WOBBLY BOB Interview for Huddersfield Student

How and when did the band form and end up with its current lineup?
I'm often worried these kinds of anecdotes are only interesting to the people to which they are happening...oh well. You asked the question, I blame you!
When I moved to Huddersfield around 3 years ago, I'd already been in a couple of Ska bands and knew I wanted to be in a band. I got a couple of opportunities to work with some Metal and Prog instrumentalists, and that was fun. I love that sort of music, as much as Ska, Punk or anything else for that matter. But playing that sort of music didn't make me as happy as Ska does. I met a couple of accomplished players in Halls, a bassist, Andy Moulster and our long time drummer, Jay Walshe. As soon as we started jamming together, I realised I'd forgotten why I love Ska so much. It's all about the rhythm, and saying "Yeah, the world's not in the best state right now; but screw that, let's dance like knob-ends!" In fact, Reel Big Fish have managed to get through 2 or 3 quite good albums without saying much else! Anyway, we got a horn section together and vocalist Garikai, (I wasn't all that confident a singer back then), and started playing gigs around Huddersfield. In the beginning we had, shall we say, a rather fluid roster. People came and went and it was very difficult to settle as a band and get that rapport that's so essential when performing onstage. Even up until quite recently, we were going through bassists like I go through guitar strings, but we seem to have settled on a definitive line-up now. Although we're always open to trying new ideas and new ways to achieve an original sound and style within our chosen genre.

What have you actually released? Names and dates! And can you buy them from anywhere?
Last year, we released an EP which we sell at gigs, and can be ordered by e-mailing us at wobblybobmusic@gmail.com
We are currently re-recording the EP for commercial release with some new tracks, remixes and other extra stuff; and are writing material for a full album so be on the lookout.

What/who are your main influences?
We try to listen to as many different artists and bands, Ska and otherwise, as possible, just to keep our music fresh. But it's impossible not to get regular influence from your favourites. We're big fans of Streetlight Manifesto, [spunge], Specials, Madness - all the staple Ska stuff, but lyrically and in composition I get a lot of influence from more unlikely sources. I'm currently listening to Newton Faulkner, Mindtrap, Theodore Shapiro, Lily Allen, Infected Mushroom, KT Tunstall, Avril Lavigne; a lot of Funk, Disco, Psy-trance and Folk - and it all goes into the creative mix. We're still definitely a Ska band, but we love trying new creative ideas all the time. The great thing is the fans seem to go where we go.

Who have you shared a stage with? Anyone big?
We've supported a whole tonne of bands - big and small, good and bad. But we've always had a good time. Last year we played with awesome Mexican Ska band, Los Kung Fu Monkeys. Absolute legends. We put them up for the night and partied HARD! Other names you might have heard of include: The Toasters, Jaya The Cat, Sonic Boom Six, Catch-it Kebabs, Fandangle and Billy No Mates (feat. Duncan from SNUFF!). There's more in the pipeline, but I'm probably not allowed to divulge.


What was your favourite Wobbly Bob show, and why was it so awesome?
We did a headline show at an awesome venue in Scarborough called Vivaz, which sticks in my mind because there was so much energy in the room. I think it was our best crowd so far. The stage was mint too: Massive lighting rig, a couple of Marshall stacks and an extra bit of stage jetting out at the front where i could walk into the crowd for a guitar solo :D We got an audience member to do a backflip off it to win a t-shirt! Ha ha!

Do you think there is much of a scene in Huddersfield? Who is doing the most to keep things going?
To freshmen in Huddersfield Uni, I can imagine it might seem on the surface that the Hudds music scene has died a death, what with the Union not putting bands on anymore. But venues come and go in Huddersfield just like every other town. It's difficult to get that mix of a decent sized venue, with varied music, that brings in enough of a crowd for them to break even. Venues like Abrahams and The West were always the stomping ground for fans of the local music scene in Huddersfield, but they eventually disappeared. When I moved here, it seemed like the music scene was dying out, but now we seem to have a revival on our hands. Since Stevo and the boys reclaimed Bar 1:22, and Mikey Shiraz took over the music side of things at The Parish, the scene is booming again! Ska aside, we've had some big names in recent months. Last year, MC Lars performed at The Parish, we've had The Hoosiers, The Music, The Subways and Noah and the Whale at The SU, Bar 1:22 played host to Enter Shikari a couple of years ago. It's all here on our doorstep! Even the World MC champion, Jack Flash lives in Huddersfield, and regularly performs at the poetry nights in Bar 1:22. It's all here, you've just got to be brave enough to venture off campus and try something new.

Ska is dead. Haven't you heard?
You might think so. Plenty of people do. But I don't think Ska is dead at all, it just moves from one demographic to the next. It's one of the most fluid genres of popular music. It has been fused with so many other genres over the years that what we hear now as Ska is wholly different from the original Mento and Calypso styles of Jamaican Ska in the late 1950s, early '60s. Right now we seem to be enjoying the beginnings of yet another revival: a fourth wave. Lily Allen's "Smile" got the teenyboppers skanking a couple of years ago and now we've got Madness and The Specials touring again. The background music in daytime TV and adverts seems to be nothing but Ska. Bit by bit it's clawing back into the charts, and personally I can't wait to be a part of this jumpy, happy, arms flailing, skanking revolution.

You guys do a whole lot of covers. Which are your favourites? And aren't you worried that the "ska band plays loads of covers" things is a bit of a cliché?
We have been asked this before. I think any genre of music has a schema - a list of things the audience expects to see and hear. As a band, it's our job to keep things interesting, and decide what to keep in that schema, and what to take out. We love playing Ghostbusters, Under The Sea, Power Rangers, and it gets the crowd dancing. As long as we don't rely on the covers alone to do that and keep writing bouncy tunes of our own, then I think it makes for a good gig. And after all, isn't that all that matters?

Where are you looking to go next with the band? Do you have any actual goals?
Well we've started up our own Production Company, Happy Tree Frog Productions (www.myspace.com/happytreefrogproductions), and we're recording stuff all the time. We're continuing the grown-at-home trend in Ska and Punk music. We're not all that interested in getting signed, unless it's under our terms, which is unlikely. So we plan to keep gigging, keep getting interest from fans and people in the industry, and keep releasing music and getting our songs to as many people as possible. I know a lot of people who just play in the hope that they'll 'get famous' or 'get to number one', but we don't care about that stuff. Of course it would be awesome to be a household name and whatnot, but that's when things start getting complicated. I love where we are now, and I can think of nothing better than getting up onstage, wherever that may be, with the boys and playing our music to however many people turn up, and having a damned good time in the process.

Several months ago, the wanton gratuitous blogging fitty and interweb whore, Paperlilies, attempted to quell her addiction to the internet and its numerous vices by going cold turkey for a whole week. One week without Facebook; 7 days without reading her e-mails, watching Youtube videos or guffawing at XKCD. Suffice to say, her mission failed. After less than 24 hours, she caved and began surfing once again. Imagine, therefore, my bewilderment when I found myself in the same situation. Only my predicament was not self-inflicted, oh-no! And not only that, but I had to be subjected to this webless void for more than a month. My poor MacBook has been bereft of its precious connection for so long, iAntiVirus just crashed while trying to 'update virus definitions'. Although I suspect that could be OS X telling me I shouldn't fill its time with such superfluous filth.

Many of you, I imagine, might say, "Oh, but Peter! Think of the wonderful opportunities you've missed while spending all that time on Facebook. Now's your chance to reacquaint yourself with real life!" And you'd be right. Partially. It's true, I have found myself with a lot more free time that would otherwise be spent online. And indeed, after a period of disorientation I started clawing back those precious hours lost to the Lolcats. I've got so much done! Moved house AND unpacked; built an Ikea flatpack bed, desk and wardrobe; sorted out my finances; done countless hours of housework and washing; I even started going to bed and getting up at semi-reasonable times. But the social world has completely shifted over the past couple of years - at least within my circles. Facebook is in most cases the sole relied-upon source for organising events and meetups, which means when it comes to going out, I'm sort of left in the dark at the moment.