LOMM: Can you give a little biographical and historical info; who is involved in the band, and how did you guys meet up?
CLEGG: Ghosts of Men were looking for a drummer, so I asked my friend, Mike Von Beardingham if he knew of any one, as it happened, Ads had only just quit the band he was in and Mike put his name forward, we emailed, there were a few phone calls, telegrams, letters, dreams, picnics, we had a rehearsal, and WALLOP, he was in. Then Stav the bass player left, and there was the two of us. So, we rehearsed, and experimented, and we did some stuff, and some things, and one evening, we found out that we could be a viable two-piece rock ensemble without compromising on sound.
LOMM: Pandemic has taken an emotional toll on everyone yet the arts have been hit especially hard. The musicians are vulnerable to financial upheaval. How have you guys have been holding up?
CLEGG: Ads and I have both been lucky enough to have work, saying that, it’s mega mega rubbish not playing shows, and for some time, not even rehearsing. WAH!!! What a croc. Saying that, it’s also nice to not be ill, from the way they advertise Covid, it doesn’t look like any fun at all.
LOMM: On the other hand you seem to have had a productive time. Is that right?
CLEGG: Sort of, yeah, a week after making the album (EXHALE Available May 21st 2021) Covid became the height of fashion and the whole of England went into lockdown. So no gigs. We did sort out a few videos for an album WHAT WE MADE, and we have developed our acoustic show a bit more.
LOMM: Tell us about your genre, what does it means to you, why did you choose this genre?
CLEGG: We have NO idea what genre we are. We just make music, and that’s seems to be pretty smart. What Genre would you say we were? It’s some sort of rock, but that’s about as far as we get, what sort? Dancey? Heavy
LOMM: How did the initial musical and thematic elements evolve?
CLEGG: Do you mean thematic Elephants? Asthmatic debutants? Fantastic ambulance? No idea, they just kind of do. Im not really sure what our thematic elements are, but they sound great though don’t they!
LOMM: Are you happy with your product? What aspects of it do you think you guys nailed, and what parts do you think you could improve upon?
CLEGG: We are both happy with what we release, or we don’t release it. There are plenty of songs that get the chop at all sorts of stages between conception and performance and recording. Sometimes, things sound better recorded than they do as a performance, and vice versa. We do make sure that we can replicate live what you get from a recording. That’s important to us.
LOMM: How has the overall reception been?
CLEGG: Where I am at the moment, the reception is great. It has free coffee and a phone to use, and is decorated with some really quite nice art.
LOMM: Have you ever been on a tour? Given live performances? Is it tough for you not to be able to do so now?
CLEGG: So we got asked by someone at a festival what is was like being on tour a few years ago, we realized then that we spend most of the year on tour in the UK, we just clock up A LOT of miles, but it’s all worth it. Just before Covvy D kicked off, we had done European tour. That was ace, really good fun. Met loads of people, had some pretty silly times, went over a 20km bridge, fell down a pissy hill, got robbed, then unrobbed, supported Skindred, pretty standard stuff when you think about it.
LOMM: What is the next step for you? How is the future looking?
CLEGG: We are really hoping that all this Covid business goes away so we can start to play shows, we have already been booked for a lot of stuff later in the year, alot of it is roll over gigs, so rehearsing, writing, more rehearsing, and trying to get the album out there aswell. There is always lots to do in the GOM camp. We are trying to adapt as best we can.
LOMM: Could you tell us about the lyrics / themes /concepts you focus on or plan to focus on? How did the ideas come about, and how do they influence the writing process? Who is writing the lyrics?
CLEGG: We write about what ever pops into our heads. Ill start the lyric ball rolling, and start to jot some ideas down, when I get stuck I’ll ask Ads for ideas, unless he has some ideas pop into his head, and we try them out as well. Sometimes we don’t know what a song is about until the lyrics are done and we stand back and take a look, other times, we decide what to write about before we start.
LOMM: Who is composing the songs?
CLEGG: We both do. We try and be as collaborative as possible, we try out every idea we have to give the song the best chance, that seems like the most sensible thing to do. It would also be a bit rrrrrrubbish if we didn’t put the effort in, but the people who support us did.
LOMM: What bands do you draw your inspiration from?
CLEGG: WOW, the impossible question. We listen to such a diverse range of music, from Aphex Twin to Jedward, back through Cher and onto Aerosmith, turn left at the Prodigy and park opposite the Osmonds, wait there until Ms Dynamite gets in and go home, don’t forget to pick up some milk on your way back.
LOMM: Which is more exciting? Being on the road or studio?
CLEGG: They are both pretty exciting to be fair, but then, I find everything exciting. I recently got some new trousers, a track suit and three t shirts recently, I am still pretty buzzed.
LOMM: What first got you into music?
CLEGG: I just started doing it. A few key people encouraged me, and then I was hooked.
LOMM: What do you like the best about being a musician? And what is it that you do not like much?
CLEGG: The best thing is the good times, the worst thing is the bad times, and boy they can be bad, but then the good times are really good as well, which is opposite to the bad times. We have massively more good times than bad times, and they can happen at any time, time and time again. We can often be heard saying, “that’s good”, or just “good”, or similar.
LOMM: If you weren’t musicians, what would you be doing?
CLEGG: YOUR MUM. (not your mum, that’s highly impolite, and I bet she is a lovely woman, sorry.)
Ads used to be a County canceller; he would Travel about the county just cancelling stuff. I really wanted to be a quantities evener, so if someone had like fifty three of something, I would write it down as fifty four, or fifty two. I’ve got a linkd in page but no one has contacted me yet.
LOMM: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
CLEGG: Fairer payment from streaming companies. Fairer exposure for grassroots bands from social media. Better exposure of grassroots bands. More investment from the big music companies into grassroots venues and development of musicians. More capes. Free motorbikes. LASER BEAMS.
LOMM: What’s more important to you? Catering to the audience or music for its own sake?
CLEGG: It starts as a music thing, then once a song is done, we see what the audience thinks. If they don’t like it, we don’t play it. If they are kind enough to give up their time and attention to come to a show, then we try and give them a good time, which is what they want in the end.
LOMM: What is the most memorable gig that you have played to date?
CLEGG: There has ben a few, the massive crowds at Strawberry fair, or the guaranteed party atmosphere at Bearded Theory, or even our mate Tony’s house party. Actually, I would say that. We got a whole bunch of festival friends, and ourselves, and performed our full shows in our pals house for his birthday, we had a mega sound system and lights and all the things, it was raucous to say the least!
LOMM: When you look back your music career, what do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
CLEGG: Just being alive to be fair. Just, being, alive.
LOMM: Who would you like to collaborate with?
CLEGG: Anyone that’s interesting. We just did a track with our pal Sam from Samantics, that was great, we get on really well, and he is just so darn talented!!
LOMM: Who would you like to go on a tour with?
CLEGG: Any one really, it’s all a bit of an adventure isn’t it? I’m sure who ever we toured with, we would have an ace time and put on some really exciting shows.
LOMM: If you could play any festival in the world, which one would you choose? Tell us why.
CLEGG: Burning Man, or SXSW, because they look mad as a bag of hammers. What a weekend that would be, and they have so much good music, and all those little tents on the outskirts that have those special moments in, where you find that one band that just about rocks your flippin’ socks off.
LOMM: Name some of your all-time favorite albums? Include controversial ones.
CLEGG: These sorts of questions are soooooo hard!!!! I know lots of good albums, Songs for the Deaf, Rubber soul, Pump, I have a cover version album of Jimi Hendrix songs called STONE FREE that I love, it’s loads of different artists covering Hendrix tracks.
LOMM: What Country/Region are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?
CLEGG: Metal and Rock scene is pretty huge and thriving to be fair. There are loads and loads of really great bands at the moment, it’s hard to choose who to listen to next.
LOMM: You can invite 5 people to a dinner party, from the future, the past, rock stars, a movie characters, you name it. Who are you having dinner with?
CLEGG: Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, and Judge Judy Scheindlin. I would then tell them all to “grow up and sort it out”,whilst me and Ads can pop up the pub. Judge Judy would be mediating of course. She takes no crap from anyone, real or fictional.
LOMM: What is your weirdest memory in your music career?
CLEGG: Oh so many, German ladies singing mining songs at us? Falling asleep on a landrover roof rack, then going for an hour or so drive? The pissy hill? Losing Ads’s van? A lot has happened. None of it has been normal.
LOMM: What is the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
CLEGG: Whoopi Goldberg.
LOMM: If you had one message to your fans, what would it be?
CLEGG: GET OUT! HE’S BEHIND YOU!!!
LOMM: Anything else you think your fans should know?
CLEGG: You need to slap a chicken at 3725.95 mph to cook it with one slap. And, our new album EXHALE will be out on the 21st of May 2021
LOMM: Thank you for taking the time.
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