Album: Pieces of April (sndtrk) Artist: The Magnetic Fields/Stepin Merrit/the Sixths
Label: Nonesuch Rating: 2.5 out of 5 *s
I think Stephin Merrit is the best song writer out there, so not surprisingly this new album brought to mind two other writers, William Shakespeare and Bertoldt Brecht.
Shakespeare? A Midsummer's Night Dream, to be precise. A friend of mine has always held that Will wrote that one for beer money, and I have a similar suspicion for Merrit and this soundtrack. First of all, half the pieces have already been issued, either either on 69 Lovesongs or the Sixths' Hyacinth and Thistle disk. The new tracks (1, 3, 5, 7 and 8) vary wildly enough to give the impression they weren't assembled to be heard together (compare with 69 Love Songs, where there was a sense of relation in all the songs). Also like in a Dream, the new stuff gives the impression of the writer coasting through new stuff, using tropes and ideas from older works without creating any spark, anything original or very vibrant.
Brecht? The appeal of this avant-garde writer is the richness he pulls from the most basic elements of words and actions. The Magnetic Fields at their best are like that, making great songs from a fingersnap, a voice and a well-written song. But in the new tracks here, the songs feel over-produced. Too much reverb and extra noise flitting around to hear Stephin properly.
Still... track seven is lovely: trademark simplicity and emotion from Merrit and perfect writing. In moments in the other new songs, you can see glimpses of his writing ability, through chance or nature's changing course untrim'd.
It's also a shame these new songs come cheek by jowl with older Magnetic Fields stuff, where in the very next track you can hear the band chugging away on all four cylinders sounding great.
Recommended tracks: 7 and 8
All tracks clean
Site: Here
--
Artist: Franz Ferdinand Album: Darts of Pleasure
Label: Domino Records Rating: 5 out of 5 *s
Oh. Yeah. Boys.
Being the Boy With His Thumb To The Pulse Of The Scottish Scene (TM ;0) I had heard rumors of the band Franz Ferdinand: wonderful, extatic, nigh-swooning things. And they were all right.
Franz Ferdinand is exactly what the whole lo-fi garage thing tries and fails miserably to be (Suck it up: The White Stripes, Jett, The Raveneonettes, et al. blow): fun, dirty and original.
What does it sound like? The above bands with a spark, with touches of Bowie, Steppenwolf and a little added Funk. On top is some sharp but subtle political edge (track three is about the gentrification of their hometown, Glasgow).
What seperates these guys from their Big Label Clones is probably not surprisng to any Kid around: they may be as hip or self aware as, say Jett, but they don't take themselves so damn seriously. They have fun. They're irony-light, yo. Play it now.
Recommended: Every damn track, but I heart me some 2.
All tracks clean.
Site: here
Thursday, November 20, 2003
Album: Pieces of April (sndtrk) Artist: The Magnetic Fields/Stepin Merrit/the Sixths Label: Nonesuch Rating: 2.5 out of 5 *s
I think Stephin Merrit is the best song writer out there, so not surprisingly this new album brought to mind two other writers, William Shakespeare and Bertoldt Brecht.
Shakespeare? A Midsummer's Night Dream, to be precise. A friend of mine has always held that Will wrote that one for beer money, and I have a similar suspicion for Merrit and this soundtrack. First of all, half the pieces have already been issued, either either on 69 Lovesongs or the Sixths' Hyacinth and Thistle disk. The new tracks (1, 3, 5, 7 and 8) vary wildly enough to give the impression they weren't assembled to be heard together (compare with 69 Love Songs, where there was a sense of relation in all the songs). Also like in a Dream, the new stuff gives the impression of the writer coasting through new stuff, using tropes and ideas from older works without creating any spark, anything original or very vibrant.
Brecht? The appeal of this avant-garde writer is the richness he pulls from the most basic elements of words and actions. The Magnetic Fields at their best are like that, making great songs from a fingersnap, a voice and a well-written song. But in the new tracks here, the songs feel over-produced. Too much reverb and extra noise flitting around to hear Stephin properly.
Still... track seven is lovely: trademark simplicity and emotion from Merrit and perfect writing. In moments in the other new songs, you can see glimpses of his writing ability, through chance or nature's changing course untrim'd.
It's also a shame these new songs come cheek by jowl with older Magnetic Fields stuff, where in the very next track you can hear the band chugging away on all four cylinders sounding great.
Recommended tracks: 7 and 8
All tracks clean
Site: Here
--
Artist: Franz Ferdinand Album: Darts of Pleasure
Label: Domino Records Rating: 5 out of 5 *s
Oh. Yeah. Boys.
Being the Boy With His Thumb To The Pulse Of The Scottish Scene (TM ;0) I had heard rumors of the band Franz Ferdinand: wonderful, extatic, nigh-swooning things. And they were all right.
Franz Ferdinand is exactly what the whole lo-fi garage thing tries and fails miserably to be (Suck it up: The White Stripes, Jett, The Raveneonettes, et al. blow): fun, dirty and original.
What does it sound like? The above bands with a spark, with touches of Bowie, Steppenwolf and a little added Funk. On top is some sharp but subtle political edge (track three is about the gentrification of their hometown, Glasgow).
What seperates these guys from their Big Label Clones is probably not surprisng to any Kid around: they may be as hip or self aware as, say Jett, but they don't take themselves so damn seriously. They have fun. They're irony-light, yo. Play it now.
Recommended: Every damn track, but I heart me some 2.
All tracks clean.
Site: here
I think Stephin Merrit is the best song writer out there, so not surprisingly this new album brought to mind two other writers, William Shakespeare and Bertoldt Brecht.
Shakespeare? A Midsummer's Night Dream, to be precise. A friend of mine has always held that Will wrote that one for beer money, and I have a similar suspicion for Merrit and this soundtrack. First of all, half the pieces have already been issued, either either on 69 Lovesongs or the Sixths' Hyacinth and Thistle disk. The new tracks (1, 3, 5, 7 and 8) vary wildly enough to give the impression they weren't assembled to be heard together (compare with 69 Love Songs, where there was a sense of relation in all the songs). Also like in a Dream, the new stuff gives the impression of the writer coasting through new stuff, using tropes and ideas from older works without creating any spark, anything original or very vibrant.
Brecht? The appeal of this avant-garde writer is the richness he pulls from the most basic elements of words and actions. The Magnetic Fields at their best are like that, making great songs from a fingersnap, a voice and a well-written song. But in the new tracks here, the songs feel over-produced. Too much reverb and extra noise flitting around to hear Stephin properly.
Still... track seven is lovely: trademark simplicity and emotion from Merrit and perfect writing. In moments in the other new songs, you can see glimpses of his writing ability, through chance or nature's changing course untrim'd.
It's also a shame these new songs come cheek by jowl with older Magnetic Fields stuff, where in the very next track you can hear the band chugging away on all four cylinders sounding great.
Recommended tracks: 7 and 8
All tracks clean
Site: Here
--
Artist: Franz Ferdinand Album: Darts of Pleasure
Label: Domino Records Rating: 5 out of 5 *s
Oh. Yeah. Boys.
Being the Boy With His Thumb To The Pulse Of The Scottish Scene (TM ;0) I had heard rumors of the band Franz Ferdinand: wonderful, extatic, nigh-swooning things. And they were all right.
Franz Ferdinand is exactly what the whole lo-fi garage thing tries and fails miserably to be (Suck it up: The White Stripes, Jett, The Raveneonettes, et al. blow): fun, dirty and original.
What does it sound like? The above bands with a spark, with touches of Bowie, Steppenwolf and a little added Funk. On top is some sharp but subtle political edge (track three is about the gentrification of their hometown, Glasgow).
What seperates these guys from their Big Label Clones is probably not surprisng to any Kid around: they may be as hip or self aware as, say Jett, but they don't take themselves so damn seriously. They have fun. They're irony-light, yo. Play it now.
Recommended: Every damn track, but I heart me some 2.
All tracks clean.
Site: here
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Hey.
Here's an interview with Richard Colburn from Belle and Sebastian. It's fun. Read. On October 27th, what may be the premier Indie-Pop band, Belle and Sebastian, played a show in Durham, NC. Now this in itself is a bit odd: on their East Coast tours over the past few years, the band has skipped over most of the Southeast US, hopping up to Washington, DC from Atlanta.
Odder still was the fact they agreed to an interview. From me. On the off chance someone, somewhere might do an interview, I wrote to their label, Rough Trade, introducing myself as an DJ and staff member of WXDU-FM, the local independent radio station. To my surprise, I got a terse email back telling me to be at the venue, the Carolina Theater, at 2 pm the day of the show.
Fair Enough.
I showed up that day with Keith Artin, another ‘XDU DJ and the operator of our portable minidisk recording device, and Miss Laura Llew, that East Coast Hipster social gadfly.
After watching the crew set up for a while, the label press agent introduced us to Richard Colburn, the band’s drummer, and took us into an unused dressing room. Richard was slightly disheveled: it seems he had just been roused by the PA. Secretly, we wondered if he had gotten Richard because he was the slowest to run from the dread-locked agent. After two minutes, we doubted it. Richard was extremely entertaining and informative. We couldn’t have asked for a better person to talk with. We opened up with some preliminary talk – “Gee, the weather is nicer here than in Glasgow” and “Do you think you could help me stow this Conversation Pit in the bus, then?” – and started the interview proper.
What you see below is a direct transcript of the interview as recorded. JE is me, Jay, the interviewer, RC is Richard, KA is Keith and LL is Miss Llew. This interview is currently airing on WXDU (You can listen to the station at www.wxdu.org/listen) radio in a (very) edited form. Anything enclosed in brackets for one reason or another has been removed from the on-air version. Lucky for you, the removed stuff is much more entertaining.
For the full interview effect, though, you have to understand that while Richard was off fetching coffee, Chris Geddes (the band’s primary keyboard player) walked in silently and got into a staring contest with Laura. He lost. The rest of the interview, as we were talking, he’d poke his head in the door behind Laura and glare at her back.
So. Sit back. Read. Enjoy.
This is the Interview I did with Richard Colburn.
JE: *after some initial gabble* Actually, I do have one question for you. Have you seen the on-line petition for you guys to record the song “Rhoda”?
RC: Yeah, actually. I saw it a few weeks ago. And there has been talk occasionally over the last few years, before tours, of maybe resurrecting the song itself, but it’s never really happened. I don’t know why: there’s sort of other songs that are probably the same age as that song that have been resurrected. So I’m not really sure what’ll happen with that. But I really like the song, so maybe hopefully we’ll do something with it.
JE: You have –not necessarily “Rhoda”, but other songs -- that you typically only do live, like “Pocketbook Angel”, which I don’t think you’re planning on recording. So what’s your attitude towards about songs you only do live?
RC: Well, it kind of works in a way, because sometimes when you’ve been doing a song so long and not recorded it, it’s difficult to have the reaction to it the same way as when you hear a new song you react to it by playing it in a certain way. But if you keep playing it and keep playing it and keeping playing it, it becomes… ugh, I don’t know how to explain this ‘cause I’ve just woken up. Sorry.
It’s sort of… all the natural things have been taken away from it, because you’ve done it so many times, you’re so used to it. So there’s not any room to try anything new because as soon as you have played a song quite a lot, you stick to that part cause it’s in your brain so there’s no way to try to do something new with it. Usually when we record new songs, we will record them before we play them live for that very reason. The first time you hear it, you react to it straight away and you’re right in it. It’s quite inspirational and stuff; the longer you play it, the less chance that’ll happen.
JE: So is it more difficult to record something like “Lord Anthony” or “The Loneliness of the Middle-Distance Runner” after you’ve been performing it or is it easier?
RC: “Lord Anthony” wasn’t so bad because we hadn’t played it in so many years it was almost like it was a new song for the first time again. “Loneliness” was different because we’d had about four attempts at recording it, and after the fourth attempt it was like, “This isn’t happening.”
For things like “Lord Anthony” the fact we were working with Trevor Horne gave us a bit more scope to try something different with it. So maybe if we try another producer next time, it might give us the scope to try something with “Loneliness”. [NB: It was evident from conversation that here Richard meant “Rhoda”, not “Loneliness…”, as “Loneliness…” is recorded on the Jeepster single Jonathan David.]
[ JE: To completely change tracks, one of the criticisms I saw for your new album was
that it has no masturbation references* in it. Is that intentional?
LL: audibly chokes on tape
RC: *laughs
It’s all very subliminal. If you put the record backwards…
I have no idea. I think sometimes Stuart gets embarrassed at the end of “…Arab
Strap” and stuff, especially if we’re playing hometown shows and, you know, in case,
his parents or any relations or anybody are there, so he has to make something up for the
last little bit there in the end. So I think he’s kind of gotten over that and just sort of
though “Well, it’s probably safer not to.”
JE: Uhhh. We may have to edit that out.
*Pauses
And that, as well. I had another question all ready…
RC: It’s the same way in the studio, actually. ]
JE: So you’re on tour right now and you have another pretty substantial tour on the books for next year, right? A World Tour?
RC: Right. After we’ve been in the States, we’re going to tour around the UK till maybe a week before Christmas, then take a few weeks off and then go to Japan in January. Then Europe, February and March. And we’re looking at Argentina, Brazil, Mexico right up to the Cochella Festival, and then part of California. And after that, we’ll see what happens. There are other places we haven’t played in a while that have to be considered as well, but that will come after those ones. And, you know, we’ll probably record something new after that.
JE: And again, like with the writing question, I’m not sure this is the best person to ask, but: You’ve got a single coming out, soon, “Step Into My Office Baby”. It’s the first single with an album track on it…
RC: That’s right.
JE: Is that your decision or is that something the label is gonna do?
RC: It was kind of our decision… Yeah… Cause in the past, obviously, we’ve gone for a more non-commercial way of working, and when we signed to Rough Trade, the first thing they sort of said was “You could probably kind of help yourselves a little more by doing certain things that most bands kind of do.” Well that’s fair enough, I suppose. Without totally playing the game, there are certain things that are obvious that will help you.
And the fact we’re using Trevor Horne, it’s like a new start, lots of new thing, new album. The band line-up’s different again: Isobel’s left, Stuart David’s left, Bob Kildea’s in now and other stuff. There’s so many different things, we thought, “Oh what the hell, we’ll try things a different way for this album, and if it works, it works and if not, maybe for the next album, we’ll just revert back to what we’ve always done.”
JE: Oh well. Well, you’ve pretty much pre-guessed the next question I was going to ask. People come, people leave; stuff goes and new stuff comes. Not many bands could stand losing or gaining a new member and still be relatively successful. Yeah… I guess that’s my comment.
RC: Yeah. Depends on how you lose the member.
JE: That’s true.
[ *pauses
Fuck. I did it again…I forgot. Oop. Have to edit that. Oh sorry. Didn’t mean to
curse…
RC: No…
JE: Oh, okay. Right. There was another interview I read, I don’t remember where, and…Oh! That was the other question I forgot earlier! Yay!… that] someone asked you if you thought you were more successful here in the State or in the UK or in the rest of the world. So, what do you think about that?
RC: Ummm… It’s a hard one because obviously the US is so much bigger than the UK, so it’s relative. There’s sort of a ratio of so many people to so many people in the UK. But I think the attitude in America is a little better. Certainly in Japan and Europe the attitude towards music is better than in the UK. I find that a little… I find that sometimes I don’t really like the attitude of journalists in general, of people who work in the record industry.
[Not all journalists, I have to say.
KA: We’re not journalists, we’re DJs.
JE: Hey!
RC: DJs are the best!]
But yeah, just certain quarters in the UK Music Industry I’m not to into because they’ll pigeon-hole you straight away and there’s prejudice and stuff. And… just because you’re seen, deemed a certain thing and no matter what kind of music you put out in the future you still have a tag.
Whereas in Europe, people are just happy to hear good music. They’re not bothered by what is this, that or the next thing. Japan’s the same and America is a lot like that, too. Obviously, we have a fan base in Britain but I don’t really see it as in any one place, because most of our fans work through the internet, so it’s more of an international thing than any specific area. And people come from thousands of miles to see us when we play live. As our fan base goes, it’s great cause you can’t pin-point it to any one place.
JE: I was going to say, as part of my research, I came across the Sinister Mailing List**…
RC: Oh yes, yes.
JE: …and it seemed extremely international to me. Do you keep tabs on that? I mean, people starting relationships – boyfriends, girlfriends – people getting married off the list. What sort of reaction do you guys have to that?
RC: It’s amazing. It’s like a big international cult, almost. It really is. It’s nuts. We’ve had people come up to us – or at least email us – before we’ve been in a city for a show and a guy will say, “I’m gonna propose to my girlfriend, will you let us come up onstage and do it and play a song for us? We’d really be indebted.” Yeah, okay. Cool. And that’s happened several times. And lots of different things. You know, quite a lot of people have meet-ups and picnics and stuff, so if you people here in the States or in Europe or in Britain or Australia or whatever… Plus, if one group in one area wants to come across and hear us play in another area, then they hook up with people in the West. It’s a big community, a big club.
But there’s several different ones like that. There’s the Bowlie Forum and other ones. I think… I quite like it. I think if I wasn’t in the band, I’d have nothing to do with it – ‘cause it’s not really my thing -- but in saying that, I respect it and it’s a good thing and people enjoy it, so more power to them.
[ JE: So, going on those last two questions, I know that there’s a tendency to believe that whatever the fan situations, with music or a TV show or something like that, that Americans tend to be more over the top, more overly into something than they should be. Do you find there’s any degree of truth to that, to the people you’ve met over here?
RC: Errr. I’m not… No. I don’t know… There’s people like that everywhere. I think it comes down to a more personal thing than a nation. You get enthusiastic people and people who are not. Maybe because there’s more to do over here, more to get excited about or more to get over the top about than there is in Britain.]
JE: Part of the stuff I saw getting ready for this, some publicity stuff, was a story in the New York Times*** the gist of which was “Laura Bush would really like this band!” Did you see that, have any reaction to it?
RC: No. No, I didn’t.
JE: It was right when they album came out, and it talked about the band in general and the Times sort of described it as bland, inoffensive music that a spinster librarian might sort of enjoy, since that’s sort of the image of Laura Bush…
RC: Oh yeah…
JE: Well, it was sort of flattering. Anyway, it leads me to the next question. Do you think there’s any sort of dichotomy before… Uh. Sorry. I just stumbled because I used a big word. But you think there’s a difference between the perceived image of a Belle and Sebastian fan and the reality? Like of someone who’s tragically twee versus…
RC: Yeah, yeah. I think the stereotypical fan, there’s not a lot of difference between the image and what they actually are. But then again, there’s so many descriptions of that and prejudices as well – just as in music. We’re seen as a fey, twee band. Fair enough. But we’re not personally really like that. But because the image was put across early in the band’s career, it stuck.. And that probably goes for people who are into the band, as well. It’s part and parcel of the whole scene. But then again, I don’t really mind either way, cause people are happy to be either way, happy to whatever. Fine.
JE: Yeah, you pretty much hit the next question as I was going to ask about the band and the music. [ So. One last question, and this is from my own research -- Steven Pastel as the new Doctor Who: Yes or No?
RC: I never… That’s a brilliant concept. I never thought of that. Geez. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Good call. ]
JE: Thank you. That’s all the stuff I’ve got. Is there anything you want to add?
RC: We’ve got a new DVD**** coming out, actually. Pretty soon. I don’t know if it’s out, here actually.
[ JE: Not yet. Soon. I think.
RC: I should actually know this.
KA: Yeah… Tomorrow.
JE: Yeah, it should actually be tomorrow. Stuff is released on Tuesdays here. And it’s tomorrow.
RC: Oh right. Good-oh.] But if you the chance, you should check it out. It’s pretty interesting. On one hand, it might not help the image we have, but on the other it might.
JE: So is everything ready for tonight, I guess?
RC: Yeah, we’re going to soundcheck quite soon and last night was the first show so it’s always a bit nerve-wracking to do the first show and get it out of the way. Any technical problems there will have been smoothed out today. I think so. The more you do it, the easier it gets.
JE: So you’ve got new stuff, stuff from the new album to be the high-light?
RC: Yeah, we’re slowly but surely introducing it into the set cause we did quite a lot of rehearsals. Last night, we played four, five songs off the new album. And we’re playing a lot more older songs we’ve never played before, so it’s like new-old songs, shall we say. So this set is almost completely different to the last two years.
JE: Great!
RC: ‘Cause it gets, not tedious, but if you play the same sets for two years it gets… there’s only so much you can do with them.
KA: What have you been enjoying playing?
RC: “Expectations” from Tigermilk has been a lot of fun. And quite a lot of songs of the new album, cause they’re fresh and new, and it’s fun to do. “Slow Graffiti” has been fun as well.
[ JE: You gonna do that one tonight?
RC: It’s on the core list of songs, so whether it’s tonight or tomorrow night, it’s always a possibility.
KA: This is… This is… I probably shouldn’t do this, but my wife will kill me if I don’t ask.
*everybody laughs
KA: My wife’s birthday is tomorrow and she loves “This Is Just a Modern Rock Song”. And I don’t know if it’s on the list of songs you guys play…
RC: Unfortunately… We do get this quite a lot and I don’t know why we haven’t done it. I think …
KA: Sorry to ask. Now I’m off the hook.
RC: Fair play.
I think the way it was recorded was quite off the cuff, so it’s never been approached to try it out live and stuff. But there’s no reason we shouldn’t do it. If we get time in some sound checks, we might try and get it together. But it’s quite a long song, so it’s a tough one for live. Be we can try to shorten it, maybe. In future, we’ll try to get it together.
JE: Your wife wasn’t the one who got the vinyl copy of it over at Radio Free was she?
KA: Nah…
JE: There was the best local record store close down, and it had all this stuff on vinyl everybody wanted, and I waited till the last day to go get it.
RC: That’s always the way when record stores close. You always say “Do I go in now or do I go tomorrow…” It’s a tough one.
JE: Well, that’s all the stuff I’ve got.
RC: Oh. Thanks very much then.
LL: You played “This Is Just A Modern Rock Song” last year in Atlanta as an encore.
RC: We did?!
LL: Yes, you did. It was fantastic.
RC: I don’t even remember.
LL: Yeah, it made the show. Everyone was silent.
RC: I really have the worst memory… There were certain bits of Atlanta I’d forgotten and when I got [back] there, I was like “Ahhhh. Riight!”
Yeah, it’s one of those songs that’s more an encore song. It’s a little more loose than the other songs. We haven’t rehearsed it. It’s definitely one of those you stick on the end as an added bonus rather than being a core song. I’ll mention it to everybody and sort of see if it’s possible in that scenario.
LL: I’d rather hear “Slow Graffiti!”
RC: We’ll see if we can do both.
LL: I’ve never seen you do it live. I’d be so excited.
RC: We didn’t play it last night, so hopefully tonight we will. It’s on one of those core lists that we’ve got. But Stuart’s actually got a little infection at the moment and his throat’s not holding out so well at the moment, so he went to get his voice checked out. It’s okay, it held out last night and it was good and stuff. But the set list is really dependent on what he can put out. But we’ll see what we can do.
JE: And if you have a request, you can call the station at…]
*Please see: http://www.missprint.org/cgi-bin/anylistsearch.cgi?query=masturbation%3B+laura+llew&list=sinister&smode=Phrase
**Please see: http://www.missprint.org/sinister
***Please see: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F7071EFD3A580C718DDDA90994DB404482
****Please see: http://www.jeepster.co.uk/showstory.php?id=42¤tsection=belleandsebastian
Here's an interview with Richard Colburn from Belle and Sebastian. It's fun. Read. On October 27th, what may be the premier Indie-Pop band, Belle and Sebastian, played a show in Durham, NC. Now this in itself is a bit odd: on their East Coast tours over the past few years, the band has skipped over most of the Southeast US, hopping up to Washington, DC from Atlanta.
Odder still was the fact they agreed to an interview. From me. On the off chance someone, somewhere might do an interview, I wrote to their label, Rough Trade, introducing myself as an DJ and staff member of WXDU-FM, the local independent radio station. To my surprise, I got a terse email back telling me to be at the venue, the Carolina Theater, at 2 pm the day of the show.
Fair Enough.
I showed up that day with Keith Artin, another ‘XDU DJ and the operator of our portable minidisk recording device, and Miss Laura Llew, that East Coast Hipster social gadfly.
After watching the crew set up for a while, the label press agent introduced us to Richard Colburn, the band’s drummer, and took us into an unused dressing room. Richard was slightly disheveled: it seems he had just been roused by the PA. Secretly, we wondered if he had gotten Richard because he was the slowest to run from the dread-locked agent. After two minutes, we doubted it. Richard was extremely entertaining and informative. We couldn’t have asked for a better person to talk with. We opened up with some preliminary talk – “Gee, the weather is nicer here than in Glasgow” and “Do you think you could help me stow this Conversation Pit in the bus, then?” – and started the interview proper.
What you see below is a direct transcript of the interview as recorded. JE is me, Jay, the interviewer, RC is Richard, KA is Keith and LL is Miss Llew. This interview is currently airing on WXDU (You can listen to the station at www.wxdu.org/listen) radio in a (very) edited form. Anything enclosed in brackets for one reason or another has been removed from the on-air version. Lucky for you, the removed stuff is much more entertaining.
For the full interview effect, though, you have to understand that while Richard was off fetching coffee, Chris Geddes (the band’s primary keyboard player) walked in silently and got into a staring contest with Laura. He lost. The rest of the interview, as we were talking, he’d poke his head in the door behind Laura and glare at her back.
So. Sit back. Read. Enjoy.
This is the Interview I did with Richard Colburn.
JE: *after some initial gabble* Actually, I do have one question for you. Have you seen the on-line petition for you guys to record the song “Rhoda”?
RC: Yeah, actually. I saw it a few weeks ago. And there has been talk occasionally over the last few years, before tours, of maybe resurrecting the song itself, but it’s never really happened. I don’t know why: there’s sort of other songs that are probably the same age as that song that have been resurrected. So I’m not really sure what’ll happen with that. But I really like the song, so maybe hopefully we’ll do something with it.
JE: You have –not necessarily “Rhoda”, but other songs -- that you typically only do live, like “Pocketbook Angel”, which I don’t think you’re planning on recording. So what’s your attitude towards about songs you only do live?
RC: Well, it kind of works in a way, because sometimes when you’ve been doing a song so long and not recorded it, it’s difficult to have the reaction to it the same way as when you hear a new song you react to it by playing it in a certain way. But if you keep playing it and keep playing it and keeping playing it, it becomes… ugh, I don’t know how to explain this ‘cause I’ve just woken up. Sorry.
It’s sort of… all the natural things have been taken away from it, because you’ve done it so many times, you’re so used to it. So there’s not any room to try anything new because as soon as you have played a song quite a lot, you stick to that part cause it’s in your brain so there’s no way to try to do something new with it. Usually when we record new songs, we will record them before we play them live for that very reason. The first time you hear it, you react to it straight away and you’re right in it. It’s quite inspirational and stuff; the longer you play it, the less chance that’ll happen.
JE: So is it more difficult to record something like “Lord Anthony” or “The Loneliness of the Middle-Distance Runner” after you’ve been performing it or is it easier?
RC: “Lord Anthony” wasn’t so bad because we hadn’t played it in so many years it was almost like it was a new song for the first time again. “Loneliness” was different because we’d had about four attempts at recording it, and after the fourth attempt it was like, “This isn’t happening.”
For things like “Lord Anthony” the fact we were working with Trevor Horne gave us a bit more scope to try something different with it. So maybe if we try another producer next time, it might give us the scope to try something with “Loneliness”. [NB: It was evident from conversation that here Richard meant “Rhoda”, not “Loneliness…”, as “Loneliness…” is recorded on the Jeepster single Jonathan David.]
[ JE: To completely change tracks, one of the criticisms I saw for your new album was
that it has no masturbation references* in it. Is that intentional?
LL: audibly chokes on tape
RC: *laughs
It’s all very subliminal. If you put the record backwards…
I have no idea. I think sometimes Stuart gets embarrassed at the end of “…Arab
Strap” and stuff, especially if we’re playing hometown shows and, you know, in case,
his parents or any relations or anybody are there, so he has to make something up for the
last little bit there in the end. So I think he’s kind of gotten over that and just sort of
though “Well, it’s probably safer not to.”
JE: Uhhh. We may have to edit that out.
*Pauses
And that, as well. I had another question all ready…
RC: It’s the same way in the studio, actually. ]
JE: So you’re on tour right now and you have another pretty substantial tour on the books for next year, right? A World Tour?
RC: Right. After we’ve been in the States, we’re going to tour around the UK till maybe a week before Christmas, then take a few weeks off and then go to Japan in January. Then Europe, February and March. And we’re looking at Argentina, Brazil, Mexico right up to the Cochella Festival, and then part of California. And after that, we’ll see what happens. There are other places we haven’t played in a while that have to be considered as well, but that will come after those ones. And, you know, we’ll probably record something new after that.
JE: And again, like with the writing question, I’m not sure this is the best person to ask, but: You’ve got a single coming out, soon, “Step Into My Office Baby”. It’s the first single with an album track on it…
RC: That’s right.
JE: Is that your decision or is that something the label is gonna do?
RC: It was kind of our decision… Yeah… Cause in the past, obviously, we’ve gone for a more non-commercial way of working, and when we signed to Rough Trade, the first thing they sort of said was “You could probably kind of help yourselves a little more by doing certain things that most bands kind of do.” Well that’s fair enough, I suppose. Without totally playing the game, there are certain things that are obvious that will help you.
And the fact we’re using Trevor Horne, it’s like a new start, lots of new thing, new album. The band line-up’s different again: Isobel’s left, Stuart David’s left, Bob Kildea’s in now and other stuff. There’s so many different things, we thought, “Oh what the hell, we’ll try things a different way for this album, and if it works, it works and if not, maybe for the next album, we’ll just revert back to what we’ve always done.”
JE: Oh well. Well, you’ve pretty much pre-guessed the next question I was going to ask. People come, people leave; stuff goes and new stuff comes. Not many bands could stand losing or gaining a new member and still be relatively successful. Yeah… I guess that’s my comment.
RC: Yeah. Depends on how you lose the member.
JE: That’s true.
[ *pauses
Fuck. I did it again…I forgot. Oop. Have to edit that. Oh sorry. Didn’t mean to
curse…
RC: No…
JE: Oh, okay. Right. There was another interview I read, I don’t remember where, and…Oh! That was the other question I forgot earlier! Yay!… that] someone asked you if you thought you were more successful here in the State or in the UK or in the rest of the world. So, what do you think about that?
RC: Ummm… It’s a hard one because obviously the US is so much bigger than the UK, so it’s relative. There’s sort of a ratio of so many people to so many people in the UK. But I think the attitude in America is a little better. Certainly in Japan and Europe the attitude towards music is better than in the UK. I find that a little… I find that sometimes I don’t really like the attitude of journalists in general, of people who work in the record industry.
[Not all journalists, I have to say.
KA: We’re not journalists, we’re DJs.
JE: Hey!
RC: DJs are the best!]
But yeah, just certain quarters in the UK Music Industry I’m not to into because they’ll pigeon-hole you straight away and there’s prejudice and stuff. And… just because you’re seen, deemed a certain thing and no matter what kind of music you put out in the future you still have a tag.
Whereas in Europe, people are just happy to hear good music. They’re not bothered by what is this, that or the next thing. Japan’s the same and America is a lot like that, too. Obviously, we have a fan base in Britain but I don’t really see it as in any one place, because most of our fans work through the internet, so it’s more of an international thing than any specific area. And people come from thousands of miles to see us when we play live. As our fan base goes, it’s great cause you can’t pin-point it to any one place.
JE: I was going to say, as part of my research, I came across the Sinister Mailing List**…
RC: Oh yes, yes.
JE: …and it seemed extremely international to me. Do you keep tabs on that? I mean, people starting relationships – boyfriends, girlfriends – people getting married off the list. What sort of reaction do you guys have to that?
RC: It’s amazing. It’s like a big international cult, almost. It really is. It’s nuts. We’ve had people come up to us – or at least email us – before we’ve been in a city for a show and a guy will say, “I’m gonna propose to my girlfriend, will you let us come up onstage and do it and play a song for us? We’d really be indebted.” Yeah, okay. Cool. And that’s happened several times. And lots of different things. You know, quite a lot of people have meet-ups and picnics and stuff, so if you people here in the States or in Europe or in Britain or Australia or whatever… Plus, if one group in one area wants to come across and hear us play in another area, then they hook up with people in the West. It’s a big community, a big club.
But there’s several different ones like that. There’s the Bowlie Forum and other ones. I think… I quite like it. I think if I wasn’t in the band, I’d have nothing to do with it – ‘cause it’s not really my thing -- but in saying that, I respect it and it’s a good thing and people enjoy it, so more power to them.
[ JE: So, going on those last two questions, I know that there’s a tendency to believe that whatever the fan situations, with music or a TV show or something like that, that Americans tend to be more over the top, more overly into something than they should be. Do you find there’s any degree of truth to that, to the people you’ve met over here?
RC: Errr. I’m not… No. I don’t know… There’s people like that everywhere. I think it comes down to a more personal thing than a nation. You get enthusiastic people and people who are not. Maybe because there’s more to do over here, more to get excited about or more to get over the top about than there is in Britain.]
JE: Part of the stuff I saw getting ready for this, some publicity stuff, was a story in the New York Times*** the gist of which was “Laura Bush would really like this band!” Did you see that, have any reaction to it?
RC: No. No, I didn’t.
JE: It was right when they album came out, and it talked about the band in general and the Times sort of described it as bland, inoffensive music that a spinster librarian might sort of enjoy, since that’s sort of the image of Laura Bush…
RC: Oh yeah…
JE: Well, it was sort of flattering. Anyway, it leads me to the next question. Do you think there’s any sort of dichotomy before… Uh. Sorry. I just stumbled because I used a big word. But you think there’s a difference between the perceived image of a Belle and Sebastian fan and the reality? Like of someone who’s tragically twee versus…
RC: Yeah, yeah. I think the stereotypical fan, there’s not a lot of difference between the image and what they actually are. But then again, there’s so many descriptions of that and prejudices as well – just as in music. We’re seen as a fey, twee band. Fair enough. But we’re not personally really like that. But because the image was put across early in the band’s career, it stuck.. And that probably goes for people who are into the band, as well. It’s part and parcel of the whole scene. But then again, I don’t really mind either way, cause people are happy to be either way, happy to whatever. Fine.
JE: Yeah, you pretty much hit the next question as I was going to ask about the band and the music. [ So. One last question, and this is from my own research -- Steven Pastel as the new Doctor Who: Yes or No?
RC: I never… That’s a brilliant concept. I never thought of that. Geez. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Good call. ]
JE: Thank you. That’s all the stuff I’ve got. Is there anything you want to add?
RC: We’ve got a new DVD**** coming out, actually. Pretty soon. I don’t know if it’s out, here actually.
[ JE: Not yet. Soon. I think.
RC: I should actually know this.
KA: Yeah… Tomorrow.
JE: Yeah, it should actually be tomorrow. Stuff is released on Tuesdays here. And it’s tomorrow.
RC: Oh right. Good-oh.] But if you the chance, you should check it out. It’s pretty interesting. On one hand, it might not help the image we have, but on the other it might.
JE: So is everything ready for tonight, I guess?
RC: Yeah, we’re going to soundcheck quite soon and last night was the first show so it’s always a bit nerve-wracking to do the first show and get it out of the way. Any technical problems there will have been smoothed out today. I think so. The more you do it, the easier it gets.
JE: So you’ve got new stuff, stuff from the new album to be the high-light?
RC: Yeah, we’re slowly but surely introducing it into the set cause we did quite a lot of rehearsals. Last night, we played four, five songs off the new album. And we’re playing a lot more older songs we’ve never played before, so it’s like new-old songs, shall we say. So this set is almost completely different to the last two years.
JE: Great!
RC: ‘Cause it gets, not tedious, but if you play the same sets for two years it gets… there’s only so much you can do with them.
KA: What have you been enjoying playing?
RC: “Expectations” from Tigermilk has been a lot of fun. And quite a lot of songs of the new album, cause they’re fresh and new, and it’s fun to do. “Slow Graffiti” has been fun as well.
[ JE: You gonna do that one tonight?
RC: It’s on the core list of songs, so whether it’s tonight or tomorrow night, it’s always a possibility.
KA: This is… This is… I probably shouldn’t do this, but my wife will kill me if I don’t ask.
*everybody laughs
KA: My wife’s birthday is tomorrow and she loves “This Is Just a Modern Rock Song”. And I don’t know if it’s on the list of songs you guys play…
RC: Unfortunately… We do get this quite a lot and I don’t know why we haven’t done it. I think …
KA: Sorry to ask. Now I’m off the hook.
RC: Fair play.
I think the way it was recorded was quite off the cuff, so it’s never been approached to try it out live and stuff. But there’s no reason we shouldn’t do it. If we get time in some sound checks, we might try and get it together. But it’s quite a long song, so it’s a tough one for live. Be we can try to shorten it, maybe. In future, we’ll try to get it together.
JE: Your wife wasn’t the one who got the vinyl copy of it over at Radio Free was she?
KA: Nah…
JE: There was the best local record store close down, and it had all this stuff on vinyl everybody wanted, and I waited till the last day to go get it.
RC: That’s always the way when record stores close. You always say “Do I go in now or do I go tomorrow…” It’s a tough one.
JE: Well, that’s all the stuff I’ve got.
RC: Oh. Thanks very much then.
LL: You played “This Is Just A Modern Rock Song” last year in Atlanta as an encore.
RC: We did?!
LL: Yes, you did. It was fantastic.
RC: I don’t even remember.
LL: Yeah, it made the show. Everyone was silent.
RC: I really have the worst memory… There were certain bits of Atlanta I’d forgotten and when I got [back] there, I was like “Ahhhh. Riight!”
Yeah, it’s one of those songs that’s more an encore song. It’s a little more loose than the other songs. We haven’t rehearsed it. It’s definitely one of those you stick on the end as an added bonus rather than being a core song. I’ll mention it to everybody and sort of see if it’s possible in that scenario.
LL: I’d rather hear “Slow Graffiti!”
RC: We’ll see if we can do both.
LL: I’ve never seen you do it live. I’d be so excited.
RC: We didn’t play it last night, so hopefully tonight we will. It’s on one of those core lists that we’ve got. But Stuart’s actually got a little infection at the moment and his throat’s not holding out so well at the moment, so he went to get his voice checked out. It’s okay, it held out last night and it was good and stuff. But the set list is really dependent on what he can put out. But we’ll see what we can do.
JE: And if you have a request, you can call the station at…]
*Please see: http://www.missprint.org/cgi-bin/anylistsearch.cgi?query=masturbation%3B+laura+llew&list=sinister&smode=Phrase
**Please see: http://www.missprint.org/sinister
***Please see: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F7071EFD3A580C718DDDA90994DB404482
****Please see: http://www.jeepster.co.uk/showstory.php?id=42¤tsection=belleandsebastian
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