Love Songs for Lenin Easterhouse

Rip It Up, Issue 145, 1 August 1989, Page 6

Love Songs for Lenin Easterhouse

Easterhouse arethe new darlings of the British rock press. Theirnew album Waiting For The Redbirdhas been critically acclaimed and thebands’

singer-songwriter Andy Perry has even been hailed as a Bruce Springsteen for the 90s.

Onthe phone, Rough Trade's current pride and joy sounded pretty unassuming, friendly, and more than happy to talk about his music and politics at one o’clock inthe morning, Manchester time. Easterhouse seemsto be not so much a band, but an organisation with Andy Perry atthe head, the remaining members being staff

employed to fulfill their designated roles. | asked Perry if he agreed with that description. “| like to avoid that solo thing a little bitbecause it's a bittoo much about personalities and stuff, but for me, yes, | have more control over this

band and dictate the standards

Having said that, | think there’s a

certain amount of interrelation

Easterhouse is more important than me as an individual.”

The music on Waiting For The Redbirdis fairly diverse: the balladic qualities of a song such as ‘This

Co'u niry" contrasts with, say, the single ‘Come Out Fighting'.

“I'dliketothinkthere’'san Easterhouse sound,” Perry muses “This LP we've just done is a lot

differentto what I've done a couple of years ago, butto me, the thread behind the musicis whatit's frying to achieve in terms of a message, and the kind of philosophy that goes into making music. If there is a dynamic behind Easterhouse, it's not so much amusical style, butmore a whole

philosophy behind why you make music, and what you wantto talk about.” Thefirst album, Contendersis only available in this country on expensive import (if at all), so very few New Zealanders know what to expectfrom an Easterhouse album. How would you describe your music to a newcomer? (lt's the question all musicians hope to avoid: self-classification. Andy Perry lets out asmall embarrassed laugh.) “Um... 1 suppose | would say it was consciously modern. A lot weirder in musical style than you'd expect from aband that was talking about political and social issues. We try very much notto be tooinsular, ortoo

much on an alternative side of music. Justbecause it's talking about serious things doesn’t mean | have to sound rough or alternative in that kind of way.” :

The album's called Waiting For The Redbird— what'sthe Redbirde =

“It's a slang word for a Russian nuclear missile. When | wrote that song it was very much a concerniin thattime at that place. But now people have stopped worrying

aboutthe bomb and have started worrying aboutthe environment, so i'sbecome something of aminor issue. So the song ‘Redbird'is a political snapshot of one time and place. It was very contemporary, like anewspaper: the next day it was out ofdate.”

Wouldyou be likely to deal with the environmental issue on the next album? It seems to fit in with what

Easterhouse are doing politically

“I'd like to tackle it, but | think we have a slightly different perspective onitthan maybe those people

who've taken it up_now: Foralot of people who look at Green issues now, they're sort of looking at 'We as

the consumer can refuse to buy bleach products, or things that come from the Amazon rain forest.’ If s all about being a consumer. It's a very middle class way of approachingiit. Easterhouse would say: ‘Well, you're worried about the environment, which is a very relevantthing to, say, atimber-worker who's worried

about just getting enough food to live and getting a house for his family and putting clothes on their backs.” We have a different perspective. The - reason that the environment s being destroyed by muiltinational corporations and logging companies is because of their quest for profit.

What we'd say is, remove the profit factorand you'd prevent alot of the destruction that's going on.”

Thatand a lot of the statements on the album are fairly hard left. Where did the politics originate? “Personally, my politics come from

my parents. My father was a very strong frade unionist who got made redundant during the recession in the late 70sin England. Both my parents are Irish— one protestant, one Catholic, so there's that dimension as well.”

Does your music reflect a stance onthe Irish struggle? “I'min favour of the struggle for self-rule with as much determination asany normal Irish person would be. Inawaythe struggleismore importantfor England, because alot ofthe politics that are created in Ireland affect British politics as well. There's the three Irish people shot downin Gibralter — the most

stunning thing was that there was no real investigation of it and no real explosion or outrage. It seems that you can shoot people down inthe streetin cold blood and get away withit. And it seems to me that the

same shady government that could have these people shot down would also do the same to trade unionists or whateverif the time came, if thot was what that government required. So you don'tlook at Irish politics in isolation, but as part of the whole British spectrum. You can't solve the problem of Ireland without solving the problem of British politics.” So, does Andy see himself as a musician who is politically concerned, or as a revolutionary who writes songs2 He gives another embarrassed laugh. ; “Amusician and a revolutionary at the same time. | write songs because I've got something to write about, and that stems from the politics. So it's aboutfifty-fifty.” You've been quoted as saying you pride yourself on the influence in your music of the defiance of punk, yetwhen punk was around you would have been, say, 12 0r 13.50 what would be your more recent or relevantinfluences?

“Ah ... Good question. [There's that laugh again.] In the heyday of punkin England, | would have been, say, 15, maybe 14, which is a sort of coming outtime for mostteenagers when

they get involved in music, so it was very significant. From that I've maintained the idea of socially conscious music— music with a message. Funnily enough, nobody at the time wrote those daft love songs. |l also listened to a lot of Bob Marley and Linton Kwesi Johnson. After the dynamic quality [of punk] wore off, there wasn't a lotthat attracted my aftention anymore. Since Joy Division and New Order, music never had that strong a pull.” The daftlove song seems to be coming backin a big way. Doyou think Easterhouse will ever write one? - "l could write love songs, maybe dedicatedto Lenin, orthe revolution itself. Anybody could write love songs, butif you're talking about that hollow, commercial tripe, it would be asad dayifl got reduced to doing that” Well, thanks for your time. “Oh, look, no problem. Thanks for listening. lt's been great to get a lot of that stuff off my chest. | think | can sleep now. Maybe I'll see you—a tour or something in New Zealand.” Yeah?

ANDREW DUBBER

Gh