Sweetheart Contract release their new single ‘Don’t Operate / The ’85 Bears’ on 3 Minute Records on 23rd March. To celebrate what he promises is their best release yet, their singer Dexy K kindly offered to field our set of rather random questions, here are the results!
Where are you and what’s the weather like?
Deptford. Cold, sunny and beautiful.
What’s your favourite record in the charts?
No idea. If Run The Jewels 2 is in the charts then that one.
What are your favourite films?
Theorem, No Country For Old Men, The Dark Knight, American Graffiti, Glengarry Glen Ross, Raging Bull.
What are your favourite books?
A Farewell To Arms, Blood Meridian, Last Train To Memphis, Papa Hemingway, Love Is A Dog From Hell, I Lived To Tell It All, Easy Riders Raging Bulls, The Little Prince, The Fight, The Jordan Rules
What are your favourite TV programmes?
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Seinfeld, Rome, Walking Dead, Friday Night Lights, Cheers, basketball, wrestling, ice hockey, American football, baseball, boxing, football
What was the first record you bought and where did you buy it from?
A Michael Jackson 7 inch single from Woolworths in Farnborough.
What is your least favourite record that you have made, and why?
I can live with most of them.
Do you believe in God?
I believe in people believing in whatever it is that makes them feel happy. That might be a god or that might be a sandwich. Just don’t be a dick if someone doesn’t agree with you.
What is the strangest story you have read about yourself?
I’m not sure if it counts as strange but I once saw some people say that they were planning a celebration party for the day that I die. Seems a bit harsh.
Tell us a joke.
Not sure I want to now.
Which football team do you support?
Whoever Liverpool are playing.
Do you have any pets?
My flatmates have an amazing dog called Gizmo who is one of my best friends ever.
What’s the worst song lyric of all time?
If it’s that bad I’ve probably not heard it.
Who do you consider to be the most overrated musical act of all time?
No one. There’s loads of bands I think are terrible but then they’re probably not really aimed at me anyway.
What car do you drive?
My feet.
Who would you want to play you in the film of your life?
Seeing as it’s pretty unlikely to ever happen let’s go with a young John Cusack.
Vinyl, CD, Download or stream?
It’s all good.
How will you vote in the next election?
Haven’t decided yet but it will certainly never be Tory or UKIP.
When was the last time you cried?
A couple of weeks ago. I was watching Filmage, the Descendents/ALL documentary and Bill Stevenson was talking about the story behind One More Day. I’d seen the film before but it still really got to me.
What’s the best cover version you have ever heard?
The whole ‘A Hundred Highways’ album by Johnny Cash. Also Desperate Journalist’s version of ‘State Trooper’ is the best Springsteen cover I’ve ever heard.
What’s the strangest thing that has ever happened at one of your own gigs?
A dog walked onstage and drank my beer during a show once. He was a mean looking guy so I left him to it.
Have you ever been starstruck?
I don’t tend to be but when I met Alex Chilton I was a bit tongue tied and nervous. He was so genuinely lovely though that within a few moments the nerves had gone completely.
What is your culinary speciality?
I do a mean steak, avocado and sweet potato mash
The Royal Family: should they stay or should they go?
I’d like to see them shot into the sun. So probably the second one.
If you weren’t doing this, what would you like to be?
A professional basketball player. Or to put it another way “much taller”
What were you like at school?
Short, chubby and unpopular. It was only being the school goalkeeper that kept me from getting more kickings than I did.
What’s your poison?
Whiskey and ginger. Or those Kit Kats with peanut butter in them.
If you could change one law, what would it be?
I’d make it a hangable offence to be David Cameron or Nigel Farage.
Which decade would you have most liked to have lived in?
I think being a kid in Memphis in the 1950s would’ve been pretty cool.
Have you ever seen a ghost?
Not sure if it’s the same but one time me and some friends were doing a charity mountain climb and, on the way back down, a few of us saw the same thing – a giant white horse with lit-up eyes. I remember shouting “Horses don’t have headlights!” to try and rationalise the whole thing. I’m not really built for mountain climbing, in hindsight.
People can hear ‘Don’t Operate’ over at Sweetheart Contract’s Bandcamp page – https://sweetheartcontract.bandcamp.com/releases
