Ten things you should know about Urusei Yatsura....

1. Although they have a Japanese name (taken from a popular manga comic and TV series about aliens, I think) they're actually based in Glasgow.
2. They are Graham Kemp, Fergus Lawrie, Elaine Graham and Ian Graham. Ian and Elaine are brother and sister.
3. They play fuzzed-up guitar music not unlike a lo-fi Sonic Youth or Pavement.
4. They have been known to occasionally produce their own fanzine 'Kitten Frenzy', and even less occasionally to release records by the likes of Pink Kross and the Blisters on their own Modern Independent Records.
5. They are big fans of the Simpsons - "Cartoons are the new rock n roll" claims Graham.
6. They are signed to the totally cool Che records.
7. Which is handy because Che produce a newsletter/ zine called '64 Slices of American Cheese' which takes its name from the episode where Homer goes cheese mad (it has to be seen!)

8. They've made two LPs so far - the mini album 'All Hail Urusei Yatsura' (on Hipster records) and 'We Are Urusei Yatsura' (on Che records) - and a load of singles on various labels.
9. Not that it actually matters, but 'We are Urusei Yatsura' is my favourite guitar album of 1996. It even got to #2 in the Indie charts.
10. They're almost as polite as Teenage Fanclub, and Graham apologises profusely for making me wait on his call, but he happened to be finishing his dinner.

No harm done. Anyway Graham, tell me about the very first releases - how did it all start?
"The very first thing we had out was a song ('Guitars are Boring') on a compilation album put together by people from the 13th Note club in Glasgow. The mini-album ('All Hail...') came out on an independent label called Hipster, run by a guy from Bradford called Duncan Dinsdale, who got in touch with us after hearing us on Peel. It wasn't really planned that we would release an album so soon, it was just luck really."

You don't have a masterplan then?
"Oh not at all, no! We don't have the concentration to follow one either! It's just whatever happens, happens. We just sort of drift from crisis to crisis, something usually comes up."

You've released records on two or three different labels - does the deal with Che now mean that you won't be able to bring one-offs out on other labels?
"No. We're actually doing something with the Delgados which is being released in Japan as a split single, and we've also done a single for Lovetrain ('Kernel'/ 'Teen Dream'). We seem to have a certain freedom to go with other labels, but we don't have the initiative to really pursue it, and besides we're very happy with Che. The stage we're at now we don't have that many singles ready to go, we kept all the good stuff for the album! But it's always nice to put weird things out, I just like the idea of records basically. Plus it gives me the chance to do different covers all the time as well. I've done all the covers so far - they're all cut ups of bits and pieces I've found and stuck together."

What about Japan?
"As yet, I've never been there. We do sometimes get Japanese people coming to the shows because they know the name. It's a famous TV cartoon, so people tend to come and have a look.

What does the name actually mean?
"It's various things. Japanese is a weird language and you can say things in different ways, it's a vague thing to define. We have all sorts of definitions as to what the name means, it can mean 'annoying noisy people' or 'aliens', or if you're going to be patronising it's 'troublesome female', but that's not one we had heard when we chose the name, so it wasn't chosen for that reason. Not that there's anything wrong with being a troublesome female and I know that at least one of us is! We like using it to name things that don't have proper names, or names you can never remember. It's a damn stupid name anyway, but we chose it when we thought that we'd never get anywhere, so..."

Tell us about the fanzine 'Kitten Frenzy' -are you still going to keep doing it?
"Well yeah, we do the fanzine the same way we've always done it. Whenever we have enough time to sit down and cut graphics out of people's comics and talk a lot of crap. I started it off but all of us are involved, along with about six or seven of our mates. We purposely do an erratic numbering system just to wind people up, we're at number six but we've only done four, or is it five? There's a couple of imaginary issues in there. You spend so long doing these things that when they don't come out you may as well give them a number and say they've been done!"

Has the fanzine helped you with the band in any way?
"As regards music biz contact, no not really, but it has helped us to get to know a lot of bands in Glasgow so that's useful. You have the opportunity to cover people in your town who wouldn't get covered otherwise, and you'll get to know them first, but we don't write anything about ourselves. It just helps us have a good time!"

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