what they say

"The margin between public opinion and corporate decision is widening. As the cracks appear in the political sphere, a single vote is no longer a threat. You can wear a slogan to prove you care, or kick-start the pocket revolution: BUY A BETTER WORLD. Profits are power, so invest in imagination. Hit back at hype. "

"Blacksmoke is an occasional art collective and musical group" he says. "We have just done an EP called 'Fuck the Fucking Fuckers'. It is a concept EP, the concept being fuck America basically and fuck weapons of mass destruction. It is like a protest record. It is the kind of record that you would want to put on if you are going to go out on a riot. We do feel quite angry about what has been going on with the war".

News of the September 11 attack in 2001 broke early afternoon in England. "I was in my workshop. A friend of mine called me and told me to turn the tele on" James says. "I was like everybody else. I was really shocked. After that I couldn't even look at the images. It was too much. Recently, all those images and all those sounds, it feels like it is now okay to comment on it and talk about it. That is how this whole Blacksmoke thing came about. I felt it was okay to say something about it if we wanted to".

The Blacksmoke collective features two other members "James Fogerty, he is a 24 year old heavy metal bloke who lives with his parent" he says. "There is myself and Keir who is our project manager. This is an imagined band that is in our heads. We don't exist as a proper rock band to perform or anything. It is a half imagined heavy metal thing. The music we do is extremely noisey".