Fucked Up have just released a promo video to accompany one of the songs on their recent David's Town LP. It came as a fun companion piece to their last album, David Comes To Life. Today, I interviewed one of the stars of the video, Fucked Up's guitarist Ben Cook, aka Young Guv, who in his youth acted in the Canadian TV show Goosebumps. Aside from this new FU video, this link here is probably his finest hour.
VICE: Hey Ben, let’s talk about this new video you made. It’s funny.
Ben Cook: Sup buddy. OK, should I be Ben or Animal Man? Who is Animal Man?
He’s the singer of the song in the video on the fake FU compilation 12". I love that record. Be Animal Man!
Maybe I’ll just be Ben, or else I’ll look like an English poser. OK, be Ben.
Oh, fuck it I will be Animal Man. Or, maybe I should just be Ben. Be anything you like. So, what’s this video all about? Are you an Anglophile or do you just pity us?
Yes. My family, they all come from England, and I truly pity you for all those cold sandwiches you have to eat. No wonder everyone "loves a good curry". Being on the road with a hard rocking rock band, you must eat a lot of cold sandwiches, too.
I think the food in England is terrible. And that’s why finding a decent curry is like finding Jesus. Where are the best curries?
The one that used to be a "bog" in Leeds is great. But that one you took us to, when the "bog" one was closed, poisoned me. I had to puke it all up in a forest and spent the whole night with feverish, food-poisoned dreams. I’m pretty sure you puked because of the codeine pills too.
Codeine curry… Sounds awesome. Anyway. Would you like to talk about the album for a bit?
Sure. The David’s Town LP is a fictional compilation of bands from the town David Comes To Life is based in. We just wrote a bunch of different sounding songs and got different singers to sing on them. I had done another song, but it got double booked so… I was actually kind of pissed off that I had to do another. And I was making curry at the time, so the choice was obvious. How hot do you like your curry? Do you use ghee?
I like it pretty hot, but not over the top. And yes, I use ghee. My house is pretty close to Little India in Toronto, so when I make a curry it's pretty legit. I can't even make normal eggs for breakfast any more. I make Indian eggs. What is Indian eggs? It sounds gross.
It’s amazing. It's basically curried eggs. With turmeric, shallots, curry leaves, ginger and chillis. It’s really good. I got an Indian cookbook for my birthday a few years ago. Turns out the authors are fucking Swedish. But it’s a decent book. You finally got the chance to work with the actress Sandy Miranda. How was that?
It was pretty mind blowing. I'm a big fan of her work, and have a bit of a "thing" for her, so I was kind of nervous. But I tried to stay professional. She was a big hit in Little India. A bunch of chefs came out of the kitchen and gave us "VIP Naan". What is a VIP Naan?
Some Indian love potion. It's like E, but 10 times stronger. We were flying, halfway through the video shoot.