Princess Drive
e-mail interview, November 2005

“Rock and roll adolescent hoodlums storm the streets of all nations. They rush into the Louvre and throw acid in the Mona Lisa’s face. They open zoos, insane asylums, prisons, chop the floor out of passenger plane lavatories, shoot out lighthouses, file elevator cables to one thin wire, turn sewers into the water supply, throw sharks and sting rays into swimming pools, in nautical costumes ram the Queens Mary full speed in to New York harbour, play chicken with passenger planes and busses, they shit on the floor of the united nations and wipe their ass with treaties, pacts, alliances.”
So said William Burroughs. And Princess Drive wish it had been written about them...

Princess Drive - who, what and why?
Who? Jah Pat (guitar, vocals), Tom (bass) and Nemo (beats).
What? We're just three normal kids stuck here, trying to escape through rock and roll.
Why? Because we're trying to make a difference to everything and anyone.

Describe your sound to a brain-dead, deaf, Burberry wearing alien.
I don't think he'd understand, but we're his favourite nobody teenage rock and roll guitar heroes. We're the sound of bored kids with nothing to lose, trying to make a difference to everything and anything.

Who are your heroes, musical and political?
Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Joe Strummer, Bruce Springsteen, Chuck D, Mohammed Ali, Jack Kerouac, George Orwell and William Blake.

What can you tell us about your track on the Dear Cambridge La La La CD?
'No Jail For Thought'. It's the soul of our philosophy, made from our bloodied fingers, sweaty palms and tuneless vocal cords. It's about trying to be yourself in a society which forces you to be anything but, which continually constricts you into a target market you when all you wanna do is run free. Given the title, it has obviously gained relevance since it was written. I don't care for guitar wankery but it has the best guitar solo ever.

Do you think that it's possible for projects such as Dear Cambridge La La La (and its launch gig) to undermine the way culture is controlled and popular tastes created?
If an event presents an alternative to the established, then it's undermining it. Whether it affects popular culture or not is down to the amount of people who take it on board, not a measure of the quality of the project. Music has always controlled culture, but popular artists choose to promote their own moral free egos than something worthwhile, which at least what we're all trying to do. "Dear Cambridge…" is such a great idea because it's four bands who all share genuine respect working together with a genuine sense of community.

Is there a place for CDs or is downloading the future?
You can't give free mp3s away at gigs, so as long as that remains CDs are perfect. Mp3s cost nothing to transfer though, all ours are on the website for free, and so are great to promote bands. But if you're a signed artist, controlled downloading's been the future for the last 8 years or so, it's just the braindead industry insiders were too conservative to acknowledge it. Now they've bothering to do something when they really should be concentrating on the quality of the music they're releasing.

What can people expect at your gigs?
Vain attempts to make a difference in a world that doesn't care. Some scissor kicking against the pricks. Words to open your eyes and your mind and music to kick you out of this. And enough rock star posturing to satisfy our demanding egos.

What are you reading?
I'm going through a beat period, Hunter S Thompson, and 'On The Road. Jah Pat says he's reading Crime and Punishment but he could be lying.

What do you listen to when hovering?
Bob Marley or Trojan reggae/dub. Maybe The Ramones, but they're more washing-up music.

Who would you want to hold in detention without trial for 90 days?
Genuine suspected terrorists who pose a ready and serious physical threat to innocent civilians when backed by sufficient and incriminating intelligence. U2. Bush & Blair can share a cell. John Gurney. The British National Party. Ricky Ponting. Conor McNicholas (NME editor). And Franz Kafka, just for poetic irony.

Who's best, Warren Feeney or Lee Trundle?
Fatty Trundle, because his name's a pun on his running style.

And of course, what's best, chips or cream buns???
Chips, silly.

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