1) Who are you, who is in the band, who does what in the studio and on stage?
Colvin Cruickshank aka The Reluctant Leader (Lyrics, Vocals, Ideas, Synths, Kvetching)
Oliver “Olly” Ridgewell aka The Son of Portslade (Bass, Guitar, Sings in the Cathedral of Rhythm)
William MacConnachie aka MacGlashan (Guitar, Keys, Production, Scottish Strength)
Graeme Wilson aka G (Drums, Cycling, Snides Engine Room)
2) How would you describe what you do – in a nutshell – to someone who’s never seen you before?
Colvin: Pick n’ Mix Pigeonhole Genres – Post Punk / Funk / Art Rock / Dub / Kraut / Psych
Olly: Strongly tempered lightly smoked archival musings in future rock
G: Side-glancing, purveyors of rum, rhythm and rhyme. An airing of beefs over canny beats.
3) How long have you been writing and performing in this way?
Colvin: I have been reluctantly leading Snide Rhythms for 6 years. 2 singles, 2 albums, some remixes – get online and collect them all, true believers! Olly is an original Snide with Happy Ears. New group additions of G and William are also known as The Lifers, who have been at this long enough to know no better.
4) How exactly do you work / write / record?
Olly: Free form Jams and Jerusalem, bashed into shape like fine steel.
5) How do you feel your studio/recording style informs the way you perform your music live (or vice versa)?
Olly: The live form is extroversion, group communication. The studio is a pathway to interspace. The two forms at once separate hemispheres but ultimately inseparable.
6) What’s been happening lately and what’s new with you?
Colvin: In 2015 we played more gigs than we have ever done before. We supported The Sexual Objects, Sleaford Mods, Kids on Bridges, Galgo and Kiki and Triangulo de Amor Bizarrro. We played with Joy Division and Stone Roses tribute bands. Festival fun was also had in the summer at Kelburn and Stow. Now we need to crack on with
our third LP…
Olly: An Edinburgh friend sent me a link to a video of an external wall on a block of flats collapsing dramatically in high winds. Because it was a block on an estate in Portslade, (where I’m from, near Brighton, where incidentally my friend “Mr Plum” has never visited) Mr Plum thought the geographical connection would be of mild amusement to me. Only it struck fear in me as it was the exact block of flats where I was born and raised, An eerie sensation fell upon me. My friend had no idea of this information, a curiously serendipitous chain of events. I mean there’s a lot of flats in Portslade, I used to get shouted at by an affable local councillor with a club foot for kicking a football against that very wall.
7) When was the last time you played Edinburgh (and where)? What do you remember about that experience?
G: Our last gig in Edinburgh was on Sunday the 13th of January 2016 at Paradise Palms with Guinness and the Jazzholes. It was memorable for G, as it was the last time he smoked a cigarette. Unlike our biggest gig, supporting Sleaford Mods, no one said “Here youse are a bit like The Fall n’that ay?”
Colvin: At the very end of our set Olly played the bassline to The Width Of A Circle by David Bowie. A fitting tribute from side one of The Man Who Sold The World.
8) If you’ve played Limbo before, what did you like/rate about the experience? If you’ve not played Limbo before, what have you heard about it?
Olly: I give Limbo 11/10 for everything, (I especially like the curtains)
Colvin: Limbo has always been supportive and encouraging to us as a group. Other promoters should take note on Limbo’s attention to detail, programming and photo/video service. Always excellent engineers and top quality sound at The Voodoo Rooms too.
9) What’s next, coming up after this gig, for you and what are you generally looking forward to right now…?
G: Our remix for Kids On Bridges will be out at some point in 2016. We have also been asked to contribute a cover version for a tribute album to The Monks. Twenty or so rhythms have been recorded as foundations for the next as yet untitled Snide Rhythms album. Buffet & Disco is looking likely to be the single that precedes it.
Olly: Our new album is in the tandoor, spices to be added, rum to be served as pudding.
Colvin: Straight after the Limbo gig I will be heading out to Teesh No.33 at Sneaky Pete’s. The day after I will be playing records with Don Letts at 99 Hanover. Later that month my label, False Promise will be releasing a limited edition ten inch vinyl release with a silk screened sleeve by House of Traps.
10) If you have any other passions/opinions you’d like to share, if there’s anything else you feel strongly about, pls feel free to tell us about it here…?
G: We only feel strongly about those who feel wrongly.
Olly: All ideas are shared. I was inspired to write a song based on a passage listing a series of codes for living recited by esoteric life style guru Gurdieffs daughter from a book by director Alexander Jodowosky. I turned on the radio one day to find that Laura Marling had already recorded a song, based on the same passage called “Gurdjieffs daughter”. Same idea, pretty much word for word. I see this as cause for happiness. It seems an idea was shared through the collective consciousness. Something that Jodowsky and Gurdjieff would have thoroughly approved of. Incidentally it could be argued that the internet is also “Gurdjieffs daughter”. Have a think about that.
