3.20.07
Interview with: VICIOUS CABARET
By Stacy Sardelli
Editor in Chief

Rock / Punk / Alternative

Vicious Cabaret are:
Steve Maloney (vocals, guitar)
Jack Fowler (bass, vocals)
Pete Devine (drums, vocals)

Official description: "Given lines to read that are not our own, half of them cut before opening night, most of us live Thoreau's lives of quiet desperation. Some of us try to raise our voices, only to be drowned out by witless drunken heckles from the crowd.

And some of us have amplifiers. Loud ones.

Some of us never quite recovered from that intoxicating rush we got the first time we heard Little Richard speaking in tongues, or Hendrix tearing into that infernal tritone, or The Clash demanding a riot of their own. Some of us find meagre relief in dank practice spaces and stale backrooms, moments of clarity amid the squeal of a too-loud half-stack, and the reverb-drip of a club PA.

Let's face the music and dance..."

Interview

Babble & Beat - Your new EP, ‘The Devil Looks After His Own’ is to be released soon. Can you tell us a bit about it - such as the influence of the title’s name and the songs that appear on it?

Steve – It’s an old proverb, of course. I read a biography of Jerry Lee Lewis that had it as a caption under one of the photographs, and it stuck in my mind.

I’ve always found it fascinating how a lot of those early rock & rollers were torn between singing ‘the devil’s music’ and their religious convictions. I’m not religious, but god and the devil, good and evil, etc. can be read as metaphors for the internal conflicts we all have - a Freudian would call it the battle between the id and the super ego, Timothy Leary used the circuit model...

And it appears to have more truth in it than ‘the meek shall inherit the Earth’, for which there is little precedent. It’s amazing the mental summersaults people do to cling to an idea they want to be true, in the face of contradictory evidence. There’s little evidence for the existence of karma, for example, but I’ve met a lot of otherwise rational people who seem to have some vague belief in it, for no other reason than they wish it were so.

But it suits me fine for there not to be, because I’m not in possession of the best impulse control!

Babble & Beat - Any plans to tour outside of the UK in the near future? If so, where and when?

Steve – We’re talking to a promoter about doing some shows in Europe this summer, as it happens. Nothing’s confirmed, though, so I can’t be more specific than that at the moment.

Pete – What he said.

Babble & Beat - You guys originally formed in 2003, right? What have been some highlights in your career thus far?

Steve – It’s always satisfying when you come out of the studio with a recording you’re pleased with, so completing ‘Twilight Of The Idols’ and now ‘The Devil Looks After His Own’ have both been highlights.

The tour we did last year was a lot of fun, too. It culminated in a gig in London that a bunch of bands we know played - a good time was had by all, in so far as I recall...

Jack – Last year’s tour was definitely a highlight for me.

Pete – Playing in front of 400 nubile 18 year old girls was a tad better than my average day. I’d almost forgotten how accommodating the British can be.

Babble & Beat - Specifically, how have things been and changed for you since you’ve signed on with the Borderline label?

Steve – I’m afraid signing to a label, at least to a small independent, isn’t really a life changing experience! But it is gratifying when someone takes an interest in what you’re doing, to the point where they’re prepared to invest a little time and money in it.

Pete – I picked up some absolutely fantastic Beluga Caviar just the other day. Goes down great with a drop of Cristal. You should try it, Steve. I’ll have my driver drop some round if you like?

Babble & Beat - Ha ha. I know you're kidding, Pete, 'cuz you wouldn't waste money on that pretentious crap!

It’s always refreshing to hear great music that is backed with great lyrics. I read that Steve does most of the writing but I understand that you all contribute. The result? The lyrics are clever and robust. Many of your songs connect with me and therefore feel warm and personal. Most of your tunes have a particular line in them that struck me.

Just some examples:

‘Inside These Walls’ –“I’m the cigarette you didn’t stub that burns your house to the ground.”

‘Wallow’ – “How can you spend so much time navel gazing?”

‘Nuremberg Defence’ – “But with limited means and unlimited trust, there’s no them and us.”

‘Shut Up And Sing Along’ – “Award show tears and Betty Ford fears...”

‘The Next Utopia Will Be Better’ – “The flies won’t sit on your shit, they just buzz on by.”

‘The Devil’s Got His White Tux On Tonight’ – “I’m at the cash point when the sky gives up its rain.”

Where do your lyrics come from? Do they just pop into your head, hit you like a bolt of lightning? Are they almost always influenced by personal experiences? Or, are you a storyteller by nature?

Steve – Sometimes it’s personal experience, other times something you read will set you off on a train of thought... I don’t have a formula. Sometimes, yeah, a couplet will leap out of the ether, like when you smell a certain scent and it transports you to a time or a place you haven’t thought about for years... Other times, you’ll have a subject that’s been stewing in your brain for a while, and you’ll sit down and craft a lyric that articulates exactly what you want to say in a very methodical way.

I could probably tell you what inspired each of those lines above, but I’m not sure I’d want to! I think art should be a little ambiguous. What other people infer is just as important as what you imply. Brando said that – someone asked him what it is about his performance in that scene in On The Waterfront - the one in the back of the car with his brother - that makes it such a classic. And he said it isn’t his performance, it's what other people bring to it - everyone feels they should have been a contender, and that’s what makes it poignant.

Sometimes phrases just feel right at the time you write them, but you can’t really put your finger on why. Later, you’ll read meanings into them – on rare occasions, they can even seem to have foretold certain events... But now we’re straying into very Burroughsian territory!

Jack – I’m no lyricist, but the theme behind ‘Wallow’ was one that I felt strongly about – those times when you allow yourself to wallow in self pity, listening to music that makes you emotional, hanging out with people that are prepared to listen to you whining. Steve put that into words in his inimitable style.

Pete – The lyrical input is all from Steve really. However, I think the tone and content of a lot of what he writes certainly echoes a viewpoint shared by the band. I suppose that’s why we get on so well as mates too. We’re all a little fucked up to a certain extent.

Babble & Beat - You’ve been recording some new material. Can you tell us a bit about it and the direction you are taking with it?

Steve – I can’t imagine anyone who’s enjoyed our previous output will be alienated by it, but our new material covers a broader range than in the past; certainly as far as our recorded work goes, anyway.

There are a few softer moments, and we’ve been taking more of a groove-orientated approach on some of our recent compositions, writing them from the rhythm section up rather than building them around a chord-progression or guitar riff... But lyrically it’s still the same jaundiced, you’re-all-fucked cynicism that has won us so much popular acceptance!

Jack – Yeah, all our recent stuff has grown from the rhythm section – if I come to a session with an idea for a bassline, Pete usually has some ideas kicking around his head for new beats and we find it really easy to lock in together. Steve has a great talent for picking out great guitar parts to sit on top, kinda like piecing a jigsaw together.

Babble & Beat - What do you think about music videos? If you had to make one, which song would you choose to do one for and what would you like it to be like?

Jack – For me, it would be ‘Waiting for my Gate to Call’ and it would swing between having a great time on holiday and those torturous hours spent waiting for your flight home nursing the mother of all hangovers in the hell that they call airports.

Steve – I’ve always seen the video for ‘The Devil’s Got His White Tux On Tonight’ taking place in a casino; somewhere like, say, St. Tropez. The idea I’ve got is a complicated one, though – I reckon it’d take at least a month or two to shoot. You’ll just have to trust me on this. There are valid artistic reasons for it.

Pete – I thought it was Amsterdam? Or was that was the other video?

Juicy Tidbits Section

This is where we ask personal questions for the fans. Yeah, they're often stupid questions. We like reading the answers though!

Babble & Beat - You’ve just been given the highly unfortunate job of revamping the Pop Idol / American Idol show. What changes would you make to it?

Steve – In the spirit of reality programming, I’d like to see a live broadcast of the moment when the winner is confronted with the reality of their situation – that the lion’s share of anything they do make from being on the show will end up in the producers’ pockets, and that in a year’s time they’ll be back exactly where they were before, only now tarnished with the stigma of having been on a lame television game show. Again, it’s a example of people believing something because they wish it were so – do these people actually believe these shows provide more than the most fleeting celebrity? Or do they not even care?

Babble & Beat - Yes, now there's some reality!

Jack – I love watching those programs but what annoys me about them is that anyone that thinks they can sing believes they deserve stardom, and the programs perpetuate that thinking by creating jumped up karaoke stars. I’d like to see more emphasis on the real talent i.e. writing songs, not just performing them. It should be renamed Rock Idol and we should win it.

Babble & Beat - I agree! I hate to admit it but I enjoyed two seasons of a music "reality" show in the states. The first season was called Rock Star: Inxs and the second season was Rock Star: Supernova. It was so much better because they did have to write a song. Still not total reality but was far better than Idol.

Pete – As I’ve always been a fan of the days of the Caesar’s I would add an extra feature to the programme that the losers would have to dress as Gladiators and fight for their lives against various wildlife such as Lions, Tigers and Bad Elves. If they win they live! The programme could be sponsored by Bosch or someone. The twist would come when we announce that the winner would also be joining them in the “Black and Decker semi-adjustable electric screwdriver finale” alongside last year’s winners- Whitman, Price and Haddad. Does this interview constitute as copyright?

Babble & Beat - I WOULD watch that! That's hysterical. Especially love the bad elves idea! I had to look that winning trio up - The Running Man. Laughs.

What were your high school years like? What wouldn’t you change and what would you change if you could?

Jack – I’d probably change my underpants more often.

Pete – 1) Long. 2) Miss Purcell in a low cut top. 3) Seeing Miss Purcell without her low cut top. The benefits of a classical education eh?

Steve – On tour I’ve woken up at noon in the back of a bus in a strange city, and spent the grand total of an hour that day engaged in activity which could only loosely be defined as ‘work’. Oddly enough, I don’t subscribe to the notion that my school days were the best of my life. The only good thing about school to me was, unlike prison, you got to go home at night.

Babble & Beat - Are you fully satisfied with the amount of Anna Nicole coverage on the news (or is this ridiculous amount of coverage only happening in the states)? Hmmm, I'm giving it more coverage aren't I?

Steve – I don’t watch a lot of television, to be honest, but I’m sure UK media coverage has been every bit as tasteful and sensitive as that in the States.

Babble & Beat - I like how you put that!

Jack – Yes.

Babble & Beat - Have you ever been in love? What was / is love like to you?

Pete – Well, there was this teacher at high school...

Steve – Yes, of course. Ah, l’amour..! It’s probably just a chemical imbalance, but then most sources of pleasure are!

Jack – Yes and it beats Vicodin.

In Closing

Thank you Steve, Pete and Jack! We completely dig your music and wish you all the best! Stacy

Releases:
‘The Devil Looks After His Own’ (EP, 2007)
‘Twilight of the Idols’ (EP, 2005)
‘White Label, 2005’ (oop)
‘White Label, 2004’ (oop)

Links:
Official site
MySpace - music clips!