Make it quick, son, you’ve only got a minute: an interview with Frank Black of Frank Black And The Catholics, Front, 2002

What are you up to?
I’m cleaning up cat piss. One of my cats pisses all over.

How many cats have you got?
Er, I’ve got three that live here and one, he moved out. He lives across the street.

To a better home?
Er, yeah. The lady across the street, she’s very devoted, she will broil him salmon at four o’clock in the morning, which I am not going to do.

What new music are you into?
Well I went to some corporate record thing last summer in Denver. I went out that night to see The White Stripes and I drank quite heavily. I was like hanging around the merchandise booth, you know, and I bought like all of their CDs they had for sale, because I liked the gig, as I recall. So I like The White Stripes.

Do you keep an eye on the boy-band phenomena?
No. The boy-band thing, that’s way out there on the peripheral of my vision – I would never have a reason to come into contact with it. Boy bands to me are almost like a rumour.

Why do you have your hair in that style – why don’t you grow it out a bit?
For two reasons. One is that the hairs are not glorious. I have fine, straggly hair. It’s not lush or anything like that. Like thin, do you know what I mean? I don’t mean the number of hairs, I just mean the consistency of the actual hair. The other reason is I have a bald spot on the top of my head, you know, like a little one there? And as soon as I discovered that, in maybe my mid-20s, I was like, ‘What the f*** is that? I look f***ing stupid, man.’ So l shave it off. I see a lot of guys in England with the same kind of thing.

We all have shaved heads in England. The thug look.
Yeah-heh-heh-heh. I like it.

Two new albums, Black Letter Days and Devil’s Workshop, are out on 26 August.