Shimmy Rivers And And Canal – Picnic at Angst Rock

Ben, that used to play Cocteau Twins and all sorts of other stuff in the house, played drums in Shimmy Rivers. Whenever they played they were a band that brought together loads of different strands of people. I was in my late 20s in East London when I heard them.

They had broken up by the time they got the album finished. I think Upset The Rhythm used to put them on sometimes. They always used to play at Utrophia, this arts space collective that used to live up in Deptford. They’ve gone on to other things now like, Mu who was in Shimmy Rivers now goes out with Matthew in Dog Chocolate and they run Beats to the Bar, which is this blog that reviews stuff.

I remember when I first became friends with them and really clumsily kind of saying “I thought you guys were just like a bunch of art school wankers”. I think I sort of did have a have a slight hostility, maybe because of being jealous for not having gone to art school and not having an art school band.

Those tracks are just really evocative of certain time and probably of a period when I was trying to get myself together to make and release music too so I felt we were somehow peers. Ben also did the artwork for my first album. I did a single before that on Static Caravan, so they really were helpful in that in that way.