2)Your songs and arrangements seem to me to have always had a bit of sixties psychdedelic feel to them - is this a conscious influence? If not, what are your influences?
We love the "Nuggets" compilations, as well as "Back From The Grave" and other terrible sixties records. Apart from that, our influences include fishknives and wheelbarrows.

3)There's always been a lot of humour in your lyrics - is this an imortant factor to you?
I think people spent more time laughing at my singing voice than the actual lyrics, though. I cannot stand bands who take themselves really seriously.

4)Do you think the band is taken seriously enough?
Of course not! I would much prefer it if people came dressed for a funeral when they came to see us, and stand stock still in stoney silence as we performed, appreciating the artful compositions.

5)Many of your gigs have seen the band go off at a tangent mid-song then you came up with that epic closing track that you now seem to have fragmented - was all this intentional or just improvised?
A mixture of the two really. We were influenced by diarrhoea for that - something which is half controlled by nature and half by yourself. Unless it's really bad, you have to sit on the toilet intentionally and let the diarrhoea flow. But once you let it flow it takes on its own life. Those sections are a bit like me saying to Ben and Gogs "right lads I'm awa fir a shite" and them splurting audio excrement from their instruments. But when it's time to pull our pants back up, we pull them up tight.

6)The band seems to polarise opinion quite sharply - do you think this is true and what would you put it down to?
I think it is true and down to the fact that some people are tone deaf and others actually care what they listen to. Also, kids love us. Many Dundonians have been used to bands pretending to be Oasis for over ten fucking years now. The GetDowns are more about a visceral, gutting experience than a bunch of men standing around wearing khaki acting like it's 1994. Hell, most of our fans couldn't even read in 1994!

7)In "Proper Music", you've created one of the finest teen anthems of the decade - do you feel this song is up to that description and how did it come about?
Well, My Chemical Romance had "Teenagers", then The Libertines "Time For Heroes".... if you really mean that, Andy, then we're truly flattered ("Yes, I did mean it" - ED), but it's not my place to comment on the quality of our material. It was the first song which I wrote specifically for the GetDowns, and I wrote it so that it WOULD polarise audiences. I tell all the "serious" music fans to "stop listening now", just go to the bar or have a fag outside, while the kids can have fun down the front.

8)You still cover The View's "Screamin And Shouting" and, in my opinion, do it better - have The View ever heard it or commented on it, and what was your thinking behind doing it?
It was the biggest compliment anyone ever gave me, actually: "That was like Iggy Pop singing my song" - that was Keiren's reaction to it anyway. Pete gave me the finger.
The idea was just to fuck it up, twist the song round and get deep into the tortured mind of the spurned lover. It's about having to keep love secret, hide it away from others as well as being ignored. Those words always spoke volumes to me because I'm always having affairs, and the middle-eight, although on first listen may just sound gimmicky, listen to the words and it all makes perfect sense. It was never meant to be "haha look at us doing the View aren't we fannies", I loved the song so much I really wanted to take it somewhere new.

9)You've played in venues as small as The Vault and as large as the Caird Hall - is it difficult to make the transitions and has it benefitted the band?
Urgh - anyone who has ever played the Caird Hall knows how bad a venue it is for sound; it was such a shock, such a drastic change of scale that we were really put off. It was really hard to hear each other on stage - that's our excuse, anyway. It was a great experience, we've made new fans just from that one show, and it was the first time that Dundee bands alone have sold out the Caird Hall. I think we spent too much time trying to get all our mates in instead of practising, though. Big gigs are weird cause everyone in the audience is actually looking at you and listening to every word, they've paid their money and they want you to deliver.

10)You have played gigs supporting The View - how did these go?
It was the View, the Paddingtons, the Law and the GetDowns - fucking great! We got fucked over by a bunch of students we let in for free in exchange for beds, so we just had to sleep in the car. Ronnie Falconer was dressed like Michael Jackson all weekend and despite the mess, his shirt was still pristine white on Monday morning. It was quite odd that we were the only people on the whole tour who weren't allowed to eat the free food, everyone was, apart from the five in our party. I don't expect free food but it seemed oddly tight that engineers, roadies and everyone could eat but we couldn't. Leeds Uni had a garage-psych club night, but it was just full of transvestites. The shows themselves were great, I don't think we've ever played better than we did in Leeds. Ben played bass with a full cast on his broken arm for all these shows.

11)I've always admired the chunky riffs and tightness of playing of the band - is the music a 3-way arrangement or do you put the song elements first?
Yeah, I normally write the songs then we flesh them out as a band, but I'll already have ideas about the bass and drum parts. They call me the iron dictator.

12)How do you feel you've progressed as a band since you first started?
May last year - the band's first show. August this year - a record deal, away to release our first single, played the sold out Caird Hall, toured with the View and the Paddingtons, been played on the radio, made loads of new friends, written a lot of new and better songs and improved greatly in terms of performance.

13)A while back you had a bit of a love-hate realtionship with local band The Hoffs - what's the story there and did it ever get resolved?
(ED- "please note - the next 2 lines are humour and in no way to be taken seriously!!!").
Well, I once caught the singer having "relations" with a sheep. Being a sheep in a past life I just wasn't going to stand there and watch, was I? Still, we got really pissed together one night at Dexters and I admitted to him that I'd done it too. It's all good now. Water under the farm bridge.

14)How much of the songwriting is yours and how much that of the band?
Phew - glad this is MY interview, that confirms it, though Ben might give me a slap around the puss for filling this in without him. It's just all me me me really, bits here and there are added by Ben and Gogs, they do help to arrange the songs. You'll see on our forthcoming Two Thumbs single - PLUG! - that Proper Music is credited "strachan/doherty"; I wrote the main but then we sorta came up with the jaunty wee intro together.

15)You've recently signed to a label - how did this come about and how do you see it helping the band?
We will never sign nothing! Grant got us the the View tour, and he has loads of great contacts in the business and all that jazz, and Robin gives us free recording time - what more could you want? Apart from that it really pissed off a load of crusties when they saw some young whippersnappers popping out of nowhere, singing out of tune and getting what they thought was undeserved attention. That really is the only reason we went along with it.

16)You have a strong rhythm section - is it the band feeling that you are very much the frontman or would you prefer to be seen more as a group?
We are a group, both musically and as lovers.

17)You've done a lot of free gigs around Dundee - has all this work now paid off to get fee-paying gigs and do you feel you're being treated fairly?
(ED- "the following is the opinion of The Getdowns - Dead Earnest cannot vouch for its authenticity in any way").
Few bands in Dundee get treated fairly - we are walked over by greedy "promoters" and pubs who seem to think bands can just play for free and they make a killing out of it. It's a shame because there are so many bands now all competing for gigs, many just starting out and they're prepared to play for nothing, just as we once were. What I realise now is that this is stopping other bands from successfully asking for fees by being undercut by the opposition, if you will. We seriously all need to stand up and not take any more of these parasites. People who truly love music have been doing it before Dundee "exploded" and will be doing it long after, people such as yourself. But when things die down, and they will, watch how the tapeworms move onto their next host.
(ED- "I would imagine that here we are referring to the people that are "jumping on the bandwagon" of the good work done by those who care")

18)You've played most venues around Dundee - any favourites and any favourite gigs that come to mind?
Oh aye - punk rock karaoke at Yuppies was one, when we were too drunk to play so we just got audience members up to sing and attempted to back them up. Lots of the Yuppies shows actually, coz folk went a bit mental then, and twice in one week we had three stage invasions at Dexters. Monifieth High School, where we all went, was good. The fire alarm mysteriously went off during the last song so all the kids got a well earned break from their studies. Sergeant's EP launch at the Doghouse was a bit of a turning point when we debuted a lot of new songs, and of course the Vault on the night; it was totally packed out and there were twelve police vehicles outside. Our proudest moment.

19)How well do you get on with other local bands and do you feel they treat you with respect?
Apart from the occasional case of bestiality, we get on fine with most bands. There is a lot of bitchiness in the scene behind each other's backs, though. Hopefully other bands respect me, but probably not - most Dundonians just think I'm that shite singer from the LetDowns, hahahaha. I have more respect for certain artists than others - many folk just want to be a rock star and are jumping on the bandwagon. Me, Ben and Gogs though, we NEED to be rock stars, there really is nothing else we can possibly do.

20)Anything else you'd like to add?
Andy, sometimes I want to kiss you. ("Ohhhh miiiiiiiiii goddddddddddd" - ED)

Band Members:Stu (vocals, guitar), Ben (bass, vocals), Gogs (drums)