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Time travel sounds like a laugh: in you hop, strap in, and it�s back to �76. John Lydon was so pretty then, with his lopsided lips and an air of arrogance so thick a chainsaw couldn�t cut it. Fast-forward to 2016 and examine a waistline expanded by a dozen ales a day. Hmm, actually, don�t � let�s leave this to the experts instead.
The Campaign For Real-Time (C4(RT) henceforth) have, apparently, got time travel licked � the Boston-based sextet fly to the future each and every weekend to plunder hit singles and bring them back to the present; what�s more, they�ve also ransacked the past, stealing from everyone from Fugazi to George Michael via John Lennon and Blondie. They�ve covered them all at basement parties locally and further afield, in this era of pop music and across the next seventeen. Sounds far fetched, doesn�t it? The results, though, can be heard in the here and now: the band�s debut album, Yes� I Mean No is out now through Big Scary Monsters.
And what an impressive album it is, too: Eighties synthesizers might still be so vogue since The Killers exploded all over FM radio, but C4(RT) blend even better licks than the Las Vegas lads� best efforts with blistering basslines and boisterous vocals to produce music that�s as accessible as the very best pop but also possesses all the tumultuous aggression of a heavy-touring punk outfit. Perhaps that should come as no surprise: former Garrison guitarist and vocalist Ed McNamara is involved, while said band�s onetime bassist Ethan Dussault is on production duty. The nine songs that make up the 34-minute-long Yes� I Mean No couldn�t be more different from those written by another group featuring a former Garrison man, Gay For Johnny Depp, if the lyrics were sung in Portuguese and recorded on a space station orbiting the eighth moon of Saturn � where the brats of Gay For� spit and spunk their discordant wares onto front rows with scant regard for compositional tautness or disciplined structures, C4(RT) are polished and precise. But don�t go thinking these songs are cold � McNamara�s voice is a wonderful instrument, more flexible than many a modern electronic keyboard, and the Moogs that run playfully and rampantly on every song are sure to have even hardened misery guts smiling at least a wee bit. That, or your ass�ll shake utterly uncontrollably and that�ll be that�
It�s McNamara, in his C4(RT) guise of Rory Stark (all will be explained, kinda, imminently), that answered the call for answers to DiS�s following questions�
Your bandmate, Lee �Big Game� Bronson to use his C4(RT) moniker, has previously referred to the group as �weekend warriors�. Would you care to explain what he means, exactly, by that? Also, what do you do when you�re not playing at being �weekend warriors�?
I assume you�re asking me what I do for a �day job�? Uh, yeah, I work for The Campaign For Real-Time. I work in temporal system analysis, accounts payable. Basically, I guess, you can think of it as an �office job�, and everyone works there at some point. We have a �jam room� in the office, and a little four-foot quarter-pipe with steel coping. Lip tricks, dude!
Okay� each band member, or �agent� as I believe you call yourselves, has adopted a different name for this project. (The band is: Rory on guitar, vocals and programming; Lee �Big Game� Bronson on vocals and Moog; Vinnie Krakatoa on drums; Falconer Model 7 on vocals, synthesizers, Moog and piano; Kittie Charlemagne �The Navigatix� on synths and Moog; and William Ocean on bass and programming.) Is this really important? Do you need to keep your �real� life and �agent� life separate? What did lead you to choose these names?
It seems like a lot of bands in the noughts had assumed names: The Wu-Tang Clan, The White Stripes, The Ramones, Franz Ferdinand, N*E*R*D, Steve and the 1700s, et cetera. So, Stu Walker is like Vinnie Krakatoa because he�s always blowing up. He�s, like, drinking half a beer and he�ll throw it at you. That, and he�s causing some serious plate tectonics, you know what I�m saying? And then Buckingham (a.k.a. William Ocean) is like the Brick, �cause he�s holding that shit together. That, and he�s the unheard-of secret initiation weed Northern Lights level 24 vorpal sword shit (DiS doesn�t even pretend to know what this means). Then Kittie Charlemagne: it�s like we�re playing Spy Hunter, and she�s driving the weapons van. Oil slick that shit up, kapow! She�ll smokescreen ya, that�s why she�s the Navigatrix. And then the Falconer Model 7, he�s just the emotion of the group. A lot of people think he�s got no feelings, but have you ever seen an android cry? I�ve seen him dream of electric sheep. Lee Bronson? The Chiaroscurist? He�s into some light lights and dark darks. That, and he�s hard to spell. Me? The OED. Look, I was fucking featured in Da Ali G Show: The Complete Second Season dude! You can look it up.
Your debut album is, we�re reliably informed, a collection of future hits. If that�s the case, why include a cover of �Instant Karma!�? When you perform live, are there many other past hits you pull outta the bag?
Over time we�ve done: �Waiting Room�, �Roadrunner�, �Overkill�, �S Control�, �Heart Of Glass�, �Freedom �90�, �Synchronicity III�� the list goes on. We always take a really well known song, a period piece; it doesn�t have to be a Number One song, but it has to be �dancey�. Oh, by the way, that song �Don Cheadle� (track six on the band�s album) is used by the man himself for his presidential run.
You�ll soon be in the UK, alongside Secondsmile. Now, Garrison toured here a good few times and were generally warmly received � do you think those same fans will turn out again for the new project?
Gotta invoke the Carole King here: �There�s no percentage in just remembering the past. It�s time you learned to live again at last. Come with me, leave yesterday behind and take a giant step outside your mind.�
How did the group get together in the first place? Were job ads placed for time-travelling agents with some sense of melody?
The story is pretty well known at this point. There was this MIT Time Traveller Convention in 2005, or 2007� 2005, definitely. And it�s like when you�re in another country, and you see another English guy, you can point him out. Time travellers are like that. We can spot each other. The convention wasn�t that cool � there was no booze, and no designer drugs, which MIT is famous for. It was just full of physicists that hadn�t done anything yet. We all kinda met at this place. We found some drugs at the disco floor at MIT � if you don�t know, nobody�s going to tell you � and we just decided to jam. See this link, here.
And how did you come to hook up with Big Scary Monsters, a label based in the Britain of the present day?
They offered us the most money. That, and Kittie once got a cape, put it on, and flew.
I imagine, considering both band members� pasts and the music you play today, that the band can slot onto many a different kind of bill, from metal to MOR. That the case?
We�d like to issue a challenge to every band out there: we�ll play before you, or after you. We�ll play in-between your goddamn songs. We�ll play across the room from you. Stadium, whatever � we�ll play just using a goddamned triangle. What the hell do you want from us? At one point, Miles Davies played with The Grateful Dead. Think back to the great Skalocaust of the 90s: how many techno bands had to play with Toasters wannabes? We�ll fucking play with Meatloaf, is that clear?
Okay, Meat� but, seriously, if you can travel through time, any idea when I might next get a pay rise?
Giving you any information wouldn�t be chromulant, chipper.
C4(RT) tour with Secondsmile from February 23, dates below:
February
23 Exeter Cavern
25 Hereford Kay�s Pool Club
26 Southampton Joiners
28 London Borderline
March
1 Leeds Joseph�s Well
2 Manchester Phoenix
3 Lincoln Bivouac
4 Luton University
For more information, do click to the band�s website, here.
