Adam Stafford: Do it Yourself (...or Consider Yourself Swallowed)

I made a film in 2003 with Tommy Blair, one that never got finished. He did the sound, naturally because he had the equipment and was known to be good with that sort of thing. He was the quiet guy that lived round the corner from me, who was five years younger than me and made weird Autechre-y ambient electronica and warbled remixes of Dot Allison songs which made her sound like she was singing in some inter-dimensional cathedral. He was getting into Gang of Four and I was getting into Black Dice, so there was nothing left to do but start a band which we’d call Chuck Norris Machine (I wish we’d kept the name).

The rules were simple: anybody who wanted to join in could, Tommy would set up the mics and press record, then we’d play for an hour or until it felt right to stop. True punk rock. We recorded three albums in two years and didn’t really do anything with them. I had some songs that had been lying about that I’d written new lyrics for that summer (2005) and had asked Tommy to record them, then, that turned into Y’all is Fantasy Island and the first record In Faceless Towns Forever. We were bemused that it was so well received at the time but it gave us encouragement to carry on.

The recording process for me is where it’s at. I love planning it and watching it evolve out of nothing, like the moment when you develop a picture in a darkroom and the image suddenly appears in the last bath, out of nowhere and you don’t know if it will be any good or not. Personally speaking, I’d spend 20 hours a day if I could, in a studio creating things from scratch, mixing and experimenting and watching Tommy intricately set up his hand-built German mics.

Playing live has been a blast over the last few years too, with more people coming to shows now than ever before as was evident in the last few Edinburgh gigs we’ve played at the Caves, Cabaret Voltaire and Limbo. Amongst the vast amount of gigs we’ve played some of my favourites have to be The Cry Parrott/Winning Sperm Party gig last summer with Sparrow and the Workshop in a tiny venue, playing right in the middle of the floor with the crowd going mental; a gig we recently played in Strathaven with De Rosa where we were heckled throughout (“Falkirk’s full ae Ratttts!”) and when The Handsome Family kindly allowed us to perform an acoustic set with them in Stirling in 2006.

The DIY approach suits us for now - writing, recording, releasing everything ourselves. But maybe it will change one day. It’d be nice to go on tour, make an album in a proper studio instead of bathrooms and kitchens and maybe some money? But… these are just minor gripes and really, you can’t complain.