Bad Feeling Magazine Podcast # 16 with Eugene Kelly (The Vaselines)

Listen to our interview with Eugene Kelly via the embedded media player above, or right-click and “save as” here.

On this episode, we speak with Eugene Kelly, one half of the highly influential Scottish indie-pop duo The Vaselines! The band were initially only around for a couple of year in the late 80’s, but managed to release a pair of EP’s and one full-length album that would secure their legacy for years to come.

Chock-full of youthful punk energy and brimming with fun and sexuality, it’s easy to see why the band went on to have such an effect on a young Kurt Cobain, who would go on to cover 3 of the band’s songs with Nirvana (“Molly’s Lips,” “Son of a Gun,” and “Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam”), exposing the band’s music to millions of people in the process.

The Vaselines reformed for what was meant to be a one-off show in 2008, which they have now parlayed into a full-on reunion, including a pair of new albums. Their latest, 2014’s V for Vaselines, was self-released by the band on their own Rosary Music.

We caught up with Eugene Kelly on the eve of the band’s upcoming tour to discuss the early days of The Vaselines, the “Nirvana effect” on the band, and the motivations behind the band’s return. You can get a sneak peek via the interview snippets below.

On NME’s influential C86 album: The C86 thing came about when we were maybe talking about getting a band together but we didn’t really make any music or release anything until 1987. So, I think we were kind of a bit jealous of the bands that were on that tape. I think the Soup Dragons were on it and the BMX Bandits weren’t on it, so I think we were just kind of jealous of not being on it, and spurned on to try and do something better, and just really get off our bums and do something.

On the dreaded “twee” tag: It’s not a name you choose for yourself, I think the press kind of decided to call it that for some reason. I think it’s a kind of insulting thing. I think just because the singer has a sort of soft voice, I couldn’t really understand it. We were all just trying to make pop music and rock music, and “twee” just seemed condescending and kind of insulting. Why would you consciously want to be “twee” and pretend you’re still at school?

On Nirvana covering their songs: The band had split at that point, and the music had got as far as Northwest America, and so it was great to know that our music had travelled farther than the band was ever going to travel. By that point Nirvana was just beginning, they weren’t the successful band that they became afterwards. So you just kind of went, “that’s great that the music’s got to these people, and these are kind of our contemporaries.” And you wanted to meet them and eventually we met Mudhoney, and we met Nirvana at some point in the late 80’s, early 90’s, we hooked up with them and realized that we were kind of kindred spirits.

Listen to the full interview here, or via the embedded media player at the top of the page. Let us know your thoughts on this episode in the comments below!

The Vaselines play Bar le Ritz (179 Jean-Talon West) on Sunday, January 18th at 9:00pm. Tickets are $18/$20, available here.