Life and how to live it: Stewart Baxter on his musical journey

LIFE. Picture by Luke Hallett

The Crow’s Nest, a music column by Russ Litten

Interview with Stewart Baxter from LIFE

Talk to anyone on the Hull music scene and it won’t be long before the name Stewart Baxter is mentioned. Probably best known as the drummer of LIFE, Stewart has also been a pivotal player since the 90s, inspiring a whole host of up and coming youngsters along the way. He’s also fond of the odd collaboration. We sat down over a cup of tea and I quizzed him on his musical lives past, present and future.

Where did music start for you?

“My earliest memory is my Dad showing me how to play a twelve-inch record without scratching it - how to get it out of the sleeve and not scratch it. My Dad was in the army in Hamburg and had a load of Beatles records and Tamla Motown. He was a bit of a mod. He was into all the hits. The first time I came across a musical instrument was when I went with my Nana on her cleaning jobs. We went to this flat on the marina and there was an acoustic guitar on a stand and I remember strumming the strings, not daring to pick it up. And then my Mam got me a keyboard for Christmas. I learned how to play Spanish Eyes, 'cos it was included in the instruction book. My Mam heard me playing it and said ‘Your Grandad used to play that song on the organ, and he got the same note wrong as you’. She was a bit freaked out about it. I never met my Grandad. Maybe he had the same book.

“And this keyboard had drum pads on it, and that’s what kept me interested. So I got really good at finger drumming, when I was twelve. Then my brother and his mates got into Iron Maiden and overnight they turned into hardcore metal heads. We had a crossover period where we had musical battles 'cos I was playing dance music on his hi-fi. He even stuck a notice on his cassette deck saying NO RAVE. Then he bought The Black Album by Metallica. I went on a school trip to France with Amy Johnson School and my Mum had got me a Walkman and I listened to The Black Album for twenty hours on repeat. That was me converted. I was into thrash and grunge.

“So me and my brother joined forces and decided we would become a band for Christmas. We were called Purgatory. I was on guitar. We had a mate who could play drums, so we built the band around him. On Christmas Day we were in the drummer’s garage on Anlaby Road and it was snowing through the holes in the roof. We plugged everything in and went, well, what now then? None of us really knew how to play. So we decided we should be a punk band. We recorded a few Nirvana songs on a tape in the garage. Purgatory - the Garage Tape EP. We played a gig at Amy Johnson and sold the tapes for a quid each. It was brilliant.

“Back then, you had to pick your corner and there was about four of us who made up the alternative music scene. You had to pick your tribe. Then in 95 Oasis came out and everything changed. I used to get called a geek for playing the guitar, then all of a sudden it was acceptable. We were bullied a lot at school, but at that gig we were treated like celebrities. It framed my life, to be honest, not just my musical life, but my approach to everything, really.”

In what way?

“Well, I just jumped in feet first. Ever since that Christmas Day in the garage, not knowing how to play, all of that … I just plunged straight in, got up on stage and tried to work it out.”

LIVE: Stewart Baxter on stage with LIFE

What came after Purgatory?

“Purgatory was me and my brother and this kid on bass, who couldn’t play the same note twice. So I got on the bass and demoted him to singer. He thought he was getting a promotion, but he couldn’t sing either. So then he decided he didn’t like metal and he was into Happy Hardcore. So he left to become a raver. We got another singer, Joe Hakim. He used to have curtains at the time and he was into Manic Street Preachers. That was the Monads. We had loads of bands, bedroom projects. We did that until 95, then we formed Freaks Union, who went on for the next ten years.”

Tell me about Freaks Union

“My brother was full-on punk by then; mohawk, tattoos. We used to go in Green Gingerman in bus station for the rock afternoon. There was a record shop called Rock Not Pop and they used to run coach trips to gigs in Leeds and Bradford. We met this guy from Hornsea, a punk called Magic. He was a lot older than us. He was like Sid Vicious. He told us he could play drums, so that was Freaks Union. We used to walk through Gipsyville and get loads of abuse, so we decided to unite the freaks. Then we got to Hornsea and discovered Magic couldn’t play the drums at all. But he picked up the guitar and he’d written these rough three-chord songs that sounded a bit like The Exploited. So the formation changed and it just felt right, felt real confident. I left school and got a mohican and started gigging. Our first gig was at Brickmakers Arms.”

RECORDING: Stewart Baxter in the studio

Were you working at this point?

“I had a job at Heron Frozen Foods but I got the sack for being crap at stacking freezers. I was just pushing the mop around half-heartedly. I went from job to job. I was a bin man for a couple of days. Eventually I became a body piercer at a shop in town, stuck that for six years. But Freaks Union were a serious band. We recorded demo tapes at The Warren and then went to Spiders and Silhouette and sold the tapes, spent the money on beer. Then Magic left and the drummer left. We got in Pat Pretorius, who went on to be in The Talks and had his own studio. Then we did our first proper Freaks Union album, started getting well known on the punk scene.”

Were you signed to a label?

“We were signed to a label in Thirsk. They were mates who we met gigging around Yorkshire. I dug that first album out the other day when I was talking to a load of design students at Bishop Burton College. It was all done by pencil. I remember drawing the cover design and sticking it on the album. We split up in 2005 after three albums. We were in that black hole of the early 2000s where vinyl and CDs stopped selling. MySpace had just started. And everything went digital. You couldn’t make money. There was no YouTube so there was no point making videos. Everything went into a void. There was a really healthy punk scene, nationally, but we hit the point were it wasn’t going any further. Then I got a job at The Warren.”

How did LIFE come about?

“LIFE evolved out of a band called The Neat, a load of Uni mates who formed on the back of The Paddingtons scene. They were kinda post-punk, sort of angular, like The Fall or The Fire Engines. They did really well, played festivals, played Maida Vale Studios. They didn’t really plug into the local scene, they spread their net a bit further. Parallel to that, I was working at the Warren, watching them get better and better. I was putting gigs on for Love Music Hate Racism at the City Hall. I booked The Neat for that. They disappeared for a bit and re-invented themselves, came back as LIFE. I got them into the Warren to do some demos. Then the drummer left just before they had Warner Brothers coming down to a gig. So I helped them out for a couple of weeks, until they got someone else. That was seven years ago.

MUSICAL YOUTH: Stewart Baxter aged 13 with his first guitar

“It was real full circle for me, to be running the studio in The Warren. I’d first been there when I was fifteen. I’d never produced anything, didn’t really know how to run a studio, but I just learned it as I went along. But the studio was just one part of it, there was artwork and gigs and festivals. We started a label and released music nationally, getting bands played on the radio. Just using that space as an opportunity to see how far we could take it for local music. I took that job really seriously. I lived it, day and night.”

Did you find yourself worrying about other people’s art more than your own?

“Totally, yeah. That’s why I stepped away from it all, really. Also, my Dad got really ill with lung cancer and died. That kind of invigorated me to get back at being in a band. Then I lost my Mum a year later. So it was weird, this band called LIFE gave me a way of getting back into my life, into what I’ve loved doing since I was fifteen. And LIFE was a band who were doing everything right. It was a real opportunity. And this might be the last chance I get. I’m 42, older than the rest of the band.”

How do LIFE operate?

“Our managers have set up their own label, so it’s all in-house. It’s better that way, fewer fingers in the pie, fewer people to pay back. We were just getting to the point before Covid of being a full-time band. All the band had quit their jobs and we were making money from playing music. We paid ourselves a monthly wage. We we were touring all the time, getting played on the radio, doing loads of streaming. Various bits of money from publishers. We were getting to the point where it was all sort of working. We were heading to America to tour with Idles, playing in front of 3,000 people a night. When Covid hit, it was devastating, cos we were on the brink of taking that final step. We’ve still got an audience, but those two years were devastating financially and mentally.

LIFE TO THE FULL: Stewart Baxter at work

“We’re in this real weird period now. Mez, our singer, is grafting with his mate, doing house extensions and hearing our music being played on BBC6 Radio. But some of the way money circulates in the industry is a lot different now. The labels aren’t making a lot of money, so the bands don’t get anything.”

Once something can be reproduced digitally, it’s worthless

“Yeah, people expect music to be free.”

How does a band find an audience?

“Well, a band like Idles did it by building up a devoted fan base by going out and grafting. Just tour, tour, tour. It’s a gruelling way to live, but you can do it. They had great merchandising as well. They resonated with people. They really helped us as well, they opened the door in a lot of ways. A lot of our fans came up through that scene, touring with Idles. It became a real community. And after Covid it was a real eye-opener to find out how many lives had been touched by our music when they were going through that same rough time. This music, this communal experience, is medicine for all of us.”

How about the local scene? You and Life seem to come up a lot when I talk to young bands

“I’ve always just naturally gone towards whatever’s exciting happening and wanting to be a part of it. And I’ve always wanted to help. I got a massive boost from mentors when I was a teenager, and it’s nice to be able to put something back. Candid Faces and Ketamine Kow came to see us at The Welly and they introduced themselves. I was blown away by their passion for what they were doing. I said ‘let’s do a demo, come to our studio’. Ben out of Candid Faces showed me his Doc Martens and as well as LIFE, he had Freaks Union written on his Docs. I said ‘how the hell do you know about Freaks Union’? They were lost down the black hole! I think it’s a great scene now, it gives me goosebumps. I love the way all the new young bands help each other. It seems like they’ve all found their tribe.”

• LIFE play Social in Humber Street on September 3 with Ketamine Kow, The Mount and Candid Faces