Every now and then you get put in an interview scenario which could literally go one way or another. This is what happened when Dean from Muncie Girls and Rich from Happy Accidents interviewed each other at 2000 Trees.
Dean [MG]: So I’ve got a few questions for you Rich, I’m going to start off relatively tame – do you exercise?
Rich: I used to do jogging, and I used to try and do running, but I’ve stopped now, so no I don’t exercise. Do you?
Dean: To be honest, now I very rarely exercise
Rich: You look like you exercise
Dean: Do I? In what way?
Rich: You just look really great haha
Dean: Thanks man, thanks. I don’t really exercise, I cycle every so often but that’s more to save money rather than actually get fit
Rich: I really want a bike. I’m spending £5 a day getting to work and it’s killing me
Dean: You need to get a bike! Especially in London, you need a bike
Rich: Something about cycling in London terrifies me
Dean: I don’t find it too bad. It’s kinda mental, but I find if you drive then you find it okay because I know exactly what the cars are going to be doing, and what not to do. I can see how it can be scary, certainly in some areas and some people are so unbelievably aggressive.
Rich: For sure! People hate cyclists as well
Dean: Actually, yeah that’s true. The amount of crap I’ve had from drivers. Things that you just totally wouldn’t get if you were in a car, like, this guy just started pulling out in front of me when he should be giving way to the traffic, and then was like “what the fuck are you doing?” when I went round him.
Rich: This is what the people want to hear!
Dean: Hahaha, to conclude, neither of us exercise. Do you have a question for me?
Rich [HA]: Do you get bored of touring? Because you’ve been doing a lot more recently
Dean: Personally, no I don’t. I’m glad when I get home, but I’m also totally happy on tour at the moment. I also find a lot of time for myself when I’m at home, I keep away from people and chill out, or just spend time with my girlfriend.
Rich: It’s almost a full-time job now isn’t it? It’s very cool
Dean: It’s been nuts recently, but I’m still as stoked to be on tour when I’m on tour, as I was when we played our first show
Dean [MG]: Rich, where did you grow up and why?
Rich: Haha! Right, okay so I grew up in North East London, bordering Essex. My grandparents grew up in that place as well and they’ve never moved, and my parents have never moved. I come from a line of very unadventurous people.
Dean: That’s very, very similar to me
Rich: The first thing I’ve done though is move to South East London
Dean: You got the hell out of there! You moved from London… to London
Rich: Yeah exactly haha. It’s a completely different type of London though, it might as well not be the same city. It’s so nice now when people are like, “Do you wanna come to the pub?” because before it’d be like “Can I be bothered with the hour and a half journey?” now it’s like “Yeah of course!” because it’s only up the road.
Dean: A lot of people live in South East London. My girlfriend lived there for a bit and now everyone I know in London lives there, it’s crazy.
Rich: It’s really cool! We started doing a Muncie Girls and Great Cynics Sunday club, where we all go to the pub on Sunday with all the UK DIY bands haha.
Dean: We go to the weirdest pubs in the whole world
Rich: There’s lots of taxidermy all around, every Sunday, it’s really good, you’re welcome to come!
Thank you!
Dean: Last time there was ice cream, so come on down!
I am so there.
Rich: We have a message thread called Sunday club
Dean: We’ll add you in
Thanks, I’ll definitely be there! Haha!
Dean: Have you got another question for me, Rich?
Rich [HA]: How does this Festival compare to other Festivals that you’ve done? And I want your honest response, I don’t want like, “Oh this one is great but the others are also great”.
Dean: Um, this Festival is great, the others are also great haha, but this Festival definitely has a charm to it, as does Groezrock. It’s not massive, loads of our friends are about and you just bump into people all the time, which is really nice. We were at Glastonbury the other day and like, that’s really cool, but it’s just so overwhelmingly big you can’t see everything that’s going on. For us, we just stayed exactly where we were camping, which was behind the Leftfield stage, we went to the Leftfield and the main stage a bit but that was it, because we were like “We wanna see this band but they’re a 45 minute walk away so why bother?” Especially with the mud and stuff, it was just too much. This Festival is awesome though, I haven’t been before.
Not much walking either!
Dean: Exactly
Rich: So little walking, which is why I like it
Dean: After all we don’t exercise so we need short walks
Rich: How much do you wish this would end?
I’m having a great time!
Dean [MG]: Okay, I’ve got two more questions for you. Are you punk?
Rich: I am SO not punk. I am the least punk. Why am I not punk? Do you think I’m punk?
Dean: Yeah I think so! I think you’ve got some punk in you. I think you’re somewhat punk to be playing today, to have made the decision to be like, “I’m going to start a band and do what I do and see what happens”.
Rich: Do you think you’re punk?
Dean: To some extent yeah. I could be more punk if I tried. I could be vegan. Or straight edge.
Rich: I’m vegan! But I do drink. The way I see it right, the people that call us out for not being punk, I don’t care about their opinions anyway.
THAT IS PUNK! Not giving a shit what people think of you is so punk.
Dean: Yeah, I think that is my sorry excuse for calling myself punk. I don’t care what other people are thinking, or I try not to. Maybe I do sometimes. Oh I’m so not punk. Forget it.
Rich: Forget it. Neither of us are punk.
Cool. Glad we got that one covered.
Rich: Are you punk?
Probably not.
Dean: No, come on, this is Punktastic!
Rich: That’s punk AND fantastic
I’m the most unpunktastic person at Punktastic haha!
Dean [MG]: Oh really? Ha! Right okay, final question then. I hope this isn’t going too far and isn’t offensive to the special person in your life. The first person you kissed, was it a pleasure or a chore? And I mean that in the sense like, my first kiss, I was absolutely bricking it, so it was a chore in that way because I was so scared I just sort of put my lips out there and I didn’t know what the hell was going on.
Rich: Oh it was definitely a chore! I don’t think either of us knew what we were doing and it was just unpleasant. It was like a technical movement. It was horrible. It’s a good thing that wouldn’t have offended the special person in my life because they’re different people.
Dean: The first person I kissed is still a special person in my life, in a certain way. I’ll never forget her y’know?
Rich: What was her name? Give her a shout out on Punktastic.
Dean: She was called Charlotte. Chaz for short. If you’re reading this. I wasn’t actually with her for that long so I can’t remember if her name was Jewel or Jew-el, but if you’re out there Chaz, it was great.
Rich: “Chaz have you heard of Muncie Girls? That’s me!”
Dean: I’m in this lame, savage band and that’s why I’m here talking about you and it’s well weird.
Rich: And that’s that! Thanks for talking to us hahaha
TAMSYN WILCE