why not choose us?

(excerpt from an interview, 9 December 2007, with Peacecraft magazine)

ºEmma Marx-Hall: My American friend Frank rides in a van with a picture of an abortion on the side. I think what he's trying to say is fucking trash, but I think the whole world should be like a cigarette package, we have to remember that truth is loud and hideous and dangerous and it's a photo of black lungs and we have to embrace that we are all smokers. And Frank is an inspiration in that way.

ºAlan Léonin: Our drug is social interaction, rather than nicotine, but it's still filling our lungs with tar.

ºPeacecraft: Sure, but is your friend and his van actually going to change anyone's mind? Wouldn't he do better to try reasoning with people?

ºEmma Marx-Hall: There's plenty of reasoning in that. There's reasoning in the Time Cube web page, but people don't read that because there's reasoning in it, people read it because the Time Cube guy is such a fucking mentalist. You have to be crazy first.

ºTom Thorogood: The difference between Knave of Hearts and Time Cube is that we're not trying to create new theories—and I understand that the Time Cube bloke feels the same way as us, but I'm not going to get into that too far in case I offend someone—we're not trying to create new theories, we're just trying to expose something we've become aware of, which is that every human being is reduced to a...like, an automaton? Our social interactions are so codified and our repulsive behaviors are sanitized, we don't actually understand the emotions we create in others or our own emotions.

ºAlan Léonin: Something that we think is one of the world's most brilliant pieces of artwork is John Lennon's song "Cold Turkey", because if you actually look closely at some of the words, they make absolutely no sense. Pain is senseless and we spend so long infusing it with a grammar that doesn't actually apply. We all know in one sense that this is why artists tend to discuss negative emotion, but what we don't understand is that everyone who has never expressed his emotions this way is just restricting himself, rather than simply being above feeling base emotions.

ºEmma Marx-Hall: Happiness doesn't have a grammar either, of course. We all define our joy in terms of how many pounds we can get for it.

ºAlan Léonin: What I'm saying is, no human is above feeling base emotions, because it's human nature. Human nature is just like the rest of nature—it's gorgeous in its cruelty.

ºPeacecraft: How about that, Emma, are you going to agree with the notion that human nature is inherently cruel? I'm told you're the insufferable optimist in the band.

ºEmma Marx-Hall: You're right, I do think human beings are capable of great kindness, and that's really exactly what Tom has said—our social behaviors are codified because we're perhaps afraid of the power of being truly good to one another.

ºPeacecraft: I have to ask—it all sounds great, but do you really believe any of what you say?

(the band all speaks at once:)

ºAlan Léonin: Oh no, you really shouldn't've...

ºEmma Marx-Hall: Ouch! I can't deny that smarts!

ºTom Thorogood: Oh, but we don't really matter, do we? We're just the man behind the curtain, isn't it? We're just provoking you. The question is, do you believe it? I mean, mate, you've got to believe in something.

ºEmma Marx-Hall: You've got to believe in something, why not choose yourself? Why not choose to believe in your own power as a human being?

ºAlan Léonin: (laughing softly) You've got to believe in something, why not choose us?