The Wonder Stuff Interview

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After 26 years only one original member of the Wonder Stuff remains, lead singer Miles Hunt has stayed a constant throughout the bands varied history that includes a break-up in 1994, a reunion in 2000 and the death of two members. Prior to the release of their seventh album and short tour we spoke to Miles Hunt about the bands line-up history, how he performed whilst being miserable and not owning a TV.

You are going on tour with Pop Will Eat Itself and Jesus Jones, what do you like about those two bands?

I think there is a spirit shared between the three bands that we don’t muck about, there is very little in the way of subtleties within the three bands. It’s obvious what we are trying to do and that’s put a rocking tune over in a pretty forceful way.

As a band you have had lots line-up problems for 25 years, how have the changes affected the band?

It’s not been problems really, it’s been getting rid of some spare fat and each time the line up changes have occurred the band gets a kick up the arse and a bit of new life into it so for me it’s great. We’ve not been the only ones, there have been a lot of bands that I have been influenced by over the years that have had constantly changing line-ups, the Cure, the Waterboys, the Cult, there are loads of them. Not everyone’s cut out for the long haul, it’s been my baby since ‘86 and I’ve yet to think of anything I would prefer spending my life putting my efforts into. As each member has left it’s either been because they don’t feel it anymore or they have found something else they want to do with their life and each time somebody new has come in its given it a new energy and certainly the line-up that we have now is the best we have ever had. 

Do you think the band has an independent existence or is it dependant on you?

Well I’m the thread really that’s been there since the beginning, I’ve always been the principle songwriter. Pretty soon into it we were doing regular interviews with the press in the late 80’s and it was always me that got pushed forward by our pr’s and so I suppose mine has been the constant face of the band. 


 

Do you listen to any mainstream music now?

I listen to music. I have always been the same, in school I didn’t want to see another kid who had the same band name written on their exercise book as I did. I am a complete snob. I want the music that I’m into to feel like it’s mine and mine alone. I tend to find that if something is hugely successful before I have cottoned onto it I go ‘that’s everybody else’s I will go and find something else.’ I think there is a great pleasure in finding something or being tipped off by a mate. I listen and pay attention to mainstream music but its never really been on my agenda and still isn’t. I’ve also learned to stop wasting my time being annoyed by successful, lousy mainstream music.

Do you need any qualities as a musician to have the type of sustained career that you have had?

I don’t know whether it’s a quality, other than making a great noise, writing the next tune, having the band rehearse good and tight, I don’t really have aspirations. The idea of me planning a holiday is completely bizarre, I don’t need a holiday from anything I’ve done. I don’t need to find the energy to do what I love doing. I’ve not earned a great deal of money out of it. I’ve earned a subsistent level of money over the last quarter of a century. I don’t have a TV and I don’t feel pressured to have the stuff that people are under pressure to get to feel like you are part of the 21^st century like the plasma screen or the latest iphone, none of that reregisters with me at all. My thing is to keep this going and keep the freedom in my life. I don’t know whether that’s a quality, I just don’t care seemingly about what most people in society are worried about.  

I’ve had computers, we use them to record on and I like social media as it helps with getting information out to people who are still interested in the band. Then you see something like TV catch up come along, I haven’t had a TV in my house for 10 years and I’ve sort of got suckered back into it. I see TV’s in hotels and I can’t believe the quality of so called entertainment, it’s diminished over the years that I haven’t been watching but the pressure during the adverts and this weird message that you are not good enough if you haven’t got this. I find it utterly bizarre and I pity people who are under this pressure to aspire to what it means to be part of the 21^st century, it’s horrible, it’s depressing.

Who’s response do you judge the success of your music on, the fans or the critics?

I don’t listen to either of them. As far as success goes with new material the success is the actual writing, performing and recording of it. I have never ever cared whether it was in any chart. I have never seen music as a competition. That’s been an irrelevance for me from the get go, if you can be bothered to look back at interviews in ‘88 I have always said the success of a song is the fact that it got written and that you can perform it well, I don’t care how many it sells. 

You are quite open that you were miserable when touring in the 90’s, how did you cope getting up on stage each night and performing?

During the day when you are touring, every band will tell you the same thing, you have a lot of time on your hands and it’s as simple as I didn’t like the people I was hanging around with. It took me a long to realise that I didn’t have the full support of the members of the band at that time as everyone had different agenda’s. That’s why we broke up in ‘94 when I finally figured it out. So during the day I’d got a load of people around me who, had I not been in the band, I wouldn’t have socialised with and then turning that into how do you get your mood up to go on stage? Simply looking forward to seeing the audience, our audience no matter what year it’s been have just been incredibly energetic and get it. We haven’t been remembered in the same way as say the Stone Roses have been remembered as a legendary band that defined the period and I couldn’t care less really as the relationship with the Wonder Stuff audience has been a really tight one. Just sticking a guitar on my shoulders, walking out and seeing those guys, that’s an absolute game changer straight away and always has been.

Published in Yorshire Evening Post