Reverend and The Makers
“Reverend” Jon McClure previews the UK dance-punk rabble-rousers’ widely anticipated debut album

Courtesy of Hostess

With his poetic aspirations, bottomless voice and penetrating gaze, Jon McClure invites comparisons with seminal rocker Jim Morrison. Mates with hometown boys the Arctic Monkeys, McClure’s Reverend and The Makers are tipped by some as the next Sheffield act likely to reach a mass audience. Metropolis had coffee with firebrand McClure and the graceful but equally impassioned singer Laura Manuel at a Harajuku café the day before their Summer Sonic Japan debut.

How does it feel to be in Japan?
It’s good to get away from Britain because the world is so much bigger, and people are so closeted there. In America and the UK, people seem to think their country is the world. Once you get outside of that bubble and can extend your message to people of the world, it’s quite a satisfying feeling, certainly for someone like myself who’s got a message behind the music.

What is your message?
A few years ago I wrote a poem called “See the Truth.” The poem itself is not very good. You can better express its message as negatives like: don’t drink loads of beer and punch your wife; don’t go abroad and cause trouble; don’t declare war on innocent countries. You know what I mean? The things that often get buried beneath Big Brother and all the other reality shows and consumerism. My heroes—like Bob Marley, John Lennon, Joe Strummer, Public Enemy—are people who have a message. I don’t feel like those kind of people exist anymore. Musicians are supposed to be a bunch of intelligent people, but no one’s willing to raise their head above the parapet.

So you feel like a key role of music is to express political messages?
I think it’s got to mean something... I’m under no illusions that our music isn’t pop music. That’s cool and I love pop music, but you can say a lot in a three-minute window. If you’re going to write some words, make them mean something. I have a very short time in this interview, and I could go on about how pissed I got last night, but so what?

Many artists prefer not to discuss their lyrics.
I think that’s arrogance. If you’re making music, unless you keep it to yourself, you’re going to be addressing an audience. You have to be quite explicit in this day and age. We live in an age of instantaneous communication, so your message has to be crystal clear; otherwise it just gets washed over by consumerism—by Shakira shaking her tits or 50 Cent going on about guns and bitches.

How did you acquire the nickname “Reverend” and what do The Makers make?
I’m a bigmouth and am always running on at people. A long time ago in Sheffield, I was given this moniker, but not in a religious way. And then a lot of people started to listen to me, as an Allen Ginsburg-type poet madman who rants on. The Makers were originally people from other bands, and people who helped me make music. I thought of Willy Wonka’s line from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: “You are the music makers, you are the dreamers of dreams.”

Do young people read poetry in Britain?
They read Shakespeare in school. But where I come from, people are like, “Who the fuck are you?” Poetry is associated with homosexuality. It’s got negative connotations. It’s seen as a pretentious thing. But I always want to talk about reality and encourage bands I’m involved with to take their lyrics seriously.

Can you provide a capsule preview of the forthcoming album?
It tackles lots of different subjects that are relevant in 2007, and I don’t think anyone’s made a 21st-century album yet. The second verse of the first song is, “They claim that the threats are/Well do me a favor/Control you by fear so you don’t know your neighbor/Police station at midnight/They’ll shoot you on sight/Hearts beating faster on the Jubilee line.” The second track is called “The Machine,” and it’s kind of like Leon Trotsky meets Kraftwerk. “Heavyweight Champion of the World” is about unfulfilled ambitions. Some of the songs are personal, and then there’s one called “Sundown on the Empire” which uses the metaphor of a woman leaving a man who is trying to control her and keep her down. It’s a metaphor for the way the West tries to keep the Islamic world down. What I’m trying to say is that you can’t tie people down because eventually they’re going to want to rebel. And when they do slap you in the face, the last thing you should ask is, “Why?” Some of the songs are just about characters I’ve met. But the moral stance of our band comes across at the end.

You’re hopeful the brainwashed masses will respond to your message?
Perhaps ten of them will. You don’t want to end up whinging in a pub. If you want to just listen to it as pop songs, you can, but if you can take it on a different level then that’s good. And I already get letters from people who say they’ve been inspired. I’m not anti-capitalist and I’m not anti-fame, but capitalism and fame are not my priorities. Some of these artists who claim to be the real deal are full of shit.

The State Of Things is available Oct 10 on Wall of Sound/Hostess.

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