On fhe floor with the ‘Foul Deviant Tramps’ - Disarm interview

(Left to Right - Noddy, Brad, Jamie and Tez)

Before the Robin Black tour in April, I’d only heard of Disarm through constant scouring of MySpace for some real rock talent to cover. But checking them out, they appeared to be a turbocharged, rampant, fresh sounding sleazy band of reprobates. They take elements from a genre that is dripping with bands on the coattails of 80's excess and add some high speed drumming, gravelly vocals and a touch of the ‘vagrant’ nature making something new and not tiring to listen to. They have a really dedicated fanbase in their home town but it seems that after going around the country with a top card band such as Robin Black, they’ve amassed an even stronger following.

It’s pre gig in the dressing room at the Camden Underworld on the 15th of April. The Disarm boys Noddy (bass) and Jamie (guitar) are perched on the edge of a beaten up old sofa with Brad (vocals) leaning up against the wall and Tez (drums) sitting in an almost yoga-like position on the floor. In the corner applying his make up in a massive mirror, a voice says “let me tell you guys, the head liners wouldn’t let us share their room!”. The voice belonged to a half naked faced Robin Black, who for this interview is an honorary member of Disarm. Between the squeaks of the dressing room door (which seriously needs oiling) there are other appearances too. Nix chats to the tired, slightly tipsy but really elated trampy rockers about the recent UK tour with Robin Black, drink, being deviant tramps, farting drummers and what the future holds for the Mexborough boys.

Nix: A bit about each of you?
(All of the boys laugh)
Robin Black: Can I answer that one?!
Brad: Just drunk, drunk

Nix: You’ve been called ‘sexy space cowboys’ what do you think of that?
Brad: Just a little bit of nice cr*p we made up because we couldn’t think of a good bio!
Jamie: We were trying to come up with something clever -
Noddy: And we’ve now changed it to ‘foul, deviant tramps’!
Brad: Its seems more apt!

Nix: What would you say is your main influence?
Noddy: Scandinavian rock n’ roll. Hellacopters, Backyard Babies. Anything from Scandinavia ...
Brad: Except them, who are they? they’re not Scandinavian. Gin, Gin has inspired things.
(At this point, Michelle Riot from Riot Promotions places some black lacy knickers on Brad’s head) Who are they from?
Michelle: Me! (All the boys laugh, a lot) He collects knickers he does.

Nix: How did all you guys get together?
Noddy: Me and Jamie had been playing together for years. Brad and Tez went to school together. We went through a few line up changes.
Robin Black: No, no, no! I was f*cking his mother (everyone laughs) who then was angry and he was the paper boy. You guys gotta come up with something way better than that! Carry on! (back to applying make up)

Nix: What’s the kick a** thing about you guys that isn’t ‘kick a**’ about anyone else?
Brad: It’s just straight, no bulls**t, not pretentious, no whoooo (throws arms up in the air) fireworks or all that cr*p. We’re just a bunch of scruffy b*stards that play rockin’ songs and that’s it.
Robin Black: With more intensity than any band that has played us and more commitment and passion about what they do.
Noddy: Who’s doing the interview? (Laughs)

Nix: “By Any Means Necessary” is a damn cool EP, what was the inspiration for that?
Brad: Most of the lyrics on there are about inadvertently about sex or death. Its just about things that have influenced us. Its like all those fake bands. Those big stupid hair bands that are coming about now. They’re like “oh we’ve read the Dirt, oh we’re gonna live like that now”. It’s a load of cr*p. Its similar kinds of things running all the way through the EP.

Nix: Being on the Robin Black tour the whole way through, what would you say has been your best gig so far?
Noddy: Last night (14th April) was pretty good at Mexborough. Hull were good. Bradford. Every show has been great there’s no real best one. They’ve all been good.
Brad: Except Winchester, because that sucked.
Noddy: Just not the right crowd at Winchester.
Robin Black: But tonight will be awesome!
(All the boys laugh) Brad: I’m just trying to remember something funny.
(With the squeak of the door, Jaimz from Riot Promotions pops in) Jaimz Riot: Tramps
Michelle Riot: You can’t even use a chair like a normal human being

Nix: Obviously, the main aims of the tour have been to spread the word, do you think that has been accomplished?
Noddy: Oh yeah. We’ve got a lot more new fans.
Brad: People have been surprised that not a lot of people had heard of us. Some were like “how the f*ck did you get the Robin Black tour?”
Michelle Riot: We were offered money by other people to take Disarm off the tour. We said “no, f*ck off” because Disarm a) rock and b) are fit and c) are nice. That’s how we got them.
Brad: There’s been lots of people like after seeing us play that have said its been a perfect bill. Like the same kind of music and the same kind of rawness and stuff. People have been like “wow” and we’ve been like “yay cheers”!

Nix: Have you got any pet hates at the moment, anybody that has p*ssed you off?
Michelle Riot: His smelly socks.
Noddy: Tez farting on everybody (Tez sits at the side of me with a guilty look) and Brad’s anger. He started off ok, but the last few days he’s been angry at everything. The phone rings its like “Argh, who’s that now?!” then answers (sweetly) “Hello?”

Nix: What’s your favourite song in your repertoire?
(Noddy looks blankly, Jamie to Noddy) Jamie: Favourite song that we play
Noddy: I heard, but I was having a long think like. I think it’s the songs that when we play live gets everyone pumping. My preferred is “Today We Kill”.
Brad: For me, that’s a hard one. It all kind of goes as one. Different songs have different stuff that you can do. I’m not going to say all our songs are so great and I love them all. The ones we play on set seem to work and everything.

Nix: Is there a song that kind of sums up your life? Something that’s really spurred you on in life?
Brad: Anything? A song we wrote or what? Oh, well my favourite song of all time is “Chocolate Salty Balls” (all the boys laugh). Probably “Total 13" by Backyard Babies, its probably one of my favourite albums of all time. If it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t be doing this in the form that I am now.
Noddy: Hardcore Superstar, they’re one of my biggest influences.

Nix: Have you had any label interest?
Brad: We’re not running after label interest. We just want to play as many gigs as we can. Just become a better live band than we’re capable of being. If we get signed, if someone comes after us and it’s a good deal, that’s fair enough. We’re recording an album at the end of this summer anyway with the same guy that we recorded the last CD with and he just basically said that he would record us an album and we’ll sort out the distribution or something like that. At the moment we’re just keeping everything like DIY so that it’s under our control. I don’t want to get f*cked over by some record company.

Nix: Do you have any real vices apart from beer?
Brad: Getting me c*ck out when I’m p*ssed! (all the boys laugh)
Jaimz Riot: Yeah (pause) I’ve seen that as well, he was trying to jack off in my face on Saturday night. (All in hysterics). I’ve seen the photograph of his balls (Brad) on his forehead (Tez).
Noddy: Beer and cigarettes

Nix: Do I really need to ask what your favourite drink is?
Brad: I’ll drink anything me.
Noddy: Absolutely anything alcoholic and its all good.

Nix: Do you have any guilty pleasures?
(All of the boys laugh) Noddy: Nope none at all! (Guilty)
Brad: Nope, absolutely nothing to do with women’s underpants.

Nix: A fact that not a lot of people know about you that you would like to confess to?
Brad: That I would like to confess to? I like cats (laughs)
Robin Black: Well, I said I love dogs!
Michelle: He likes a bit of the pussy (laughs)

Nix: What are your plans for the rest of this year?
Brad: After this, we’re just going to take like a month or two off.
Noddy: It’s just the time then for writing an album. Concentrating on recording and writing an album. Do a tour, take it a bit at a time.

Check out Disarm’s official site at www.disarm.info, sample some of their stuff and add them to your MySpace www.myspace.com/disarmmusic or read the review of their latest EP “By Any Means Necessary”.

- Words and photographs by Nicola (Nix) Crichton

© Pure Rawk 2006