Censored - the new interview They've come a fair way over the last year. Censored are now a band whose reputation is growing through the UK and abroad. They've done some memorable gigs, they seem tighter than ever and have put together some strong demos. Sohostrut felt that it was time to speak to them again. Rob Massey caught up with singer/guitarist Matt Henshaw (“the genius one”) and put some questions to him. Sohostrut last interviewed you last Spring. A lot has happened to the band since that time.
What have been the highlights?
Playing Leeds Festival immediately springs to mind as it was so out of the blue and such a success, kind of got the ball rolling for alot of things to start moving into place in the background for the band. I suppose getting my ugly mug in the NME was an amusing little part of my past year!! A mate of ours was only saying probably a month earlier that the first time we was in NME he was gonna get us all to sign it and save it forever, turned out we didn't know we was in 'till our manager sent me an email and by that time it was too late for our mate to get a copy because they'd all sold u in Ilkeston!!! It was only a little picture, and the other two weren't on it so it wasn't that sweet, just a nice thing to be able say i've been in there already. There's been allsorts of things as well, nice comments from real people into real music are the best thing in the world though, there's alot of nonsense, 2005 was a great year and this one will be better, and the one after the that, hoipefully a pattern will begin to emerge.
Are there any gigs that you've played that stand out?
Well, Leeds Festival was great, and playing at the Camden Barfly for Jack Daniels' 50th birthday was great. Playing for York Inset Scooter Club in September was nice, and I'll give Big Al a mention. Also a couple of gigs in Matlock we're great and anywhere our boys are at.
I get the impression that you're tighter as a band. How do you feel?
Playing live is incredibly important to us, all our demos are purely live and we've been doing it since we were twelve, best friends and all that, so it should sound tight, if it didn't we'd be doing something really wrong. But now it's great because we can really play off each other, I like to think we're like Cream with the Jazz and Blues influences we have, eventually we're gonna make something like that Robert Stigwood documentary of their Farewell Concert, I hope anyways, kind of a parody for our first DVD. They seem to be all the rage lately.
Tell me about the new material.
We're always doing new things. Since the last interview we've probably changed our live set twice over and written enough material for another two albums, I think we've probably got six altogether, and it's all quality, because there's probably about 12 albums worth of crap stuff!!!
The really recent stuff and our current "direction", if you like, is 'When You Come Along' and 'Seen The Light', and there's also a good new one called 'Eyes Made Of Gold' which is probably the most Kinks/Small Faces sounding thing we've ever done, and we've always been thought of as that type of band.
How is the new material going down when you play it live?
'When You Come Along' and 'Seen The Light' are going down really well. A big band for us over the festive season were Led Zeppelin and you can see their influence coming through a little, but there's some real grooves and melodies in there. We always like to show off our eclecticity, especially live. We should be demoing them live soon anyways or they'll be bootlegged at some point!!
I understand there may have been style developments - coming from that line in “Johnny Boy” - “Perry Boys Waltzing down Bath Street“. Tell me about them.
There's alot more Fred Perry and Lacoste polo shirts cropping up now round our way, and some Ralph Lauren, in good colours too. I'd hate for everyone to start becoming clones of the casual mod stereotype though, takes the shine off it all. At the moment it is quite individual though and everyone seems to be doing their own thing, the way it should be, slipping into society unnoticed, except to the sharpest cats, and with so many different clothes available to us why should anyone be wearing the same things???? I definitely think the punk thing has gone wrong though, or whatever this emo thing is. I was in Nottingham the other day on the square and saw the most ridiculous thing, 5 boys in eyeliner, converse, shit jeans (wouldn't know a pair of levis' if they pissed on their faces!) and black t-shirts with the slogan "why laugh at me because i'm individual??!?!" . . . and there's five of these 'individual' twats wearing the same clothes . . . IT DOES MY NUT IN!!!
You seem to be using the web successfully to promote the band. Are you surprised that you have got so much support from across the world for the band?
Not surprised at all, it comes down to whether the music is good or bad, there's loads of bands to be found on the internet, and the good ones always will be found and sought after, I think alot of people forget that the Arctic Monkeys are actually a good band when they're writing their articles saying their success is down to the internet, music was available on this here net long before the Arctic Monkeys even got together. The main thing that surprises me is that people actually use it as a good resource and go out to see new bands they've found on the internet, I was sceptical at first thinking it was all people who sit on their backsides all day tinkering away with their keyboards, but it turns out there's loads of good people out there. I should have thought more positive.
The videos - “Get It On”, “The Real Deal” - are pretty professional. Tell me about how you go about making them.
That's all Nathan. The editing and that, with his dogy software. I was just an accomplace in stealing the camera from school, that we've since given back I might add, then we just get anyone to film us at gigs and doing daft things. I like the 'Get It On' video because it's like a scrapbook of Censored for the middle part of 2005 up to Leeds Festival. Good Times!! Although I think Nathan prefers 'The Real Deal' because it's more intimate and prepared, we spent ages getting the lighting and the shots right, and I think he likes being in my bedroom as well!! I just like it that people can see how we are visually as well, I think that's important in the modern age. You get more of Chris' character in 'Get It On' as well, which is good 'cos he's probably "the funny one". Hopefully we're gonna do some more if we get round to it, before we get some budding young Martin Scorceses to do our first proper promo videos. We're all big film fans as well, can talk for hours and hopefully we'll get to make something like 'SpiceWorld' in the future. Fingers crossed!!
The scene has moved on over recent weeks [note - thinking of the popularity of the Arctic Monkeys and Preston on Big Brother]. Have you any views on this?
The scene is always moving, it would be dreadful to think it would ever stop. I don't know if there's a link between the popularity of Preston and the Monkeys but over the last year there's definitely been a positive swing away from Westlife and Blue. Kaiser chiefs have been in the top 10 forever and Hard-Fi went to number one apparently because that horrible advert with Jo Whiley on being shown in the ad breaks between big brother. I don't know what to make of it all. It's all music. I am constantly bemused and amused by it all.
Everyone just seems really enthusiastic about guitar bands and gigs all of a sudden, let's just hope we don't all get too carried away and spoil it all.
Which song would you put out as a first single?
I would expect our first single if we were to releas one next month would be 'Get It On' or 'When You Come Along' because they're such cheap shots and the general themes are quite throw away, verging on Jarvis Cocker style voyeurism though in parts!! I think we're looking to release some sort of a limited edition EP later this year with some songs on and a decent producer. No idea who or what will be on it but I assure you it will be good, at least slicker than your average as Craig David would say.
When can we expect world domination?
I'm no totalitarian mastermind but I think the Stalin method of taking one country first and then world revolution will be best for us. The UK in 2007/08 and the rest of the world after that depending on how long it takes for people to fall in love with us but i'd like to think it's inevitable really.