Eat the Dirt

Some things in the world just do not mix well together: chicken and ice cream; fire and petrol; The X Factor and recording contracts. One would also imagine that the ingredients of pop, goth, indie, glam, grunge and metal music would not produce a very appetising metaphorical cake. That is, however, until one samples Nottingham’s Patchwork Grace from the buffet of new artists emerging on the scene. Blending the aforementioned styles and more, the band delivered their fresh, soulful debut ‘Milk Teeth’ in 2007. Tori Trash’s vocals range from cutesy and apologetic on the pop ditty ‘Zebra’ (a cheerful ode to teenage dottiness) to raw and unsettling on the haunting ‘Nancy’ (lamenting the death of Nancy Spungen), while the guitar and drum work of Carl Crip, Joey Strange and Danny Gunn flow from minimalist beats to crushing walls of distorted chaos. The four members of the group – with a collective age of just 83 – have created a sound that is entirely their own (like many new bands fail to do at the moment), even putting their own twist on a cover of The Cure classic ‘The Lovecats’.

As the rain fell, the guys – and gal – took some time to chat about being at the forefront of the UK’s underground music world.

Hello Patchwork Grace. How is life on tour?
Tori [Trash, vocals]: Awesome!
Crip [guitar]: It’s been brilliant, yeah.
Joey [Strange, bass]: Better than the weather.

It’s summer in Scotland, what did you expect? What’s it like touring with Acey Slade again?
Tori: It’s really nice to catch up with him and see him again. We toured with [Acey's previous band] Trashlight Vision about two years ago. We’ve kept in touch with him on-and-off, and then he asked if we wanted to do this tour. We were really excited about it.
Crip: Also, it’s awesome to tour with such a friendly band. They’re always talking to us, making sure we’re alright. It makes everything a lot nicer.

How was your show tonight?
Crip: I really enjoyed it. I think it was the best gig that we’ve ever had in Glasgow.
Tori: It’s weird, but when you’re on tour, it takes a couple of days to get into it; everyone’s really tired, everyone’s still getting to know each other. I think tonight was the breaking point, and hopefully it’ll just get better and better from here.

You guys are really starting to make a name for yourselves in the British underground scene. How has it been gaining such popularity?
Crip: Up-and down over time, actually. It’s been quite bizarre; when we started out, we were playing to no one, then all of a sudden there were one hundred people, then there were fifty, then there were two hundred, then there were seventy… it’s been all over the place!

Was the popularity expected?
Tori: No, not really. I mean, we just play what we like, and if people like it too, that’s awesome. I don’t know how popular we are, to be honest, but I’ve enjoyed it so far.

Was it hoped for?
Crip: It was more of a hobby when we started. We were shit, but we’ve got gradually better. We’re not shit now, we’re just awful. In ten years we might hit the ‘okay’ mark, so in twenty years, we might be pretty good!

Do you still feel like a local band who have been given a support slot, or do you feel like an established band?
Tori: I feel like we’re an established band, one that have been lucky enough to be given a support slot with another established band that we’re really into.
Crip: It’s good that people have been coming to see us as well as Acey. A lot of the fans have seen us play together before, so it’s cool to catch up. It’s like one big happy family.

Your MySpace page has been updated with some new songs. Does this mean a new album is in the works?
Joey: Not at the moment. We’d love to do one, but we’ve got no one behind it.
Tori: We have a couple of indie labels looking into us. Hopefully one of them will pick us up. We’re hoping to release a single or something later in the year. We worked with Jon Astley, who’s worked with Tori Amos, Kate Bush and The Who, to name a few. He mastered our new tracks. We were really excited to be working with him, and we’re very happy with how the recordings turned out. We’ve not had many gigs this year, so we’ve been concentrating on writing new material, and trying out different things to see which direction we want to go in.

Your music has a very eclectic style, from dance-able pop to dark grunge. Are you interested in experimenting with any other styles in the future?
Tori: We all have very different influences, which I think helps us make the kind of music that we do. We don’t want to be put into a niche, so to speak.
Crip: We don’t really plan anything, we just come up with stuff. It’s just dark and dirty pop.

What’s next for you after this tour?
All: Sleeping!
Tori: As I said, we’ll hopefully sign to a new label and get a single out. We might also do another tour, if we can get decent support for it.

Tell us about your music videos.
Tori: The video for ‘Soap’ was on television, and it’s awful. I fucking hate that video.

It reminds me of the Robinsons juice advert, where the juice dances around in the water.
Tori: But we’re not selling juice! I really, really hate that video.
Danny [Gunn, drums]: We should get a sponsorship from Robinsons!
Tori: I love juice.

And what about the video for your cover version of The Cure’s ‘The Lovecats’?
Crip: It featured cats being shoved in bass drums!

Have P.E.T.A. been in touch about that?
Tori: No, the cat loved it!
Joey: It was the director’s cat. His name was Chunk.
Danny: We love cats more than people. For the record, we don’t condone animal cruelty. Unless it’s towards Crip.

Have you had any feedback about the single from Robert Smith [The Cure frontman] or his band?
Tori: Apparently he likes it, which is good. We had quite a lot of feedback from other people about it too, a lot of people liked it, but a lot of people hated it too. I’m glad about that though, I’d rather people had extreme emotions towards our music, be it love or hate, rather than thinking we ‘weren’t bad’.

Are you happy with your level of success, or do you plan world domination?
Tori: We’re forever aiming higher.
Crip: Maybe not world domination, but as long as we can afford to eat.
Joey: We’re not bothered about Africa.
Crip: No, I’d love to play Egypt. We could do a gig on the Sphinx!

And before we go watch Acey Slade, do you have any funny tales from the road?
Danny: Nah…
Joey: We’ve spent way too much time in the van, sleeping…

How boring.
Danny: Hey, it’s only like, the third day!