Interview: The Veils

MAN OF TWO WORLDS

“We might be dead or dropped in a year; then these songs will make sense.” Finn Andrews reflects upon The Veils new album Sun Gangs with James McGalliard in Reading

“When [debut album] The Runaway Found came out, I felt like the success we had that early on, I really didn’t deserve. And I think that was part of the reason for dissolving that line-up. I didn’t feel ready to be playing to that many people, and in some parts of the world out of nowhere it was a thousand people showing up. And I didn’t feel up to it at all. I was just scared by the whole thing”

Finn Andrews, singer, songwriter and founder of The Veils is someone who lives by his feelings in the present moment, and knows that these diverse impulses will make some sense in the future. In his work and in his writing he trusts his inner voice; the world will catch up in time. So to talk about their third album, Sun Gangs, we end up talking about its predecessor. “It seemed odd with this album [Sun Gangs] coming out and people were talking about Nux, and ‘oooh Nux Vomica - a hard act to follow’. It just seems so bizarre because when it came out no one seemed to give a shit... I was so excited about that record and it came out and waiting for what’s everyone’s reaction gonna be. There was a kind of shrug until about a year later…”

“With this one I feel so proud of it, and when we finished it I was so overawed with just everything that had gone in to it. It just reminded me of this whole time - it’s just so personal. I don’t really care anymore or keep track of it anymore what people are making of it. It is really complimentary and humbling if people compliment you on it.”

There is a world of contrasts in both Andrews, and the music he and the band creates. Born in London, raised in New Zealand, his speaking voice is deep, and somehow both authoritative and uncertain at the same time. There’s ferocity in his onstage delivery, yet here in the real world there’s an indefinable vulnerability to him. But although seemingly conflicted, he’s honest and genuine throughout.

“It’s a huge gift to be able to do this, and a huge responsibility as well”. He continues, “It’s been the source of all the greatest joys of my life so far; you also have the burdens with that. I love writing and I will do anything to be able to carry that on. It’s an unsure time for everybody. Not just musicians. No one is quite sure what is around the corner. The last few years the whole time I have been writing I felt like there was kind of strange impending something…”

“There is just something about this [The Veils] that has never wanted to stay in one place. Whenever we’ve tried to tie anything to the ground, it just rips away the cord, and floats off. It’s a constant balancing act this band. I think that’s maybe a lot of the great things come out of. I think we are gonna be constantly pissing people off and making new fans and losing old ones.”

Both the weakness and the strength of Sun Gangs is its eclecticism. From its jauntier aspects to the vitriolic tirades, it’s a difficult album to categorise. Andrews explains, “I really enjoy albums where you feel you are just being led like a hound by a scent and you don’t really know where you’re gonna end up, but you’re just being carried through weird corridors and it’s a real little unexpected journey and I think that’s what I wanted to make and I don’t know if I completely succeeded in that, but that what I always want to make the experience.”

There are themes that unite these songs, but exactly how this works is elusive; it’s more like a feeling than an intellectual conceit. The album ends, ironically with Begin Again. “I like that song because it begins at the end and ends at the beginning. I love songs with incredibly pessimistic words sang in quite a merry way,” he tells me.

But centrepiece of Sun Gangs is the epic Larkspur. “It’s a song I enjoy playing more than any other song. Ever! I just get such a kick out of it. For me, it’s a song about everything I love about making music… It’s just about that urge to write things down, and to perform, pick up the guitar, bash the shit out of the piano; just all about that love and that need. It seemed right to describe it in few words as possible.” And how did you record such a beast? “We treated that like it was a real living entity that we had to really respect and not tie down when it wasn’t looking. We didn’t rehearse it... I knew the day we recorded it, it would just be me waiting for the right space… It was like being in a movie about The Veils… We just went in and played it in one take and there it was. That was my favourite part of recording the whole thing – it was so organic and so unforced.”

As Finn sings Larkspur later that night before a Reading scene there for the chat rather than the bands, his earlier words make sudden sense. His disdain, his anger, his aggression, his frustration, all expressed through the repeated three lines of the song. For live it becomes a living creature; the universe encapsulated. From the cheesy pick-up lines, to the background hubbub of the chattering classes, to the worries on the horizon, to the turning of the earth, it consumes it all.

There is change in the wind. For these recent shows, The Veils have added a new member – Louisa on backing vocals. And one day someone else will leave, and there’ll be another room to fill. So what does the future hold? “It’s all just about the songs for me. I don’t care about any other aspects of this; whatever allows me to keep writing. That still feels worthwhile to me because it personally helps me. If I couldn’t do that I don’t know what I’d do with myself…”

“Songwriting is so great like that – all of these things all at once. It’s such an unspecific part of your mind that you’re casting in stone. It’s not a journal and it’s not some dream description. It’s all these things, all at once, and none of them at all. So I don’t really know what this album means. We might be dead or dropped in a year; and suddenly these songs will make sense. Maybe I will be in the band of my dreams and everything will be fine.”


Sun Gangs is out now on Rough Trade through Remote Control


© James McGalliard 2009
This interview was published in Inpress # 1070 in Melbourne on 13 May 2009
I interviewed Finn pre-show in Reading on Saturday 18 April 2009

Live: Howling Bells, Asobi Seksu and Red Light Company - London

Howling Bells / Asobi Seksu / Red Light Company
Islington Academy, London, UK
Monday 9 February 2009

There’s nowt wrong with Red Light Company, but they don’t give you many reasons for undying love either. They sound like the sort of band that A&R scouts sign up hoping to be the next big thing, who go on to release some moderately inoffensive radio fodder, and then disappear without trace at or before the second album. One song name checks Broken Social Scene, so in return I’ll namecheck them as a less imaginative Secret Machines, the prog replaced by Guillemot-isms with a pinch of Brian Molko. Expect them to be huge – briefly.


I don’t know what happened to Asobi Seksu tonight, but it’s hard to find positive things to say about their performance. From the flat vocals, to the keyboards that drowned out the guitars, to the lack of songs – it’s really just a tuneless mess. Then it gets worse, the sound is turned up to distortion levels, which fails to cover what just isn’t happening on stage. Near the end they begin to pull it together; their last track is C86 in feel, and has the merit of seeming to be going somewhere. Then they run out of time. If only more time had been spent on getting their live sound right and less on festooning the stage in fairy lights then everyone may have enjoyed themselves more.

When Howling Bells open with Blessed Night I think at last – a band! This is part of the NME Awards series of shows, and also the first gig for the new album Radio Wars. They use this to play all but one song off the new album, and it becomes a night full of surprises for band and audience. Juanita asks the audience to tell her something new, something she hasn’t heard before; “You look like a bloke” is yelled back. The highlights are from the new album; Golden Web is a genuine departure and all the better for it; the quiet allows the harmonies to shine through. Miss Bell’s Song is the sound of a band working together, and Digital Hearts is quietly subversive – the song builds, but doesn’t break.

Howling Bells have always been a competent enough live act, yet their shows have seemed to lack some intensity. Tonight is undoubtedly the best I’ve seen them, and for the first time I’m seeing them take some risks, but there are problems as well. Tying the song title Cities Burning Down to the Victorian bushfires was possibly misguided, and while Let’s Be Kids Again is better than the album version, it’s still childishly awkward. By placing so much focus on Juanita, there’s the risk of the rest of the band being seen as Sleeperblokes –anonymous and interchangeable male personnel behind the star. Setting Sun is a real mess, even after stopping it to try and get it right. I’m not sure they know how to read an audience either– the long instrumental lead in to Nightingale is really great; trying unsuccessfully to get the audience to clap along to the song proper isn’t.

They end with Into The Chaos, and I’m impressed, but their encore is so audacious I’m won over. They electro shimmer their way through Britney Spears' Toxic, and get away with it. Tonight shows a band in flux, when they take risks and break rules they’re genuinely challenging, at other times they feel as if they’re operating within fairly closely defined parameters. The question is, which path will they take?

© James McGalliard 2009
A version of this review appeared in Inpress, Melbourne, on 25 February 2009

Live: The Veils - London

The Veils

The Macbeth, Hoxton, London, UK

Thursday 5 February 2009

Sometimes I’ll be asked why I’m going to see a band play again. Yet one of the joys of seeing a band many times over a period of time is to see how they alter and change. While sometimes they may evolve away from your tastes, other times you get to see them become something on a higher plane than when you first saw them.

Five years ago I saw the first line-up of The Veils launch their debut album; and eight months ago I last saw them, playing the fourth and final week of their Camden residency, road testing possible songs for their next album. Tonight they tell us that the finishing touches were put on Sun Gangs at the start of this week. They marked their return to the live scene by playing small venues over four nights at the four points of the compass around central London. Tonight was east, and found the four-piece in the cramped space of the Macbeth in Hoxton. The bar takes up about a third of the width of the room, and the band has to fight their way through the crowd to get onstage.

But what a difference the intervening months have made. From the opening notes of Three Sisters, it’s clear that they are more focussed and driven than ever. It has a searing urgency, and Finn Andrews’ ever-more insistent refrains of Oh My God build powerfully, with an underlying sense of menace. Whereas before the band were still compensating for the loss of the keyboards, now there’s a sense that a balance has been achieved without them. The sound is bigger, but also breathes - like a Henry Moore sculpture, the gaps are part of the whole, and not a loss. More than once I’m reminded of The Bad Seeds under Mick Harvey. Not so much for their actual sound , but the feeling of determination and single purpose, where the gestalt is much more than the sum of its parts. Henning Dietz’s restraint on the drums makes his flurries all the more powerful, while Sophia Burn is totally transported as she plays. Daniel Raishbrook’s guitar line on The Letter is wonderfully catchy, acting almost as a vocal response to Finn’s words.

And it’s not just the new songs that have been reinvigorated. Advice For Young Mothers To Be no longer canters along merrily – its steel spine is now felt. Jesus For The Jugular sees Finn mangling sounds out of his guitar; this is for real. Yet it’s not without tenderness. Sit Down By The Fire reflects a gentler side, and when broken strings bring things to a stop, Finn fills the time with a solo rendition of The Wild Son. The band rightly ignores the calls for Lavinia, which come like alarm clock on snooze mode, and they’re right to. For they’re not that band anymore, and the newer songs are far superior; I’d have loved to have heard more of them. They finish with a fiery Nux Vomica, and Finn comes back alone for the encore, and plays what he tells us was the first song he wrote upon arriving in London all those years ago. On record The Tide That Left And Never Came Back is a rollicking anthem; here it’s stripped back to its elegiac soul and becomes a beautiful and heartfelt requiem full of loss and regret. The Veils have always been good; they’re becoming magnificent.

© James McGalliard 2009

Setlist
Three Sisters
Calliope
The Letter
Advice for Young Mothers to Be
Jesus for the Jugular
Not Yet
Sit Down By The Fire
The Wild Son
Killed By The Boom
Nux Vomica

The Tide That Left and Never Came Back

A version of this review appeared in Inpress # 1058; published in Melbourne, Australia, on 18 February 2009

End Of Year Polls: 2008 Inpress Writers' Poll

INPRESS WRITERS POLL 2008 - James McGalliard

TOP 10 ALBUMS
1. Schoolyard Ghosts - NO-MAN
2. Rest Now Weary Head You Will Get Well Soon - GET WELL SOON
3. Street Horrrsing - FUCK BUTTONS
4. The Midnight Organ Fight - FRIGHTENED RABBIT
5. Love, Ire & Song - FRANK TURNER
6. Neptune - THE DUKE SPIRIT
7. Simple - ANDY YORKE
8. Third - PORTISHEAD
I’m deliberately leaving the last two empty for the great albums from 2008 I won’t hear until sometime in 2009, so sorry to Elbow, Goldfrapp, Secret Shine and others who may otherwise have got a(nother) vote


TOP 5 SINGLES
Umm, it’s me isn’t it? Has downloading killed the single? Or does iTunes make any album track a potential for the combined singles charts? OK, let’s stick to physical releases…
1. Like A Suicide / The Computer Voice – THE EARLY YEARS
2. Grounds For Divorce – ELBOW
3. Century – THE LONG BLONDES
4. Sweet Love For Planet Earth – FUCK BUTTONS
5. Fear Of Opening My Mouth - COLLAPSING CITIES
Just outside: Songs, Nick Cave, Mogwai


TOP 5 ARTISTS OF THE YEAR
1. Frank Turner
2. Fuck Buttons
3. Get Well Soon
4. Frightened Rabbit
5. My Bloody Valentine


TOP 5 INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIGS
1. Frank Turner + Andy Yorke + Chris TT @ The 100 Club, London
2. Get Well Soon @ Bush Hall, London
3. Fuck Buttons @ The ICA, London
4. Kid Harpoon @ Dingwalls, London
5. Frightened Rabbit @ Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London
Just outside: My Bloody Valentine, Working For A Nuclear Free City + Epic45


TOP 5 AUSTRALIAN ARTIST GIGS
1. The Wreckery @ Northcote Social Club
All I saw of note from Oz artists this tear. Sorry


TOP 5 RADIO SHOWS
1. Steve Lamacq (BBC 6Music)
2. Adam & Joe (BBC 6Music)
3. Marc Riley (BBC 6Music)
4. John Kennedy (XFM)
5. The Shipping Forecast (BBC Radio 4)


TOP 5 TELEVISION SHOWS
1. Battlestar Galactica
2. Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe
3. Underbelly
4. Sense & Sensibility
5. Doctor Who
Just outside: No Heroics, Peep Show, Top Gear, Have I Got News For You, South Park


TOP 5 ONLINE DESTINATIONS
1. Wikipedia
2. BBC (esp. News)
3. Guardian Unlimited
4. Digital Spy
5. Blogspot


THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES AWARD (MOST OVER-HYPED)
Kings Of Leon
Surely Elbow performing On A Day Like This was the television highlight of Glastonbury, yet it was the headline Pyramid Stage slot of these generic US rockers that made them a #1 artist


HIGHLIGHT(S) OF THE YEAR
Edwyn Collins’s live performance - a difficult yet triumphant return after his strokes; live reunions of My Bloody Valentine and The Wreckery for not being pale imitations of the past; dad’s gong; friends.


QUOTE OF THE YEAR (DON'T FORGET THE SOURCE)
“He fucked your granddaughter” – Jonathon Ross on The Russell Brand Show on BBC Radio 2.
Not the quote itself, but for illustrating that multiplatformed broadcasting allows you to be offended time after time at your own convenience (thanks HIGNFY), and for showing exactly how far the media will go in a witch-hunt.


BEST MEDIA MOMENT
Elbow winning the Mercury Music Prize (I was supposed to say Obama’s victory, wasn’t I?)


WHAT’S THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING SOMEONE WILL BLAME ON THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN DURING 2009?
Exorbitant booking fees for concert tickets / Morrissey failing to get a # 1 album


PREDICTION FOR 2009
C86 slight return, unemployment, celebrity overkill, rise of the right


2008 IN REVIEW (in exactly 150 words)
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; except it wasn’t really. It was just a little, er, mediocre. 2008 felt a little like a second series, where assurance had replaced the doubt, but some of the freshness and originality had been lost. There were no truly great albums, few television shows that stopped the heart, little new music likely to cause spontaneous joyous ejaculation. Instead it was all a little downbeat - we talked ourselves into a recession, and looked back at the nostalgic pillar of salt, rather than towards everything before us. Maybe the past just felt more comfortable somehow? Overall things felt less secure, the streets a little less safe, the unknown more of a threat. While the US writers’ strike affected many TV shows, Battlestar Galactica still managed to deliver one of the most stunning endings in the history of the medium.


© James McGalliard 2009

Live: My Bloody Valentine - London

My Bloody Valentine
The ICA, London, UK
Friday 13 June 2008

“Thanks for coming to our rehearsal. Our first gig is at the Roundhouse”. Thus from the outset, Kevin Shields is clear that this isn’t the finished artefact. But then they launch straight into Only Shallow and it feels nothing like 16 years since they last did this.

With time passing, there are things you forget. Like how tuneful many of their songs are. The boxes of earplugs by the entrance were a little worrying, but the mix is very dense and full rather than particularly loud. But it’s not all power; there’s fragility, particularly in the vocals of Bilinda Butcher, which make it vulnerable and human. All the vocals are mixed a fair way back, and Bilinda has a sweet innocence as she sings, seeming somewhat divorced from the proceedings. To her left Kevin Shields is head down in concentration, but allows himself a smile when things go just right.


The rhythm section is set far to the back of the stage. Debbie Googe dances around in her circle of foldback, while Colm O'Ciosoig is a solid and almost machine-like presence on the drums. They cover material from the Creation Records period, and of this it’s the Loveless material that works best. With sound sometimes being a maelstrom, it’s amazing how in control of it they all are. That’s not to say that their aren’t flat points, but for me the experience grew in the memory more than it gripped me at the time. But it was also a beast that gathered strength as it progressed, as both they and we came to grips with the expectations after so long a hiatus.

They still end their set as they did back then with the behemoth of You Made Me Realise. The central section of this became known as the Holocaust, but it’s not that at all. It’s more like a journey; the trip through the stargate at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. But standing there in awe, I realise what I’m hearing is an audio depiction of the Valley Forge ripping through the rings of Saturn in Silent Running. Communications arrays are destroyed as the ship enters radio silence for the white noise journey; then the ship emerges safely on the other side, but all are changed by the experience, and then reality intervenes as the almost psychedelic jangle of the song returns at the end.

This was as good as you could hope and better than you had any right to expect. So why the reticence? While people around me were melting in ecstasy, I found it a little hard to get involved. And then it hit me. I wasn’t hearing anything new. This was not even an official gig, so I don’t have much of an issue with that, but MBV were always trailblazers. Tonight they cemented their reputation as a live act, and allowed a new generation of fans to see what we had been going on about for so long. The time they’ve lost may be their greatest enemy; what will be most interesting will be if they’re able to go beyond Loveless into something entirely new. I’ll be hoping



© James McGalliard 2008

Interview: John Foxx

THE HIDDEN MAN

“I don’t want to be my own tribute band”. Electro pioneer John Foxx tells our UK correspondent James McGalliard how he’s looking forward, not back

“I see the tours going off in England, sort of Eighties things and I’ve been asked to join in with those and I won’t do it because I just think what we are doing is still alive and is going somewhere definite and we’re enjoying the journey and I don’t want to interrupt that”. John Foxx is in the high-rise bar of a posh hotel at the top of Regent Street in London, and is responding to me saying that his live shows (which he’s bringing to Australia for the first time this week) are far from retro.

“We are there to do music from some of the eras that we still feel are relevant. Some things from Metamatic and some things from even earlier - some stuff from the Ultravox! days and some from all the stages in between, things like Endlessly. Things that work with the way we play now, and also some of the very new things.”

But even the songs from thirty years ago seem to tie in thematically with the present work. “I don’t think there is anything that is inconsistent with the way we are working now, because when we look back on things I have written in the past there are themes that are present all the way through. And I like that, because there’s a thirty odd year body of work that is consistent.”

By all rights, John Foxx should be a household name. As punk grew into post-punk, he was the frontman and songwriter of Ultravox for their first three albums. After he left, they came up with Vienna, and Gary Numan found commercial success pursuing the path he’d laid down. When he wrote an album of ambient music in 1983, he couldn’t find anyone interested in releasing this new style of music. It seems that followers and imitators were achieving the recognition and the success that the pioneer didn’t. “It sounds vain when you say things like that, but a lot of that is true. A lot of things I did ten years before anybody else and then other people do it and it is like a new thing I just think, ‘Well, how interesting’. There is a price to pay for doing things too early…people ignore it until the time is right.”

But he hasn’t always been one with the times. He says his 1985 album, In Mysterious Ways, "was me driving on the pavement”. Shortly afterwards, Foxx disappeared from public view for ten years. “About 84 or 85 onwards I started losing interest in it – everything just got very boring to me. I wasn’t hearing anything I liked. I found myself doing those kind of things and I just thought ‘What’s the point? I don’t like any of this. So I should just stop for a bit’. So I walked away from all that…”

Time passed and around eight years later he found himself back in Manchester around the last days of the Hacienda and saw Louis Gordon playing at a commune party, and thought “I’ve got to work with this guy – he’s great. He just had a drum machine and a guitar he had borrowed from someone.” It’s this partnership with Louis Gordon that's been at the centre of his second coming and invigorating live shows. “A lot of that’s down to Louis because he was a fan of (my music)… He knew exactly how we wanted to hear it and it just turns out that’s the way I wanted to hear it as well. When we worked on that track together I thought this guy knows what he is doing.”

While live Foxx remains reasonably static, he rightly describes Gordon as “the human blur”. He continues in his soft Lancastrian lilt “I have never been that interested in being a performer as such. I think what I really like is recording best, but I also like getting on stage if it’s with someone like Louis because Louis is good fun to play music with and he knows my music probably better than I do myself he knows himself. It’s a good working relationship. It’s quite a hard thing to find that because a lot of people are competent but don’t have an intuitive understanding of that stuff. Whereas Louis does – it’s in his background, he grew up in Manchester and he has been right through that rave scene and he started off in the electronic scene. He’s been through all of it, and played all of it, so he knows all of it."

Melbourne’s second show will see only the fourth separate performance of Tiny Colour Movies, Foxx’s soundtrack to digitalised Super 8 movies. So what’s the story behind it? “I used to buy reels of film (from Brick Lane and Portobello Road markets) and didn’t know what they were and view them to see if there was anything interesting on them. Eventually I amassed all this stuff and didn’t quite know what to do with it. Then I saw this collector’s reel of films one night and thought ‘Yeah - that’s exactly right! It is finite. It does have a place in history’. And some of it is unique and some of the stories behind the pieces are very interesting too. It’s like reading an obituary; which is something I like - it’s not morbid at all. It’s very interesting because you get a summation of someone’s life and their achievements…”

“It’s about how ordinary things become extraordinary all the time, and it’s that kind of understanding. It’s also about the sheer beauty of it. I just like the look of that kind of quite crude film. Because you can now project it in a way that it was never intended to be projected, and the people who shot it would never have think it could be projected twenty feet high for instance, because it wouldn’t have been possible. But now you can digitalize it and do that, so you suddenly begin to look at things in a new way…”

And the music? “It’s simpler in some ways and more direct (than my collaborations with Louis Gordon)…It’s partly ambient but it’s also more electronic than that with analogue synths. Because I think there is a good parallel between these films being digitized and it being possible to see them in a new way where you appreciate all the faults as qualities; the scratches and bleached out bits are actually quite beautiful and the film wouldn’t be the same without them. And it’s the same with analogue synths. They were rediscovered because they were digitized and copied digitally and so people could hear how powerful and organic and strange sounding they actually were…”

John Foxx is busier now than ever. When he leaves me he’s off to meet with Leftfield about a future collaboration. He’s also currently working with Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie and Steve Jansen on a new project. Then there’s visual piece, The Quiet Man, an ongoing project he’s been working on since 1973. Not to mention his guerrilla plans for the ‘greening’ of public spaces of London. These shows are rare chance to see a true pioneer present his unique vision.

John Foxx and Louis Gordon play the Corner Hotel, this Thursday, 8 May 2008. “Tiny Colour Movies” will take place at ACMI, this Friday, 9 May 2008


© James McGalliard 2008

Interview: Devastations

“I haven’t lived in a place for longer than four or five months in five or six years…” Conrad Standish of Devastations shares the overseas experience with James McGalliard

There are many universes, and parallel existences. In one, Devastations frontman Conrad Standish is half of a rock glamour couple, being followed by paparazzi and besieged by supermarket checkout magazines that want a feature on the celebrity lifestyle of him and his wife. In this one we’re sitting in a real ale pub in Hackney in London’s East End, a few days before Conrad flies out to Melbourne to begin rehearsals for their February shows, and I’m trying to understand how you can afford to live in London as a musician.

The truth is, you can’t. “At the moment I am going for a lot of job interviews… I’ve kinda managed until now, but this can’t continue like this; it’s dawning on me that I can’t be a gentleman of leisure for too much longer. It’s fucken tough here, it’s really expensive…” Conrad has recently moved here after he and the band spent the last few years based in Berlin. “Before we were living in (our current home), we were living in a place in Camden with seven or eight other people.”

Along with drummer Hugo Cran, and guitarist and vocalist Tom Carlyon, Conrad makes up Devastations, a band formed in Melbourne, and now living in three separate countries. But with Hugo still in Berlin, and Tom having recently moved back to Australia, isn’t this going to make things a little tough? “I guess we will just have to put aside a certain amount of time each year to get together somewhere. It could be Europe at the end of a tour, or Australia back on holidays, or we could meet halfway or something. Meet in Iraq for a rehearsal spell? We will just have to be more selective about the way that we tour and more respectful of our own lifespan as a band. We gotta be clever about it.”

This lack of money has had its beneficial side though. The long, languorous soundscapes of Yes, U may never have been achieved, except for the way the record was created. “We’ve always felt in the past, because of the way that we wrote songs, that when we would record albums, we will just layer and layer and layer stuff. Also we had a lot of time in which to record those albums, because we had no money, so we would only go into the studio when we had money. And like all the off-time, we had like a rough mix of the song and we would be thinking ‘maybe it needs an organ bit here, or maybe it needs a violin or extra whatever…’, which would invariably happen. We all would have ideas for the songs over the course of a year. I mean each of those albums took a year to make. Which was good in one sense, because it gave us a lot of time to live with the songs, and see how they could be improved but at the same time, when it came to playing live as a three-piece, there were obvious limitations…”

That’s the other big change recently in the band. Conrad tells me that there have probably been eight keyboard players during their history, but now it’s back to the core trio for the foreseeable future. “This is kind of tough on everyone who’s ever been in the band… But really the band is just the three of us; no matter who joins, that’s always how it is. It’s a funny dynamic. Even if we were craving a fourth member, still at the same time always the three of us.”

The other dynamic of the band is between the two singers. “I think that is a good thing for an album (and) for a pair of songwriters. I think we’re both fortunate to have each other in a lot of ways. We have quite a complex relationship, me and Tom, but I think we tend to compliment each other well. I think we’ve arrived at a point where we know what to do with one another, if you know what I mean.” Although Tom has always sung, recent shows seem to feature him more as a singer, as does Yes, U. “Tom’s a great songwriter and his contributions to the band have always been huge and his work probably overshadows all of us. But I don’t think he is actually singing more on like Yes, U…I guess on this album there are a couple of instrumentals so it probably seems more.”

Conrad has strong thoughts on live performance. “We don’t like to play for a long time. I myself get really bored watching anyone for more than half an hour. It could be The Stooges, after half an hour, I’ve had enough! So I keep that in mind when we are playing. It can be nice to have a show where you have your peaks and your troughs. You can do that in a dynamic sense, without having to get people to stay two hours to watch you play.”

“It’s a weird thing to perform in front of people. Sometimes you wonder why you do it at all, what’s like the point? …We’ve done shows where we’ve walked off stage and it’s like high-fiving in the sun in the Caribbean, and someone’s walked in, like our manager or whatever, with a very worried look on their face. And we’ve done shows like that, which we thought were a total piece of shit and we’ve had people walk up to us in tears - tears of joy. So we really aren’t the best judges.”

Conrad cuts a weird onstage figure. He’s tall, he struts, jerks his hips and arches his back, while his head comes forward, almost like a cobra. “It’s just how it feels natural to play for me. I have to move. It seems to be what the music dictates. It’s a physical thing, but I don’t have any idea of what I appear like on the stage… I don’t think I look that weird, but I really enjoy playing bass. Maybe I enjoy it 10% more than other bass players?”

Following the Australian shows is the possibility of an American tour, as Yes, U is only now being released there. And after that? “I think it would be boring if we made another record that sounded the same as Yes, U. All of us have ideas that we want to pursue, but it’s realistically like another year before we would step foot in a studio again. It gives us all a fair amount of time to get it how we want it.”

If you ask what he’d like most from the forthcoming dates, the answers simple – sold out shows. Although they’ve lived and played overseas for a long time, Australia is still loved, faults and all. What might people expect to hear on these dates? “Some songs you can leave out of the set for like a year or two. Then you’ll revisit them and suddenly they’re fresh all over again. Certain songs have to be put into gaol for a bit, if they are not kinda working for you… We’ve our whole lives to play these songs, I don’t see what the rush is - we will be around for a while yet.”


Devastations play East Brunswick Club on 2 February, and St Jerome’s Laneway Festival on 24 February. Yes, U is out now on Remote Control



© James McGalliard 2008

Looking For The New Sound

2008 Preview (rework for Inpress)

There’s only so much you can pick up from MySpace or foreign rock press. So our man in the UK James McGalliard has suggested some acts to watch out for in 2008

Foals, Laura Marling, The Pigeon Detectives, The Wombats, Palladium… It’d be fairly easy to list bands who will make an impact this year. But this is more about acts I’ve seen and been impressed by over the past 12 months, acts I’ll be spending my time and money keeping an eye on. Hopefully some of them will find success as well…

The Twilight Sad was the band of 2007 for me. Yet somehow their brilliant debut album missed many end of year lists. Live the act is powerful and unforgettable. And bloody LOUD! There’s a special something about them; even though their music is entirely different, I keep thinking Here Are The Young Men. . Andy Yorke is that Radiohead guy’s brother, and at Truck he had me totally entranced; the understanding between the people onstage translated to a magic and beautiful hour. I’ve told Evi Vine that she’s a future Mercury Music Prize candidate; she thinks I’m joking, but her unique music is worthy of such accolades. She is transported when she plays and takes the audience with her; the journey may be sometimes unnerving though, as she is a singularly spectacular talent touching some dark places. And while Model Morning may never find huge success, they still make my jaw drop, and my soul sing, each time I see them.

The Early Years were another live highlight of 2007. They’ve officially expanded to a four-piece and are currently recording a second album – it should be blinding. When Fuck Buttons played Truck festival, such was the interest I couldn’t even get into the tent they were playing. But what I heard though the tent walls definitely made me want to find out more. SPC ECO is Dean Garcia of Curve coming back with something reminiscent of his previous act, but also entirely new. But Exit Calm are the where the smart money is; their music is tight and large, even if the vocals are yet to catch up. Think U2, but in a good way. They will playing big venues by the year’s end…

But it’s not all about big music; sometimes it’s one man and his guitar. Or in the case of Simple Kid, a guitar and a laptop - which allows him to duet with Kermit the frog on It’s Not Easy Being Green, and spew out the lyrics of set highlight Serotonin. Josh T Pearson has been stunning UK audiences with his openhearted, scary, long, involved, honest one-man songs. He’s due to release his first real material since Lift To Experience soon – it will have been worth the wait. Kid Harpoon first hooked me with his brilliant live cover of Leonard Cohen’s First We Take Manhattan. Now he has a full band (The Powers That Be) and together they play some of the best folk-influenced rock since The Pogues.

Blues is making big inroads into the indie scene, and leading the vanguard is Seasick Steve. He’s the real deal and is playing to bigger and bigger audiences every tour. It’s a little like Top Gear - folks who usually have no interest in this sort of thing are flocking to see him. With a renewed interest in “punk rock blues”, maybe Archie Bronson Outfit will progress from being one of the best live acts in the country, to being a big one too? Also not to be missed are Joe Gideon & The Shark – a brother and sister – him on guitar, her on drums - but nothing like that that red & white duo!

Reunions are generally a disappointment, but in 2005, the Gang Of Four’s live shows wiped the floor with newer pretenders. Sadly drummer Hugh is not currently in the band, but they’re recording new material and its release is sure to be eagerly awaited. Similarly James played the arenas this year, but it was more than a nostalgia trip - they have written and recorded a new album. The live shows were great and if radio gets behind them, they may have a second coming.

My Latest Novel produced a great debut album, and are a fabulously adventurous live act, but never really found a big following. But their new songs are particularly strong, so hopefully this will change. Fields progressed enormously over 2007 and the touring helped then to keep the intensity levels sustained throughout their shows. Maybe their hybrid shoegaze folk-rock will makes its mark this year? On the other hand The Duke Spirit were always great live, but sadly their debut album failed to capture this. However this seems to have been rectified with their new recordings, and their forthcoming album Neptune may yet make them a household name.

Other trends to look out for in the coming months are classical strings in postrock (see Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline, Yndi Halda and The Monroe Transfer) and also expect an indie pop revival in 2008 (Tim Ten Yen, Poppy & The Jezebels, Strange Idols, 586, The Chaira L’s, and others). But now that the ukulele has overtaken the recorder as the most played instrument in UK schools, who knows what the future will bring?



© James McGalliard 2008

End Of Year Polls: 2007 Inpress Writers' Poll

INPRESS 2007 WRITERS POLL – James McGalliard


TOP 10 ALBUMS
1. Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters THE TWILIGHT SAD
2. Yes, U DEVASTATIONS
3. A Weekend In The City BLOC PARTY
4. Boxer THE NATIONAL
5. Grinderman GRINDERMAN
6. The Dreamer Evasive APARTMENT
7. Everything Last Winter FIELDS
8. A Brighter Beat MALCOLM MIDDLETON
9. About What You Know LITTLE MAN TATE
10. Home Improvements MY FRIEND THE CHOCOLATE CAKE


TOP 3 ARTISTS OF THE YEAR
1. The Twilight Sad
2. Devastations
3. Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline


TOP 3 INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIGS
1. The Early Years @ The Luminaire, London
2. Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline @ Primavera Sound, Barcelona
3. Gallon Drunk @ The Borderline, London


TOP 3 LOCAL ARTIST GIGS (Australian acts in Europe)
1. Grinderman @ The Forum, London
2. The Scientists @ Dirty Three ATP, Minehead
3. Ed Kuepper @ Dirty Three ATP, Minehead


TOP 3 RADIO SHOWS
Phill Jupitus – BBC 6Music weekday breakfast
Andrew Collins – BBC 6Music Sunday Afternoon
Gideon Coe – BBC 6Music weekday mornings
- ALL GONE NOW


TOP 3 TV SHOWS
1. Skins
2. Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe
3. Battlestar Galactica


TOP FILM
1. Control


TOP 3 ONLINE DESTINATIONS
1. Wikipedia
2. Guardian Unlimited
3. BBC (esp. News)


THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES AWARD (MOST OVER-HYPED)
Radiohead – if only the product was as good as the marketing


IF THE CRAPTASTIC SLOGAN OF THIS YEAR WAS KEVIN07, WHAT WILL 2008'S BE?
Barrack for Barack?


HIGHLIGHT(S) OF THE YEAR
UK live scene; friends


PREDICTIONS FOR 2008
More use of classical instrumentation in rock, especially string sections. More acts reforming who should have stayed split. Blues crossing into the indie fanbase. More talk about green politics. Recession.


QUOTE OF THE YEAR
James Press Release for April Tour 2007
To any of you cunts at the NME who thought we're past our sell by date;
To any of you cunts at the NME who thought we were over;
To any of you cunts at the NME who thought we couldn't cut it no more;
Think again!
In less time than it takes for most people to go to the toilet and have a shit we sold out Brixton Academy not once but twice.
Forget the Clash because we fucking own Brixton you cunts!
In less time than it takes most people to count from 1 to 20,000 we sold out out Manchester Arena and we could have sold it out twice but we couldn't be arsed to.
In less than it takes to catch a plane from Birmingham to Newcastle we sold out out both towns easy.
Stick that up your stelios and smoke it.
We are JAMES.
We're back.
We're fresh as a daisy.
You don't own us.
You don't control us.
If you step in our way you're fucked because the music is back.
Simply put:
We are JAMES.


BEST MEDIA MOMENT
Nick Cave and Grinderman on The Culture Show with Zane Lowe well out of his depth
“No. You're wrong. Really, you haven't understood it at all…”


2007 IN REVIEW
Consistency was the key word - there were no great high or low points. Although there were many wonderful tracks, few great albums were released, making it harder than usual find ten albums to nominate for this poll. In the UK, a Prime Minister, marred by actions in foreign wars, chose the time of his departure after more than ten years in the job and successfully abdicated. As an Australian living in London, 2007 was a particularly tough year, as summer decided to bypass the UK, even though mainland Europe suffered a lethal heatwave. Festivals were washed away, and the country never experienced the extended period of goodwill the warm season traditionally brings. There was little to challenge on TV – too much reality and lowbrow entertainment; too little original drama. Radio suffered similarly, with BBC 6Music in particular parting ways with many of their stalwarts, replacing them with ex-XFM staff.



© James McGalliard 2008

Acts To Watch In 2008 - for Drum Media (Sydney)

There’s only so much you can pick up from MySpace or foreign rock press. So our man in the UK James McGalliard has suggested some acts to watch out for in 2008

I’ve got a fair idea of some of the bands that will become hard to avoid in 2008. But you can read about Foals, The Pigeon Detectives, The Cribs, The Wombats, Palladium, The Enemy and their like elsewhere. What follows is not necessarily bands who will break big in 2008, but acts I’ve seen and been impressed by over the past 12 months. Acts I’ll be spending my time and money keeping an eye on; hopefully some of them will find success as well. But rather than just list a few in detail, here are more than 20 over a broad spectrum in rough categories for you to pursue if you so wish

Not The Same Old Blues Crap
Is the name of a set of promoters who have already presented gigs by The Scientists and the wonderful Gallon Drunk this year. They’re also bringing blues to a wider audience - and blues is making big inroads into the indie scene. Seasick Steve is the genuine article – of the old school. But he’s playing bigger and bigger audiences for every tour, and is like the Top Gear - folks who usually have no interest in this sort of thing are flocking to see him. One can only hope that John Peel favourite Jawbone will find success in his wake? With a renewed interest in “punk rock blues”, maybe Archie Bronson Outfit will progress from being one of the best live acts in the country, to being a big one too?

One man and his guitar
Or in the case of Simple Kid, a guitar and a laptop. Which allows him to duet with Kermit the frog on It’s Not Easy Being Green, have a karaoke-style singalong to The Ballad Of Elton John, and spew out the lyrics of set highlight Serotonin. Josh T Pearson (the T is for Texas) has been stunning UK audiences with his open-hearted, scary, long, involved honest one-man songs. He’s due to release his first real material since Lift To Experience soon – it will have been worth the wait. Kid Harpoon first hooked me with his brilliant live cover of Leonard Cohen’s First We Take Manhattan. Now he has a full band (The Powers That Be) and together they play some of the best folk-influenced rock since The Pogues

The shock of the old
Reunions are generally a disappointment, but there have been some exceptions. The best of all was Gang Of Four, whose 2005 live shows wiped the floor with newer pretenders. Sadly drummer Hugh is not currently in the band, but they’re recording new material and its release is sure to make a major impact. Similarly James played the arenas this year, but it was more than a nostalgia trip; they have written and recorded a new album. The live shows were great – if radio gets behind them, they may have a second coming.

Second chances to make a first impression
My Latest Novel produced a great debut album, but it never really translated into a big following. But they’re a fabulously adventurous live act, and the new songs are particularly strong. Fields progressed enormously over 2007; after much touring were able to keep the intensity levels sustained throughout their shows. I hope 2008 is the year their hybrid shoegaze folk-rock makes a mark. On the other hand The Duke Spirit were always great live, but sadly their debut album failed to capture this. However this seems to have been rectified with their new recordings, and their forthcoming album may yet make them a household name.

Pick And Mix
The Early Years were easily a live highlight of 2007. They’ve officially expanded to a four piece and are currently recording a second album – it should be blinding. When Fuck Buttons played Truck festival, such was the interest I couldn’t even get into the tent they were playing. But what I heard though the tent walls definitely made me want to find out more. SPC ECO is Dean Garcia of Curve coming back with something reminiscent of his previous act, but also entirely new. Curve should have been huge – Garbage owed their sound to them! Maybe this time the originators will grab the spoils? But Exit Calm are the where the smart money is. The music is tight and large, even if the vocals are yet to catch up. They will be in big venues by the year’s end. Think U2, but in a good way…

From Over There
The National may have released four albums and have toured a few times, but they’re yet to break big here. All the right ingredients are there – it’s just something not quite clicking. 2008 may well see them do an R.E.M. and jump from devoted fanbase to widespread acclaim.

Personal Bias
The Twilight Sad was the band of 2007 for me. Yet somehow, in a foolish oversight, their brilliant debut album has missed many end of year lists. Live the act is powerful and unforgettable. And bloody LOUD! There’s a special something about them; even though their music is entirely different, I keep thinking Here Are The Young Men. Andy Yorke is that Radiohead guy’s brother, and some years ago had his own band The Unbelievable Truth. At Truck he had be totally entranced – an understanding between the people onstage translated to a magic and beautiful hour. I’ve told Evi Vine that she’s a future Mercury Music Prize candidate; she thinks I’m joking, but her unique music is worthy of such accolades. She is transported when she plays and takes the audience with her; the journey may be sometimes unnerving though, as she is a singularly spectacular talent. A brother and sister – the guy on guitar, a gal on drums - but nothing like that that red & white duo? That’s Joe Gideon & The Shark – a real find for me, and a band I’ll definitely write about in more detail during 2008. And finally there’s Model Morning who may never find huge success, but still make my jaw drop, and my soul sing, each time I see them.

Sadly, there’s no time for
The return of doves. Or Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline. Or other acts with string sections. Or the whole world of new pop! So especially sorry to Tim Ten Yen, Strange Idols, 586, The Chaira L’s… But now that the ukulele has overtaken the recorder as the most played instrument in UK schools, who knows what the future will bring?



© James McGalliard 2008

Live: Model Morning - London

Model Morning
The Luminaire, Kilburn, London, UK
Thursday 27 September 2007

In the early ‘90’s, a certain weekly UK music magazine controversially put then unsigned Suede on the cover with the caption "the best new band in Britain". Nowadays there is only one music paper, so there’s no competition, and no reason to look beyond the latest instalment of the Doherty saga. Then why should an Australian paper publish a review of an unknown British band when there are so many local acts that it could be covering instead? Well simply because Model Morning are creating something truly special, and the tired UK rock press hasn't even noticed them, as they don't fit into the current flavour of the day.

The set they play tonight is nearly identical to the one that first floored me around 18 months ago. Although many of the songs are now familiar, there have been significant changes in the interim. Most markedly, there’s been a near Spinal Tap procession of drummers, but with Ed Keenan they’ve found a driven player who pushes them further than before. This change has had reverberations throughout the band. The most noticeable hardening of their sound comes with Richard Davidson’s bass on We Are Gone, which now whacks you around the head and demands you pay due attention. There’s barely a pause between songs - they power along as though the world will end if they stop long enough for applause. While the songs have toughened up, some of the rock theatrics have calmed down, and the band is more powerful and impressive as a result.

Peter Morley has also developed as a frontman, and his voice is stronger than ever. When he sings his own backing vocals on Everybody's Drunken Friend, it seems so natural, and appropriate in the context of the inner voices of the song. He only really speaks to introduce This Town, which is a depiction of fear on the darker streets of their native Nottingham. Model Morning demonstrate that anthemic rock need not be embarrassing. Their music is clever, but not too showy; the atmospherics of Chris Moore’s guitars nicely complementing the more traditional attack of Rob McCleary’s playing. Their debut mini-album Your Worst Enemy only hinted at what they could do; their live performance is genuinely exciting and tonight they seem to have a new-found purpose and determination. The best new band in Britain? Perhaps…

© James McGalliard 2007
A version of this review appeared in Inpress, Melbourne, on 24 October 2007



Setlist
Everybody's Drunken Friend
We Are Gone
Harry Haller Suicide
Whenever I Can
This Town
Without You I'm Lost
As Guilty As

Live: Devastations and Josh T Pearson - London

Monto at The Water Rats, London
Tuesday 18 September 2007


Josh T Pearson may be just one man, but live he sounds like a band. The ex-Lift To Experience frontman cuts a startling figure - an enormous beard appearing below the brim of his hat. His footstomp is a match for any kick drum and somehow that single acoustic guitar sounds like a three-man assault. His voice can jump from a barely audible whisper to a deafening howl, in a mesmerising performance where he fights genuine battles between angels and demons. The world he creates is as beautiful as it is horrifying. Love has torn him apart, but something special is rising from the ruins. He sends messages out from his own private hell; his songs are long, and moving. That’s Just The Way That Life Goes is a clear highlight. He asks if he has time for another song – everyone cheers in agreement. He responds “This ain’t a democracy”, but finds time to close his set with The Devil’s On The Run, which sees even the most cynical lose their cool and sing along.

Devastations are now back to the core three members; “three is the magic number – for us” drummer Hugo tells me before the show. With many songs having a strong keyboard basis, it’s going to be interesting to see how they achieve their sound with guitar, bass and drums. As with their shows earlier this year, Conrad no longer takes centre stage, but his mane tossing and depreciating humour still make him a magnetic figure on stage. As a three piece, the individual personalities shine more, and somehow they feel more like a band.

They open with early favourite We Will Never Drink Again but the vocals don’t mesh as they should. In fact, it’s their sound mix that lets them down tonight. Tom’s songs probably suffer the most – both The Pest and Black Ice rely on their sequencers, but they’re loud and distorted, taking the subtle nuances of the songs with them. In fact it’s not until Mistakes that things really bed down. Then Conrad’s vocals excel on The Saddest Sound and they end they set with an apocalyptic Rosa.

It’s by no means a bad show, but perhaps lacking something of the magic that makes Yes, U such a special record. Last October, at the Camden Barfly, Conrad was literally dripping blood onto his fretboard. While tonight’s show was lacking that intensity it did show a band prepared to take risks and try new things. They may fall flat on their collective face, but you can’t help but admire their faith. There were moments of brilliance tonight. Once they iron these bugs out, they’ll be truly dangerous. I can’t wait to see them again in November


© James McGalliard 2007
A version of this review appeared in Inpress, Melbourne, on 26 September 2007