Interviews

Ace Bushy Striptease

Chris Stanley 22/09/2010

INTRODUCING THE BAND #2: ACE BUSHY STRIPTEASE

Trawling online through the mists of MySpaces, blogs and fanzines looking for that glimmer of musical hope that makes band searching such great and rewarding fun, granted that amongst those artists who will bring us future happiness even if only one of those tunes is a shining gem that we'll forget about in thirty seconds such is the nature of the modern attention span. However GIITTV don't believe in short attention spans bands are for life not just until we get sick of a certain riff or chorus or release a space jazz album. So it is time for our introducing new bands section, so welcome to Ace Bushy Striptease who I discovered on one of those band finding quests. For me they symbolise two aspects which make up the perfect band, a hard working view and ethic which is combined with the bands enormous sense of fun, just check out their interview and play list to see where I'm coming from:


So, who are Ace Bushy Striptease?

Ace Bushy Striptease are Basith and Eve and Jeremy and Simon. We are from Birmingham mostly and like shouting and jumping.

How did you all meet?

We began a few years ago, Jeremy and Simon met at a university alternative music society but it wasn't as naff as it sounds. We didn't realise that we both had AWESOME(ish) music taste until a while later and then we formed a band. We met Basith through the university also... He liked Radiohead and we thought that was a bit better than some other bands he could have liked so we let him in. We met Eve for the first time at the first Calories show at the Flapper in town. She came along to our third ever show also but we didn't realise she could sing brill until a while later.

What first drew you to playing music?

Eve never thought that she would be in a rock band because although she played the clarinet at school and was particularly skilled at it, she had never been told that she could sing or anything like that by anyone. However, a band like Ace Bushy see things in people that others cannot and appreciate too someone who is at least good at listening to music if not doing it. And so we took her under our wing and let her know constantly that she isn't excellent but that she is okay and also, she likes stuff like Life Without Buildings and can make girl sounds if she's trying hard, which is enough for us.

Which records had the biggest impact on you?

B: Meneguar - Strangers In A House
E: Belly - Star
J: Miss Black America - God Bless Miss Black America
S: Bearsuit - Cat Spectacular

Where did the name come from?

I always feel like we short-change people with this answer because it's not remotely interesting or exciting. Basically Jeremy used to carry a little notebook around wherever he went full of lists and ideas and things and one of the lists was of potential band names. One of these names was Ace Bushy Striptease. Where it actually came from is lost in a late night haze but after our first ever practice we went for a drink and it kind of stood out for everyone so it was decided. Sorry!

How would you describe your music?

It's quite loud when we play it but then I guess you could listen to it quietly so maybe that doesn't stand up. All our songs are quite short but they're quite good also we like to think.

Do you have a principal song writer or do you write as a collective?

We all write lyrics, though some of us who can only hit pieces of plastic really hard have to rely on the guitary ones to make something of our inane garble. If someone has an idea or line then sometimes we'll send it around the internets and then work on it, or we'll just thrash it all out in rehearsal, usually spiralling it far away from what the original idea ever was.

How do you approach the different mediums of recording and playing live?Do you prefer one over the other?

We have both recorded and played live before.

Recording is a bit more fun as you can have another go if you mess up. We mess up quite a bit as we're not really very good at doing music.

Playing live is quite fun because you get to shout at people through a microphone. Sometimes they stay and put up with it for nearly half an hour.

Maybe recording is more fun, you can say that the drums aren't Neutral Milk Hotely enough and then we can have an argument about whether that is something drums can actually be. It's fun being really tense when the song isn't in tune with itself as well.

How would you describe your live performances?

We probably get a bit too excited and play faster and louder and screamoeyer. Some of us probably pretend we were in Black Flag a bit too much. Sometimes we all align though and hopefully it comes out quite coherent, like the songs might actually sound better and more energetic sometimes?

Ace Bushy Striptease - Truck 13 - Full Set from Ace Bushy Striptease on Vimeo.

Where do the creative album titles come from?

Half the fun of being in a band is coming up with song and album titles. Our first record (Toadstool Ellipsis On The Grass) is a pun on the Bonnie Tyler hit 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart'. It's not a very good pun but it certainly is one.

We forgot to thank a friend of ours in the liner notes of that one so we made amends by naming our second record after him. It's really long and I can't remember what it is off the top of my head, something like 'Daniel Ershov has done something that we thought would make a good album title'.

Our most recent album (A Little More Suspicion In Our Fairytales Plz) is a Million Dead lyric. We chose it because we are dead (get it) hardcore.

None are particularly original but maybe we'll come up with a real good one one day.

From previous interviews I've read about ABS, you all seem have a great sense of fun but also a focused attitude to your music, is it easy to combine the two?

I think because we don't hate eachother yet everything is still super fun and it makes it a lot easier to appear focused as we all have kind of low expectations of eachother and what we want out of it all.


If you could use anything one item or word to describe your music what would it be?

A cup




How hard do you think it is for new bands to be successful both creatively and financially? How does correlate with your own experiences?

It is really hard. If you think about paying for practice rooms and then not getting paid very much for shows and petrol money and recording costs, we're not going to break even any time soon but it's fun and we're reasonably upwardly mobile so we don't mind too hard. Obviously it'd be great to live off this one day but it probably won't happen and we're ok with that. Having said that, if we could not work and practice loads we'd probably be awesome!

And finally, what is next for ABS?

We have already started writing loads of songs for the next album so yeah hopefully we'll be going recording for that in November. And we're going on tour! With our friends 4 or 5 Magicians in October. We're in the midst of sorting it all now but it will be brilliant for sure and we're really excited about playing more than two dates in a row.

What's next for God Is In The TV?


Ace Bushy Striptease are out on tour this October with 4 or 5 Magicians! and Truth! It all kicks off in London on Thursday October 14th.

You can download all of Ace Bushy Striptease's old albums for free at www.acebushystriptease.com/songs.php

Their album is still available at http://oddboxrecords.com/shop/release_details.php?cat_no=ODD012

Ace Bushy Striptease - Roly Poly from Awesome Studios on Vimeo.

Continuing the Introducing the band series over the next few weeks, stand by for Ace Bushy Striptease's track by track guide to their album and their very own playlist.