The 22-20s - Martin Trimble, Glen Bartup & James Irving
The last time I was here at the CD101 show was a year ago and I was interviewing a little-known band called The Killers. Since then, they have sold this place out in a few days. Where do you see the 22-20s a year from now?
MARTIN TRIMBLE: I don't think you can really think like that, because it will effect the way you write especially, if even subconsciously. Because if you think about success, you will start to write what you think will be successful versus what you really want to write. There is no telling what is going to be successful or if the radio is going to be supportive. In fact, radio is renowned for being conservative. So I don't try to think like that because there is enough pressure to write for the record. There is even more pressure if you write thinking you are going to sell a certain number of records. Not that we don't want to sell records, but we don't want anything to interfere with our writing.

Now that you are over in the states, was it a decision of the band to be a states-friendly band or was it just an opportunity that brought you here?
GLEN BARTUP: We really don't want to be a friendly band anywhere, really. But there is just a lot of romance about British bands coming to America, and we can't really avoid that.

MT: There has always been this crossover between American and British music. American bands feel the need to make it over and England and vice versa, so yea, it is just as important to us to make it here as it is at home.

I just saw Embrace over at a few hundred person club right next door to here, and talking to them, they agreed that there is this mystique now of British bands coming to the States. It is almost like the 60s British Invasion but modernized. Do you see yourselves falling into that invasion, whether willingly or unwillingly?
SI think there is a lot or rock and roll bands who are not feeling a part of it, with the exception of a band like the Libertines. Many of the bands coming across and making it now are much like Coldplay, and are not really rock and roll bands, so I think in that respect it isn't like the 60s Invasion at all.

GB: Yea, the 60s British Invasion was built on the American Blues thing and there was a real connection and lineage going back to the American culture and conscious. And I don't see how a band like Embrace, love them or hate them, have that connection with Americans folklore and music. I think it's a bit fashionable, really. I don't really understand it.

MT: I think for me personally, you can take a band like the Beatles, who really took what was popular in American music and defined it. And then you have bands like T-Rex and The Rolling Stones and the Kinks who took that raw blues music and then turned them into 3-minute pop songs. That was the romance for us, was the re-creation. And to me, is not like what Coldplay or Embrace are doing. We are not a part of that scene and really don't strive to be.

GB: I don't really think the sound of the "British" band is Coldplay or Embrace. I don't think that is what British music is all about, though I think abroad it is perceived that way because Coldplay sells 5 million records in this country, and Embrace is starting to make it and there was the band Star Sailor a couple of years ago. There is quite an exciting scene in England, which hasn't even touched America, well Razorlight to an extent, but who are really big in England but isn't really doing anything in American. The British export is really weird at the moment.

I also interviewed another British band, The Dead 60s, who are from Liverpool and have a great kind of Clash sound. But they said when they were playing; American journalists in particular were wondering why they didn't sound like The Beatles. You just touched on it, what is the scene in Britain like right now?
JAMES IRVING: Don't get us wrong; the bands like Coldplay and Embrace are dominating the radio. But radio doesn't represent a scene.

MT: There is a difference between what sells the most and what represents a country's heritage. I think mainstream music has taken over, but I don't think at all that it represents how people are feeling.

GB: I think you can take a band like The Dead 60s who are from Liverpool and can't really include them because Liverpool is so different from anywhere in England because it is so associated with The Beatles.

MT: It's like in the mid-90s there was screaming, hellatious wanna-be's coming out of Manchester, stuff like that. That is music that dies very quickly.

Recently, there were the terrorist bombings in London, Live 8 just happened. Do you think music has a place in politics or is if for show when you have the Beckhams showing up in a stretch limo to combat starvation and poverty?
GB: And everyone is backstage drinking champagne and eating caviar. I think if your conscious of events then politics surely takes a part of that. The punk movement was a lot of very unhappy people, a lot of angry people, which formed a musical movement. I think whether it is a good government, a band government or whatever in between it will filter through to people, whether they are working in an office or writing music. I am not sure if its write for bands to become the ambassador for the common man to talk about these things. It's kind of pretentious, really.

MT: And African debt relief is on everyone's mind and is a strong consensus issue. They are not really going out on a limb. I don't think people like Bono and Chris Martin will ever go out on the line for say, what is happening to the Palestinians. I think they are a bit pretentious like that and find it a bit of a cop out. So it leaves me a bit cold.

B: Live 8 is about dropping the debt of Africa and then we pay some taxes to pay it all back, which is a fantastic idea. Except you have people like Bono and other bands whom are in tax exile, because they have accounts in the Canary Islands or Monaco, which is complete hypocrisy when you think about it.

As you mentioned earlier, although the music "scene" in England may be a bit more underground like the 22-20s, radio is pushing the bands like Coldplay and Embrace. Did you find it tough to break out and get to the level of traveling internationally or did it come somewhat easy for the band?

GB: Well, we just toured and toured and toured. We never really sat back on our laurels, and thought yea, well, we made it to radio and have a record so this is going to blow up. So we played and played and built a strong fan base. Radio can be great, but word of mouth should never be underestimated. At least, that's how we feel as a band.

When the band sits down to write, how honest do you think this band is with itself and with its fans?
MT: Well, I think we are pretty selfish in that way when it comes to writing songs; because we only think about ourselves. And honesty, to me, is writing 3-minute pop songs. That is what bands like The Kinks, The Stones and T-Rex did so well. They wrote these 3-minute songs that were massive. And there is nothing more honest than that.