The Jazz Butcher, otherwise known as Pat Fish (Butch), Maximillian Elder, Felix and Mr. Jones made their North American debut July 22 at Business to a patient audience that had waited 'til afer midnight for Butch and his Sikkorskis from Hell to take the stage.

Halling from Northhamptonehire, England and touring on the heels of the release of Bloody Nonsense, their first lp on a domestic label, the Butcher played a strong set of well-crafted, witty pop tunes which ranged in subject from alcoholism to the story of a homocidal dentist. As an encore they did a song entirety in French, with tongue firmnly in cheek. The Sikkorskis are a rather reserved bunch, but Butch looks like he's having more fun than human being should be allowed.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Butch the next day and found him to an immensely entertaining, intelligent individual.

The following is an excerpt from our chat.

KRAK: What did you think of your first performance in North America last night?

J.B.: Lovely. You get into a country you've never been to before an you never know what's going to happen. We weren't playing at our very best, I'm afraid. We had been up st 8:00 am in Boston and didn't get out until after 2:30 p.m., thanks to a number of bureaucrats down there. We weren’t in the best of conditions when we arrived, but under the circumstances we were delighted. The audience was a nice bunch of people.

KRAK: I was just curious to know how the name "Jazz Butcher" came about, end especially the Sikkorskis fom Hell, the name of the rhythm section.

J.B.: The name is always a great disappointment to people when I tell them how it came about. The truth of the matter is that I had a friend called Mark and we liked sitting around in bars making up stupid names for groups. We would come up wih such things as: Panama Guns. Satan’s Submarines, Victor Ravioli and his Jumping Vermicelli, and in this pile of old dreg was the Jazz Butcher.

We imagined the Jazz Butcher as being black person, 150 pounds with no teeth. Sort of Bo Diddley from Hell figure. Six monthe later I started writing silly songs and I felt I needed a name to hang them on. I decided on the Jazz Butcher, quite accidentally.

The Sikkorskis from Hell was in spired in 1983 when a Sikkorski helicopter crashed into the English Channel. My friend Rolo (formerly bassist with the Jazz Butcher, now with the Woodentops) and I were just raving it up and we had this idea of these awful heavy metal albums with these sort of gothic covers saying something like "Abomination from Outer Space". We just envisaged these Sikkorskis from Hell with big teeth and flames coming out: but really, I just like messing around with silly names for groups.

KRAK: Deapite the name "Jazz Butcher", I was wondering if you liked jazz because some of your songs have a jazzy feel to them.

J.B. Some of the songs do have that feel, but it dosen't really mean anything. Sometimes you get people saying do you play jazz? And we say no. We don’t hand out bits of meat between songs either. Basically, we're just a pop group made up of four vegetarians just happen to be called the "Jazz Butcher".

KRAK: You have said that you find the whole idea of being on stage, being applauded as well as being paid to travel around rather silly. You also mentioned the pop music isn't really that important and that there are better things to think about. First, why do you find being on stage, etc., silly; and second, what are those important things?

J.B.: That's a fair question, isn't it. I don't really find it silly. I mean, I love this stuff and I love the whole thing about pop music; but you have to remember that the whole thing is only there because there are teenagers running around with more money than they know what to do with. Pop music, after all, is like excess weight on a society; you don’t need it to function. We do become aware that this is all rather strange. It's just the four of us and I think it's healthy to keep sight of the absurdity of it all. These people who take themselves so seriously and think they are doing something so important should be reminded that they're only there because someone thinks they can make money out of dumb teenagers.

KRAK: Bands such as U2 do take their music and the message very seriously, How do you feel about these groups who can be so passionate about the message they're delivering?

J.B.: We also take our music dead seriously and we address serious issues, But, unlike U2, we don't run around posturing as soldiers waving our guitars around like they were rifles, and we don’t have religious experiences on stage either. What we have on stage is fun making pop music; and we sing about serious things. But I think it's a question of attitude. You just can't get inflated. Pop music is like a great big balloon full of hot air and we're running around with a couple of knitting needles.

KRAK: One writer once said that your songs reflect a multi-dimensional love-hate relationship with rock's rich tapestry. And in the Jonathan Richman classic Roadrunner you cover there is a line that goes "I'm at war with modern music". Obviously your brand of pop music isn't conventional. What aspects of modem music would you say the "Jazz Butcher" is at war with?

J.B.: For a start these big egos that go running around; and also the sort of commercialism (for want of a better word) that’s happening. The word doesn't bring about my full loathing for this, but there are some people who slag groups off for being commercial when what they mean is popular, That's fine if you want a pop group to hug to your bosom and you don't want them to make money. Your pop group won't live if people don't hear it.

I hate the idea of groups starting up and saying we are going to play to these people, we're going to wear these clothes and we're going to make this noise. I think that is truly loathsome.

This group began by accident and I think that is reflected in the fact that if we were out to make and address a certain market we wouldn't look or sound the way we do. We're just incredibly lucky having started by accident and being at the point where we have free paid holidays.

One thing I object to are groups that flirt with ideas they don’t fully understand. There are, for instance, very talented people like, say, Billy Bragg who can talk politics in a three minute pop song that makes you weep.

I'm all for him. One of the great talents. On the other hand you get a bunch of dressed up ninnies like Depeche Mode singing. “let's play master and servant’. For them to be fooling around with S & M imagery when they have an audience of twelve year old schoo! kids is quite embarrassing, frankly.

KRAK: You have said that you approach music like being in toyshop where you can mess around with things. Sometimes the toys break; sometimes they don't. Obviously you take risks and will not stick to a formula as some bands do. What if, by some bizarre turn of events, he Jazz Butcher becomes big? Would the Jazz Butcher remain the Jazz Butcher?

J.B.: I think we would. I don't know what I'd do about interview schedules. (laugh) I don't think it would bother us. We'd probably make quite good pop stars; we're all quite old, literate and bloody-minded. I don’t think we're the type to be manoeuvered into wearing spandex suits or riding motor bikes on stage. Obviously we don't go out looking for success, but we wouldn't mind it. If no one was listening, we'd still be doing this at home in our living rooms which is what we do at home, anyway. For us, we regard this all as some gift from God. "Whoopee, look at all these people who like us and give us money. Thank you, Thank you!" I know that sounds naive to the point of being a lie, but it isn't it's just the way I see it. I'm delighted. This is the best job in the world.

Before I said good-bye and left the Jazz Butcher to his grilled cheese sandwich, I asked him what he thought about the fact that American critics described him as Lloyd Cole meets Jonathan Richman meets Iggy Pop. He said a nasty word about American critics and went on to say that he dosen’t like being compared to Lloyd Cole though he likes him (a bit). He also told me thar there would be a new album released in October. By then, maybe, just maybe, the Jazz Butcher will be a bit bigger, you'll want to own their albums (which you should, already) and you won't mise them the next time they're in town. Got that?

—Interview conducted by Paul Bisson