Final Falkirk fan interview

End of the line…blood on the tracks

We’ve reached the end of the line with our chat with Graeme from The State Broadcasters but we’ve left the biggest (and best) to last. Today we are going to learn all about the band and some of the times football and music have overlapped for them.

So Graeme, tell us a bit about The State Broadcasters?

GB: We’ve been around for six years in a variety of different guises but its three-ish years with the current settled line-up.

That is our sound, we have a six piece line up and we released an album last year through Electric Honey. We’re quite happy with it and we are now at the stage where we are halfway through recording something else. Hopefully we’ll record an album but we have no label.

We do the recording ourselves, we’ll take our time and then use it to go to labels and say, this is what we want to put out, are you interested.

If we can’t get a label and the music industry is a fairly strange beast at the moment, we’ll look into releasing it ourselves as a download. You can do that fairly simply and cheaply but before all that, we are putting out a single in May. It is called ‘Dusty Record Collection’ and is the last thing we will be doing with Electric Honey.

GB: It’s a poppy commentary about a young man who is sexually aroused by vinyl records.

Well, that’s the interview done there I think!

GB: It is poppy and that means it won’t sit too well with some of the other stuff we are recording for the new album.

Cos everything else is miserable?

GB: No, not quite! This just has a different feel, it has rip-roaring drums and is a two and a half minute thing and I’ve always really liked having single only releases. Bands like The Smiths or New Order always released single only songs that didn’t appear on albums…until the compilation albums came out.

So I’ve always thought that was a really nice thing to do but unfortunately, we don’t have the money to do it as a physical single, hence why it’s a download. That could keep it true to that Smiths vision.

Does the single only release fit a wider vision for the band?

GB: Yes, cant you tell, there’s always been a huge plan for us! We have a massive wall planner in the studio where its all mapped out.

Yeah and then you get the A&R boys and the marketing team to chip in ideas.

GB: I just phone Max Clifford and he tells me what to do.

No, there’s never really been a plan and that has maybe been to our detriment. There was a period of time before and after the release of the album when we should have stepped it up a bit. We were doing a lot of gigs around Glasgow, people were coming to see us and we were getting a lot of play on the radio. We should have taken that opportunity to get down to London and play some gigs but for a variety of reasons, it never happened.

Maybe it won’t happen now but my preference is about the writing process. The performance element is my least favourite but these days, it is key to being a success. Recorded music is less vital to making a career unless you become a songwriter for someone like Cheryl Tweedy.

Some of your songs of broken hearts and love loss would be perfect for her new direction

GB: I could write her divorce album

I’ll get my people to speak to her people and we’ll have that sorted.

GB: Yeah, I can send her a text picture of my naked torso, which will be something for her, it will make a change in that relationship!

So, she’ll be a Dolly Parton man-hating, world-loving singer…that would go down massively well

GB: Haha, that’ll be excellent, I’m going home to write that album now.

That aside, should we expect any live shows around the single release?

GB: Probably not. I think we exhausted ourselves a bit, which sounds absurd as we weren’t playing every night but I felt we were going through the motions a bit…the short answer is probably not.

One of the best nights I saw you guys was in the G2 when Scotland best France at Hampden, do you have any other music and football mash-ups?

GB: We played a gig on the night of the Scottish Cup final last summer, the one Falkirk were in, so that wasn’t great for me.

Our very first gig, in the old Stereo at Kelvinhaugh, was the night after Greece won the European Championships, so a Monday night…the place was rocking!

We played in Bloc the night of the epic Champions League final that Liverpool won. We were meant to be playing when that game was on but it all got rather exciting so we ended up playing about midnight.

So yeah, we are intrinsically linked with football, which is kind of unfortunate.

We played in Aberdeen in the German World Cup, the day Argentina scored that amazing goal with all the passes. We had that and we had a band practice the night Rangers played the Uefa Cup final, so that was good we missed that. Is that not enough?

Have you had any footballers at your gigs?

GB: Probably not!

If you could write a song for a footballer, who would it be?

GB: It’d have to be Roddy Manley. My first Falkirk hero, it would have to be about his graceful elegance and his flowing locks, he was an artist as a footballer. However, there is probably more material about Crawford Baptie.

I’m amazed his name hasn’t come up yet, one of the standout names in the game, I was tempted to drop it in at some point!

GB: Astonishing he made a career out of being a footballer. He got sent off a lot. He got sent off in a game for a second yellow card and he claimed he got it because he was deaf in his left ear.

He turned his back on the ref and walked away but he claimed he was turning to hear the ref better. So a song about big Crawford would have a lot more to say.

To be fair, he was a great servant to the club and was the general manager at the club up until very recently.

It would be great though if that was true – if Crawford reads this interview and then thinks, “I am deaf in that ear and I’d thank you to not bring it up”

GB: Haha, yeah, sorry!

Could we draw any link between Morrisey and Baptie both wearing hearing aids as a reason why you liked them?

GB: Now you mention it, could be. I think Morrisey was a better footballer than big Crawford.

Some would say Crawford was a better singer…not me though….

Thanks very much for your time Graeme and all the best of luck for the single release and the fight against relegation!

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