Fun Lovin' Criminals

July 2009

Huey Morgan (right)


Am I right in thinking you're living in Britain these days?
Yeah. I've been coming back and forth for almost 15 years now but I only got my residency here just a little while ago. My wife is British. I've been living here coming up on a year now. But we have a place in New York so we go back and forth.

How tough was it getting the residency?
Well, you have to make sure you can afford to live here and not go on the dole. And that your wife is who she says she is. It's not that hard.

You've had a pretty good relationship with Nottingham – with regular shows at Rock City.
Yeah, we played Rock City back in the day and continue to play Rock City. It's a great town for people who like to enjoy music. It's a rock town too so we get to play a little more of our rockier stuff.

Is Frank still part of the band – the guy you met at Rock City in 1996?
He's an integral part of the wheel.

Have you been out in the city to the bars and clubs?
Yeah but don't ask me to remember where. I have trouble remembering who I am in a morning.

It's good to have the Fun Lovin' Criminals playing in Robin Hood's hometown -- as he's the original fun lovin' criminal.
Yeah, exactly. We did play the forest (Sherwood Pines Forest Park, 2004) which was very ironic I thought. Hundreds of years later and here come the Fun Lovin' Criminals paying homage to the great Robin Hood. It was very funny because it was part of the National Forest and it was very civilised. 'You can jump up and down while the band's on but after that act accordingly'. The park rangers get a little excited while the band's playing then everyone calms down. They don't want another rebellion.

Have you played on the bill with Madness, The Pogues or Ash before?
We haven't played with them but I know the guys in The Pogues, I know the guys in Ash and I know the guys in Madness so I'm sure there's going to be a lot of dressing room hopping. It should be cool.

How often do you play with the band these days?
Well, we've been recording this year, getting an album together, so we're not doing as many festivals as we'd like this summer. We're doing it ourselves so there's a lot more administrative stuff to deal with. But in this day and age you really need to be on top of your stuff and not succumb to the whims of a label. We have the album coming out in January and we'll be playing a new track from it at the show in Nottingham. We tried it out at Oxygen in front of 30,000 people and it went really well.

Which is the track?
It's a song called Mars. Fast and I came up with it when we first started living together maybe 15 years ago. We were sitting there watching Total Recall and Arnold Schwarzenegger says: 'Get your ass to Mars.' And we thought that'd make a great dance tune. (Sings) 'Get your ass to Mars, where the party at, Mars, where the girlies at...' We were in the studio about six months ago and that movie was on. I was like 'let's just do it.' It's about the planet Mars and how we need to colonise it. It's Fun Lovin'. That's how we do most of our stuff.

How did the BBC6Music show (Sundays 2pm-3.30pm) come about?
They just asked me once I got a bit more settled here. And I got a Sony Award for it. It's like the third best music programme in the country. And I programme it myself so that's pretty good. I've had Mick Jones on the show, Bat For Lashes, you name it, I've had 'em on the show. Because I'm a musician they know I'm not going to ask them what their favourite colour is.

What is your favourite colour?
(Laughs) Exactly. You talk music with them and gigs you've played and different styles and key changes and what makes you want to write something. Because of that they want to come on the show and they're a little bit more open. It's what people want to hear really.

Last time we spoke you said we must "get that autistic kid out of the White House."
Oh yeah and we finally did. I was surprised as hell. All my life I haven't seen anything like that. A lot have equated it to John F Kennedy. Everything's different now. When I travel... there was this dude in Holland. He stamped my passport and went "O-ba-ma!". I thought 'this is great, after eight years of George W Bush poisoning the world'.

So you feel more positive about Obama and the US?
Yes, this is like a big event for everybody. Desperate times call for desperate measures is what a lot of Republicans were saying. That's why they had to vote for Obama. And we've got a new guy in there who's an attorney and knows what he's doing. He's not some Texas knucklehead

Fun Lovin' Criminals play Splendour, July 19 2009.