An interview with Little Finger Little Finger

It was June 2005, May maybe, although it definitely felt like summer. Strange odours fill the air, asian spice and sweat. This is India and the music missionaries Arthur Heightis and Ben Dover heard about an interesting gig by this supposedly cool band, which came all the way from Australia, called Little Finger Little Finger.

They played at a beach in Calangute, and we went round to check it out. The gig happened to be a great fucking experience for both of us. Eventually, we managed to meet the guys and arrange this interview which went like this:

@ We formed this band just after the Sydney punk rock scene started dying down. That’s the kind of stuff we were also into, playing in rock bands since we can remember ourselves really, u know, at school and shit like that. We used to live in the suburbs, but we moved downtown. That’s where we met and everything.

? How did that happen?

@ My older bro had this h/c band, it was called Martian Field, and they used to play at the Marquee –that’s in Sydney right? So, u know, we had all moved in together and had started playing together at that point, so we managed to get a few gigs there as well.

@ We would compromise and serve blood-sucking corporation arseholes…

@ Like the fucking Marquee owners.

@ …easier than now.

@ Back in those days, u know.

? What year are we talking about?

@ Um.. hm… Uh…

? 1980’s?

@ Um… well, sort of, cos now I’m 33, so if I started playing when I was 11 or so, oh yeah, oh yeah, that’s it, I started playing in my own neighborhood and then I moved downtown, and I turned to a… pro.

? Oh well. Why did you stop playing punk rock anyway?

@ …

@ I think I can answer this one. You see, the scene wasn’t what it used to be anymore after a while, the whole thing got fucked up. You had lots of skinheads creeping in, showing up at gigs, and all the snobby labels started showing an unusual interest in us. You know, they all came round trying to capitalize, make money out of the bloody thing, do you know what I mean?

? When you said you turned pro, do you mean that you could make enough for a living from your music?

@ No, no man, that was ironic, we never did that, just a few things.

@ None of us wanted to do that.

? So how did you support yourselves back then?

@ Well, we can’t really tell you everything, yeah?

@ We may get into trouble man, fuck it.

At this point we realized that 4 out of the 7 Littlefingers Littlefingers hadn’t spoken a word yet, staring at the sea through their sunglasses all this time, and… were actually fast asleep.

? When was the first Little Finger Little Finger gig?

@ Oh man, I can’t remember that, how could you expect me to remember that?

@ How could you expect anyone here to remember… anything?

? Are you serious you can’t remember your first gig?

@ It must’ve been abroad somewhere. I can’t exactly remember, we’ve been to a few places, traveling around, you know…

? Can I ask you one more thing?

@ Sure, go ahead.

? We saw you on stage using a few acoustic instruments, like the double bass or the accordion, although your music seems to be founded on computers. What do you really call this music?

@ Are you kidding me? It’s pure post-ronica, man.

? Is this a term that you came up with, something you thought of?

@ No man, post-ronica is quite big in Australia, has been out for ages.

? Hey, never heard of it before. Any post-ronica names you could think of?

@ Even though I think it’s your job to know this sort of things, I would recommend the Godfather of post-ronica, B. Dawnson. Have you not heard of him?

? …

@ What about Grat Grat? I suppose if they were from the States or fucking Britain they’d be your favourite band, you asshole.

Obviously, at this point, we couldn’t get on with the interview any longer, not because the guys got aggressive or anything, but because we felt a bit embarrassed. No bad feelings. We spent the next couple of days hanging out with them, going to some parties and stuff like that. They actually gave us a CD with some of their recordings, which was produced by Renato Celeste.

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