Kilburn Kalling Jon Langford with the questions, at last.

Hello Europe! Mekons responding....

Will the new album be ready for the summer tour? Or: how far has work on the new album progressed?

No, but songs from the new album will be played - the album is mostly mixed and nearly ready to go - it will probably be called Ancient & Modern and we shall wait and see what label it will be coming out on (maybe hand carved wooden 7 inches distributed bu pigeon post)


In the past, the Mekons seemed to change their sound from album to album mainly by placing the emphasis on a different aspect of their wide array of existing instruments/stylistic devices/rhythms (rather than, say, getting a new producer in, or going reggae when the fashions seemed favourable). Fair comment? And what's going to be different for the new album?

It's always the particular circumstances that surround the making of the album that seem to decide how it will sound - For Natural we made some demoes in a farmhouse in the British countryside near an old stone circle and several well-stocked pubs and lied the demo recordings so much that became the album. They sounded very casual and acoustic and it suited us at the time. This time we descended on Tom's tiny village in Devon (because he had work/family commitments and wrote and recorded in a house we rented with mobile studio and Rico's son Walter at the controls) We then took the songs to Chicago, then back to Wales and finally to West Sussex to mix with old chum Ian Caple. Throughout this the tracks were manipulated, edited, transformed, dissected and frankensteined by Lu in his flat in Brixton. They don't sound very casual and are more ambient/abrasive than acoustic and that suits us now. Nothing is simple in our world but the album sounds huge & vaguely coherent despite its wanderings.


Basic, this one: how does the band write and record music? surely not by e-mail?

That hasn't really happened yet but who knows - when we are in our various assisted living centres in the socialist utopia that awaits we will all have pro-tools technicians poised like alert ferrets at our bedsides 24/7


How do you decide which song you write should be performed by which outfit? Do you decide before or after the actual writing?

We write all the Mekons stuff when we are together - a highly collaborative process often bordering on the insane.


What is it about the Mekons that has held the band's members together for so many years and over so many miles' of geographical separation? What can you do with Mekons that you can't with any of your other bands or even solo?

It's a huge challenge to do anything f'sure BUT we keep at it because it really feels like we should. It would be a sort of surrender to give in to all the obstacles we have erected in our own path.


Is the geographical separation perhaps one reason for the band's longevity? I.e., you're not together for long enough to get on each others' nerves?

You may have a point - there is a certain yearning for togetherness that wears off after a few days. Rico is such a vile and obnoxious character I can only hope that Los Angeles can somehow be moved even further from Chicago in the next few years


How has the band's attitude towards music making in general, and music making within Mekons, changed over the years? Has the motivation for making music - within and without Mekons - changed at all?

I doubt that is has changed all that much - the normal motivations of fame and fortune have never been high up the list and now it's probably just the idea of making something/anything that keeps us going - like whittling a stick or crocheting toilet roll holders. It has always been, rather selfishly, for our own amusement...


The Mekons have survived quite a few distinct political "climates". Previously, the political situation has been a strong motivational force in your song writing as well as the way the band conducted itself. How will the Obama/Cameron era impact on the work of the Mekons?

We are currently composing a stirring anthem on the use of Drones their potential application in the inner cities. Obama is of course the messiah and everything's gonna be alright. He had Paul McCartney at the White House dude! Revolution now!


How has living in Chicago re-shaped your attitude to music? And your political views? Actually, why Chicago in the first place?

No reason - big industrial town in North of England swapped for larger one in USA at a time when I was feeling rootless and wandery - love not money f'sure.


Living in Chicago, shouldn't you be painting Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon rather than Johnny Cash and Minnie Pearl?

Ah - well I have painted the Wolf BUT contrary to popular compartmentalization Chicago has a huge hugely important role in the development of Country Music just as Nashville was a much overlooked R&B town


Leeds uni circa 1978, any twinges of nostalgia?

Free education, cheap beer, hours of lying in bed like there was no tomorrow but I have to say I prefer now... other Mekons might disagree


Given that Mekons started exploring various strands of English and American Folk music at a time when these types of music barely got a look in with people under 50 and not wearing Arran jumpers, do you not feel a little bitter, perhaps, that such endeavours have become rather hip over the last four or five years, without Mekons gaining anywhere near enough recognition for their ground work?

We despise the hip - we are thigh people - there's no time for us to be waiting around for the philistines - we push on, up, out and in


Do you care about the rest of the music business at all?

We wish it a peaceful passing