WTSH Interviews Louise Trehy
of Strata Florida and Swallow
Interview by Preston Maddox
How and when did you get into music? When I was 12
years old I went to a summer camp for learning Irish and met some older boys
who were Bowie and Iggy Pop fans and that was it. I was familiar with some
American bands such as the Ramones and Blondie through an American friend who
came to live Dublin. At secondary school I liked New Wave such as John Foxx,
Gary Numan and eventually that led on to alternative bands such as Echo and the
Bunnymen and The Cure. Records in Ireland were all on import and were very
expensive; still, that's what I spent my money on.
Who are your influences? All of the above really! The Cocteau
Twins are my favourite band overall but I also like noise, psychedelia and
weirdness.
Favorite Swallow song? Peek-a-boo.
Swallow's first record was released on 4AD, who at the time was putting out
records by Throwing Muses, Lush, Mojave 3, The Cocteau Twins and The Pixies. How was your experience with 4AD? At first it was very exciting, they were
my favourite label, and Ivo Watts Russell was certainly very enthusiastic about
Swallow. We recorded the album where the Cocteau Twins did Treasure, but we hadn't quite finished writing the songs and
naively thought some spontaneous creativity would happen in the studio. During
the recording I felt the production took over and I lost the connection I had
with the music. Being a non-musician, I couldn’t identify what was wrong; it
was very frustrating, so hardly surprising my performance wasn’t great. Ivo was
obviously disappointed; he was very critical of me and clearly favoured Mike,
even suggesting that he would be better off with another singer. To release a
record that everyone felt wasn’t as good as it should have been was unpleasant
to say the least. 
Did you feel an association with that
label's sound or any scene at the time?
I liked the
ethereal side of 4AD such as Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil and of course the
Cocteau Twins, but also bands like Dif Juz and Ultra Vivid Scene. However, we
always felt very inferior to most of the bands on 4AD. Shoegaze was a very
supportive scene and we went to each other’s gigs, so yes, we did feel part of
it.
After 4AD the band moved to Rough Trade
records and released an EP, toured with Mazzy Star, then split up after the
label lost funding in the middle of recording your second album. What was
different about your time on Rough Trade? Mazzy Star
were big Swallow fans much to our surprise, they told Geoff Travis to sign us.
He was sympathetic and very generously financed a home studio and just let us
get on with it. Therefore Rough Trade were supportive in allowing us to work in
a comfortable environment, and allowed us to develop without interfering.
How was the tour with Mazzy Star? It was a huge
honour to be asked to tour with them, even though we had only ever done a
handful of gigs. By then we had recruited Curve's live drummer and guitarist
who helped enormously, but we were trying to recreate a studio sound live so
that was difficult. The JAMC and My Bloody Valentine used to come to gigs,
which was quite intimidating!
After Swallow split up you quit music for
around 20 years. Why? How did it feel to stop? Mike had
started drifting towards dance music and I couldn’t identify with it. Other
singers were coming to our home studio and I found this hard; inevitably we
split up. I left Mike with all the recording equipment, therefore I had no way
of recording; besides, I didn’t feel I could write songs independently of him.
The whole thing was making me very unhappy so I abandoned music entirely; I
eventually stopped going to gigs, as well as buying music or actively listening
to it, even the classic old stuff.
How did you spend your time during your
hiatus? I got
married, moved from London to an extremely remote part of Wales where I quite
enjoyed the solitude. I was writing for a living, had three little girls to
bring up and I also studied Art History, I was kept fairly busy!
After 20 years away what made you decide
to start playing music again?
I joined a
local choir and started thinking about melodies. These started to occupy a lot
of my thinking time so I started making crude recordings on a borrowed 4 track.
I initially thought I would just write choral pieces for some of the girls in the
choir to sing. At the same time my marriage broke down, quite spectacularly and
I found that writing songs was therapeutic, especially thrashing a guitar. I
was completely absorbed in the process and even though this was quite a
difficult time, I actually discovered that being free from relationships was
completely liberating. This was actually one of the most creatively content
periods of my life.
What started Strata Florida? Who's in the
band? I had written
most of the songs that are on Made of Stars
over one summer and did imagine it as an album. However, my musicianship was
extremely lacking; I could play guitar enough to put the structure in place but
it wasn’t really adequate. I had imagined some strings on some of them and I
knew Pavli was a viola and cello player, so I was going to approach him in
writing string arrangements. However, I saw him play bass in a band where he
was playing chords and doing really interesting melodic bass lines so I sent
him some rough recordings, and we started to work together. He had worked as a
professional musician, could play anything and had a wider musical experience
than I had. We just hit it off really well. I knew Steve through playing drums
in a friend’s band and asked him to do the live drums.
What is your gear setup? This is
embarrassing because we actually had very little and had to put together a
basic studio very cheaply. We record through CUBASE and use some VST instruments;
most of the sound is developed after recording through editing and processing
on CUBASE.
Louise:
Squire Fender Stratocaster AKG Elle mic BOSS VE-20 vocal processor FX: 2
settings on a BOSS MICRO digital recorder-a tremolo and distortion, and a
flange sometimes.
Pavli: Ibanez
bass guitar Squire Fender Broncho bass guitar Fender Stratocaster VOX
valvetronix amp
While listening to the song
"Automatic" the electronic elements really stick out. What do you
use? Strings on VST
instruments heavily processed.
What effects and electronics are your
favorites? For vocals,
chorus and reverse reverb and I also used some real tape echo. For guitars
tremolo, distortion, double delay and reverb.
The art for the Strata Florida release Made of Stars is a great match for the
music, equally earthy and surreal, sometimes comfortable, sometimes
disconcerting. Who was the artist? What was the process?
Carrie Ann
Baade, she is a Professor of Painting at Florida State University. I came
across her work accidently through researching another artist and approached
her for permission to use the picture, which she kindly granted.
How did the Saint Marie deal come along? We uploaded some demos to Soundcloud,
mainly to get some feedback on better recording techniques. Wyatt Parkins got
in touch to say he liked the songs, I looked up and label and was really
impressed by the bands on there. It was all very straightforward. He is very supportive;
we have a good relationship with him and many other bands on the label.
What are the biggest differences between
your first time in music and getting back into it? I didn’t know
enough the first time around and I didn’t really involve myself in the
recording process. I am still learning, but I love the technical side of things
particularly in production. Because I wrote the songs myself, I had a certain
idea how I wanted them to sound so I was more confident in developing the
sound. Pavli really encouraged me to take control myself and have faith in
myself, so I have enjoyed it much more this time round, definitely.
What do you think of the new shoegaze
scene? Any favorites? I
think it is very exciting, there are some great bands around: I do really like
most of the bands on SMR! Outside of the label I like The Flying Cape
Experience, The Stargazer Lilies, The Fauns, Lights That Change, Clarence
Mayhew, Ummagma, Lorelei Meets the Obsolete, TOY, Snowbird and many of the
Bella Union bands. I do have a soft spot for some of Tom Lugo’s more noisy
work. I am still catching up though, there are loads more who I like that I
have heard one or two songs, but have yet to listen to their albums!
