OI POLLOI Interview

OI POLLOI rocking out in 2006!

This is a copy of the interview I did with OI POLLOI for a zine a few of my friends and I are working on (which is on hold till we get enough funds to print the damn thing). Keep in mind it is pretty dated (a least a few years old), so some of the things referenced (like PUNK ILLEGAL) may have happened a while ago. 

I have to mention that Oi Polloi have always been one of my favorite bands. Doing this interview meant a lot to me so I am glad that I now have the resources to share it before it hits publication.    

1.) What’s the origin of your band name? Have you changed the band’s name before?

The name comes from the ancient Greek phrase which means "the ordinary people, the mob etc" - it's used by rich people in the UK when they are making disparaging remarks about ordinary folk who have less money than themselves - for example "This restaurant is very exclusive - they don't let the hoi polloi in here". We just knocked the "h" off the beginning as there's no letter "h" in the Greek spelling. This is the name we've had since we formed in 1981 - it's a little bit different than a lot of your typcial punk names like "Total Devastation", "Urban Chaos" or whatever - apologies if there are real bands with those names - those were just the first cliched names that I could think up!

2.) Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think your views on these topics will change over time?

Nowadays I write virtually all the lyrics and Ricky writes most of the tunes although we all have an input into the arrangements and so on. I guess the main theme behind everything is basically respect - respect for other living things - it all boils down to that in the end. We're never going to stop believing in that.

3.) Do you think the new forms of social networking like myspace and other websites are a good way for people to exchange information or do you think it's another way for major corporations to stick their hands into the proverbial "punk rock pie"?

They're a very good way for major corporations to make money through advertising, that's for sure but my major worry is that they make it so easy for governments to gather information on people - I'm constantly amazed by the amount of sensitive information that people put up on their personal pages - it's asking for trouble.

On balance though we decided that we gain more as a band by having our myspace page than we risk but I wouldn't have a personal page myself. Our Oi Polloi page has put us in touch with so many people, made our music more available and we've re-established contact with lots of people from all around the world that we'd lost contact with for years so it's been very useful to us. You've got to constantly treat things like this with a degree of caution though.

4.) Over the many years you have played together as a band there has been much touring. What is the difference between playing shows around Europe and other countries as compared to playing in the United States? Do you think you will tour the US soon?

Touring in mainland Europe is great - despite the effects of US cultural imperialism over here there is still so much cultural variety within such a relatively small area. You can drive for days in the US and everything is pretty similar when you arrive to when you left but in Europe in that time you would pass through several different countries all with different languages, foods, customs, architectures etc - Europe is so much more interesting and the gigs are definitely better too. I'm afraid we find the US a pretty depressing place - so much more ignorance and blind flag waving patriotism etc - not that we don't have that here as well but it's not nearly on the same level as in Amerikkka.

Honestly right now the US is about the last place I would want to spend any time when we can spend it in beautiful cool places like Finland, Slovenia, Sweden instead - so, sorry, no plans to come stateside at the moment - although never say never - and we were actually talking the other day about seeing if we could come and play in the Lakota lands that have recently withdrawn from the US - that would be cool - respect to them for that - way to go!

5.) You have very strong views when it comes to animal rights. Are all the members of your band vegetarian/vegan? What made you start thinking about how your diet and lifestyle affect animals?

Personally, listening to political punk bands like Icons of Filth spurred me to give up meat (Fuck Yes! -ed) - punk can inspire a lot of real change in people when it's done well, there's no doubt about that. Ricky was similar I know and probably Cam as well. We had a big talk about whether we would have a meat eater in the band when Tom our current bassist joined as, not coming from the political punk scene, he ate meat at the time. Our general feeling was that we would rather have a decent person that we got on with even if they ate meat in the band than someone who might be vegan but was full of shit - with the hope that going on tour and seeing how easy it was to be vegan would end up with them changing their diet. Happily that's exactly what happened so now three of us are vegan and Cam is veggie.

6.) I haven't visited Scotland in about 15 years now. How prevalent are aspects of the western culture in Scotland? Is there a McDonald's on every corner or do people generally reject this evil fast food giant?

Scotland is pretty much like most of the other western European countries in that there's plenty bullshit like McDonalds etc all over now I'm sad to say - Starbucks as well, Disney shops, BurgerKing - all the shit that you lot have in the US. There was certainly a lot of resistance to McDonalds when they first opened in Edinburgh with people constantly picketing the place and so on but there's not been so much of that for a while - although plenty McDonalds outlets did get attacked during the G8 protests the other year.

7.) What is punk rock like now compared to when you first started playing? Have festivals like Punk Illegal and others seemed to bring more of a diverse crowd to your shows?

Punk now is a lot more split up into numerous sub-genres but thankfully we still seem to have the ability to appeal to folk into so-called "street punk", antifascist-Oi, hardcore, thrash, crust etc as well as your typical anarcho or peace-punk so we get quite a broad range of folk at our gigs.

It's funny that you mention Punk Illegal in connection with a diverse crowd though because, while it was a great festival and for a great cause, the crowd was anything but diverse - the level of rigid conformity to the black "crust uniform" was pretty depressing - about 90% of the audience looked almost exactly the same - black clothes covered in patches, black baseball caps with patches, bullet belts, short hair at the front with dreads at the back etc etc - you know the score - I know there's a lot of pressure to conform to your peers and Sweden is a pretty conservative place but that still took us aback a bit. It's ok not to wear the uniform you know!!

8.) Is there anyone you’d like to acknowledge for offering financial or emotional support?

Maximum Rock n Roll sent us some money years ago that we were able to use to help finance an anti-Poll Tax single we did and we always really appreciated that. I think they just gave away any profit they had at the end of the year by ploughing it back into the punk scene - that's a great philosophy - respect!

9.) Any last words?

Get rid of your TV.