Interview
Q&A with Stevie Jackson and Richard Colburn
The album features the sound of Stuart Murdoch’s zip on ‘I Could Be Dreaming’. Are there any other similiar features on the record?
RC: “If you listen with the bass turned up you can hear this bumping noise. That’s Stuart. He used to like doing his vocal sitting on a chair, then he’d get into the song and start jumping up and down. Occasionally you hear this little rumble on the record and think, ‘What’s that then? Oh yeah, that’s Stuart and his wee chair’.”
How does it feel to see ‘Tigermilk’ re-emerging?
SJ: “Oh, it’s a nice feeling. It’s so long since it came out that it almost feels like it’s being releaed for the first time – 1000 copies were made, but a lot of those were given away. I remember at the launch party, they were just lying about all over the room covered in beer.”
Given the choice would you change anything?
RC: “No, it’d be trying to change an old photo.”
SJ: “I think the mistakes come to be part of what defines the album. After having it sitting there for three years, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Is it true that Stuart Murdoch’s dad owns the ‘Tigermilk’ tapes?
RC: “Stow College paid for the recording and then Stuart’s dad bought the tapes. We all own it now – Mr Murdoch still owns a big chunk of it, but he was kind enough to sell some of it back to us.”
The album features ‘The State I Am In’, which was also on 1997’s ‘Dog On Wheels’ EP. Is it true the EP version was actually recorded first?
RC: “Yeah. Actually, the version on the EP doesn’t have the band on it. Stuart was on one those music courses you get sent on if you’ve been unemployed for six months. The people on the EP are Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David and whoever else was on the course.”
How do you look back on the Bowlie Weekender?
SJ: “It was a bulls eye. What I remeber most are all the American groups. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Flaming Lips… They all looked like rock stars, which I really admired [laughs]. It was the biggest crowd we’ve really played to and it went OK, so I was happy.”
When you busked at Bowlie, what did you play?
SJ: “‘Rhinestone Cowboy’, ‘Maggie May’, ‘Suspicious Minds’ and ‘Keep The Customer Satisfied’ by Simon & Garfunkel. We’d have done more but we got moved on by security.”
Whose idea was it to play ‘The Kids Are Alright’?
SJ: “One day me, Chris and Richard were rehearsing, Chris picked up the bass and we started playing a load of Who songs. Then Stuart came in and started jamming on ‘The Kids Are Alright’ on melodica. We thought it would be a good idea to do it at Bowlie. We all love The Who, y’know.”
Roy Wilkinson
