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The Penny Black Remedy are purveyors of an unlikely, but wholly successful mix of country, punk and Balkan folk and were recently named Best Alternative Act at this year’s INDY Music Awards (the category judged by, amongst others, CMU).
Drawn together from England, Scotland, Holland and Croatia, the band are currently working on their debut EP, with plans for tours of both the UK and mainline Europe, as well. We quickly snapped them up for an appearance at CMU Social and a round of questioning. Frontman Keith Thompson answers the Qs.
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Q1 How did you start out making music?
It was most probably a reaction against the tedium of the school curriculum of the time. At a very early age I realised that if I took up a musical instrument and learned how to play it properly, it made it easier to get out of attending most other subjects (specifically P.E.) on the basis that if I were perceived to possess a prodigious talent, it would be tantamount to child abuse for it to be ignored. And then much to my utter disbelief, I realised I actually quite liked doing it. But that may have been due to the NME telling me that pretending to be miserable for a profession was a quality, not a character flaw.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
We thought at this stage in our development as a band it would be great to capture a kind of snapshot, for want of a better expression, of our current live set. And given our Balkan influences we figured what better place to record it than in Zegreb, Croatia. We're heading out there in July this year. Sadly missing the Eurovision Final in nearby Serbia by just two short months.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
It's genuinely all rather random. I can go for months without writing a song, and then there are other times when I can write up to 5 or 6 songs in a week. Around such times I am almost unbearable to be around (not because of the notoriously difficult artistic temperament, but for the persistent, infernal humming). The words and music all pretty much come at the same time; it's very rare that I work on a vague idea for any longer than a week or more. There seems to be neither rhyme nor actual reason though, but it's something with which I'm extremely happy not to question, as I've always been irritatingly superstitious by nature. It's slightly akin to my fear of winning the lottery. I have yet to learn the Latin name for this.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
One of the pleasing things about this band is its open mindedness about music. As horribly clichéd as it sounds, I honestly love good music and don't give a badger's bazooki what category it might fit into. I openly suffer from a mild form of musical autism (I do enjoy a made-up condition), which makes it difficult to complete a concise list of everybody I like and/or has had an influence on me, be it in my song writing or my life. I would be happy, however, to write an alphabetical list, but I'm not sure you have the space. I also have a pathological fear of hurting someone's feelings by inadvertently leaving them out.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Forget about all the rubbish things in your own life and focus on the rubbish things in someone else's. It makes you feel so much better. Like that feeling of heroic giddiness you get after helping a person slightly less capable than yourself cross a busy road.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
As a band we simply just want to continue entertaining people, and the more the better. If I'm being completely honest though, ambition is something that has never come particularly easily for me, but as long as ‘Allo Allo’ is still on the telly and Elvis is still alive, I'll be happy.
See The Penny Black Remedy live at May's CMU Social - click here for more info
published may 2008
