Smilex have performed with the likes of The Damned, Towers of London and Pretty Girls Make Graves over the last seven years, developing a fearsome live reputation in the process. They are currently working on new material for their new album, entitled La Petite Mort and due for release in 2010.
1.What do you think you sound like?
We have changed loads over the seven years we have been together. Previously it was short sharp shocks, all blood, sweat and carnage – now we play mostly slower sets of gentler and epic stuff, dotted with a few punkier tracks (there is much more singing and clean guitar nowadays!).
2. What do you do when you’re not making music?
I make yet more music and do various local music stuff… the others work hard. Real-life stuff!
3. Recommend us a good band or album and tell us what’s good about it.
The Lonely Island debut album is the funniest record in ages – a truly great comedy album!
I would also like to big up Chinese Democracy – what’s so good about it? Everything! Not least the debate it sparks, the way it has people spouting inane crap like ‘it’s no Appetite‘ or ‘there’s no Slash’ or ‘it’s too much money and time’ (like any band, let alone the one that made it, could make Appetite again! And who liked the last Velvet Revolver record? Was it your money? it only cost £10 to buy! Why did you not get on with your life in the meantime? What is the correct amount of time to replace every player, get new chemistry going and record dozens of songs?). Most people that slate it have not even heard it and if they have, listened with extreme prejudice.
4. Where did you get your band name from?
It is the name of the chemical the Joker (from Batman) uses to kill people for vanity and avarice, leaving them with hideous grins on their faces! Tim Burton then reused the name for the toothpaste company that employs Charlie’s dad in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – so I always worry that people will think we named the band after that!
5. What do you like and dislike about Oxford and its music?
Like: A continuous flow of new bands, making it always easy to discover fresh talent. Having a whole network of good musicians and talented (lovely) people on my mobile phone.
Dislike: A continuous flow of negativity towards my band just for having the nerve to continue! People that get wrapped up in the whole ‘scene’ thing and dehumanize themselves in the process.