01Profile
A Austin Collings Photo
Austin Collings
Manchester
03Interview
Austin Collings (left) with Liam Power, photographed by Natalie Curtis
Name
Austin Collings
Where are you from?
Radcliffe, North Manchester (or Dog-Sh*t-Valley as some people call it)
Describe your style in three words?
Suspicious, aloof, obsessive.
What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
The Fall at The Knitting Factory in LA, May 2006. I was working with Mark E Smith at the time on what would later become the infamous book, Renegade. The psychotics took over and the enormous energy of that night has never left me.
If you could collaborate with any writer or musician in history who would it be?
James Joyce: such a bizarre and wonderful creature who fought constant bad luck and rejection and created a verbal universe that turned literature and language on its bourgeois head.
Which subcultures have influenced you?
None. I see myself as my own subculture. A cult of one.
If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
Tony Soprano: a very brave man.
For anyone who hasn’t read your work - what would you suggest they read first?
My collection of stories - The Myth of Brilliant Summers.
They are each as fascinating, grotesque and moving as the slow decay of the family dog.
Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music)?
My fourteen year-old self. At the time I thought I was inventing a new musical-reality. Looking back it was blissful delusion.
Austin Collings recently collaborated with musician Liam Power (AKA By The Sea) and Photographer Natalie Curtis on the 'Blade Jogger' project.
Find out more about the project at www.bladejogger2049.com
02Playlist
04Playlist Notes
The first track you played on repeat?
'Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head'. As a child I had a wind-up Fisher Price pocket radio that played nothing but that tune and I would keep turning and turning it, enthralled by its melancholy magic.
A song that defines the teenage you?
'Deborah’s Theme' - Ennio Morricone - Once Upon a Time in America (OST).
The sweeping sadness of it spoke to the eternal sadness of my own adolescence.
One record you would keep forever?
The La’s debut album. Music cannot lie and nothing beats the truth of that mythical masterpiece.
A song lyric that has inspired you?
“A friend in need is a friend in debt.” -
John Cooper Clarke - 'I Don’t Want To Be Nice'.
I’ve lived a large portion of my life skint, poncing money so I can relate to that.
A song you wished you had written?
'Little Baby' - The Blue Rondo’s.
A great - and possibly eternal - wind seems to carry that song through the grim limits of time. I hope the same goes for my own soul.
Best song to turn up loud?
'Do Anything You Want To Do' - Eddie & The Hot Rods.
Perfect anthem for true ambition.
A song people wouldn’t expect you to like?
'Johnny & Mary' - Robert Palmer
He’s been tainted by the love of Alan Partridge, but as we all know there a large dose of Partridge in all of us.
Four new (or any) bands you are listening to now (and why)?
'Caravan' - Nick Power - Hank Williams retuned for our lost age, where earth is just a boneyard, but a pretty one in the sunlight.
'Screen Memories' - John Maus - Maus channelling the illicit thrill and weirdly romantic allure of a VHS video-nasty.
Swedish Magazine - new Manchester group - their songs sound like theme tunes to late-night 60s TV shows that were only seen by serial dog-killers.
'Blade Jogger' - Single of the Year 2049.
03Interview
Austin Collings (left) with Liam Power, photographed by Natalie Curtis
Name
Austin Collings
Where are you from?
Radcliffe, North Manchester (or Dog-Sh*t-Valley as some people call it)
Describe your style in three words?
Suspicious, aloof, obsessive.
What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
The Fall at The Knitting Factory in LA, May 2006. I was working with Mark E Smith at the time on what would later become the infamous book, Renegade. The psychotics took over and the enormous energy of that night has never left me.
If you could collaborate with any writer or musician in history who would it be?
James Joyce: such a bizarre and wonderful creature who fought constant bad luck and rejection and created a verbal universe that turned literature and language on its bourgeois head.
Which subcultures have influenced you?
None. I see myself as my own subculture. A cult of one.
If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
Tony Soprano: a very brave man.
For anyone who hasn’t read your work - what would you suggest they read first?
My collection of stories - The Myth of Brilliant Summers.
They are each as fascinating, grotesque and moving as the slow decay of the family dog.
Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music)?
My fourteen year-old self. At the time I thought I was inventing a new musical-reality. Looking back it was blissful delusion.
Austin Collings recently collaborated with musician Liam Power (AKA By The Sea) and Photographer Natalie Curtis on the 'Blade Jogger' project.
Find out more about the project at www.bladejogger2049.com
04Playlist Notes
The first track you played on repeat?
'Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head'. As a child I had a wind-up Fisher Price pocket radio that played nothing but that tune and I would keep turning and turning it, enthralled by its melancholy magic.
A song that defines the teenage you?
'Deborah’s Theme' - Ennio Morricone - Once Upon a Time in America (OST).
The sweeping sadness of it spoke to the eternal sadness of my own adolescence.
One record you would keep forever?
The La’s debut album. Music cannot lie and nothing beats the truth of that mythical masterpiece.
A song lyric that has inspired you?
“A friend in need is a friend in debt.” -
John Cooper Clarke - 'I Don’t Want To Be Nice'.
I’ve lived a large portion of my life skint, poncing money so I can relate to that.
A song you wished you had written?
'Little Baby' - The Blue Rondo’s.
A great - and possibly eternal - wind seems to carry that song through the grim limits of time. I hope the same goes for my own soul.
Best song to turn up loud?
'Do Anything You Want To Do' - Eddie & The Hot Rods.
Perfect anthem for true ambition.
A song people wouldn’t expect you to like?
'Johnny & Mary' - Robert Palmer
He’s been tainted by the love of Alan Partridge, but as we all know there a large dose of Partridge in all of us.
Four new (or any) bands you are listening to now (and why)?
'Caravan' - Nick Power - Hank Williams retuned for our lost age, where earth is just a boneyard, but a pretty one in the sunlight.
'Screen Memories' - John Maus - Maus channelling the illicit thrill and weirdly romantic allure of a VHS video-nasty.
Swedish Magazine - new Manchester group - their songs sound like theme tunes to late-night 60s TV shows that were only seen by serial dog-killers.
'Blade Jogger' - Single of the Year 2049.