Where did you get your name from? Why Ride?
Steve: It just happened.
Loz: We didn't get if from anywhere, we sort of decided on it as being a good one word name. It took in a lot of principles in the band ? escapism, travelling, movement. Also I'd bought a Ride cymbal just when we formed. Mark: We didn't really wanna be like "the something/anything" so it, like, leaves it.
Steve: You might as well call yourselves "the indie band" or something.
Loz: It's like one word you can take anything from it, you can do what you want so...
Andy: It could be anything.
Did you deliberately try to put "Ride" in nearly all the songs?
Loz: No...that was another reason for choosing it because it was already in those songs.
Andy: Yeah, we had those songs before the name. Loz: Yeah, "I want to ride and ride". (various laughs and mumbles)
Mark: There's only about two songs I think that actually use "ride".
Steve: I think it's three.
Mark: Is it three?
Steve: Yeah, "Close My Eyes", "Chelsea Girl" and ...um...
Mark: And that's it! There's two!
Steve: No there is another one I know.
Loz: Well "Drive Blind"'s one, that's almost there isn't it?
Mark: It's just like...I mean, it's nothing...there's no message behind it. It's like...you know... Steve: It looks nice on posters!
How much is Ride dependant on your friendship?
Loz (hugging Steve): 100%. So if one of you were to leave it would...
Steve: It wouldn't be Ride anymore. I mean that's the way Ride started. We were all friends before and we didn't, like, put adverts in the press to get people who could play instruments.
Loz: It's just that we all happened to play instruments so it was a natural thing to start. As he said we didn't have to look for musicians, There's been nothing that has been forced.
Do you feel things are going a bit fast?
All: Yeah!
Steve: It's just about as fast enough to get used to but it's not like we were dropped right in at the deep end or anything. We didn't have to adapt to it.
Andy: We've come through every stage.
Steve: Yeah, it's going at a healthy pace but it is going quite fast.
Loz: It's the only pace we know so we can't compare it to anything else.
Do bootlegs videos like the one of the ULU gig annoy you?
Andy: No. Steve: Not at all...there's no reason why it should.
Andy: People can do whatever they want with our stuff. I mean, we make sure that the records we put out are really good and really good quality but if other people want to do their own things then that's fine.
Steve: If someone was making a lot of money out of something we did then that seems a little unfair!
Loz: There's no official Ride bootleg so if you want to buy it then it's your choice. We're not putting a stamp on quality on it so it's up to you!
Do you wish you'd been allowed a few singles before being "discovered"?
Andy: No, cos that would have been these two singles and they wouldn't have been heard!
Loz: We didn't know we were going to be discovered, that was what we put out. Yeah, but do you regret having to grow up in public?
Steve: I think we'd rather have had it that we'd built up more of a foundation before we got to this level but I don't think we'd want the first two singles to be the "lost" singles.
Andy: It's nice that a lot of people know them...it's really satisfying.
Loz: The first record that we wanted to put out was the one we did and what happened after that was out of our hands. So it wasn't as if w wanted to put one song out and slowly build it up. I mean we thought that the first single was going to be handed out at gigs and stuff. It wasn't meant to leap into the charts or anything!
Andy: We didn't expect to see it in the shops.
Loz: It was just something to have on vinyl so that after gigs people could buy it if they wanted to and they'd have something to take home after seeing Ride live. The fact is that it got taken away from us and did really well, but that's out of our control.
Steve: It was ready to release the July before...it was going to come out on a different label and if it had come out on that label it might have been a different story.
Mark: I think that as it was us and our attempt for a first release we could never really sit there and think "Oh, this is gonna be a top ten indie smash" or whatever. Cos it's what we do we can't objectively listen to it. You can't listen to it like you do other bands cos it's you...it's really difficult. So, I mean, we were surrounded by other people saying it was going to do really well but there was no plan...it just happened.
Is this your childhood ambition?
Andy: Sort of, yeah!
Loz: It's everyone's isn't it?
Steve: You either want to be a pop star or a footballer...or a train driver.
How do you feel about going on "Top of the Pops"?
Steve: I just want my legs to go on it actually. (laughs)
Mark: No, it'd be alright. You can't take "Top of the Pops" seriously, it's like the biggest joke that's ever happened, it's just so false...you're trying to create a completely false atmosphere.
Steve: I think "Top of the Pops" adapts itself to whoever's on it. You don't have to be a certain type of band to get on it.
Andy: When the Wedding Present were on it was really cool, brilliant.
Steve: Yeah, the Smiths.
Loz: But that's because you like those bands though isn't it?
Mark: Well, no, it's just "Top of the Pops"
Loz: Well it's not going to change any views. The people who watch "Top of the Pops" watch "Top of the Pops"! The people who buy "NME" and buy our records do that. It's not going to change anything!
Mark: I think it is changing gradually though. It's the first time the barriers have been broken a bit by successive Stone Roses and Happy Mondays so it has changed a bit. But there's always going to be fans into Kylie and Jason and that's fair enough that they're there and people are buying them and getting off on them.
Andy: They have to be really otherwise there's no reason for us to do stuff. Therm's go to be two sides.
Who do you go and see these days?
Loz: We don't get much of a chance.
Steve: Pale Saints, Lush, House of Love, we've seen quite a lot recently.
Andy: Well we played with them, we can't avoid it.
Steve: That was the joke in it Andy!
Andy: Oh right (laughs)... a play on words.
Do you enjoy playing live yourselves? You do long tours don't you?
Steve: We see them as more necessary tours.
Loz: We're not masochists, we don't play long tours just cos we want to hurt ourselves. We don't want to skimp out on tour dates though, but yes, we definitely enjoy playing live.
What's the Ride on the road lifestyle then?
Andy: Oh, very schoolboyish.
Mark: We've all got mental ages of about ten!
Andy: Subbuteo, Test Match Cricket, skateboards.
Mark: We're getting into games.
How do you feel about criticism of wah wah overuse in Ride?
Steve: I think we've overcome that.
Andy: I try not to use it so much now.
Mark: It's broken.
Steve: After we read that we broke his legs!
Andy (laughs): I've fixed it!
Mark: You can't listen to the criticism. If we weren't using wah wah we'd get other criticism. You're never going to be liked by everybody...and I wouldn't want to be.
Loz: We use it when we want to really.
Mark: It's best to polarise an opinion anyway rather than just have "Yeah, they're alright".
Loz: It's quite funny reading foreign reviews though all you can't understand a word of it apart from wah wah every three words!
What do you think will happen when the press start turning nasty?
Andy: Well, we're aware that that's going to happen.
Loz: We'll be in our nuclear fallout shelter, we'll be alright!
Andy: We try not to take it all in, not even the good stuff. We appreciate that it's there and it's doing a lot of good for us but we don't rely on it. We try to take all of our satisfaction from the four of us and the music we make ourselves. We try not to take satisfaction from getting a good review, although it is hard not to.
Steve: A lot of bands rely on the press to sell their records and to a certain extent it does. I think once the press build up a band it's hard to knock them down. Even if they're not trendy people will still buy their records...unless the band are making shit records.
Interview by Paul Ashcroft (25 Apr. 1990)
What Ride thought about being on Creation in 1990...
Do you think it helps being on Creation?
Steve: It's definitely a high step to get onto... it's a certain level.
Andy: When we joined Creation there wasn't any big bands on it that were doing anything. The Valentines were being really quiet and they'd lost The House of Love. But since we've been with them it seems like they're coming out again, you know, the Primals and the new Valentines singles are going to be in the Top 40!
Steve: It's not all down to being on Creation because we did work very hard before that and we played around quite a lot over the year.
Mark: I think the combination of Creation and us is like a good thing cos it's not...
The majors?
Mark: Yeah. We'd had interest.
Steve: We don't see the need for them in England.
Andy: We're not interested in majors in this country really.
Loz: We're gonna stick with Creation.
Definitely?
Andy: Yeah.
Loz: Well, there's no point in being a music slag, you know.
Andy: As long as we're happy with them, and there's no reason to be unhappy with them cos we do exactly what we want.
Mark: We work well with them so why drop them? To us is really important, just that we're basically doing what we can do and write our own things, cos then we can listen to it. But you can have major deals in other countries to actually sort of finance you, so I think if and whenwe do sign a major it'll be in another country and we'll stay on Creation in this country.
...and in 1994...
Mark: I guess you do get a dela with Alan on a friendship level. I do see him as a friend as opposed to big corporate figure, so he has been quite inspiring, he puts me onto music that he thinks I might like. He makes you feel good about what you're doing, which inevitably brings out the best in bands. I think the world needs Creation. I'm obviously glad to be part of it, it's fun. The parties help, they help you feel like a rock band and it's important to feel that way. I remember some pretty debauched parties. I remember one time when the Primals where in L.A., sitting by the poolside with Alan having a really heavy conversation about our place in the music industry. In between, he kept telling me that the trees were dancing. That was particularly amusing, thinking my career was safe in his hands.
Can you ever imagine yourself not being a part of Creation?
Mark: Only if the trees stop dancing.