Anonymous Tip
Anonymous Tip are a four piece punk band from Twickenham, South West London. The fast and furious tones of Anonymous Tip have been rocking venues up and down the UK since their inception back in 2002. They have made a real dent in the underground punk rock circuit as an unorthodox group of punk rockers with an ambiguous message.
Their musical statement of intent is to blend emotive chants with fast-paced grooves, at the same time, keeping everything carefully crafted to ignite the monster inside and to provoke debate and passion. I caught up with Sanj to ask the 15 Questions We Ask Everyone.
Hello there little monster, what are you up to?
We have just got back from touring the North of England and Scotland with our friends the Edelweiss Pirates. It was a great run of shows that really tested our sanity and endurance. We haven’t toured Scotland since 2004 so we were eager to please and to see how things have changed up there since we were there last. The drinking and excess partying really caught up with us on this tour. The first show we did on this tour was at the Old Bell Inn in Derby. We left the stage at 12:30AM after an hour set and were thrown into a Dub Party in the same building till 5AM. We slept two hours and were in the van again on our way to Newcastle to do the same thing again the next night. Its fun and easy at first until the hang over’s and the fatigue kicks in.
So, tell me about what you're here to promote?
We are proud to be politically conscious and are strongly anti racist so much so that we have just recently set up a campaign in the UK in support of our new single called “The Weirder Brave” Which is about the current rise of the BNP who are a racist political party in the UK. We started writing “The Weirder Brave” a few days after BNP leader Nick Griffin was on BBC’s Question Time in October 2009. We felt we had a duty to highlight our views and frustrations through a song that we could release. We wanted to make people aware of the dangers of voting BNP in the UK. Their leader Nick Griffin was convicted for inciting racial hatred after a BNP magazine he published denied the reality of the Holocaust. Why should anyone in their right mind vote for someone like that? We as individuals and as a band are proud of being British and are proud of where our ancestors come from.
And if we didn't have any clue as to who you were, what should we be looking up on Google?
The fast and furious tones of Anonymous Tip have been rocking venues up and down the UK since their inception back in 2002. We are a four piece punk band from Twickenham, South West London. We have made a real dent in the underground punk rock circuit as an unorthodox group of punk rockers with an ambiguous message. Songs about archaic politics, confessions of nymphomania, fascism within rock scenes and their deep routed suspicion of the music industry, have helped us gain a notorious and loyal following. Our musical statement of intent is to blend emotive chants with fast-paced grooves, at the same time, keeping everything carefully crafted to ignite the monster inside and to provoke debate and passion.
And as Jacko had the Moonwalk and Elvis had the snake hips, what do you have that makes you unique?
We’ve been described as King Prawn with Mike Patton on vocals and Slipknot meets Asian Dub Foundation. We like to call ourselves “Political fury with a few quarter notes”.
Now, clearly we need to get to know each other more, so tell me an interesting fact about you that noone else knows?
We play this weird game when we are on tour called the Horse Box game where you have spot a Horse Box on the road before someone else does before we hit our destination hahaha. We are a punk band; we’ve only just got a stereo in our van after touring the road for eight years without one.
What song do you wish you'd written?
Everyone says “that’s a hard question to answer” and the reality is that it is, a bloody hard question to answer! I listen to a lot of stuff ranging from dance to metal to hip-hop to blues to funk to punk and more but there are five albums that have touched me more than any others.
Michael Jackson’s – Thriller: I grew up within the 80’s MTV music video generation where the promo video was having a revolution the same way the Internet did ten years ago. I was about three or four when the home video came out to buy and remember the werewolf scene scaring the living hell out of me. It was truly terrifying back then courtesy of the great director John Landis who directed “American Werewolf in London”.
Guns N Roses – Use Your Illusion 1 & 2: I got into Guns N Roses when I was about 8 when “Appetite for Destruction” came out which today is still a killer record. However, it was the “Use Your Illusion” records that really challenged me for a few reasons. The song writing is godlike and the lyrics are so provocative. Songs like “Estranged” and “Right Next Door to Hell” really open up the psyche of the listener to a fragile angst that I’ve always felt to be remarkable genius. They are great albums to wake up to and fall asleep to.
Nirvana – Nevermind: Not only was Nevermind responsible for bringing alternative rock to a mainstream audience but it was pivotal in changing the perspectives and minds of a young generation that was very miserable. I was about 12 when the record came out and fell in love with the ambiguous lyrics of Kurt Cobain and how each song just stuck in your head like the nursery rhymes that we all knew when we were small.
Deftones – Around the Fur: I was really into these guys when Adrenaline came out but Around the Fur had heavy rotation on my jukebox from then and still gets the plays today. The blend of ferocity and melody on this record was a blueprint that was very infectious for me and many of my contemporaries. Every riff, every vocal hook and every locked down drum beat paved a foundation that I just couldn’t get enough of. A great record from start to finish.
If I was contemplating coming to your show or sitting at home and TV, how would you convince me to come out?
Our music is great to drink tequila too
And if you were to take me on a trip to your hometown, what would be the first place we'd go?
There is a great bar in Kingston called the Fighting Cocks that has a great selection of spirits.
What's the best prank you've ever pulled on someone?
We did something really cool to Edelweiss Pirates recently when we were on tour with them in Aberdeen. Chree (Edelweiss Pirate’s guitarist) had hired a car for the tour and left the keys on Adrian’s (Anonymous Tip’s Guitarist) Guitar cabinet just before we played. Chris (Anonymous Tip’s Bassist) too the keys and parked Chree’s car right outside the venue as a prank. Chree walked past his car about four or five times while we were loading up and didn’t notice it for ages. It was so funny, as he realised something was up when he couldn’t find his car and thought someone has stolen the keys. He saw the car and was gobsmacked as to how it arrived at the venue. Then Chris started to use the central locking while Chree was looking closely at the car. It was fucking hilarious, as he was just shocked as to how it was moved and why the lights kept flickering on and off.
And what's the most daring thing you've ever done? Please tell us how it ended up!
Jumping out of an airplane in New Zealand was pretty amazing. Take your best orgasm times it by three and you don’t even come close.
If you had to date a member of the same sex (or opposite sex if the case may be) who would it be? Mine would ALWAYS be Angelina Jolie.
Mmmmm no comment. It’s just too weird a thought.
Have you ever been naked in public? Elaborate.
Being naked is such a fun thing and all of us at some point have done it. I once ran out of a Sauna in Finland into minus 20 degrees Celsius and jumped into a pile of snow naked. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done.
Have you ever been arrested? Again, elaborate.
We’ve never been arrested but we almost did when we played a show in Rhyl back in 2005. We were about three songs in our set in a venue called The Dudley Arms when the power was turned off. A group of about five police came into the venue and ordered for us to go and speak to them outside. They took me to a corner and falsely accused me of shouting abuse at them and tried to arrest me for being drunk and disorderly. It was funny as I hadn’t even had one drink and I clearly couldn’t see through the walls of the venue to even think about shouting at them. I heard later from the locals that the police in that area actually enjoy wrongly accusing people in that area of causing trouble so that they could beat them up. I was shocked as I have never ever had any trouble from the police before and could not believe there are some police in the UK who would take advantage of their authority.
Speaking of prison - if you were to send someone to prison for crimes against music, who would it be?
No one. Music is a form of expression that everyone should have the right to have.
What were you doing last night at 11?
I was watching a documentary by Nick Broomfield called “Big White Self” about the South African White Separatist Eugene Terre Blanche. Those of you that don’t know, During the 1980s and early 1990s, Terre Blanche became known for threatening civil war to maintain white rule in South Africa.