These Questions Go To Eleven: Leo Condie of the Low Miffs

Each week ZIO asks a different musician the same 11 questions via email. Visit Zoom In Music every Wednesday for a new installment or subscribe to the RSS feed.

You may not have heard of the Low Miffs yet, but they have heard of you. (They've noticed you around, and they find you very attractive.) A quintet from Scotland, the Low Miffs make music marked by all the qualities associated with the finest Scottish pop: it's jangly, hyper-literate, witty, and fun.

All those qualities were evident on the band's earlier singles, but for their full-length debut, they decided to up the ante by collaborating with a legend of Scotland's post-punk past, Malcolm Ross (Ross was one of the founding members of Josef K). The album, The Low Miffs and Malcolm Ross, was released this Monday, and Leo Condie, the band's lead singer, was kind enough to give us in-depth responses to these questions.

1. What music was played in your home while you were growing up?

I grew up listening obsessively and exclusively to The Beatles, for about the first 14 years of my life. My father is a guitarist who is heavily influenced by Ry Cooder so there was a lot of that too, but the closest I got to listening to anything other than The Beatles was when I put on John Lennon albums. Of course, this all had the disastrous effect of making mini-Leo yearn for a career in music. Oops…

2. Who is the best artist we have probably never heard of?

Apart from The Low Miffs, of course, in terms of less well-known artists whose influence have left a mark on our album, Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen is a wonderful musician. Hardly that obscure, he is on ECM and has played with David Sylvian amongst others, but he has an incredible trumpet style influenced by the shakuhachi flute, as well as a completely ridiculous voice. There’s a wee solo on our track “Mankind” which, while being barely a millionth of the quality of his playing, is a nod to his brilliance.

3. What is your favorite song lyric?

This country sucks, it’s always fucking raining
Everybody’s grey, they’re always fucking moaning
The rivers are all smelly, there’s fuck all on the telly
They’re either runnin’ riot or else they’re fuckin’ docile
Cannae dae a thing withoot a fuckin’ mobile
Walking down the street, they’re always fuckin’ phonin’.

4. What song do you want played at your funeral?

Jacques Brel’s “Funeral Tango”.

5. What is your favorite b-side?

Bugger. I’ve not bought a single for 936 years, and will have to go for something shamefully predictable. "How Soon Is Now" is very good. Or "Marquee Moon: Part Two." I also have a sick fascination with 12” remixes – the more drawn-out and grim, the better. Especially if they reduce it down to horrific reverb-laden ‘80s drums. Oh. Bloody. Yes.

6. Which medium do you prefer: vinyl, CD, or download?

If I’m among unfamiliar company, vinyl, of course. If I’m being brutally honest, 99% of the time I’ll be using an mp3 player. CD being the medium by which our album is being released, I’d have to say that CDs are definitely the best. So, in answer to your question, vinyl.

7. Which artist would your fans be surprised to find out you like?

Bruce Springsteen. He’s brilliant. Saying that, I’m sure this is hardly the place to launch into what can only end up being a 2,000-word paean to a man whom every reader will certainly already have a fully-formed sense of admiration or hatred for. Also, John Field.

8. What musician would you choose to cover one of your songs?

Berliner Philharmoniker. Because I might as well be ambitious.

9. Who is the most overrated artist?

I’d say Spinal Tap. Everyone raves about them, but they just seem like a joke to me.

10. What musician or band do you wish you’d seen play live in their prime?

David Bowie. In fact, I’d take seeing David Bowie at any point, not just his prime. I’d be happy to see David Bowie sing live while hooked up to a life-support machine. I’ve somehow contrived to miss him at every possible opportunity and he’s pretty much my biggest musical influence. Failing that, I’d take Bruce Springsteen at the Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, 20th September 1978. If you absolutely insist.

11. What non-musical influences do you have?

I’m heavily influenced by literature, writers like Dickens and Zola; by Brecht and Pinter and other dramatists, by strong literary characters like Sherlock Holmes and by Doctor Who. Also, Brutalist architecture is good. And the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, which is a 1,000ft skyscraper that the North Korean government never finished and refuses to acknowledge, despite it towering over every other building in the city.