Interview With The Crimson Roadmap

• 2nd Jul 2007

After seeing them perform a blinding set at Nottingham’s Junktion7, I took time to get the low-down on Nottingham’s own ‘The Crimson Roadmap’.

TRC consists of Rob MacPherson (guitar/vocals), a lad with an otherworldly glint in his eye, Chris Shapero (bass/vocals), a born bassist and Anjay Raj (drums), a menacing looking meek man of music. They are a three tier slice of dirty cake, prepared lovingly by the likes of, ‘Green Day’, ‘Thee Hypnotics’ and ‘Joy Division’, to name but a few bands that I saw slaving through their kitchen window!

I start by asking who came up with the name. The band all liked and had agreed on the ‘roadmap’ bit, around the same time as Radiohead were releasing ‘Hail to the Thief’, an LP with a roadmap, of sorts, on its sleeve. Crimson was tagged on later. No epic political statements then. Thank goodness for that!

Bands that float the TRC boat are Staind, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters and dare I say Bryan Adams(Anjay), Idlewild, Ash and Feeder (Chris) and Radiohead, Muse and Smashing Pumpkins (Rob). And it’s not just music that has had an effect on the band. TRC’s homepage boasts an appreciation of the artist Robert Matta (RM). I find Rob has the tightest grip on that handle as he explains the fascination. Art school was boring until I discovered RM. His work often contained random stuff just for the hell of it. You can look and study for ages, picking out stuff you never saw before, stuff that just doesn’t belong where RM puts it in his compositions. I really think it reflects our music explains Rob. With their safety net of indecisive sound being constantly penetrated with moments of musical madness, I’m surprised there is any explanation! Phew! I’m glad it was RM they looked to and not the same people who designed Milton Keynes city centre!

The Fratellis and Arctic Monkeys would fall victim to TRC’s collective sniper rifle with Rob adding that he could kill ‘em off with his acoustic just as easily. At the mention of these tiresome bands, I wonder if TRC have any aspirations to do ‘Top of the Pops’. Anjay leaves no doubt at all with a stern NO, Chris would if Jeremy Clarkson was hosting and Rob would like to focus on taking the Rescue Rooms by storm first. And all are appalled by a recent lip sync stunt by Muse on Spanish MTV. Is there a connection between TOTP and lip syncing that I’m missing?! Either way, we all agree it’s the devils work and nothing more! I continue by asking for their feelings on NME. Could we ever expect to see TRC on its cover? If they ever did appear on the cover, they assure me that nobody would be smiling. Don’t trust NME is the consensus.

I go on to discover that TRC enjoy playing at Junktion 7 more than anywhere else they’ve played. It’s not just the sound or turnout; it’s actually their spiritual home. They do enjoy playing ‘The Social’ despite distant memories of Anjay attempting to play his kit through the blind drunkenness he had fell victim to that night! I think there’s something in the beer kids, let’s be careful out there! Junktion 7 once bore witness to these guys doing a full Muse setlist with a house mate at the time taking charge of vocals and some guitar crazy guy doing the riff work. The vocals were sublime and every bit as good as Matt Bellamy’s (Muse). The whole place was jumping and when we finished, everybody in the place clapped and cheered. Rock n roll!

What might the future hold for you guys in my crystal ball? Chris is sure he can see himself writing drunken poetry in-between playing with his other band ‘And Stars Collide’. So much for TRC! Anjay might well pursue his engineering degree or patent his home grown idea for a garden watering system. That or drink lots whilst soaking up eBay’s rays of discounted delight! Rob will probably be married to his missus! Word on the street is that he just can’t get enough! After taking June off, he’ll be focusing on July and some new studio tracks. There may be some itunes to follow in October too!