The Bourgeois Four..."bigger than Jesus"!

To celebrate the glorious return of The Bourgeois Four as announced exclusively (well sort of...) here on The Hearing Aid a couple of weeks ago two of the four, that's a whole 50% of the band...I always knew that Maths 'O' level would come in handy one day...took time out to answer some 'probing' questions. Who needs Paxman eh?  

First of all welcome back. You split a few years ago just when it seemed (to me at least) that you were getting somewhere. What happened?  

Tristan: Andy and I caught “Tom Cruise Syndrome”. We had a crisis of confidence and I, almost literally, pushed Andy over the edge…right off the stage, during our last gig. So we couldn’t make music anymore…for a while.

Andy: For one reason or another the creative process stopped, songs were being written but not finished. Rather than communicate my frustrations to the band, I had a paddy and quit. It’s only now that I realise that 90% of mine and Tristan’s conversations just consist of Alan Partridge quotes.

So why the comeback and why now?

Tristan: It’s just the next chapter. We’ve written a stack of new tunes. We got together, it got our blood pumping again, so we HAD to do it. It’s our gift to the world. And why make the world wait?..it has to be now.

Andy: Don’t look a gifthorse in the mouth, World. We’re leading you to water. Drink.

Wise words, speaking of which please describe the band’s sound in 5 words...or less.

Tristan: B-Punk. That’s “Bourgeois-Punk”.

Which ‘local’ (Brum/Midlands) bands do you rate right now?  

Tristan: Greg Bird and Flamingo Flame.

Andy: Elephantine blew me away live, as did God Damn. I love Calories, Sunshine Frisbee Lazerbeam and Sunset Cinema Club gigs always make me totes emoshe. Miss Halliwell always stir something within my innards.

Ahhhh, yes, the mighty Miss Halliwell. Good choice. Any advice for any new bands out there just starting out?

Tristan: Have a good time, all the time.

Andy: I was hoping that they could give us some advice.

Favourite venue in Brum to play and to visit as a humble punter?

Tristan: The Ship Ashore, probably.

Andy: The Tipu Sultan Bullshit Balti House

If you could get away with it what would be on your dream rider?

Tristan: Babycham…and Frazzles.

Andy: Steve Rider. He’s reeeaaal dreamy.

Climb into the Tardis with that dodgy swearing Scottish bloke and fast forward 5 years...what do you hope the band’s achieved by then?

Tristan: We’ll be bigger than Maroon 5 by then. Or at least the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Andy: We’re already bigger than Jesus. There’s four of us, there was only one of him. Fact.

And I'm pretty sure he never played The Actress and Bishop neither. Pah! Next year it’s the election and it strikes me that you might just have a view on politics and politicians. Thoughts?

Andy: I don’t think we’ve ever intentionally set out to be political – Maybe the supposedly ironic name would make people think that we’re on some kind of class warpath, but we’re hardly Billy Bragg. We’re not even Melvyn Bragg…not sure what I’m trying to say there.

However, Celebrity Body Crisis (out now on Speech Fewapy) does touch upon the inane, sensationalist nature of a lot of mainstream news. Tris and I are stupidly obsessed with The Day Today, and looking at today’s front page headlines, it’s almost as if Chris Morris is writing them. I saw one recently that read: ‘I’ll let giant snake eat me live on telly’ which made me titter for hours. 

But, the things that are served up as “news” are quite worrying. How are you supposed to make informed decisions if all you are fed are photos of how shit David Milliband is at eating fucking sandwiches?

In this aspect, I’m pleased to see Russell Brand using his profile to stir up public debate on issues that are a little more important than what’s happening to Bobby fucking Davro in a jungle or whoever.

However, I vehemently disagree with his stance on not voting – I think that’s really dangerous and irresponsible of him. The people that benefit from voter apathy are the Nasty Nigels of this world and that’s a slippery slope to Nazi-geddon. Voting should be made compulsory and the media should be held more closely to account about the balance of air time it gives to parties. The Green Party have been done over on this and, to me at least, they seem like they have the most intellectually sound policies. Wouldn’t it be great though to see someone as good at generating headlines as NF, leading the Greens?

But no, we don’t have anything to say about politics.

Tristan: Vote NCDMV.

Is there a question you wished I’d asked? If so what is it and what’s the answer (yes...this is a complete cop out but at least I’m honest about it eh?)

Q: Which tunes shaped the band’s’ sound? A: These.

Thanks!