07-1993, Melody Maker, 10 reasons to love… The Pastels, Everett True

1. " Pastelism is a force of good. It’s a network which brings together formerly isolated and scattered geographically people. It’s about networking, empowering, making people aware of different things in the music business, and accessing people who otherwise wouldn’t have access. It’s a recognition of certain good music, and a denial of all false idols. It stands against designer indie music. " (…)
3. " I’m certainly not ashamed of my voice. Admittedly, I don’t always sing perfectly in tune, but if you go back to great R&B or great soul singers, you’ll find they’re the same. Although tuning helps to convey a melody, it’s not the most important part of having a voice. Ideas are the most important thing. " (…)
5. This albums (Truckload Of Trouble) spans a fair few years. Does it make the Pastels feel old ?
" No, we’re just starting. We’re almost at the point where we can make the type of music that we want to. ‘Truckload Of Trouble’ is really just us arriving at the beginning. Most bands start out great and then lose it, but we’re the opposite. We started out with some good ideas but we weren’t actually all that good, and so it’s been a gradual ascent for us, whereas most bands, their first lp is the best, and then after that… "
7. " We feel an affinity with The Fall, for the fact they’ve been going so long and are still interesting. Obviously with Teenage Fanclub, geographically, and also they’re really good people, they give lots back, and My Bloody Valentine, as they take such an interest in every aspect of their music. We’re insanely possessive of everything to do with our band, and we won’t let anything go. There are so many bands, that are just nine to fivers. It’s the level of obsession in My Bloody Valentine that makes their music so good. "
9. " We have a problem with bands that are too male. They’re denying the existence of half the population. It smells. I never liked it at school – guys who liked to hang around with guys. The whole history of the Pastels has been the balance between a male and female input. And that does alter things -–we feel very different from a lot of the other Glasgow bands, the ones that we’re seen as being part of. "
10. " We feel outside of the outsiders. Take Manic Street Preachers, for example. We don’t deny them the right to have their own rebellion, but in many ways it’s a very conventional rock’n’roll rebellion. We’re not saying they’re good or bad, but they’re a very conventional band with very concentional career moves. We’re a far less conventional than that, we’re very uptight about ourselves and everything we do. We’re meticulous in every detail, and that brings us into conflict in certain areas of the music. Most record labels would rather deal with a band of junkies than us. "