Skype Interview with Simon Bradshaw

The following week, we were able to hold our Skype interview as a class with Simon Bradshaw. This was great as we were able to speak directly to someone who for some time has made a living in the industry we are studying. Also, it in many ways was like a 'big reveal' as we had analysed the marketing of Simons numerous bands without ever even seeing his face or hearing his music. The class were given time to bounce questions out to Simon. I managed to include three of my own personal queries into the interview, the answers of which I found very interesting;

Q: Talk me through the decision of using one fixed shade of red repeatedly for the 'Marlowe' album covers? Was this your decision to make?

Simon immediately replied with "Yes, it definitely was our decision as a band." He went on to explain how all of their favourite bands personally had one fixed colour on their albums. He said that the band just found a colour and thought "we quite like that". He openly referred to the shade as the "Marlowe red" and also described how it was a way to "tie in the albums and keep them consecutive."

Q: Why was the band never featured on any of the album covers?

Simon explained that this decision was again fully supported by them and based on the image of the band members in real life. He joked "We were never a skinny indie band. I was a primary school teacher in my mid twenties - it wasn't cool." He then elaborated by saying that there could never be any coherence in a picture for them as "all eight members of the band had very different looks."

Q: What is the meaning of the album name "Deep breathe fake air"?

"I thought it up whilst on a plane. I remember seeing the hostess spray that aerosol into the air during the flight and I thought; I am essentially breathing fake air."

The answers that I received for my questions certainly weren't what I was expecting. I was very surprised at the nonchalant and almost comical way that Simon talked about making relatively big decisions regarding his album covers. However, I was also reassured that these decisions were his to make, as they should be, considering that his music is the creative force that was driving these projects.