Interview #66: Huey Morgan

The thing with clichés is they are only clichés because they are true. So when you hear the cliché that Fun Lovin' Criminals are the coolest dudes on the entire planet, the smoothest, nicest, and coolest… uber-cool if you will, it’s the truth! Subsequently, not only do I Like Music, but I also like my job! Especially when it involves meeting, chilling and interviewing the one and only Huey Morgan – yes King of New York City, of all-round coolness and of one of the best most real bands there is.

“I Like Music because… it saved my life.” Huey Morgan, Fun Lovin' Criminals

When we hook up with Huey the band has just finished their sound check. I find them hanging out with some friends from The Dam while Matteo makes scrumptious melon and strawberry smoothies for us all. So not only do FLC look and sound smooth, they drink smooth too!

Huey points out that they keep their demands minimal too. “In our dressing room we have balloons,” declares Huey, pointing to Uncle Frank’s birthday cake and accompanying party memorabilia. Clearly, whatever space the FLC boys take-over, they make it a fun and warm experience.

It turns out that DJ Matteo, who is a rather hot chef, whips up a variety of veritable NYC feasts for the rest of the band, with his sausage sandwiches being a firm favourite of Huey’s. They like quality food do FLC.

And the first thing that strikes you about the Fun Lovin' Criminals is how superbly apt their name is. Instantly you see they are fun and enjoy having fun themselves and inciting fun wherever they go; they are downright nice lovin’ happy down-to-earth guys, each one witty and kind, but each with their own bad-boy intrigue. Furthermore, they enjoy the rock n roll lifestyle (but a much more mellow version).

Fun Lovin' Criminals they certainly are! They epitomize their music and their music epitomizes them. So about that…

Capital F For FUN

ILM: You’ve been touring the UK and have a show tonight here at the Forum. How have you been enjoying the tour so far? And what’s been your finest hour?

Huey: It’s been great. A lot of people still come out to our shows, and they come out to have a good time, they don’t come out to, like, cross their arms. They’ve been great shows. Bristol was amazing, Manchester was crazy, Norwich... I mean all of them, and Ireland. Finest hour? I just like seeing that we all kind of got it, you know you get to a certain point when you know everybody on the stage is on the same level. It’s always been real close to it, but now it’s just so there. We can do our stuff and still hang out with the people, because a lot of the time if you’re doing a lot of musical things... like Fast is doing 5 instruments at once: you’ve got to concentrate a lot, but you can do that but still be in the moment.

ILM: What’s your current favourite song to play live?

Huey: I really like playing Will I Be Ready? Just because there’s a lot of stuff going on that I like. You know, I like singing the song, and Gave Up On God is another good one.

ILM: Your new album, Livin’ In The City is out now: a modern rock album which incorporates a variety of instruments and musical styles, hip-hop beats & rhymes, jazz & Latin rhythms, mellow grooves and traditional rock & blues riffs, along with a lot of bad boy humour. Which track was the most interesting to write?

Huey: The Ballad Of New York City, because it’s a song that travelled across the ocean constantly, every day or so Fast and Frank would be in London at the studio here we have, and I’d be in my home, and we’d be pushing the song back across the ocean and me adding something and sending it back, and all the time thinking of the lyrics and stuff. The way the song came out was a really good mixture of nostalgia for the place that you’re not at, that you’re talking about, your subject matter. We objectified it almost in a female sense. You know, like missing someone you love, like your woman or something. In this case it’s a city, so to do that, writing the lyrics in both places was the first time I ever did that, so that was cool.

ILM: Truly transatlantic.

Huey: Yeah, it caught the vibe of it I think.

ILM: That Ain't Right and Is Ya Alright, Gave Up On God are my favourites, and Where Do I Begin…

Huey: You’ll hear the whole album tonight. Oh Where Do I Begin is now called The Ballad Of New York City. We had to re-title it because of contractual problems.

ILM: So which track did you have the most fun laying down in the studio?

Huey: The one we laughed our butts off every time we played it has gotta be That Ain’t Right, because I did my little reggae toaster, ‘ah-mmmmmm’ voice that was just real funny. Frank is very into reggae and Fast of course is Mr reggae, so to have them two in the studio making a reggae track, a Fun Lovin' Criminals reggae track. And it came really late in the game, so the day before we were due to record and we were in the studio rehearsing some stuff, and we started playing around with that, and it turned into the most crazy song on the record.

I share my cigarettes with Huey and the discussion moves to smoking…

Huey: I can’t smoke in the gym - that sucks. I said, "you’ve got to have like a smoking room in the gym" and he said "it’s a fukin' gym man".

ILM: What advice do you have for other musicians breaking into the industry?

Huey: Don’t do the whole make a demo tape, try to find a record company kind of thing. Showcasing is kind of good. They should always play live and stuff, but, go with the internet. Because if anyone knows the name of your band, they go to ….com and they’re directly at you, which is good. The good thing about working with Sanctuary is that they want you to be more directly related to your fans and stuff. That’s a good thing, that’s where you should be. There’s too much big record company hub-bub going around where everybody feels that they’re so far removed from it. It’s not good for the artist either, because you’re stuck with something and having to play games you don’t want to play but figure you have to, because you’re contractually bound and all that stuff. So the coolest thing is to be with a label who give you the freedom and allow you to get close to your audience. No offence, I love working with Sanctuary, but you don’t even need to get signed to a record label anymore. If you can make your own records and sell them online, you are your own record company. Of course you have to pay for your own promos and there’s a lot more involved, but that would be my advice, do it yourself.

Keeping It Real

ILM: You tell people how it is rather than how we would like it to be.

Huey: Yeah, I just never thought I had to exaggerate what goes on in New York, it is kind of wild. And everyone around the world goes to New York, so everybody is kind of represented there too. Everybody hears all that rap stuff about In Da Club and all that stuff, and I see these dudes and they don’t shoot nobody. They go out with their big bodyguards keeping everybody away from them.

ILM: Please describe the FLC process of making such freaking awesome music.

Huey: I’d have to say it’s just paying attention to what’s around you, which is really simple. A lot of the times if you’re a musician you kind of over-think the process of making music and you need to go away and think "maybe that’ll work, I don’t know." I always think if I’m writing a record. I get on my BMX and I ride around New York at all weird hours of the night, and you see and you hear the strangest shit. So it’s just keeping your eyes open.

ILM: So how do you get your inspiration down if you’re out and about?

Huey: I used to try to just remember it, but that didn’t work. So now I write it on my arm, which is why I don’t have a tattoo on this forearm. I wanted to get like a tablet made with a scroll, like a school thing, with maybe an attachment pen. I wake up mornings and have all the stuff written on my arm. And also my friend, Uncle Mike, a dear friend of mine, who’s actually the guy who signed us to EMI to our first deal a long time ago, he always has a pen on him, so I’m like "Mike" and he’s like "alright," and gives me his pen.

ILM: Thank God for Mike then!

Huey: Yeah, he gets a shout out on That Ain’t Right… Uncle Mike.

ILM: And then there’s Uncle Frank of course.

Huey: Yeah, Uncle Frank, have you heard his stuff? Go to the website and check it out. Just imagine him with a bottle of Campari in him, very suave. It is like Teddy Pendergrass on crack.

ILM: As notably the smoothest chilled-out dudes ever – describe your perfect chilled out Sunday?

Huey: If it’s a Sunday that means I’ll probably be taking it very easy, because the weekend was trying. So I’ll go to the park with the New York Times and with Sugar my dog. Couple of hours sitting out there relaxing, enjoying the nice day, if it’s not nice I’ll just stay in bed and read the paper. Lately I’ve been trying to muster up going down the pub and having a Sunday roast. And then I go home and I watch the omnibus of Eastenders.

ILM: Which brings me on to…You want to be in Eastenders don’t you… as a mini-cab driver?

Huey: I just want to be an extra. I’m not trying to get no starring role. And the mini-cab driver is just my back story of my character. You know, all anyone would see is this guy sitting at a table counting change. I’d do it for free and they pay these people, so, if anyone’s off sick… I’m in the area... And if they give me a speaking part I know what I’d say…

ILM: What would you say?

Huey: “Leave it aaat.”

Huey and ILM crack up

Huey: I’ve been watching that show since I was a kid. They have it on Channel 13 on PVS, and I just thought there’s a couple of things I knew about England, you know I really liked the music, I grew up listening to Nick Lowe and The Clash and Elvis Costello and The Pretenders and all of that music that came out over that period of time, so I was naturally drawn to what else was going on in England. And so I was flicking through the channels and I heard people speaking in English accents, so I started watching the show and got addicted to Eastenders at a very young age. It was on public TV and I just got hooked, and of course we started playing over here over ten years ago, and I was lucky enough to meet Ross Kemp. That kind of blew me away: he knew who I was which kind of freaked me out. I was like "you’re one of the Mitchells, man."

ILM: Weirdly, I was on the way here and spotted the guy who plays Jake Moon.

Huey: You should’ve said, "Your girlfriend put Den in the basement… she’s way out of line, bang out of order." It’s funny, if I get recognized, I get "heh yeah, this guy thinks he’s Huey," that’s my favourite one. I get that all the time, "this guy thinks he’s in the Fun Lovin' Criminals."

ILM: And it must be nice that you’re successful, but you’ve not been blown out of proportion as huge star celebrities to bow down to by the public…

Huey: We’ve always been of the people. That’s who we make our music for, so we have to still be them to accurately depict what goes on in our lives. If I owned a mansion in Buckinghamshire and that was my life, the music would be drastically different. But I chose to do this, because to chronicle my life in a way like we do now is a lot better way of doing it that being in some kind of rock n roll ivory tower. It’s so easy to do, believe me, bands can do it like that. We’ve been around ten years and seen a lot come and a lot go, and seen a lot of dudes kind of lose the plot. So it’s important that if you’re going to make music for certain types of people - regular people - you have to be a regular person. People can smell bullshit a mile away.

ILM: Apart from New York, please describe your favourite place on earth.

Huey: New York is home, y’know… it’s where my dog lives. In the last couple of years I’ve been to Hawaii quite a lot and that’s a lot of fun and enrapturing, but it’s very isolated, and I like Capri that was nice, and I also like some weird places as well, like Moscow which is really nice in summer.

ILM: What is in your CD player right now?

Huey: I do like my little playlists. A lot of it is older stuff. But new stuff I’m listening to includes Roots Manuva. I like his stuff, and I hear bands like Kaiser Chiefs and I think I Predict A Riot is real good, I like the sentiment.

Chill Gates

ILM: Their Live 8 gig was great, when they were beamed in from the States.

Huey: I was here in Hyde Park for Live 8. I thought they were here. OK, I was definitely at the free bar …. Watching Snoop Dogg and Bill Gates smoke a joint which is the craziest thing I ever saw in my life… “You need to diversify you’re bonds,” [says Huey in his finest Schnoop accent]. It was ironic though because Bill Gates was there, but all the musicians are all Apple dudes and all have MACS so we were seeing if he could try and convert them, y know “Yo Snoop Dogg, check it out, a lot of these beeatches over at Apple don’t got it right, I’m Bill Gates I got the new Pro Tools programme I need.” But Bill Gates was just chilling and hanging out, and he’s a nice guy. I said "hey Mr Gates how’s it going?" he said, "it’s Bill," and I said, "it’s Huey," and he's like, "it’s been fun." Yeah it was nice. A lot of the big stars were hiding in their dressing rooms, and when Robbie Williams came off stage he was like he’d just slain a dragon, screaming "yes" and trying to high five people who were just hanging out and were like, "alright take it easy, calm down." The Who were just hanging out smoking cigarettes, like, whatever and Pink Floyd were the band who were hanging out and most talkative out of all of them.

ILM: That’s great as they’re the ones that everyone is most in awe of.

Huey: Yeah, me and Fast went out front for that one. But why did they let Mariah Carey play for so long and cut their set down? Has she sold the most records in the history of the human race or something like that? She was spooky with all the children, but Matteo has met her on numerous occasions and says she’s really nice and charming, but she’s crazy. But then everyone has their moments, I know I have my moments.

ILM: Please tell me your favourite tune that makes you instantly chilled out.

Huey: Sleepwalk by Santos and Johnny.

ILM: You bought garbage company (DiFontaine Carting and Asbestos Removals) and are co-owner (with Dermot Doran) of a bar in Dublin (Voodoo Lounge). Plus Glasgow restaurant plans… do you like being entrepreneurial?

Huey: Yeah it’s cool. It’s fun to get involved in different things that you enjoy. Like Matteo is a Chef, so he made up all the pizzas and designed the sauce formula, so it’s good to be involved in that kind of stuff, because I always wanted a pizzeria when I was a kid.

ILM: So you’re living multiple dreams?

Huey: Yeah, I run a bar and have a pizza shop and I’m in a band. It’s all cool.

Sugar Is The Sweetest Thing

ILM:You’ve got a dog. Tell us more…

Huey: She’s 13… [gets phone out to reveal lots of lovely pictures of gorgeous Sugar dog]… That’s her on the beach before we went out on tour, and she went into the ocean for the first time in her whole life as I threw a tennis ball in. At first she was like… "I’m not going in there," but she went in. She’s cute, she’s just got back from the vet too. She had an ear infection and she’s old so I was freakin for a little while, but she’s cool.

ILM: I bet she looks forward to seeing you when you get back.

Huey: Well she’ll be really happy when I get home, like ecstatic, for about five minutes, and like "daddy’s here, all is right with the world," and then she’ll stop herself (I can almost time it) and huff and goes into the bedroom, hops and the bed and just looks at me.

ILM: Like, "why did you leave me…"

Huey: Yeah, "look what you’ve put me through…" [we look at photos of Sugar with a bone in her mouth at the ocean].

ILM: She looks happy.

Huey: She was chillin’. We take her down to the beach a lot, but she’s a city dog. She was born in Brooklyn, so it took a while to get her to go into the ocean.

ILM: New drummer, Frank aka Rhythm Man: tell me his best characteristic, worst habit?

Huey: He’s got the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met in my entire life. This guy would do anything for his brothers and people he cares about, and his family. He’s got the biggest heart, and that’s the worst thing about him too, because he can get easily hurt and if you care for Frank and you see him being nice and someone fucking with him…He can also hold his own, and people don’t really see that until he punches them across the room.

ILM: I love the story that EMI booked you into a studio for a 28 day recording session but you did it in five days, then spent the rest drinking and so on…

Huey: Yeah, well they’d already spent the money and couldn’t get it back from the studio, so at that point we were like, let’s just chill out. So we made some different versions of the songs, and this is like the 20mg mix and lots of Uncle Charlies deliveries.

ILM: You’re an advertisement for New York City, according to the Independent’s Tim. Do you like that?

Huey: Yeah Tim, he was nice, we hung out, I took him around. It’s flattering, he said a lot of flattering things in that article. He’s a nice man and we had a good time that day, and if that’s the way he saw it then it’s great for him to say that. I’m from there, I love the place, I love meeting people that are on vacation there. I’ll be walking down the street, and some people from the UK will be like, "Huey, oh my God," and I’ll say "where are you guys looking to go?" And I’ll suggest they go up four blocks to get to the Empire State Building and stop at Lindy’s on the way for a bite to eat. I’m the accidental tour guide.

ILM: You got a call from Reg Kray inviting you to visit him in prison – how was that?

Huey: To me he was very nice man, I mean obviously a lot of people would disagree, but he was very nice to me.

ILM: Well, you’ve achieved your dreams, you’re in a hot band, run a bar and a pizzeria, what other ambitions do you have left to fulfil?

Huey: I would love to have a family one day. It sounds simple, but it’s true. Y’know I’m 37 and that wouldn’t be a bad thing. I just need to find a woman that’ll put up with me.

ILM: You SO will. Form an orderly queue ladies.