A Pint and a Chat with Bloc Party’s Russell Lissack

Always be prepared: Russell never leaves home without his brolley. ©Photo by N.Trimmington

Our man with the microphone Nigel Trimmington spent some time with their lead guitarist Russell Lissack, prior to the band’s performance at the V2006 Festival...

Fender: Mine’s a pint – what are you having?
Russell: I’ll have a vodka and apple juice.

Fender: Do you remember the first time you ever picked up an instrument?
Russell: When I was four or five, I had piano lessons.

Fender: And a guitar?
Russell: That was when I was fourteen.

Fender: Do you remember the first riff that you learnt to play?
Russell: I think it was "Greensleeves".

Fender: Rock and roll…
Russell: (Laughs) I’m still trying to get the hang of it.

Fender: What’s the first band that you were in?
Russell: I picked up a guitar the same time as my friend who picked up bass, and we decided to learn together.

Fender: Did the band have a name?
Russell: We had a lot of names. We didn’t have a name for ages. Names are always a problem. I remember coming up with ‘Bloc Party’: it was a real pain. We had different names for years until we finally arrived at Bloc Party.

Fender: When you were learning to play, what artists inspired you to take it to the next level?
Russell: Smashing Pumpkins, Suede, Radiohead, Smiths. Those were the bands that I’d sit around and try and work out how to play their songs.

Fender: Do you remember the first gig you ever went to?
Russell: Yeah, it was Placebo at LA2, which is now called the Mean Fiddler.

Fender: In your opinion, what was the best gig you’ve ever seen?
Russell: I don’t know; that’s really hard, because I would go to gigs every day, so it’s hard to think of one. Radiohead are always phenomenal. Every time I see them, they’re always astounding.

Fender: Up to date, what’s been the best gig you’ve ever played?
Russell: Again, that’s hard. A recent one we did was Mexico. It was insane. There were about three thousand people, but we couldn’t hear ourselves on stage because they were shouting the whole time.

Fender: When you’re on tour, what Fender gear do you take with you?
Russell: We take mostly Telecaster® guitars.

Fender: What sounds are you listening to at the moment?
Russell: Well, we’re just listening to our own music at the moment, because we’re doing the mixes for our new album. I’m trying to think of other stuff I’ve been listening to lately… the Muse album (Black Holes And Revelations).

Fender: This is a tough one – try to name your top three albums of all time.
Russell: Probably Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins. Pinkerton by Weezer. It’s weird, because I don’t really listen to a lot of stuff that I listened to ten years ago. If it comes on, I enjoy it, but I never put the old stuff on any more.

Fender: Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin?
Russell: Erm… I don’t really care for either. (Laughs)

Fender: If you could construct a fantasy band, made up of musicians, living or dead, with you as the guitarist, what would the line-up be?
Russell: Jimmy Chamberlin (Smashing Pumpkins) on drums, Rivers Cuomo (Weezer) singing, Peter Hook (New Order) on bass. That’s probably it. I don’t think I’d want another guitarist. Unless I could get Johnny Marr (Smiths) to play guitar as well.

Fender: What advice would you give to any young guitarists starting up a band?
Russell: Just play chords to start with and keep practicing for three hours every single night until you get really good. Also, try and work out how to play stuff by the bands that you really like. That’s probably the best thing I did: learning to play stuff that the guitar teacher didn’t teach you.

Fender: Imagine it you will, that somewhere out there is an alternative universe where Russell Lissack never learnt how to play guitar. What’s that guy doing now?
Russell: Learning how to play guitar. (Laughs) That’s really the only thing that I can do.

Fender: So he’s learning how to play guitar as well?
Russell: Yeah, hopefully! Or maybe playing drums!...

http://www.blocparty.com/