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Vichy Government
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Article
written by Mary B
Oct 24, 2006.
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Jamie Manners is one half of The Vichy Government. Over the amazing medium of email I got to pick his brain and came to understand that under the musical genius surface lies your typical man who likes his football, pizza and the prospect of being buried in a paper bag. But Girls Aloud, Jamie? Tut, tut. Read on....
SoundsXP: Who can you relate to in the world of music and why?
Jamie: Girls Aloud. I really feel that we’re trying to do the same sort of thing. It’s just that we’re a bit shit at it.
SoundsXP: In Elvis & The Beatles you say “We were working the tills in HMV”. Have you ever worked for HMV? If not, would you? Where do you go to buy your records?
Jamie: No, I had a mate who worked there and probably put that line in to amuse her. They had to work every weekend and until 10 on weeknights. I think I’d rather go back to Belfast and sponge off my parents than work for HMV. As for buying records, I seldom do anymore. Got enough already. The people whose work interests me I’m friends with -apart from the odd exception like Scott Walker- and I usually know someone I can blag a promo from.
SoundsXP: There is a comical element to your music which runs alongside more serious matters- it’s a disturbing combination at times. I find myself laughing quietly at things that I feel I shouldn’t. Is this the desired effect you want your listeners to indulge in? Are you even aware that you create that feeling in listeners?
Jamie: I passionately believe there is nothing you shouldn’t laugh at. Feeling you ought not to laugh at something is just a hangover from monotheism. In general I think Muslims are given too hard a time, but I was absolutely against them in the Danish cartoon row. I do like things that make people uncomfortable. Comedies of awkwardness, Larry David and such, so it’s not surprising if our stuff has a similar spirit.
SoundsXP: Talk to me about your music because there is so much to it. Where do the ideas come from? What kind of creative relationship do you have with each other? I hear these happy tunes and they are being suffocated by dark lyrics. Are you conscious of what you have/are trying to achieve? Is the sound accidental at times?
Jamie: Often I start with a title. Sometimes there’ll be a particular point I feel the need to put across, but just as often I think “wouldn’t it be funny if there was a song called X”, then go ahead and write it. As for how we work, the words are me and the music is Andrew- two farmers each ploughing a separate bit of land. Because we’re in different cities we write songs by post- I’ll send off a lyric and two weeks later I’ll get a tape with instructions. One benefit of dividing the labour is the happy/dark thing. I can write something that to me fits a very particular mood or feeling, but then Andrew’s music might be the total opposite of what was in my head, making the end product a lot more ambiguous. It cuts both ways as 'Suspended On Full Pay' was a fairly cheerful lyric made ominous and sleazy by its accompaniment. Pretentious analogy but if you give a director a film script, the way he chooses to film it will be the biggest factor in what sort of experience the audience has and Andrew’s contribution is the same.
SoundsXP: The ghost of Samuel Taylor Coleridge among others seem to walk through your songs (sorry I’ve gone all poetic). Is Coleridge an influence? I ask as you part-quote him in 'Luke Haines Is Dead' If so, why? And any other literary figures who get your juices flowing?
Jamie: No. I went to Coleridge’s college and I remember liking what I read at the time, especially Ancient Mariner, but I haven’t read anything of him since. The two authors who had and still have a really big impact on me would be Céline and Pinter.
SoundsXP: You come across as thinkers. Do you ever allow your brains to relax? Do you ever clear away the thought debris and think “Not today. Today I have no opinions whatsoever”?
Jamie: Hate to disappoint you but that sounds like us most days. For every day when I manage to write something there’ll be about fifty when I come home exhausted, phone for a pizza delivery and get drunk in front of the football.
SoundsXP: If you woke up tomorrow and found that you had switched bodies with Tony Blair what would you do and why? Of course that would mean that he would have to be a Vichy Government member for a day…
Jamie: It’d take more than a day to undo all the evil he’s done so you might as well amuse yourself- appoint Ian Huntley home secretary, stuff like that. If Tony Blair took my place I’m sure he and Andrew would have a good time bashing out Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin covers.
SoundsXP: What is next for The Vichy Government?
Jamie: You’re asking the wrong people. Even if we wanted to have some kind of strategy we wouldn’t know where to start. We never have any idea what the next item of business to pop up will be. However, we’ll have a song on the Angular album next month, at Christmas I think we’re giving two songs to our woeful excuse for a record label for their annual comp, and there might be a third album by the end of ’07.
SoundsXP: What is the best film/book/album of all time in your humble opinion?
Jamie: Accident, Gulliver’s Travels, and After Murder Park by The Auteurs.
SoundsXP: How do you want The Vichy Government to be remembered?
Jamie: I have no expectations whatsoever that we will be. I find it very vain when people worry about stuff like that. If you won’t be around what difference can it possibly make to you? Bury me in a brown paper bag.
SoundsXP: Finally with Christmas fast approaching I am dreaming, not of a white christmas, but of hearing 'Christmas Is Cancelled' playing in the shops while I ponder about. What are the chances?
Jamie: Pretty good I would have thought, The Long Blondes seem to have the mainstream eating out of their hand (at least I hope it’s that way round). The other day my bus went past a full-size billboard for their new single.
And one day my bus will go past a full-size billboard of the new Vichy Government single but until then let the world content itself with the fact that hidden music gems are still waiting to be discovered...
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