If you don’t know already, Assembly Now are four spiffing young lads from London that have not even been playing with each other for a year yet. They’re new friends! Regardless, Radio 1’s Steve Lamacq and Xfm’s John Kennedy love them to bits and stuff.
DiS engaged in some group discussion as Gavin Dwight (vocals, guitar), Max Fernandez (guitar), Howard Sutton (bass) and Andrew ‘Lush’ Lusher (drums) answered Some Questions with some wit, a lot of silliness but sadly no Spanish food.
If you could be drowned in anything, what would it be?
Max: Tobacco plants and milkshakes.
Have you had any near-death experiences?
Max: I fell on a spike.
Gavin: I nearly died of dysentery in India.
Lush: I moved in with Howard.
If you could make one book as important and integral to Western society as the Bible, what would it be?
Gavin: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Lush: Unweaving The Rainbow by Professor Richard Dawkins.
Max: The Qu'ran.
Howard: The dictionary.
What's your favourite alternative porn title for a Hollywood blockbuster?
Unanimous: Schindler's Whisk
On a scale of 1-10, how emo or metal or indie or whatever do you think you are?
Howard: 8% whatever.
Gavin: I've never dated a Goth, alright...?
Max: Gay men.
Lush: Yeah out of 10.
Max loves paella |
What is your favourite country?
Max: Spain… because of paella.
Howard: Surrey. It's a country. I am king. Or France.
Lush: Nigeria.
Who is your favourite non-musical celebrity?
Lush: Eddie Argos.
Max: Angel Garcia. My great uncle: a smuggler and a pirate. Really.
Howard: Terry Wogan.
What's been your most notable experience with fans and admirers?
Lush: We played a charity event in the countryside and we woke up the next morning with Polaroids of writhing naked female bodies under the moonlight.
Howard: I’ve been told I look like a newborn lamb onstage by random passers-by.
On a scale of 1-10 how good/bad do you look naked?
Howard: 0.00186364563501982001187625334141526738493675515116728939398298
Gavin: oh hush now
You spend so much time together, how do you stay friends?
Gavin: It's an optical illusion using mirrors and smoke.
Howard: I lie and use.
Lush: I feel used and lied to.
Max: Paella.
What advice would you give someone coming to one of your gigs?
Gavin: Face the stage.
Lush: Know where the fire exits are so you'll be safe when Max rips out a killer solo that sets the building on fire.
Howard: Don't smoke.
Max: Bring paella.
Once the pinnacle of technology |
What's your booze of choice?
Max: Vodka lime and soda.
Gavin: White Russian.
Lush: Something incredibly gay like a mojito.
Howard: Pint.
Who or what do you miss the most?
Max: Liverpool, the best place ever – The Fatherland.
Lush: When the SNES was the pinnacle of technology.
Howard: My yellow Fiat Cinqucento, which I wrote off on a roundabout. It was yellow. I was listening to garage. It was yellow. The yellow sporting one.
What's your favourite childhood memory?
Howard: Nothing. I don't care any more.
Max: Unwrapping the 'Manta Force' toy on Christmas day.
Lush: Discovering Freddie Mercury.
Gavin: Hitting McDonalds pretty hard after a movie with my dad. (Bi-annually if I was lucky.)
Name three things you could not live without.
Howard: Oxygen, water and Chewits.
Max: Moustache, paella and my eyes.
Lush: Power, money and bodyguards.
Gavin: I need some more time.
Assembly Now recommend that you DiScover Guilty Stains, Buttonhead, Jesse Malin and 2 x 10 + 1. I only asked them for three bands but they really are that generous. Gavin recommends All Tomorrow's Parties because “Vincent Gallo curated it once” and he’s right, it does count for something. Lush, however, is a man closer to my own heart as he suggests you go to charity metal event, Uxfest next year. If only because “you get to watch children’s heads bouncing off the tarmac.” Sadly it’s held in Islington Academy now so replace “tarmac” for “walls” and you’ll be fine.
Assembly Now released their debut single in August on the quite fantastic and wicked Kids label. The label’s not actually run by kids nor is it affiliated with children in any sinister way. Bit odd really.
Assembly Now are playing a few dates over the coming weeks:
Nov 15 @ London Macbeth, Hoxton Street
Nov 23 @ London Barfly w/ Tiny Dancers
Dec 1 @ Liverpool Carling Academy w/ The Wombats
Dec 12 @ London Dublin Castle (Club Fandango)