Music

Brainlove Festival: Andrew Paul Regan

Luke Morgan Britton | Tuesday 8 May, 2012 19:12

Yesterday we brought you the first interview from the ever-impressive line-up at this year’s Brainlove Festival, and today we bring you another. Oh, we are kind.

You may recognise the fellow in the picture above as Pagan Wanderer Lu. But after unscrambling his moniker back to his birth name of Andrew Paul Regan, he’ll play what’s technically his first appearance at the event (ahem, under his given nom). That’s right, a BRNLV PREMIERE. So don’t miss out and get tickets now!

Here’s what Mr Regan had to say about the event.

Could you introduce a little about yourself first and foremost?
I’m Andrew Paul Regan and due to a typo I was previously known as Pagan Wanderer Lu.

For people who haven’t seen you live before, what can they expect?
They can expect songs about spy conspiracies, cargo cults, checker playing robots, and mankind’s search for meaning in the universe played a man with a beard who may or may not be wearing a hat.

Have you played or even been to the Brainlove Festival prior to this year?
I’ve played every year except once when I went on holiday by mistake.

How was it on these previous occasions?
It’s always been brilliant. From Tracey is Hot and the Clap’s legendary festival opener in year one which led the Windmill soundguy to comment ‘that was the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen’, to other actually good stuff like Fuck Buttons, Agoskodo Teliverek’s crazy surf rock, David Thomas Broughton deconstructing everything and putting a massive smile on everyone’s face in the beer garden last year, to downright odd stuff like that band who just dressed as insects and acted like they’d never seen instruments before.

What do you think makes it unique?
It’s different, I’ll say that.

Looking at the line-up, who are you excited about seeing live?
This year probably Dad Rocks! whose album I’ve been enjoying. Been a while since I’ve seen a Mat Riviere show and I’m excited to hear his new album live.

How do you find festivals in general? Do you prefer smaller venue shows?
I think what I do suits small venues where I can get a bit of rapport going with the crowd. Plus it gets a bit stuffy onstage sometimes so it’s nice to be able to have a wander round. Can’t do that when there’s a big metal barrier between you and the crowd.

Do you enjoy the prospect of people that necessarily aren’t that familiar with your music getting the chance to stumble upon you?
Yeah, that’d be great. I think Brainlove festival regulars will know me, but anyone coming for the first time will definitely be pretty open minded and that’s good for what I do.

Could you tell us a little bit about the track you chose to give away as a free download?
It’s called ‘John Frum Will Return’. It’s the first track on the new record. It’s about the cargo cults – native tribes of islands that were used as bases during the second world war. They form superstitions around the idea that someday the western people will come back and bring back all the technology they had before. It becomes like a religion. No one knows who John Frum actually was. One of the tribes worships Prince Philip – even though some of them have met him.

What do you have going on at the moment?
My new album ‘The Signal and the Noise’ is released immediately after the festival, so I’ll be doing lots of gigs and stuff around that. People can pre-order it at my Bandcamp now though and probs get it the week before it comes out – we’ve made a really special handcut-sleeve edition with three possible covers. I’ve actually got quite a few brand new songs that I might start unveiling as well.

Tickets & Lineup Info at: www.brainloverecords.com/festival.

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