This is an archive of the band profile for Casper Hauser.

Casper Hauser talks to Nye Hill (an old muso journo)

I ask the pop Casper Hauser if he's anything like the 'other' Casper Hauser, the mysterious boy who appeared in a small German town in 1828 with no memory, no language and no history other than rumour.

The pop Casper Hauser tells me he's never heard of the other Casper Hauser.

The all-time top nine truths/lies about Casper Hauser

1 Casper Hauser's album, It's About Time, is eleven taut fraught shards of angular pop mysticism from a chiseled cheek-boned 80s new wave god in the body of a bearded father of ten.

2 Listening to Casper Hauser is like being berated by a hip young mudslinger playing cracked 78s of warped folk songs recorded on a laptop.

3 Casper is ill at ease with his own body and the experience life has given him - until he sings.

4 Casper comes from a place with no memory, no language and no history other than a history of pop where new wave was the birth of post-rock, the start of where we are now, not post-punk, but pre-everything else.

5 Casper says, "I feel like in another life I've been there and done it. I was in a dream where I was in the next biggest band in the world, then the guitarist, my ex, went out for a bottle of milk and came back a Jesus freak and wearing a wedding ring from the bass player of Heatwave. The label couldn't handle it... we blew it."

6 "That's why I'm not playing live again. I've been offered stuff but I don't need it."
Would you do Glastonbury, main stage, Saturday night?
Would you do the Albert Hall?
Would you do the Mississippi-Alabama State Fair in '56?
Would you do The Cavern in '62?
"I'd do the Mississippi one if I was happy with the format and I could rely on the guitarist."

7 Casper Hauser will never split due to musical differences. Casper Hauser is all of Casper Hauser - vcls, gtr, bs, dms, lyrics, production, design. Spirit of DIY. Spirit of Orange Juice. Spirited DIY.

8 Casper Hauser spent seven years working with a French guitarist on a version of a Partridge Family b-side. One day he decided he'd had enough and went out to see if he could become a Jesus freak and marry a member of Heatwave. He came back with a bottle of milk.

9 "Everything in the songs happened. The only way of explaining what happened is in the songs - I couldn't say it in any other way."

Casper won't admit this is all true... but it is the truth.

It's About Time - eleven songs by Casper Hauser

They're all true.

Playground
- You might have a job to do but don't fuck with me. Alright?
- Alright!
- Aright?
- Alright. But...
- Just don't piss me about. Alright?
- Alright, but...
We're living in a playground.

Hi Neil Hi Stuart
When your brother says you sound like everybody, and you do something that sounds different, and then your brother says you sound like Squeeze, what can you do? Go and tell your Mum about it, and your Mum can say, "I thought I told you not to keep saying that he sounds like Squeeze."

Mel
I've only ever heard three songs that stop me in my tracks, make me take a breath and tell whoever I'm with that, "It's OK, I've just got something in my eye." Mel is one of them. I want a friend like that, I want a friendship like that - but he's taken away.

Upset
Borrowing a pair of trousers from an '80s hair band, then ripping the arse out of them running away from an urban nightmare.

Double Glazing
There's no training for this kind of thing. The most poignant Euro-skank about window furniture that you'll hear all week - or since it was last played on Radio 1.

It's OK
Like a George Harrison track from the lost Martin Hannet-produced Let It Be sessions about how difficult it is to get back in touch with someone you love, or for them to get back in touch with you. Being Casper Hauser it isn't the usual scenario.

One Thing
You want to dance? You want an anthem? You've come to the right place.

Guess Who?
Guess who's having a baby? I don't know who it is, but I'm not happy about it.

Magazine
If you did a tribute to Magazine and Howard Devoto said the guitars were spot on then you'd be chuffed - even though Howard Devoto wasn't the guitarist.

My Television
Get the picture right or I'm going to have to marry you.

Plastic
I want to be like my Dad, I want to get a head of confusion, blow it up with illusion in the palm of my hand. Nothing like my Dad then.

Eleven real songs in 40 minutes - an album like they used to make them.

After hearing the songs I tentatively hint to Casper that there's one track that I don't like as much as the others. He gets up and start to go. I shout after him that I love all the others and that Mel is one of the greatest songs of all time, but that's the last I see of him.

Casper Hauser debut LP available on Itunes, Tunetribe, HMV digital, Virgin digital, and Napster.