A key band of the incredibly exciting Exeter scene, Joyzine has covered Kurtz before and found their brand of post-punk sonic soundscapes very much to our liking. But that last review ended with this statement:
“Whether Kurtz will lean into any of these songs as the blueprint for their next record is a question even they may not know the answer to.”
With the release of their new EP, the incredibly titled ‘Rustbelt, or, Put your money where your mouth is: meet me at Fingle Bridge and make me evergreen – make me whole – because I can’t stand the thought of leaving’, we get that answer and it’s “something a bit like REM”. It’s a remarkable transformation – the sort that took the band Idlewild an entire career to achieve – yet has been achieved by Kurtz in just two short EPs. Want an example? Check out the great video for ‘Fingle Bridge’ (Video directed by Cleveland Pewterschmidt and starring Matt Norris).
So Joyzine caught up with Kurtz to find out just what the hell is going on.
JD: Jamie Dunne (vocals and guitar) / JF: Jago Fox (guitar) / MN: Cleveland Norris (bass) / DP: David Percival (drums)
1. For anyone not familiar with Kurtz, can you sum up the band in ten words or less?
JD: Money making scheme.
2. The new EP follows hot on the heels of the ‘Kurtz EP’ that came out in May, but it’s a completely different beast. Did something dramatic happen in the intervening six months?
MN: I’d say we all grew up a bit and figured out what we wanted out of our music more so than the first EP, and we decided we wanted a bit more feel rather than noise or energy (though we try to keep that in our new music).
JF: We realised actually we prefer different kinds of music to what we were making and decided to make that instead.
JD: most of the first EP was written before we’d really gigged and we suddenly found ourselves at shows performing with pushbike, Bramwell, etc who are different beasts all together… so the pressure was definitely on when it came to writing new material. This led to us bothering a bit and writing songs that were less rubbish.
3. I think some explanation of the EP title might be in order. Would you care to elaborate on something that is already quite elaborate?
JD: ‘Rustbelt, or, Put your money where your mouth is: meet me at Fingle Bridge and make me evergreen – make me whole – because I can’t stand the thought of leaving’ is the title. It’s just a bit of waffle tying together the themes of the lyrics of the EP, which were written when lots of rubbish was happening and I had to actually grow up and become a real person with responsibilities and the like – I had a bit of a crisis and it was a whole palaver. Except for ‘Green’ which was written like 2 years ado when the band was still called Cheese Masochist and has awful lyrics unrelated to any of the rest of the EP.
4. What’s your favourite song on the record?
MN: ‘Fingle Bridge’ for me. That’s my favourite bassline. Although many have said that ‘Rustbelt’ has been my best work, I find that Fingle has a dance ability and rhythm that is unrivalled by the other basslines. Jake’s guitar work is absolutely phenomenal, and Jamie’s choice to use a 12 string (layered with an acoustic) gives the song an amazing jangle feel.
JF: ‘Rustbelt’.
JD: ‘Rustbelt’.
5. Are we building towards a Kurtz album at any point soon?
JD: Yep. We plan on releasing an excellent debut album, a mediocre second album, a magnum opus third album and then signing to a major label and releasing a rubbish fourth album that Steve Lamacq loves. We will then keep going until we fade out of existence after churning out four or five more mediocre albums.
JF: If we get any time to meet up and write.
6. What do you enjoy / not enjoy about playing live?
JD: I most enjoy playing tambourine. And getting to see Bramwell or The Maisonettes play after us. I least enjoy sitting through sound checks of awful bands, just sat on one of the Cavern chairs with my Tesco meal deal whilst some Exeter uni student plays a Muse bass line or some rubbish to impress his band mates.
MN: I love how it gives our songs a bit more nuance and variety in some occasions. The listeners get the rawest form of our music, which can be great. Always a bit stressful to have to respond to problems like when David’s drum kit collapses though.
JF: Being on stage is a buzz and its nice to be able to show off something you’ve worked hard on as a band
7. Kurtz are held in high esteem within the Exeter-scene. What’s been your experience of the community around you?
JD: it’s mostly really positive. There’s only really one venue worth playing at (The Cavern) but it’s such a nice place. Always friendly smiles and cool people when you go in. Usually you’re on the bill with likeminded bands who actually give a shit about music so it’s normally worth staying around to watch them and have a chat with them afterwards. You do get the occasional dickhead who looks like Garth from Wayne’s World and thinks he’s going to be the next Kurt Cobain, but spends too much time thinking about how much of a rock star he is and how much money and how many girls he’s going to get when he’s super famous that the music ends up being a sloppy afterthought, but Spinning Sister (Exeter based label) is helpful for separating the shit from the shoeshine, sheep from the goats, etc. It’s a really good group of musicians and interesting people – none of that ‘next big thing’ attempt at fame rubbish, and it usually brings in a good crowd of people who care about good music.
MN: I absolutely love the Exeter scene. We aren’t all going for the same thing, and every band is unique. There are some bands I genuinely think could/should get really popular nationally or even internationally. Everyone’s been very kind too which is always nice.
JF: Everyone is very supportive and welcoming to a new band, it’s easy to find a place in the community.
8. Any plan to take Kurtz further afield in the near future?
JD: maybe Tiverton.
9. Have you any strange and wondrous gig tales you’d like to share?
MN: when I forgot to turn on my amp and no one noticed. That didn’t actually happen but it would be classic.
10. What does 2025 hold for Kurtz?
JD: We are bringing cowboy back.
DP: Muffins.
KURTZ links: Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music
Kurtz were speaking with Peter Richard Adams
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