Hej Ben Ayres!

Tänker du efter vet du säkert vilka Cornershop är. Det var de som gjorde den där Brimful of Asha som sedan Fatboy Slim gjorde en remix på, för ett gäng år sedan. Sätter du på den lovar jag att foten börjar stampa och huvudet börjar vicka inom 20 sekunder, och efter 40 fuldansar du på närmsta stol. Ungefär så. Hur som, Ben Ayres spelar gitarr och keyboard i bandet, och kommer dessutom tillModern Loversi helgen. Nämnde vi att Ben jobbar på Rough Trade också? Det gör han i alla falll…

2012-11-29 16:49 2012-11-29 16:49
Publicerad Senast uppdaterad

Cornershop, med Tjinder Singh till vänster, och Ben Ayres till höger. Foto: Roger Sargent.

Hey Ben, how are you doing?

– Not bad thanks, we've been working a lot on our own Cornershop run label Ample Play Records this year (and the last few years!) – it's been an exciting time, we've made a lot of progress. Amongst other things we released an album this summer called 'The Sufis' by The Sufis which was Rough Trade Shops Album of the Week and went down a storm generally. They're a pretty wild psychedelic group from Nashville, in a nutshell a cross between Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd and The Beatles, with lovely doses of The Idle Race and July… And yet they've their own thing going on too, and have the knack of being able to write catchy pop songs within that musical sphere, anyone who likes Tame Impala would probably love them.

Sounds goood!

– We also released 'Urban Turban – The Singhles Club' a compilation of Cornershop digital singles and other tracks some of which were collaborations, it included a track we recorded with SoKo and another with a Primary School in Oldham,near Manchester!

Another thing we've been working on is getting all Ample Play releases available online from our website shop too – at www.cornershop.com – we ship worldwide folks! ……I've been working with Tjinder Singh on the next Cornershop album too, which is coming on strong I'm glad to report.

Cool! I heard you're coming to Gothenburg to dj this weekend, what from the brittish music scene will you definetly leave in the UK?

– Ha ha, quite a lot! When I play records I prefer to deal with forgotten – or semi forgotten, greats from the past,across different genres, tracks and artists that have inspired me and the groups I grew up loving. So expect a bit of early r'n'b, southern soul, rock'n'roll, garage rock, funk, psych and such. Whether people know the tracks or not though, if they keep an open mind they'll find their feet moving to the groove and hear some great tracks…

But what brittish artist or band would you like for all of Sweden to discover?

– Well I'd highly recommend The Sufis (although they're American) and (although they're from France) french group Beat Mark, who's album we're releasing in February on Ample Play, they're a little like the Mary Chain / The Vaselines / My Bloody Valentine. In terms of UK artists, I think Palma Violets (on Rough Trade) will be the biggest new band of next year, they're very exciting live and their debut album tracks are sounding strong.

If someone walks up to you while you're djing and requests Brimful of Asha, would you punch them in the face?

– Of course not, but we wouldn't play that, that's for other people to play. It'd be a bit weird and unrepresentative to play that, it would only serve to reinforce a fallacy, too many people already only know us for that track – the reality is we've recorded over 7 albums and have had several singles in the charts. If I were to play a Cornershop track I'd prefer to present a track that's less well known, like 'Easy Winners' or 'Topknot' or 'The Roll Of Characteristics' or 'Milkin' It'… etc.

So… What if that person is the 25th in a row with the same request then…?

– I'd stand my ground, and explain that I don't have that particular hit record in the record box and stick on a Willie Mitchell groover instead.

Anyhoo, let's move on! I heard you're releasing some sort of christmas single?

– Yes! We're releasing a song called 'Every Year So Different' by Cornershop ft Trwbador. Trwbador's vocalist Angharad sings on the track, she's got a lovely voice… the whole track was recorded very quickly – you can check out the video which was made by Chris Curtis of Passion Pictures here. Perhaps the people of Sweden can help us get it to number one??

We'll do our best! Hey, working for Rough Trade would be a dream for music lovers all over the world. What's the best thing about that job?

– It's just a really fascinating and inspiring place to spend time. All the people at Rough Trade Records are (just like Tjinder and my friend Richie who I DJ with) music freaks, in the best sense. There's always good music being played and discussed. As with when I work with Tjinder and witness his creative qualities, it's an honour to be around the people of Rough Trade, they're all so passionate and good at what they do.

Imagine it being 45 minutes in to your dj-set on Saturday, and you really wanna get the dancefloor going. What do you play?

– You can never go wrong with Promised Land by Johnnie Allan. the only problem is how to follow it, it's such a monster of a track, so rocking, that it naturally stands alone in many ways. It's undoubtably one of my favourite singles of all time.

Alright, thanks so much for getting back to me Ben! And have a good time in Gothenburg!

– I'll certainly try my best, myself and Richie are looking forward to visiting your city. Thanks.

Karin Londré

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