Life Is Like A Box Of Records today is with Paul McCallum. One half of PR company A Badge Of Friendship and just an all round good guy. A real music enthusiast and a passionate human.
Find all info about A Badge Of Friendship here: www.abadgeoffriendship.com
Radiohead – Black Star
I was fortunate to grow up in an era where, at 12 or 13, Nirvana began to enter the public stream of consciousness shaping my immediate taste in music. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden et al followed, and my music collection began to take shape. Then along came Radiohead and, more specifically, The Bends. I was at just the right age – a surly, pissed off teenager spending too much time in my bedroom cry-wanking. This band suddenly shifted my view of music as I realised that everything didn¹t have to be Grunge. I will always remember Black Star due to how epic the track is, so beautifully composed, you could here each instrument in it’s own right and Thom Yorke¹s vocals pull at the old heart strings. This will forever be synonymous with my old bedroom, and my teenage self, as I began to think about a life beyond those four walls.
Far – Bury White
After I left school and started to go to proper gigs the world seemed full of possibilities. New sounds, new people. It was great. I was lucky enough to have grown up with a bunch of creative people who were in bands and still are. It meant that we were sharing new music with each other all the time. After we left school myself, Simon who is in Biffy and Martin who was in Aereogramme and now Lola Colt shared a flat together. We had some of the funniest times I’ve ever had in my life in that flat. The overriding memory I have was of us listening to Far for the first time. Si brought it home and we literally could not believe what we were hearing. After recently discovering bands like Mineral and Braid, this was in another ball park and completely changed the landscape for us. When they came to Glasgow they played the Cathouse with Incubus and nobody gave a fuck apart from us. All the big rockers, clad in black were just standing at the back of the venue looking bemused and Simon ended up sharing the mike with Jonah as he screamed the final part of ‘The System’. He was always destined to be a performer the talented bastard!
Jimmy Eat World – Goodbye Sky Harbour
My time in Glasgow was coming to an end. My friends were becoming more spread out and there was only so long I could go on tour with them, having fun, taking pictures and generally fucking around. I had to make the move and make something of myself. As my time back home came to a close, Jimmy Eat World released Clarity. I was blown away by it. Angular, emotive, they were an unreal band. They used harmonies and vocals as if they were another instrument. It was really was something special. Their explorative sound was summed up by the final track on the album which turned into a 16 minute long epic – perfect harmonies coming out of every orifice. It then turns into some kind of electro-synth mash-up that has very little to do with what had just preceded. Oh and it was bloody 16 minutes long. A perfect end to a quality album and a worthy way to goodbye to Scotland. ‘You are smaller getting smaller but I still see, you’.
Red House Painters – Drop
The Red House Painters will be forever one of, if not the most emotively powerful bands I have ever heard. I love them. I was going through a tough time when I was introduced to them having just split up from my first proper girlfriend. I listened to the Retrospective album incessantly wallowing in my own self pity. It was both incredibly painful and uplifting – depending on what mood I was in. Around this time I met a girl who I thought was impossibly cool. We were in the same year at Film and TV studies but had never spoken to one another. As it turned out she ran a fanzine and came to interview my friends band at King Tut¹s where we both had a bit of double take moment. Anyway, she was invited to their Barrowlands show by their manager Dee who preceded to orchestrate some kind of musical chairs and we ended up sitting next to each other chatting all night. The next night Claire came to the flat and I made her listen to The Red House Painters and Bill Hicks, constantly telling her to ‘shhhh’ and to ‘listen to this bit’, as I necked red wine. A way with the ladies I certainly don’t have. It seemed to work though, as we have been together 12 years, are married and spend every day with each other running A Badge of Friendship. Serendipity.
Les Savy Fav – Tragic Monsters
Claire immediately gained cool points by introducing me to Les Savy Fav. I remember bringing it back to the flat and we were wondering what the hell we were listening to – remember thinking iit was cool but weird. I really got into Go Forth and will forever remember thinking how bloody cool Claire was. I¹d really landed on my feet. This was just scratching the surface though, as she followed that up by introducing me to Slint. Luckily, I had Burning Airlines up my sleeve and then took her to an Oceansize gig so,I just about managed to rectify the situation and maintain some kind of illusion of coolness.
Billy Mahonie – Dusseldorf
We had finally made the big move to London together and we were young, excited and broke. It was great though. The flat wasn’t great – there was mould growing in our room and one of the flat mates boyfriends had a tendency to steal – but we had a shitty old vinyl and would listen to that, get stoned and play Mario Kart on the N64. We had such a great time. The initial well of feeling you get when you enter into a new relationship was heightened even more by being in a new, vibrant big city. One of the bands we would listen to all the time was Billy Mahonie who were bloody brilliant and a perfect way to begin our journey in life together.
American Football – The One With The Wurlitzer
After a short while we managed to get our first flat on our own together. It was a great flat but Claire was convinced it was haunted. I specifically remember that we had a big old PC in the bedroom that would take ages to dial up. Pages would load after about 10 minutes and everything seemed like a sketch when using it. At the time though it was like the future had arrived. Insane how things have developed so quickly. I went through a period where I would search obscure labels from America and listen to everything they had online. Through this I discovered two bands who, on first listen, blew me away. The first was American Football who only had one album. I immediately bought it and was so excited to hear the rest of the album having only listened to a couple of tracks online. When it arrived I was immediately obsessed. We would listen to that or The Red House Painters every night when we went to bed – I always listened to music to go to sleep to. Claire hated listening to music to go to sleep to. The band has become so engrained within our relationship we ended up putting ‘The One With The Wurlitzer’ on our wedding CD and gave it to guests as a gift.
Faraquet – The Fourth Introduction
The other band that I discovered in that flat and via that old PC was Faraquet. I ordered this album at the same time as American Football and I was pretty pleased with myself. I thought I was the fucking man, a guru of discovering new music that nobody else had heard. Then you realise everyone in your circle who listens to alternative music was very much aware of these bands. Faraquet were unbelievable though. Technically incredible, heavy, quiet, jazzy the lot. Like American Football, they have reformed and seem to be doing well, as are a whole host of bands who perhaps didn¹t fulfil their potential at the time. I am not sure what their reforming and doing so well says about the current musical climate though.
Band Of Horses – First Song
After 6 years of fantastic times in London everything hit a bit of a lull. Everyone goes through tough times both collectively and personally. Times like that can last for a week or for 6 months but it always seems like a lifetime when you are in the eye of the storm. I think sometimes you need to experience bad things in order to form a rounded, complete character. When you come out the other side, life just tastes that little bit sweeter. I listened to Band Of Horses, Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver constantly during this period and found each band to be a pillar of strength. These bands had a special place in my heart and will remain there forever. Fleet Foxes album reminded me of what I had and that all was not lost. Bon Iver spoke to me emotionally and I ended up getting lyrics tattooed on my chest and ’First Song’ by Band Of Horses ended up on our wedding CD. Sometimes shit just happens. It’s how you deal with it that counts.
Mew – Why Are You Looking So Grave
I love Mew. We have gone through a renaissance recently and have been listening to them a lot! Our friend Omar introduced them to us when he came over to our flat with his cousin Nan – where we became forever known as The Fellowship (surely a sueable offence). ‘The Glass Handed Kites’ was such an amazing album and really represented how good life was at the time. We had our first cat Snodgrass who was an old street cat, our flat was a bit of a party flat and we were really getting about town. A Badge of Friendship was starting to take off as more and more people came to the shows we put on and we were starting to think of how it could evolve and where we could take it. Claire, Omar, Nan and myself went to watch Mew when they came to London – a Fellowship pilgrimage – and they were absolutely incredible. At the aftershow I will forever remember Omar ducking down into the now empty venue, jumping onto the stage and appearing on the monitors in the bar. Ourselves, journalists and the band preceded to watch him as he started to sweep the stage with a huge broom only to be ushered off by some security guard. We laughed so hard. It was the perfect end to one of the most memorable gigs we’ve ever attended.
No Comments