The Servant are an alternative rock band hailing from England and have been going since the late 1990’s, releasing two mini albums between 1998 and 2000. Most people in the media find it hard to define their sound, but if pushed I would have to say that it is a cross between the Smiths and Radiohead, but in truth theirs is a completely unique sound. Their commercial success came in 2004 when they released their first self-titled full length album. The flagship single ‘Orchestra’ released from the album, was voted NME’s single of the week, and the instrumental version of ‘Cells’ was used on the trailer for the movie ‘Sin City’ and was also used in the movie ‘Transporter 2’. Their critically acclaimed second album: ‘How to destroy a relationship’ dropped in November 2006 encapsulating the verve and energy of their predecessor. Jim Lowe helped produce the album having subsequently worked with The Charltons and Stereophonics. With tracks like ‘Hey Lou Reed’ and ‘Brains’ they have made sure that they did not disappoint an already loyal and strong fan-base.
They have been supporting acts for Franz Ferdinand, and shared the stage with Jay Z at the MTV Coca Cola show in Milan, and had recently did a set in Glastonbury on the Queen’s Head stage, yet when I met them at the Hoxton Bar and Grill where they were due to play, they did not seem like success had gone to their heads. After realising that the bar was too noisy to do an interview and because of smoking legislation preventing us from smoking inside; Dan Black (lead singer and songwriter) and Matt Fisher (bass and allegedly named coolest man in rock) and I headed to the nearby park to have a little chin wag…
BCR: First of all I’d just like to say that this is my first ever interview so excuse me if I’m a bit…
Matt Fisher: Crap?
BCR: I was going to say nervous but yes excuse me if I’m crap as well.
Dan Black: Don’t worry we’ve had a lot of crap journalists over the years now we know how to deal with them. If the interview does not go as planned we can spice it up and make up some stuff about ourselves.
BCR: Yeah it’s just I don’t want to be asking tedious questions, that you have answered a thousand times before.
DB: Don’t worry, as long as you don’t have questions like “how did you come up with the name servant?” or “what are your influences?” We’ll get along fine.
BCR: Shit, those are my first two questions. Anyways moving on…Most band’s and musicians seem to think that cracking America is the be all and end all of making it as a musician. However you prefer to concentrate touring in Europe (especially France and Italy). Why have you taken a different point of trajectory?
DB: Yeah there was an opportunity, we did not go “We wish to be big in Europe” and make an effort to go to Europe. You know you throw the maggot into the river and whichever fish starts biting, you go “right that’s the fish we’re going to go for”. The big fish of Europe. Bitten. I mean there are hundreds and thousands of bands and artists out there, and one of the things we had to be was flexible. We had different record companies and the one’s that didn’t do so well sort of fell flat. Some of them did a really good job, so to them we made sure we kept ringing up and saying “come on lets do more stuff, let’s clean it”
MF: so we went where the work was.
DB: Exactly.
MF: … and as a band, you have to be quite pragmatic, because you know you need to eat, pay rent and pay for other things. So people offered us gigs, and wherever they were we did them and it so happened that the French, being of exquisite taste offered us a lot of gigs in France. Simple as really.
BCR: Over the years now you have released a pretty outstanding amount of material. What propels you to keep on making it in the studio and recording?
DB: I think at the heart of what we do is, well we like making music. We didn’t start it to make money really we just started it no choice of just wanting to do music all the time.
BCR: Sorry but ...what was it that brought you all together?
DB: It was along time ago now and it was a series of bad judgements.
MF: Yes it was a series of bad judgement calls and Bad judgement calls and unlucky meetings and happenings.
DB: Some of us were in a band together. Another band and that band died, and so while that band was going I had written some songs for myself and I said do you want to help me play live and they said yes. So we started kicking it about and its not a particularly, exciting or thrilling story but the lies we make up in interviews tend to be much more interesting…so we were on safari…
MF: Yeah we were on safari on the moon.
DB: Yeah and we escaped prison together and these aren’t really our real names. You see the reason we are actually big in Europe is because we’re on the run here.
MF: We’re actually the Krays. Please choose whichever one you want. Or we were I a band together before and that broke up so we started a new one.
BCR: Dan I read somewhere in your blog that you found it difficult to work as a collective hence the reason that you have been part of and had left many bands. How true is this statement?
DB: I don’t think I said that entirely. What I said was mainly a reference to bands that I had been in, in the past where I would ruin it for friends because I’d sort of write everything and they were like what are we supposed to do?
BCR: Why did you choose the name ‘The Servant’, and what is this a reference to?
DB: It’s a film, a 1967 film by Joseph Losey, starring Dirk Bograde, and written by Harold Pinter. We decided to name it after the film because it’s an ace film and when we formed a long, long time ago, there were no bands called “the” something
BCR: British music has been a major export since the early 1960’s. With bands like the Killers, Kasabian, Artic Monkeys etcetera, do you think British music is going in the right direction?
DB: The Killers are American but anyway s keep going…
BCR: Anyways…
DB: I know what you’re saying its true yeah
BCR: Do you think British music is going in the right direction?
DB: British music is so big, the rest of the world look to London and to Britain, and I think that’s a good thing and a bad thing. I live in France now, so I have a slightly different perspective. It’s slightly unhealthy how English language and music dominates the world but it is that way. And its super-healthy and there’s always bad and good. You know it’s cutthroat and scary and difficult to make it but there’s hundreds of bands and talent that is coming through all the time.
BCR: Matt do you agree?
MF: Do I agree with him? In principle no. Whatever he says – no (laughs) .Well England has always been a creative place for music and thankfully that hasn’t stopped. I think its good… and I always like to be on the winning team.
BCR: How well do you guys all get along?
DB: Friction is part and parcel of any close knit group of people trying to work together. We’re good at fighting thing s out. We have to give each other space sometimes
MF: There’s always at least one incidence of inter band violence on tour. Somebody gets head butted by somebody. That’s part of the wonder of show biz.
BCR: You are very big in France and Italy. What is it like touring there and how are the French and Italian fans.
DB: There brilliant absolutely brilliant. We’re successful there because a lot of people come to see us. I mean it’s a massive difference just in terms of ...from the people that run the show s there- the festivals the venues and promoters. In England there’s a real sense of “you’re lucky” when you’re a band and you turn up unless you’re really big. There’s a feeling that you’re lucky to be here, and here’s a bag of crisps.
MF: and half a can of lager each.
DB: “Don’t fuckin make any noise “£ and they treat you like shit. Whereas in France it’s like “Oh my God thank you for coming, here’s a beautiful meal, please come round my house and use my TV, my wife if you want is waiting outside.”
MF: They’re very hospitable to musicians in Europe.
DB: It’s beautiful and saddening that its not like that here especially when music is so big
MF: I was talking to a French band in France a fortnight ago at one gig. And they’d been to England and played some gigs. And they couldn’t believe how fucking harsh it was to play over there. The guy said to me that it really was the proving ground and I kind of agreed. It’s true. You grow up ion England doing gigs and you think that its normal for musicians to be given a cold sandwich and half a can of lager if they’re lucky to basically being payed to play. In a way it separates the men from the boys; because in the end you have to do it because you love it. You have to put up with a lot of shit to do the thing that you want to do. No ones giving you a nice roast beef and taking you to a restaurant and buying you wine, which you get even as a ‘not well known band- you get treated like that in Europe. So to sum up here is the proving ground and there is the playground.
BCR: Gentleman I like to thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, and it has been a pleasure interviewing you
The Servant official site
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