An Interview by Uwe Filges with Steev Swayambhunath for EB Musik Magazin, Jan 1995.
An Interview by Uwe Filges Why have there been so many Line up changes, and what's happened to the people who left the band?
Dead Flowers is very much a real band, it's certainly not a project, we've done hundreds of gigs over the years. Really, most of the line-up changes occurred in the first couple of years when the band was still in its infancy and hadn't found it's true direction. The 'core' of the band, myself, Ferank, Chief, and Count Spacey have been together almost four years now, and have recorded two albums. The original 'Flowers metamorphised almost monthly for a couple of years, many people just couldn't handle the step up from 'local band' to doing big national gigs on support tours. Most of the ex-members have done little in terms of music with the exception of Psilosimon our original bass player who joined Drill, an industrial hardcore band, Simon Taylor our second vocalist and Graeme 'Thing' Swaddle were both 'on loan' from another band Gods Ultimate Noise to get us through the difficult period just before the first album, when we had many gig commitments.
What has changed in your music with the different LPs?
The first album was really a collection of demo's from 1989 to 91, and it was somewhere between garage, psychedelic, and early grunge. There was no real direction to the music at that time, it was just a lot of influences clashing together, and we had a reputation for being a powerful live band, so in many ways it's a disappointing album. It didn't capture our live sound, but there are one or two good songs on there.
"Moontan" was entirely different. I wrote the whole album in a frantic 3 week period of crazed inspiration, it just all came to me at once like it had been building up inside me for years, and the rest of the band put their bits in really quickly, it really just seemed to happen. I doubt we will ever do another album as together as that again.
"Altered State Circus" is much more a communal effort. For me it really 'Flows' much more, where Moontan was carefully constructed and planned and released and probably get's as near to our live sound as possible, "A.S.C." is more improvised and "Stoned". I suppose you'd call "Moontan" psychedelic grunge, big power chords and that; "A.S.C." is much more mellow and reflects where our heads were at the time. In many ways "A.S.C>" is a product of the studio, (Foel Studio in Wales) which was farmhouse in the middle of no-where, because we had nothing to do except make music and get stoned all day, and I'm really glad we managed to capture those magical improvised moments on record. I could play the whole of "Moontan" with my eyes closed, but some of the guitar / keyboard interchanges on "A.S.C." are snapshots in time, I couldn't tell you what we were playing and we probably couln't work them out if we wanted.
Can you tell us about the lyrics? Free The Weed for example.
You need to speak to Ferank about lyrics, he writes them, it's where his head is at. "Free The Weed"'s message is loud and clear, why should some fat old men in positions of power tell us what e can and cannot do with our lungs and mind. It's about the history of oppression and prohibition.
Why did you stop playing the drums?
Simple really. I stopped playing drums because I fancied having a go at playing guitar. I started playing guitar in 1987. I also played bass in one band called Treatment Room. I've only drummed on one recorded Dead Flowers track, "Piece of Sky" from the first album, but I've recorded stuff with other bands. Oh yeah! I also played bass with two other bands Zap, and Acid.
Tell us about the bands relationship with Crazyhead.
We'd only been together two months when we got the chance to play with Crazyhead. They loved us so much, that we ended up doing tour support with them for nearly two years. I'm still really good friends with "The Porkbeast". He's stopped playing sinc he left Crazyhead, which is a real shame. We had some crazy times together on the road, but that's another story.
Tell us about the psychedelic Club God in Newcastle.
Club God was the brainchild of Ferank and myself and was the main 'happening' event in Newcastle in 1988 - 1990. We took over the local club 'Riverside' and turned it into an indoor festival, with stalls selling crafts and stuff, Tipi's with didgeridoo makers, and two stages with 6 bands on per night. Anything from 60s garage to space-rock. We had people on like Ozric Tentacles, Nik Turner from Hawkwind, Thee Hypnotics, people like that. There was also a wealth of good local psychedelic bands at the time which culminated in the album 'Underground Newcastle' on our own Sonic Blue label.
You lived in India for a while. How has that changed your life? How did it change your relationship to your music?
I didn't live in India, I was a traveller. I went there to find myself, I suppose. Ever since I was a kid, when I saw all the hippies going out there in buses in the late sixties, I dreamed of doing the same. I travelled for many years but never made it to Asia. I lived in Berlin for a short time, and everyone in the squats there was going out to India and South America, just before the wall came down, so I vowed to go there. I finally made it in 1988, things were getting crazy in the band, with drugs and things and so I made my escape. Personally I'm much calmer since my trip to India, I was completely hyperactive before I went. I don't believe one single event like that can completely change you. I think it's a culmination of learning events through your life. I've always been 'pushy', motivating people to do things. I hate lethargy and inertia in humans, people who sit around and do nothing with their lives, and so I was always a motivator and I suppose I still am to a smaller degree, but India taught me to live and let live, you can't move what doesn't want to b moved!
Why did you change record company?
Mystic Stones gave us our big break and we'll be forever grateful for that, but Delerium is a much bigger label with an energetic management and we felt we needed a change if we were going to progress. We never fell out with Mystic Stones.
What can you say about the seventies aspect to your music?
I'd say it's all but disappeared now. We write from a Dead Flowers stand-point nowadays. We don't think ""Why don't we make this one sound like Led Zeppelin" or anything like that. I think that's the mistake a lot of European bands make, they try too hard to emulate their heroes. To me our songs sound like "Dead Flowers" songs, they just flow out, their is no conscious effort to sound seventies, or sixties for that matter. The first album was more like that though.
Tell me about the use of electronics in your music.
Well apart from a digital delay and a wah-wah pedal there isn't any! It's all absolutely live.
What's happening live?
I love playing live. We are a live band. We exude a lot of energy live which doesn't come over on record really. We don't have a light show. We just stick the amps on stage and go for it. There is a lot of improvisation on guitar and keyboards, sometimes it gets totally out of control - we just get lost in it, but there's no long boring solo's or anything like that.
We've played in Holland, Switzerland and Italy - mainly Holland.
What's the music scene like in Newcastle now?
Newcastle is dead as far as bands go at the moment. But there are some excellent Techno outfits here, and everyone is into Dance Music at the moment. I don't think that's a bad thing, I think Techno is the new psychedelic music, some of it is more psychedelic than some of the so called psychedelic music of the sixties and seventies. A lot of that stuff was pretentious.
What can you say about the network of psychedelic bands in the UK?
It's pretty good considering psychedelic music is pretty much underground. The parameters of what is and isn't psychedelic are very wide, so it's pretty together considering.
Do you think there will be a revival of psychedelic bands? If not why?
No. If there is, it'll probably be pretty sad. I'm not into pure revivalism. It never lasts very long. I think music should stand up and be counted in it's own right. I think there has always been an undercurrent of bands drawing there influences from the sixties and seventies, like us for instance, but you have to move on in time. I'd hate for "Altered State Circus" to go down in history as a 60s / 70s revival album. It's not, it's definitely 90s music. It's a cross between 60s psychedelia and 90s trance music and I think all future psychedelic music will move forward and evolve. Revivals are for sad people. We are only here once, you've got to make your mark in your own right. There'll never be another Syd Barrett or another Hendrix, it's impossible to revive all the conditions of that time which created that music in the minds of these people. There was an 'essence' to the 60s / 70s which is different from the 'essence' of the 90s.
What do you want from life
I want to be able to smile at people and for them to smile back. A smile is better than a million words. We've forgotten how to smile.
The Waterpistol incidentLeeds: What's On 1st July 1988.WEST YORKSHIRE police gave a warm Yorkshire welcome to a rock band from Newcastle who arrived in Leeds on Monday - the startled musicians were arrested at gunpoint in a real life city centre drama.
Gun-toting police swooped on Call Lane, surrounded the band's van, and ordered through a loud-hailer: "Come out with your hands up!"
The four members of The Dead Flowers plus three friends were lined up against a wall at gunpoint before being taken to Millgarth police station.
And the cause of this Starsky & Hutch activity? Members of the band had been seen with water pistols!
Red-faced police officers freed them without charge after keeping them in the cells for five hours
The band were due to play at the Duchess, Vicar Lane, on Monday evening, and they arrived in Leeds with several hours to spare. They parked their van on Call Lane - oppsite Fat Freddy's cafe, and just around the corner fromLOP House.
"They've been here most of the day," workers at Fat Freddy's told LOP afterwards. "They were really friendly and very polite. They were dead nice."
Some of the bands went to a nearby shop and bought some water pistols, which they were going to use onstage during their performance.
The band have been touring with Crazyhead, and both bands have been engaging in water pistol fights at the end of the gigs.
"They came in here to fill them up", a worker at Fat Freddy's told LOP. "There's no way anyone could mistake them for real guns, because one was day-glo pink, and another was day-glo green."
LOP workers and visitors to LOP House also saw the water pistols - which were obviously plastic and very obviously water pistols.
However, at around 4 pm on Monday afternoon the police swooped. Driving the wrong way up the one-way Call Lane, three blue vans and four patrol cars blocked both ends of the street as armed officers moved in.
At least two officers trained revolvers on the six men and one woman who were ordered to spreadeagle themselves against the wall of Fat Freddy's.
With guns still pointing at them, all seven were taken one by one and placed in a police van to be driven to Millgarth. The band's van was then seized by police and also driven to Milgarth.
After five hours in the cells all seven were released without charge - although a police spokesperson says two of them may be reported for a breach of the peace. The van was also released, although 12 water pistols were confiscated.
But by then it was too late for the band to perform, and they set off home for the North East.
LOP understands that the police were called by a woman from the offices of Mount Charlotte Hotels, situated at the junction of the Calls and Call Lane - who saw (through two lots of windows and across a street) the band members sitting in Fat Freddy's playing with the water pistols and presumably thought they had real guns.
Detective Fairhurst was sent to investigate. He went up to the office window, took a look, and radioed for the armed squad to move in.* The officer in charge of the operation was Inspector Cromack.
The police are being rather coy about this plain-clothes observation of the event. Their official version is that they received several calls from passing motorists who thought guns were being pointed at them - and that they moved in because they were genuinely fearful for public dafety.
Police spokespeople insist on describing the water pistols as 'imitation firearms'.
Certainly the police who moved in, presumably acting on information supplied by Detective Fairhust, were keyed-up and thought they were dealing with a potentially dangerous situation.
"There's been an incident and I'm just trying to protect you from injury," a uniformed officer said, pushing an inquisitive LOP reporter in the chest.
But, remembering the child in Birmingham shot dead in his bed by an armed police officer making a mistake, the only risk of injury on Monday was from the real guns in the hands of the men in uniforms.
Last year, firearms were issued to police on 84 occassions for 'operational incidents' in West Yorkshire. 197 officers in the county are currently authorised to be issued with guns.
* This is not the first time that Defective Fairhusrt has been involved in an incident which was not quite all it seemed at first. In August 1984, when he was still a uniformed constable, he arrested a LOP photographer. Three years later West Yorkshire police ended up paying her £2,000 in an out of court settlement after civil proceedings for wrongful arrest were begun.
SoundsOzric Tentacles / Dead Flowers / Deep
Newcastle Riverside
IT's CLUB God night down at the ever-inventive Riverside. These monthly events involve stalls, light shows and people sitting all over the place giving off a real festival vibe - hell, they've even flooded the toilets for that real authentic touch.
The bands generally have something of a 60s edge and Deep are no exception. Their synth / guitar swirlings are gradually outgrowing the Spacemen 3 references and comparisons with Loop are unfair - they're never that long-winded.
Highlight of the night are the grunge-a-boogie-dirtrock heroes Dead Flowers, complete with flying dreads, monster riffs and a bit of banter with the punters to stop the atmosphere getting too heavy. The Dead Flowers are looking for a permanent drummer - successful applicants must be prepared to remain out of sight for most of the set, hidden from view by viking singer Ferank's expansive stomping.
Ozric Tentacles don't generally go in for such rock trappings as touring and were apparently tempted this far north only by the Hadrian's Wall mushroom harvest. They create an atmosphere helped on by a haunting flute. But when they start talking about gazelles jumping through the stratosphere it's time to leave - anyone still comprehending after this point should consult a doctor. (Kriss Knights)
DiscoveredSheffield University Maze Bar
...They are preceded by Dead Flowers, four lads from Newcastle whose sound is a blend of hard rock and psychedelia. Their guitarist, Mandrax Baba Swayambhunath (dodgy pseudonym) is a fine mover, twisting and shaking, dreads flying through the air. It is a shame that they are most notorious for an incident last summer supporting Crazyhead when they were arrested by armed police in Leeds for possession of water pistols, and not for their music, which is equally entertaining. Two cover versions. Hendrix's Fire and The Doors L.A. Woman. With any other band this might be a cliche but not Dead Flowers. Thrashy and original, justifying their biography's description of "raw and happening".
Dead Flowers - BiographyDead Flowers have gone through some fairly severe transformations since the heady days of 1987 / 88 when Crazyhead took them under their wing to give them national exposure, and much needed live experience. They began as a garage psych outfit with Steev on drums, Noy and Graeme Swindon (both members of Steev's previous band "Acid" who recorded a single called "Shout" that brilliantly predated the psychedelic dance scene as early as 1984) and "Psylonsimon". After various line up changes and a mere nine months the band reached number 10 in the Sounds new bands readers poll, but such a rapid rise took it's toll and the band lost their lead vocalist Noy shortly after the release of their debut single "TV"/"Fallout". A year later, with a new line-up, the band hit the press again, but unfortunately not because of their music. The lads became nationally infamous when every major paper from the NME to The Mirror told the story of their arrest in Leeds, by armed police who thought they were terrorists armed with guns. The band were infact armed with waterpistols, and were playing a prank on Crazyhead, with whom they were on tour with at the time. After a night in the cells, they were told by the police never to visit Leeds again... The bands gigging partnership with Crazyhead ended when Steev left for India.
It was a few years later when Steev - now called Baba - returned from India and the band began recording with a refreshed lineup that included Ferank Manseed on vocals, Baba Swayambhunath on lead guitar, Mark McIver on bass and "The Thing" on drums. Based around their Club God in Newcastle and a gradually evolving lineup the band had developed a much more psychedelic sound with space rock influences that oozed originality. The first album on Mystic Stones "Smell The Fragrance" was a collection of material recorded by various line-ups and had a heavy acid guitar sound whilst the second "Moontan" was highly praised by many publications all over Europe and a number of gigs in Holland went down very well indeed.
In May 1994 the 'Flowers went into the studio, with a new member Chris on keys, to record their first album for Delerium. It has proved itself to be their greatest work to date. "Altered State Circus" is an almost perfect fusion of ambient trance music and psychedelic rock....
Altered State Circus - Press ReleaseHold the Bullshit! This is the real thing! Newcastle's Dead Flowers bring you their third album and indeed what a sticky fusion of in your face, slicing acid grunge, drifting hallucinatory ambience and intergalactic head piracy it is!
Altered State Circus is a state of the art trip from the campfires of Glastonbury, through sweating raves and onward to the clear mountain air of Nepal. Ride this cyberspace chill out wave through acid guitar heaven on a smoking spliff riff. Free the weed!