Interview with This Is The Way The World Ends

• 17th Apr 2004

Glasswerk met up with Paul from This Is The Way The World Ends. Relative newcomers to the Nottingham live scene, the band’s reputation for fiery live shows means they’re someone to keep an eye on.

So tell us about the band.

There are three of us – just drums, guitar and bass. There’s a simplicity to a three piece, not necessarily in the music but because when you’re writing and playing you can usually hear each other better. It also means everyone has to work harder – if you’ve got two guitarists you can get lazy. As a bass player it’s great too because I’ve got the space to play about instead of just chugging along behind two guitars or keyboards or whatever. There’s scope to play lines that are a bit more melodic.

How did you get together?

Just one of those things – accident and coincidence really. We all like different music so I was quite surprised that it all came together the way it did.

What inspires you?

All sorts. Being smart arses is one thing. We love writing songs that are complex but don’t sound it. I mean, we’ve got a song where all three of us are playing in different time signatures at the same time but it doesn’t really sound like it.

So would you say you’re musos then?

No! Absolutely not. None of us are trained musicians and if you try and explain a time signature to Ian he won’t have a clue what you’re on about. It’s more a case of us pushing ourselves and seeing what we can. Although some of our songs are based around traditional structures we like to take the piss and throw in three minute dub codas here and there. It’s all based on instinct and playing off each other. That’s what I love about our music, it only works when all three of us are playing – if you take away one of us from any of the songs the songs just fall apart.

So who’s the songwriter?

For the most part our songs come from Ian. He’ll come up with something at home and bring it into the rehearsal room and then generally me and Dude fuck it up as much as we can! There’s stuff comes from jams as well, usually when Dude comes up with a ridiculous drum beat or something. It comes from all over the place really. None of us are scared of saying what we think and we’ll give any idea a go – they’re sometimes crap, but at least you’ve given it a go.

You’ve talked a lot about the music. A lot of bands are more concerned with image and rock and roll stories. What’s more important to you?

Obviously the music is the most important thing that we do. That’s not to say we’re oblivious to other things, but if it wasn’t for the music we wouldn’t be here. I mean we think about how to present ourselves onstage, but for me the most exciting thing about seeing a decent band live is watching them interact with each other. I hate bands who just stare at the audience and never look at each other or just go off on a tangent or whatever. That’s really important to us – that we communicate onstage. It’s half the fun of playing. We’ve all played in bands where everyone just faces front and doesn’t move and it’s shit. What’s the point? If you’re not into it then why should the audience be? At our last gig the audience reaction was incredible. I really understood the cliché of feeding off an audience’s energy. They were cheering and shouting all the way through – just amazing.

What’s with the name?

We wanted something different; I’m so sick of bands called ‘The Something’. It just seemed right.

It could be taken as a gloomy name. Is this reflected in your music?

It’s not gloomy, it’s a statement you can take any way you like. The end of the world could be a beautiful thing – who knows? And our music is definitely not gloomy. ‘Intense’ is a word that crops up a lot from people who’ve seen us – take that to mean whatever you want! It’s just what happens when we get together and play – we have no fixed idea on how we should sound. All three of us have our own ways of playing so it’s just a clash of styles. Thankfully for us that means it’s not easy to say we sound like any particular band – I hope!

So what’s next?

We’re recording at the moment. We should have that ready by mid-April. After that we just want to get back to gigging and play to as many people as we can. We’re also sorting out a website at the moment which is fun.

More information on the band at link which will be up and running soon.