The Beat Surrender

Johnny Daukes is the former FIN singer with a new rather fantastic album out under the guise of All Our Good Friends, I recently reviewed the album and having loved it, snapped up the chance to speak to a man who genuinely is very funny, very sarcastic and as you’ll see from the following interview…ever so slightly bonkers.

Your album came out originally in October of last year and is now getting a proper push at the end of January, what’s happened between then and now to for you to do this?

There’s no record company (or anything) behind the album, it’s just me. I needed to make the record as a way of exorcising some demons and didn’t expect it to do anything. The first three reviews were all really good and a friend gave a copy to Fiona Clarke who runs ExcessPress. She suggested we should re-release with a proper distribution.

What’s also happened is I’ve had about 3000 copies manufactured which are mostly still in my shed. Other things have happened too; a major political assassination, 13 BBC costume dramas, I put my back out and a ‘best of Tittybangbang’. But none of those had anything to do with the album being reissued, they’re just the sort of gratuitous stupidity that columnists pass off as humour

You seem to be as cynical as me, I understand from your MySpace page that you didn’t believe the Sunday Times when they got in touch to tell you that you were Record of The Week?

I’ve snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on enough occasions. It wasn’t cynicism, it was self-preservation. My immediate thought when I get an anonymous email telling me I’m Sunday Times CD of the week is that someone’s taking the piss. This time I was wrong.

It must have been a real shot in the arm though to have a major publication vindicating your decision to step back on board the music industry merry-go-round?

I knew the album was good, but there are loads of (well, quite a few) good albums that are ignored. Where are ‘Clinic’ for example? I was delighted to get the review but actually, one review does nothing on its own. (I think Shakespeare said something along these lines, but then he said something along most lines…the cunt). You need to be in 10 different publications and all over the internet (and some radio & TV too) to make any impact. I haven’t ‘stepped back on board the music industry merry-go-round’. I’ve made a record on my own that’s on my own label…I’m a Lone Wolf…a Dark Knight…a Rebel without a great deal at all.

Were you disappointed that things didn’t really kick off for FIN and the general fickle nature of the music press at the time?

FIN came within a hair’s breadth of signing to Geffen records within 8 months of forming. Had we done so, I believe without a shadow of a doubt that I would now be dead. Things ‘kicked off’ for FIN to a far greater extent than for most bands with no deal or management. We did OK. The ‘general fickle nature of the music press’ then is as now. Our media/talent pool are very ready co-habitees (and frequently even more incestuous), what will be, will be.

Despite you not having major commercial success with the band, did you realise how many people your music did touch, I had a girlfriend at the time who thought the world of your music for example?

And we thought the world of your girlfriend. That made up for the lack of commercial success.

Do you ever think things might have worked out differently for FIN if the power of the internet and it’s instant word of mouth had been around at the time to get your music straight across to people?

The power of the internet would also have been available to SMASH, These Animal Men, Menswear and Gene. Think about that for a second….

Although again you probably haven’t quite reached platinum status, your music is clearly connecting with people, what do you think you’ve got in particular that makes that connection with people?

I write from a very personal, confessional point of view. Always in the first person and always from a desire to express a direct experience. It stands to reason that other people are going to have shared that experience and, to a lesser extent, to feel about it as I do. That, in turn, is bound to establish a sense of empathy (or connection) with a few of those people. My new single ‘I’ve got blood ‘n’ shit up to my elbows and still the bitch won’t die’ may test this theory.

It must frustrate you in relation to your own career and the state of the music industry when you see so many dull and unoriginal people getting instant fame and selling vast amounts of records (even though I’m guessing that’s not why you release music yourself) on the back of the flurry of reality shows we’ve had in recent years?

I can honestly say that I’ve never released an album so that dull and unoriginal people might become famous and sell vast amounts of records. That would make me some kind of idiot. It would also be an incredibly complex plan to pull off. Would I know who the people were? Would they be complicit? (Is anyone still with this?).

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