Girls Against Boys

In order to promote the new album by his band Girls Against Boys, singer/guitarist Scott McCloud is touring Europe to do some interviews. On Saturday, January 17 he turned up at our ULTRA-party, so we decided this was a good opportunity to have a talk with him.

Scott, very nice of you to come here at our party.

Scott McCloud: Well, I happened to be in the country, and the people from BANG (who do the distribution of the new album in Belgium) were planning to come here, so I thought I'd just join them. We played here too last October and we liked the venue here.

I'm supposed to interview you for ULTRA tomorrow, but we might as well have a talk here tonight.

Scott McCloud: Yeah, cool! It's the first time I'm doing an interview for a World Wide Web-magazine. Actually it's even the first time I'm doing anything for the Internet. I don't know much about it, but I sure would like to learn more about it, so I can communicate more with people.

So, what's the deal with the new album? We've been told that you signed to Geffen?

Scott McCloud: Well, this album House of GvsB is, as agreed, our last album on Touch And Go. The next album will be on Geffen. We're happy to do it this way, Touch and Go is happy like this and Geffen is happy. It should say it's a good deal.

What can we expect from House of GvsB? I just got it a few minutes ago, so I have no idea what it sounds like.

Scott McCloud: Well, it's a sort of a combination of everything we have done so far: it's not as dark and heavy as Cruise Yourself, but it's more like Venus Luxure No.1. A few moments ago, when I walked in here, they were playing a song off it. It's so weird: you're walking in and they're playing a song of us. I felt like an idiot. When we came here by car, they played a song from House of GvsB on the radio. I liked that!

Does it also have influences from 90's vs 80's?

Scott McCloud: Sure, it has some dance stuff in it, I think. I like dance music, and though I don't think we're a dance band, you can definitely move to our music. Especially horizontally (laughs)!

What about the jazz-influences like on Tropic of Scorpio?

Scott McCloud: No, the jazz parts are for New Wet Kojak. During the recording of Venus Luxure No.1 something happened; we started to make heavier music and we've stuck to that since then. So this is still a heavy album, without any jazz influences.

The last album was very dark. Do you like music like that?

Scott McCloud: Well, I like music which is a bit dark. it can make me happy sometimes: I don't need to hear happy music to be happy. The music has to express something. And with us, that's definitely the "sexy" element. Our music may be dark, but it appeals to a lot of people.

Not teenagers, I believe.

Scott McCloud: No, that's right. I think that our music appeals to young people, but nowadays more and more people get to know us. Eventually we would like to be able to live from our music, because this is the thing we like doing the most.

Are you guys kind of big in the States? Because here there's not that many people that know you. I remember your first show in Leuven about three years ago when there were only 50 people.

Scott McCloud: Well, things are changing. Our audience is growing, and we're getting bigger in the States. But last year we headlined a festival here (Rock Herk - ULTRA), which wasn't bad and this year we will be back in the summer to do some more festivals.

Do you like festivals? I think your music is more suitable for small dark venues.

Scott McCloud: We don't really like them, but we don't hate them either. I liked the festival last year a lot.

You still remember that? (Scott was very drunk)

Scott McCloud: Oh yes, I remember everything (laughs)!

You're touring Europe on your own now. How does that feel?

Scott McCloud: It's very nice! I like doing all the interviews. You get to sit in a hotel room or a bar and all these people ask the same questions. Very funny. Yesterday I was in Berlin, tomorrow I'm doing interviews in Brussels and on Monday I have to go to some radio stations. Tuesday it's Paris and after that it's London.

And what are the other guys doing at the moment?

Scott McCloud: Eli (Janney, who plays bass and keyboards - ULTRA) is recording some band in the Bahamas! And here it's so cold! Alexis (Fleisig, drummer - ULTRA)is playing with Moby and Johnny (Temple, bass - ULTRA) is doing nothing at the moment.

Seems like you're all very busy. You're also playing in New Wet Kojak with Johnny.

Scott McCloud: Yeah, man, I sometimes wish there were 48 hours in a day and 14 months in a year! After the GvsB tour, we're going on a tour with New Wet Kojak somewhere in october

Can you do that, singing and drumming at the same time?

Scott McCloud: It's very difficult. We're taking another drummer with us on the tour so I can concentrate on my singing. Actually guitar is my first instrument, vocals my second and drums my third. I only recently learned to play the drums and I like it very much!

You seem to like rhythm?

Scott McCloud: Yes, I guess you can hear that in the GvsB songs as well. I also play the guitar more bass guitar-wise. I don't do any guitar solos or anything. On House of GvsB I also used a lot of wah-wah on the guitar.

After this the talk went on about what bands we like (it turned out that we are both great fans of Rocket from the Crypt and Scott loves dEUS as well) and about music in Europe vs. the States. Scott McCloud, ladies and gentlemen, is a very nice guy! But I don't think I'd let my girlfriend near him when I'm not there...

The day after the ULTRA-party I listened to the new album. You can read somewhere else what I thought of it.