"MAZING, really eye opening and just a great challenge for both bands."
Twisted pop wonders Tunng have announced details of a new album, a tour and free download. The London-based band are set to release their fourth album ‘…And Then We Saw Land’ on the 1st of March 2010, and it promises to be their best yet.
Can you tell me a bit about your new album: How did the ideas for a new record first come together?
A year of little adventures and new experiments. I guess we started writing towards the end of 2008 when we finished touring all the "Good Arrows" stuff. I went to India for a couple of months, Ashley moved to Somerset and Sam left the band, which affected the writing substantially.
At this point was it just a case of good momentum or was there anything in particular, creatively, that had been percolating since Good Arrows?
I think we really wanted to make a record that was a bolder production than anything before, but firstly we had to change the way we write without Sam. It was a really liberating experience I think for the whole band as it really opened up everybody's creative worlds. Becky stepped up massively to take almost a lead vocal role on the album as did I. So a lot of ideas were being thrown around and slowly, we found direction and I think a new sound for us. This was all done in and around the studio in Old Street where we have done all the records.
Did you have any residual ideas from that session?
For sure..
Overall would you say there's much of a departure, musically or lyrically, from your previous outings?
Its quite an uplifting forward motion record musically and lyrically. There is not so much of the twisted fairytale about this record that there has been on say comments of the inner chorus, that's partly because Sam wasn't writing but also I think we wanted to write about situations of the here and now. Some of them personal, but still keeping an element of story telling that we love. Musically yeah we've never used live drums / electric guitar / simmons drums / a wonky choir of people / a lot of pianos / horns / 70's synths. This record has big choruses and many layers of instruments, its definitely a kind of departure, but it still sounds very Tunng, because it is Tunng.
What about the recording process? This being your fourth full-length. Were there any conscious efforts to truly 'push the boat out' on this one, whether it be in terms of instrumentation or production?
It was recorded in Play Industries Studios where we recorded "Good Arrows" and where I spend pretty much everyday anyway on other projects but mainly Tunng stuff. However the techniques were very different, we tried different mics and different spaces for vocals and eventually re-did all the vocals in Ben's (Ben Edwards) studio next door through an early 80's German outside broadcast analogue desk. Then we tried 50's ribbon mics and a really crap 70's intercom mic which was great. Also I used old reverbs. We have Mike Oldfield's huge plate reverb upstairs, the one he used on tubular bells that got used a lot. We wanted a BIG sounding record and I think it is in Tunng terms.
What was the inspiration/reasoning behind the title "And then we saw land"?
Well we noticed a slightly nautical theme in quite a few of the songs and the title is a line that's been twisted from "hustle". But it also represents a kind of light at the end of the tunnel. Calm coming from chaos kind of thing which at times depicted our writing process!
How did you find touring with (members of) Tinariwen?
AMAZING, really eye opening and just a great challenge for both bands. It was a bit of an experiment with a really short window for rehearsing. The idea was to try and blend the two styles of music in a live setting and when it worked it really worked. I guess within the hour and a half live show there were a few elements that definitely improved over the course of the 10 day tour. The three of them are great characters. There was a lot of high 5's and smiles, not so much of the chit chat though when neither band could speak each others language.
Did this have any significant impact on your playing or perhaps even your songwriting?
It had an impact on our playing for sure. We're a band that has put a lot of things together in the studio and stick to that structure but this collaboration was the complete opposite of that, we really had to abandon pre-arranged beats and just vibe tunes and roll loops and kinda jam a bit. That was great for us and we want to play with some of that in our new live shows. I don't think it had a huge impact on our writing for this album because we had already written a lot of things before this tour but we did lift a couple of rhythms from them and got a few call and response moments happening. I think it may affect my writing for the next record whether that be Tunng or not.
How did this particular idea come to fruition? Is this type of collaboration something you can see happening again any time soon?
Phil from the band got asked to do a late junction show on Radio 3 and they said it has to be collaborative, who would you like to work with? We said Tinariwen. We are all big fans and have seen them at festivals and they soundtracked a few van journeys. It went well so we turned it into a tour 6 months later, I guess you just have to ask!
We did a collaboration with Buck 65 a couple of years ago as part of trans-musical festival in France, that was fantastic. He is an amazing Canadian hip hop / country / electronic story teller. We did 5 shows together and twisted each others tunes and took over a theatre. So I guess we would be into another collaboration at some point. Maybe something with Brazilian music, hmmmm?
The term 'folk-tronica' gets thrown about a fair bit when your name crops up, but of all the creative labels and pigeon-holing inflicted upon you, what would say has been your favourite/the most outlandish so far?
Well my friend called the sound of this album "Epic Folk Disco Brass Magnificent" that's my favourite. Or better yet, "have there been any terms that actually managed to encapsulate any facet of your music/sound and in fact, do it justice?"
Epic Folk Disco Brass Magnificent
You're always busy with remixes and various outings; besides all the work regarding the new album, do you have any other particularly exciting plans/projects in the works over the coming year?
I just finished composing a soundtrack to a French film called "Ensemble c'est trop" starring Eric Cantona and Nathalie Baye which was my first feature film. I loved it and really want to get into film music, it comes out in France on the 17th February.
Also we're ripping the studio apart and putting in a 1976 Soundcraft mixing desk and a 2 inch reel-to-reel machine so I want to produce some old school echo drums, twin reverb guitars, space vocals and dirty organ type stuff!
Thanks!
Can you tell me a bit about your new album: How did the ideas for a new record first come together?
A year of little adventures and new experiments. I guess we started writing towards the end of 2008 when we finished touring all the "Good Arrows" stuff. I went to India for a couple of months, Ashley moved to Somerset and Sam left the band, which affected the writing substantially.
At this point was it just a case of good momentum or was there anything in particular, creatively, that had been percolating since Good Arrows?
I think we really wanted to make a record that was a bolder production than anything before, but firstly we had to change the way we write without Sam. It was a really liberating experience I think for the whole band as it really opened up everybody's creative worlds. Becky stepped up massively to take almost a lead vocal role on the album as did I. So a lot of ideas were being thrown around and slowly, we found direction and I think a new sound for us. This was all done in and around the studio in Old Street where we have done all the records.
Did you have any residual ideas from that session?
For sure..
Overall would you say there's much of a departure, musically or lyrically, from your previous outings?
Its quite an uplifting forward motion record musically and lyrically. There is not so much of the twisted fairytale about this record that there has been on say comments of the inner chorus, that's partly because Sam wasn't writing but also I think we wanted to write about situations of the here and now. Some of them personal, but still keeping an element of story telling that we love. Musically yeah we've never used live drums / electric guitar / simmons drums / a wonky choir of people / a lot of pianos / horns / 70's synths. This record has big choruses and many layers of instruments, its definitely a kind of departure, but it still sounds very Tunng, because it is Tunng.
What about the recording process? This being your fourth full-length. Were there any conscious efforts to truly 'push the boat out' on this one, whether it be in terms of instrumentation or production?
It was recorded in Play Industries Studios where we recorded "Good Arrows" and where I spend pretty much everyday anyway on other projects but mainly Tunng stuff. However the techniques were very different, we tried different mics and different spaces for vocals and eventually re-did all the vocals in Ben's (Ben Edwards) studio next door through an early 80's German outside broadcast analogue desk. Then we tried 50's ribbon mics and a really crap 70's intercom mic which was great. Also I used old reverbs. We have Mike Oldfield's huge plate reverb upstairs, the one he used on tubular bells that got used a lot. We wanted a BIG sounding record and I think it is in Tunng terms.
What was the inspiration/reasoning behind the title "And then we saw land"?
Well we noticed a slightly nautical theme in quite a few of the songs and the title is a line that's been twisted from "hustle". But it also represents a kind of light at the end of the tunnel. Calm coming from chaos kind of thing which at times depicted our writing process!
How did you find touring with (members of) Tinariwen?
AMAZING, really eye opening and just a great challenge for both bands. It was a bit of an experiment with a really short window for rehearsing. The idea was to try and blend the two styles of music in a live setting and when it worked it really worked. I guess within the hour and a half live show there were a few elements that definitely improved over the course of the 10 day tour. The three of them are great characters. There was a lot of high 5's and smiles, not so much of the chit chat though when neither band could speak each others language.
Did this have any significant impact on your playing or perhaps even your songwriting?
It had an impact on our playing for sure. We're a band that has put a lot of things together in the studio and stick to that structure but this collaboration was the complete opposite of that, we really had to abandon pre-arranged beats and just vibe tunes and roll loops and kinda jam a bit. That was great for us and we want to play with some of that in our new live shows. I don't think it had a huge impact on our writing for this album because we had already written a lot of things before this tour but we did lift a couple of rhythms from them and got a few call and response moments happening. I think it may affect my writing for the next record whether that be Tunng or not.
How did this particular idea come to fruition? Is this type of collaboration something you can see happening again any time soon?
Phil from the band got asked to do a late junction show on Radio 3 and they said it has to be collaborative, who would you like to work with? We said Tinariwen. We are all big fans and have seen them at festivals and they soundtracked a few van journeys. It went well so we turned it into a tour 6 months later, I guess you just have to ask!
We did a collaboration with Buck 65 a couple of years ago as part of trans-musical festival in France, that was fantastic. He is an amazing Canadian hip hop / country / electronic story teller. We did 5 shows together and twisted each others tunes and took over a theatre. So I guess we would be into another collaboration at some point. Maybe something with Brazilian music, hmmmm?
The term 'folk-tronica' gets thrown about a fair bit when your name crops up, but of all the creative labels and pigeon-holing inflicted upon you, what would say has been your favourite/the most outlandish so far?
Well my friend called the sound of this album "Epic Folk Disco Brass Magnificent" that's my favourite. Or better yet, "have there been any terms that actually managed to encapsulate any facet of your music/sound and in fact, do it justice?"
Epic Folk Disco Brass Magnificent
You're always busy with remixes and various outings; besides all the work regarding the new album, do you have any other particularly exciting plans/projects in the works over the coming year?
I just finished composing a soundtrack to a French film called "Ensemble c'est trop" starring Eric Cantona and Nathalie Baye which was my first feature film. I loved it and really want to get into film music, it comes out in France on the 17th February.
Also we're ripping the studio apart and putting in a 1976 Soundcraft mixing desk and a 2 inch reel-to-reel machine so I want to produce some old school echo drums, twin reverb guitars, space vocals and dirty organ type stuff!
Thanks!
