"Scully from the X Files is a bit of a fan" says drummer, Ben Gillies from Winnepeg, Canada where the band were taking part in the travelling Edge festival with Hole, The Offspring and a cast of tens of thousands. "That was a bit of a surprise. We went to this little photo shoot that they were doing
and she came up and said hello. She said, I'm really into you guys, I've liked you for a few years. I was like, cool! She had a bunch of CDs with her
and she put ours on. She said to us while we were there they were shooting a bit of an episode and that if we wanted to go down and have a look we were
welcome. So we did. That's where we met David Duchovny. We had a gig that night and we invited them along and they actually ended up coming which was
pretty surprising."
For Gillies the most significant indicator of the band's standing and success
comes from much closer to home than any L.A. movie set "The good thing for us
was when the tickets for the Australian tour went on sale. We saw the ticket sales and when little things like that happen it's kind of like it gives you
a good kick. You go, Holy shit! There's lots of frigging people coming to see us play! It's pretty amazing."
The band's musical territory of late and indications of their intended
horizons are just as startling. The structure and arrangement of songs like
Cemetery on the Freak Show album indicated that this was one outfit who were
adamant that they were going to give any and all expectations of them a hell
of a run for their money. As a result they can seamlessly appear on that
recent and otherwise mighty ordinary Clash tribute album, have a slot on the
Godzilla soundtrack, cast out something like Ballroom's Ana's Song (Open
Fire) or Miss You Love, flatten you with the same album's Satin Sheets and
firmly command full attention in each instance.
The direction and influence absorption of the band that originally
graphically idolised the Seattle school and the likes of Helmet (to the
extend that Daniel Johns quite rightly wanted the same gear rig as everything
louder than everything else guitarist, Page Hamilton) is now virtually
impossible to pinpoint let alone plot with any rough degree of accuracy.
"In the past a lot of influences were very obvious" admits Gillies. "but to
be quite honest now I don't think any critic around the world could possibly
pick what we're listening to because it's just everything. Over the last say,
year and a half, two years or so I don't know, something happened to all of
us. We just kind of went spastic! We listen to anything and everything, we
don't care. If we think it sounds good."
"Actually I used to be a bit of a closet Madonna fan. I'd liked her for yonks
but it was kind of like yeah, Madonna, yeah, whatever. Then a while ago I was
like, bugger that! I think she's cool! So I went out and bought all her
albums and on one tour I brought that I think it was the Immaculate
Collection? With all the hits on it? And the guys were like, what are you
doing? I like Madonna! They're like, Oh my God! It was funny. They accept it
now."
So given the moves the 'chair have made over the course of three albums does
Gillies have more of an insight than most on what it was that drove the
Smashing Pumpkins to made the artistic schitzo switch from Siamese Dream to
Mellon Collie and finally Adore?
"It's hard to say because they might have a different kind of motive behind
their's I guess you could call it. The reason we did that was we wanted
something fresh and something new and we wanted to try and do something
different that not many people were doing. So yeah, I guess they were trying
to do the same thing."
So exactly what does a band that has such broad tastes these days play before
they hit the stage and the lights each night?
"Actually the last couple of shows we haven't really done it in the past but
Chris (Joannou) has brought his little speakers and CD player along and we
just put on whatever's good psych up music. Usually Zeppelin's a bit of a
favourite. It always kind of gets us psyched. Have you ever heard of a band
from New Orleans called The Meters? The funk band? When we come off stage we
put the Meters on and just chill."
Speaking of the mighty Zep does Gillies still like to see himself reflected
in his drum heads as a young John Bonham or has that self image faded with
his changing musical tastes?
"Oh no!" he replies clearly horrified. "That's the one thing that will never
ever change. John Bonham is my biggest idol ever. He's the man. Any Led
Zeppelin song you turn it on and the drums are just so fat and have got the
best groove. It's the best. You can't beat him. No-one can beat him."
"Actually I met John Bonham's daughter. I didn't even know he had a daughter.
Her name was Zowie and she was like the spitting image of him. It was at an
L.A. gig at the House Of Blues. Chris came up to me and said, Zowie Bonham's
here and she wants to meet you. And I was like who? Bonham? He goes, yeah,
Bonham as in John Bonham's daughter. I was like, you're joking! I was so
excited! I went up to her and I was trying to contain myself. The funny thing
was all I wanted to do was ask her about her Dad but I felt pretty bad doing
that so I was trying to mix it up."
So with all the band's success have there any close encounters of the
supermodel kind? Gillies seemed somehow to be almost waiting for the
question. He fired back his response immediately without a flinch. "Well, I
consider my girlfriend a supermodel."