A Fight You Can’t Win: Thank you and goodnight.
I’m not sure, as I sit down to write this, exactly what it is I’m trying to do, or to say. It’s part eulogy, part interview, and part rambling. I have no structure planned, so it could all go horribly wrong. It’s not an assignment piece, it’s just a thing I want to do, however it turns out.
Y’see, A Fight You Can’t Win are calling it a day. One last gig, one last EP, and it’ll all be over. No more. That’s yer lot.
Now, for many of you out there, that will probably mean nothing. Most likely, you will never have heard of them. Or if you have, you might not care.
But I care. I care quite a lot. Y’see, it galls me, it really does, when we lose another exciting, genuinely talented band, for whatever reason. And that is what A Fight You Can’t Win are. Or, I suppose I should say, were. One of the best, most exhilarating, most intense, rudest and funniest bands I have ever had the pleasure of seeing, meeting and being friends with. To be sure, they could be unpredictable, chaotic, and maybe a bit ramshackle at times, but that’s all part of what made them so much fun. In all of the many times I saw them play, they never gave it less than everything they had. I never, ever felt let down after one of their shows. Drained, sweaty, battered and occasionally broken, but never disappointed. Ever.
Well. Anyway. I didn’t want their end to go un-noticed. I don’t think they deserve to vanish without trace, without a fanfare of some kind. And I wanted to give them the chance to explain. So I asked them. And they, being lovely, lovely people, humoured me.
To set the scene, I asked Matthew (Bakewell - guitar, vocals and creative obscenities) for a potted history of the A Fight You Can’t Win. I had planned to ask a few questions along the way, but he, being Matthew, made them a bit redundant. (I think I’ll let this run for a bit, and I’ll add in the questions I meant to ask, and pretend I did it all at the time. I may adjust the order of things, but I promise not to alter the context.)
‘The band’, he said, ‘was started by Paul Diamond (Bass) and myself after the break-up of our previous band, Clayface. From the start, we decided that we were going to be playing nothing but 2 minute loud and fast pop music. Sander (Yes, (((o)))’s very own metal editor) joined a few months later and we were playing gigs not long after that. (It was around this time that I first saw them, in some grotty cellar in Edinburgh. Hooked on the spot.) We released our debut album in April 2010, Lesley (Makesnoise – possibly not her real name – guitar and backing vocals) joined the following August after we put feelers out for a second, female guitarist.’
AFYCW: The early days
‘In November 2011, we released the ‘Every Last Breath’ EP and, following that, got a SAMA (Scottish Alternative Music Awards) nomination and Radio 1 airplay, and we were feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves.’
And rightly so. The EP was a belter, gigs were a joy, things were looking rosy. And then…
‘In September 2012 Sander and Paul decided that they had to leave the band due to increasing work and family commitments. We had always admired Stewart (McLachlan - drums and gasping) and Robbie (Smith, bass and beard) and they were the first people we contacted about joining almost straight away and, thankfully, they said yes.’
‘We retreated to The Cottage (practice room and studio, up north) for two days of intensive practice and songwriting, and started gigging again in October. We released an eponymous EP in June and went on a mini tour of Scotland and Ireland, which cemented us as a group and improved our live show immensely. Plans were put in place for a new album in mid-2014 with another tour which would hopefully have included Northern England.’
And then we got the ‘Not Sleeping, Just Dead’, announcement, saying that the band was no more…
‘Unfortunately the spectre of work commitments reared its head again and Lesley and Robbie decided that, because of the full time nature that the band had taken on, they had to call it a day.’
Did you think about keeping the band going on in some form?
Stewart and I decided that it wouldn’t be possible to continue without them. Also, I was growing increasingly less and less enthused about the band myself due to work and stuff. I was just hoping I was going through a ‘phase’, but I think if they hadn’t pulled it, I would have a few months down the line. Life, eh?’
‘It was decided we would record a last EP and have a farewell gig in May. We always said that we would end on a high, and given the last EP, we’re definitely doing that!’
I always think that any band I like deserves to be huge, and I’m slightly surprised when I realise that the world doesn’t share my opinion, and that they have to earn a living doing real jobs. So, I ask:
Did you ever think that AFYCW should have been bigger, that it could’ve been the ‘next big thing’?
We were getting good feedback from people who came to our gigs, particularly when we were on tour and in Belfast. That said, I still never felt any buzz from Edinburgh itself, but when we played in Glasgow we were always well received by the crowds there. I don’t think we were on track to becoming much bigger that we had gotten - that might have been a contributing factor in it breaking down. It felt like there was a ceiling for Edinburgh bands, and that we’d hit it.’
Is it going to be like that for all those Edinburgh bands – Birdhead, Black International, Vasquez, etc – who inhabit the same space as AFYCW? That if they want to ‘make it’, they need to get out of Edinburgh?
‘Not necessarily – but we’ve got our work cut out for us. Even though I’m not in a band I’m still eager to work towards putting Edinburgh on the map – we really do have a set of bands that deserve serious recognition. We’ve got serious venue obstacles – sometimes it feels like there’s an agenda to suppress any non-festival creativity.’
‘Better to keep trying than to give up like cowards.’
I didn’t want Matthew to hog the interview, so I hassled the others next…
Why, I asked, did you decide to leave, and was it a difficult decision to make?
Lesley: ‘It was an incredibly difficult decision to leave AFYCW and something I gave months of serious thought to. There were a few reasons that all added up to it being something I just wasn’t able to commit to any longer. We’d had a great year with the release of the AFYCW EP, our first tour, a Kerrang! review amongst other things, and two absolutely cracking videos, but unfortunately these things don’t just happen by magic. It takes massive amounts of time and effort and the band was, essentially, becoming a full time job on top of all of our other full time jobs. The next item on the agenda was an album, which we’d partially written, but the thought of the hard and often thankless road ahead was something that I felt I just didn’t want to take on. My full time job is as a community musician, which I absolutely love, but it does mean that my patience and creative energy for doing more music in every spare second is limited, and I really had to assess if AFYCW was the thing I wanted to be devoting those limited resources to.’
‘I have a lot of my own personal music projects too, and it simply wasn’t possible for me to do everything any ore, and that if I had to choose, then those were my priority.’
Robbie: ‘It was a very, very tough decision. Lesley and I had both independently come to the conclusion that we were going to leave the band at some point, so we thought it was best to let Matthew and Stewart know sooner than later.’
Was it hard, telling the rest of the band?
Lesley: ‘It was becoming increasingly obvious that the level of mental investment involved was taking its toll on everyone else too, and I don’t think any of us wanted it to get to the point where our personal relationships with each other suffered as a result, and the band finished in some sort of horrible implosion/episode of Jeremy Kyle. It was a difficult conversation for all of us to have, it’s really like breaking up a long-term relationship. We’d all lived and breathed AFYCW for the best part of a year. Fortunately, we’re all big girls and boys and we were able to have a pretty honest and reasoned talk about where we were and how we felt about it all. Of course it wasn’t easy – when you’ve invested so much energy in something it’s always difficult to leave it behind, but we all felt that we were really proud of what we’d done and that carrying on wasn’t really an option.’
Robbie agrees: ‘Once we did (tell them), the others decided that they didn’t want to carry on with new band members, so we decided to record a final EP and have a big final party of a gig to send us off. I’ve had a great time being in this band and I’m really happy with what we’ve achieved in the last year or so but, sadly, being in an independent band can be hard work – we really gave it our all with the last EP, and with a potential album looming on the horizon, I realised I couldn’t commit the time, energy and money that that would require.’
I asked Stewart if he’d had any idea that the split was coming.
Stewart: ‘I didn’t, no. To such an extent that I genuinely assumed it was a joke at first, ha ha! That sucked.’
How did you feel about it, once it was confirmed?
Fine, really. These kind of things are always rubbish, it goes without saying, but we’re in a blessed situation of ending on friendly terms, having put together two records I’m immensely proud of. Ending on a high is completely OK with me.’
So, what’s next for everybody?
Lesley: ‘We agreed that we wanted to release the new material we’d been working on, which we feel is the best music we’ve ever done, so we got our heads down to record those songs and plan a small scale release. We all wanted to feel like we finished things properly, rather than letting it fizzle out. We can’t wait to let everyone hear those recordings. It feels so good to be finishing on what for us is a musical high, with something we’re really proud of. As for what’s next for me, I’ll by no means be giving up music. I don’t think that’s something I could do even if I tried. I’m planning on getting my head down and working on some of my own projects. I’ve got the best part of an album written so I’ll be aiming to finish that and see where it takes me…’
Robbie, presumably you’ll be keeping on with BRITNEY (with Stewart) and your association with Ultimate Slaymaster?
Robbie: ‘Absolutely. Britney will continue Britneying. Stewart will no longer speak to me or look me in the eye, so that does make it difficult. As for Ultimate Slaymaster, my role in that band is merely ceremonial. In fact, I have never even seen them play.’
Stewart, you’ve got plenty to be getting on with. New Shudder stuff, Billy Ray Osiris and Britney with Robbie. Do you ever stop?
Stewart: ‘Hahaha! I’m honestly not as busy as I want to be, yet. You can blame my degree for that. I have some new things that’ll be coming together in the summer, if all goes to plan.’
Anything you can reveal?
‘Not yet. It involves a couple of guys from one of my favourite Edinburgh bands, and a lot of riffs. Should be well fun.’
Matthew doesn’t rule out a return to noisy music sometime in the future, but, ‘I’m now writing acoustic weepcore.’
A Fight You Can’t Win will be playing one last gig at Opium in Edinburgh on Saturday 3rd of May. It’s going to be free, and support will come from the excellent Birdhead and the equally excellent Hagana.
Are there, I ask, going to be any surprises? Special guests? Cake?
Robbie: ‘Well, we wanted Stephen Donkin (of Birdhead) to burst out of a giant cake and heckle us, but his demands are ridiculous. He wanted £800 and a backstage deli meat platter. Also, I guess all of the new songs will count as a ‘surprise’, as it’s the only time they will ever be played live.’
Well. There you go. Another fine band leaves the stage. It’s no big deal. Nobody died. Everybody’s still friends. It’s just another case of real life getting in the way, I guess. A few people will miss them. I certainly will.
If you can be there, I urge you to come to see them off on the 3rd. I can’t guarantee any special guests, but there will probably be shenanigans. And maybe some goings-on. There WILL be rude words. And A Fight You Can’t Win will be, for one last time, awesome.
Matthew, Lesley, Robbie, Stewart, Sander and Paul, thank you for having been a thing, and I wish you all the very best in whatever you do in the future.
If you're in Edinburgh on May 3rd, then come to Opium to give these guys a proper send-off! Here is the Facebook event page with more info.
