Interviews
Chris Olley from Six By Seven talks to Britsound
Interview with Chris Olley, April, 2007.
ROB QUICKE: Thanks joining us for the first time on Britsound. It's now been over ten years since you formed Six By Seven in 1996, is that correct?
CHRIS OLLEY: No, we released our first album in ‘98, but we actually formed the band in ‘92.
RQ: ‘92?
CO: Yeah, me, Sam and Chris - with a different bass player - formed the band in ‘92 and we went slogging around and playing. At the time, from what I can remember, it was all Britpop, Blur and Oasis. We were doing songs that were eight minutes long. It was difficult to get any interest. Then I remember - when we started to get interest a few years later - I remember Radiohead released Paranoid Android. I remember going down to London on the train and our manager saying: “Wow, Radiohead are releasing a seven and a half minute single and everything is going to change.” And all of a sudden, what we were doing was no longer regarded as being too far out.
RQ: Is it true that in your early days, you played a gig in Leicester to a lot of record company executives and the room had emptied before you had finished your first 15 minute song? Is that true?
CO: Yeah.
RQ: So how did you feel when you were playing these epic songs and people just weren’t getting it?
CO: People were getting it.
RQ: Right, but just not the record companies?
CO: Just because the record labels weren’t, it didn’t mean it wasn’t good. The people that we played it to loved it and we were building up a fan base. The record industry at the time was looking for bands who were similar to Oasis, so they would sign something like Embrace or something like that. The music industry in London is a very kind of trend-based thing. So if a band like The Strokes come over from America and become big here, then all of a sudden the record industry is looking for similar bands to capitalize on it.
RQ: And, of course, you are not a London band - you formed in Nottingham. Are you still in Nottingham?
CO: As we speak.
RQ: So is it important to you that you stay in Nottingham versus moving to London?
CO: We didn’t really have a choice. We were based here and once you have got a band with five people and you are based here and you’ve got a rehearsal room and you have got a house and all the rest of it - you can’t just up sticks and go to London and shmooze and hang out. It would help you no end if you do. That is how remixes and things happen: you are in the pub with the Chemical Brothers or something. No, we didn’t want to do that because Nottingham never had a great band. Most towns in England have got.great bands, if you just look at a city like Oxford, you’ve got Supergrass, Radiohead, Swervedriver...all these bands - Ride - from one town. Almost any city in London has got five, six, seven famous bands coming out of it at least. Nottingham: all we had was Ten Years After. So we championed Nottingham although it was difficult being here - there was no ‘Nottingham sound’ as it were. So, again, it was not an easy thing to be coming from Nottingham.
RQ: But along the way, you did get some exposure; you recorded several John Peel sessions didn’t you?
CO: We did five John Peel sessions altogether and we did two live gigs with him that were broadcast live, yeah.
RQ: Now, obviously, John is no longer with us: did you get a chance to meet and talk with him and really get a take of what he thought your music was about?
CO: Yeah, I did meet him three or four times I think. The thing with John Peel was if you spoke to him on the radio during a live broadcast or something, he was totally different but if you bumped into him or he was introducing you at a gig or something like that...I remember he came into our dressing room when we were playing in Newcastle, he just said: “I don’t know what it is you guys do but you do it really, really well and I love it.” And he sat there and he talked about when he lived in Germany and then he left. I bumped into him in Glastonbury at the festival when we were playing but he wasn’t really a friendly person in the sense that if he loved Six By Seven and he liked our music, he didn’t necessarily feel the need to get to know us as people because he always liked to have the option of being able to not play our records if he didn’t like them without offending us, without that kind of thing getting in the way. My meetings with him were fleeting, I would say. And then he would talk about us on the radio and what was really nice was that after he died, his wife made sure that we got to the funeral. She sent an e-mail and said: “It would be great if you want to come, come down.” And she made sure that we could go to the funeral. It was in the cathedral over in Suffolk. I will tell you a funny story about it actually, because we drove down there and we went to the door and the woman with the clipboard said: “Who are you?” And we said: “Six By Seven”. And she went: “Right, okay, no problem. Come back here in three quarters of an hour and we will let you in.” So we jetted off around the corner and we found a little pub and we got a beer. It was about 11.30 in the morning and we went right over to the far corner and we sat in the far corner where no one could see us. And, of course, everybody had the same idea and before you knew it, Robert Plant was sitting there next to us and we were just sitting there watching all these legends coming in.
RQ: All walking into the same pub?
CO: All walking into the same pub, yeah. “Oh look, there’s Orbital.” But when Robert Plant came in and all the Radio One DJs and Paul Gambuccini, Anne Nightingale, they were all just sitting there next to us. Everybody was just talking about Peely and then we went over to the funeral and then after the funeral, we thought, let’s go over and have another quick pint before we jump into the car and drive home. Of course, everybody had the same idea...it was even more rammed with famous people. It was hilarious.
RQ: Now that Peely is no longer with us, who else is going to really champion your music? What are your feelings about the British music scene right now? How do you feel about this wave of British bands who seem to be doing very well, particularly in America: Kaiser Chiefs, for example; Franz Ferdinand; they are very commercially viable. What are your feelings about the British music scene at the moment?
CO: I am all in favor of a good healthy music scene. There are a lot of bands around at the moment. I really like Bloc Party: I think they are a great band and what’s great is that Kele sometimes goes on stage wearing our t-shirt as well. I met him a couple of weeks back in Nottingham: they were playing here. I said hello to him and he said: “Oh, I know who you are. I bought your t-shirt. I was at your gig in London at the Astoria in ‘98.” You suddenly realize that when we were playing the Astoria in London, they were 18-years-old - they were 17-years-old - and coming down to our gigs. Now they are influenced by what we did. You can hear elements of our music in Coldplay and all sorts of bands. I think it’s really good that there is a healthy music scene. The fact that John Peel is gone is sad and he did champion underground bands. What was great about John Peel was you got a chance. Your little band from Nottingham got a chance to get played on Radio One to a million people. As soon as Peely died, that was it. Six By Seven would never again get played on Radio One. The last thing that got played on Radio One by us was the Peel session that we did. There is also digital radio and there is a fantastic radio station called BBC Six Music. They have a very small listenership; I think it is growing all the time - but they play great music all day long so there is a lot of good stuff going on.
RQ: Let me ask you: being honest, you never achieved massive commercial success but you have been consistently there in the background creating great music over the years. Does it annoy you that you never had a massive commercial breakthrough?
CO: What does bug me about it is the fact that everybody else seems to think that we deserved it. If you do see Six By Seven live, the mission that we were on was to astound people and make this great big epic sound. We did that and we did it in an underground way. You can hear elements of it in, like, Snow Patrol but I find what they do - those kind of bands - what they do is they water it down, whereas when we did a big sounding song it was a big sounding in the sense of Sonic Youth. We would always try and make songs and the thing is, that’s where we went wrong really because then we didn’t appeal to the underground and yet we weren’t commercial enough for the popular media. We fell between the two posts. When you look at someone like Snow Patrol, at some point they went: “Right, let us take this sound and let us make it into stadium rock and friendly - kind of MOR.” We never did that. I think that is why we never broke through. It’s all about timing, you know, because in 1998, nobody was really going to festivals. Festivals were closing down – the Phoenix Festival for example. All these festivals that used to go on then, they all faded and closed down due to lack of interest because everybody was going to raves and Gatecrasher and Manumission and Creamfields and Fatboy Slim and Chemical Brothers. There was a really lively electro; rock crossbreed kind of music going on and really, anything else was post-Oasis and soft - like Travis or whatever.
We just never fitted in so our timing was absolutely lousy with the sort of music that we do. We just got this bass player and he gave me a DVD of when we played on Jools Holland - on the Later show - with Massive Attack and Blondie. I watched it for the first time since we were on in. I looked at it and I just thought: “What we did there - was so out of place.” When they showed all the other bands, we stood out like a sore thumb. But the thing is, if we did it now, it would be considered normal because Bloc Party is doing it and because all these other bands just sound like that. Now, there are 177,000 people going to Glastonbury. There are festivals all over the place that are sold out and everybody is going out to venues and watching bands. Ever since The Darkness really it has all just exploded. If we were doing what we did back then now - and we were a new band coming out - then I think we would have that success. It becomes apparent to me really quickly when people are always coming up to me and going: “Why aren’t you bigger? Why aren’t you a big band? I don’t understand it. You make this amazing music: why aren’t you a big band?” And I just think: “I don’t know: I don’t know, mate. I can’t answer it.” Well, I guess I just have!
RQ: Two weeks ago, I was sent a copy of Six By Seven's 04 album, so I am listening to it in my car, as you do. I put on your song Bochum (Light up my Life)…
CO: Yeah, and you would say to me: “Why wasn’t that a hit?”
RQ: Why wasn’t that a breakthrough? And now the album is being released in America, what are you going to do to build upon this momentum?
CO: What happened was that due to lack of interest, Six By Seven drifted apart really. We were doing our music and it was falling on deaf ears. Everybody that wrote about us were just writing: “Oh, look at Six By Seven: they are still going.” It is almost like we were being put down for still going. We were always determined to write better songs.
RQ: But hang on: isn’t that an advantage because so many bands achieve overnight success but they have no heritage; they have no track record. And you’ve got it.
CO: I know but, you see, the thing is the drummer eventually just went: “Do you know what: I am going to join a different band and we are going to try and make it. I am going to make a shoegaze record and I am going to get this band together.” And so he went off and did that. I am not sure it worked for him. I went around to his house because we stayed friends and he said to me: “Chris, I realize now that Six By Seven is my band. It’s what I do.” And I said: “Yeah, that’s what you do and that’s what I do. We have got something.” We are friends with Julian Cope and he was saying: “Always remember you don’t know what you have got until it’s gone. Once your band splits up you will regret it.” So Chris said: “I tell you what: I will come back.” With that, the old guitarist that left in 2000, came back as well. We went into the rehearsal room - all four of us - and we just started playing these old songs and they just sounded amazing. They sounded great and we just all looked at each other and went: “Well, isn’t this great. Let’s get a bass player.” Because the old bass player, he wouldn’t come back and do it because he’s got a new job and a new life and he didn’t want to go back and do it. That’s fair enough. So we got a new bass player and we’vegot three gigs coming up and we might be going on tour with another band as well. It will be interesting to see people’s reaction to our music now after all these years.
RQ: What about coming to America: is that going to happen?
CO: If you keep playing that song and people are e-mailing you and saying whatever and want to know where it is and you spread the word, I am sure we will come over. I would love to do that!
RQ: Is it important that you are British and is that reflected in your music?
CO: That’s a difficult question to answer because I don’t think that because I was born an Englishman I won first prize in life’s lottery. I actually grew up in Germany: my dad was in the army. I moved around all my life and I had no sense of belonging to anywhere. That’s what the song European Me is about. People used to say: “Where are you from?” And I used to say: “Europe.” I was an angry teenager. My parents split up and all my family is scattered all over the place. Really, for me that is why I like these songs. I normally write about relationships and things that are lost along the way. Rather than turning depressed and sad about it, I try and get it out in a musical form. To come from England, I guess...there are some great bands from other countries but I think we have always produced the most innovative bands. But having said that, I have always liked the American bands. When the Britpop thing was going on, I was into Dinosaur Jr and Mercury Rev and Pavement and Sonic Youth.
RQ: So where would you hope Six By Seven to be in 12 months’ time?
CO: Every time I play a gig - as I said before - someone comes up to me and says: “Why isn’t your band bigger? Why aren’t we hearing you on the radio?” So maybe, I would like Six By Seven to be there where everybody thinks that’s where you belong. Whatever that is in their minds. Then I don’t have to answer their questions anymore because we are already there. It would be so great really to be able to hold our heads up high and say someone has recognized what we are doing. That would mean a lot to me, I think.
RQ: And if people want to find out more information, is there a website they can go to?
CO: Yeah, you can hear more of our tracks on the glorious MySpace! If you go to www.sixbyseven.co.uk, that is the official website which I do and there is an official link to MySpace. I think it is just myspace/sixbyseven. You can also find the other projects: I have also made three albums under the name Twelve which are very crowd rocky and different. I also have another band: it’s me and James - the keyboard player from Six By Seven - and we’re called F*** me USA. We are playing Glastonbury this year and basically it’s very much like Suicide and it is all very film noir. There’s a lot of stuff going on with me personally on a musical level and it is all there on sixbyseven.co.uk!
Links:
http://www.sixbyseven.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/sixbyseven
