Due to their unique sound and approach to making music, The Mountaineers are truly a band of the 21st Century. Like Momus, they use electronic music and merge them with acoustic, organic, and folk music. This fusion of natural and synthetic music is extremely original and surprisingly accessible due to the pop song structures. The Mountaineers are a trio consisting of Alex Germains, Ceri James, and Thomas Kelar. Originally from the Welsh town of Hope, they eventually moved to Liverpool and released a critically acclaimed EP on Deltasonic Records. Eventually, they got signed to Mute Records (home of Yaz, Moby, Depeche Mode, and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds). Their first Mute release was another EP titled “Self Catering”, which the NME described as "…lush postmodern electronica complemented by delicious songwriting.” While songs like “Clap In Time” and “Self-Catering” did have a conventional pop song structure, the lyrics and sound were completely different than anything else being played on the radio or on TV. Other weird songs like “Chicken” and the hidden instrumental track pushed the boundaries even further. Finally, The Mountaineers released their debut album “Messy Century” on Mute to widespread critical acclaim. “Messy Century” is a beautiful mix of intelligent, abstract pop songs mixed in with acoustic & rock guitars and electronic music. Like New Order, the songs have odd titles like “Ripen”, “Bom Bom”, and “Sewing”. While “Messy Century” is produced by The Mountaineers, Gareth Jones (producer of Erasure, Interpol, Depeche Mode, Gus Gus, and more) handled some additional production. Some of the best tracks on “Messy Century” include “Silent Dues”, “Sewing”, “Apart From This”, “Ripen”, and “I Gotta Sing”. Together, the LP flows with a delightful grace. Still, each song stands alone and adds variety to the LP. The short, acoustic, and poignant “Silent Dues” follows the electronic, Daft Punk-like, dance-friendly, voice-box filled “Apart From This”. The very odd Beck-like track “Sewing” is unlike anything in popular music today. The Mountaineers have weird, abstract lyrics that may not make sense to first-time listeners but through more listens, the songs grow on you quickly. Soon, listeners will want to listen to the album again and again, without skipping a single track. Even though they have been compared to Daft Punk and The Flaming Lips, The Mountaineers are truly unique. On a cold evening in March 2004, I had an in-depth interview with Alex Germains about the band, labels, politics, music, and much more. Alex is not scared to express himself through words or through music. Humble yet confident, Alex is truly an interesting artist. Go on a sonic adventure. Tackle the fear of heights! Climb the electronic mountain with your acoustic guitar and enjoy the enlightenment of a unique band called The Mountaineers.

T.JONES: “What goes on?”
ALEX GERMAINS: “Huge amounts of stuff. New album, promoting our own night in Liverpool and London. The album is going to be fantastic, more poppy in a Mountaineers way, more live sounding, more electronic sounds. Imagine recording a live album, but with lots of cool synths and f*cked up editing. I don't think when people record electronic music, they like it to sound raw, but that's what we want. We want it with electric guitar too.”

T.JONES: "Your new album is called 'Messy Century'. Why?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Because of many things. This century is a mess. That can be good and bad. Good because the world and it's nice that people are more culturally integrated. We can share lots of cool stuff artistically and ideologically, and there's a big mess of great sh*t going on. Bad because we all know that the world is going to sh*t and there doesn't seem to be a lot anyone nice can do about it. I have a theory that nice people are too nice to kick up a fuss about the bad stuff that other people do. Well, they kick up a bit of a fuss but the bad guys are just too mental and too power hungry. All they want is to be in charge. It's just not in the nature of nice guys to fight them. Well done to those of us who try though!”

T.JONES: "Do you have a favorite song on 'Messy Century'?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “It varies. One of the great things about the album is that it's not 12 tracks of the same sounding music. Some people see that as a flaw but we like to hear diversity, again going back to the title, something a bit messy. All over the place. All over my face. At the moment, the song ‘Sewing’ is doing it for me.”

T.JONES: "What song took you the longest to do? Why?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “The song ‘I Gotta Sing’ by a mile. The first take sounded like Sting, which to us, ended up being a bad thing! We did, I kid you not, 100 different versions of the song before we were happy. Then, it got remixed 3 times for the single edit! Holy unnecessary production Batman! It's just a nice song anyway.”

T.JONES: "The shortest? Why?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “I suppose ‘Silent Dues’ because it's so simple and there's hardly any production. It is just a simple song and it deserved to be heard that way.”

T.JONES: "How is 'Messy Century' different from the previous EPs?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Totally. We had Tom drumming full time for the first time, which gave more unity to the drums, and more liveliness. It's a progression of our songwriting, production, ideas, opinions, experiences, everything. Can you tell?”

T.JONES: "Does the picture of the 3 girls on the cover have any special meaning to 'Messy Century'?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Yeah, they're our secret concubines. They're really good at giving cartoon head.”

T.JONES: "How did The Mountaineers meet and eventually form a band?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “We met at school. We kind of discovered each other because we were the only weird kids in a school of 1000 pupils. We played together for a couple of years, then all left town to do other sh*t. I got stoned, fat, and lazy living in London, learning to write songs. Ceri moved to Bangor, North Wales, a seaside town full of hippies and druids, to study electronic music. Tom became an artist in Leicester, England, and started a drum n' bass night. I moved up to Leicester for a while, played with Tom a bit, then he went home to the Czech republic to have a baby. I moved to Bangor, started playing and recording with Ceri. Then, we got noticed. We signed to Deltasonic, released the first EP. Tom came back and we signed to Mute. Easy!”

T.JONES: "Does the name of the band have a special meaning?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “It's pretty simple. Mountaineers climb things, isn't that pretentious?”

T.JONES: "When making songs, do you go into the studio with pre-written rhymes, lyrics, and themes or do you hear the beat first
and write then and there? What is the creative process like?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “The creative process is a hellish journey. I'm personally writing several songs right at this moment. They're all whirling around my head, waiting for the right signal to jump out onto the plastic. Sometimes, it's a lyric, a beat, a riff or a lady...(laughs) Ha. Sometimes, they just come right out in 5 minutes.”

T.JONES: "Lyrically, the songs are far from typical. You use odd phrases and lyrics that are more abstract. Was this done on purpose?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Thank you for noticing. We put a lyric sheet in so people might get interested in the words too.  We're proud of our messy heads. Every word means something, even if it's just ‘I'm mental’.  We mostly write from the subconscious, so whatever is on our minds comes out in a flow. We analyze it later, or leave it to others to analyze. Do any of them mean anything to you?”

T.JONES: "In one phrase, how would you describe how the songs written lyrically?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “It’s deliberately spontaneous.”

T.JONES: "How did you get involved with Mute Records?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Our first label manager, Svengali Alan Wills, was head of Deltasonic Records, home of The Coral and The Zutons. He discovered us living in a tree in Bangor, and passed the demos on to Dean Wengrow, our now A&R man at Mute. They liked them, but not enough to sign us at the time. So, we put out an EP on Deltasonic. It is very rare now. Find it on Ebay. Bid up! After that, they thought we had developed to a certain level so they signed us.”

T.JONES: "What is Hot Trees?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Our night. Hot Trees is English translation of Coed Poeth, Ceri's home village in Wales and the location of our first recordings. The first two in Liverpool and London were great successes. We had loads of good stuff, don't know if you've heard of any of these: Jack cooper, The Bandits, Former Miss America In Liverpool, and Adem, Aidan Smith, Ulrich Schnauss, Bloc Party, The Zutons, DJ's Andy Weatherall and The Bees in London.”

T.JONES: "Musically, who are you major influences?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “You name it. I always feel like a fool saying I like everything but what else can a musician say. I like any song by anybody that's a good song, or has interesting production, or just something that makes you sit up and listen. But especially Stevie Wonder, Beefheart, Can, Public Enemy, Beatles, Beach Boys, Sly Stone, Lee Perry, Led Zep, Pink Floyd.”

T.JONES: "Where did you grow up? What kind of kid were you?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Tom grew up in the Czech republic, Denmark and then Wales, which gave him some diverse influences in his outlook. I grew up in various places around Britain. We never stayed in one place longer than 4 years, which made me grow up with an outsider mentality, which has always stayed with me. Ceri was born and raised in Coed Poeth, in the hills, left to his own devices which led to his musical difference from others.”

T.JONES: "What is 'Gruppen' mean? What is the song about?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “The word ‘Gruppen’ is German for groups. We like to give songs abstract titles sometimes. The song is as usual lyrically obtuse so I have some theories about it being about friendship and ambition. Things coming together but draw your own conclusions!”

T.JONES: “What do you think of the Internet?”
ALEX GERMAINS: “Good question. We have been finding a lot of Internet reviews and articles about us to be much better written than NME, Mojo type journalism for example. Do you agree that the mainstream publications, at least in Britain, are more interested in some kind of egotistical sound bite friendly journalism than actually finding anything out?”

T.JONES: "What is your favorite part of your live show?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Hey these questions are quite good! For me, it is probably the bit where we play ‘Bom Bom’, then ’Belgique Limb’ and ‘Gene Cheats On You’, which is a new song, during which I get to play electric guitar, which gives me more chance to throw shapes!”

T.JONES: "How has your live show evolved?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “We can play live now whereas this time last year we couldn't! It took a long time to get really good live, and now I think we are finally there or getting there. It has changed our whole attitude towards music. Before we were a studio band, we had very dance music orientated production values. For example, we didn't think about whether we could play something live when we recorded it. Now, we think about everything in terms of ‘how will it sound live?’ It is also really f*cking fun playing live.”

T.JONES: "Who would you like to collaborate with in the future?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “God, we could fill a hard drive with the names. Everyone and at the same time no one.”

T.JONES: "You moved to Liverpool. Why?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “We moved to Liverpool. That’s where we live now.  Liverpool is the heart of it in Britain as far as we're concerned. It's not always cool with the media, but Liverpool is the rock n' roll heart of Britain.”

T.JONES: "How is Liverpool different from Wales?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Not as much as you might think. The people are funny, quick witted, and kind. Obviously, there are some dickheads too but you can't have everything.”

T.JONES: "Can you explain the song 'Belgique Limb'?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “No.”

T.JONES: "What has been in your CD player or on your turntable recently?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Outkast and Serge Gainsbourg on mine. Ceri likes Grandaddy. Tom is mp3 mad, so anything he fancies.”

T.JONES: "Abortion - pro-choice or pro-life?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Both. I have a son but people should have a choice.  F*ck them, let them fight forever!”

T.JONES: "Death Penalty - For or against?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Completely, unequivocally, unbelievably against. F*ckers!”

T.JONES "Where were you on Sept. 11th (The World Trade Center Terrorist Attack)? How did you deal with it? How do you think it has affected music?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “In my flat. I watched it on breaking news. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I literally thought it was fake or something.  My immediate thought, and please don't be offended, was that it was inevitable. We all know some stuff they don't like us to know, and it's not pretty. But, it's true that we, America and Britain, are f*cking the world up, especially our present leaders. Yours, the US, is the worst though, definitely. Probably the worst ever. Apart from Hitler. Ours is just a p*ssy. A stupid p*ssy. I don't know how it's affected music.”

T.JONES: "Word association time. I'm going to say a name of a group and you say the first word that pops in your head. So, if I say 'The Beatles’, you may say 'Revolution' or 'Let It Be'. Okay?"

T.JONES: "Mazzy Star."
ALEX GERMAINS: “Snazzy car.”
T.JONES: "The Afternoons."
ALEX GERMAINS: “The Sundays.”
T.JONES: "Happy Mondays."
ALEX GERMAINS: “The second greatest band ever.”
T.JONES: "Felt." 
ALEX GERMAINS: “Carpet.”
T.JONES: "The Stone Roses."
ALEX GERMAINS: “Ian Brown good, John Squire sh*t.”
T.JONES: "The Roots."
ALEX GERMAINS: “Roots Manuva.”
T.JONES: "The Beatles."
ALEX GERMAINS: “Smug bastard McCartney.”
T.JONES: "The Rolling Stones."
ALEX GERMAINS: “Sex.”
T.JONES: "Daft Punk."
ALEX GERMAINS: “Robot sex.”
T.JONES: "The Flaming Lips."
ALEX GERMAINS: “Not as good as everyone thinks.”
T.JONES: "My Bloody Valentine."
ALEX GERMAINS: “Never heard their music. Not that bothered.”
T.JONES: "George Bush."
ALEX GERMAINS: “Insane Clown Posse.”

T.JONES: "What do you think music (in general) needs these days?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Impossible for me to say. Hopefully, it needs us. I think the industry in Britain is in limbo. In America, you have so many people you can sell 100,000 albums and not get in the charts. Sounds like heaven to us at the moment. Do you know if you sell 1,000 copies of a single in a week, you get in to the top 40?! Crazy, but the singles chart over here is a joke, perhaps rightly so. It's an advert. Radio plays singles 4 weeks before they come out! It's calculated on sales only, so it's a f*cking joke. A change is coming, definitely.”

T.JONES: "What is the biggest mistake that you made in your career?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Tell you in 2 years time!”

T.JONES: "How are European audiences different from U.S. audiences?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “I don’t know yet. Never played there.

T.JONES: “How are British audiences different from other European audiences?”
ALEX GERMAINS: “European audiences, as opposed to British audiences, are amazing. They really interested, really listening to your stuff, even if they've never heard it before.”

T.JONES: "One of my favorite songs is 'Silent Dues'. Can you explain the song a bit?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Why thank you. It's all about love. Me and my girlfriend, and those people who told us it wouldn't work or that I was wrong for her, etc. The usual stuff.”

T.JONES: "The Mountaineers have been compared to both The Flaming Lips and Daft Punk. How do you feel about these comparisons?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Like I said, The Flaming Lips are lovely, man. I met Wayne Coyne. Respect is due, but musically not interesting to me. I don't think we sound like them. Daft Punk? Yes, please. Living in the past but so sexy, so cool. Well better than us at the moment.”

T.JONES: "What are some major misconceptions that people have of you?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “We get tagged as ‘folktronica’. What utter bullsh*t!  It is just because we use acoustic guitars on some stuff with synths. We make pop music. Always have, always will. Apart from that, any conceptions people want to have are fine by me.”

T.JONES: "If you could re-make any song, what would it be?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “I couldn't make anyone else's songs better than they already are. Maybe one day, we could remake all our albums just to see if we would make them the same!”

T.JONES: "Do you want to be cremated or buried?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Too paranoid about death to think about it. I’m not sure it would make any difference to me. I'm extremely anti-religious, especially at the moment, Palestine and Ireland, Tibet, etc. I do believe in a higher being. I have faith in God.”

T.JONES: "What do you want on your epitaph?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “He tried, sometimes.”

T.JONES: “What is in the future for The Mountaineers?”
ALEX GERMAINS: “Touring the U.K. We’re also doing The Triptych Fesitval.”

T.JONES: "What collaborations should we look out for?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Us and Kylie Minogue.”

T.JONES: "Any final words for the people who are reading this?"
ALEX GERMAINS: “Please invite us to your beautiful wooden houses and let us ravish your firm daughters.”