COMING UP
COMING UP: It’s not just new bands who’ll be nicking the limelight in 2011, find out what some of your favourite bands have been up to, and what they’ve got to offer this year…
ELBOW’s Guy Garvey on the Mancunian quintet’s follow-up the mammoth success of ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’…
“We wrote most of the beginnings of the music on the road whilst we were still touring ‘Seldom…’ then the first lyrics that came ended up
being the main themes of the record, so I explored them a good bit over the year and a half that we were writing it. Musically, cos we’re just doing it the five of us again, with Craig producing at the helm, we were determined not to use anything that would date, in terms of effects and stuff. So, it’s a very natural sounding record and, because of that, it’s very minimal.”
WILD BEASTS’ Tom Fleming on following up The Fly’s 2009 Album Of The Year, ‘Two Dancers’…
“The last [record] was very bass and drum heavy and this is a bit softer and more piano-led and synth-led and guitar and drums. It’s still the essential elements; mine and Hadyn’s voice, Chris’ drums and Ben’s guitar is still very much present but it’s more kind of long form. It’s a definite continuation. It’s all about atmosphere, this one. The second one was probably a bit more cohesively atmospheric than the first one and this is more further down that way. It’s more intimate and personal – it’s about small things.”
BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB’s Jack Steadman on the band’s return to electric guitars…
“We’ll be starting the year in the studio. We hope to release the new album before the summer. A few weeks ago, we rented a beautiful and completely isolated cottage in Norfolk and spent a few weeks writing and demoing. We’re picking up electric guitars again. Some of the tracks so far are a lot more electronic/dance influenced – some of it is a lot darker than the first record.”
GLASVEGAS’ Paul Donohue on how their forthcoming second album is up there with the Pacific Ocean…
“The new album is at the mixing stage now. We started it off in a stunning beach house in Santa Monica then went to London to work with Flood, who is a fucking genius. When we were in Santa Monica writing and demoing the album, James said he wanted the songs to match the waves of the ocean, and, personally, I think it has. We wanted to evolve as a band, because if nothing changes then things go stale. This is a more upbeat album, more of a Saturday night album, more like the Bee Gees, more like the opening scene of Blade Runner.”
DANANANANAYKROYD’s Jon Baillie Junior on working with Ross Robinson and their Krautrock new direction…
“Working with [Ross] is going really well. He’s helped us regroup a little. He works with you, splits the songs open and reminds you why you’re doing stuff. There are a lot more hooks. There are slightly Krauty parts, I guess. We love Can and Neu! and all that kind of thing.”
BLACK LIPS’s Jared Swilley on working with Mark Ronson on a follow-up to the grubby ‘200 Million Thousand’…
[Working with Ronson] sounds like it wouldn’t work, but Mark really knows sounds. He knows that we’re not the Kaiser Chiefs or some other band like that. We’re not unmusical. The cool thing is that we’ve never worked with a producer before. I never knew what a producer really was before we worked with him. We meshed really well. I will say this: I have never liked any of our albums. This is the first one that I’ve thought we did good on. Usually I’m just like, “Oh that sucked”…”
YOUNG KNIVES’ Henry Dartnall on returning following an extended hiatus after second album ‘Superabundance’…
“We’ve working hard, trying to write a good record. We’ve finished recording all the songs. We’re gonna release it in April, I think. We had lots of things happen – we kind of got dropped by Warner Brothers when they got a new MD. We went through a lot of different songs when we finished ‘Superabundance’ and got back from touring. We had this idea we should be going down the Beefheart route and doing something odd, but I like songs too much. We kind of just wanted to do some stuff that was more about songs as well, and do some stuff that’s more up.”
