German Shepherd Records Presents: Umbrella Assassins Interview by Bob Osborne.

German Shepherd Records Presents:

Three Men in a Shed: Having Fun with Umbrella Assassins

Interview by Bob Osborne.

When I sent the new Umbrella Assassins EP over to my erstwhile companion and label co-owner Mr. Moss, he said “I like it, they sound like they are having fun”. The astute Mr. Moss, as usual, hit the nail on the head: this three-strong band from Haverhill always give the impression that at the heart of what they do is sheer enjoyment at being able to create music together.

The group’s introduction to German Shepherd Records was, as with the majority of our Cambridgeshire artists, through Dave Hammond. Dave, who is currently on sabbatical from presenting The ‘Smelly Flower Pot Show’ on Cambridge 105 FM and is now writing for this very magazine, is a great supporter of emerging and independent artists. He is very passionate about music. I first met him through the independent DJ network and more notably at a gig from the reformed Distractions at The Kings Arms in Salford. We have very similar tastes in music and often share information on bands and artists.

I picked up on the Umbrellas Assassins on Dave’s show. In 2016, the group began their first experiments in DIY recording. They recorded one song a month, each being released as a single, and eventually pulled them together as an album called ‘12’. This was released on their own label, Pint’A’Bread Records, in 2017. Also in 2017, we released ‘Cambridge Calling Volume 1’, a charity album compilation featuring artists from the Cambridge area, many of whom had been featured on Dave’s show, and Umbrella Assassins donated the track ‘Chicken’. Seeking wider distribution and marketing, the band asked to join the German Shepherd Kennel and we immediately said yes.

Before the German Shepherd Records partnership, the band, originally as a four piece and starting in 2006, released a significant number of singles, EPs and albums starting with the impressive debut, ‘Bitterzoet’, a high octane quartet of garage punk tunes. Fans had to wait until April 2008 before the next release another EP called ‘For the Wasted Youth’, recorded, like its predecessor, at The Old School Studios in Norwich. A further wait until June 2009 ended with the release of the single ‘I Don’t Know About That’, which came in a vinyl version as well as digital release.

The new decade started with ‘Komodo Zoobies’, a collection of live tracks recorded from The BBC Introducing Suffolk Tour in Boxford, UK, which was released in May. This was followed by a series of great releases all still very much in the garage rock genre, ‘Honeysuckle’ (2011); ‘Negative Martin’ (2013) and

‘Are You Happy?’ (2015), the latter being recorded live by Matt Plumb at Kedington Studio Hall, Suffolk.

The 2016 release, the drummer-less ‘Build A Berk’ saw the band reduced to the core trio of Steve Church (guitar / vocals); Andrew Plumb aka “Bunge” (bass / vocals) and Garry McKervill (drums / percussion / keys / vocals). With Garry picking up the drum duties from the 2016 single ‘NaCl’ onwards, the trio saw the birth of Shed Punk and they embarked on the aforementioned monthly series of single releases. All of this activity was done D.I.Y with nothing but an iRig and an iPad in Steve’s Shed. The ‘12’ album is presented in chronological order and includes six bonus tracks. Newcomers to the group should start with this release, which is available as a name your price download on Bandcamp. Two further singles were released before the band joined German Shepherd.

2018 saw the recording of ‘Live at

Steve

the Crunch’ in Norwich. The Crunch studio is housed in a cold war bunker and is run by Mr. Jason, responsible for many of the band’s earlier recordings. The facility was originally an Operations Control Centre during the Battle of Britain. Initially built in 1939 as a Decontamination Centre for chemical warfare, it has its own particular ambience. Jason has a considerable collection of vintage audio equipment and the band utilised this to full effect and recorded three tracks live to analog tape. This became the band’s first release on German Shepherd Records.

2019 saw the setting up of the bands own recording studio, in Garry’s garage, and the release of two singles ‘Sweat it Out’ and ‘Dad’s Song’. Dubbed Tiny Eyes Studio, this became their new base of operations, resulting in the debut full length album in 2020 called ‘Humanity’. A kind of concept album, the release concerned “Dodo Freak (Freakum

Bunge

Dodois), the last of his kind, who having lost faith in humanity, escapes to a new planet. As years go by, he wonders what has become of his old home, so he decides to look. Hurtling through the countryside in his spaceship, he meets a girl, falls in love and starts a family. Through new found friends, he assembles a band of humans, those lucky few. The pioneers of the twelve by ten. The creators of Shed Punk. Umbrella Assassins”.

The latter end of 2020 saw the commencement of a three release project under the overall title ‘King of Fruit’. The third and final part of that trilogy, slightly delayed by lockdown, finally got released in February 2021. It seemed sensible at that time to catch up with the band and get an update on their progress and future plans so a virtual interview was set up ...

OK guys, how about a brief history of the band?

Garry

Garry: We started off in 2006 as a Garage Rock four-piece, gigging heavily in East Anglia, London and occasionally further afield, with two memorable gigs in Amsterdam. In 2016, we became drummer-less, and with a re-jig formed a trio, and consequently a slight change in our ‘sound’ came about. Around the same time, we started practising in Steve’s shed and one evening, after several beers, Shed Punk was born.

When I was first introduced to you, the USP was that you actually recorded in a Shed. Things have changed with things moving to Garry’s garage, so what happened?

Steve: In the shed, we were using an electronic drum kit and Garry wanted to have a stab at recording a ‘real’ drum kit using a technique he’d read about and he set about creating a space for this in his garage. Although funnily enough we have recently spoken about going back to the electronic drums on future recordings. A fully soundproof recording studio was created and

although small, it was also perfectly formed, just like Garry’s tiny eyes!

What is the story behind the 2020/2021 ‘King of Fruit’ Trilogy?

Steve: I eat a lot of fruit, but I’ve never had durian fruit. I’ve read about them and how they evoke widely different opinions from love to absolute disgust. I liked the thought of a fruit being ‘banned’, as it is in some countries, apparently! This all got me thinking about music. In the music video for ‘Rich’, from ‘Volume 1’ [2020], we imagined fruit was some sort of currency or something reserved for the rich and we gorged ourselves upon it until we went crazy. After this, I started to think about how music ‘grows’ like fruit on a tree. When it’s ripe, it’s picked and its seeds are distributed, listened to and opinions are formed. Then, as an offshoot, no pun intended, we decided we would release the songs as segments; or volumes, as it’s more commonly known. This was partly due to COVID restrictions limiting our time in the studio together and having the idea each volume’s artwork would represent hell, purgatory and heaven, consecutively. Each volume features a durian fruit, ‘the king of fruit’ in its art work. I think we also thought it was a cool name for a bunch of songs. I hope to one day taste a durian fruit and form my own opinion.

What current music are you listening to?

Steve: I listen to the radio most of the time, other than that I like the band’s Hot Snakes and Viagra Boys. I’ve been watching a lot of live performances on YouTube on a channel called Levitation and old live Nirvana stuff. Recently, I’ve been listening to Elvis.

Garry: I like discovering and listening to new music and listen to [BBC Radio] 6 Music most of the day and also like a lot of Australian bands. Recently, I’ve been listening to The Mysterines, Ty Segall & Freedom Band, Wet Leg, Acid Dad, Tamar Aphek, The Grogans and Amyl and the Sniffers to name a few.

Bunge: I’ve been listening to old stuff mainly. Joy Division, James Brown, The Stones, The Beatles The Doors and Dylan. Loads of Motown. On a more contemporary note, we saw Hot Snakes and The Chats live and they were great. The Mysterines Crocodylus, Ty Segall, Slaves, and much of what Steve and Garry have mentioned. I tend to just add tracks I like to a massive playlist and press shuffle.

How do you go about writing songs?

Steve: I normally pick up the guitar at home and come up with a riff or chord progression and then I’ll start singing a melody along to that and see what comes out lyrically, then start to write the song down. I’ll record it on my phone, share it with the other two and we’ll start to jam it in the shed and bounce ideas.

Your favourite venues?

Steve: I one hundred percent prefer smaller intimate venues. Pubs are ideal. We always enjoy playing at a really cool venue called The Smokehouse in Ipswich.

Bunge: I used to love playing Vince Mumbles’ nights at the Montague Arms in New Cross. You’d get there half the time and it’d look like it was closed, but when you stepped in, it was an Aladdin’s cave of curios and bric-a-brac. We used a bit of footage we recorded there in one of our early videos, but I’m not sure if it’s still going. Obviously, it’s been difficult travelling too far of late, but we made it up to the Castle Hotel in the Northern Quarter in Manchester for a brilliant gig with our labelmates Adventures of Salvador and Electric Cheese in 2020. Hopefully we’ll make it back up there this year!

You are very much a DIY outfit recording-wise, what equipment do you use?

Garry: In Tiny Eyes Studios, I have a pretty simple set up at the moment but am always learning and looking for new ways to do things. Currently, I

have a 4 Channel Focusrite Interface, recording us all separately normally with Steve’s guitar as a guide track, then we build from there. I have a mixture of AKG and Shure mics and use Reaper to record, mix and master everything.

Probably a daft question given the state of things, but do you have any gigs planned?

Steve: We have no gigs booked at the moment, the start of the year is always a bit quiet. We’re gonna practice hard and get ready for a busy summer hopefully.

What have you got planned now that ‘King of Fruit’ is complete?

Steve: We have two more songs written and want to record them in Tiny Eyes and hope to release them as singles or one double A-side.

What would you say are the main musical influences on the band?

Steve: I’d say my three main influences are the Minutemen, Oblivians and Nirvana.

You have released a lot of material, so would you describe yourselves as prolific?

Steve: I don’t think of us as prolific at all. When I look at bands like The Fall, the Pixies or people like Ty Segall and the amount of quality songs they’ve put out, I think I’m being lazy. But then, they don’t have day jobs I’m guessing. I’m happy that we have put out so much stuff, not just songs, the videos, the art, all the gigs we’ve done over the years. It makes me proud. Sometimes, when we’re having a beer, we will listen back to what we’ve done and some of it we’ll be like, ‘That’s really cool’ and some of it we’ll say, ‘Well, that could have been better’ and that’s what pushes me on. I want to make the best music I can and I don’t spend a lot of time looking back at what we’ve done in the past, that’s history now.

The complete Umbrella Assassins back catalogue is available at:

umbrellaassassins.bandcamp.com

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