wajid :
The way it works is that you get a good solid history on who we are what we’ve done in a formalised, concise, journalised way – in the year of our lord 1066ad 2nd gen did this, in 1642 they did that….well…the rest of the band might be but i’m not in the mood…..so i’ll tell it how it happened with a healthy selection of things intentionally left out….
2nd Gen started as an angry young man….find me a young man who isn’t angry and you’ll find a prick….2nd Gen (ie me – wajid) after living in sweden and enjoying the power of promiscuity, decided to head back to the dirty ole towne of london and got a job – he did ever so well….but worms crept under his skin every day…oh yes they fucking did…something had to be done…SOMETHING MUST BE DONE…..i made music…..music to shake rattle and role/roll….music made like the sound of collapsing stars…..and i fucking did it…..the very first release was a 12″ called ‘Noise Sculptures’ released on a new label set up by a friend who couldn’t release it on his regular label due to death threats by normal musicians…..hahahhahaa…normal musicians !!!….what did a narcissistic genius once say ? Musicians are Morons ?….. anyway…..another label called Mute got salivating and wanted to do the industrious thing and sign…me….up……..so they did…..there’s a nice little backstory as to how it all came about but this is one of the intentionally left out bits…. i released an album and some EPs and some singles and travelled around europe spreading the godspiel…..made a couple of videos….did interviews….got photos taken…..and had an allround fairytale……then i fucking grew up…..
i will tell you more about my story ladies and gentlemen in time….but for now, have a good moment
w
x
alice and yoshi have their own stories to tell….and tell it they will….
yoshi :
to be honest, i was a fan tim of 2nd gen in my early london time.
That Ep, “Noise Sculptures” I had listened to it again and again with my mate in the kitchen. excellent much of the title and tune, even enjoyable in the different speeds on the record player. One day, we went to the gig at Electrowerkz 200, guest players making noise with guitar, gas tank, etc in the wall of noise but sounding clear. The guy was screaming like “this is poetry!!” Soon after the gig, my friend asked him something but forgot what he said…
Since then me and mate did a couple of bands but always remind me of their level of intenseness that I couldn’t reach as my position as a dropped out architectural student and even more fucked up situation I had with the UK immigration law. But I’m proud of still going out from that time, totally fed up with my previous ambition… what the fuck of it? but never think subjective to get there like a flow of life as it is and then I fucking grew up.
I met Wajid long time later at the Resonance FM The Saturday Night Mash-Up live session. Radio host and all around us organizing and curator called, Spax and me after the collapses of improvised noise performance band which I was involved and him just released the Uniform album, “Protocol” did the gig with them on the same night Evil Art and the other night The Wormhole Saloon, I just grab the guitar from Alice when she’s playing trombone, naturally did it. so since then I’m in Uniform and of-course 2nd Gen too.
why not but it’s not always easy….but for now, have a good moment.
x
y
alice:
i first smacked my head against 2nd Gen when i was part of a project called Dual. One night in September 2000, we were on the same bill at the Red Rose in Seven Sisters, London. i had very little previous knowledge of 2G, and it was a bloody relief when they kicked off – was the first live thing to make me jump up on my feet and experience what is technically known as “Hell-Muther-Fuckin-Yeah Syndrome” in an age. for a long time i had been getting off on a million sounds such as crooners, domestic appliances, Japanese Noizu, the silence of Dartmoor interrupted by sonic booms from army planes/experiments, person-powered lawnmowers, trains, pylons etc…(that still stands), so these scuzzy beats were welcome. any old how, got blabbing with the chap about chin-strokey nonsense and vowed to work together, or at least swap artwork.
my first 2G attempt was to play bass at a gig at the Barfly, Camden, 2001. things morphed, swelled and fell over drunkenly in the street, and after time we secured the Uniform project down with ropes made of golden nerve-threads. i also contributed to the 2G Flicknives album (the first track, Evox, was made in collaboration with the ghost of a monk in a very haunted stately home in Devon, in which i lived at the time [true], and Middle Finger Motif was a riff that i’d kicked about for a while and given to Wajid, who promptly super-crunched it into what it is – an embodiment of said HMFY Syndrome).
in 2003 i lived in Japan for 3 months and played some solo gigs as Germseed (thanks to the cute and scary Appliance Japan record label), and on my return, Uniform (then just Wajid & i) played at the 291 Gallery in wherever the hell it is, London. we were very taken with the performance and general demeanour of another band on the bill, Anal Garden, who Yoshi was (and is) a sexy dynamite component. noodles later, next thing i know, i turn around during a Uniform gig to see Yoshi playing my guitar with an ashtray. These days, Captain Yosh & i are on board with 2G…we lack Nad on vocals (miss you, bruv!) as he’s living in New Zealand and working on the Scalper project. So it may seem that Uniform & 2nd Gen are a little confused? Wrong – the music is as different as holy pancakes in the gutter and dogshit at the Ritz… check for yourself. and have a good moment, or i’ll send the boys in – and they’re stupidly ugly and high on unbranded bathroom cleaning fluid…
a
x
why now ?