Interview: Repo Man

Repo Man’s reckless instruments and surreal verbal outbursts have made them one of Bristol’s most exciting live bands. While 2013’s All Mind The Cat House was an intriguing debut, it’s last year’s follow-up Minesweeping that sounds like a statement of intent, as sinister fingers of guitar creep around double-jointed grooves and the surreal verbal outbursts of frontman Bojak. We caught up with three quarters of the band for a bit of scatological venting. 

First of all, is it Repo Man or Repo-Man? I’ve seen it styled both ways. Why did you name yourselves after that film?

Ant: It’s Repo Man – it’s been hyphenated and changed at times through confusion and website criteria (in order to differentiate from the film).

Liam: It’s occasionally been written as one word Repoman…which is also incorrect.

Ant: The film is a favourite of mine and Bojak’s, we would watch it over and over again in drunken states. When I rang up to book the very first practice session it was the first thing that came into my head…

Bojak: We’d watched it the night before.

Ant: The others didn’t know until we got to the practice room and saw it written on the door, though they all liked it so it stuck!

Secondly, could you please introduce the band members and what each of you does in the band? How long have you been playing together?

Ant: Bojak (vocals/ sax/ violin), Liam (guitar) Ant (bass) and Ollie (drums). We have been together since 2011, though Ollie is a very fresh addition as Paul vacated the drum stool recently.

Tell us a bit about how the band formed. Doesn’t it have something to do with The Cube? 

Ant: I moved to Bristol in 2006, heard there was an improv orchestra at The Cube. I’d been doing improv guitar duo stuff with a friend in Nottingham so was intrigued; we both went down and I became a regular. That’s where I met Paul and eventually Liam. I’ve known Bojak for 15 years, he ended up moving down to Bristol.

Bojak: We did a short stint as a band in 2004…which is how we ended up working together again.

Ant: A friend, Rob, wanted to start a band with Bojak as vocalist despite having never seen him in action, Bojak had separately drunkenly stated he wanted to start something…once Liam emerged at The Cube – I knew the pieces were all in place. Rob ended up leaving after a few practices and Liam moved from drums to guitar.

Your songs are among the wordiest and most lyrically abstract in rock. Are Bojak’s vocal outbursts surreal sermons or streams of consciousness?  

Bojak: A little bit of both. We have done sessions where I scream things straight out of my consciousness and others where I am throwing my accusational fingers internally and externally…some of the words are coming from the music, the rhythmic feel, not banally structured…you guys play reckless instruments.

Liam: There’s a push and pull between the lyrics and the music in the process of construction.

Ant: Some things emerge fully formed; others have a longer period of gestation.

Violins and saxophones are rarely used by punk or alternative bands. What do they bring to your music?

Liam: They help to alleviate the boredom of the ‘Rock’ formula.

Bojak: It is freeform…it’s an emphasis on myself scatalogically venting.

Ant: “It keeps an element of improvisation and spontaneity”

You’ve been known to employ some interesting time signatures. Does that make you mathrock?

Liam: No…and not prog either!

Bojak: I don’t know what that is…I’m not even clear on the concept of prog.

You’re thought of as one of Bristol’s most exciting live bands. Is the performance aspect important to you or is it all about the music?

Bojak: Every live performance we try and do something different.

Liam: We are always pushing the intensity.

Ant: The performance is definitely important as it is where we can really convey the full power of our sound, for ourselves and others. It is cathartic. if the adrenaline and intensity and energy isn’t there then we haven’t done a good gig.

Liam: The proximity of the audience to us is vital to achieving that goal…to connect in an abstract way.

In Oldham (the song) you describe Oldham (the town) is being “as inland as inland can be”.  Isn’t that an ode to Bojak’s home town?  

Bojak: Oldham, like Run James and Static Excess Strobe Effect is a lyrically personal tune…where it reverts to throwing the accusational finger inwards rather than outwards. I don’t intend to be evasive, I can confirm that it is my home town. They’re not cryptic, to me they’re self-explanatory.

Ant: Some of his lyrics make more sense than others.

Minesweeping is your second album. Do you consider it to be a major progression from your first?

Liam: With ‘All Mind In The Cat House’ it was our first foray into the studio as a band so we had to get it captured quickly.”

Bojak: We are still proud of it.

Liam: The recording process was a learning curve as it differed significantly from the writing/ rehearsing process…by doing the first album early on it gave us something to build on and more confidence for the second. 

Ant: We wanted Minesweeping to be closer to our live sound…

Liam: …and more like the set-up in rehearsals, while recording – closer together.

Bojak: I was separate in a control room on the first so could not feed off the energy of the others so much – I was in a whole separate room with a video link…we were confident of what we wanted on the second album.

Liam: It gave us a better performance by being in the set-up that we wanted.

Ant: I think it holds together better as an album, with two distinct sides.

Both albums were released by Lava Thief, the label run by Thought Forms guitarist Charlie Romijn. How did you get involved with them?

Ant: I met Charlie after a Thought Forms gig at Supersonic Festival in 2007, after seeing each other around at gigs and chatting she was interested as to what I was doing musically, I eventually emailed some of the original Repo practice room recordings which she was really enthusiastic about and she said she may be up for producing one day…

Liam: Once we were doing ‘All Mind in the Cat House’ we discussed with her the idea of putting the album out on Lava Thief…since then she has put out on Lava Thief great albums by the likes of The Brackish, Vena Cava and Bill Horist/ Jakob Riis.

Ant: She has had a lot of faith and passion about our music, from the earliest days which was always great and encouraging to us.

You’re playing the Howling Owl show on 15th January. Is there anyone on that lineup you’d recommend catching (apart from you lot obviously)?

Ant: Maybe Chrononautz.

Liam: Blood Music looks worth checking out.  Brutal…

Bojak: Dunno, I’m a film guy, ask me in a month when I’m watching them.

Repo Man play New Year / New Noise 3 on Saturday, January 16. Photo by Simon Holliday.