More on: We Are The Physics

We Are The Physics are to release their debut album 'We Are The Physics Are OK At Music' on 5th May.

With a single, 'You Can Do Athletics, BTW' out on 21st April, we caught up with the Glasgow quartet when they recently supported The Research in London. We got Michael, Michael, Michael and Chris to tell us about their film club origins and how they aren't actually any good at science.

So, how did you form?
MichaelSinger: We all where we all used to watch horror movies in Glasgow, where we all would watch horror films at Halloween. We all liked the same sort of films, so we thought we'd start making some films! So we started making films and we were really bad! Horror, sci-fi, comedy...
MichaelGuitar: It was basically us just beating each other up.
MichaelDrums: It wasn't even as simple as that.
MichaelSinger: We weren't very good at making films. We weren't very good at making music either... We started making the songs as soundtracks.

Have you evolved at all since the band formed?
MichaelDrums: We've become a bit more confident on stage, that's been the biggest change.
Chris: We didn't used to talk to the audience. Maybe that's because there was no audience...
MichaelGuitar: Our music's quite stop and start and intense, so you need to be confident in what you're doing or it doesn't come across as well.

Have you ever actually been in a physics club?
MichaelSinger: We were rubbish at physics at school.
MichaelDrums: My dad's a science teacher, and I feel so ashamed.
MichaelGuitar: Michael [singer] reads science books!
MichaelSinger: I'm so afraid someone's going to ask me about physics, so I have to know it. My ability is so bad, if someone asked me the simplest question I would have no idea.

You coined the phrase "mutant science punk rock" - who is your favourite mutant in history?
MichaelSinger: Cher is my favourite mutant.
MichaelGuitar: Celine Dion!

So, tell me about recording your album - who with, where?
MichaelSinger: We recorded it with our scary pal Ross. [laughs] He came to one of our first gigs and he had his own studios, so we went with it.
Chris: Even though we thought he was weird!
MichaelSinger: He's a lovely guy. We've loved everything he's recorded so far.
Chris: He understands where we're coming from.

My mum always grumbles that she feels exhausted listening to music of your ilk - how do your families react to your tunes?
Chris: I say to them "I've got an album coming out", and they're "oh, that's good". They're not on the same level.
MichaelSinger: They're not stupid! To me, selling out a venue is amazing, but I think she thinks we're much bigger than we are. Michael's [drums] family quite likes our music.
MichaelDrums: My whole family like the album, and they come to the gigs wearing t-shirts and stuff.
MichaelSinger: Michael's family is so big, the first time they came to a gig - they were the crowd.
MichaelDrums: There was no-one else there, it was just my family.

You went to Russia last Autumn - how was that?
MichaelGuitar: Absolutely incredible.
MichaelSinger: We went to see Lenin, even though he's a dead corpse.
MichaelGuitar: As opposed to a live corpse.
MichaelSinger: His coffin is out, and there's military security, and you can't put your hands in your pockets.
MichaelDrums: We were there for a festival, and there were Russian bands as well.
MichaelSinger: It was a real mix of people. A lot of people were saying they'd never seen a band like us before. Which was quite good, as there are a lot of bands like us. [laughs]
Chris: We were told we were the loudest band that had ever played. The sound engineer at the venue was shocked as we were the loudest thing he had ever heard!
MichaelSinger: They liked the fact that we were called We Are The Physics and some of our songs are related to physics. Someone was telling me that in the past when they couldn't listen to rock n roll, there were into science, and that scientists and cosmonauts were their celebrities.

Seeing as your debut has been in the bag for a while, are you thinking about album number two yet?
MichaelSinger: Yeah, but I don't think anyone will put it out after this one!
MichaelGuitar: Well we recorded this first album in June of last year, so we've been living with it for quite a while. The songs are from our first batch of songs, so we have got a lot of new songs. We're playing some of them now because we want to get good at them.
MichaelDrums: Hopefully they'll see the light of day!

Your gigs are lively affairs - what's been the most outrageous thing to happen at a Physics show?
MichaelSinger: People actually turning up? Stage invasions?
MichaelDrums: But they're not really outrageous.
MichaelSinger: One of my favourites was an indie club night, and there was a big pit, but I think it was just people taking the piss, and it all fell in. All their haircuts were ruined!

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