Interview with UK's Ugly Clinic's Guitarist Pete the Riff

June 15, 2020

Interview with UK's Ugly Clinic's Guitarist Pete the Riff

By Mick Michaels

The Cosmick View: Hello, and welcome to The Cosmick View/MBM Ten Pounder! Thanks for taking some time to chat with us!
Pete the Riff: Hello Cosmick Mick! I’m Pete the Riff, guitar player in Ugly Clinic, and I’m very pleased to meet you.

CV: Describe your definition of the band’s sound and style and how does that definition uniquely describe the music?Pete: The name Ugly Clinic comes from an old Judge Dredd story in a 2000AD comic. It’s the opposite of a beauty parlor; people go there to deliberately get ugly! As we generally despise all forms of bland, manufactured pretty-boy Pop music, the name resonated with us. We’re a Punk Rock band. But we don’t copy anybody, or any specific era or genre. As a group of individuals, our personal tastes tend towards the Punk/Metal/Classic Rock/Goth. Our biggest influences are bands like The Damned, The Jam, Motorhead, AC/DC, Blondie, Pink, Buzzcocks, Hanoi Rocks.

CV: Today, everyone talks about artist and audience connection. Is such a level of connection actually achievable for an artist and if so, how have you made the connection to your fans?
Pete: A band without fans is just someone’s hobby. All the best bands make their fans feel like part of a gang, like they’re part of something that not everyone else can just buy off the shelf. When a band is just starting out like we are, it’s quite easy to maintain a close relationship with the people who come to your shows, because the venues are small and intimate. I’m not sure that level of interaction is possible once a band gets bigger.

CV: Is fan interaction an important part of the band’s inner culture?
Pete: For anyone who performs in public, it should be all about the fans, not you as an individual. Okay, playing live is a rush and it’s great for the ego when people like you – but you have to give the audience a good show, and that means being well-rehearsed and professional. It doesn’t matter if you only play two chords the whole night – play them well! We’re just starting out as a band, but we’ll sure take care to remember who it was who were with us right from the start.

CV: Can a band truly interact with its fans and still maintain a level of personal privacy without crossing the line and giving up their “personal space” in your opinion?
Pete: Personally, as someone who grew up within the original Punk ethos, the dividing line between band and audience was supposed to have been torn down, the people on stage were just like their fans, not some remote, mansion-dwelling Rock god. But over time, that is a hard thing to maintain. The Clash used to smuggle their fans into venues and hotel rooms, but ended up playing stadiums like everyone else. We’re still at the stage of playing small, intimate venues, and we actually like chatting and having a drink with fans after a gig.

CV: Is music, and its value, viewed differently around the world in your opinion? If so, what do you see as the biggest difference in such multiple views among various cultures?
Pete: It’s certainly viewed differently, but I’m not sure if it’s valued any more or any less in terms of how much it’s appreciated. Obviously, we all tend to be inherently biased towards what constitutes ‘’value’’ along western, consumerist lines. Even bands who claim to reject and despise capitalism all like to actually sell some of their records. But in other parts of the world, music has no commercial value and is still largely either spiritually or community orientated…which is fine. There’s no right or wrong way to do it.

CV: Do you feel that a band that has an international appeal, will tend to connect more so to American audiences? Would they be more enticed or intrigued to see the band over indigenous acts because of the foreign flavor?
Pete: I find that America, Britain, and many of the former British Commonwealth countries all share not only the same language…which always helps, but also a lot of the same musical DNA, and that reflects in how relatively easy it is for artists from those countries to cross over. Rock and Roll itself comes from a mix of Rockabilly, Country and Blues – and Country and Rockabilly come primarily from British and Irish folk music. So speaking as a Scot, playing Rock music just feels natural to me. But I suppose we should ask ourselves - would Bob Marley have been so big in the USA if he came from India and sang in Hindi? Probably not. If you look at the British bands that have done really well in the US previously, they mostly tend to be Rock or Punk bands. British Pop acts tend not to do as well…apart from back in the early 80’s when MTV first started, and I suppose that’s because British Pop music comes with its own intrinsic culture and mores already built in, which just aren’t there in America.

CV: Has modern-day digital technology made everyone an artist on some level in your opinion? Have the actual lines of what really is an artist been blurred?
Pete: Firstly I think that there is a big difference between someone who can genuinely be described as an artist and someone who just manages to sell a few records. The creation of original art has an inherent value all of itself, regardless of commercial success or failure. And conversely, commercial success by itself is no guarantee of either talent or originality. Personally, I don’t think the advent of digital technology has blurred that distinction. As a band, we have no time for manufactured Pop…it’s not our thing at all. And as a group of musicians who can all play their instruments and sing in tune, we would never consider using auto-tune in the studio or pre-recorded instrumentation live.

CV: How would you describe the difference between an artist who follows trends and one who sets them?
Pete: As we touched on above, it all comes down to originality. But that doesn’t necessarily mean re-inventing the wheel with every song. We are a Punk band, and we are well aware that neither Punk…nor Rock and Roll itself for that matter, are what you would call new concepts. But we love what we do, so we’re not going to go off and buy synthesizers and make albums full of strange bleeping noises in funny time signatures. That’s just not us, and we would be fakes if we did that. Bands who follow their own paths regardless are true artists, and bandwagon-jumpers aren’t.

CV: Has music overall been splintered into too many sub-genres in an effort to appease fan tastes in your opinion? And has such fan appeasements, in actuality, weakened music’s impact as a whole by dividing audiences?
Pete: Music has indeed splintered into sub-genres, but that’s just part of the wider overall atomization of society away from the collectivist and towards the individualistic. That trend has been ascendant since the 1950’s. Nobody watches the same TV programs at the same time anymore for the same reason. I think that’s why music festivals are so popular these days – they are one of the ways that disparate individuals are encouraged feel comfortable getting together in a communal atmosphere. I agree that some bands make themselves far too genre-specific, which may help when they first start out, but if they last for any length of time they will inevitably become trapped into repeating themselves over and over again. And I also think that serving up the same formula every time is doing your fans a disservice. Most music fans are broad-minded enough to be able to deal with a little variety. And if they aren’t, well too bad.

CV: What can fans except to see coming next from you?Pete: Hopefully we’ll be hitting the road again at some point his year, assuming we are allowed out of our isolation cages, of course. We will be releasing more songs from our debut album on an ongoing basis – check our Facebook page for regular updates on all things Ugly. We’ve already started making demos for album number 2, so back in the studio again soon.
CV: Thanks again for taking some time and talking. It is greatly appreciated.
Pete: Our pleasure. Anytime.

Check out Ugly Clinic at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uglyclinic
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0ehjd1L1p6IlftXkFgc8Rd?si=enyO7IlMQOOEJYMaDD5RfQ&fbclid=IwAR3n-XYn4pdYyqDqEtaILeSK4SOhnEbcFlB4xb5abhgm_Z6QdMFqwfLJi3A
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ugly_clinic

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My name is Mick Michaels...I'm an artist, music fan, songwriter, producer, dreamer and guitarist for the traditional Heavy Metal band Corners of Sanctuary. Writing has always been a creative outlet for me; what I couldn't say in speech, I was able to do with the written word. Writing has given me a voice and a way for me to create on a multitude of platforms including music and song, articles, independent screenplays, books and now, artist interviews. The Cosmick View is an opportunity to raise the bar and showcase artists in a positive and inspirational light. For me, it's another out-of-this-world adventure.