INTERVIEW: Brinkman
- Posted on August 7, 2007 5:28 PM
- 0 comments
Fancy a bit of Brinkman?
It’s not often you chat to a band’s frontman and spend the entire interview laughing. Paul Cook may not consider himself to be the joker of the group, but nights out with British comedian Simon Pegg have obviously rubbed off. The band recently released their single ‘Change It’ and will play at the V festival in August. Katie Spain grabbed the chance to chat to Cook about touring with Travis, daytime TV, hanging out with Kirsten Dunst and the challenges involved in kissing short girls. Don’t worry, there’s some music chat in there too.
The only question left to answer is: “what V-fest costume will the lads choose?” Tall people have all the fun…
You’ve got the benefit of free speech in the absence of band members here… tell me about your fellow band members. Who’s the womaniser of the group?
Well, I shouldn’t be doing this because I suppose it’s me! Those two both have girlfriends so they don’t even look. They’re not allowed to look at ladies!
Who is the joker?
Neil is definitely the joker. He’s probably the funniest individual I’ve ever met in my entire life. I don’t get out much but he is funny.
You’ve probably had the same questions all day long.. I want to keep it fresh – anything you wish an interviewer would ask?
Ooh, interesting. Well, that question you just asked me because I’ve got a lot of things to get off my chest Katie! How long have you got?
Hmm… we haven’t done that many compared to other bands so I guess a lot of these bands who have to do two days of solid interviews probably do think about that. They probably just want to be asked how they are once in a while. You know… “How are you feeling within yourself”? (Laughs).
You’ve just had a single launch for ‘Change It’ at the Water Rats and you’ve got V Festival gigs coming up very soon. What can people expect from a Brinkman gig?
Wonderful melodies (laughs), nice friendly banter in between songs… if I’m allowed. Sometimes I’ll go off on a little rant, telling an anecdote and one time someone shouted “Get on with it”. I found out afterwards that it was someone I knew – they were trying to be funny but I didn’t realise at the time that it was someone I knew or that they meant it as a joke and I went into a little bit of a shell. As long as there aren’t any rude punters in trying to get their five-minutes I’ll hopefully be able to tell a few little stories in between songs.
Do you hand back and chat with the fans over a pint afterwards?
No, we like to keep our distance. Just kidding… yeah definitely, and you can’t really avoid that, especially at somewhere like The Water Rats because the stage is pretty much in the audience and there’s nowhere to go but the bar afterwards. We’re still at that stage where you know, we’re not playing massive venues so the fans that do come all the time feel as much like we belong to them as we do.
You toured with Travis – what was that like? Was there a good backstage vibe?
It was great – I think they’re renowned for being one of the friendliest bands of the era. We did some gigs with Paul Weller after that and as much as I love him and he was an amazing man to be around, he was a man of few words. Which is cool as well but then you’ve got the complete contrast of being allowed to hang around in Travis’ dressing room afterwards and steal their food and wine. They’re just great – they’re all so lovely… Dougie with his perfect skin and Fran with his cheeky smile and the two drummers seemed to get on amazingly well too (the two Neils). They were really nice boys.
Any interesting tour tales? I’m sure you boys got up to no good backstage…
Really, is that what you think happened? See, I’d imagine that was more what would happen at a ‘Kings Of Leon’ tour. The thing is, all these people have settled down – they’ve all got kids and wives so there’s not really that much craziness that goes on. Whereas me, with no wife, or kid… or in fact girlfriend constantly looking to cause some mayhem… you know, looking for a partner in crime.
Your tunes are happy and great fun – there’s a lot of relationship fodder in there – I guess being single lends itself to the whole song-writing process…
Yeah, it’s hard sometimes but I do find that it is best. I might be totally wrong but I think that if you’re really happy and really content with your life then you’re not really going to have as much to write about because song writing (most of the time) is about venting things – you know, just getting things off your chest. But I spoke to Fran about that… saying “What’s it like.. is it hard writing stuff now that you’re married with a kid?” and he said “Well Paul, the thing is, you just have to make sure you marry someone who you’re going to constantly argue with”. I thought that was quite interesting.
What would be best for me is a super-intelligent woman like a lawyer or something, who clearly feels like she’s above me and looks down her nose at me. That would clearly be good for song writing.
I read in an interview that you want to marry either a Hollywood actress or a nice English girl - a tall Brunette who is a lot smarter than you but finds you endearing! You certainly know what you want! What about a tiny little Aussie?
A tiny Aussie… how tiny are we talking because I’m six foot three. Obviously small girls are very cute but sometimes if they’re too small you think how embarrassing it might look if you’re out in public and you try to kiss the person and literally have to lift them up or put them on a chair! Laughs… or kneel down.
Before we get X-rated, let’s talk music! You’ve got V festival coming up – that’s a nice one to score… are you planning some Brinkman festival domination?
I’d like to plan something a bit special actually. Ideally I’d like to wear some sort of costume… some sort of matching gig outfit that day – just so people remember us a bit more. But as long as it’s funny I’m sure it’ll be a great day out anyway. It is our only festival of the year so we’re going to make the most of it and have a great day.
Can you sew though? You’ll need a nice Grandma to whip up some Superman costumes for you …
No, I’d like - have you seen ‘The Life Aquatic’? I can’t remember exactly but there’s a weird film where they all wear blue outfits. Something like that – something a bit understated. Not like the Arctic Monkeys when they all dressed up in clown costumes… something a bit more subtle would look quite cool. But it’s convincing the boys to do that… I’d be quite happy to make a fool out of myself to get remembered but I’d have to convince ‘my boys’.
I think it’s more of a matter of convincing their girlfriends to let their boyfriends go out in a costume Paul…
Well exactly… you read my mind!
What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to as a punter?
Wow… ah… do you know what, it’s really embarrassing to admit this as a man in a band but I actually don’t go to many gigs! Tom should have answered that question really because he gets out more than I do.
Are you finding life as a musician glamorous or is it all sweaty tour vans and dark dressing rooms?
We’ve had some real ups and downs really because on the first Travis tour we had one of those big double-decker sleeper buses – so we were really spoilt with that one. You know, we’d never had anything even close to that before… it’s all been transit vans before then. The next one we were back in the transit van! We had to sort of roll back our expectations a bit.
On the Travis and Paul Weller tours, you do get really nicely spoilt. On the Travis tour we were allowed so much – we got these fantastic catering companies that come out - so were fed like a king. When you’re this level there’s a lot of blood and sweat as well; dingy Travel Lodges and transit bands with equipment bumping around.
Fame and all that comes with it may be just around the corner – are you looking forward to that kind of possible media attention?
I think I’d quite enjoy it. I got invited out by Simon Pegg the other week – he was at a gig quite awhile ago and I don’t know why but he seemed to take a bit of a shine to me, weirdly.
His wife used to run a regional press company that our press girl used to work for so it was just that contact I guess. He was like, “We’ll have to get that guy out one time”. The weird thing was, he really liked the song that I’d written about Kirsten Dunst so he invited me out a couple of weeks ago to meet him at the Groucho. I just thought I was meeting him and his wife for a quiet drink and he meets me in the lobby and says “Look, I think I’d better tell just you before we go in… I’ve got Kirsten Dunst with me and some other people”. I was like “Yeah right, whatever… I love you already… you’re obviously a comedian in real life as well as on screen, I don’t believe you”.
We go in there and it’s like every massive Hollywood star you can think of; Jeff Bridges, Orlando Bloom… and sure enough Kirsten Dunst is sitting around this table. I’m invited to sit down with everyone... this complete nobody. That was a really surreal experience! It’s obviously great being in the public eye like that if you’re loved but yeah, I did get a glimpse that night into what it’s like to be that famous (not me, just looking at the other people and the sort of attention they get). I suppose, when it’s relentless like that, it can get quite tiresome.
Had Kirsten heard your song?
That’s the thing… Simon had prepped everyone so when I was introduced they all knew that “This is the guy that’s written that song”. He’d been playing the song all that week on set and in his trailer. It was really quite embarrassing – but it was great! They were all asking me about it… it was surreal sitting there next to Kirsten Dunst – this person I’d written a song about two years ago and chatting away trying to appear normal and not star-struck.
The blog entries you write are great… there’s mention of 'It's me or the dog'. Am I missing something… I’ve never heard of it! You said “I can't work out exactly why I fancy the dog trainer Victoria Stilwell”
It’s actually a television programme! I think it’s on about eight-thirty on Channel 4, Wednesday night (hang on, I know too much about this!). There’s something about a woman with authority. I guess this goes back to the well-spoken, well educated English woman. She’s very strict as well… which is quite a turn-on for blokes.
It’s similar to another show on now called ‘Schools Out’ or something like that. It’s on a Saturday night and it’s a school-based quiz. They get celebrities on there and they have a segment where they bring on a French teacher and they have to speak French. This teacher is very similar – glasses, the whole strict thing going on. I probably shouldn’t have written that blog…. It might have said too much about me!
No way, honesty is a good thing. Speaking of which, does music ever feel like work or is it still a dream existence?
To be honest, there are times where it does feel like work because there is a strong element where you really have to work hard for it. It’s not just about writing songs and playing live. There are a lot of other things to it… a lot of waiting around and keeping your fingers crossed that you’ll get certain things. There are those sorts of stresses and anxieties that come through. Really, you have to remember that you are getting paid to do something that you love and if nothing else comes of it you have been lucky enough to have two or three years of being able to get up past ten-o’clock in the morning and write and record songs.
If you weren’t a musician what do you think you’d have ended up doing?
Yesterday I got a text from one of my old managers and he actually offered me a job! If it all goes pear-shaped I can become a landscape gardener. A bit of trimming, a bit of mowing… and “You even get your own van” he said.
Let’s hope you get a tall, brunette dominatrix-style gardening sidekick Paul! See you at V-festival. Until then... polish up on your law degrees ladies and get those wide-rimmed glasses ready - this is a band we're hopefully going to see a lot more of.
BRINKMAN ARE:
Paul Cook: Vox and guitar
Tom Brown: Bass and vox
Neil Kerly: Drums and vox
For tour dates and more information, check out the Brinkman official site or their MySpace
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