Speaker 3: to Robbie. Robbie made some some some good pop singles.

21:42 Speaker 1: Yeah, Millennium was a big hit in the US. And

21:44 Speaker 1: that's a Robbie Williams song that I really like. Yeah,

21:47 Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely.

21:48 Speaker 3: Oh that's got the bond sample, hasn't it the it

21:51 Speaker 3: does you only did twice sample?

21:53 Speaker 1: Yeah, it absolutely does. That's right.

21:57 Speaker 2: Oh go ahead, No, that's why it's a good record.

22:00 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah absolutely. So. Now I'm curious what is

22:05 Speaker 1: next for Modesty Blaze. I mean, obviously you're gonna spend

22:08 Speaker 1: you know, this is a big, big project. Of course.

22:10 Speaker 1: The twenty fifth anniversary, the reissue of Melancholia and it's

22:14 Speaker 1: three discs. Is this kind of opening the door to

22:18 Speaker 1: some new material beyond this? I don't know if you're

22:20 Speaker 1: thinking that far ahead, but I'm curious.

22:25 Speaker 3: So there we will re promote our Christmas single. We've

22:31 Speaker 3: got a Christmas single. Oh, so when that comes around,

22:33 Speaker 3: we'll do that again this year because it needs to

22:38 Speaker 3: be better known. And there is a new album in

22:43 Speaker 3: the offing. It's being recorded. We've maybe got three or

22:47 Speaker 3: four tracks finished excellent, so that's good. There was an

22:50 Speaker 3: album in twenty twenty one which we released that did

22:56 Speaker 3: very well, and so in terms of what the next

23:02 Speaker 3: eighteen months looks like, new album and then what we'll

23:07 Speaker 3: do is we'll do the same process but with the

23:10 Speaker 3: first modesty based album, which is called Modern Guitars with Amplification,

23:14 Speaker 3: And so we'll do that with the yearly stuff on

23:20 Speaker 3: the Edwin Collins Recordings and Wow in order to get

23:24 Speaker 3: that up onto streaming services again and do the process

23:28 Speaker 3: again and make you know, make it, make it a proper,

23:33 Speaker 3: a proper disc. This has been very well received so far,

23:35 Speaker 3: so I think we're quite heartened by that as an idea.

23:38 Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, no, that's great. By the way, any plans

23:41 Speaker 1: to perform these live. I know that's probably not easy because,

23:46 Speaker 1: as we talked about, there's a lot there unless you

23:49 Speaker 1: do kind of strip down versions maybe, But what's the

23:51 Speaker 1: plan there.

23:53 Speaker 3: Well, we toured this album for two years, okay, and

23:57 Speaker 3: after a short while, what we did was we put

24:01 Speaker 3: the strings and horns onto a hard disc recorder and

24:08 Speaker 3: we played those along. You know what, most of the

24:11 Speaker 3: bands that you see are doing the same sort of thing.

24:13 Speaker 3: I worked for many years in a very large live

24:16 Speaker 3: music music venue. Of the band that we're playing, we're

24:21 Speaker 3: playing to some kind of playing along to some kind

24:23 Speaker 3: of track. If you see a if you see a

24:26 Speaker 3: drummer with headphones on, you're you're hearing. Not what you're

24:31 Speaker 3: hearing is more all acoustic. So that's what we did,

24:36 Speaker 3: we could theoretically do again.

24:38 Speaker 2: But you hear this.

24:39 Speaker 3: Hoarseness in my voice, Yes, yes, that's dysphonia. That's the

24:43 Speaker 3: same thing our FK Junior has. Really, although mine's not

24:46 Speaker 3: quite mine's not quite that bad.

24:48 Speaker 2: Yeah.

24:49 Speaker 3: So I'm on some current drugs at the moment and

24:52 Speaker 3: it's causing a lot of difficulty for speaking and certainly

24:56 Speaker 3: can't do singing. So there's a plan for this new

25:04 Speaker 3: album that I'm talking about, whereby I'll come off the jokes,

25:08 Speaker 3: get the voice back, record, record the.

25:13 Speaker 2: Record the vocals, and then go back on the drugs again.

25:15 Speaker 1: So oh okay, and you can you can do that,

25:18 Speaker 1: You can do that safely.

25:21 Speaker 2: Yeah.

25:21 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's theemo therapy I'm having. Okay, So that's

25:26 Speaker 3: what's causing it. And we have a long term plan

25:30 Speaker 3: with my oncologists to be able to do that. So yeah,

25:33 Speaker 3: that's what we'll do.

25:34 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, Oh, excellent, excellent, all right, well, very good.

25:38 Speaker 1: So in a moment at the end of our conversation,

25:42 Speaker 1: we're going to play and I think you did reference

25:45 Speaker 1: it earlier, The Little Things You Do, of course the

25:47 Speaker 1: remastered version, which I love. Anything we should know about

25:50 Speaker 1: this one, I mean, obviously what's nice about this too,

25:53 Speaker 1: is all these all these songs have something distinctive about them.

25:57 Speaker 1: You know, there's there's there's nothing, there's nothing here where

26:00 Speaker 1: you say, oh, that sounds a lot like the song

26:02 Speaker 1: I just listened to. But what should we know about

26:04 Speaker 1: this one? The Little Things You Do?

26:06 Speaker 3: Well, Really strangely it was set to be a single

26:10 Speaker 3: we got as far as recording, we started filming a

26:15 Speaker 3: video for it. It was gonna strangely, it was going

26:19 Speaker 3: to be a vinyl single, seven inch single for Kappada.

26:23 Speaker 3: I don't know how this happened, and none of us

26:26 Speaker 3: can remember why it didn't happen or what shouldn't have happened.

26:30 Speaker 3: So what you're hearing is the single version, which we

26:32 Speaker 3: recorded at the time. Because the album version goes straight into.

26:36 Speaker 2: The next track.

26:38 Speaker 3: What you're hearing is the single version, and it had

26:42 Speaker 3: it had never been released before, so in many ways,

26:46 Speaker 3: this isn't a remaster, it's a master because he got shelved,

26:53 Speaker 3: and neither us nor the people at the record company,

26:56 Speaker 3: who I'm still very good friends with, can remember what happened.

27:01 Speaker 3: But it didn't come out as a single. But it

27:05 Speaker 3: is now and it's it's sounding great. Those big big

27:10 Speaker 3: horns on there are really good. Gregory, who's the guitarist, playser.

27:16 Speaker 3: It's a kind of like blistering guitar sound from it.

27:19 Speaker 3: So it's one I'm still very very pleased with. I

27:23 Speaker 3: think that as a songwriter and lyricist, I have to do.

27:27 Speaker 3: I have to have something in the lyric that I

27:31 Speaker 3: particularly like, and I particularly like it's the way your

27:35 Speaker 3: picture overloads my memory because it was a real thing.

27:39 Speaker 3: We were doing a cover and there was a girl

27:44 Speaker 3: on the cover of the previous single, which was the

27:47 Speaker 3: Uranium Girl, and it kept on crashing the computer that

27:51 Speaker 3: we were using.

27:52 Speaker 2: So it came from that. It's the way your picture

27:54 Speaker 2: overloads my memory. That's my favorite.

27:56 Speaker 1: Oh, okay, I get it. Oh that's cool. That's cool.

28:00 Speaker 3: Back in the days when computers used to crash if

28:02 Speaker 3: you try to load up more than three megabytes.

28:07 Speaker 1: We have come a long way with technology, that is

28:09 Speaker 1: for sure.

28:09 Speaker 2: We certainly have. That is for sure if we make

28:12 Speaker 2: the right decision.

28:14 Speaker 1: I'm not sure me neither hopefully.

28:18 Speaker 2: But we couldn't do this.

28:19 Speaker 3: That could be mad. We couldn't do this. We couldn't

28:21 Speaker 3: talk across the.

28:22 Speaker 1: Efer exactly, exactly. Yeah, that is a wonderful thing, Johnny.

28:27 Speaker 1: Where's the best place for people to go online to

28:29 Speaker 1: keep up with everything? Modesty Blaze is doing.

28:33 Speaker 2: Well. We have.

28:36 Speaker 3: I'd like to tell you that we have a social

28:38 Speaker 3: media strategy, but I will be lying.

28:40 Speaker 1: Ok.

28:41 Speaker 3: You can find us on Instagram modesty Blaze UK. You

28:44 Speaker 3: can find us on Facebook modesty Blaze UK. There is

28:47 Speaker 3: a website Modesty blaze dot Net. I'm sure that's been

28:52 Speaker 3: updated in the last year. Okay, so you'll you'll find

28:56 Speaker 3: us around, all.

28:58 Speaker 1: Right, wonderful, wonderful. Well, like I said in a moment,

29:01 Speaker 1: we're gonna play uh, we're gonna play this uh, this

29:03 Speaker 1: track The Little Things You Do. But Johnny Collins, thank

29:07 Speaker 1: you so much for joining us. This has been wonderful.

29:09 Speaker 1: We will definitely have you back in the future, especially

29:11 Speaker 1: you know now that you've told us you've got more

29:13 Speaker 1: stuff coming up with Modesty Blaze. Cannot wait to hear

29:15 Speaker 1: what comes next. And thank you absolutely, Thank you so much.

29:19 Speaker 2: For beshes to everybody.

29:22 Speaker 1: All Right, you as well, my friend. We'll talk to

29:23 Speaker 1: you soon.

29:24 Speaker 2: Take care, okay, goodbye, bye bye.

29:27 Speaker 1: All right. That is Johnny Collins from Modesty Blaze and

29:30 Speaker 1: we're gonna play this track now again. This is really good.

29:33 Speaker 1: I like this a lot. This is called The Little

29:35 Speaker 1: Things You Do, uh not the remaster because it was

29:38 Speaker 1: it was never released originally, as he told us, interesting

29:40 Speaker 1: story about that, so but uh, but here it is

29:43 Speaker 1: The Little Things You Do and this is Modesty Blaze