In this month’s Low Culture subscriber podcast Luke Turner is joined by Lias Saoudi of Fat White Family, co-author with Adelle Stripe, of Ten Thousand Apologies, the brilliant and now best-selling account of the band’s slow, troubled rise and… waver. One of the best parts of the book is Lias writing about his upbringing with brother Nathan as mixed-race kids in Huddersfield, Eire, Ulster and Ayrshire, and he reads us an extract about his Algerian grandad, before we get cracking on his Low Culture pick – 1995 Hollywood blockbuster, Legends Of The Fall, in which Brad Pitt never ages and Anthony Hopkins chews out a magnificent "fuckem". Except, Lias hasn’t really picked the entirety of Legends Of The Fall, but the ten-ish minute montage where Brad Pitt’s character Tristan goes AWOL on a schooner, wheels and deals with the inhabitants of exotic islands, and huffs away on an opium pipe. Lias recalls seeing this aged ten and being blown away by it: "What is that? It was repulsive but I was drawn to it. You could see his bare arse? Why is he all sweaty? What is he doing with that big wooden pipe on a boat?" He says this had such an impact on his young mind that it was "damaging".
Lias compares the relationship between the three brothers in Legends Of The Fall with his own siblings, fellow Fat Whites member Nathan and their older brother, a mysterious character who, like Brad Pitt’s Tristan, disappeared for a while to eastern lands. "It became a kind of cult amongst the three brothers," Lias tells us. "I’d do a load of drugs and watch it. I’ve seen it so many times that the willing suspension of disbelief is just not there any more. It’s ruined it for me. I’ve got that sense that I’ve gone much too far with it, which is what I do with almost everything".
We also chat about how Anthony Hopkins over-the-top patriarch relates to the brothers own father, becoming in some ways "the anti-Bashir" as Lias sought alternative father figures on the cinema screen, and how that led to a fixation with Jeremy Irons "the quintessential English gentleman pervert". Lias even says that without Legends of the Fall there’d have been no "Narco-country syndicate" Fat White Family, as he’d have had a sensible life and would have gone into law. He also reveals that Legends Of The Fall isn’t the only film of the era he loves – "90s schlock is a safe space for me. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen Titanic".
The podcast was produced by Alannah Chance. Ten Thousand Apologies is out now via White Rabbit Books. To listen to The Quietus’ new Low Culture podcast, you’ll need to become a subscriber and sign up to the Low Culture or Sound & Vision tiers. You can find out more about why we’re introducing the subs and all the amazing perks you can get here and join via the checkout below.
