A FRITZ OF ALL TRADES
written by gord.
Uncle Fritz is a busy man. Not content with fronting the superb thrash-rock trio Perineum, he has recently released his first album as a solo artist. Oh, and he’s a rather prolific painter in his spare time too, his dark self-portraits an undoubted highlight of his work. So how does he balance all of these creative outputs?
"I don't!" he insists. "I am pretty disorganised most of the time, but somehow I manage to fit it all in."
His debut solo album, 'Nine Songs', has proved a success, released on Pet Piranha Records (home of Mercury Tilt Switch and The A Forest, amongst others) and features, funnily enough, nine songs with an acoustic folk singer-songwriter vibe. The album was recorded with Robin Sutherland, who recently worked with Dundee stalwarts Laeto on their album 'Zwoa'.
"Robin is extremely talented at what he does, we probably spent about about twelve hours on the whole thing, including mixing and mastering. This was due to the fact that I didn’t have a lot of cash to spend. However it was definitely money well spent, you just need to listen to the Laeto record to see how good Robin is."
"Amongst the nine songs are some of the first songs I wrote. Baby Blue is probably the oldest, whereas Insect was written two days before it was recorded".
But as mentioned before, there is more than one string to this gentleman’s bow. Perineum played what was probably one of the most successful debut shows in recent memory at Dexters in Dundee last year, and Fritz enjoys having more than one musical output.
"Well I always loved loud rock music from a young age" he states. "And it is still something I enjoy. Writing acoustic stuff is great but there are moments where I want to go fucking mental, and for that you really need an electric guitar with loads of distortion".
So after the success of 'Nine Songs', can we expect some studio time for Perineum?
"I certainly hope so. We are really happy with the noise we make, so it would be a shame not to document it. It can be difficult to practise full time as Mark (Perineum drummer) has commitments to (alt-rock trio) Alamos, but we seem to get by okay."
Perineum’s debut show had the band walking through the crowd to the stage dressed in full length dark hooded cloaks, before standing in position, throwing off their cloaks and launching into their first number. It was a stunt worthy of Spinal Tap, but Fritz insists you take his band with an industrial pinch of salt.
"I think if people take us completely seriously, then they are probably devoid of any sense of humour. We are most defiantly taking the piss" he insists. "But we are creating kick-ass songs at the same time".
Juggling his three creative outputs would be difficult enough, but he is a man who always appears confident on the surface. Doing gigs by yourself is nerve-wracking in itself, but it doesn’t help when you have a crowded bar full of chatty students.
"Oh I fucking hate that. I hate people talking over me when I play by myself. Everyone knows they are going to a gig, so why can’t they have the courtesy to keep their mouths shut?"
However, it isn’t these smoky, vulnerable solo shows that are the most nerve wracking for Fritz.
"I have only done one exhibition of my paintings, it was my degree show, and I was nervous. A lot of people came and enjoyed my stuff, but I was shaking. I remember feeling absolutely terrible with nerves".
But does this mean he sees his paintings as being a more personal output?
"Well it really depends" he says. "It depends on what kind of creative direction I want to convey something in, whether I think it’d work best as audio or visual".
A true artist then, but Fritz retains a sense of humour at all times. When asked if he had any words of wisdom to pass on, he came up with "Don’t sleep with people that share the same gene pool as you".
Speaking from experience, Fritz?
"No comment".
So there he is. Painter, singer, songwriter, a Jack of all trades. But where does he go from here?
"I have plans for world domination on all fronts” he says, with only a slight hint of sarcasm. "The invasion of Poland begins tomorrow".
‘Nine Songs’ by Uncle Fritz is out now, available at Grouchos in Dundee, or from the Pet Piranha online shop (
www.petpiranha.com)
Perineum will be supporting Fickle Public at Dundee’s Reading Rooms on the 17th of February. Click
here for more info.
Linear Mode
