he bent and shaped his guitar sounds on ‘Split’ still sounds incredible. Like a UK Hendrix. Later I saw John Mackay in The Banshees, and I thought “how does he do that?” It inspired me to delve deeper and my Post-Punk journey had begun. Do you have a favorite brand or type of guitar that you gravitate towards? That’s a good question… Not an expensive one! A good guitarist can make a cheap guitar sound great. I always think that it’s something you have to tame. There are plenty of guitarists with expensive guitars who don’t sound good. It always comes down to the approach, what is that you want to say? It’s a bit like the end of the day. I play Epiphone guitars, I guess they are mid-priced. With a bit of work and customisation there as good as a Gibson. The name, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, comes from a tongue twister—a fun and playful choice for a band that’s anything but conventional. Part of the appeal was to make the band feel a little mysterious and challenging. And that’s certainlyworked. I can imagine you’ve probably been asked about the name countless times, but allow me to ask one more. Imagine a movie is being made where the two main characters are a red and a yellow lorry. Which of your favorite actors or actresses would you see behind the wheel of each lorry, and what of your favorite songs would you like blasting through the speakers as they tear down the road? Ha ha… One driver will be Dennis Hopper and the song would be ‘Chance’. The other would be Hope Sandoval singing ‘Heaven’. That will complete the circle. Beauty versus intensity. In the '80s, many bands embraced the Goth label, due to the darker, introspective elements of their music and visual style. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, however, at that time always rejected it, seeing yourselves more as Post-Punk or Alternative Rock. Given how the Goth scene has embraced your music over the years, has your view on it changed? That’s a good question, Goths were attracted to the band but if you wanted to sell more records you would call yourself Sex Lorry Death Lorry! Really, we want the - 25 - music to stand up by itself without being part of a movement. But you shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds you. I think too many bands think that if they get a drum machine and rewrite the riff to ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ then they’ll get an instant following. It doesn’t work like that. At the end of the day, quality of music should determine whether you can sleep at night. After the release of ‘Talk About the Weather’ in 1985, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry continued to evolve with albums such as ‘Paint Your Wagon’ (1986), ‘Nothing Wrong’ (1988), ‘Blow’ (1989), and ‘Blasting Off’ (1992). Following‘Blasting Off’, the band took a break, with no new releases or performances during that time. It wasn’t until 2006 that Red Lorry Yellow Lorry reunited and began playing and performing for fans www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be
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