GAVIN: Everything is very good. It's not quite Zen, though. Zen is just like perfection and enlightenment. It's just it, so I guess you never reach it. The day you do, you just float off skyward.
SPIN: Has anyone ever told you that the "Zen" video looks a lot like a certain video by a Seattle rock group that also makes references to Buddhism?
GAVIN: No. You are the first.
SPIN: No way.
GAVIN: Yeah. But if anyone compares us to Nirvana, I take that as a big compliment. I think there's much more similarity to them than to, say, Pearl Jam. Cosmetically, maybe my hair is the same color as Eddie Vedder's, but that's where the similarity ends.
SPIN: What's the Seattle of England?
GAVIN: We're going to build it. In London, probably in Camden town, near where I live.
SPIN: Who's that cross-eyed Mickey Mouse-eared guy with the goatee in the video?
GAVIN: I hate to give away secrets, but that's a cameo by the director, Matt Mahurin.
SPIN: I read that three of you met as painters. Who's your favorite painter?
GAVIN: Francis Bacon, by about 5000 miles. My favorite painting is the one of the screaming pope. I just love how he can display people by ripping away the flesh, peeling away the layers. My goal is to write songs like Francis Bacon paints.
SPIN: If Oasis is the Beatles of this latest British invasion, who is Bush--the Kinks, the Dave Clark Five?
GAVIN: Well, I'd love to be the Sex Pistols with a future, but maybe that's a misnomer. Maybe the Stones, but that's not really us. Wait, John Denver. We're the John Denver of England.
SPIN: What's the most embarrassing record you own?
GAVIN: Well, Ray Gun was going to have us and this other band, Prick, interview each other and they turned it down, saying we weren't "serious enough about our music." So I'll say the most embarrassing record I have is Pricks. It flies pretty good through the air, but otherwise it's a fucking load of shit.
SPIN: You appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman recently. Who did you meet in the Green Room?
GAVIN: The only guy that I did meet, and was fucking genius to meet, was Norm from Cheers. I met Norm!
SPIN: You mean George Wendt?
GAVIN: Yeah! That's the guy. Cheers, NYPD Blue, and Roseanne are the only shows I watch. I just love them. So I went up to Norm and said, "You've given me years and years of pleasure and I've got to thank you. We love your show in England."
SPIN: If you could be anybody in Pulp Fiction, who would you be?
GAVIN: The guy that's married to Uma Thurman, she's just to die for. Marsellus Wallace. Actually...Okay, I'd be Marsellus Wallace, but before that Deliverance, squeal-like-a-pig section.
SPIN: What's your favorite American expression?
GAVIN: "Motherfucker." No, "Here's your per diem."
SPIN: Who's your best friend?
GAVIN: My dog Winston. He's a Hungarian sheepdog, a Puil, one of those dogs with dreadlocks. He's on the inside cover of the album.
SPIN: Can he do any tricks?
GAVIN: He can roll really good joints.
SPIN: What's the dumbest thing on your rider?
GAVIN: Forty cigarettes. They're for the guitarist, bassist, and drummer.
SPIN: You don't smoke, huh?
GAVIN: No, not tobacco.
SPIN: What's your favorite vice, then?
GAVIN: Bush.
SPIN: Huh?
GAVIN: That's pot in England. Bush. Also, I like the ambiguity of the word. In England, you smoke bush, and
both men and women have bushes--which is a very important point, it's not some kind of sexist thing. And we live near
Shepherd's Bush. Also, I just like the "shhh" at the end of the word.
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