Olly Halsall Interview
by Jon Tiven

Jon Tiven: How did the group get from the pop-oriented material you were doing with Timebox to the more progressive stuff that you’re doing now?

Olly: It’s the same thing really, just a development. The same cats playing it. It just changes all the time. I’m not quite sure what we’re playing now, it’s just different.

Jon: Was there a personnel change which preceded the name change?

Olly: We had an organist.  He left, and we continued as a 4-piece. That stuff was really simple, naive…we’ve got some great tapes, demo sessions. We did one session where we got hold of a bottle of demerol, which is cough medicine, and we did some really nice songs on it. We wrote a song about five years ago called "Black Dog" and it was a gas.

Jon: Was Mike (Patto) doing some solo work at that time?

Olly: Sort of. I had the band, and Mike had a group called the Bo Street Runners and he was with that band for a long time and there were a lot of people involved with that band. Then he was singing with a group called the London Youth Jazz Orchestra. We needed a singer, so there you go…that was Timebox. After that, John joined us.

Jon: It seems that you’re playing a lot less guitar and more of the keyboards on the new album. How did that come about?

Olly: I don’t know. We were trying to make a whole album as an album, the whole thing…I don’t know, really. I did an album on my own with Bob Fripp and that was mainly piano. I don’t even know if it’ll be released. It turned out pretty good. I used a lot of nice guys on it. I used a guy called Harry Miller on bass and a guy Max Von Schmacks on violin, and that was it really. John did assorted percussion. My tenor sax player was a bloke by the name of Gary Windo, that was nice. I don’t know what Fripp is going to do with that. He had a bunch of albums, but he’s been more involved in other things now.

Jon: How did the Centipede thing work out?

Olly: The Centipede thing was great, actually. It was a great experience for everybody. Keith (Tippett) is now playing with his trio, and they’re doing very well.

Jon: How does the multiple authorship for songs work. Who writes what?

Olly: Mike writes the words, we all get together…I write the chords and things, the arrangements.

Jon: The new album is such an odd transition from what you’ve been doing.

Olly: Yeah, it is. It really is, but I think it reflects what we’ve been doing onstage.

Jon: Do you do a lot of your recording ‘live’ in the studio?

Olly: Yeah, we just go in there, set up the mikes and play. We try to do as much of it live as we can, but when I have to play guitar and piano on the same track we can’t.

Jon: Are you playing much guitar on stage?

Olly: I’m playing just a bit of piano, mostly guitar, as Mike’s handling the keyboards. He’s doing well on piano. I’m handling the leaping about, and the guitar.

Jon: So you’ve got some theatrical trick up your sleeve, eh?

Olly: Well, this is what we’re trying to do. People say to us, ‘People aren’t going to dig your humor, they’re not going to understand it,’ Well, we’ve been doing a few things and we’ve been going over fucking well.

Jon: Where --- geographically speaking --- are you the strongest?

Olly: France…Timebox used to play a lot in France. We did a gig once at the British Embassy in France for all the royalty and everybody. It was great.

Jon: How old are the members of the band?

Olly: I’m 23. John Halsey…I think he’s about 26 or 27. Clive is the same age, and Mike is around 30.

Jon: Then you yourself must have begun gigging at a fairly early age?

Olly: Yeah, I started playing when I was about seven in skiffle groups and then we’d do a few things by Lonnie Donnegan.

Jon: Your lyrical content seem very socially and politically oriented. Does the band have a very strange sense of political consciousness?

Olly: I think so, yeah. All of us. It’s a very natural thing. We’re as politically minded as anybody, but with us it comes out in the songs a little more…Mike’s lyric teeth, he has goes at things. It’s just the way he writes.

Jon: Also quite drug-oriented…

Olly: Yeah, yeah. Well, drugs, terrible things…(laughter)

Jon: Are you personally big on drugs?

Olly: No, not as much as this lot (the remainder of the band). They go at a very fast rate. Can’t keep up with them. We end up lying on the floor.

Jon: Are you drinkers at all?

Olly: Well, we got very drunk last night. We were drinking Southern Comfort actually. The guys from the record company got us a pint.

Jon: Well, thanks very much for talking, and I hope you go over really well and make all the money you deserve.

Olly: Ahhh, we just want some fucking acclaim, that’s all. We want the people to know that we’re here.

Note:  Thanks to Gordon Jackson for providing this article!