From R*E*P*E*A*T Issue 7...

Silver Sun, Bedford Esquires, 2.11.96

Silver Sun finished off a memorable evening at The Falcon on this year's Camden Crawl and have recently re produced this welter of Firebird and surfcaster guitar tamed only by desperate harmonies on the singles 'Lava' and 'Last Day' Given this, Rosey (R) and Jason Freeboy (J)(whose snare drum saved the day for Silver Sun when they played in The Falcon) could hardly keep away when they visited Bedford.

Hey, can you send out some fliers for us?
* Sure, but I thought Polydor would pay people to do that for you...

* (R) So the boring question, Silver Sun, who what and why?
There's Richard who plays bass and does backing vocals, James who plays guitar and sings, Paul who plays guitar and Richard who plays guitar and sings. What ? London, the nineties, sexy motherfuckers (although we've never actually done that ). And why ? Why not ?
* (R) That's what everyone says.
* (J) That's 'cos it's the right answer! -

* (J) Did you get your snare drum fixed after it broke at The Camden Crawl?
(R) It wasn't mine, that was the point, I used a rental kit which had had ten bands wacking the crap out of it so it was knackered when it broke.
* (J) Ahh, we used our own snare . I reckon someone sabotaged it, maybe Helen Love 'cos they don't use a drum kit.
They'll have to do a lot more than that! People enjoyed that gig. They didn't even notice the gap.

* (R) How has signing to a record company changed things, have you been pressurised at all?
We've had no pressure to do anything, we just drift in there and say "Can we do this please?" and they say "Oh alright then" and so we do. All the covers...
* (J) Well stop right there as I was going to ask if you had any say over your artwork ? Whose ideas are they?
(J) Well the first one was a sort of mixture, for the second one I said that I really wanted to have a picture of the band on a beach. They're painted by a guy called Geoff who did loads of '70s ones like Whitesnake and Wings, and we're lucky as we tell him what we want and he does us some sketches while he's on the tube and we go 'We'll have this one ', and he just colours them in and sends them off.
* (J) You could bring out a colouring book.
Good idea, for ages 35 and up, and a dot to dot…
* (R)So whose was the clever idea of having the rolled up newspaper on the Lava sleeve with the headline about you having to change your name?
That was Geoff's idea. To start with we were annoyed that we had to change our name from Sun to Silver Sun because of a German band called Sun who wouldn't let us release any records or make any money from them, but at the end of the day it's not that bad, we haven't all ha to have blue noses or anything!
* (R) The new name is better, I think.

* (J) Did you buy all your nice equipment before or after you were signed?
Before we were signed. We had our amps and Firebirds and Surfcasters before. We all sold our souls to Satan to get them. Now we can afford to buy all the same again. None of the stuff we've got is expensive, Firebirds can be really cheap as no one really wants them though they may become trendy now Space have got one.

* (R) If you were a TV character, who would you be?
(J) Tom Baker who was Doctor Who
* (J) So you could do the voices in the adverts..
(P) Dirty Harry.
(R Bass) If we could include film people, Clint Eastwood
(B drums) I'd be a cross between Snaggle Puss and James Bond.
* (J) So would you be pleased if Steven SpieIberg wants to commission a cartoon series about you?
No, because we've had enough of being portrayed as cheeky chappies. But Ingrid Bergman making serious black and white film, that would be much better than ending up like The Monkees or something.
* (J) Oh I'd like that, I think it would be great!

* (J) If your tour could be sponsored by someone, who would it be ? For example, I'd be sponsorded
by Kellogs and Wotsits.
(J) Playboy.
(R drums) Kellogs is a good one, I LOVE cereals!
- (B Bass) I'd go back to my roots and say Kay Guitars and Axe.
(J) Safeways Savers. Or Woolworths. Test ~
(R Bass) Holsten or Rizzla.
(F) I'd be sponsored by one of the major French wine houses.

* (R) Are you pleased with the press reaction you're getting?
Yeah, we can't complain, the main magazines and weeklies have been very kind to us So far! Luckily they haven't built us up too much so hopefully they won't be able to cut us down. And we've talked to lots of fanzines.

* (J) Who produces your stuff, 'cos we notice a big difference between 'Lava' and the last single.
-Well, the last one was done in a rush without too much of a say from us by different people, this one is produced by Nigel Godrich . It was his first real production duty but he is now working on the Radiobead album.
*(J) After hearing your first single I wa going to offer to produce you, but I don't think I'll bother now!
The next single, Last Day, will be another step on, like the REO Speedwaggon glossy production.
(J) I think Ric Ocasek from The Cars who does Weezer's stuff, I think his style would suit you.
Yeah, we double track everything, and it takes time to get people used to the idea that we do that.
* (J) It was a standard thing once, wasn't it?

* (R)Got any more questions before I have to do the last one, what's best, chips or cream buns?
(J) Chips, I can't eat cream, it makes me gag!
(P) That's a good question, I go with cream buns cos of the variety you can have.
(R and R) Cream buns!
* (R) Well, you're all going against the trend of our bar chart in issue 6! Thanks very much, there's only ten minutes til you're on!
(J) That's a point!
(P) What sort of cream buns can I have? Elephants feet?

At this point the discussion disintegrated into an argument about patteserie, until the band were reminded that it was time to leave their lovely tour bus and enter Esquires. Thanks to them for agreeing to this unscheduled interview, and to Erika at Revolution for sorting us out.

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