Whilst tweeting about the Hottest 100, I was asked if I would review an album by Merseyside band Engines Made from Soup. I had the idea to interview the band, and founding member Gareth Cross stepped into the breech. This is the result of my Twitter questions and his DM answers:
Peter– Let’s start with the most obvious question: what are engines made of soup? Are they the same as that song by TMBG with the snake and the nine bowls of soup?
Gareth– The name Engines Made from Soup came from a chapter in a book my dad had, describing nanotechnology of the future. However, for us our band name also describes how what we take for granted, the physical universe and life, originated and evolved from ‘nothing’. The final song on our album “A Point Insane” had the working title Engines Made from Soup. Readers interested in the band name might find listening to this song describes the band name better.
PG- It says on your bio that you were 25 years in the wilderness. What were you doing in the time before that hiatus?
GC- At school we were a six-piece band at one point called Jaded Edge but only three of kept in touch after going to university. We reformed as a trio in the early 1990s with an Atari 1040ST, C-Lab Notator, and a Roland JV30 synth. In the nineties we recorded songs now on our SoundCloud page and played gigs infrequently, often triple billing with other bands we knew. Our last gig was at the rebuilt Cavern Club in Liverpool in 2000. In 2001 our guitarist Steve Spencer moved to Fife and me (the lead singer Gareth Cross) moved to North London, leaving Gareth Evans our keyboardist in Cheshire.
PG- I had some vague recollection of seeing something about you each being in famous bands during the 1980s. Care to drop any names?
GC– As Jaded Edge in the late seventies, early eighties, we got gigs playing in band competitions and in local pubs around Prescot and Huyton in Liverpool and played in the some of the same venues as Icicle Works and Teardrop Explodes. We played in a band competition where Julian Cope went to college. The BBC were there to film it and we appeared on the BBC ‘Nationwide’ TV programme. We were on the edge of that early eighties Liverpool explosion of bands who were 4 or 5 years older than us, like Colin Vearncombe and Roy Corkill who were at our school with us and who formed the band Black. We couldn’t get into the nucleus of the Liverpool scene, Eric’s Club (much to our frustration) and so felt we missed out. Two of our school friends stayed around the Liverpool band community and remain long standing managers of Echo and the Bunnymen. We weren’t in famous bands or know any of them but looking back we think we ‘rubbed shoulders’ a little. We often think what might have happened if we hadn’t done the ‘safe’ thing by going to university.
PG– Who has been in the band, who was in the band for “Again” and “Better”, and who’s in the band now?
GC– In the band Engines Made from Soup that produced “Better” and “Again” were: Gareth Cross, Lead Singer (me); Gareth Evans, Keyboards and Backing Vocals; and Stephen Spencer (guitars). At school in Jaded Edge, the final lineup was Gareth Cross, Lead Singer (me); Gareth Evans, Drums; Stephen Spencer, Lead Guitar; Andrew Laidlaw, Bass Guitar and Backing Vocals; Philip Jones, Keyboards; and Jane Carter, Saxophone. The role of lead guitarist had two former members before Stephen Spencer: Lee Corless and Valerie Dutton were his predecessors.
PG– Can we expect to see you live any time soon and/or any new recordings on SoundCloud, Bandcamp, your site, or YouTube/TikTok?
GC– We are writing again and plan to release a number of singles in the next few months before an album in the autumn 2021. We don’t have firm plans to play live at the moment as we are hundreds of miles apart but we hope to showcase our album with some live gigs at the end of the year.
PG– Thank you , Mr.Cross, for taking the time out of your busy music-making schedule to grant me this interview. I hope to be able to listen to the records and put my reviews up on Original Rock soon!
GC– Thank you for taking the time to write a piece on Engines Made from Soup and our album ‘Again’. It’s much appreciated.
See also this interview in the Warrington Guardian with Engines Made from Soup co-founder/drummer Gareth Evans