Big thanks to the Quietus for hosting this interview today, here’s the full version, we can certainly ramble us two!

Make yourself a cuppa and get comfy as this is a bit of a long one! Big thanks to Tom for the time spent and awesome answers.

TC-Your art and music are both rooted in an alternate reality to that experienced by most people, when was it that you first realised that you were more interested in the weirder side of life and that you probably looked at things differently to most?

PF-When I was a kid I thought everything on TV was animated, I really did! It was my diet of cartoons and comics that retuned my mind to flat colours and outlines and thought that anything was possible if it was drawn and animated. That and the freaky and battered world of Star Wars, I loved that it seemed (to me) to be a real place where everything was used and broken, like it was in the 1970’s.I really got into the idea of other worlds and different realities, that stuck in my mind and made it ok for me to come up with stuff that otherwise would seem daft and frivolous. I think without comics, cartoons and Star Wars I would probably be a panel beater in a workshop in Splott, Cardiff.

TC-What does psychedelia mean to you?

PF-That’s such an over used word these days it’s sometimes hard to actually identify what it means any more, like when people say ‘it’s really Krauty’, it’s a bit of a lazy word for some people not to think about what it actually means. To me it’s mind expanding, takes you to another place, space and to open your eyes to something new and enlightening. Failing that it’s something that blows your mind when you have upgraded your brain with god’s medicine. Nature is probably one of the most psychedelic things for me. Truth and beauty! What does psychedelia mean to you Tom?

TC-There is the traditional meaning in music, you can talk about British psychedelic rock and there is a loose definition of what that should sound like but for me Cluster is psychedelic, Miles Davis is psychedelic, some of those Trojan dub records are some of the most tripped out slabs of 7″ out there. Then you realise that psychedelia is actually just a feeble attempt to define into a word the feeling of being taken somewhere else with music or art. So for me, psychedelia is just another way of saying that something all about un-focusing you from reality, from moving you away from where you actually are and into another place and another state of mind. Experiencing other states of being is very important I think for a full life experience, there’s no way music and culture would have developed throughout history as it has without a little substance abuse, and I’m not talking about LSD opening people’s minds up in the sixties, but more the primal shamanic rituals of the ancients, where communing with each other, whilst on some insane root plant DMT trip, all the time accompanied by never ending hypnotic beats and chants, was a regular feature in the life of early man. That’s why people have always come together and danced, and why being completely totalled in a club with a hundred or a thousand or ten thousand other people all focused on one beat or one melody can be such a sublime experience, it’s inbuilt within us, it’s a part of being human.

PF-Right answer!

TC-I’ve noticed a lot of owls around your flat. Do you ever just want to throw them all away and start over?

PF-I do have a lot of owls, that’s for sure. It was only a few years ago when a friend told me the reason I was so into owls was because I had an owl in my name. I never realised that! I have a lot of them boxed up (sorry fellers) ready to be released back into the wilds, charity shops and homes when the time is right. I would NEVER be able to throw away my stuffed short eared owl and barn owl though, even though they are very badly stuffed, I love them down to their straw fillings.

TC-What’s your number one smooth groove right now?

PF-Whoah, big question! Although I’ve had it for a while I always seem to come back to the Future World Orchestra’s Miracles, on clear blue 7″ vinyl. Hot on it’s heels is Joni Mitchell’s Free Man In Paris, such a smooth banger, can’t get enough of that right now. Oh, and not forgetting J D Souther’s Banging My Head Against the Moon. I told you it was a tough question! Now it’s time to ask you what your smooth jams are?

TC-Ooooo… well I am still enjoying Lennon’s ‘Bless You’, which I used to turn a Lennon non-believer recently. Of course there’s always a bit of Seahawks on rotation, and I recently discovered Shuggy Otis’ ‘Inspiration Information’ which has been massively… inspiring..

PF- I have to dig out that Lennon track! Love that Shuggy LP, an evergreen classic and early drum machine usage.

TC-What is your first memory of encountering The Horrors and how long was it until we met after that?

PF-Wow, must’ve been just before your first LP came out, I think I read an interview where you guys were talking about psyche 7″s and immediately my interested was piqued! I though, ‘how do these young ‘uns know about Tintern Abbey’? It must have been a bit before Primary Colours that we met through the legendary Godsy (DJ Cherystones) and I remember we got on pretty well from the get go, a shared interest in psyche and garage was the golden thread. How was I to know that you were a lover of the smooth as well? Bonus ball.

TC-I remember the first time we met really well actually. I was having a post-Cave Club party in my old flat in Shoreditch where you lived upstairs, Godsy lived one door down and Anthony Rossomando lived below you. Godsy asks if you could come over and 5 minutes later you were there, wearing what I think was a top hat and raving about The Glass Domain’s ‘Interlock’ that you’d heard in a mix I did. We hung out every other day for that whole summer, smoking on the roof and listening to all kinds of far-out sounds. I was really quite upset when I found out you were going to move, it really wasn’t the same without you around!

PF-It was sad to move from that spot, it was a great hang out. That roof, the cats, the CHEESES and my door wide open blasting out music. Oh, and accidentally setting fire to the decking with that BBQ! RIP that brown top hat, it now resides in New york. Ah, the Glass Domain, what a track!

TC-I remember getting sent some designs for Horrors toys you did way back. At the time we didn’t even have an album out and we thought perhaps Horrors figures were not what the world needed right now. Without wanting to sound derogatory, what the hell were you thinking?

PF-I have to tell you that wasn’t my idea! Can’t remember who’s it was right now but I did think, ‘this doesn’t really seem appropriate…’! Glad it didn’t come off to be honest. Oil/plastic is a precious commodity;)

TC-What’s your favourite cheese?

PF-Has to be Stilton, the king of cheeses. If you don’t like that, you don’t like cheese in my book. I had some from Melton Mowbray recently and it was mind glowingly good, went incredibly well with one of their bad boy pork pies. I’m hungry now.

(Pause in the interview to go and find a pie) *Tom drums fingers*

TC-You’ve just done a video for us, which is probably my favourite video of ours as it’s so totally different from anything else we’ve done. When did your interest in psychedelic cartoons first start and what’s your first memory of it?

PF-Thanks Tom (sorry I’m typing with my mouth full of pie, I really am!) The video is really different to anything you’ve had made before that’s for sure. I just have to say I’m really proud to be able to make that for you guys with the help of the awesome Made Visual Studios. I touched on animation earlier but I think the first psychedelic cartoon I saw that lodged in my mind was the pinball number count from Sesame Street. It was combination of the amazing Pointer Sisters music and the wigged out visuals. I imagined walking around in that pinball machine and exploring all the things inside of it, again it got fantasy psyched out worlds embedded in my brain for use in later life.

TC-What’s your number one beef with the world?

PF-Apart from salt beef (urgh) I’d had to say we all need to chill the fuck out a bit more and take ourselves way less seriously. Hang on, that’s 3. Ok, just chill the fuck out more please, the world.

TC-Agreed, if we put half as much effort trying to make the world a better place as we do trying to destroy one another then the world might actually stop being so horrific. We’ve got the minds and the potential but we can’t be trusted with either. Someday we’ll figure it out but that scares the hell out of me because to sort it out we need to change and to change something really, really horrible has to happen and I don’t want to be around when it does. Hang on, it’s all getting a bit serious all of sudden.. um.. dirty pillows, poos and turds!

PF-That’s a scary thought but I think we all need to realise we’re just a blink in the eye of the history of the world, but yet we need to spread the positive with whateve tools we’ve been equipped to use.

TC-How do you stay so youthful and energetic? What’s the Fowler secret?

PF-I met the devil whilst riding my BMX at the crossroads of Queen Street and Newport Road in Cardiff and sold my soul. I thought he was just a friendly tramp with a bag of cola cubes but I found the contract the other day and one of the 3 wishes was youthful energy. I can be a bit of a worrier but I’m also a dreamer, I think always dreaming helps, rather than getting bogged down in the bullshit of everyday life, which I can be prone to. There’s always some one worse off than you and I count myself lucky to be able to do what I do. I can’t really do anything else so I have no choice, if I was working for a bastard I’d look about 65 and be a miserable alcoholic probably!

TC-When did you first realise you had too many records?

PF-When I had to move from my old flat over the road from the Old Blue Last to where I am now about a year and a half ago. Four floors up and no lift almost killed me AND the Polish removal guys. They weren’t happy but fuck them as they cracked my Saz. In my opinion you can never have too many records though I have futile attempts here and there to get rid of a few.

TC-I think I’ve taken a few off your hands, including the amazing ‘It’ll All Work Out In Boomland’ by T2. Can’t believe you gave that away, you’re going to regret that one day. I did give you my Mum’s Bill Wyman record though so we’re definitely quits. I actually regret doing that a little..

PF- That T2 LP was rightly yours, couldn’t think of a better collection for it to reside in. I seldom listened to it and knew you would. Wow, i didn’t realise that Bill Wyman pic disc LP was your mum’s. Jeez. We really are quits eh?

TC-Where does the nautical theme come from in your recent work?

PF-The sea to me, is very magnetic. I grew up in sight of the (brown) Bristol channel looking over to Western Super-Mare and then later went to art school in Falmouth in Cornwall, a place steeped in maritime history. I lived upstairs from a mad old sailor who sang shanties when he got back from the pub. I later lived on Scilly, a group of beautiful small islands off of Land’s End and blagged a boat building job. Boats on the islands were vital for the locals and I pretty quickly got into the life, either fixing boats or mucking around on them, off shore and onshore. My good friend Keith Buchannan had a stack of amazing old records, The Beach Boys Holland LP, James Gang, Steely Dan etc and the combination of the sea, boats and really smooth music stayed with me. Also the sea is a bit like space, we know very little about it in the grand scheme of things and it’s a place where man is alien, but there is also a mysticism to it and a kind of romance. At the same time it’s also very harsh and can take you out in a heartbeat. I love the sense of wonder of the sea and sometimes regret that I didn’t take up Keith’s offer of a loan to buy Terry Nutkin’s beautiful 26 footer that I worked on with a nutty Tasmanian guy. I might add at the time I was sleeping in a bathtub next to the beach in my friend’s yard. You did ask! So yeah, the sea is a bit of an inspiration along with a healthy dose of cosmic yacht rock.

TC-I think one of the reasons Seahawks is so good is because it’s music made for love’s sake, there’s no ulterior motives involved. Would you agree and what are your thoughts on that in the wider context of music right now?

PF-There was no other reason for us to start Seahawks other than the pure love of merging Oneohtrix Point Never with Don Henley, it kind of grew from there to remixing Badly Drawn Boy (we cut his lyrics up to say something else) and releasing a ton of music, mostly on vinyl. It’s also a reaction to the state of music as well I suppose, there’s always too much over hyped, over marketed music out there and not enough made just for the love of it. We don’t rely on a living from Seahawks and maybe that’s why we can be free to do what we want with our releases. We’re happy that people dig it and we hope they feel that we genuinely love what we do with the music.

TC-You guys have actually served as an inspiration in regard to just putting things out there without all the other fuss that goes into releasing records. In The Horrors we work in albums and putting out an album is a really big deal for us and it wouldn’t make sense to just stick it out there, at least not at the moment, but with my other projects, I’m happy to just let it go when I feel it’s ready.

PF- I feel you on that one, I guess with a label and being part of a group of 5 there’s a hell of a lot of work to put into making an LP, delivering it on time and being 100% happy with it. We’ve missed our release slots so many times people were thinking we were lost at sea, and in a way, they were right!

TC-Why don’t you wear your Nudie shirt more often? That thing is the bomb.

PF-I love that shirt. I had it made in LA by an old mexican guy that uses to assist Nudie. The place looked like a down at heel dry cleaners but after checking his photo books of Bob Dylan wearing his suits and shirts I almost fainted. I had to wait almost 2 years for it to arrive but was insane when it did. I tend to wear it out when I’m DJing or other such special and spacial occasions. It’s brown, cosmic and has it’s share of UFO’s on it.

TC-Wear it more.

PF-I certainly will, it’s stage wear so will probably be one of the last things intact if the big one came!

TC-Childhood weird crush? Mine is Sybil Faulty, don’t ask me why because I don’t know either.  (you don’t have to answer this one)

PF-I can dig Sybil Fawlty! Obvious one would be Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia but I remember Ali McGraw in the movie Convoy ( I used to make model kits of trucks!) made me feel a bit funny!

TC-She’s a fox.

PF- Damn straight ’she ain’t wearing no panties’ …ahem. Kris Kristofferson rocks a look in that movie. Shout out to Spider Mike and Pig Pen!

TC-You’re always going away to the countryside, do you find London can get too much and has that always been the way?

PF-I think it goes back to camping with my family in Wales as a kid on the Gower coast and then living down in Cornwall. I love the city but the country is equally attractive, London can always get a little too much here and there, I like seeing a lot of sky and space. Also nothing beats a good country pub, in particular the Ship Inn in Porthlevan, the perfect spot for a grab sandwich and a few pints of Doom Bar.

TC-Favourite sunday roast meat choice?

PF-Always beef if it’s up to me, I should probably say lamb being Welsh but beef all the way baby!

TC-I like to mix it up, chicken, beef and lamb are my main weapons of choice. I deal a mean stroke in roast potatoesville too.

PF- I guess i’m a traditionalist at heart, you CANNOT mess with a good roast spud or 8.

TC-How does it feel to be such a nice man in such a horrible world?

PF-Ha, you’re too kind sir! There are times when you should be a bit mean but it goes against my nature, to be honest. I don’t get on with egos and have bumped up against too many over the years. For me they never seem to tally up with the talent, I’d rather be a humble chap than shout about what I do or who I think I am. Your work should speak for itself rather than think ‘I like their work but what a dick!’ On a synth geek topic, what’s your favourite synth and why?

TC-That’s a hard question, I have certain synths that do certain things really well but if I had to get rid of all of my mono-synths and keep one it would be my Yamaha CS-30. It’s a monstrous beast and does everything really well. Apart from playing chords, it’s not very useful for that. For instances where I have to play more than one note I’m really digging the Farfisa Duo our friend Charlie lent us. That’s been used on a lot of tracks, I guess it’s supposed to be an organ but it’s really a mega-synth in disguise. I’ve recently got into modular world too, which I see possibly taking over, there’s just so much choice! I think that’s going to really influence where my sounds on the next album go.

PF- Modular sounds awesome, I saw the Bugbrand modular synths that Tom Bugs made a few years back, another dimension in sound those things. The look of them is an inspiration to a lot of my work, let alone how they sound. They seem to have a personality. Can you imagine if Joe Meek had a Buchla or a Moog Mod!! I can imagine you guys making an soundtrack, if you could make one for any film, what would you choose?

TC-We recently did some car ad music and it was a new experience to work to film. I enjoyed it though and have always said that I’d love to work on a soundtrack for something. You can approach the music totally differently. I’m really into soundtracks, from Morricone to Bollywood but if I had to choose one film it would have to be Dune II. Now I know Dune II hasn’t been made but Josh and I have this plan that we will eventually start the ball rolling to make a sequel, as well as a five hour version of the original, which is much too short at the moment. Anyone else interested should get in touch, particularly if their last name is Weinstein. Lucas’ and Spielberg’s stay away, you are not welcome in our house right now.

PF- Wow, that Dune II concept sounds ridiculously good! It HAS to be made! Surely that’s got to be worth 50 million $ of any freaked out big wigs money. Now that would be something to see and hear. Power to you and Josh for that! Where does Klaus stay when you go on tour?

TC-Klaus stays at home with my flat mate Emily and her boyfriend Nolan. Nolan came into our home a sworn enemy of cats. He now sleeps with Klaus resting on his chest so that’s testament to the power of Klaus. I’d like to take this opportunity to clear up that I’m not really a ‘cat’ person, in that as much as I like my own cat (although sometimes I hate the furry bastard) I’m not really into cats any more than I am into dogs, dolphins, parrots, bears, monkeys or platypus’. It’s just I seem to be getting an awful lot of cat themed presents from fans at the moment and it’s kind of building up. A bit like your owl’s, Pete.

PF-I hear you, it’s easy to get tagged as a certain animal person. I currently love city foxes but I’m sure a few of my studio friends would disagree as they are kept up at all hours by their ‘activities’. I love the idea of nature thriving in the city but foxes must be a bitch to house train. The power of Klaus is strong. Do you remember him licking the lightbulbs in my flat. I’ve yet to see another cat OR animals do that. Maybe he can feed off electricity, that would make some kind of weird sense.

THE END