SA That’s right, we just wanted to wait until we had the album completed, yeah. Just to make sure
that that was the direction that we were going to go in and really it’s a very natural thing for us
and, as I've already said, I think it’s what we should have been doing the past few years, anyway.
JB I guess the rest of the band are just as happy as you with the new stuff?
SA Oh, yeah, definitely.
JB Well, let’s hope that you get some air-play this time.
SA Well, that’s really out of our control. I have to say that having had the experience with two
singles from "No Place Like Home", both of them having been well received on the singled out
programme and then not get any day-time play, it’s scandalous.
JB I know, the first time that I heard "Reptile" on, I think it was Round Table, it was absolutely raved about.
SA People rave about it and then you don’t get any day-time play and you start to think what’s the
point of having a singled out programme on in the first place?
JB I agree, it seems a waste of time, as you say. Was "Alone" your first choice for this single?
SA Yeah, I always wanted that as the first single . I always wanted the first single to be a rock track
and really the record company were happy to go along with that.
JB Was it more your personal choice or the band's as a whole?
SA Both personally and as a band. You know, we had two or three choices going around but,
myself, I was very strong on that and Chris Briggs was very strong on it as well. I feel that it was
between that, "Seven Waves" or "The Long Way Home". We had a few tracks lined up but I
always felt that that was the best one to go with first.
JB I guess you had stacks of material from which to choose. Do you, now, have more influence
over which are released as singles, which are "B" sides and which tracks are used on the album?
SA Yeah, much more. As far as what the "B" sides and stuff are, that’s something that I’m not
particularly perturbed about anyway. But I’m certainly far more happy with the fact that we are
encouraged to be the group that we feel we should be rather than what someone else thinks
we should be, which always leaves you in a situation not knowing whether you are doing the
right thing or not, you know, when you’re getting kind of no support from your A & R people you
really don’t know. You know we would write songs and the only reaction would be to keep
writing more songs and neither "Kansas" nor "Ships" were picked up on by our previous A & R
people and I thought that they were two of the best songs that we’d ever written and the A & R
people of the previous record company just couldn’t hear them at all and I think that was very
indicative of exactly what was going on at that time.
JB It must be so disheartening for you when it's like that.
SA Disheartening, yeah. I mean "Kansas" and "Ships" were written quite early on in the writing for
"No Place Like Home" and when we took them into the record company I thought they’d be very
pleased with them and we got this kinda bland, really bland, non-commital kinda attitude
towards us. I think what it was, was that some of the hassles that we'd had business-wise and
stuff kinda disheartened the record company as it did us, you know.
JB Yes, I’m sure it did.
SA I really think it was time for a whole fresh start.
JB Well, its going to be a good year, isn’t it? It’s got to be for all of us. Anyway, the album title, "The
Buffalo Skinners" for me, having had a touring holiday in America last summer, certainly
conjures up emotional feelings about what we, the "new colonials", did to the Native American.
You say that it describes to you "the fact that we are willing to squeeze the last breath out of
nature and the environment simply for personal gain". Is a something you feel is very strongly
about, and do you feel that we are all doing enough to help conserve our planet, and the people on it?
SA A little the title comes from a few things. I like the idea of the kinda picture that it paints, you know, of
something that may be passing and that’s precious and should be kept hold of , and I like that
kinda idea - that something’s beautiful but it's transient. I also like a fact that it reflects an
environmental concern too. Yeah, it's something that concerns me, personally, and I'd probably
say that I have a stake in it. Everybody has a stake in it and if more people would realize that,
