The Computers

We recently had a chat to two of the lads from Exeter’s favourite sons, The Computers. Before their show in Liverpool we talked about hair products, attitude and rocking ‘n’ rolling around the country on their tour for their latest album ‘Love Triangles, Hate Squares’.

How has the tour been? Where you confident about filling out the venues? It’s been pretty extensive.

Aiden (Drums): Yeah, it’s been nice to play lots and lots. Some shows have been really busy and it’s nice to know people will come out and see you. Some of the places we’ve been, it’s been the first time we’ve played them, Chester for example. I didn’t have high hopes for those shows, but people came out and had a really good time.

Is this the first time you have played in Liverpool?

Aiden: We’ve been here a few times actually. We’ve played the Sound City Festival, we’ve done the Kazimier, the Barfly when it was here…

Are you expecting good things from Liverpool then?

Aiden: Well it’s a weird one that, because we’ve always played strange shows. We supported Cancer Bats here, which wasn’t our show but it was still really good. And we supported Hot Snakes here as well, which was fucking brilliant. We’ve not actually done our own headlining show, this is our first headline show in Liverpool. Hopefully it will be alright! Liverpool has taste don’t it?

Well…ish. (laughs)

Do you think the fan base has grown since the album has come out (Love Triangles, Hate Squares) because of the change in sound?

Aiden: Oh no, I’ve noticed an extreme decline (laughs). Nah, well there have been a few who liked the heavier elements of our band that have taken their hats off in disgust and thrown them to the floor. But the idea was to make the sort of music that we want to make and keep ourselves happy. Hopefully it does have a wider appeal as well.

Was making the album more melodic a conscious choice then to move away from the punkier, hardcore sound of your earlier releases? Did you not like that sound anymore?

Fred (piano): It was just to move on really. I mean… we still like it.

Aiden: It was never a case of that, it was just a natural progression. It was always what the band wanted to sound like. This was the record that we always wanted to make, given the experience and ability. The tools weren’t all there to begin with, we were a lot younger and that’s how music comes out when you’re that age isn’t it? That was the scene we were a part of at the time as well, and the settings were always fast, hard and heavy. But this has been a challenge for us to make this record, anyone can just churn out the same album over and over. And to be honest, it was getting quite relentless.

Fred: Yeah.

Was it boring just playing the fast and heavy songs every single night then?

Aiden: I wouldn’t say it was boring, it was just very ‘routine’. The element of surprise had gone. Some people would come out and see us for the first time and think ‘wow this is incredible’, but we had been doing that for 5 years prior to that. And, yeah, it was just becoming a routine for us. Too easy you know?

So this album is your true identity? Can you not see yourself returning to your more hardcore roots anytime soon?

Aiden: Well, we are going to keep expanding. Never look back.

Fred: Just carry on from here.

Aiden: The spirit is the same, we are still the same people. That wasn’t fake and this isn’t fake either. If in two years time, we think: ‘Yeah! We should start screaming again!’ then we will. Just do whatever we feel ready to do. If anyone feels that it is such a massive change in sound, they probably didn’t really understand where we were coming from at all. If they thought we were just a fast hardcore band, they were totally missing out on the other elements of our music.

Was the whole 50’s rock n’ roll style started as a novelty or was that always something that you have been into as kids?

Fred: I think that’s always been in there.

Aiden: It’s in the blood. I think that looking like this and dressing like this… music was involved, it’s in the blood mate yeah (laughs).

Fred: I don’t see The Computers as ever having been a hardcore band. I never picked up on that.

Aiden: And he listened to The Computers before he was in the band. We aren’t original members. I saw us as more of Rock n’ roll Garage band and the progression came from there.

Fred: It’s too arty really to just be a hardcore band.

Aiden: Hardcore bands tend to dress down, while we were dressing up for on-stage (laughs).

With the whole dressing up part, do you spend a lot on suits? You always look really emaculate on stage (laughs).

Aiden: Probably not as much as we should!

I saw you guys at Leeds festival wearing perfect white suits, how do you get them to shine!

Aiden: Well that’s just from afar mate (laughs). Get over that barrier and you start to get the smell and you see the stubborn stains! We are wearing burgundy suits on this tour, which is easier to maintain. We recently got them dry-cleaned so tonight they should be spotless!

The hair as well! A pressing question on everyone’s mind is how do you maintain it!

Aiden: If you are good with products you can really make them last, I probably spend about 10 pound a week on product

Fred: Yeah! That sounds about right.

Aiden: Big industrial sized tins!

Any recommendations?

Aiden and Fred: Silver.. Silver crim? Silver Skin?...(Aiden and Fred try to decide what the spray is actually called).

Aiden: Silver Dax Wax, a bit pricey but worth it… if you know what you are doing with it.

What is your favourite festival to play?

Aiden: well, it was always a child hood dream to play Reading. I think we are playing for the third time this year, so that’s a dream come true. I’m a big fan of the lockup stage, the concrete jungle used to call it back in the day. Loads of great punk bands.

Any bands you are looking forward to seeing?

Fred: God, I don’t even know who’s playing (laughs). Festivals in Germany are great to play though.

Top tour essentials?

Aiden: All the hairspray and the stuff to keep you looking good.

Fred: Socks. It’s just all the normal bollocks isn’t it?

Aiden: I’ve got an essential: I carry about ten jackets around with me. The land of a thousand jackets!

Fred: Dice.

Aiden: Dice! That is an absolute must. We play Dice, some win and some lose. Fred’s very lucky with the old dice, well you aren’t so lucky at the moment (Fred laughs). A bit of music. Stuff with spirit and good vibes. The minute you start getting negative and touchy about shit, it all starts to fall apart. The tour essential is attitude mate.

If you could have one super power, what would it be, and what would your name be?

Aiden: To see into the future. I’d be called the Sinister…

Fred: The Sinister what?

Aiden: The Sinister… something about looking?

Fred: Voyeur

Aiden: The Sinister Voyeur! That sounds alright!

Fred: I don’t like the sound of that. I’d have maybe… erm…

Aiden: To smoke forever and never die?

Never die man?

Fred: Oh no, fuck that. To have the ability to change the length of my hair whenever I want.

Favourite tour food?

Aiden: A few of us a veggies. I live off of beans. Tins of beans.

I bet you are fun to be around in enclosed spaces (laughs). Strangest gift from a fan?

Aiden: There’s been a few recently, cupcakes. Home made cupcakes…

Fred: Playing cards! Fucking playing cards from these girls in Switzerland.

Aiden: We played a show in Zurich and there was these two girls and as the night came to an end we were at this kebab house. We were chatting away for a bit and they had Computers merch and all that, then right at the end I was like ‘I gotta go now, it’s like four in the morning or something’. Right as I was about to leave, they said ‘before you go we have something to give to you’, bearing in mind that I’d been with them for hours already and they hadn’t mentioned anything, then they got out these playing cards with our faced on them. Like happy family style…

Fred: With pictures of cartoon birds and foxes and stuff.

Aiden: And they had all of our heads like put on them, and they laminated them. They were really well thought out! Some of them just didn’t make sense though… One of them had Alex pushing a wheelbarrow (laughs)

Fred: They had my head on a fox working a typewriter, I was like: ‘I have no idea what these are for!’

What would you be doing if you weren’t in the band?

Fred: Playing in other bands.

Aiden: Yeah, this is what me and Fred do, it’s our skill.

Fred: I’d be a soundman.

Aiden: I have had thoughts about it before though. I’d be a social worker. This gonna sound so like ‘oooo look at me’, but when you are walking about the streets and you see all these young kids like hanging around for money, you think ‘that’s weird, something’s gone wrong there’. That shouldn’t be happening, so if I could do something to help change that, I would.

It’s good to be socially conscious!

Aiden: Yeah! I’ll do the band first and when that fails I’ll go around helping people (laughs).

Fred: I’d be a farmer. My family are all farmers. I could try (laughs).

If you could watch any band, living or dead, who would it be?

Aiden: I would have loved to have seen The Smiths play. I’ve seen Morrissey a few times and I’m going to see Johnny Marr in June. To have seen them in ’84 or something would have been brilliant.

Fred: It may be too obvious for me to say The Beatles in ’63 or something, but I dunno…

Aiden: If that’s how you feel mate! You would have had a great time! It’s just that feeling of change, like socially and musically changing, to be among that just for one night would be incredible.