Interview: Loves Ugly Children - Floss Fleury & Simon Maclaren

Loves Ugly Children are back for one Auckland show only at The Mothership next Thursday, their first gigs together since 1998! One of the most popular and punkiest groups of Flying Nun's mid-nineties roster (alongside King Loser, HDU, Superette and Garageland), original members Simon Maclaren (Subliminals, Psychic Maps), Floss Fleury and Jason Young (Future Stupid) promise to bust out "all the songs you wanna hear, cos they're playing them!" with special guests Bloodbags (fronted by fellow FN veteran Andrew Tolley) and DJ Pennie Raven Black.

Makers of two classic Flying Nun long players — Cakehole (1995) and Showered in Gold (1997) — numerous EPs, compilation contributions, and a number of out-of-print releases via the Failsafe Records imprint, it was a treat for this fan to fire a volley questions in the direction of Maclaren and Fleury. Also playing Ōtautahi's Go Live Winter Music Festival this Saturday, don't be a sucker and miss the legendary Ōtautahi punk / emo / shoegaze / grunge trio, you might have to wait another 26 years to see them again...

Loves Ugly Children
with Bloodbags, DJ Pennie Raven Black
Thursday 22nd August — The Mothership, Auckland 
Tickets on sale HERE via UTR

Chris Cudby: These will be Loves Ugly Children's first shows since 1998! What brings you together again after all this time? Were Loves Ugly Children ever tempted to play any reunion gigs at any point in the time between?

Floss Fleury: 1998 Jesus! I know it’s been a while! The Music brings us back together and transports us back to a time of great memories of gigging, touring and recording. We all still love the music we made and all still love to play live, none of us three have ever stopped making or playing music. Many times we thought we should do a reunion show but this just seemed like the right time and place. We all had time and energy to put 100 percent into putting on a few great shows in our two favourite and most supportive places Christchurch and Auckland.

Simon Maclaren: I think it would have happened if we were ever actually all in a room together since then. But Jason was living in Melbourne, and I hadn’t seen him since 1997.

I always thought I wasn’t capable of it anyway, and nobody in all that time had seriously even asked us, so I was really comfortable with letting it lie in the past. Then, Marc Royal from the Christchurch City Council suggested that we reform to play a festival at the Town Hall here. That seemed appropriate and good, to play a gig here, but I said no, cos it seemed kind of impossible. Then eventually I asked myself “If you did want to do it, what steps would you take?” And that lead to a few insights that lead to a change of heart about the gig.

Also the world feels like it is entering an apocalyptic era so the psychic backdrop is perfect again for the kind of stuff we express.

What's it been like channelling the power and angst of those classic LUC songs again?

Floss: FUN!! It was such a blast! Jason flew over from Melbourne and I flew down to Christchurch where Simon lives, so we could all be in the same room, check the vibe… check the playing as none of us were really sure if we could do this? Or would this even work? But after 1 min we were back on the good foot! Simon’s sonic guitar wailed through house, Jason drums smashed and banged perfectly, and my fingers just knew where to go, what to do, all playing together just felt natural and just like it did all those years ago!

Simon: It’s crazy how good it worked. I forgot how powerful Floss and Jason are to play with. It’s like every move is fully synchronised and backed by a fierce machine, and it allows me to play guitar in a certain kind of fearless way.

I had to try to recall how I did things back then, and at times I had to ask other musicians to help decode a few things... the tunings and chords for certain songs. It was like a time travelling task, unravelling the nature of these old guitar shards blanketed in heaps of distortion. Also there are a number of untutored lead breaks that seem to just kind of explode from nowhere. Figuring it out was a really interesting process.

What necessitated the move from Christchurch to Auckland in '96? Was there any noticeable difference between Chch and Akl crowds? Reckon audiences were rowdier back then?

Floss: Absolutely rowdier crowds back then, smoke stinking venues, beer sticky floors. F**k up I don’t care fashion, no “cost of living crisis” the beer was cheap and both the beer and the crowds flowed freely. Christchurch was more of a party of gigs where your friends and faithfuls followed, there was an after party for every gig! We had to relocate to Auckland, more venues... more people... Big Day Out... Flying Nun was all here and so was my Mum. Hahah needed a good baby sitter (had a 3yr old child) as knew we were off to the UK some day soon!

Simon: Floss is originally an Aucklander, so that helped make it a possibility at the time. I wanted to move there just to see what would happen. However, part of me wishes we had stayed in Christchurch just to be super die hard about it. Haha.

Loves Ugly Children definitely seemed to be the most punk rock group of the mid-nineties Flying Nun roster. Which local bands would you regularly play with? Where were the good clubs in Auckland?

Floss: Yeah so many awesome venues at that time, can’t recall half their names now but Squid Bar a favourite as drank there with Ministry after the Big Day Out Auckland shows, Poweratation was also great and is still going!! A lot of the bands we played with were Shihad, Weta, Bailterspace, Head Like A Hole, King Loser. And no we were defiantly not your average Flying Nun Jingle Jangle Dunedin pop band. Although the music we played had pop sensibilities and elements of pop, we hit a lot harder and shouted a lot louder too.

Simon: In Christchurch we liked to play with Squirm, 147 Swordfish, Dolphin... many others. Getting to support Bailterspace was a huge deal back then, and for me it still would be. In Auckland I remember we played with Hallelujah Picassos and Urban Disturbance at that bar kind of opposite Squid, you know, the one on the corner, where that flash mall is now... um... no... it’s gone from memory. Jason will know. We played with HDU and King Loser at that huge dark bar on Symonds Street... what’s it called... um, no it’s gone. Jason might know. Haha. Luna? Maybe [yup it was @Luna on Symonds St. - Ed.].

LUC's profile was high — you played multiple Big Day Outs, the Vans Warped Tour and numerous overseas supports including Foo Fighters, Rocket From The Crypt, Regurgitator and Ministry! What's some personal highlights from your time in Loves Ugly Children?

Floss: That’s a hard one, Ministry probably the most awesome score! Rocket from the Crypt the most fun one. The most memorable one for me is still the Foo Fighters at the Power Station because Dave Grohl sat on the stage banging his head happily the whole time we sound checked... then came up after and said “hey you guys are really cool”. Hahaha I’ll take it!

Simon: I used to love touring cos we’d get to see everywhere. We seemed to do it a lot. Playing Bar Bodega in Wellington was always great. Playing the Big Day Out’s was special. Playing on the West Coast of the South Island, or in Palmerston North, or Napier, or Invercargill, it was alllll good. The UK was great, and Australia. You know, we felt like we had something to prove and we often proved it.

There's a bunch of Loves Ugly Children's pre-Flying Nun releases currently unavailable online, except for a smattering of videos on YouTube (eg. 'BLEED'). Any chance of reissues from LUC's earlier days? Any unreleased rarities in the vaults?

Floss: Hell yeah!! We just found all the recorded tracks that never made it on the albums... and some are bloody great! Simon will tell you more!

Simon: Yeah... a large cache of forgotten demos has been discovered. We didn’t realise we had recorded so much material. The names of the songs were all unfamiliar. It’s crazy. It’s not all manic punk either, it’s the other side of things. Some of the tunes are better than anything we released. I know that sounds like bullshit but it's actually true.

Why did Loves Ugly Children decide to pull the plug back in the day?

Floss: Revenge is a dish best served cold!

Simon: Jason left the band cos he had a record deal with Future Stupid... and we quickly realised we could barely tie our shoelaces without him. Maybe. Also I guess I didn’t want to live in a musical space that specialised in me having my web of neurosis echoing in my head the whole time. It’s possible that Flying Nun was pissed at us for not delivering the sonic pop album that was always within reach but duly ignored. We went in other directions instead. Tunes wise, it was all meant to segue back to a sonic shoegaze blueprint just a little bit down the line, and that was the plan, but we just never made it there.

Can you reveal which songs you'll be playing at Mothership in Auckland? You're playing with Bloodbags?

Floss: Bloodbags is in full support to kick the night off with a bang! Also Pennie Raven Black on the DJ sounds to warm you up and cool you down. 'Voodoo Girl', 'Senseless', 'Suck', 'Space Suit', 'Bleed' and 'Falling Down', are a few of the 13 songs we will be playing from across the entire “Loves Ugly Children” catalogue. My favourite song to play is 'Good Thing' it’s a smasher of a hit! We play that better today than we ever have. Also playing the first melodic songs I ever wrote on the bass on the first bass I ever bought and am still using and playing today! Long Live The Bass!

Simon: Yeah the Bloodbags are playing! Awesome. As for the music: 'City That Shines', 'Latest Product', 'Totally Down', 'Sixpack', 'Personal World'... it’s probably the most solid set we will have ever played as it has the advantage of hindsight. The tunes all seem to just bounce off each other. We were always forward looking so you never really knew what we would play back in the day. So we are really gonna enjoy just hitting all the good bits!