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and I gain knowledge through listening and conver
sation and radio. I assimilate the knowledge and can write it down and write quite a lot, but I can’t do exams, so there’s three songs about not being able to achieve academically. I achieve kinetically not academically. Toriafan is that, The Water Moves is that and Stone Cold Slow is that. Over your long career what’s been your happiest era in music? Hard one that. It’s so weird. I think I remember fondly really enjoying those first trips to America around Gideon Gaye. Just because we were allowed to go to America and it was so long ago, New York was very different. I haven’t been to New York for a long time, but New York in the ‘90s was quite special. Meeting people stateside and we had this incredible reputation over there and we didn’t really have much of a reputation, certainly not the UK. Then going to America and people really thinking that you were special, that was nice. And before we did bigger shows there, we played little places like the Mercury Lounge. I really enjoyed those days. Yeah, I think that if I had to lock in a time, then that would be about ‘94/‘95. You’re in your 60s now. Do you recognise the Sean O’Hagan of your 20s? Do you still have much in common? It’s strange, such a good question. I am amazed at some things I did… behaviours… that’s a tough one. It’s really interesting because you change massively when you have children, when you watch your kids grow up and then you see some of what you did as a child through them. Then you think ‘oh, that’s possibly what I was like.’ But you do feel as though you are looking... It’s out of body, you’re looking back at somebody else. There are certain things, little angry moments, but less afraid, less afraid and I love nature now, whereas I couldn’t give a monkeys about nature when I was young, when I was that age. I was surrounded by nature and it was just that stuff out there. I think the little bit of the excitement in writing a song is probably the same. 26 Do you have any hopes, plans or possibilities to tour the album? I would love to try to get together the four of us and see how much of it we can play. I mean we haven’t played together as a band for so long. I’ve been doing lots of solo stuff but we’ve had a little go at playing a few of these songs, and the thing about it is that Drag City have actually got plans to reissue Gideon Gaye and Hawaii and then Snowbug and Cold and Bouncy over the next year and a bit. So, there’ll probably be a bit of playing then. With this record I might try to learn a few of the songs and then maybe bring a little bit of technology along to see if we can represent it. I wouldn’t say there’ll be a lot, but there might be something if we get it together, we’ll definitely be in Dublin and Cork, probably Kilkenny. I’m trying to crack that nut right now to be quite honest. Do you have a feel for how the industry is for young bands starting out? Do you feel the viability has changed? Oh yeah, I got a real feel for how difficult it is. You know selling lots of records and becoming massively famous and ubiquitous probably isn’t there, I think. First of all, there’s so much talent. There’s so much access to equipment. It’s actually relatively easy to make a great sound because the technology allows you to, but there’s also plenty of talent making that great sound. Then they bring it to the stage and they usually they can do that themselves. There’s a little bit of complacency insofar as that my cohort, the listeners, feel as though we own history, if you see what I mean, because we lived through it, we lived punk. We were kids and it was glam, then it was punk and then whatever and we’ve seen it all and we’re looking, sitting, surveying, and everything is referential. Of course, I don’t believe that at all. I believe that certainly we experienced everything, but because we experienced it doesn’t mean we own it and because of that attitude, you get a lot of people of my age group and they might just say things like, ‘well, it’s great but it’s not as good as it used to be’, and ‘it was all said and done and sure those guys are just trying to be these guys or whatever’, without really listening. There’s such great talent out there. There are changes and there’s new information out there with these youngsters and I really love it. I actually really like being surrounded by that energy, it’s really wonderful. I’m lucky, because I get to work with some of these people as a string arranger and I get invited in, which is so, so beautiful. I’d love to have some young singers with me as well, that would just be so joyful. Our editor reckons you’ve been part of the three best bands ever in Microdisney, Stereolab and The High Llamas. How does it make you feel to hear such a thing? Oh God. That’s a very, very nice thing to hear. I was lucky. In Microdisney, I was lucky to meet one of the most talented human beings ever to walk on the earth in Cathal Coughlan. I was really lucky with Tim, I’m still a very good friend of Tim Gane from Stereolab. We’re very close still and we still work together. Basically, I thought I’d never do The Llamas again, but I’m so happy that this records happened and if we do play again, I want to have a version of The High Llamas with myself and Rob and John. But I’d love to have some young singers with me as well, that would just be so joyful. I know who they are and that would be such a lovely version of the band. I really look forward to that. It’s great that we’ll hopefully get to experience more Llamas music. Thank you. There’ll be more, I’ll always make music and I’ll always collaborate. When I make another Llamas record or not, I don’t know when that be, but there will be stuff. Now I’ve made this record I feel as though I’ve taken pressure off myself. I did have pressure that I’ve gotta make the record that I want to make, and I think I’ve made it. The High Llamas new album Hey Panda is released on March 29th on Drag City. www.highllamas.com