MD: I've been dying to ask you this ever since I heard of you: Is you're name a reference to Tetsuo: The Iron Man by Shinya Tsukamoto, what is it about that cult horror masterpiece that appealed to you so much?

Le Tetsuo: Yes it is. Sort of. So much about band names is how they sound, what they seem to say more than what they mean. Same goes with lyrics, so I'm always mindful of the reference. I'm not sure Charly or Sam have even seen it, the film. I think it's great though. It goes silly at the end, but that's part of the joy of the thing. As for his giant cyborg-drill-penis and general sweating down a telephone, what part of that is potentially unappealing?

MD: You're predominantly based in London now. How does the scene there compare to Norwich?

Le Tetsuo: London doesn't really have a scene in the same sense Norwich does. There are pockets of people and links between bands, but nothing like the set up in Norwich where you have a regular, pretty close group and all the bands know each other. Obviously I haven't lived in Norwich for nearly four years, so I'm out of touch- perhaps these days everyone hates each other! I doubt it. I don't prefer either 'scene' really. I like the closeness of Norwich, but I like the surprise of fresh crowds each time and not playing the same venue every week. I like the quirkiness of Norwich, the attitude of experimentation, but I also like finding pockets of it in London too, which can be hard to do given the wealth of guff out there. In a bigger place the connections you make feel rare and special. I think I took that for granted in Norwich, a bit.

MD: You've put out an EP with Parlour Records - how did that come about? When can we be expecting an LP?

Le Tetsuo: I don't think an LP is on the cards for a while. I almost don't think albums are worth it at the moment. The grouping together of songs like that feels slightly arbitrary when you think about the more selective playlist and shuffle orientated way people listen to music these days. I'd like to make one, write a whole thing, a bigger picture, but I'm much happier with EPs and 45s. Who knows though.

 

  

MD: How did you arrive at your slightly unhinged, yelping and excessive style? Who are your main influences?

Le Tetsuo: There was generally a lot of yelping, or shouting going on before and when we started playing together, especially in Norwich. There was KaitO and Bearsuit and I think after the nineties and hipster-rock of the Strokes and whatever, a sort of urgent shouting, not a stylish rock 'yeah' needed to come out, though for a while it was a bit Iggy. Frank
Black has a good shout, so too Huggy Bear and Melt Banana. We're shouting less now though. No idea why. There's still a lot to shout about.

MD: What are you looking forward to most about playing at Hot City Sounds?

Le Tetsuo: Playing to people we know and drinking with them and hanging out and catching up. I'm also keen, like any other gig, to play to new folks because we're a bit out of the loop, so it will be nice to play to those who didn't see us when we played there all the time.

MD: You've said you had some good times playing festivals in Holland. Any crazy stories?

Le Tetsuo: Not really. We had a really good breakfast with The Lovely Eggs and a guy called Arnold. We got given a big load of dope by Chips for the Poor because he was all smoked out after about a day. We didn't sleep for about 30 hours or something and there was this lady playing the sam looped dub record for about 70 minutes, which nearly killed me. Everyone was very nice and fed us well. I bought a sausage from a petrol station. It's all coming back to me now...

MD: If you had to pick an animal to represent each member of the band, what would they be and why?

Le Tetsuo: Charly would probably be a cat. She can sleep anywhere. She likes milky tea. She could be a kangaroo or even a goat. I think she'd be a great goat. It's not a popular choice, but Charly could be quite happy with horns and little beard and stuff. I think make do with the hooves and get on with it. Sam would be a wild looking monkey I reckon. Strong arms, intelligent. He could be a Jungle cat of some kind, but that's a bit slick, a bit self congratulatory. Maybe he'd be a wolf, that's better. I'm going with wolf. As for me, I'd like to be an otter. Or maybe a chimp. I dunno. It's hard to do yourself. I like tapiers. In fact I love the zoo and the animal kingdom. I'd be pretty happy as anything really - gecko, flamingo, leopard, shrew, no problem. Where do I sign up?