I got my first guitar almost exactly 50 years ago, Christmas Day 1975, when I was 11. It was a nylon stringed acoustic and I learned the few folk chords that I still rely on now, before graduating to an electric in 1978 after a few mates from school decided to form a band, influenced by Rough Trade, Fast Product and other arcane post punk bands, which is when I developed a love for feedback and white noise. We gigged very occasionally, recorded some long lost C60s, but got nowhere and fell apart in 1982 when I went to university. Our final name was Decadence, which is relevant to the new album. A couple of years later, my parents were downsizing to a retirement bungalow, and the Auld Fella flogged my gear without asking!! This meant I effectively retired from making music in the mid-80s, concentrating on writing instead. Alongside freelance sport journalism (cricket and football, mainly grassroots for both), I wrote about music as well, when print still existed. I still do, as well as writing fiction; I’ve a novel, Braunhemden, coming out in late March, from 5767 Publishing. I didn’t give up on music entirely, after a bloke I worked with in the early 90s gave me a lovely Hofner semi-acoustic he’d found in his garage after moving in. I’ve still got it and use it still. It was my instrument I used on my first release, Dresden Heist, with Chris Bartholomew (who is a genius BTW) that we released in 2023. That project was the first musical venture I’d been involved with in over 35 years, after deciding I wanted to get noisily creative in my declining years. Since then, I’ve acquired a bass, a Telecaster that’s too good for me and an electric violin, all of which have been essential in helping me create my subsequent self-released solo efforts, The World is Flat (2024) and The Pseudobulbar Effect (2025), which came out in in editions of 50. They’re both sold out, but you can listen to them on my Bandcamp page https://iancusack.bandcamp.com/music Also in 2025, I was involved in the Scratch and Reflect Ensemble, co-ordinated by Tyneside music therapist Chris Minnis, along with my dear friend Martin Donkin of the wonderful Shunyata Improvisation Group, which I found an empowering and inspirational experience. You can read about it here; https://payaso-de-mierda.blogspot.com/2025/06/cusack-serves-imperialism.html After this project ended, I began assembling Hello Cheeky.
Tell us a little about the album.
Technical details first; I recorded it on my phone and mixed it on the laptop using Audacity, in my spare bedroom. The front cover is of a bloke who got done for road rage in Bournemouth or somewhere, pictured mid rant. Musically, The World is Flat was mainly guitar and ancient, recycled cassette skronk, while The Pseudobulbar Effect involved bass, found sounds and AI voice manipulation. I am proud of them both, but felt in retrospect, they contained a couple of weak tracks and ideas that hadn’t been fully realised. For Hello Cheeky, I wanted to do the very best job I could, without any filler, which I think I’ve achieved, despite the component parts being longer pieces than I’m normally associated with. I mentioned my teenage band Decadence, which is also the name of the first track on the album. I’m still in touch with 2 of the members, Francis Robson and Richard McLeod and was very keen to involve them. We didn’t meet up as Francis lives in the wilds of Northumberland and Richard is based in West London (and has been for 40 years). Richard actually gave me a rather lovely Telecaster in Summer 2023 which I “play” on this track. After I’d recorded it, I sent it to both Francis and Richard, asking them to contribute in any way they saw fit. Francis contributed the wild synth noises and Richard a swampy, sluggish beat that reminded me of a Jacques Cousteau soundtrack. Putting the three parts together really excited me and I am so glad they took the time to participate. The other 4 tracks involve me “playing” guitar on 3 of them and, for the first time, electric violin on the final number “Surveillance.” That one and “On The Job Training” also include spoken text, as they are two of my published pieces of short fiction. The former spoken by me and the latter AI generated. I am delighted to be able to combine my two main creative outlets in this way.
Despite what I’ve said about the joy of working collaboratively and the importance of including my written texts in my sound work, my personal favourite is “Fumima Fumami,” which involves neither of these. Using a background of trains entering and departing Waverley in Edinburgh, including the accidental sound of someone playing the station piano, it includes a repeated guitar motif that is possibly the most melodic thing I’ve ever been responsible for. I find it uplifting to be honest. I hope other people like it.
Are there any other artists that have appeared on Wormhole World that interest you?
From completely different ends of the musical spectrum, I absolutely adore the work of Shunyata Improvisation Group who, like The Fall in the words of the great John Peel, are “always different, always the same” and the 2 Deaf German EPs, which are some of the most magical moments of unpleasant noise I’ve ever heard. I’m also a great admirer of the wonderfully eclectic St James Infirmary, having known Gary Lang for over 35 years. TSR2 would be my favourite of the electronic artists, as I find their analogue attack to be tremendously uplifting and almost nostalgic for those who raved a bit in the late 80s. Also a shout out to Gidouille Collective, for being the cleverest Dadaists around.
What brought you to join the Wormhole World family?
Back in 2019, my mate Paul Flanagan told me about TQ Magazine, edited by the wonderful Andy Wood. If you’re aware of TQ, you know what a warm and wonderful person Andy is. Him, Paul and also Gary Lang of St James Infirmary, provided me with an insight into the No Audience Underground in Newcastle and environs, which had begun as an adjunct to the Tusk Festival. After reading all the back issues of TQ I could get my hands on, as well as listening to everything they recommended that I could source on line, I found myself falling into a wonderful, deep, dark rabbit (worm?) hole of intensely creative, obscure and wilfully obtuse sounds. Clearly, Wormhole World were prime movers in putting stuff out there. Having got me through lockdown with a miasma of invigorating noise, I wanted to be part of this. While the Tyneside NAU is nowhere near as inclusive or supportive as the beautiful people would like to pretend (I’ve only managed to do 5 gigs in 5 years, despite being desperate to perform live), and I’ve struggled to crack social media as a way to publicise my work or make contacts, TQ and Wormhole World have been resolute and forthright in their support of my work. Having tracks on the last 3 Xmas compilations (firstly as BARTHOLOMEW cusack and latterly solo) has been an incredible shot in the arm in terms of validating my work. I can’t praise TQ and Wormhole World highly enough.
What’s your favourite album by another artist?
If you’re putting a gun to my head, and we’re looking beyond the Wormhole World oeuvre, it has to be The Mekons’ 1980 masterpiece second album, Devils, Rats & Piggies: A Special Message from Godzilla.
Who or what do you consider your influences?
Goodness: where do we start? My Auld Fella was Irish and so I grew up on a steady diet of The Clancy Brothers and The Dubliners (Dad, who had a fine voice, actually sang with Luke Kelly in the late 50s at The Bridge Hotel folk club in Newcastle). Being from Tyneside, Lindisfarne and Roxy Music were early favourites and still are. Then Bob Dylan (65-68 mainly, but everything up to Street Legal in 78 and nothing afterwards), before US art punk (hearing Blank Generation on Peel, Xmas Eve 76 was a game changer). Other than Wire and early Buzzcocks, UK punk left me cold. Post punk still holds me in its embrace; Gang of Four, The Mekons, Essential Logic, The Raincoats, The Fall (until MES lost the plot) and a hundred others. The Postcard Records catalogue is still a love, and I was delighted to see Edwyn Collins on his farewell tour last October. This led me on to C86 stuff, with The Wedding Present still firm favourites. I fell in love with Teenage Fanclub in the early 90s and would regard them as my favourite band to this day. Recently, I’ve seen My Bloody Valentine, who were on fire, and am looking forward to seeing Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Cabaret Voltaire in 2026. Vibracathedral Orchestra too. Here’s a link to a blog that lists everything I listened to, saw and read in 2025: https://payaso-de-mierda.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-king-of-new-york-and-chirton.html
Oh, did I mention The Velvet Underground? Them as well, plus anything and everything from 60s to early 70s folk, prog, psych worlds, as well as anything avant garde, including free jazz, DIY, improv, noise and drone of all eras from AMM to Zoviet France.
Do you have a favourite instrument or go-to sound making contraption?
Undoubtedly, it’s my venerable Hofner semi-acoustic. Any proper guitarist would love it, but it’s mine. Forever.
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