interview with Ultrasound
How is it that you started playing music? There really was no choice. It was the only thing of interest
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you? Vanessa Best (ageless beauty) plays bass and sings, Richard Green (old enough to know) plays guitar and sings, Chris Duffin (boyish good looks) plays keyboards, Bruce Renshaw (getting on a bit) plays drums and Andrew Wood (too old to rock n roll) sings and plays guitar
Have you had other previous members? Quite a few
Did you make music even when you were young? Yes from about the age of 18 I have been writing and recording music
Where are you from? Mostly the North of England
What year did the band form? 1995
What's your style of genre? As Bryan Ferry said – All styles served here
What inspires you? It could be the colour of the sky or an advert on TV or anything in between
How often and where do you reherse? Not often enough but usually Leeds
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? We all have other bands/projects outside the band
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? / Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Always looking for that one person in the music industry that has belief, which is in short supply
What made you decide to make this music? No-one else was doing it
What are your songs about? We don’t like to limit the subjects that we cover. It could be anything
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Richard tends to write the bulk of the music and we write the words between us
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Usually the music comes first
Do you compose in a certain enviroment? Not necessarily but usually alone
Have you done any covers live? We once did The Who’s rock opera Tommy in 20 minutes
What language do you sing in? English, although we have done something in French
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Never counted but it ranges from 1 to thousands
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We like to vary
Do you have a regular place you play live often? There are favourite venues like The Scala and the Lexington in London, and Amsterdam Paradiso
What was your first gig like? Don’t remember
What was your latest gig? Sold out show at Lexington in London
Have you had to cancel a gig? Yes ranging from work commitments to losing my voice
Where have you played live this year? Haven’t played this year yet
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? Nothing booked yet
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? We usually have t-shirts and stickers and badges etc
Where can people buy your merchandise? At gigs
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? Downloading isn’t a problem at all. Streaming is the main problem
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? It would probably be misleading to call it an industry as there is no production any more. It’s all advertising revenue and publishing
Do you have any role models or idols? Tim Smith of the Cardiacs comes pretty close
What have been your biggest obstacles? The music industry
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Keep plugging away despite everything
How do you get psyched for a gig? Staring at a wall
What are your web sites? https://www.ultrasoundband.com/
How can people reach? https://www.facebook.com/UltrasoundTheBand
What are your plans for the future? New album and more gigs
