Auch wenn ich es mir im Nachhinein selbst nicht erklären kann – ich war tierisch aufgeregt vor dem Telefonat mit den Sleafords. Das wird das wortwörtliche “kalte Schulter-Zeigen” dachte ich mir, die wollen ja niemandem gefallen, schon gar nicht im Promo-Auftrag. Mit der Einschätzung lag ich falsch: Punk-Musiker haben eben auch unter Vorannahmen ihrer Mitmenschen zu leiden. Naja, so leidend wirkte Jason zum Glück gar nicht. Ganz im Gegenteil: Der Typ auf der anderen Seite der Skype-Leitung war überaus herzlich und gut gelaunt. Im Gespräch ging es dann um die neue Platte, Tapas und Invisible Britain.

In another interview you said that you felt like a total loser in your last job and that this was a reason why you started the whole Sleaford Mods – thing – Do you now feel like a Robin Hood or something?
Jason Williamson: No, I mean I give no money to the poor, not really. I probably donate some money to food banks on christmas but I don’t feel like a Robin Hood. I feel happy that I make something good out of my terrible life.

You quit your office job a longer time ago. Does the job as musician feels like a real profession?
J: I kind of use to it now. It was a bit of a shock for the system and I felt guilty. Why is it me, that don’t have to go to work anymore. All the people are kind of back where there were, working miserable. But I am over it now. I had to learn to like myself and enjoy the success for a change.

Is there a certain goal which Sleaford Mods wanted to attain?
J: To offend people. To write good music, to make it matter.

I think the most people ask you about all the political aspects in your music but besides: how is your bandroutine working? I mean how do you two write songs and bring them to stage?
J: Andrew sends me the music and I work on it at home. Then I will record ideas in my phone and bring them to the studio. Later on we start working on it – that simple it is.

I’m really impressed of the way you bring his lyrics into a rhythm, I mean it’s not rap or sing – How does that work, do you had to learn a special technique or something?
J: No it just came with practise, it came out to listening to a lot of rap and punk music.

Your new album is calling ‘English Tapas’? What does that mean? Aren’t Tapas a typical spanish thing?
J: Andrew went into a pub one day and saw ‘English Tapas’ on the menu board and laughed his head off. What a stupid thing – english tapas. It was a bowl of chips, half of a scottish egg and some french sticks. And this says everything about us – it’s crap, it’s ignorant, it’s cheap and horrible. We thought it was a perfect title for the album: A symbol of the demise of England.

You are now on Rough Trade Records – how did this change come? Was it time for a bigger label?
J: We didn’t think it was but then we got approached by Rough Trade. They asked us if we want to work with them. We thought about it and figured out that it might be worth. They would be able to get us to bigger countries – independently we didn’t get the infrastructure to go to places like America. Rough Trade offered us a deal that didn’t mess with the creative process, which was important for us.

There is a Sleaford Mods movie to come, I think in the next weeks, right?
J: Yes, tonight!

How did that happen and what can we expect from that?
J: We had a film crew on tour, a woman called Christine Franz who works for arte-TV. She followed us around about two years filming us. It’s quite hard to watch, really! It’s quite depressing but also very good – a real unglamarous and realistic portrait of a band working over a two-year period.

Just for later: Is there a special scene where we should be very attent by watching?
J: No, all of them are horrible, haha! No, the whole film is really good..

I’m excited to see it…
J: Should be out soon!

Christine Franz is a german journalist – do you have a special relation to Germany, especially the german punk scene?
J: Yeah, because we made our name here – before England start taking notice. We played first in Germany, Belgium and France.

When we listen to your music, we hear anger. Do you feel this attitude every time on stage or is there also a kind of easiness in your music?
J: There is lots of humor and chaos. And making fun of being a amateur – a bit of sadness and anger.

Thank you so much!

SLEAFORD MODS – English Tapas
VÖ: 03.03.2017, ROUGH TRADE RECORDS

Deutschland-Tour:
10.05.2017 Freiheiz, München
12.05.2017 Manufaktur,Schorndorf
14.05.2017 Schlachthof, Wiesbaden
15.05.2017 Essigfabrik, Köln