When and why did you first write music?
At College on my Fine Art Degree I became interested in minimalism making white paintings and gently scratching into them with a blade. At the time I was going to see a lot of the American minimalist composers at the RFH. Back at college I found a room full of dusty old musical equipment and proceeded to experiment with multi track tape loops, I couldn't play any instruments so it was just voice and found sound. As a kid I'd always been fascinated with Revolution No 9 by the Beatles so I guess I threw some of that cut up method in there too.
In the late nineties I was in a couple of bands, improv and the like, also was in an electronic duo, with a mix of improvisation and Atari ST sequencing.
What’s your composing method? (a) sitting at a piano (b) computer (c) pencil on manuscript paper (d) improvisation with musicians (e) other.
All of the above I've done in the past.
With the first MOB album I would usually get a line or a chord sequence and take it to horsemouth and we'd flesh it out together. With the latest EP, we did some of that but the majority was me playing around with the ukulele. I consciously tried to stay away from obvious chords, but on the ukulele that's hard to do. So I bought a guitar which I don't know how to play and that helped free me from knowing what I was doing.
Where do your ideas come from?
We have one song where we have lifted the lyrics out of the Quran, but even that has a familiar theme of loss, of water, of distance between people. The first album was directly related to the end of a relationship. horsemouth and I would have these competitions as to who could find the bleakest songs and that influenced my writing and allowed me to go to very dark places. I wrote about me, but also was influenced by the news (man loses job, kills family, etc). This EP I tried to make more positive, the bleakness, the sense of helplessness is there I think, but there are hopefully some uplifting choral moments. There's a song we have done two versions of (Noah), mine ends on a positive note whilst horsemouth's is more in the spirit of the band.
I got a lot of lyrics for the new songs too from listening to conversations on buses or trains. One was inspired by a road rage incident I saw, another came from a report about the Blackwall Tunnel that horsemouth saw. I wove that one into a memory I had of being in the back of a car whilst the couple in the front seats were arguing about the most trivial things, yet they'd managed to keep their relationship alive for years.
Do you find inspiration from other musicians? Which?
Yes lots. This kind of music is fairly new to me, I must say I have immersed myself in the folk scene over the last couple of years, before that it was a small part of what I listened to. A lot of the first album with the Musicians of Bremen came from listening to old folk songs especially from Appalachia. I'm a hoarder when it comes to music, so I have a massive collection. People say they can hear the old Madchester scene in some of the songs on the new EP, I admit I did try to give a few songs a Mondays bounce. I can hear a bit of Nick Drake, certainly the Beta Band and Department of Eagles. All fairly conventional really. One direct influence on the tune 'Yer up and Y down' is Syd Barrett weirdness and a track by Bauhaus called 'The sky's gone out'.
yer up and Y down is a completely improvised track, which goes into this ambient part based on a holiday me and horsemouth went on. It's supposed to be us watching a group of people sitting in a pub and then walking home, but I imagined I was by myself in the song, so you hear only one set of footsteps. Oh forgot to mention a track by Caribou remixed by Four Tet, it's called Melody Day. A few more, Painting Silhouettes by Quantic, some of the Hush Arbors stuff, John Sinclair by John Lennon and Skydive by the Astronauts.
Which non-musical influences are important to your music?
Listening to conversations on buses, a few of the conversations I recorded and included on the last EP. Some of the stuff I see whilst cycling, especially the really angry scenes that can sometimes occur.
What do you say when asked to describe your music?
No one's asked me to describe it. I would say it goes through waves stylistically. I think the next music I/we record will have less structure, be more experimental. What would I say if someone asked me; it's well recorded, it says something worth hearing. I'm proud of it. It's the kind of music I would go out and buy and if I was a punter, a listener, I would be excited to hear what might come next. Actually I would probably just say, it's a bit folky, acousticy, with harmonies. Some of it's a bit depressing. A lot of the songs on this EP are about love (in a strange sort of way)
Do you think about the listener when you’re composing?
I think, would the people I know be interested in listening to it, they have good tastes, so if it can pass their judgement then I'm doing alright.
When did you feel ready to call yourself a composer?
When I started composing.
What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
I don't feel guilty about listening to music, that's a very Catholic question.
What’s your ideal night out?
It's not going out and dancing all night like it used to be. Although actually an ideal night out would be wandering around a big festival like Glastonbury with my best friends and seeing what strange events we can find.
One last question: What are you doing musically at the moment?
I'm having a break, I have passed on the studio and most of the instruments to horsemouth so he can have a go. I have started a Musicians of Bremen podcast where once a month we put a track listing together and release it to the internet. Sometimes it's good to have a break though.
No comments:
Post a Comment