Interview with Tony from Nothington...

When Nothington played in Manchester in February, James and I asked their bassist Tony a few questions, and this is what he had to say. It reads better if you put an American accent on in your mind...

So we’re here with Tony from Nothington, how’s it going man?

Great, our show tonight in Manchester was one of the best we’ve done so far on the European tour, we’ve been on tour for about 3 week. Everything in Europe has been great, all the shows have been fucking great. Everyone has been really supportive of us, it’s so much better here than in the states.

What’s been your favourite town you’ve visited?

The shows have always been really great regardless of the towns we’ve been in, as far as Cities go…I really enjoyed Edinburgh, I really like Hamburg and Berlin was cool. Everywhere is really interesting because we’ve never been to Europe before so every city is like exciting and new and awesome.

Did you go round Manchester today?

It took a long time to get here, so we didn’t have any time to look around. I want to get up early tomorrow and look around because I’m interested to see the city. I got my camera, I wanna make sure my Facebook is filled with pictures to make all my friends back home really jealous.

For those that don’t know, can you give us a brief history of Nothington, how you guys formed and previous bands etc…

Our original drummer and Jay (Vocals/Guitar) were in a band called Tsunami Bomb. Me and Chris (Guitar/Vocal) were in a band called Try Failing. Then Chris played in a band called Enemy You. We all kind of came together randomly and kinda clicked. About three years ago we put together the first record All In, then I joined about a year after that and we put out Roads, Bridges and Ruins. Then we got pretty serious about touring and we’ve done about 10 tours now. We don’t have places to stay, we don’t rent apartments, and we don’t have jobs. So the only way we can afford to really do this is to be really disconnected. We say we live in San Francisco but we don’t really live anywhere, right now I live in England.

I am bad with geography, I’ve no idea where the fuck I am anyway.

Is this your first tour outside of America?

Yeah, most of us haven’t even left America before, we’ve toured America a million times and I’ve seen all the states back and forth, over and over but this is the first time we’ve toured outside of America and it’s been the best experience ever. For me, my dream has always been to visit Europe and I never thought I could afford it, and this is the only way I can afford to do it! Like I said, I really want to make all my friends back home really jealous as they’re working right now.
Join a band. You get to go to Europe, get loaded for free every night, get drunk, rock out with the locals and I can’t picture doing anything else.

So you guys are on BYO right?

Both records were on BYO. They’ve been really cool to us with the last two records, they’re like an LA label, been around for like 25 years. Mark and Shawn Stern have been pretty supportive of us, scooped us up as we got together and have done a lot for us, so it’s been cool. We’re pretty stoked to be affiliated with such a prestigious record label.

Do you ever get people coming to shows expecting a Tsunami Bomb kind of thing?

It’s weird, lots of flyers with say ex-members of Tsunami Bomb and I kind of get the feeling people will be like “Oh, this will be a Tsunami Bomb sort of thing”. But I also think with the internet these days most people won’t get disappointed. I don’t think we sound much like it. Granted, I wasn’t even in the band, I don’t give a fuck about any of that shit. It’s cool though, Tsunami Bomb are really close friends with us, and I’ve been playing shows with that band forever. I actually had the opportunity to be in that band for a second, I probably should have done it!

We don’t mind being associated because obviously we have two members of Tsunami Bomb, but if you’re coming to see Nothington I wouldn’t expect it to sound anything like Tsunami Bomb because it’s not where we’re coming from.

Name of the band, does that come from Jay’s last name?

Yeah, it’s a weird story. Apparently on his birth certificate it says Jay Nothington, but it’s a misprint it should be Jay Northington. It’s a fucking terrible band name, it’s the only thing I don’t like about the band is I think the name is fucking awful.

Oh now the bitchiness comes out! Who’s the biggest asshole?

Haha, I dunno, might be me. We get along pretty well. We’re just a band who really likes to drink and sometimes we drink too much and get on each others nerves. But when you have a night like tonight when you have a crowd of people you’ve never seen before singing the words to your songs it’s really special. After something that special we kinda drop all the band arguments of who farted and where’s my fucking toothbrush. It doesn’t matter so much after we’re all sweating and having a good time rocking out with kids in new towns.

So after this tour, what plans have you got?

We have a few different ideas, I know the next thing in the works is definitely gonna be a 7”. We just did a recording at BBC in London for Mike Davies and it turned out really cool. I don’t know what the copyright would be like, but it’d be cool. We’re also talking with The Copyrights and a couple others about a split 7”. Also talked to Off With Their Heads, they might have been interested but now they’re big timers so maybe I can go through Ryan’s manager or whatever.

You’re a brave man talking shit on Off With Their Heads?

Oh yeah Off With Their Heads can bring it on. They’re good friends, maybe some day they can throw us a bone. If anything Ryan will be like ‘Fuck these guys, never fucking sign them, don’t even look at this record, I’m throwing it away.’ But that’s why we love that band, cause if he was a happy-go-lucky dude I wouldn’t give a fuck. One of the best bands around today, either them or Dear Landlord. All my favourite bands are in the same bands together, The Copyrights, Dear Landlord, Off With Their Heads… We’re big fans of The Copyrights, especially me and Chris. We’ve played a tonne of shows with them and we get along really well. They like us too, we’re friends. We’re also real close with Toby from Red Scare. Toby may be the biggest asshole in punk rock, he gets a little out of control sometimes but that’s what I like about him too.

Thanks a lot Tony, come back soon.

Oh we’re coming back soon. We’ll be home in middle of March and then back on tour in April touring the states again. But hopefully get out of America as soon as possible because I’m over touring America, I done that shit. I like it over here.

Nothington are coming back over in September, I'll post the dates when I find them!