Stuart Johns Interviews The British IBM

Interview

The British IBM by Stuart Johns

Acorn Electron Today catches up with Aidy from the British IBM

Stuart: Aidy, thank you so much for agreeing todo this interview for the Acorn Electron Todaysite. Regular visitors to the site will know that I'm a big fan of the band and have an Electronified fan-page; hope that doesn't scare you off!

Aidy: No, it's all good and the Electronified fanart on the page looks awesome.

Stuart: I wanted travel back in time a little bit, back to when the band first began as we know it now. Naturally, I'm a big fan of all things Acorn, am I right in saying that the film Micro Men had a big influence on you back then? Could you perhaps share a little bit about your feelings on the film and the inspirations you drew from it? Did you have a favourite yourself in the Sinclair vs. Acorn battle?

Aidy: That movie was a massive influence on myself and the creation of the band. I loved it and that one scene in particular where Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry get thrown out of the Barron of Beef in Cambridge is where the name of the band and the song came from. "We could have been the British IBM" is possibly my all time favorite line of dialog. It's moving scene that gets you thinking along a whole line of what-ifs.

"Offering a nimble mesh of indie rock and vintage computing"

-- The British IBM

Stuart: That music video was my path into becominga big fan of your music; I stumbled across your firstalbum online and fell hook line and sinker for the titletrack, even before I really knew anything else aboutthe band, simply because of the vintage computingfeel of the video for the song 'the British IBM'!

Retro and vintage is obviously a big passion for youtoo; do you find the stuff you do at the Centre for

Computing History in Cambridge overlaps a lot withyour music?

Aidy: There is some cross-over between the two, theBBC Micro in the main music video borrowed fromthe museum. Also the museum's Jason Fitzpatrickhad a cameo in Micro Men as he provided a lot of theprops for the film along with some technicalsupervision.

Stuart: As you can imagine, I've always had a bigAcorn obsession, focused really on the humbleElectron, and it often frustrates me that these Acornmachines are largely left out of the mainstream'retrogaming' scene today. Yet, to Acorn nuts, theirnostalgia is as strong as it is for folks that owned theSpeccy or C64 back in the day. Are there any vintageor retro computers or consoles that you feel the sameway about - other scene-underdogs maybe?

Interview

Aidy: I had quite a few machines growing up and have owned both the BBC Micro and the Acorn Electron. The first machine I ever used though was a bit of an underdog and you rarely hear much about it these days. That was the Mattel Aquarius. When I was about 3 or 4 years old I loved playing a game called Local Bomber on it. I actually went to the effort of re-making it with a friend recentlyand putting it out on iOS and Android. Our version's called Gimpy Bomber.

Stuart: I recently bought your new album, 'Psychopaths Dream in Black and White' and was struck by the darker feel to the lyrics; it's like you're inviting the listener to go on a journey with you through each song.. as much like reading a good novel as listening to an album.

A journey in a similar way that the first album took us back to the '80s and '90s with some of the songs and their associated videos; 'the British IBM' spoke of early 80s Sinclair/Acorn and then the video for 'Animal' had a SNESera feel...

Do you start out with a concept or story in mind, or do the songs naturally follow a theme?

An image converted with Image2BBC for mode 0.

Aidy: For the new album I had a concept and a story in mind when I started writing it. It's kind of American Psycho meets Fight Club. It tells the story of a Psychopath with a multiple personalities who's psychopathic traits such as his lack of empathy lead him to be extremely successful in the business world. I had a pretty vivid idea of what was going on as the story progressed and wanted to try and reflect that with a more cinematic sound.

Stuart: The new album has also brought a new wave of gigs, do you find a fair proportion of your fans are drawn in from the vintage computer scene?

Aidy: Yeah that's definitely an area in which most of the fans have come from and we've been plugged in that scene a fair bit. My favorite podcast Retrogaming Roundup have been awesome and played tracks and helped plug both albums. Another big boost was when our music got used in From Bedrooms to Billions.

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Interview

Stuart: I think the retrogaming scene is here to stay, how do you see that scene changing as time goes on and do you think the British IBM will stay entwined within it?

Aidy: It'll always be there in some capacity and we'll always be there somewhere in the background playing songs about Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry. I actually wanted to do an album called "Where is Matthew Smith?" so maybe that'll happen at some point, I had a few songs demo'd for it.With regards to the changing of the scene, I do sometimes wonder about the future.

Aidy: I have a “tweaked” BBC Micro with an SD card in it. My top five games on that would be the ones I played the most growing up: 1. Stryker’s Run, 2. Chuckie Egg, 3. Dare Devil Dennis, 4. Castle Quest & 5. Frak!

Stuart: So, the Acorn Electron..... do you think you'd ever be up for sneaking an Elk into any future songs or videos? This little beige beauty needs all the back up it can get in the cut and thrust of the retro scene ;-)

Aidy: You never know!

There used to be about one retro gaming expo a year in the UK and now there’s loads of them but it’s still a fairly niche thing and I don’t think the number’s are there to support them all but I hope I’m wrong as I love attending them and go to pretty much all of them. The other thing that’s going to change with time is what people consider retro as new consoles begin to age.

Stuart: We touched earlier on the BBC Micro and Electron, do you have a top five list of favourite games from those machines? In fact, do you have these machines in your collection?

Stuart: Well, thank you so much once again for taking the time to indulge Acorn Electron Today with these few questions; please can I wish you and the band all success with the future! You've got a real gift and long may you continue to share that with us!

Aidy: Thank you, I appreciate the kind words. Keep it retro!

Folks can find out more about the band on their website: http:/www.thebritishibm.com/

Stuart's website can also be found at:http://www.acornelectrontoday.com/