Do you feel any other bands were influenced by the Supernaturals – Kaiser Chiefs for example?
It is always good when someone says they were influenced by you, even if it is only someone doing Radiohead covers in the local pub. If we were in the back of a van in 1998 and someone had said we were an influence on them, there would have been howls of laughter ending with that person being left on the hard shoulder in say, Exeter. We were never taken seriously by critics or our fans or our families, which sort of rubbed off on the band. We just did our thing, whether it was songwriting or gigs and never cared much what happened, really. We cared, but not to the point where it was dominating our lives. That was Dereks influence. He was very funny and easygoing, and sort of ran the band in a strange way from his command post in his armchair, but let me think I was the leader. I think Kaiser Chiefs have a few of the same influences like XTC, but we never bothered going the whole hog , singing in a Swindon accent. I keep hearing these bands from like Whitley Bay singing in West Country
