Did
you folks really meet on Facebook? Do tell.
AB: Hewson and I first virtually bumped into each
other back in the MySpace days. I'm pretty sure that we were switched on to
each other's music via Greg Hughes from Still Corners. Greg and I were fellow
south Londoners at the time. Sadly, Hewson and I didn't keep in touch after
MySpace folded, but in early 2015 found ourselves reunited via our mutual
friend Phil Sutton from Pale Lights. On a silly Facebook thread he started
about frozen food of all things…
HC: The interwebs brought Matt and I together too.
I looked him up to hear what he sounded like and one of the first hits on
YouTube was a cat car chase video: Holy Fuck's "Red Lights". I
pretty much knew we would work great from there. I have cats in common
with Matt, and TV dinners in common with Allison.
AB: I'm severely allergic to cats and have never
been able to set foot in either Hewson or Matt's apartments!
You
all have played or currently play in other bands (New Lines, The Silver
Abduction). How do you find the time, and is this on top of regular day jobs?
AB: It's a challenge. We all have day jobs and are
raising - or soon to be raising - young children. I think that when free time is
in short supply, you just have to grab what you can get - focus, and get down
to work.
MS: You have to choose between sleep and art. I
still choose art.
HC: Time is a tough factor for sure, but the
technology helps - like you can sketch in broad strokes with plug-ins before
actually hooking up the Farfisa, or what have you...
How
does songwriting usually happen? Are all three of you actively involved in
writing your tunes?
AB: Yes, we all are. We ping ideas back and forth
and constantly share audio via Dropbox. The tunes start with one of us passing
around a fragment, adding parts here or there in my home studio in Miami or
Hewson and Matt's in Brooklyn. I moved to Miami a few years ago after a decade
in London. It's an easy 'commute' up to NYC to join the rest of the band -
Hewson & Matt plus Rene, Sohrab and David from our live group - for shows.
MS: Hewson and I often record random drums at the
crack of dawn and then he returns with a pile of tracks he made from them. Then
we beat them into submission. It's so backwards to me but works well with our
geography and time restraints.
HC: Yeah sometimes the song will start with
Allison singing a random melody with no words. Sometimes we'll start with a
drum track that Matt belted out after me being like, "What's up with the
purdie shuffle?" Other times I'll have some little filigree banging around
that needs a story, or something to give it direction and Allison will say,
"This one is about the Heaven's Gate cult." Those last two examples
ended up being the same song.
What
informs your songwriting? You include some rather fantastical themes in your
storytelling. It is all fascinating, and not your standard fare.
AB: Songwriting is a mysterious process. I'll
begin with a melody, and work with that until the vowels and consonants start
falling into place. Eventually, some skeletal words will emerge - and I'll
begin to get an idea of who is communicating and what they want to say. Every
song has its character, its setting, and its story. The common denominator
among the characters seems to be their marginality and their need to be heard.
Often their stories are distressing and difficult to voice, but no performance
is compelling without genuine emotion driving it.
HC: She's very earnest. You can joke around like,
"How about a song about the rise of modern epidemiology?" and voila,
Dr. Snow and the Broad Street Pump. She used to work in a bookstore,
that's got to figure in somehow.
How
would you self-describe your music if someone asked what you’re about?
HC: An Italian friend once exclaimed "old
time music!" after hearing some tracks. I chose to take it as a
compliment.
AB: I once read on a guitar forum that we'd sound
right at home soundtracking "The Love Witch 2" - that works for me.
You
now have two full length albums, some EPs, and a collection of previously
released and some unreleased tracks. If you had to name one favorite tune, what
would it be?
AB: Julia's Call. It was the
only track off Birds of America that
I could persuade Hewson to sing on. And the character was so powerful that she
ended up informing several other songs on the album: One Of Your Own, The Cross
of Lorraine and Westway.
MS: One Of Your Own.
HC: Yet Still Tomorrow Comes. The words are so
stark and chilling. I thought Allison has got to be a dark, brooding type
person, but oddly she has a reasonably cheery outlook - generally
speaking! Matt matched this sense of mystery by choosing a beat which
starts, uncommonly, after beat 1: something which haunted me greatly when first
(re) learning the song for playing live!
We
have a mutual friend in the cool Jack Rabid, who has done a lot to promote the
band. Are there other one of a kind folks out there who have sung your praises,
such as Nathan Ford?
AB: Yes, we are so grateful to Jack - he has
really gone above and beyond to promote our music, both in print and on the
air. A lovely man and a true champion of underground artists. As for Nathan -
The Active Listener has long been a great place to discover new music and I'm
glad to see it continuing. We're very grateful to Dom Martin, who has released
all of our vinyl via various imprints HQ'd in his north London kitchen. Also
Renato Malizia of TBTCI (Brazil) & Laurent Boyer of WW2W (France) with whom
we've done digital & cassette releases. More locally, Paolo DeGregorio of
The Deli NYC, Bill Pearis of Brooklyn Vegan, and Maz Hadid who booked our debut
show at NYC Popfest (currently on hiatus, we hope it will return someday).
What
are you all listening to right now that fans should look out for?
AB: Beautify Junkyards, Green Seagull, Vanishing
Twin, Kadhja Bonet. A long-lost Vannier / Gainsbourg soundtrack for the film
"Les Chemins de Katmandou" - recently released by Finders Keepers, a
favorite label of mine. A trio of early 70's aquatic-themed jazz / electronic
albums by Italian library composers: Amedeo Tommasi's "Mare
Romantico", Edmondo Giuliani's "IL MARE: Musica Con Strumente
Elettronici", and Bruno Zambrini TV series soundtrack "Racconti Di
Mare" (Sonor Music Editions).
MS: Omni, Light Beams, Patois Counselors, 1939
Ensemble, No Age, and most pre-1970's jazz.
HC: Elizabeth Cotton, and more recently Listening
Center's Paths and Surfaces by our
very own David Mason. I like to imagine science fiction scenes around his songs
- like people in austere environments interacting with machines.
Do
you find the Brooklyn scene to be as vibrant and close knit as it used to be?
Some have said it’s faded a bit, and some have left due to rising rents.
AB: I'll have to leave that question to the guys
as I'm never in town long enough to form an opinion! I love being in New York
though. Like London, it's truly an international city. You can feel at home
there in about 5 minutes because it belongs to everyone. You get on a train and
hear conversations in five languages. There are other regrettable similarities,
namely the gentrification. The inflated rents and housing instability that such
unchecked capitalist gluttony creates have definitely forced people out of both
cities.
MS: Coming from an actual tight-knit scene in
Dayton, OH, I never felt like there was any scene in Brooklyn. When I moved to
NY 18 years ago my band was sort of lumped in with the "disco punk"
silliness at the time, but the only band we felt a real brotherhood with was
Les Savy Fav. I think it's easier to have a scene around a couple localized venues,
record labels, and/or record stores. Brooklyn has hundreds...
Any
extensive tours planned to support the new record?
AB: No, we don't think so unfortunately. We love
playing shows, but it's costly - we're a big 6-piece band live. We'll continue
to play NYC & the east coast. We've had a wonderful reception in the UK
& EU so would love to get across the pond someday. My dream gig would be
the Lewes Psych Fest with the magnificent Innerstrings on visuals, or the Green
Man festival in Wales, surrounded by mountains.
