Impressive Psyche, free jazz, drone and metal collective Sex Swing serve up bassist Jason Stoll to take one for the team from our quick-fire question machine
Journos do like a label. How does Krautnoise suit you?
I’m not even sure what genre we belong to. We have been called all kinds, shronk rock, krautnoise and a whole load more in between. It seems that people are into the sound of it, it’s a claustrophobic, dark record which fits into the current sorry state of the world.
Yup, so dark it should come with a light switch. We suspect there’s a list of influences as long as our arm?
Initially we wanted to sound like Motörhead, but it just came out as this throbbing groove and grew from there. I suppose it does come from having diverse influences, from Shirley Collins to Swans, Throbbing Gristle to Napalm Death, garage rock, afro beat, pre-1972 Pink Floyd, Stockhausen, Suicide… they all unconsciously allowed us to create the music we make.
Someone described you as “third-era Portishead tweaking on brown acid”, which made us laugh. It’s a little wide of the mark?
We should tour with Portishead and see if the crowd think that.
You’ve been described as an “underground supergroup”, when we think of supergroups we think of The Traveling Wilburys…
I think more Blind Faith or Crosby, Stills and Nash. It’s a term that has its pros; a Time magazine article from 1974 called “Return of the Supergroup” said that such groups “played enormous arenas and made megabucks”…
“Enormous arenas” + “megabucks” sounds good…
Let’s see what happens, see if it works for us.
Tell us about the album sleeve. It’s pretty unsettling… erm, what is it?
It’s part of a big sculpture called ‘Soft Terminals’ by an artist called Alex Bunn. Dan, our singer, knows Alex.
Your drummer Stu Bell survived a plane crash didn’t he? The drama!
It was a night flight in bad weather and the plane crashed in Thailand, fortunately everyone survived. He was struck by lightning not long after in London.
Unlucky! Do you let him carry trays of tea near electrical equipment?
He’s had nothing but good luck since… he only drinks coffee.
Is Dan still a fearsome contender in the chess/boxing arena?
Dan’s currently training for a fight with ‘The Killer’ in December in York Hall in Bethnal Green.
How do you move the chess pieces with big gloves on?
That’s what training is for.
For those who don’t know, a sex swing is…
… a London based krautnoise sextet.
Ha! Very good. For £29.99 with discreet free delivery, every home should have one, right? Were you aware that Amazon had a “sex furniture” section? Just the thought is quite an eye opener isn’t it? Hello? Hello? Are you still there? Anyone?
‘Sex Swing’ is out on The Quietus Phonographic Corporation
