cults, piss and turntables.
We caught up with Craig from Ice, Sea, Dead People after his DJ set at The Lock Tavern in Camden.
SCTS: Where did your name come from?
C: From part of a religious cult, called the Panacea Society in Bedford, so basically they believe in Jesus Christ and they think he’ll return to Bedford and that Bedford Park is the Garden of Eden, they’ve even bought a house in Bedford on Albany Road, it was like the elect gave predicting the apocalypse and he was saying about the Ice, the Sea, the Dead People.
Stranger: You waiting?
C: no, no.
SCTS: no.
C: We’re recording his piss. [laughs]
Stranger: Are you? U-mazing. Are you like Matmos or something?
C: We’re gonna release it on a 7”.
Stranger: U-mazing. Am I on the b-side? Can I rap whilst I’m pissing?
SCTS: no.
C: Maybe.
Stranger: I wanna do some Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
SCTS: How do you write songs?
Stranger: Are you listening?
SCTS: No I’m not listening, fuck off.
C: I am, I’m dedicated. [laughs]
Service resumes.
C: I write one riff and get excited about it, take it to band practice, I use to write the other stuff, the rest of the song [laughs] Now I don’t, I bring it in and we jam it, we all get excited about it and write the next bit, we jam, we jam and in my bag, I have a field recorder and anything we do I record. Now we’ve just finished our second album, but for our third album, I’ve recorded loads of jams and..
Stranger: I did it to Carly Simon’s ‘Why’ instead [starts to ‘sing’]
C: That’s good.
Stranger continues to ‘sing’ and disappears down the stairs.
C: Yeah so now it’s an editing process, we’ve got loads of ideas.
SCTS: So when is the second album out?
C: Early next year.
SCTS: When’s the single out?
C: October, and the B-sides are all right.
Stranger 2: Definitely great, yeah.
C: Are they better than the A-sides?
Stranger 3: What about the C-sides?
Stranger 2: What about the D-sides?
[Strangers disappear down the stairs]
SCTS: I love you.
C: I know they’re shitting me; there aren’t any C-sides.
SCTS: How do you like your cups of tea?
C: Thick and young.
SCTS: You new single, you’ve gone for an interesting design, can you explain that?
C: Yeah, yeah, I can, I’ve been explaining it for the past four months, it’s a picture-disc, we got the paper in advance and we got the paper fit on turntables, held a pen to the paper, usually by now I’ve shown a picture by now.
[Shows a photo]
C: So, it’s cost a lot of money to do unfortunately. We played the same song 10 times in a row, and everyone in this art gallery in Kingston had a turntable and a piece of paper, held down their pen to the paper, and it slowly dragged it in whilst it was spinning and they lifted it up when we finished playing the song, that’s what it is basically. The double A-side is scribbling on it, more like a Spirograph. Not only will every single record be unique but every single side of every single record will be unique.
SCTS: How would you sum up your record in three words?
C: Ice, Sea, Dead. No, hang on. Very expensive, unique.
Keep up to date with Ice, Sea, Dead People here
Their next show is 1st September at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge.
