“Cultural identity is an important part of any society”. Interview with SEDITION.
When SEDITION announced they are on UK tour with REALITY CRISIS in November 2017 I figured out there is more to it than just a few gigs to play. So I went to check if it is another reunion for them or perhaps … perhaps they are back for good. Seeing them in good shape, both physically and musically, despite the forget-it-and-play-louder ageing problems we all have, makes you want to fast forward this tape to the moment when new SEDITION record gets released one day. But before it happens, I talked to Angus about past and present. Play their discography record now and read what those Celtic punks have to say.
SP: SEDITION was very active between 1989 and 1993. This is when all happened when it comes to recordings. You stopped, later some of you did a similar thing as SCATHA, years later there was a one-off here and there. But now SEDITION is back, at least it looks like it. Are you back for good? Does it mean you are a working band, active playing gigs and writing new material? Can we expect new songs at gigs, new records, tours, etc?
Angus: This is certainly the most ‘active’ we’ve been in a long time, yeah. Since we first ‘reformed’ in 2008 we always talked about keeping it going and trying to rehearse and gig more regularly, but with family, work and other commitments it just never happened. Also, the first few times we tried it I personally don’t think we were really ‘ready’ when we did gig. Not until the DOOM – Chile Benefit gig in 2015 and the Reality Crisis gigs in 2017 were we at the stage where I’d say we were sounding the way we should have been. Especially the Reality Crisis gigs. We spent a lot of time rehearsing and a lot of work on the set till we were all fairly happy with how it was sounding, which wasn’t easy because of the distance between us. So yeah, 2017/2018 have been the most active we’ve been for a long time. That said, after we play the 1in12 Club in Bradford’s 30th Anniversary gig on the 27th April we have to take an extended hiatus as Brycey, who plays bass, is building his family house over the summer/autumn months. So, it remains to be seen if we can get the same momentum going again after this project has been finished! We do plan to write some new material, hopefully during this hiatus period. We’ve already been throwing some ideas around so hopefully something good will come of them and it will also lead to some more writing and future releases, which all of us would like to happen. We have been asked to contribute to a series of 7″ singles being released for a Sea Shepherd benefit on Global Resistance Records, who are already putting out the stunning Hunt Sab benefit 7″ collection and box set. We’re really quite excited about being asked to be involved with this and have already discussed and worked out between us what we’d like to do for it! Now that people are aware that we are playing again we’ve already had many offers to play at gigs and festivals, Poland, Belgium, Finland to name a few. They all look to be excellent, and really very inviting, but unfortunately we’ve had to decline this year because of Brycey’s schedule. Perhaps next year we can make it work though. We’d all like to carry on playing if it’s at all possible, so, fingers crossed for 2019. Which incidentally will also be the 30th anniversary of SEDITION’s birth. So, yeah, It’d be great to mark the occasion with some gigs and records, even re-releases maybe.
SP: What made you want to come back as SEDITION after so many years?
Angus: From when we finished in 1993 till we first reformed in 2008, I can honestly say I don’t ever remember any of us talking about reforming SEDITION. We’re fairly spread out over the country so we had limited contact with each other for a long time, everyone had their own family, work and some of us other band commitments during that time. Then in 2007, a good friend of the band died tragically and a year later, early 2008, a mutual friend, Jacko, asked us about the possibility of reforming to play at a memorial gig they were organising for him. Everyone agreed to do it without question of course, there wasn’t much discussion as I remember. We had limited time to rehearse, considering we hadn’t played together in about 15yrs at that point, and by the time we played we were still very rough and very sketchy, but that was not the point, playing at the memorial was really the only reason we were doing it. Anyway, however sketchy it may have been, from those rehearsals leading up to playing we realised we enjoyed being together again and playing together again, but, as I said, nothing regular came out of it even then. After that we did nothing till the following year, 2009, when Azill from Hiatus proposed that if we get SEDITION back together to play some gigs, he would, in turn, try and get Hiatus back together to join us. We, and they, surprisingly, rose to the challenge and it resulted in 4 gigs, for us, 3 of them with Hiatus. Again, I don’t think we were really ready at this point, but we had a lot of fun and we met loads of people we hadn’t seen in a very long time as well as making some new friends and playing with some great bands. Fast forward to 2015, only 6 weeks before the DOOM Chile Benefit gig, Bri DOOM asked us if we would headline the last night of the festival as the original headline band had pulled out. This time, drawing on past experience, we really didn’t want to play unless we felt we were ready, so we didn’t commit to playing until we’d rehearsed a couple of times and gauged how it was sounding, which at such short notice wasn’t easy for Bri, as organiser, as he understandably needed the slot confirmed. I think we agreed to play, then pulled out, then agreed again all within a week. Luckily, for us, it went well and after only 5 or 6 rehearsals we did end up playing. It was, of course, a great gig to have played and for a great cause, so we’re grateful to have been part of it. And of course, being amongst so many old friends in the 1in12 Club reminded us exactly why we absolutely love doing this! Then in February 2017 I was attending, what turned out to be, the final ‘Another Winter of Discontent’ festival in London, as my two daughters’ band BRATAKUS were playing at the Vi Subversa memorial day gig which was held on the final day of the festival. Whilst there I ran into Simon, of Crash n Burn gig promotions, who had previously organised the Hiatus/SEDITION gig in London in 2009. He told me he’d been asked to organise a small UK tour for Reality Crisis from Japan and that they had given him a list of a few bands they’d like to tour the UK with, one of which was SEDITION. I ran it past the others on my return and as it was so far in advance, 9 months, we decided if we committed to enough regular rehearsals we could probably get a good set of songs sounding fairly tight and passable, and if not we should definitely give up. I don’t know why, but at this point we were very conscious that this was no longer just getting together to play for or with our mates now and again, I, and I think the others, felt more pressure this time. We were suddenly aware that our age was definitely an issue. We are all approaching 50, and obviously never imagined when we were playing screaming hardcore punk in our 20’s that there was even a possibility we’d still have to do this when we were almost 50! Also, the awareness that people don’t want to come and see tired old men merely running through the motions on stage, when you watch a band playing screaming hardcore you want to see the energy and anger that goes with it, that it was born out of. Now, I’m a firm believer that age is just a state of mind, but sometimes the body does remind you that you’re really not 20 any more. Frequent and more regular rehearsals definitely took their toll, especially as some of us have what are most likely age related ailments. Joint and back pains being the most common. For me, just trying to scream with the same intensity as I did in my 20’s through a whole 40 minute set was definitely an endurance test. It took a lot of planning, a massive effort and a whole lot of aches and pain, but it eventually culminated in 4 amazing gigs, for us and BRATAKUS, 3 of them with Reality Crisis. Again we made a lot of new friends and met a lot of old friends and played with more amazing bands, and again we were reminded of just why we do all this. The ‘punk rock family’, the ‘network of friends’, I’m not sure there’s anything like it! And it was definitely worth all the pain!
SP: Would it also be possible with SCATHA on the same basis?
Angus: I would never say never, of course, especially as we probably would have said ‘never’ about SEDITION at one point, but it is really highly unlikely. There are a couple of members of SCATHA who just don’t move in the same circles any more. Our paths just never cross and I really can’t see that changing anytime soon. Although Billy has said he would like all the bands he has ever played in to play at his 50th birthday party. This would consist of The Disturbed, SEDITION, Disaffect and SCATHA. Effectively this means he would himself be playing all night at his own birthday party. Which if you know Billy would be his dream come true. Unfortunately with only The Disturbed and SEDITION actually playing again at the moment I very much doubt this is gonna happen. Only in his dreams for the time being I reckon!
SP: Looks like you are rehearsing regularly. Is it difficult for you to set up rehearsals with you lot living not close to each other?
Angus: It’s not that it’s difficult, although it still takes a lot of planning, so much as it’s expensive. We know roughly when and if each of us are available so that dictates whether it’s easier for us in the North to travel South or vice versa. But whether Brycey and I go down to Glasgow or Martin and Billy come up North, it costs a lot! So yeah, the more regular we have to rehearse, like getting ready for the last lot of gigs in November 2017, the more the financial side of things becomes an issue. I’m not sure a lot of people who attend gigs give much thought to the effort and cost it takes just to get a band to the point where you’re willing to pay your ticket money to go see them. We certainly didn’t when we were younger and more carefree. We’ve all got families now, so we’re all conscious that however much we enjoy doing this, our families can’t afford to fund it on our behalves. We all work fairly regular jobs and are all pretty much in the same boat financially so we all have the same understanding of the situation, which definitely helps. We are however fortunate that up to now people still seem to want to come out and see us play, so generally we can at least cover most if not all of our costs, which in turn means we can keep doing something we all enjoy doing.
SP: For SEDITION the artistic side of your records has always been important. It is all Celtic art inspired. Lyrically, you are also near. It is a natural thing since you come from Scotland but what was the whole idea and concept behind it?
Angus: What we were trying to get across, but maybe we couldn’t articulate it very well when we were in our 20’s, and maybe still can’t, was purely about embracing your cultural identity. I still feel that cultural identity is an important part of any society. It grounds you, gives you a place, a meaning, a sense of belonging. It’s something that is lacking in most ‘modern’ societies that are more rooted in national identity or tradition, both of which are usually very rigid and seem to breed division, hatred and violence, successfully perpetuated by media and government. Cultural identity, where it exists, is far more fluid and adaptable to the times. Travel to some of the poorest countries in the world where people have almost no material wealth at all and they’re still smiling, still welcoming and generous, still happy. It definitely seems like their wealth is in their culture, and they’re lives are generally richer as a result. This is why governments the world over invest so much time and money dismantling and whitewashing culture. People with culture are usually stronger and more defiant. Dismantle a culture and you have a dispossessed and more vulnerable people. Historically, once you’ve successfully dismantled a culture, problems like depression, addiction, domestic violence and suicide quickly take hold where they rarely existed before. It’s a tried and tested method worldwide and the ‘powers that be’ know this and implement it to this day. In many native cultures worldwide today the instances of alcoholism, depression and suicide are significantly higher as a result of systematic deculturalisation. The loss of cultural identity and the feeling of belonging quickly results in a decline in mental health. I strongly believe this lack of cultural identity, originally here in the west, is what ‘punk’ was born out of. Any culture we had in the west has been successfully whitewashed a long, long time ago. The Anglo-Americanisation of most of the West must be one of the most successful deculturalisations in history. Despite this we have ‘created’ our own culture within punk. It holds all the traditional elements of any other culture, music, costume, dance and ceremony. For those of us lucky enough to be involved in this it can bring that same sense of belonging, of having a place, of being grounded and in most cases accepted. At it’s roots It definitely breeds that same sense of strength in unity and defiance that other cultures demonstrate. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s perfect, or idyllic, it does have many flaws, but perhaps this is because it’s constantly striving to coexist alongside, and often within, the mainstream ‘whitewashed’ culture it was born out of. This juxtaposition of the two, and constantly trying to bridge them, whether it be for work, family or even social endeavours, can often breed feelings of isolation and disillusionment again resulting in a decline in mental health or worse.
SP: Do you realise you are responsible for infecting a lot of punks with the Celtic imagery?
Angus: Haha! I’m not sure we can take full responsibility for that, but yeah, it does seem to be everywhere in punk nowadays! It’s very striking visually and usually very beautiful which is why we used it. I think the Celtic culture was so widely spread across most of Europe at certain points that the imagery just resonates with a lot of different people. As I said above, we’ve created this culture of punk and with it come the trappings of any other culture, and the prominent use of art and symbols within punk is definitely one of those. Celtic and other tribal art certainly seems to speak to a lot of punks across a huge demographic. Also, punk has produced some amazingly talented artists who use Celtic imagery as their inspiration. From Sonia Lord’s stunning cover for Oi Polloi’s Saorsa LP and the breathtaking work of Sean Fitzgerald to Kosuke Inoshiri’s beautifully made DIY products at AWEN. There’s certain people I stalk on FaceBook just because I love the art they produce.
SP: Since we are at it, who did the whole art for Earthbeat?
Angus: The artwork for the Earthbeat album was a collaboration between the band and a few of our close friends who were artists at the time. A lot of our friends travelled around with us when we played or toured, and when we lived in Glasgow nearly all of us lived either with or in pretty close proximity to each other. So it was always more like one big family, sharing flats, houses, band members and everything else inbetween. Being surrounded by all these talented artists we obviously wanted to get some of them involved in the project too. Yon Auchenshugle Tree Man, Alan Torrance’s amazingly highly detailed work with the humble ‘Biro’ pen features throughout a lot of the booklet, Lungs of the Earth, Ecologic, Logical Isolation, A Trail of Tears and Freedom is an Attitude. He managed to bring an almost primitive surrealism to the pages he contributed and his artwork always seemed to visualise what we were saying as a band perfectly. As well as the Earthbeat LP, Alan also provided the striking cover to the SEDITION side of the Pink Turds in Space split LP. He is now an internationally recognised artist with work selling as far afield as the USA, and has also been known to illustrate books. Incidentally, it’s actually Alan blowing the horn in the artwork I did for the front cover of the Earthbeat booklet. It was taken from a photo of him in which he is actually blowing a horn and dressed exactly like he is in the drawing. True fact. Dom Zombi or Dominic Regan is another internationally recognised artist who we were lucky enough to know, and share a house with, at the time. He provided several pieces which again feature throughout the booklet. His intensely chaotic and serpentine knotwork designs are almost his trademark and can be seen snaking across a few of the booklets pages, Tribal Transition/Pagan Dischord, Deconsume and Aphorism. Dom also provided the now widely recognisable knotwork border design which framed the front and back outside cover of the album itself. Having worked in comics for almost 30 years now, he has contributed work to the likes of DC, Marvel UK, 2000AD, IDW, Image and Legendary, as well as his own self published work in stories like the excellent ‘People Protector Akay – The Devil’s Pawn’, ‘High Pilot – Orbits Of Ephemera’ and ‘Sea Lord Akwa – Monsters from the Iron Sun’, some of which are available to read online at Comixology. Besides SEDITION, Dom also provided his trademark knotwork for the first SCATHA LP, ‘Respect, Protect, Reconnect’, and the logo for the Disaffect LP’s ‘Chained to Morality’ and ‘Powerless with a Guitar’ and more recently the brilliant cover for the Headless Kross album ‘Projections I (2016). Gail (Token Woman), AKA Gail Coates, provided the striking body-print image which goes with the song ‘Sex Biased Roles’. It is an actual full-sized print of herself and Dominic Regan’s naked bodies. I remember it was a nightmare to get it reduced in size to fit in the booklet but I cannot remember how we managed it in the end? Gail also provided the awesome front cover artwork for Disaffect’s ‘Chained to Morality’ LP. Nowadays she runs Gail Power Art & Design where she creates stylish up-cycled garments and quirky art using carefully selected pieces from charity shops, found objects or rescued from waste. The remaining pages were penned by band members. I designed and drew the front and back album cover art, which Dom provided the border for. As mentioned above, along with the front cover of the booklet itself, I also provided the art for Gaia, Ecologic and New Breed Bad Seed. The artwork for the Earthbeat song was drawn by Brycey. Martin provided some lovely stencil and splatter pieces for Who’s the Savage, Key to Co-Existance and Death Chant. Finally, my partner Ainsley, AKA The Mother of BRATAKUS, did the artwork for the song Ride On. Although I mustn’t forget the sterling efforts of Yvonne Strike, Y-Von (Typing Woman), who typed the whole thing up for us and of course, Sned and Alec (Flat Earth Records) who laboriously hand screen printed all those bloody hessian sack-cloth covers, while we sat back and took all the glory.
SP: 5 years of existence as a band and such a huge impact on punk DIY community for many years to come. Why so?
Angus: Mmmm, not sure about that. Next year is the 30th anniversary of us starting SEDITION, 2019, and, as you say, we were originally only active for 5yrs. There was a gap of around 15yrs where we did nothing as SEDITION and, as I said, until we were asked in 2008 we never considered we would ever be doing it again. So, I don’t know if you can call it a huge impact but I guess some people connected with what we were saying in our lyrics, about reconnecting with the earth and seeing it as a living breathing organism rather than a commodity or a property to be exploited, being caretakers rather than parasites. About using your own, or a shared cultural heritage to tap into that consciousness. Although there were other bands in fact saying similar things at the time, in their own ways/words, so maybe it was the combination of this and the fact that we always wore our kilts, rather than the black canvas jeans of most of our esteemed contemporaries. Perhaps this made us stand out in some folks’ eyes, genuinely looking like we’d just come down from the hills to experience the wonders of modern civilisation. Which after some of us moved to the remote countryside ended up not too far from the truth. All this and, as you said yourself, the use of all the Celtic imagery has obviously just stuck with people I suppose. It was never planned out, we really just stumbled through it, with the help of good friends and supportive partners we were able to do something we all really enjoyed doing for 5yrs. We played all over the country, toured Europe twice, thanks to One by One, made a few records and met a lot of very cool people, a lot of whom are still friends to this day. Like all the other bands and people who were active in the DIY scene at the time and still today, we just wrote and sang about what we were into ourselves at the time, what we felt was important to put across as a band, we wore what we did in order to outwardly portray what we were into ourselves, and we adorned our records and shirts with artwork which we again hoped would help convey this message. So I guess the combination of all these things and hopefully the way we delivered them on stage/record as a band has maybe stayed with some people. We’re certainly happy that it at least has generated enough interest to allow us to do it all again, albeit sporadically, in more recent years. We genuinely feel very lucky to have been and still be a part of it all.
SP: What do you think of other punk but non Scottish bands using all this Celtic art on their records.
Angus: It’s well known that the Celtic culture was at one point spread over a lot of what is now Europe. The Mšecké Žehrovice Head, a carved stone head, found as far afield as Czech is a good example of this. There was also an extensive Germanic Celtic culture and of course the infamous Gaulish cultures of Brittany and modern France. Even within Britain it was certainly not confined to just Scotland. Although being widespread across the whole of Britain at one stage, it is still today the recognised cultural heritage of places like Cornwall, Wales, the Isle of Man and Ireland as well as Scotland. Not to mention the more ‘modern’ migrations of peoples from these areas to America and Canada where they still celebrate Celtic customs and culture today. So actually, I couldn’t have any issues with people using Celtic art on their records, even if I wanted to, as, for me, it doesn’t belong to any one specific group or country. As I said already, it seems to have been successfully adopted by a lot of different people within the wider punk ‘culture’. It fit’s in nicely. And some amazing record covers and t-shirt artwork has been produced as a result. If punk stands for anything it should be sharing, non divisive and inclusive and, maybe naively, I still think at it’s root this is what it encapsulates. But in saying that, it’s maybe easy to feel included from an able-bodied, hetero-sexual, white, male perspective.
SP: For some time you were not active in any band, kind of living your own life in Scotland. What was happening during this time and what triggered you to come back on stage?
Angus: I’ve already said above why we ended up back on stage with SEDITION the first time, but as for the time I wasn’t doing SEDITION, I was still making music. A year or so after SEDITION split, around 1995, I started playing in SCATHA with some other members of SEDITION and Disaffect, who’d also split by then. SCATHA was active on and off and with a few line-up changes until we finally split in 2001. Incidentally, Ainsley and I had our first child just as we started SCATHA and our second child just as we finished SCATHA. Both of them, of course, went on to form BRATAKUS! Our third and youngest child Darragh was born just as we resurrected SEDITION for the first time in 2008. This has just occurred to me while writing this. Again though, after SCATHA split, it was only a couple of years later that the first incarnation of T.R.I.B.E. happened. That was originally just Brian Curran and myself writing some songs but with the intention of recruiting a full band eventually. At that time though Brian was also playing in Ruin, who were already becoming quite active, recording and gigging, so Brian opted out of T.R.I.B.E., then in it’s infancy, to focus on Ruin. But a good few of the T.R.I.B.E. songs that were eventually recorded with a full band, without Brian, were originally written by Brian and me in that early stage. Eventually, with some members of Aberdeenshire’s notorious Bastard Son of Fud and Fastard, the second incarnation of T.R.I.B.E. were only active as a band for around a year or two, 2005 to 2007 maybe? In that time we played a good few gigs though, even making it to Europe for one gig. We also recorded a demo plus a split LP with Ruin on MCR Japan. After T.R.I.B.E. split as a band, I carried on, very sporadically, writing songs as T.R.I.B.E. until Brian and me started BRAIN ANGUISH. I had by then a couple of unused songs demo’d from that final incarnation of T.R.I.B.E., which at that point was just a studio project consisting of Johnny Disturbed on guitar, myself on vocals and a friend Gary played bass and programmed the drums. By then it was a pretty similar project to what Brian and me are now doing with BRAIN ANGUISH, in that Johnny would send me up guitar riffs which I’d chop up on computer and structure around lyrics then take it to Gary who would program a drum track and put bass on. We recorded demos of three songs like that before Johnny went on to resurrect and focus his time on The Disturbed, his old punk band from the 80’s. Two of the three songs we demo’d as T.R.I.B.E. have now been recycled as BRAIN ANGUISH songs. The other song from that time, as T.R.I.B.E., ended up on the ‘In The Spirit of Crazy Horse – Free Leonard Peltier’ compilation album on Kan Ar Briez records in Brittany. If you listen to that one song, Progress, which ended up on the compilation album, you can already hear the beginnings of what is now the BRAIN ANGUISH sound coming through.
SP: Despite being a tour manager, driver and a record label for BRATAKUS, despite the SEDITION plans, you also run a project with Brian Curran called BRAIN ANGUISH. Will we hear more from you apart from this one song on Bandcamp? Is it going to be a regular band?
Angus: We do have other songs, about 8 in total at the moment that we have been rehearsing when we can. Due to our work, family and other band commitments it’s difficult to get regular practice time and this has accounted for the slow progression of getting the songs the way we’d like them to sound. However, since sending these questions we have released another song and it’s also available on our Bandcamp page. But yes, we do intend to record everything at some point and make them available, hopefully an album. Our goal with BRAIN ANGUISH was always to do something we could make work on a live stage. So, being just the two of us this has taken a good bit of time trying to work out the best and easiest way to do it and still make it sound the way we want it to. Brian’s using a looping pedal for the first time, so took a bit of time to get his head around that, and I’m playing bass for the first time and have taken quite a bit of time getting my head around that. At the moment we have around 20/25 minutes worth of songs, enough for a gig I reckon. So for the time being we’re just playing those songs over and over as often as we can get together with the hope that we can get them ready and start gigging with them before the years out.
SP: Did you set up Screaming Babies Records to release BRATAKUS only to keep the DIY spirit or are you planning to release others, too, including SEDITION?
Angus: Yes, we did originally only set the label up to release BRATAKUS stuff. From the start they always wanted to keep it DIY, as that’s the scene they grew up in. So it made sense to release their stuff ourselves. Their first CD EP ‘Gigantopithicus’ was recorded at home too and then released through the label. They designed the fold out sleeve for it so they could also easily copy and fold it themselves. They hand fold the covers of every single one of those EP’s they’ve sold themselves, well over 500 copies now, I’ve lost count. Which for a small relatively unknown DIY band, at the time, only selling at their own gigs, with a few online sales, not counting digital, I think is pretty impressive. After that there was no question of whether to take the leap and do their album ‘Target Grrrl’ ourselves too. It just made sense. Although we’ve had a lot more outside help with distribution with the album. A lot of very cool DIY distros very kindly helped distribute it, which obviously helped a lot to get it out there. So, because of the success of the ‘Target Grrrl’ album alone, we’re now in the position where we can think about releasing other stuff. Although the speed BRATAKUS work at they might have another album ready to record before we get the chance to release anything else. I think they’re almost halfway there already! Anyway, as I said, next year will be the 30th anniversary of us starting SEDITION, so we will hopefully release/re-release some stuff to mark the event. To begin with, definitely, a 7″ version of the first SEDITION demo, recorded in 1989 and never released on vinyl. I recently found the original studio reel for this. Having only ever appeared on a compilation tape at the time and more recently the Flat Earth Records partial discography CD ‘End in the Beginning, Beginning in the End’. It was originally recorded as, what turned out to be, the last Chaotic Subversion demo, but by the time it was released we had already changed the name of the band to SEDITION, so it became the first ever SEDITION demo. So I reckon it’d be a fitting release for the label to mark the anniversary of birth of the band. Before that though, I’d really like to do a BRAIN ANGUISH album. We’ve enough songs already, although not all properly rehearsed yet, but we have the bulk of an albums worth pretty much worked out and it’s sounding pretty promising. We’re on the verge of starting to gig, soonish hopefully, so it would be good to have some stuff recorded too, we’ll have to see how it goes. Keep an eye on the Screaming Babies Records Facebook page for all updates though.
SP: SEDITION covered Ride On song, by an Irish musician, nothing to do with punk. What was the reason to do it?
Angus: We are all big fans of the original Christy Moore version actually. It was played a lot around different flats and houses we shared or visited at the time. I had the original idea of covering it and worked the basic structure out in my head and then the more talented members of the band had the job of translating it into a fitting tribute to the song. If I can hear a song work in my head and can relay it successfully, usually by humming, to the rest of the band, we can usually make it work in reality too. That particular song all hinges on the melody carrying through the song, but we also had to make it sound like a SEDITION song. Using the guitar to carry the melody, as in the original, just wouldn’t have worked for us. So when Brycey came up with the bass line the rest just fell into place after that. It’s very unlike any other SEDITION song in all ways but I think it does still have that SEDITION sound to it. And it still sounds enough like the original for people who know the original to recognise it. It’s still to this day a lot of people’s favourite SEDITION song.
SP: What do you guys do for a living? Keeping it self-employed or working for someone?
Angus: We all work in very different fields actually. Brycey works for Highland Wholefoods Co-Op near where he lives. Billy is a chef in a couple of food places in Glasgow. Martin works as a Civil and Environmental Foreman on building sites. I am a self employed graphic designer, as well as designing and producing my own t-shirts I also work on graphics, from afar, for Johnny Disturbed at John Moffat Print & Design in Glasgow.
SP: What can we expect from SEDITION in, say, the coming 2 years? Or at least, what are you wishes?
Angus: As I’ve mentioned above, we are hoping to do more gigs, write more songs, record and release more stuff and possibly throw in a few re-releases too. That is our hope of course. But in reality, for us, getting together to do this is something we really enjoy, we always have a good laugh when we’re together, at ourselves and each other. We get to travel and meet up with old friends and make new friends. It’s still fun at the moment, and as long as it stays that way I don’t see why we wouldn’t continue doing it for the foreseeable future. Or at least as long as we’re able!
Sonia Lord: www.instagram.com/sonia_penandink or www.facebook.com/sonia.penandink
Sean Fitzgerald: https://www.instagram.com/sean_fitzgerald_art/ or https://www.facebook.com/SeanFitzgerald.art
Kosuke Inoshiri: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/awendiyproducts/
Dominic Regan: Blog; http://gammahed.blogspot.co.uk/ or https://www.instagram.com/dominicregan/
Gail Coates: https://www.facebook.com/Gail-Power-Art-Design-1617868398498962/
Screaming Babies Records: https://www.facebook.com/ScreamingBabiesRecords/
BRATAKUS: https://www.instagram.com/bratakusband/ or https://www.facebook.com/Bratakus/
BRAIN ANGUISH: Bandcamp; https://brainanguish.bandcamp.com/