Bowlegs: First thing’s first, I wanted to say that we love this record at Bowlegs. There is so much to appreciate and it’s beautifully crafted. It was no surprise to hear that production of the album spanned a long time. Can you […]]]>

Bowlegs caught up with singer-songwriter Jonathan Wilson before the Manchester leg of his UK tour. We talked about how his acclaimed 2011 album Gentle Spirit came about, our shared love of vinyl and his plans for the forthcoming year.

Bowlegs: First thing’s first, I wanted to say that we love this record at Bowlegs. There is so much to appreciate and it’s beautifully crafted. It was no surprise to hear that production of the album spanned a long time. Can you tell me a bit about how the recording developed?
JW: It did take a while because there wasn’t a real plan as far as a timeline. There were some sessions that were the birth of the album, but when those were done that only ended up constituting 60 per cent of the album. So the remainder was just done throughout different sessions and then it wasn’t until I did the title track that it felt like the ending of the whole thing … and I was like “it’s done”.

And then we worked on the sequence … but even that took time. Taking tunes off the album and, you know, basically taking my time with sequences, testing them on some buddies. And then from that point it took a long time to get together the team to get the thing out in the right way. Because, for me, I was very scared that it would sort of pop out at the wrong time and wouldn’t be anything.

Bowlegs: So by letting the material unwind, did you have it in your mind you were creating something that would be discovered gradually rather than an instant hit?
JW: Yeah, definitely. There are records, like Pacific Ocean Blue or Skip Spence for example … each time I listen to those albums things begin to unfold, so you hear a bit of percussion or something you didn’t ever hear. So that’s definitely something I’m interested in and like to do.

Bowlegs: Albums that are composed in this way are normally the ones that stand the test of time, right?
JW: That would be good. Yeah, that’s definitely a goal and always should be the goal … the ultimate accolade would be to create something to be discovered and enjoyed even when I’m out of here!

Bowlegs: Your sound has a real analogue feel to it, which seems made for vinyl. As a bit of a vinyl nut, I have to say that the double pack edition is a real thing of beauty – was that something that you initiated? How did it come about?
JW: So the LP was about to come out and there was talk about possibly having to cut down some songs because it was so long. I mean, at one point it didn’t fit on one compact disc … which is insane! A past of jazz and being a fan of that explains the durations of the tracks, because the album is definitely long. At the time I didn’t think that cutting it down was a problem but Bella Union stood up and said that this thing needs to be as it is and so that was how the double thing developed.

Bowlegs: Having taken such a painstaking approach to recording the album, is it a joy to take it on the road?
JW: For sure … and with this band man. This is a crack band and I was extremely lucky to be able to hand pick these guys from all the studio stuff we do together back home. I sort of have a pretty good handle on the whole town there, so which guy plays what … so this is definitely that type of band.

Bowlegs: Now I know you visited the UK last year supporting Wilco, but this particular tour feels like a much bigger deal. The album has featured in many of the ‘best of 2011’ lists and you’re getting very positive write-ups. Are you aware of the extra attention? Do you pay much consideration to the reviews of your music and gigs?
JW: Yeah and it’s actually been staggering to me the amount of positivity. Usually there’s always somebody that is trying to take the piss out of it and you kind of expect that, but that’s definitely been a distant backseat to the good vibes we’ve had. The best thing though is to be able to play a show like we just played, coming into a place that’s completely packed and the people have the record, so when you start a song they know it … that’s the best!

Bowlegs: What can we expect from tonight’s gig?
JW: The gig is different from the album in that the record is calmer and the gig will be, at times, a little more amped up! Which is, in my mind, another arc you have to build … I mean, it takes a certain artist to be able to play extremely quietly and for people to be satisfied. So we are still in the stages of trying to give a well-rounded kind of show that has got some excitement in it and not completely calm. But, you know, it has both.

Bowlegs: So what’s next – what are your plans for 2012?
JW: Back to the US on the 15th and as soon as I’m back I’m doing an album with Roy Harper, who is actually there in my house as we speak. That will be so much fun. He is ‘the shit’ and just to be able to hang out with him is a gift. The guy is one of the great poets, like hanging out with Keats or something. So that’s fucking cool. Then we’ll be back over here in spring and summer. Round about the fall is when I will put in some time on my own stuff.

Bowlegs: I’m always interested in what artists listen to. I have to be honest I find it hard to picture you listening to any current bands. But correct me if I’m wrong here, what have you been listening to recently?
JW: You’re not wrong man. I keep trying! But most of our time is spent discovering older stuff and things that we love. So we’ve been listening to Roy Harper all the time, since he’s been our friend, and we’ve been going through his whole catalogue and every little thing he has ever done. My drummer has thousands and thousands of tracks though.

Bowlegs: He’s the iPod man on tour then?
JW: Yeah man, he goes deep … very deep. So we listen to the usual suspects, like from Gong to Can, and then on this trip we’ve been listening to a lot of things from England. Actually on our last trip we got a chance to meet a guy that we really like by the name of Bill Fay. He’s great man. We listen to him a lot, plus things like The Incredible String Band and that kind of stuff. But we probably listen to 60 tracks a day, so it’s just going all over different styles. But not a lot of new bands, except people who are our friends.

Bowlegs: Finally, when I told a friend I was going to interview you they said that Gentle Spirit was a real sad record for them. There’s certainly a heavy dose of realism – Can We Really Party Today? for instance – but, for me, it’s not so much melancholy as things that you can’t quite understand. How would you sum up Gentle Spirit’s theme?
JW: Well, I was consciously trying to cover the ups and downs, the sadness and the jubilation. And definitely not be swayed particularly one way or the other. But there is an ultimate type of sadness to me, which is the things that you love and hold so dear and the fact that they are coming to an end for you and them. So definitely, when you sit down to compose an album then that is in your head at some point. But not to dwell on that. The title track to me is ultimately about some hope, that’s what I’m trying to garner. So things are not as disgusting as they might seem, because it doesn’t matter what we do to this earth, there will still be things that can grow here. So, for me, the general theme is one of hope.

-Interview by Jamie Nicholson-

Bowlegs: I’m really interested in what you’re doing from an artistic angle – it seems […]]]>

Is it possible to mash noise, soul, sass, edge, and post modern aesthetics together? U.S. Girls’ Meghan Remy thinks so. Ever since we saw the amazing video for If These Walls Could Talk, we’ve been intensely curious about the thought processes behind U.S. Girls. We tracked down Meghan to talk some smart shit on gender issues, identity and inhabiting the ghosts of singers past and present.

Bowlegs: I’m really interested in what you’re doing from an artistic angle – it seems really sophisticated and brave. The videos of The Island Song and If These Walls Could Talk are provocative statements about how young women look and sound?
Meghan: My artistic angle is to try and be as honest and simple as possible. If These Walls Could Talk is a song about abortion. I wanted to portray the theme through the many faces of one woman in turn, representing all women. An abortion can make you feel sadness, relief, pain, desperation, like you dodged a bullet, anything really. I wanted to open this subject up wide and let it just be quickly viewed and digested without judgement … like a flip-book.

The Island Song is about talking with someone who wants to die and you are telling them, “No, you have to stick around,” when just earlier in the day you were having the same thoughts of death. It’s the push and pull we participate in with other people that allows us to find some kind of balance. I wanted to show two lives at once going through the back and forth dance of existence. And how in the end, you really need other people. You can’t get through life alone.

I made both of these videos with the help and input of women that I love and trust. I could never have made these honest pieces without them or with others in their place. Neither of these videos were made with the intention of showing women as objects overly concerned with beauty or appearance. I wanted the beauty to come from movement and expression … not clothes, good lighting or designer threads.

Bowlegs: There’s a really strong impression of your music and image working together, the two aspects aren’t separate. The music comes first I imagine, but do you ever start out with an idea of how a video might look and how the music might follow from that?
Meghan: I have only ever made videos for songs that already exist. I would love to try the other way around. I imagine that a different sliver or your brain comes alive when you are creating music to go with specific visuals. 
 
Bowlegs: I’m reminded particularly of the work of Cindy Sherman, in the sense that you seem to have the ability to inhabit a ‘style’ really passionately without being necessarily ironic. The soulful passion that’s in your voice really reminds of the Crystals or Ronnie Ronette, but it’s disarming because you somehow know that you mean it. Yet, your lyrical content is so radically different to those 60s songs. Are you intentionally trying to spin the listener out?
Meghan: I love Cindy Sherman and feel like she embodies a certain something that every girl/woman has inside of her … the desire to see yourself outside of yourself as someone else entirely (follow that?). I have always worshipped Ronnie Spector and Darlene Love, and I know I can never be them, nor do I really want to do be them … so, the other alternative is to appropriate from them, learn from their sass and intonation … play with their ghosts (not that either of them are dead – knock on wood).
  
So, I am definitely trying to sing in a more classic R&B voice, but the lyrics are not of that classic material. The lyrics are 100 per cent my input, not influenced by my favourite voices or songs. It’s interesting to see if anyone is really listening to what I’m saying. Is the ‘style’ of my voice influencing what they think the song is really about? It’s hard to say.

Bowlegs: And, is it liberating playing with these alternate identities, or are you trying to throw them off – can the history of the sound of female voices in music weigh you down and be oppressive?
Meghan: It is liberating and more importantly it’s fun. I feel like the history of the female voice is barely written. It’s exciting to look into what history there is and pull from it while writing my own history that is almost diametrically opposed to the history that exists, but also in love with it. I get a kick out of old songs written by men for women to sing, yet deep down they make me sick – I just can’t stop listening to them or being influenced by them.

Bowlegs: It sounds like you double track your vocals quite often – does that help to distance the material and somehow make it easier to be objective about it?  
Meghan: It helps to distance me from my own voice. It makes it not as familiar to me, which then allows me to feel less restrained and shy, and really project how and what I want to. Double tracking gives me courage.

Bowlegs: How conventionally do you put your music together? How big a part does the old and knackered equipment play?   
Meghan: I am moving away from the old and run-down equipment a bit. I still use old drum machines, all my old pedals and microphones, but I am supplementing it all by working with a producer (the insanely talented Slim Twig) who has more up-to-date equipment and skills. It’s a bit of old and new together. I still crave the warmth that dated equipment gives off. Though I am not as moved as I used to be by tape hiss, distortion and instruments with crackly inputs/outputs. It came out of nowhere, but all I want now is to be loud and clear.

Bowlegs: We hear you Meghan. Thanks!

-Interview by Julian Tardo-

Bowlegs: Have Some Faith in Magic is a shift in sound, […]]]>

The new Errors‘ record, Have Some Faith In Magic, finds the Scottish trio experimenting with Dance, Electro, Pop and even a touch of vocals. It also happens to be their finest album to date – and that’s saying something. So with everyone happy, from the critics to their label bosses Mogwai, it seemed like the right time to approach the band and get the low-down. Band-member Stephen Livingstone stepped forward.

Bowlegs: Have Some Faith in Magic is a shift in sound, a move towards a form of widescreen pop almost? Would you agree?
Stephen: I never really considered it to be a pop record. I think things like the addition of vocals probably push it slightly in that direction and the fact that it’s got quite a lot of melody in it. But a few of the tracks are over six-minutes long and a lot of the ideas going on are kind of complicated. I always find it easier to have people tell us what kind of record we’ve made. It’s impossible to have an objective view of it, having spent so long making and concentrating on it.

Bowlegs: Was the recording process for this record different from the previous?
Stephen: I guess it was less studio-involved. We recorded most of it in Simon’s living room in his flat because our studio roof collapsed halfway through recording. I think that lead to quite a relaxed approach to making it, but also meant the environment was pleasant and was actually somewhere we wanted to go to on a daily basis, rather than a studio that was constantly freezing and in a shite part of town. Simon and I mostly worked independently then came together at night to show what we’d been up to. We worked out a good way of being as productive as possible, but still made time to discuss what we were doing. It was quite intensive, but never felt like a chore – we always made time for breaks and, since his studio set-up was in his living room, we could move three inches over to his sofas and watch TV and eat food if we weren’t getting anything done.

Bowlegs: So you’ve started using your voices in the new album – why now, and what was the thinking behind it? Plans for singing on the next one?
Stephen: I guess it was mainly because a lot of the music we were beginning to listen to had vocals being used in interesting ways – stuff like Panda Bear, Oneohtrix, Hype Williams. We wanted to treat the vocals as another instrument, rather than using them as a platform to say something interesting. I was focussing more on the effect that certain vowels had.

Bowlegs: When writing the songs for this record, were they approached in a different way, and how does each song start its life?
Stephen: Every song is different. Some were written and recorded in one take in one day; others had much longer gestation periods. A song like Earthscore changed hugely from its beginning as a demo and new sections got added to it and deleted and replaced many times over the process. Some songs you could do that with forever, but we mostly seem to know when it’s ready and we’re happy with it. 

Bowlegs: I often wonder how the titles for instrumental songs come about? Why name a song Blank Media for instance?
Stephen: Blank Media was the last piece of writing I saw before I went into the studio to start writing said tune. It seems like it could perhaps be making a statement about music today, but really it’s just a phrase I liked. Most of the titles are just influenced by whatever we’ve been doing leading up to writing the tunes. Earthscore started because I had the film At the Earth’s Core on in the background when I started that one – I think it probably ended up influencing the overall sound of the tune.

Bowlegs: Do you take the demos to the bosses (Mogwai) and get their take on it? What did they think of the record?
Stephen: We didn’t let them hear anything until we had finished it. They don’t really operate in that way. They are very easy going and open to us doing whatever we want, within reason I would imagine. If we handed them a record of us burping for 45-minutes they might not accept that – we could probably convince someone else to put that one out though. I got an email from Stuart Braithwaite the day he received the record saying he loved it. There’s always a slight fear that they might turn round and say they aren’t into it, but it’s not happened so far.

Bowlegs: How are these songs working out live? Do you change them in any way?
Stephen: So far we’ve only performed them live once. I think they are pretty true to the record, but we’ve maybe tweaked the sounds of things slightly and the addition of the live drums on some of the drum-machined tracks is a difference people might notice also.

Bowlegs: What records were you listening to while recording the album?
Stephen: A lot of Brian Eno and Midnight Star.

Bowlegs: What’s planned for the rest of 2012?
Stephen: UK tour at the start of this year, then Europe, hopefully the US, then shit-loads of great festivals over summer, including the excellent Field Day in London. We plan to get an EP together and out towards the end of the year also, but we’ll have to see, as things are already getting pretty hectic.

Bowlegs: What’s behind the […]]]>

Cloud Nothings’ new record, Attack on Memory, is a whirlwind of eight hook-heavy, guitar crashing tracks – and to be quite frank we can’t get enough of it.  Main man Dylan Baldi has never struggled for a melody or two – he makes this whole song-writing lark look a little too easy. We caught up with the songsmith and musician to question him on Albini, wasted days and why we only got eight tracks this time round.

Bowlegs: What’s behind the title of the new record Attack on Memory?
Dylan: It’s referring to the fact that the album is a bit different from our previous records, and in context as a lyric on No Sentiment it’s sort of a tongue-in-cheek phrase about nostalgia.

Bowlegs: We’ve read that the making of the record with producer Steve Albini was a little different – Facebook Scrabble for instance? Yet the music sounds great, what’s his secret?
Dylan: His secret is that he works in a world-class studio and knows what to use to make a record sound fantastic. He did play Scrabble fairly often, but it wasn’t at the expense of helping us out and making our record sound the way we wanted it to. He didn’t make any suggestions to us about our music, but as long as a band goes into his studio knowing exactly what they want to accomplish they will come out with a good record.

Bowlegs: Our particular highlight on the record is Wasted Days? Where did the frustration and disillusionment come from to write those words? Did you always intend to have a long instrumental section on the track?
Dylan: I think most people feel that sort of frustration and disillusionment when they’re around 20 or 21. It’s not like I’m feeling that way all the time, but for the 15-minutes that I was writing lyrics for the song I decided to use that emotion.

The instrumental was intentional from the beginning, yeah. I wasn’t totally sure how it was going to work, but we played it as a band many, many, many times and finally ended up with something that made sense.

Bowlegs: How do you feel this record compares with your previous album, and are you already thinking of where you might go next?
Dylan: I think it’s a step forward song-writing wise. I’m always trying to progress as a writer and try things that I hadn’t thought to do before. I’ve written a couple of new songs since this record was finished, but I’m not sure about an overall direction for the next album yet. We’ll see!

Bowlegs: Why only eight tracks? Were you short on material or did it just feel right? It certainly makes the record feel more direct and instant?
Dylan: I thought eight tracks was just the right amount for the album. I’m not really interested in ever making an album that’s very long. A lot of my favourite records are eight or nine songs long and don’t feel like they’re too short, so hopefully Attack On Memory seems that way too.

Bowlegs: What albums have you been listening to lately?
Dylan: John Prine – John Prine; Seam – The Problem With Me; ‘Blue’ Gene Tyranny – Out Of The Blue; Frederick Squire – Sings Shenandoah And Other Popular Hits.

Bowlegs: And the plan for 2012 is?
Dylan: Tour forever and hopefully get some recording done for a 2013 release!

This Fortune by Islet

Bowlegs: We’re loving your album – it feels like a rebirth of […]]]>

Islet’s debut album, Illuminated People, marked the beginning of 2012 for Bowlegs. The Cardiff band’s DIY and experimental flow was more than evident on their previously released EP’s, Celebrate this Place and Wimmy, but this was on a whole new level. In fact we felt we had little choice but to get in touch with band member Emma Daman and fire some questions her way.

Bowlegs: We’re loving your album – it feels like a rebirth of some kind,
revitalising live experimental music. Would you go along with that?
Emma: Thanks very much. To us this record is not so much of a rebirth than a continuation of what we’ve been doing for the last couple of years. We’ve had a couple of ‘mini-albums’ out, so to us this is record number three. It just happens to be a bit longer.
 
Bowlegs: How did the sound of the band evolve?
Emma: When we first started we filled a rehearsal space with loads of instruments and percussion and wandered round playing what we felt like playing until some songs emerged. As time has gone on we have stripped away some heavy objects for practical reasons. This record in particular is different to the first two (which we recorded ourselves) because we worked with a producer, engineer and a lot more microphones! Also it’s the first record where we hadn’t played any of the songs live before the recording, we were stepping into the unknown.
 
Bowlegs: Did you start out with an idea of what you didn’t want to sound
like?
Emma: We started out with a positive idea about how the music and bands we love make us feel – we wanted to communicate that feeling. It’s easy to be negative, but it’s not terribly helpful in making things happen! We wanted to play every gig like it was the biggest gig of our lives, we wanted to have fun and for that to come across in the music.
 
Bowlegs: Who’s the most prescriptive band member, or are you all intolerant of musical rubbish?  
Emma: One of the things that I most appreciate about this group of friends is that none of them are prescriptive at all. None of us would be like “What! You’ve never heard of such and such band? You have to check them out!” because we don’t believe that anyone has to listen to any music. I have an innate dislike of being told what to do and in my experience music geek bossiness crushes any nascent interest in me. So, in my opinion, anyone can listen to anything – if it makes them happy, that’s fine by me!

 
Bowlegs: Each sound has a place almost like a sample – it doesn’t matter how it got there, or who plays it. And it seems to give new life to things like drum kits and guitars. Are you conscious of the effect you’re having over these instruments?  
Emma: I like the fact that it doesn’t really matter who plays what. There are so many limitations in the traditional set-up of having a set instrument and a job to do, so it’s great to be free of that, and I know that whatever peculiar suggestion I might have, it may not work, but at least the others will be up for trying it out.
 
In Islet we have no hierarchy of instrumentation, the person playing the tom drum and the person playing the guitar are just as important. You’ve got to immerse yourself and really believe in whatever you’re playing. Whether you play every note spot on is here nor there, but the vibe in the room is what it’s about. And as we don’t have as much time to spend together making music or playing gigs as we’d ideally like, when we actually do it can tend to build up and effervesce in over-excitedness!
 
Bowlegs: What’s the Cardiff scene like? Does it matter where you come from? Do you feel like outsiders?   
Emma: I’ve lived here for nine years, so it definitely feels like home! I think Cardiff is welcoming wherever you’re from, it certainly was to me, and we’re used to a steady influx of people coming from all over to go to uni. As the capital, it’s the city with the most gigs and record labels in Wales, but it’s small enough to travel about and get to know people. So I recommend moving to Cardiff. Croeso i Gaerdydd!
 
Bowlegs: The album cover seems to suggest the point where the bubble burst in that aspirational type of culture. Hands in the air while the markets crash. There’s a lulling quality in your music that feels like the calm after the storm somehow. Do you think events around you can ever impact on the sound of your music? Or is it that you exist in a bubble?  
Emma: That’s an interesting point. The sleeve began with a tiny photo of 60s hippies going free, which I was drawn to because of the hedonistic optimism and a the ship-going-down poignancy … but I wasn’t aiming to reflect the wider socio-political shit-storm we’re in, because I personally don’t feel informed enough to make a useful point.
 
In terms of what we write our songs about, we all have jobs and meet a lot of people who have very different lives to us, and three of us are family so there’s plenty of that in there. Musically, there’s a balance between planning ‘let’s do a song that makes me feel like X band does’ and whatever on earth actually happens to come out when we all get in a room together! Islet was started in some ways to be our own island, where we try as much as possible to be kind to one another and to not do anything that might make us want to vom.

 
Bowlegs: Sometimes you seem to collapse several stylistic elements into a song. Does that feel like a challenge both to yourselves to be able to pull that kind of thing off, and to your audience?
Emma: Sometimes we may decide to write a song that is quite consistent, then we won’t be able to resist wedging in a bit of another jam and we end up enjoying it a whole lot more. I think that’s how Entwined Pines and What We Done Wrong came about, for example. It’s not a challenge, it’s what comes most freely to us, which I guess is why some people dig it. But if they don’t, I can perfectly understand why we might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
 
Bowlegs: Finally, what’s next? Where are Islet headed this year?
Emma: We’ve got our first gig in Japan at the end of January. Our friend Ewan Jones Morris, a filmmaker who made our last two videos (and is in the process of making a new one right now), is coming with us, and he’s going to shoot an experimental documentary during the trip, like a 21st century Sans Soleil. Then we’re planning on doing some gigs in UK and Europe, making some new tunes, zines, gifs and 3-D photos along the way and hopefully emerge bright-eyed bushytailed at the other end.

-Interview by Julian Tardo-

Bowlegs: Nostalgia was a heavy presence in the original sound of 1988-92. What My Bloody Valentine recalled was a golden […]]]>

Originally a British phenomenon from the early 90s, shoegaze is a genre that has influenced a whole host of recent US bands. Beyond their new signings, US label Captured Tracks has begun re-issuing early releases from lesser known US shoegaze bands such as Deardarkhead. We met Captured Tracks head honcho Mike Sniper to discuss the ongoing draw of being blissed out.

Bowlegs: Nostalgia was a heavy presence in the original sound of 1988-92. What My Bloody Valentine recalled was a golden 60s/sunshine pop aesthetic which had been physically degraded and worn. And now we have a nostalgia for that nostalgia, do you think that’s the case?

Mike: No, I don’t think so at all. If anything, there was a very brief return of whatever you’d like to call the shoegaze sound to mainstream indie media coverage about two to three years ago, but that’s dissipated. Even so, it wasn’t nearly as widespread as it was in 88-93. It was a tiny little retro-influenced sound that a couple bands in NYC and SF touched on, not a full fledged airways-takeover.

I don’t think there’s any more nostalgia towards that era from us than any other era looking back 20 years prior. Seems to be the way it always is. I’m not really trying to tap into nostalgia. My whole reasoning behind doing this series was because almost every other era and genre in rock and roll has been reissued a ton. While this era hasn’t really been delved into beyond the obvious.

Bowlegs: Is the sound of shoegaze forward or backward looking?

Mike: Well, that question can be answered in a million different ways. I think whenever you make guitar-based music that touches on a past genre, you’re going to be pigeonholed and marginalised. More so if it’s something that occurred in the late 70s up to the 90s. Constant re-updates of the Beatles, Rolling Stones or Ramones seem to garner less negative feedback for some reason than if you’re more influenced by Joy Division, The Clean or even MBV.

I think there’s a weird set of influences that journalists deem okay to constantly retread, like we always will need to have a band aping The Stones circa 69-71 somewhere to make rock vital, but anyone with a post-punk bass-line is a Joy Division rip-off. It seems to be relegated to only electric guitar based music, which shoegaze certainly is. It’s a guitar sound, more or less, developed at that time.

Bowlegs: So how does the reissue on cassette of Deardarkhead tie in with that?

MS: That was a straightforward reissue of their first cassette that they did in 1991. We couldn’t fit all the songs on the LP version, so we wanted people who bought the vinyl to have a physical product option for that material.

Bowlegs: In the US how aware were you at the time of the jangle/C86 Sound (C86 was a cassette issued free with the UK pop weekly NME in 1986)? Had you heard of Bristol’s Sarah records, the uber-shambolic label that combined the impossibly twee with overly reverbed vocals?

Mike: Everything came later. People who were into Sarah and Creation were pretty few and far between. On college radio at the time, you heard Jesus and Mary Chain, Lush and MBV, but you never really heard too much from, say, The Orchids or St. Christopher. I think in the States at that time, it was a more regional way of listening to music. A lot of that led to a lot more aggressive music. If you were from the suburbs and found decent music, you’d probably be into hardcore punk, all the industrial EBM coming out of Chicago and goth, or maybe college rock like The Pixies, Camper Van Beethoven and later Yo La Tengo and Pavement. To get really deep into UK indie was pretty rare, and I think that was because there’s so much ground to cover here. Pre-internet, it was nearly impossible for someone in the middle of America to even know what C86 sounded like because the records were nowhere to be found.

Bowlegs: The reissues of the Should LP reminds us of a strong C86 vibe. Melody is important for those bands right?

MS: Yeah, more or less. I mean, I personally need melody in my pop songs when I listen to them. It’s not as important if I’m listening to jazz or electronic music or what have you, but I’m a staunch believer in songcraft. That being said, Should actually would sample all their noises and piece them together melodically, which I think is brilliant.

Bowlegs: The appeal for us of the MBV sound is that it kinda reminds us of something that Klaus Dinger once said of Neu! That the music recalled long trips in the back of the car as a kid staring out of the window. But it’s also something to do with the appeal of soft focus in general – it’s something like reverting to a child like state. Dive kinda remind me of that sound. What are your thoughts about this?

Mike: MBV was never on the radio much here, they only became a mainstay influence after they were gone. So, in the States they’re far more mysterious. I think if nostalgia exists here it’s for Nirvana, who I was never a huge fan of, but I really see and hear it everywhere these days. Dive certainly have a soft focus, and I suppose the melancholic melody does create a sense of nostalgia, but I think that can be said for most successful indie rock.

Bowlegs: These days you could mash up these sounds quite easily in a sequencing program like Logic, but most of the nu-gaze bands seem to record quite traditionally. It seems like a reversion to traditional forms of recording – the live take, with spill, room ambience, on tape, even old four or eight track tape. Is it a rejection any technology post-2000? Blouse’s Videotapes has that four track rounded edge to the sound.

Mike: I don’t see Blouse as nu-gaze at all, really, so I can’t comment on that. But, I have noticed a lot of musicians wanting to work in more traditional studio environments if only because they never have before. Honestly, that’s achieved mixed results. In the past two years a lot of bands have been going to the big studio to make their ‘real’ album and a lot of them have been just plain bad. The reason is because a big studio today is not what a big studio was in the 60s, 70s or even 80s. You have a big room with new microphones and it all winds up on a program like the one you recorded with at home. You’re not going to get that rich sound of a Fleetwood Mac record or a genius like Martin Hannett. The 90s big rock sound is still in the studio and it’s not going anywhere. Drums sound like total shit.

Check the Bowlegs album review of Should here: Should – A Folding Sieve

-Words by Julian Tardo-

Eleanor: You don’t sound like you’re from Portugal…

Bowlegs: Sorry, I think you’ve been […]]]>

When Bowlegs interviews musicians from America we expect certain things to be lost in translation. What we didn’t expect, though, was for Eleanor Friedberger to kick off the interview asking questions of her own. We wanted to hear about her first solo album after nearly a decade working with her brother Matthew as Fiery Furnaces. She wanted to know whether she would have to try to speak Portuguese…

Eleanor: You don’t sound like you’re from Portugal…

Bowlegs: Sorry, I think you’ve been misinformed…
Eleanor: That’s Okay, you’ll be easier to talk to. Where are you calling from?

Bowlegs: Brighton, on the South Coast of England.
Eleanor: I’ve been there! Played there, gone there just for the … you know, beach visits. Never swam, but I’ve been there. I don’t like sandy beaches. Stony beaches are much nicer. I don’t like getting sand everywhere.

Bowlegs: So, you know where we are…
Eleanor: I’m here at home [New York] for a couple weeks before heading back to Europe next weekend. We’re playing Brussels, London and Lisbon. Europe’s great. I mean, it’s very different from travelling from state to state, even though you’re travelling the same distances, you know. It’s much more exciting to drive as far as it would take to get from … I don’t even know, New York to Boston, and you’re going from France to Germany. It’s very different. More exciting, as well, being in a different culture so quickly. 

Bowlegs: And your British date in this cultural trip is at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. Do these kinds of places exist in New York?
Eleanor: They do … but not like … I know them as either more like Latino or Italian. I’m sure they exist across all cities, but obviously I’ve noticed them being Italian, or Puerto Rican or Dominican, like social clubs where old guys play cards and stuff like that. I mean, you don’t see them too much but they do exist. I know of one old Italian men’s club that was taken over by some hipsters and turned into a kind of late-night, after hours club. I’m sure they exist a lot, but I don’t know that many. But, yeah, you see them. Although this place [Bethnal Green] has been remodelled – it’s like a fancy club; it’s not really a working men’s club anymore, is it?

Bowlegs: No, no. Are these the kinds of places you look for when you walk around your neighbourhood? It sounds like it on your solo album.
Eleanor: Yeah, I guess, me and my friends find them, and look for them. I guess that’s the best thing about living in New York, is that it’s such a big city. There’re always new things to discover and there are so many neighbourhoods. I mean, it’s easy to feel like a tourist, or a stranger in your own city. Which I think is one of the great things about living here. I know that’s true of London, and Paris, and any other big city.

Bowlegs: And how long have you been a New Yorker?
Eleanor: Eleven years. I’ve been here eleven years, in the same neighbourhood, so I’ve seen it change around me quite a bit.

Bowlegs: Has it gotten smarter?
Eleanor: Smarter? Is that what you said? You mean…? Yeah! Yeah, it has become more gentrified. There are more bars and restaurants. That sort of thing. Clothing stores.

Bowlegs: And have your feeling towards your first solo album changed in the same way your neighbourhood has?
Eleanor: Well, it came out in the middle of July in the States, so I’ve been playing it pretty regularly since then. The band [Fiery Furnaces, with her brother, Matthew] … in the band that I’m in, we always make a point of rearranging our songs live. So we’d never try to recreate the albums on stage. And, so, I didn’t want to do that so much with this. But, inevitably, that’s kind of happened, and all the songs really do begin to sound differently. The album was mostly written on a piano, and I’m not using a piano live, it’s just guitars, bass and drums, so that alone has forced us to change the arrangements a bit but it’s been really fun!
I’m playing in a rock band and the songs – they’re all recognisable, I haven’t changed the melodies or anything like that – sound really good. And I’ve been lucky to play with a lot of really great musicians. I like it because it’s something totally different for me. I’ve also been doing shows on my own, like as an acoustic solo thing. So it’s been great to have that balance, playing with the band and then also with just myself, which I’d never done before.

Bowlegs: And the madcap lyrical phrasing of Fiery Furnaces songs. Was it a major decision to write more simply?
Eleanor: Well, it’s not a question of easier or harder – it’s just different. I’ve never had a problem with the words – even lyrics that my brother wrote. It’s just another batch of words, you know? Regardless of who wrote them, as far as performing and memorising, it doesn’t really matter where they come from. But yeah, in some ways it’s simpler, because it’s just me and I don’t have to think of somebody else, anybody else’s identity or method, so in that way it’s easier.
It wasn’t like I was holding on to these songs and I didn’t think they were appropriate for a Fiery Furnaces album because they were too personal or something like that. I said, “I’m gonna make a solo album.” And I sat down and worked on the songs. I didn’t want it to be too much of a big grand statement. So I purposefully wanted to do it as quickly as possible.
I wrote the songs over about six weeks, and recorded in about six weeks, and it came out, relatively quickly. In that way it was a little bit different because even though Fiery Furnaces work pretty quickly, this time it was always my own inertia. When you’re working alone versus collaborating, it’s just two totally different worlds. You don’t have anyone else to rely on, but you also don’t have anyone else to say “No”.

Bowlegs: Different worlds indeed, considering that Matthew is two albums into an eight record cycle he wants to get done this year.
Eleanor: Yeah, well that’s his talent, just making stuff up. He could write a hundred songs in a day. Are they all going to be good? No, but it’s that easy for him. And the project he’s doing – I don’t wanna speak for him, but, well – to me it’s very specific. He’s doing six albums, using a different instrument on each album. It’s a fantastic art project. I was setting up to do something very different from that.

Bowlegs: So are you the sensible sibling?
Eleanor: I wouldn’t say that! No, we complement each other well. I don’t know, maybe I’m the sensible one, but he … he’s got a lot of sense. I turn to him for advice more than he turns to me. Don’t know if that’s an indication of anything. Maybe I’m more pragmatic.

Bowlegs: Do you check out other sibling bands, see if they act out the same dynamic?
Eleanor: Sure. Yeah. Well … I’ve met a lot of brothers in bands, and sisters, but not bands with brothers and sisters. I think it must be a different dynamic with a man and a woman – especially an older brother and a younger sister. I think the one similarity is that you’re quick to argue and you’re quick to forgive. Like you don’t even have to make up. You can get into some pretty fierce arguments but not have to go through the process of making up because you’re so used to that kind of bickering.

Bowlegs: So, with no bickering at all on Last Summer tours, hopefully, what are your immediate plans?
Eleanor: Well I’m touring through the spring and I hope to come back next year to do a bigger tour with the band, do more European and British shows. Then I want to do another solo album. I’ve been playing a lot of new songs in my set. I have almost a whole album written. So I’d like to get that done before the next Fiery Furnaces album.

Bowlegs: And is this album going to be scribbled down in old New York clubs?
Eleanor: Ha! Oh, I’ll write it using a little bit of everything, depending on the situation. But it always starts with words. These new songs I’ve mainly written on guitar, as opposed to the last album, which was mainly keyboard. But then I got an iPhone about a year ago, and that changes everything! It’s great for using the voice memo thing, for recording doodles and little lyric ideas and notes. So, yeah [she sounds genuinely sad] … I’ve moved further and further away from paper.

Bowlegs Review of Eleanor Friedberger’s Last Summer

Eleanor Friedberger is playing Bethnal Green’s Working Men’s Club on December 1st backed by a full live band.

-Interview by Jim Milne-

With so much love in the room we knew we had to get some questions to the band – thankfully drummer Pat O’Neill was on hand to tell us everything we wanted to know.

[…]]]>

When we heard the self-titled debut from Melbourne quartet Twerps it was like hearing the best of Flying Nun’s vinyl catalogue with fresh ears. Needless to say we love every damn minute of it, in fact we pushed the boat out and gave it an 8.5.

With so much love in the room we knew we had to get some questions to the band – thankfully drummer Pat O’Neill was on hand to tell us everything we wanted to know.

Bowlegs: How did the band get together, and who came up with the band name?
Pat: Marty and Rick met each other through working at a video store and instantly bonded over their love of music and films. One sunny day over a few beers they decided to write a few pop songs and Little Guys was the result. I think they decided upon Twerps that day too. They asked me to play drums the next day and we sought out Julia a couple of weeks into jamming. She said yes!

Bowlegs: How did you get involved in Underwater Peoples?
Pat: I believe we got an email from them a year or so ago saying they were keen to put out a 7″. They had already done some great stuff that we all liked and that made us super excited. We got to hang with them when we were in New York earlier this year and they were great guys too.

Bowlegs: We know you like The Clean, but what other bands influenced the album’s sound?
Pat: We all listen to lots of different music, so I guess we are influenced by numerous bands. We all love the Flying Nun stuff like The Verlaines and The Great Unwashed, but we are also influenced by Australian music from around the same time such as Paul Kelly and The Go-Betweens. There are also many contemporary Melbourne bands that we feed off like Panel Of Judges, ECSR, St Helens, Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, just to name a few.

Bowlegs: We hear elements of Velvet Underground in the songs – especially the strummed finale in Jam Song? Are they a band that has inspired any of you?
Pat: You could say that. We’re all Velvets fans. I’m a fan of Moe Tucker’s percussion, in particular its subtlety and ability to let the guitars shine through. Marty definitely loves a vigorous strum, which I guess, in a way, is a very Velvet Underground thing to do.

Bowlegs: Bring Me Down is a great track – it stands out due to the spoken vocal. It’s like a lost Lee Hazelwood classic – have you heard much of his stuff?
Pat: Once again, we’re all Lee Hazelwood fans. Marty and Rick wrote that track in the studio while Jules and I went out for more beers. It was sounding great but the vocals weren’t quite right. I suggested Marty went for a spoken word approach and it instantly changed the song. We all agreed it had a Hazelwood vibe and we were happy with that. From there we had the idea of back up vocals from Julia and Hayley and Amy from Super Wild Horses.

Bowlegs: On the drunken anthem Who Are You? members from Eddy Current Supression joined in – how did that come about?
Pat: It was just Brendan actually. They are friends of ours from around the traps. We asked a bunch of our friends to come in that evening to do backing vocals. It was great fun. The choir consisted of members from Super Wild Horses, Beaches, Panel Of Judges, Dick Diver, Bitch Prefect, and Chapter Music.

Bowlegs: Being an Australian band, do you think it is harder to make your mark on the music industry?
Pat: I guess the internet makes things a lot easier these days. You can record a song one day and the next day a bunch of people from around the world can be listening to it. Being geographically challenged isn’t much of an issue these days.

Bowlegs: What’s your favourite track on the album?
Pat: I’m always a fan of the tracks I don’t play on … ha ha … so Bring Me Down would be a favourite. I like Don’t Be Surprised also. This was a track we’d written some time ago and we were almost ready to give up on it. Dion Nania (Panel Of Judges) did some great shredding on it and I think Marty did a rad job with the vocals.

Bowlegs: The songs often talk about relationships – are songs like Anything New written from experience?
Pat: That would probably be a better question for Marty to answer. The lyrics are more of a personal thing for him, although they’re about all of our lives. I have a hard time deciphering them myself, as they seem to change from gig to gig. Thanks Marty!

Bowlegs: What’s been your favourite record of 2011?
Pat: Tough question. There has been a bunch of great stuff. I think we’d all agree though, that it has been particularly good year for Australian music. The UV Race, Panel Of Judges, Total Control, Royal Headache, Dick Diver, Lost Animal, and Geoffrey O’Connor, just to mention a few, have all put out great records. There has been lots of good stuff from all over the world too. I’m a big fan of the White Fence record from earlier this year too.

Bowlegs: What’s the plan for Twerps in 2012?
Pat: We have plans for a March/April US tour in the works, which is very exciting for us. After that will be writing and recording I’d imagine.

Bowlegs: Hi […]]]>

While we at Bowlegs try to maintain our aloof detachment, there are some people who immediately make us feel like teenage fanboys. One such artist is Yoni Wolf of alternative-hip-hop-meets-indie-folk-rock band WHY?, previously of cult acts cLOUDDEAD and Hymie’s Basement, and one of the founding members of the progressive hip-hop label Anticon. We caught up with him for an interview ahead of Why?’s upcoming intimate UK tour and found him in the middle of mixing their next album.

Bowlegs: Hi Yoni. What are you up to?
Yoni: I’m in Atlanta, Georgia, mixing the record with a guy named Graham Marsh.

Bowlegs: We saw some of the photos on your Facebook page: is it just being recorded in a little house or a proper studio?
Yoni: Oh, no, we’re not recording, we’re mixing. Most of the recording happened down in Texas in a big studio called Echolab, and then … I don’t know what you’re referring to, but probably images of me recording vibraphone at a house. I recorded some vibraphone and some background vocals at this house out in the country and then we recorded my vocals at a studio in Cincinnati. Different places.

Bowlegs: Okay, right.
Yoni: And I’m mixing down in a studio down in Atlanta called Parhelion.

Bowlegs: How’s it all coming together, the new album?
Yoni: Well, I think this is the crispest and clearest album I think that I’ve been working on. It’s maybe less washy or psychedelic, or a little more punchy.

Bowlegs: Do you mean musically or lyrically clear?
Yoni: Well I guess I’m referring to it musically when I say that, but lyrically I think it’s very tight – tight rhyme schemes and, I dunno, I can’t really speak about the content. I don’t really know what it’s about yet. We’ll find out when it’s done. But yeah, it’s pretty well crafted I think.

Bowlegs: You’re coming over to the UK in the next couple of months, to do that grand piano tour, who are you bringing with you?
Yoni: It’s just the core band; me, Doug and Josiah.

Bowlegs: It’s going to be intimate dates with a grand piano set-up and the audience sitting down – does that reflect the content of the album or is that just something you wanted to do?
Yoni: It’s kind of weird, it’s just something that I wanted to do, going out with just the three of us, just the core, sort of previewing these songs that are just getting finished mixed and recorded. We thought well, we’ll just go up and give a sneak peek to people, you know, do it like that.

Bowlegs: We just found out that Serengeti is going to be supporting.
Yoni: Yeah, sure.

Bowlegs: Yeah, we’re definitely looking forward to that. You produced some tracks on his last album.
Yoni: I did, yeah. I produced half his album.

Bowlegs: Are you going to get on stage with him, do any vocals or anything like that?
Yoni: Perhaps! I hadn’t planned on it, but who knows?

Bowlegs: We know that Sole left Anticon and there’re some other people who we haven’t heard much from recently – where exactly is Anticon at the moment? Do you see where it’s progressing and how involved are you with it?
Yoni: Oh, I don’t know, I mean that’s hard to say, where it’s progressing. We just pick up artists that we like. How involved am I? Well, I’m not involved in the day-to-day running or anything like that, but I vote on stuff that I think should or shouldn’t be on the label and I’ve always got my eye out for new talent, if I see somebody that I like.

Bowlegs: So … when you released Alopecia back in about 2008, that was your breakthrough album when you went from being just music for fans to getting into the mainstream media. Did you feel that sort of change and did that affect you at all, or was that incidental to what you were doing?
Yoni: Yeah, I mean, shows got busier, I guess, around when that album came out. I mean, not a lot busier, but I would say ever since we’ve started it’s been gradual. We’re not the type of band that’s just a flash-in-the-pan kind of blow up then fall off kind of thing. We’re very sort of DIY, and that kind of aesthetic has always, for us, yielded slow growth. But yeah, we definitely did notice a bump up when that album came out, and more people came to our shows. So yeah, that was nice.

Bowlegs: We did see in an interview recently, you said that it’s touring that’s paying the bills at the moment – is that where you’re at? How does that work out? Do you enjoy being on tour?
Yoni: Err … sometimes. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t – it depends. I like travelling definitely, seeing new places.

Bowlegs: You did a cover of Close To Me by The Cure, which is coming out on a sampler for One Inch Badge – did you do that specifically for them?
Yoni: No, I had done it a while back just for fun and Alex Murray liked it a lot. He heard it and liked it and asked me if I’d be interested in putting it out on something.

Bowlegs: We’ve seen you playing keyboards – are you a properly trained pianist or is this something that you’re just having to sort of work your way through?
Yoni: I’m a … songwriter/arranger pianist, not a classical performing pianist or anything like that. I play piano for utilitarian purposes, you know, to be able to write and arrange. Doug is a better piano player than me – he’s classically trained so if there’s anything on a record that sounds like really nice classical piano, that’s Doug. If it sounds like somebody banging around on a piano, that’s probably me.

Bowlegs: Yeah, Doug always seemed like the sort of quiet but useful member of the band…
Yoni: For sure.

Bowlegs: And he’s been with you guys from almost the start hasn’t he? We know that Josiah’s been doing some solo stuff, is Doug planning any solo stuff or is he just happy where he is?
Yoni: Well, you’ll have to ask him that – I’m not sure. I mean, he is arranging the Serengeti portion of the tour, so he’s writing arrangements for that and accompanying Serengeti. So that’s something different that he’s doing that I think is going to be really neat. I’m very curious to see what they do. But as far as writing solo music, I’m sure he is. Whether he’s going to release it or something, I don’t know. But he’s always fiddling with something.

October UK Dates:
- 23 Oct – Colston Hall 2, Bristol (Grade II listed building and fully functioning gig venue)
- 24 Oct – Union Chapel, London (Grade II listed building, a working church and sublime sounding venue for live music)
- 25 Oct – Duke Of Yorks Picturehouse, Brighton (the oldest functioning cinema in the country)

-Interview by Toby Dore-