Hailing from Oxford, Fixers are a very British counterpoint to the chillwave aesthetic.
A rich nostalgia runs through their music, with the treated vocals verging on bliss. With only a handful of mp3s to their name, the Oxford band have quickly become a blog hype with labels struggling to hang onto their coat-tails.
Sitting down with Fixers’ singer Jack Goldstein, it quickly becomes clear that the five piece blend words to sound in an extremely unusual fashion. Exploring his literary influences, the frontman is the latest person to enter ‘Their Library’.
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What is your favourite book and why?
I’ve always loved The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.
It fit perfectly into a part of my growing up and I think i’d see through the magic if I were to revisit it now.
I love Ariel and The Collosus.
I downloaded a bunch of recordings of the author reading them which was really special.
What other authors do you like?
I don’t really have a list.
What draws you to certain books?
I love hearing about the literature that influenced or moulded certain people.
Taking musicians I fascinate over and exploring their literature obsessions is so fascinating.
I’d love to read this exact interview with Brian Wilson or Van Dyke Parks.
Have you ever discovered a real lost classic?
Damm, I don’t think so.
I bet as soon as I finish this interview i’ll realise a really nice book to go here.
What is it and why?
I think it could well have been such a “Lost Classic” that I can’t even bring myself to recall what it was.
It remains lost but was momentarily found and enjoyed, I think.
Do your literary influences have a direct impact on your songwriting?
I guess they have an indirect influence as they obviously provide me with new words that I don’t know.
Most of our songs are about the relationship of words, I think its more beautiful than seeping them in self important meanings that really don’t reflect the music.
It says more about your engagement with materials and your audiences reaction to them.
I always google words I don’t know whilst I’m reading instead of just equating their definitions from their context. – I love being an autodidact in that sense.
I do google a lot of words though, its embarrassing!
What are you reading at the moment?
I’m reading some George Oppen and Bertolt Brecht.
I am also in the middle of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.
I want to read Wuthering Heights after too.
What is the first book you remember reading as a child?
I remember reading Not Now Bernard by David McKee.
I think it may have been read to me though, I started reading by myself quite late.
Perhaps The Iron Man by Ted Hughes.
Did you make good use of your library card as a child / teenager?
Yeah, I have two books that I have never returned!
Albion by Jennifer Westwood and Catch A Wave by Peter Ames Carlin.
I feel bad, the library in question is amazing and I really want to go back but I don’t think I can show my face.
You know what?
I am going to return those books asap!
How do you think literature achieves timelessness?
I guess literature becomes seeped in fascination as it ages.
It becomes a small grotto into the time and environment it was documented.
Do you read book reviews?
Nah.
Would you ever re-read the same book?
Yeah, I have re-read quite a few books.
Usually non-fiction, I always find something else about Brian Wilson to lodge into my brain.
I’ve read a lot of literature on Transcendental Meditation, I dive back into it now and again.
Have you ever identified with a character in a book? Which one and why?
I don’t think I have.
With the intense characterisation in literature, I think it kind of works the other way round.
When I was a kid, I’d read into characters, both fictional and real, and itch to emulate them in some sense – it was silly but fun, I guess everybody did it.
Metaphorically though, if you jump in a car and drive across america for half a year, in a attempt to emulate someone else’s experiences, then its only going to be a matter of time before you realise how naive you have been.
Do you read one book at a time or more than one?
I juggle between lots of books at one time.
I read quite quickly but will always be starting a new book whilst i’m in the middle of another.
Is there an author / poet you would like to collaborate with?
Steven John Kalinich – I hear he resides in Brighton these days.
Its hard to articulate about other peoples work, I always worry that i’ll appear naive.
Kalinich’s stuff just evokes so much beauty and, much like Van Dyke Parks, his eloquence alone is an art form.
I’m not sure how i’d collaborate with him, i’d probably choose to abuse the circumstances and allow myself to get glued into the same room as him.
It might not be 100% constructive.
