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Chief Kunstable Jason Williamson talks dirty

Posted on 24th April 201715th August 2017 by victorfraga

Last Friday saw the theatrical release of Christine Franz’s Bunch of Kunst, a doc following footsteps of the Sleaford Mods as they conduct their daily lives and prepare for their concerts. The Nottingham duo, formed by vocalist Jason Williamson and musician Andrew Fearn since 2012, convey a message of working-class disaffection and hopelessness without pandering to bigoted resentment and nationalism. Their music, which is often described as brutal and minimalistic, have a profound social and political message.

So we decided to ask Chief Kunstable Jason Williamson a few dirty questions. He talks to us about the film, how he makes music, what it means to be big, Johnny Rotten and what people should be doing on June 8th!

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Victor Fraga – The documentary Bunch of Kunst has just been released. Can you please tell us a little bit where the idea to make the film came from, and how long did it take to make it?

Jason Williamson – It was the pipe dream of Christine Franz, a German woman who we met when being filmed for Arte TV. She proposed the idea and we agreed. It took about two years.

VF – In the doc, you describe the creative process for your music. It seems to be quite fluid and organic, devoid of strict formal rules. What is it that makes you different from other bands? Is there something particular during the creative process?

JW – We stand out because most bands have been genetically produced by record labels. They are young too, which these days is a big problem. They have no fight really, especially in music. There’s also the class war that’s been raging so anybody dipped in street music, anybody from the lower classes is finding it hard to break through, however, as I’ve said, most aren’t too interesting. Grime had a good vehicle, but even that’s being rung in. There’s nothing unique about our writing process, we just have a strong formula.

Jason03-800450 — Jason Williamson and Shona McWilliams in Andrew Tiernan’s *UK18*.

VF – Also in the doc, you say that “you have no idea what it means to be big”, but now you have toured many European countries, played at the O2 arena and so on. Didn’t that feel “big” at all? How was that different from playing in smaller clubs?

JW – Big to me means, stadium bands, I guess. But it’s also a state of mind. If you think you are Elvis then you are gunna have problems. It’s a job, a good one admittedly, but a job all the same.

VF – Your lyrics are extremely socially and politically engaged, a powerful statement against consumerism, capitalism and so on. Yet we face the prospect of an increasingly right-wing government, with a strict neoliberal austerity agenda. Should people go out on June 8th and vote in a bid to prevent this from happening?

JW – You have to vote for some kind of reason. Labour as shabby as they can sometimes seem are the only option. I’m not happy about party politics, but it’s no fucking good playing the defiant/anarchist card whilst people get fucked over. It’s a system that in our lifetime will not go away. Exist in it. Help where you can. Learn. Our music will carry the experience of this time for as long as we are together.

VF – You are currently perceived as one of the most ferociously anti-establishment bands in the UK right now. How do you feel about the fact that one of the supposedly most anti-establishment voices in the country Johnny Rotten has recently endorsed Trump, Farage and Brexit? Did he get it all wrong or is he fooling us all?

JW – He smokes too many ciggies and is infested with ego!

jason01-800450 — Jason Williamson in the setting of #*LostDogFilm*.

VF – You are a friend of the British actor and director Andrew Tiernan, and you appear in his latest film UK18, a nightmare sci-fi about extreme surveillance. Can you please tell us how this happened? Do you intend to engage in other politically and socially-engaged cinema projects?

JW – Me and Andrew Tiernan met a couple of years ago at a show and he was also partly responsible for the documentary Invisible Britain [Paul Sng/ Nathan Hannawin, 2015] which came out around the same time. I’ve always admired his acting and what he does with his characters, he’s a proper good actor with history. I’ve always been interested in acting and we got talking about it and that’s how it arose. I’ve worked on two film pieces so far: #LostDogFilm and UK18 [both by Andrew Tiernan].

VF – How can music and cinema work together as a voice against reactionary forces?

JW – They can work together by pasting actual reality onto screens.

VF – What’s your recommendation for aspiring artists in the music industry who want to make a powerful social and political statement through their art?

JW – Be themselves. Live a little. Go out of your own town. Move about. Get into trouble. And… see things!!!

UK18

Posted on 31st January 201710th September 2018 by victorfraga

It’s 2018, and neoliberalism is steadily morphing into neofacism. The UK is sleepwalking into a totalitarian regime. Extreme surveillance has already been introduced in the shape of apparently harmless RFID tags, and 75% of population already use them. People have become another trackable item in a gigantic Internet of Things. And that’s not all.

Eloise (Shona McWilliams) is a documentary filmmaker who suspects that she is somehow being brainwashed or manipulated by the UK government. Tacit questions are soon raised: is the RFID tag far more powerful and sinister than a simple trackable device? How is Eloise being controlled? How vulnerable is her body? Or are these fears just the byproduct of a highly susceptible mind and a feeble soul? Where do you draw the line between imagination and paranoia?

The topic of Draconian vigilance and the erosion of civil liberties is extremely pertinent right now, and Andrew Tiernan’s film could be frighteningly prescient. The highly controversial Investigatory Powers Act was passed last November with barely any objections from the political establishment, and very limited exposure in the media. The UK government now has unprecedented powers to snoop on our Internet history. Edward Snowden tweeted: “The UK has just legalised the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy. It goes further than many autocracies”. We are quickly turning into an Orwellian society.

uk18-demon800 — The nightmare vision within *UK18* isn’t pretty at all.

This British sci-fi flick is urgent in its currentness and simplicity, without ever resorting to didacticism. The narrative is multilayered and inventive, and it isn’t always possible to distinguish between reality, imagination, allegory and a fourth novel layer: a government devised-reality within the character’s brain. The images in the movie range from very fuzzy and grainy to very sharp and crystal clear, with the occasional TV footage thrown in. This complex visual mosaic suggests that the line between reality and imagination is very thin and volatile, and it’s very easy to meander from one realm to the next. Nothing is quite what it seems. The imagery is often scrambled, and the plot in non-linear – just like our brains.

One element that is constant throughout the movie is the somber tone, sometimes supported by a cacophony of strange sounds: a harmonica, scratchy strings, white noise and a music score by the Hackney Massive. The result is an eerie world, populated by nervous and despondent human beings. The only hope are the young people willing to stand up and fight.

UK18 is dotted with deft comments on how the increasingly autocratic UK government is failing its population. There’s ethnic profiling: the film notes that black people are typically the first victims of stop and search and other invasive practices already widespread in the UK. Ethnic profiling is merely an euphemism for intitutionalised bigotry. Perhaps more significantly, the film highlights the stigmatisation of independent thinking: anyone who questions the law is promptly denounced as a “terrorist” or a “conspiracy theorist”. Masses are to remain apathic, or “dumbed down”. Defectors are killed and their murders are conveniently dismissed as an “unfortunate operational necessity”.

uk18-shona800 — Shona McWilliams and Jason Williamson appear in *UK18*.

Alongside with our personal freedoms, our values of diversity and tolerance are quickly dissipating. Extreme surveillance represents the sheer failure of capitalism. UK18 is a powerful statement against the dictatorial nature of the Orwellian state, and the catastrophic consequences for each one of us, whether you support the system or not. It is also an alarm call: the bomb of totalitarianism is ticking very fast, and there may not be enough time to run unless people take action right now.

Ultimately, UK18 is a nightmare vision of our very near future: a dystopian society, where the only hope lies in the hands and the voices of the few people willing to face up the establishment. So stand up and fight!

Actors in the film also include: Ian Hart, Jean-Marc Barr and Jason Williamson.

DMovies screened UK18 at the Regent Street Cinema in April 2017. Click here in order to view the film online.

Don’t forget to read our exclusive interview with Andrew Tiernan by clicking here, and to watch the movie trailer below: