Review Fix Exclusive: Plastic Barricades’ Paul Love Talks Goals And More

Review Fix chats with Paul Love, drummer, producer and one half of London alt indie duo Plastic Barricades, who discusses the band’s origin, goals and more.

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Paul Love: Long ago in the days of yore thine guitarist Dan did say, “I wanna make some tuuuunes.” and thus did begin his quest to tickle the ears of many. He did so most exquisitely and happened upon the thought to seek his fortune in the lands of monarchs and unicorns. He ventured to Auld England and practiced his craft astutely and vehemently. Many companions would come and go along his quest until one day he met a drummer named Paul. He was naught the fastest, nor the wisest however he did share a love for Nirvana and The Foos. They have been brothers in arms ever since.

Review Fix: Where does your name come from?

Love: ‘Twas bestowed upon us by a fine young maiden whose glistening pale hand raised from the mixed swimming pond at Hampstead Heath. “Thou shalt be known as Plastic Barricades and that shall be thine name forevermore for it is good enough.” I guess she wasn’t aware it was a bit of a bitch when it comes to a google search. Maybe she thought road safety fetishists and constructions workers would like our stuff.

Review Fix: What makes this band unique?

Love: I don’t think there’s another Estonian/Scouse two-piece making everything in a wooden shed in North West London. Prolly dat.

Review Fix: How was One For The Road’  written?

Love: It came from the feeling that we’re a little stuck in society. That there’s so much communal pressure and expectation it’s kind of hard to live. Before mass agriculture your only needs were shelter and food each day. Past that you have freedom to do whatever. Agriculture tied us to a land rather than all land (but hey, we got beer and wine out of it) and now towns and cities tie us to contracts and taxes and event invitations on Facebook and a million other things that fill up the spaces in our heads that could have been used for ourselves and our friends. Being on the road is freeing. Expectations don’t mean much when you’re in a new county tomorrow.

Review Fix: How do you want that track to affect people?

Love: I want people to think about what they could do instead of what they need to do.

Review Fix: What makes UK music different to you?

Love: I think Britain has always had a way of reflecting what Europe and America are doing back at them. We’re kind of unaware of how strange we are culturally. We’re very restrictive and we re-contextualise other cultures without much consideration for their heritage rather rapidly because we’re blind to our own. A white guy from Ealing singing cotton field slave songs doesn’t make much sense but you can’t argue that it’s bloody good when you hear it. We have an odd mix of progressive and conservative culture. Everyone has healthcare but we still have a heavy class system. There’s poverty, but the impoverished still have an artistic voice (albeit ignored). The poor hear and see things from around the world but take it in rather than travel out. Growing up in Merseyside music was a way of escaping being told who I was supposed to be. Liverpool has produced some of the most significant art of the past century but we’re treated like uncultured yobs by most of the country. It’s a weird dichotomy. The middle and upper classes are very quick to claim The Beatles as British and do nothing to help the working class that produced them. We have a saying in Liverpool: “We’re not English, we’re Scouse.”

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound?’

Love: British guitar music from 2019.

Review Fix: What are your bucket-list goals as a band?

Love: An album in the top of the charts. US late night talk shows. A slot on SNL. World Tour. Knebworth, Red Rocks, Budokan, Madison Square Garden, Wembley. A farm either in New England or the South of France.

Review Fix: What do you want to accomplish in 2020?

Love: We want people to enjoy our music, remind people that guitars can sound new and exciting and meet some new friends on tour. We’re all about the good times!!

Review Fix: What’s next?

Love: Releasing our new album “Self-Theories” after a couple more singles or so. The next single is called “Optimist” and that’ll be out in February.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Love: Kanye’s right. He is the biggest rock star in the world. We hope to fix that.

mm
About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*