Tom McFaull: A Bar Stool Preacher
28th September 2019
The idea of punk rock to many, conjures up nothing but the idea of rebellion; anarchy and disobedience…but if you look past the stereotypes and the safety-pin covered cliches, punk is one of the deepest, thought provoking, socio-politically-aware movements to ever come out of alternative music. Proving this point, is a wonderfully humble young gentleman by the name of Tom McFaull. All About The Rock sent Gav for a chat with THE BAR STOOL PREACHERS vocalist when they rolled into the Welsh capital to play Clwb Ifor Bach on their recent UK tour…here’s what he had to say.
Ok, so…Gavin Griffiths here for All About The Rock, and Iâm joined today by Mr Tom McFaull from The Bar Stool Preachers!
“You are! Gav how are you doing?”
Iâm not too bad butt! How are you you?
 “Iâm very well, thank you! Happy to be here in a bustling, busy Cardiff city centre!”
 Yeah theyâve had the football on today so itâs been a bit busy!
“You got the engine folk down in town, lots of lads making lots of noise on the old Vuvuzelaâs⌔
Dude those things do my HEAD IN, some of the worst things ever madeâŚ
“YeahâŚthat and the football ruined South Africa!” [Laughs]
[Laughs] Anyway, yes, The Bar Stool Preachers; for anyone whoâs new to the band and just discovering you, give us a bit of back storyâŚhow did you all come together and run us through your formation.
“SoâŚwe all live in Brighton, which is like a musical Mecca. I moved there from the Czech Republic when we had some sort of, family health news, so I moved back to Brighton, didnât really want to be living in the UK to be honest. Met Bungle though, the bassist, on my FIRST day in the UK, fell in love immediatelyâŚstarted writing songs around the kitchen table. Around the same time I met Gibbs, he was a DJ, a really good DJ; he used to do the Brighton Dub ClubâŚso we found him, he joined. He was like âIâll play guitarââŚwe were like, no you donâtâŚand he didnât. Turns out heâd been playing BANJO for the last five years, but he blagged his way in.”
“The rest of the players we just sort of, assembled as we went along; different players that we met and liked, and different people that were recommended to us. We werenât really one of those bands who grew up in School together or anything like thatâŚnone of us have known each other for longer than the five years that the bandsâ been going really. You know, itâs really rare to meet people that, become your brothers straight awayâŚthereâs not one bad person in the band.”
 OK, cool, so mentioning BrightonâŚlike you said itâs a Mecca for live music, a lot of up-and-coming artists, recently having the spotlight put on the place thanks to the success of the likes of Yonaka for exampleâŚwhat is the current scene like in Brighton? Who are your influences in and around the area?
“There arenât many of our influences from Brighton, to be honest, there arenât many punk bands in Brighton doing their thing anymoreâŚuh, because itâs such a student town, you know theyâve got this huge music college and university scene. A lot of the new bands are the zeitgeist for the townâŚitâs whatever seems to be quite popular at the time. Nowadays youâve got a lot of two-pieces going on, a lot of fuzz, you know 15 pedals and 15 minutes ofâŚnoise. Some of them are incredibly talented, but there seems to be a lot of old players as well that sort of, gravitate to Brighton because, it USED to have so many venues and, it used to have so many like, artisanal spots and bases where you could, go hang out and meet other artists. But like, a lot of our modern subculture, itâs sort of being eatenâŚand Brighton is no stranger to that. Weâve lost six or seven brilliant venues in the last five years⌔
Gav: I think thatâs universal up and down the country, really, thereâ not a lot of funding to support a lot of venues and itâs quite a shame reallyâŚ
 “It really is, it really isâŚand not to pin it all on one party or anything like that, but the governmental cuts that weâve all lived through and the period of austerity, unfortunately no money has been spent on the arts at all. And if you look at us in comparison to Germany, for example, they still subsidize all these amazing bands and venues that have accommodation; places that can hire chefs, and you end up with this much better calibre of band coming through. So many esteemed musicians I would say, that, just canât play in the UK anymore, or struggle to, because so many of our venues are closing down. Brightonâs very lucky because we had like, thirty, and now we still have six or something. Other towns HAD like, just six and now have none⌔
Coming from Brighton for now, weâre in Cardiff as we mentioned, coming to the end of this current run of tour datesâŚ
Absolutely; you can hear it in the voice and see how scruffy my jeans have become! Shoes covered in mudâŚweâre a little rough around the edgesâŚas it should be!”
How has the tour been so far? Youâve toured pretty extensively already this yearâŚ
“We have yeah, though this is our first UK tour this yearâŚthe response weâve had has been phenomenal. Really, the amount of support and the volume of the crowds and the fact that they knew all the wordsâŚwe had some fans follow us for four gigs in a row, five gigs in a row, up and down the country with us; weâve never had that before! So like, being able to pull 200 people on a Monday night in Leeds is like, thatâs quite new for us. Weâre really lucky too, we went to America and weâre ROCKETING in America, like weâve taken off a ludicrous amount over there. And, somehow that translates into a lot more UK fans being really on our side yâknow? They kind of make every gig feel like a home gig now in the UK, itâs nice.”
Regarding the tour as well, youâve been doing a lot of promotion for your most recent album; âGrazie GovernoââŚI probably butchered that? [Laughs]
 “No that was good, you remembered it! More than half of the interviews!” [Laughs]
That came out sometime last year / early this year?
“August 2018 so, just over a year⌔
 How has the reception been for that since its release?
 “BrilliantâŚweâre still kind of working out the best way to get our live sound and our live energy down on to physical music, youâll see when you see the show later; itâs a lot more teeth and claws as opposed to the recorded sound which can be quite smooth, but the response was amazing. We sold out the first three pressings of it, it was a national pick in HMV for a while, all those things that use to mean something ten, fifteen, twenty years ago! [Laughs] But the real response for us is and always will be how the fans take it. Yâknow we see tattooâs with the lyrics on, its nuts!”
Itâs like, youâve got that for life mate!?
“I know! [Laughs] But yeah the response from the crowd is, the fans themselves have been incredibly humbling; they love it. Itâs fairly split thoughâŚpeople say âAh we loved the first album you should go back to that traditional ska soundâ and other people come up and they go âAh Iâm so glad youâve developed away from just being this big bouncy ska bandâ”
 It needs more trumpet!
Tom: “Nobody, literally ever no one has ever come up to us and said whereâs the trumpets gone?” [Laughs]
Obviously âGrazie Governoâ translates as âThank You GovernmentââŚwhatâs the message behind the album? Is there a specific meaning, is there a story?
“AbsolutelyâŚitâs a real life story, um, there was an eruption, and it was Mt. EtnaâŚso this was in Sicily. And so the villagers of the surrounding towns had told the government COUNTLESS, countless times, that it was about to happen and they needed help, they needed money for infrastructure. They needed a way to actually save some of the things that theyâve, yâknow, worked their whole life for; and the government ignored them. So countless times they asked, countless times they were ignoredâŚwhen it erupted as they said it was going to, the lava destroyed everything in its path, as is itâs want coursing down this hill. One old man got out a wooden table and chairs outside the front of his house, opened a bottle of red wine, and in big red letters on the side of his house he wrote âGrazie Governoâ as the lava was coming to take everything.”
So itâs all very much the statement reallyâŚ
 “Yeah itâs a real state of play, itâs a real current political messageâŚI just feel that everybody in the current climate is slightly under-heard. I feel like as a race of people, or as a global community, weâre so under-represented by the people that are supposed to have power, and supposed to govern for us, so when I heard that story it was like, thatâs it, thatâs what we want to say⌔
 Punk rock and politics have always gone hand in hand, itâs always been that sort of, ideal fit, do you believe that, like you mentioned with todayâs climate, do you think more bands or more artists in general should use their voice?
 “They should be! There seems to be a real fucking lack of people with soapboxes actually using them, yâknow? If you look at people like Stormzy; he isâŚif you look at bands like Fever 333; they areâŚyou know there ARE some bands out there that are saying the right thing, and there are other bands that are just, happy to ignore it because, theyâre getting funded to do soâŚin a lot of ways its like, donâtâ rock the boat as it were. For us weâve always seen it as part of your social dutyâŚit surprises us that more young bands ARENâT angrier, or if they are, theyâre just not saying it, because we, for the first few years had people saying you are too political, you need to tone it downâŚyouâre such a great band of musicians, you should be writing these pop songs you know that arenât âGrazie Governoâ, songs that arenât calling Western democracy a terrorist state but, I donât really care. We donât really care as a band, how much weâre vindicated right now. Thatâs never been the thing for us, itâs never been the fame or the money I mean, fuck wanting to be a famous, rich punk musician; youâre barking up the completely wrong tree!”
 I donât think thereâs such a thing as a rich punk musician! [Laughs]
[Laughs] “No, thereâs not! I mean Lars Frederikson is close but heâs worked very hard to get it! But no like I saidâŚyâknow there SHOULD be moreâŚbut thatâs not JUST in the music scene.”
There should be more people speaking out across the boardâŚ
“Absolutely, where widespread political unrest is, seriously gutting our countries, theyâre mining our resources of human time and nature, and theyâre turning it into profit per capita is just, greed. To me itâs just inherently wrong.”
 Obviously given the current state of the UK with this whole Brexit clusterfuck, which, Iâm not really going to go into, no one really wants to go into thatâŚ
“Yeah thatâs a rabbit hole⌔
 Youâve got the Trump situation across the pond, and like you said a lot of artists ARE influential to young people, and they provide those people with a voice, and they should be doing a lot more to, even just encourage the interestâŚ
“I agree, totally right, I mean weâve always believed that, there needs to be a civil debate, across both sides of the spectrumâŚand there should always be civility and kindness, and yâknow genuine human patience to one another to resolve any issues. But, again itâs kind of hard when, the only people to have a voice are the people that are designed to make you afraidâŚit becomes very, very tough.”
Speaking of across the pond just now, I believe its next month youâre embarking on a West Coast US tourâŚ
“We are, absolutely yeah! Itâs gonnaâ be great, a bunch of the venues have sold out already! Weâre going back to California, which we love, and itâs been nuts really. California was the first base that we went to, in earnestâŚwe went over to the East Coast with the Street Dogs for a small run before that but, California was where we first felt at home in America. Now weâre going out to tour with Bad Cop / Bad Cop as well, and weâre gonnaâ do Rock The Ship, for Pirates Press Records, which is insane! Theyâve hired out this HUGE, US Navy air freighter, which picked up like, Apollo 13 or whatever, whichever one was successful and they didnât all die! [Laughs] So yeah weâve got that, and then weâve got headline showsâŚwe love tying it in with charitable action so, weâre doing some animal shelter fundraisers, bits like that. Then at the END of October weâre recording with Tim Armstrong⌔
That would lead me nicely into my next question, I was going to ask is the current plan to primarily focus on touring or have you been thinking about or working on any new material?
“Weâre kind of like musical sharksâŚwe just donât stop. Whilst we have been touring weâve written around thirty eight new songsâŚand then weâve picked our favorite twenty from that thirty. Now we get home from THIS tour inâŚtwo days, September twenty-something, and then we start eight days of pre-production on the album down in Devon a few days after, so we literally go straight from one to the other then come back after the recording of the album or, the beginning of the album, take three days off then we fly to America so uh, weâre busy; thereâs focus on both. There might not be the same focus on both NEXT year, we might not be touring AS much, weâll see.”
 Is there any hinting at any new material in your current set? Are you testing the waters so to speak?
 “Absolutely yes, that was one of the main drivers in booking the sessions when we didâŚyou canât know a song, like youâd know a friend, if you havenât tested it in front of a live audience. That to us is like, our bread and butter so, what weâve been doing every night of the tour, is weâve been adding at least two new ones in from the new twenty, kind of seeing how they sink or seeing how they fly. But tonight, Iâd imagine seeing how weâve only got two nights left of the tour, weâre going to be playing about four or five new ones! See itâs our first ever headline show in Cardiff as well so, to us, everythingâs new, no one knows us here yet!” [Laughs]
 Well, all the best for tonightâs show, Iâm sure itâs going to be a great night, and all the best for the American tour too, Tom, thank you very much.
“Thank you! Take care man!”
The Album “Grazie Governo” Is Available To Stream/Purchase Now.
For all music, merch and tour dates, visit http://thebarstoolpreachers.com/
Cover photo of Tom McFaull courtesy Of Gresle Photography
