BRNLV Tour Week Interview // Napoleon IIIrd vs Lone Wolf

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It’s BRNLV Tour Week here on TLOBF, and we have each member of that tour being interviewed by their friends. Today we’ve got the lovely Lone Wolf firing questions at his mate Napoleon IIIrd.

Napoleon IIIrd has a new free single, ‘The Unknown Unknown’, out now (a Hype Machine number one hit no less!) that people can get here, where they can also pre-order a limited edition Christiania album pack. The album is out Nov 8th, but pre-orders will go out two weeks sooner.

Napoleon IIIrd – The Unknown Unknown by brainlove

1. This album seems to have moved in a slightly more experimental direction yet somehow managing to retain the ability of being another Napoleon IIIrd ‘hookathon’(tm). Was this the intention?

I have always intended each album to be a progression from the last, I want to continuously evolve. I only hope that I have the foresight to stop before I can’t do that anymore.

2. Why Christiania? You shout ‘”let’s all go to Christiania!” and a few bars later “Leaving Copenhagen!”. Has an experience in Denmark had some kind of weird influence on this album?

I have only spent a very small amount of time in Copenhagen. I played there last year, drank a ton of free cocktails after the gig and ended up going back to the hotel, sitting ousted of the window on the hotel sign overlooking the street talking about Anarchism and Christiania until the sun came up. That experience obviously lead to the writing of Leaving Copenhagen and gave me some themes to work on for the rest of the record.

3. Are you managing to fit some of your older material into your live sets or is it proving difficult due to your new(ish) direction?

Not yet, I’m working on that, this week. I really want the set to flow as a whole, rather than being just a collection of songs.

4. Any plans on taking some extra musicians out on the road and if so can I be one of them please?

I’m working on a plan right now, I’d like to tour with a brass section, a drummer and a small choir. It would be exciting to get other people involved so I’m starting to think about who I’d like to do it, I heard that you used to sing in a band called Concentration Champ?

5. Your lyrics do tend to take a bit of a ‘Napoleon’s eye on the street’ approach with an obvious dismay for lads with thier tops off whist being pissed, and other known stereotypical british parasites. Explain.

Parasite is to harsh of a term, I simply talk about the things that I see and experience. I am not the type of guy to walk the streets with my top off and the fact that I find this act socially objectionable is a personal opinion, but one that people should be free to express as they believe fit. I simply comment on life as I see it, I would never wish to impose my belief structure on others, I shudder to imagine the outcome of that nightmare.

6. You live in the sticks (Holmfirth to be precise), does this offer solace or cabin fever when writing.

It is a bit of both really. It’s nice to hide away for a bit, but hide away for too long and you go a little crazy. I spent all of last year trying to write this record, on my own in my tiny studio, I had nothing to write about as all I knew was the inside of my house. The record was boring so I deleted it, got out the house and started work after Christmas on what became Christiania.

7. So somehow I found out you were playing in Lone Wolf’s live band. What’s he like and what do you love best about him?

Good legs but a lack of stamina, you know, in bed.

8. How does playing with Lone Wolf differ from your solo shows emotionally and physically?

I love playing in a band, it’s a totally different experience from my solo show. I really enjoy the, “yeah, were a band, screw you” feeling that you get from touring with a load of other people. Napoleon IIIrd is, currently just me and I kinda want a gang. The great thing about this next tour is that I’m going to be on tour with 3 other great guys on Brainlove, Stairs to Korea, Mat Riviere and Pagan Wanderer Lu so I’ll kind of have that for a bit.

9. Your house is like an Aladdin’s Cave of toys, gadgets and gizmos. What new (including vintage) things are you taking out on your next tour?

My old Jen synth is working again so thats coming back out and I’ve just got a laptop which is opening up massive possibilities for my performances. Its nice to finally be able to play with the structures of songs and adapt them to the crowd. Obviously my old reel to reel will be out with me, carrying that thing around is my only form of exercise really.

10. I heard that you once got spiked at the mixing tin in Leeds just before a gig. Take us through what happened…

I remember the gig starting then apparently I tried to incite a riot of some kind and I remember pushing stuff over. The next thing I remember is waking up six hours later in the toilets, wondering out into the bar to be greeted by James Brown (Pulled apart by Horses) saying something like, “oh you are alive then, we were a little worried for a bit, pint?”.

11. Have you ever played in the USA and do you have plans to play SXSW 2011? Or anywhere else fun other than the UK?

There are no plans for the US yet, I’d love to get over there soon though. I am going out to Europe at the beginning of next year, I love playing abroad, you get treated really well.

12. If you and I were on a plane and it crashed in the mountains and I didn’t make it, would you eat my dead body to survive and if so where would you start?

I hear that you have delicious eyes and lobes. I would start small.