Give us your name and where you come from?
My name’s Andy Field and I’m from Crawley in the UK. About half an hour south of
London.
How did you first initially become interested in comedy?
I’ve always been interested really. I started making jokes at school, someone told me
you can do that as a job and having that job has been my life’s ambition ever since.
It’s just incredibly fun and I love doing it.
Where do you draw inspiration from to write your skits?
I just make them up really. Not much I say is based on my life. It’s all fairly fabricated
silliness. Occasionally I’ll tell a more anecdotal and personal story but I don’t do it
often and I prefer to just say silly little things without much reality to them.
How does music fit in into your personal life, any favorite bands/genres?
I’m a big classic rock fan. Led Zeppelin will always be the best band to have ever
existed and I stubbornly refuse to see any others as being near their level. Music’s
not a huge part of my life but I definitely have a passion for it, it sounds good, I like to
listen to it and gigs are fun too but I’m not particularly obsessive.
Tell me about the creation of your 'In The Tub' series with Critical Wave UK and
how that idea came about?
I was living in Southampton going to university there and doing stand up and my
housemate Tom Mitchell approached me with the idea of interviewing bands and
asked me whether I’d do the interviewing. We knew we wanted it to be different and
I was up for pretty much anything so Tom and the other Critical Wave guys started
throwing ridiculous ideas around. I think one of them was for me to interview people
while sat on the toilet. Thankfully that one got voted down and they went for the bath
idea. Still not ideal but I did it and it was certainly different.
Were you completely naked while in the tub interviewing bands or were you
wearing a bathing suit?
I wore a tight speedo for all the interviews I did. Full nudity just seemed unnecessary
and a lot of the bands were very hesitant to get in and took some convincing so if I
was naked I’d imagine the convincing would have taken even longer and some may
have even pulled out. Having said that at the other end of the scale there were a
few bands that got completely naked almost as soon as they were in the house and
made me feel like a prude in my speedo. But yeah, just to clarify, I never did a naked
interview. I was always very dignified in my speedo.
Was it awkward sitting in bathtubs with bands who were partially or completely
naked or was it all in good fun?
The first time a band got naked I was pretty surprised. I think they were a British
pop punk band called The Bottom Line. I was mostly just hoping they wouldn’t set
up a trend. The occasional naked band I can deal with but all of them would have
been traumatic. Sometimes if I shut my eyes I can still see some awful things. But
no never too awkward, I’m a (sort of) professional and I (sort of) know what I’m
doing. Some of the bands were a bit uncomfortable but more often than not that
awkwardness just made the interviews funnier so I’ve got no complaints.
What did bands think of jumping into the tub with you to do interviews with you in
the buff?
Well I never surprised them. I always greeted them fully clothed and explained what
was going to happen, I never just popped out round a corner with my wang out. As I
say, I was a consummate speedo sporting professional. I may never know what they
thought but I always ensured my state of dress wouldn’t be a horrible surprise.
Do you have any memorable interviews from that series that you remember very
fondly?
I’ve blocked most of them out in all honesty. My memory is just a faceless blur of
dirty musicians endlessly carouselling through my house with swimming trunks
on. I’m quite a fan of The Front Bottoms so it was cool to interview them but I don’t
particularly remember how it went. I did a lot of interviews and for the most part I had
no idea who the bands were so I mostly just read the cards I was given and tried
not to get the band names wrong (which I still did quite a lot). I remember the whole
experience very fondly but at the time it wasn’t something I really thought about. We
mostly filmed in the bathroom of my house so I just made sure I was home when I
needed to be and had a clean speedo knocking about. It was just a thing I did on
occasion, like cooking a roast or going for a jog, it was fun but I don’t remember
many specifics.
What kinds of projects are you working on now and do you still do stand up from
time to time?
Stand up has always been my main focus. As I say In The Tub was just a thing I did
in my bathroom sometimes. I’m currently living in London and working on paying the
bills with stand up and looking to make a life of it. It’s my favourite thing.
Where can people find more information about you and any last words?
I’ve got a Twitter (@AndyAndyField) but it’s mostly full of me being purile and silly.
Still if you’re in to that thing you can follow me. I’m also on YouYube. If you search
AndyFieldComedy you’ll probably find some funnies I’ve done. And as for last words,
I’ve not really got any. If anyone liked the interviews I did then that’s really nice and
I hope you all continue to enjoy In The Tub with the new presenters. They’re funny
guys. Keep supporting sudsy music journalism! It’s the future!
Thanks once again to Andy Field for taking some time out to do this interview! He is a totally hilarious chap, and it was great to delve deep inside his persona and see what inspires him and drives his creative edge each and every day. To check out In The Tub's full archive of interviews featuring varying degrees of nudity, head on over to Critical Wave UK's website here and feast your eyes on upstart bands unraveling themselves right before you.
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