15.10.00 - SUPPORTING FASTBALL/CINERAMA @ FLEECE AND FIRKIN (BRISTOL)

As I have mentioned in the gig review of this date, I got the chance to interview two thirds of Wilt, as Cormac (as always apparently) was ill. This is what took place in the time they give for me before the gig to interview them. I hasten to add that I will not include every 'yeah' and sounds of agreement which I carnt (sic) spell, because it would be hard reading and would be difficult for me to type. Anyway these things were mostly said by me, so they are not that important! Oh yeah, and as you may have read in the gig review, the only quiet place to interview Wilt was in my car!

Al - Me
D - Darragh
M - Mick

Al - Well basically this is the first interview I've ever done, so I'll be quick........

D - We're guinea pigs.

Al - I'm afraid so. Um.... as you may or may not know, I have got my own web site. I've got wilt on it, so this is going to go up on the web site, so there you are. First question:


HOW ARE WILT AT THE MOMENT?

D - Moral is low this week because we are on this shhhhhhit tour that we shouldn't be on, so we're going home for a week, rehearse, and back for a different tour, we're going out to Scandinavia with Muse so we are happy with that. And we are going to do the Reef tour as well, we are happy about that. And we are doing an album in January and February. How's your mood Mick?

M - Ah not too bad. I've got to talk with the manager.


HOW WAS WILT'S FIRST HEADLINING TOUR?

D - Brilliant. It was actually really really good. A lot better than this tour, which is the fucking frustrating thing you know? It was excellent, it was pretty wild.

M - It wasn't expected, because we did it at a strange time of the year as well, where everyone had gone for the summer.

D - Yeah, and people don't generally tour, so maybe that's why it worked. I don't know. It was good, really good, pretty hectic with stage invasions and stuff like that you know.

Al - And moshing at the Borderline Cafe I hasten to add.

D - Absolutely, I mean that was synonymous with the whole tour that gig, it was really good.


SO FAR, HAVE WILT ACHIEVED WHAT THEY WANTED TO ACHIEVE?

D - Yes and no.

M - We've waited for an album that they wanted to work....... we've just got to get some bastards to listen to it!

D - We haven't been to America yet.

Al - Ah right, so that's going to be a big thing.

D - Yeah, it's in the pipeline.


WHAT ARE WILT'S HIGHEST AMBITIONS?

D - Just to do well in America really.


WHY WAS THE NEXT SINGLE NO WORRIES PUT BACK? AND ARE THERE ANY NEWS SONGS ON IT?

D - Because we were going to pit it out after the Reef tour, because more people would have heard of us, and it would have charted higher, and we would have had less chance of being fired off the label. But the Reef tour has been postponed so that's kind of all bollocks, so we'll probably bring out a new one in the new year. It's re-recorded, it's better than the album version anyway, and there's new original songs on the b-sides. It's punchier, you know it's good to do the song justice anyway, regardless of all the bullshit you know.

Al - And what were the b-sides going to be?

M - They still are going to be.

D - Threy're are going to be, yeah.

Al - There are going to be b-sides then, but what is going to be the next single?

D - The new single....after No Worries?

M - No Worries is still out on the sixth.

D - It's still coming out like.


WELL MY NEXT QUESTION WAS GOING TO BE, WAS THE REEF TOUR BEING PUT BACK HELPFUL TO YOU, BUT I'LL SCRAP THAT QUESTION!

D - It's actually a good question, because at first I thought it was total bollocks, but we actually ending up getting these dates comfimed with Muse in Scandinavia, so that's brilliant. And also that one with ???? we earnt in Shepherd's Bush, a London show, so we are doing that now. And Crashland, God knows if they'll even still be around by the time the tour is on, because their albums out this week and I wouldn't say its storming up the charts, so I could say that they could easily be fired, so it might be good all round, I don't know!


WHEN SHOULD NEW MATERIAL BE EXPECTED AFTER NO WORRIES IS (EVENTUALLY) RELEASED?

D - Half of the albums written already, and the rest will be done in the next few weeks around January/February, and will probably be released before the summer, because we are doing the festival circuit next summer as opposed to touring like.

Al - Well I've seen you, well this is the seventh time this year, so......

D - Well we have been around! We only been going properly since May haven't we?

M - Yeah April May.

D - I may give up my job in the end of the (year?) Actually, the last time I was here, it was one of those endless situations where we was flying back to Dublin every night after the gig.

Al - Oh my God! Why?

D - Because we just had to, I couldn't get out of it.

M - So much complications......

D - All's that well that ends well then.


NOW THE ALBUM HAS BEEN RELEASED AND WILT HAS BEEN PROVEN TO BE POPULAR IN IT’S OWN ACCORD, WOULD YOU CONSIDER ANY KERBDOG COVERS TO OCCASIONALLY SLIP IN TO A SET LIST? IF SO, WHAT SONGS?

D - No. Why would we?

Al - I'm just interested to know, fair enough.

D - Absolutely not!

Al - Would you have done them if Wilt had not been as popular?

D - No.


SPEAKING OF KERBDOG, WHAT IS YOUR PERSPECTIVE OF THE BAND NOW? ARE YOU PROUD OR EMBARRASSED WHEN KERBDOG IS MENTIONED OR (EARLIER) SONGS PLAYED?

D - We split up the band because we didn't like the way it was going, and I mean we got fired off the label but we did have have about 6 other labels who were interested. We just split the band up, and took 2 years away from it, and now this. And now everyone's beginning to say here's Wilt who were Kerbdog. It's not as simple as that at all, so that's what really pisses me off at the moment. But achievements like, I mean if you know any other 21 year old that got dragged out of college and blew away a million quid of some major corporations money, and spent 4 months by in LA by the pool and that kind of stuff, you know, that's an achievement. I mean most people have to work their way around the world for ease.

Al - Do you listen to either of those albums at all?

D - No.

Al - If a song was playing, would you want it to be turned off?

D - I heard 'Severed' on the radio......

Al - On the radio??

D - Yeah, in Dublin, and it just kind of blew my head off. I was surprised how good it was, because I hadn't listen to it since it was recorded in 1996. And that was there, it really did blow my head off, I couldn't believe it. Wasn't I just saying that the other day? Like even the drumming in it I was surprised I was doing at that stage, and the production sounded fucking unbelievable, but there you go


WHY IS ‘I WANT IT ALL’ REFERRED TO AS #4 ON SET LISTS?

D - Because it was the fourth song of a session of songs we were doing. I can't remember what the songs were. We quickly found names for the other ones, and that was number 4 on the list, and we kept #4 and so on and so on.


JUST BEFORE KERBDOG SPLIT UP, I GATHER THEY HAD SOME NEW SONGS?

D - I can't remember, it was four years ago you know, it's honestly a time where I would love  just..... I'm just enjoying what we're doing at the moment you know. I mean it's, if the press and every fucker had took  as much interest in the band then, we'd probably been as big as U2. They're simply more interested in Kerbdog now than ever before for some very odd reason.

Al - So you probably wouldn't want to ask me any more questions on it then!

D - No, fire away!

Al - The only thing, which I guess is important for me and fans is off all the songs you have now done as Wilt, would you be able to tell me if I gave you a list of any, if any that were influenced by stuff in progress around the time Kerbdog......

D - No, I mean there's two years between the bands you know, whereby Battle and myself didn't play music at all. So absolutely not, I mean everything's just ugly.

M - The whole band things gone. Battle went back to college, and Darragh had a job.

D - Yeah, I did a years college, and I done um, I worked in a computer company as a technical geek. I didn't even see my drum kit or want to see it for two years. I know two of us used to be in Kerbdog, two of us were half of Kerbdog, but it's frustrating you know. So its kind of like here's the boys with their third album it's just complete. You know it's all come different with recording, and everything's completely different. It's kind of a small minded attitude, did you get that? We are looking forward to going to Scandinavia where we've got no baggage you know, where we will just appear as a fucking fresh band with good songs, which I mean the people over here, the press over here are just so snobby, you know what I mean? Like everything has to be self justified or qualified whether it's cool or not. It's bullshit, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Al - Still, that's the whole reason for my web site which I shall endeavor to briefly show to you. That's it for the moment anyway.

And that was the end of the interviews, although afterwards I showed Wilt my photos I have taken so far which they were very impressed with - you can find them in the gigs bit!


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