"Music can't change the world, but it can change one person's own little world a very little bit."

MP3

There will be a new Fosca mp3 every week, so do not waste any time in downloading! This week's song (#2 in our series) is the excellent "Universal Gatecrasher", please right click on the song's title and select "save target as"!


COMPETITION

Two lucky winners will win a cd single of "Secret Crush On Third Trombone" -- all you've got to do is send us a message and answer this very simple question: what's the latest Fosca album called? You know where to look, don't you?!


AN INTERVIEW WITH DICKON EDWARDS FROM FOSCA

One warm day of April (at least for Greece), Dickon turned on his computer and answered some of our questions...

Q: How were the very early Fosca days like?

Dickon: First I had a band called Orlando in 1992, who played gigs in 1993 and made a record under the name of Shelley in 1995. Then Orlando became a completely different band in 1995, which I left in 1997 and named whatever I would do next as "Fosca". My memory is very hazy at the best of times, but I enjoyed a lot of it. I listened to the Shelley record for the first time in ages recently and was bemused and impressed, but to be honest those records were really mostly made by other people in the bands. I just wrote the lyrics and bits of the music. The first Fosca record, "Nervous, London", features "File Under Forsaken", which is something I'm immensely proud of, being the first track I've been involved in which was really me being in charge, and I was so glad I created it. Even if it does owe an awful lot to Galaxie 500.

Q: How would you compare how the band sounded in the mid-nineties to how it sounds now?

Dickon: Well, I shouldn't compare Shelley or Orlando to Fosca at all, as they are complelely different bands that happen to have me writing lyrics and sometimes playing guitar on. "File Under Forsaken" is very different to later Fosca, but that's main because it was me doing the producing, such as it is, and I love cavernous wall-of-sound echo. After that, the first Fosca album was produced by Ian Catt, and so had a far cleaner, glacial pop sound. Also, Alex Sharkey was in the band then, and contributed lots of samples and sounds that we didn't use on the second album because his replacement, Kate Dornan, is more of a "live" musician than a programmer.

Q: It looks like electro-pop and 80s-influenced synth pop music are becoming more and more popular these days. Do you feel Fosca are part of an "80's revival" movement?

Dickon: Certainly not. Fosca exists entirely separate from other bands. All the other bands don't really like us, anyway.

Q: There's a lot of diversity in your music, especially if one listens to the first Fosca album and your first EP. Does it make you uncomfortable to be labeled as an electro-pop band, while you're trying different things too?

Dickon: I don't really mind labels, because people always have to describe what music sounds like to others. As long as they don't call us heavy rock, I can cope with labels.

Q: What's your idea of a fun night out (or in actually)?

Dickon: Lying on my bed, listening to some spoken-word recording written by Alan Bennett or Quentin Crisp, drinking cheap coffee and eating satsumas.

Q: What has been on your stereo lately? How does your all-time-favourite-songs list looks like?

Dickon: I've been listening to The Hidden Cameras an awful lot recently. They are the only new band worth listening to. My all-time favourite songs list would have to include the entire output of The Supremes, Diana Ross, The Carpenters, Galaxie 500, McCarthy and The Smiths.

Q: Where do you draw your inspiration to make music from?

Dickon: Having words and music in my head that demand to be made into songs.

Q: Sarah Records (and Shinkansen) were not only about music but, in a sense, about changing the world. These days, this point seems more relevant than ever. How do you feel music - in general - can change the world?

Dickon: It can't change the world, but it can change one person's own little world a very little bit.

Q: Please, write one (or more if you want) sentence about each one of the following names!:

a) Ian Catt (Fosca's producer who's also produced Saint Etienne and Field Mice)
Lives too far from Highgate.

b) Spearmint
My favourite ever employers.

c) Jeepster Records
Admirable taste.

d) Radiohead
Admirably tasteless.

e) Saint Etienne
Bob Stanley lives very near me. I wish he'd swap homes with Ian Catt.

f) Pet Shop Boys
Very clever, but not as clever as me.

g) Blanco Y Negro
See Jeepster.

g) erm, McDonalds
See Radiohead.

Q: The obvious question for last: Fosca will play in Athens in early May; what's to expect?!

Dickon: Enormous statues of myself to be constructed within seconds of my leaving the stage.

Fosca's fourth single, "Secret Crush On Third Trombone", was released in June 2002 via the folks at Shinkansen. The band's official website is located here.