Interview: Sucioperro

Hello Sucioperro. So, you have a single out this week, your tour starts today and your long anticipated second album is out next week. Is this a good time for you as a band?

The Dragon: Yeah man, it’s very good times! It’s always good times, though. We never really have bad times. Even if things are bad or if things are good we try to enjoy it as much as possible either way.

The Goose: It’s always good times in this band but it is even better when we have an album coming out or a tour. We love playing.

The Dragon: It’s good to be on tour!

Pain Agency is your first album in three years. Have you been inactive as a band over the past few years?

The Goose: Yeah I suppose we have been ‘publicly’ inactive for a while.

The Dragon: But we have been beavering away in the background… we are going to release a triple album later this year, man. So we will release Pain Agency then the triple album, so will literally have five albums out.

As there are no more physical copies of Random Acts Of Intimacy available, are there any plans to re-release it?

The Dragon: Yeah we actually talked about that today. We found a documentary from that time when there were different people in the band. We never released that and it was a great little documentary that sort of captured that time in the band. Most of it was just of me being pissed falling over! We would probably also have all the music videos from that time, the making of Random Acts Of Intimacy and probably package it all up with all the b-sides from that time. We wouldn’t want to fleece people that had bought the record, so we would probably just release it for a tenner, just enough to cover costs and make a wee bit.

You had a three year gap between Pain Agency and Random Acts. Are you aiming to get the time gap shortened between releases?

The Dragon: Yeah exactly, so if we get the triple album out we will literally have had five albums in three years.

Have you got a title for the album yet then?

The Dragon: We can’t disclose the album title yet…

I see you had a video coming out for ‘Don’t Change’. Is it going to surface?

The Dragon: There was a video but it ended up a fucking mess, so we’re not putting it out. We wanted something lo-fi…

The Goose: But it ended up lo-bug[et]!

So for this album you went through a label change from Captains of Industry to Maybe Records. Did you always know Captains of Industry was going to be temporary?

The Dragon: Yeah we knew it was finite. They were really non-committal with finances though. It’s not as if we’ve ever asked for much money, but we were never getting much money for tour support etc. It really pissed me off when they put money behind shit, wanky-NME-hipster bands, when it was only really Hell Is For Heroes, The Duke and Sucio that were selling. So I guess the move was going to happen anyway.

Have you been getting more support from the new label? Are they funding you for tours outside the UK?

The Goose: Well we’re looking into tours outside the UK, there is a couple of ways we are going to try to do that. Yeah the new label is certainly more proactive.

So do you have any festivals lined up for this summer?

The Dragon: Yeah, we’ve got a few little ones. We are trying to get on T in The Park, we would really love to be on that, I guess it just depends on if the next record is a success.

The Goose: We’ve got Electric Bay, it’s a really small festival in between Montrose and Dundee. Perth Music Festival and also 2000 Trees in Cheltenham: it’s got a really cool line up.

What is the most fun song for you to play live?

The Goose: Em at the moment…? It’s always the new stuff. It changes every night though.

The Dragon: Yeah, ‘cause we are always rehearsing loads of new ones.

The Goose: Yeah, we are rehearsing brand new ones ‘cause it has been so long since we recorded Pain Agency. These new songs are still kind of in the working stage though. “I Have Reached My Limit” is always good fun. “Don’t Change” is good ‘cause it’s just a straight rocker.

The Dragon: Yeah I like playing all the new album tracks. I also like playing some of the Random Acts tracks as we only play the ones on this tour that we are still connected to. So unless we feel it, we don’t do it.


So Biffy Clyro have recently had a lot of success, and a lot of other Scottish music is emerging like Frightened Rabbit and the Twilight Sad. Do you think this is a good time for Scottish music?

The Dragon: Great Bands! Yeah definitely, I think in the past a band like Idlewild kicked open the doors for everyone. I know there is kind of a lot more bands singing in a Scottish accent now. I think Idlewild should really be credited for bringing that out. Yeah I think it is a great time. It’s just sad that bands like Aereogramme had to throw in the towel ‘cause it was just getting too tough financially.

Where did the names Dragon, Goose and Spider come from?

The Goose: Goose is very simply just from Gus.

The Dragon: You’re quite Goose-like, no?

The Goose: Haha, sometimes.

The Spider: Spider came from before I was in the band. I did their websites, so the web = the Spider.

The Dragon: You spunk out your wrists as well!

The Spider: Yeah, haha, I’m like Spiderman.

The Goose: And Dragon… well Dragon by name, Dragon by nature.

How do you feel as a band that Marmaduke Duke has been called a Biffy side project by the media?

The Dragon: Yeah haha.

The Spider: We know the truth!

The Dragon: I think it is an absolute hilarity. It was inevitable, ‘cause it is Simon’s voice. Obviously we have done things, I mean we did a Live Lounge, and Ben and James were down getting their visas for the states, and we’re all friends so it made sense for them to hit a couple of guitar cases with us. People then start to think it is Biffy obviously. The good thing is people are starting to ask about Sucio a lot.

Do you think the success of The Duke will spark interest from major labels for Sucioperro?

The Dragon: Well I guess so. When I signed the publishing deal for The Duke they wanted to basically sign everything I wrote and I held off. The deal wasn’t financially viable for me, with all my songs, but I guess there could be more interest.

The Goose: It would totally depend on what we would send them I suppose. It’s an interesting position that we are in, I mean it is in the back of our minds that there could be a follow on from it. I mean if we managed to put out a Rubber Lover version 2 single to the right labels at the right time then you never know, we would probably get a deal I would imagine. It could happen, but it is never our focus when we are making our records. We just want to make a better record than Pain Agency.

So on the subject of the Duke, is there plans for another tour to support the album?

The Dragon: Eh, yeah, I guess. Maybe we will play a couple of festivals and if the album is a success then maybe a tour later in the year. When we are finished with the Pain Agency campaign and Biffy are finished recording their new album. Then we will maybe go out and do a few shows when there is a window of opportunity.

The Goose: Sucio and Biffy are both busy bands so it always has to come up when we are all free.

The Dragon: Every tour we have done with the Duke has been organised like a week before, the last one was a bit more planned though.

So with The Duke would you be planning bigger festivals or smaller festivals?

The Dragon: I guess if anything it will not be the likes of T in The Park, it will be later in the year like the likes of Reading and Leeds.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to your fans?

The Goose: Thanks for waiting!

The Dragon: Yeah, thanks for waiting for us.

RT