After an exhausting stint of international touring, the Sticky Fingers lads have returned to Oz for the release of their new albumWestway (The Glitter & The Slums),and to pull themselves back together before pissing off to the states.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, vocalist Paddy Cornwall is feeling cheeky and cheerful when talking to the BRAG, excited to discover that the interviewer he is talking to, yours truly, has never before done a phone interview. “So I’m popping your cherry right now?” Cornwall laughs. “That’s pretty cool.”
Such is the musician’s attitude throughout the interview: he’s fun and funny, eager to talk about the things that give him joy, chief among them the simple pleasures of rock’n’roll. “Everything is all coming back to rock’n’roll,” Cornwall giggles. “Before that there was a wave of like indie folk, which made me fucking vomit. I’m really glad to see the end of the phase and I hope it never fucking comes back.”
Actually it seems Cornwall is fairly familiar with vomiting, and offering up the contents of his guts used to be a fairly staple element of his pre-show warm up. “Before we went on stage I’d always spew,” he says. “I figured out that it was a way of turning a mental pressure into a physical transformation: I’d feel really loose and ready to rock afterwards. But I haven’t done that for ages like a year or two.” So it’s true then: the rock’n’roll lifestyle really does take a toll on the body, coming complete with drunkenness, nervy poops, and puking. Enter at your own risk.
But should you choose to accept your mission and enter a life of rock’n’roll, the experience will at least be uplifted by comical tales, of which Cornwall has many. “It was our sound guy Manny’s birthday in Manchester recently so we took him out for a nice Chinese lunch,” he says.
“There was a massage parlour across the road, so afterwards I decided to shout all the boys a massage. But then when we were all in there, it turned out to be a very different massage joint to what I thought it was. I thought it was traditional Chinese: it was a bit more of an entire other thing all together. All the girls from the massage parlour ended up coming down to the show that night. Then our photographer nearly burnt down the venue trying to cook a baguette in a microwave. It caught on fire and then the venue got evacuated.”
Of course, such a tale practically begs to be accompanied by a pun about how the StiFi lads are on fire, particularly given the astronomical success of their recent touring efforts. It’s not all glamour and glitz though, and Cornwall reveals the group embarked upon its recent tour riding around the place on a big sleeper bus. “That can create the best and the worst of times because you’re literally living on top each other and it can go from zero to ten real quickly,” Cornwall says. “You just start almost getting in a serious brawl over something as small as who gets to go next putting their macaroni cheese in the microwave. But we were all mates before the band got together. The first step to being in a somewhat successful band is to find five people who are stupid enough to dedicate literally their entire life into giving this thing a stab and forgetting their jobs, studies, girlfriends, boyfriends – depending on which boat you float – and just bashing it head on.”
Bashing it head on is indeed what the group has done: these lads have worked relentlessly to bring you their latest album, and the record was born from a punishing period of creative expression. “We’re a band that’s been pushing, pushing, and pushing for so long without having a break.
“You’ve got members of the band who are flying off the rails while other members of the band are almost like imploding and exploding. Then we’re dealing with everything from psych wards to rehab clinics to band members bashing each other and not speaking to one other. Then having this American tour booked and not being able to get into the country because of criminal records.”
Such external pressures had a powerful effect on the group’s internal dynamics, and it wasn’t long before their working relationship started to strain. “We did magically somehow get our visas sorted before getting into America, but it had been weeks or months since we’d even spoken to each other. But then we just remembered that at the end of the day all the bullshit washes away and we still love making music together. That’s kind of what that whole album is all about.”
Given the bawdy way the interview started, it feels only appropriate that it ends with a reasonably crude question: if Cornwall could lose his virginity again, what song would it be to? Cornwall answers in a heartbeat. “‘Sexy Eyes’ by Dr. Hook,” he says. “Yeah I bet that’d be perfect. You have to listen to it: like, imagine me dancing around to it with latex and some guyliner, and really going for it. Maybe with a bit of baby oil.” Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear latex.
Westway (The Glitter & The Slums)is out now through Sureshaker; and you can catch Sticky Fingers atEnmore Theatre on Friday October 28.
