Okay, why did the Pixies do it for you?

My friend's big brother had this cassette and I remember going to listen to it in a car because I'd been curious about them.

Whenever we had our first band with Mark from Ash, we had this band called Vietnam.

It was kind of trying very hard to be a metal band in school and we...

We did a gig in the school assembly hall and there was another band played the show.

And they were a few years older than us and a lot cooler.

And they were called Laser Gun None.

But tell us what the King's Hall in Belfast, when they play there, is your favourite gig?

yeah

um but we sort of i don't think i ever crossed our mind to like quit or you know we were like determined to sort of come but you know come back and survive if we could so uh you know we really dug deep and then luckily thrill angels kind of gave us you know we had another big hit with that album and that sort of think having sort of early on like had gone survived the rocky periods that sort of gave us strength in other times in the future but i guess the other big time i sort of worried like would they be able to survive was um you know just i guess just the whole death of a cd kind of you know time you know when like yeah you know like napster was like you know it's just and all the and around that time yeah i guess we were we sort of, you know, we left Warner Brothers and then we were off to do our own thing, you know, on the A to Z series.

And yeah, that was sort of like, that was maybe, that was another quite wobbly time.

And I was like, I don't think we've ever felt like we'd ever, we never sort of thought we want to quit or being sick of each other or anything like that.

It's always just been like, will we be able to survive doing this, you know? And somehow we've always managed to.

Oh,

yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

you that must have been crazy being on top of the pops traveling all around the world as a teenager when most people your age are just trying to figure out what they're going to do after school and try and find a job and how they're going to live their life so what was that like for you did you understand at the time how big that was for you were you just rolling with it

yeah yeah yeah it was massive like I did my final school exams, and two days later, we were playing Gut Fastenbury.

And then a few weeks later, we were on Top of the Pops.

And Gulf of Mars was like a hit single within a month of leaving school.

And we'd put out a mini album while we were still at school, and we put out some singles.

So things just bubbled under the surface, but it just all took off.

And yeah, I guess I saw my...

We identified as something else.

And by the time you'd finished the album, had your view of Owen changed?

Well, not really.

Like, I, I guess we quite, we worshipped him.

He would be, um- He would have mood swings.

Like he would all of a sudden, like leave the studio sometime.

You know, there, I think there was a couple times we had to like coax him back 'cause he, he was having like breakdowns as well.

[laughs] So, uh, it's kind of funny being like 19 years old trying to like give therapy to, [laughs] to this grown-up about, you know, like, you know, encouraging him back.

Did success arrive before you really worked out who you are? And at that, and at that time, you know, did it feel brilliant, terrifying, or just too fast to understand what was going on?

Yeah, brilliant

...

I was on this big Ramones and Jackie Chan binge.

And, uh, yeah, just at the end of rehearsal, I was like, I had had this line in my head.

You know, sometimes, like, just one line will s- will, you know where you wanna go with a whole song.

And, um, I think it was just, they got their kung fu, do what you do to me.

I was just like, "Oh, I li- I like the rhythm of it." And I was like, I just, I knew I gotta write a song really quickly.

... that is not an indication of a very good state of affairs in your head.