Ahead of the debut album, and following the release of the Haunting Through E.P. we get under the covers with Neil Insh of The Douglas Firs.
If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?
I would love to play the new material, but that’s not going to be ready for a while… of the material that is available, I would play “soporific”. Granted, I would say it is not the most popular song (of the handful I have made available) but for me it encompasses the central theme of the album, and it was recorded was over a great period in my life. The first section was recorded, literally, under covers, appropriate because it is a song about sleep/ennui/lethargy. But it was also so my flatmates wouldn’t hear me sing.
The second section was recorded in three separate churches who let me use their space for free. One of these had a horrible, oppressive atmosphere, and I hope it comes across on the recording. You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?
“Murmur” by REM is probably my favourite album. However, I’m absolutely terrified of the idea of space, so I’d probably deliberately upset myself by taking the 2001 space odyssey soundtrack. On the subject of being sent to the moon, what 3 things would definitely be in your suitcase?
1. A rucksack
2. A mouse
3. A bowling ball What film would you be a character in?
Eraserhead. Tell us an interesting fact.
I once found “jump” by Kriss Kross in a box in my loft. I took it down to my brother to play it to him, as a bit of a memory trip, over 10 years on. At the same second the song started on the stereo, the video came on the television on MTV. Eerie. Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard about who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.
I’d recommend Green Gerry, a songwriter who records using the internal mic on his laptop, really ethereal and hypnotic.
Recommend a book.
Henry Miller changed my life, and ‘tropic of cancer’ is a good starting point.
Which literary character would play you in the book of your life?
Humbert Humbert. What’s the worst record in your collection?
I went through a pretty terrible Kiss phase. I bought loads of their stuff on vinyl, then regretted it. What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.
“At sea, what kind of ship would thou sail?”
Everyone wants to be a galleon. But I’m going to go for a sloop – I’d beat you with speed.
Haunting Through, the debut E.P. from The Douglas Firs is available now. Click here for more information.
Luke Temple’s mind, it would appear, is somewhere worth getting inside if the soundtracks to his life (and the answers for our Q&A) it produces are anything to go by. Barely a year since his first using the Here We Go Magic banner, Pigeons, a bright psychedelic assemblage of ideas, marks a crystallising of their style.
The album is a set of neatly positioned contradictions. It is by turns intense and overwhelming yet distant and aloof; jittery and manic yet super-chilled. In its feel however, it is always tethered to the telling lyric from Casual; ‘It’s four in the morning’. Whatever reason you may have for being awake at four in the morning and whatever your emotional state might be, Pigeons has it covered.
Admittedly lacking anything so spectacularly awe-inspiring as the dizzyingly hypnotic Fangela which marked the stand out moment of last year’s eponymous debut (and the stand-out song of the whole year) Pigeons is nevertheless an album to immerse yourself in. Opening with, by their standards, two furiously fast tracks, the pace returns to a customary Here We Go Magic rate for the shimmering dream pop of Casual, a vibe which is reprised on F.F.A.P. and Land Of Feeling which feels like the Cocteau Twins trying their hands at Philly Soul. Sandwiched neatly between this dream pop soundscape is Old World United, a punk anthem recorded inside a 1980’s Pac Man machine.
Temple’s mind throws up two further gems to close the album. Vegetable Or Native is a tribal chant from beyond the Solar System and I love You Herbie, Now I Know could easily have been lifted from a Sun Ra album.
Pigeons is available from June 7th on Secretly Canadian and Western Vinyl
Luke Temple’s feverishly off-beam brain has also been chewing over the Suitcase Orchestra Q&A.
If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?
Sam Kinison, in the pergatory waiting room, to help him figure out which way to go. It would depend on what his last sin was.
You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?
The Big Biscuit- Last Stand, Hurrah For Hope!
On the subject of being sent to the moon, what 3 things would definitely be in your suitcase?
Power converter, lonely planet guide, two cases of thin skin.
What film would you be a character in?
The Weasel and Jesus Go On A Date
Tell us an interesting fact.
There’s bees that kill hornets by raising their temperature around the creature to exactly 106 degrees, one degree above where the hornet can survive, the exact degree the bees can survive.
Recommend a book.
Wet Mop Goes Fishing
Which literary character would play you in the book of your life?
Fluffer
What’s the worst record in your collection?
Sick of Tweezer, Give Me Sponge- by T.Cups
What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.
Edinburgh’s premier slow-core-alt-folk-sonic-droners, the sublime eagleowl, are the latest members of the glitterati to take the Suitcase Orchestra Q&A
If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?
Probably something like Blanket, cos it’s got quite an obvious hook, but still has all the usual elements. And it’s relatively short. Though you could always throw them in at the deep end with something like No Conjunction. Hit them with 10 minutes of misery.
You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?
If it was favorite album, probably Marquee Moon. But maybe I wouldn’t want to listen to my favorite album on repeat for the rest of my days. It’d probably be nice to have something you’ve not heard before? So you can spend time getting to know it. Or maybe something really long, to make sure I get better value. Like the last Joanna Newsom record.
On the subject of being sent to the moon, what 3 things would definitely be in your suitcase?
A decent book. A few cans of Guinness. The internet. I’m aware that might be cheating.
What film would you be a character in?
Probably something with very little action in it. I’d quite like to be a side character in one of those intense relationship dramas from the 1970s. Like Five Easy Pieces, or something. It’s a shame those kinds of films don’t get made any more.
Tell us an interesting fact.
I have an owl related fact. It was told to me by Andy from the band Fuzzystar (http://www.myspace.com/fuzzystar) when we first started playing. It’s that the “twit-twoo” that most people regard as the noise an owl makes isn’t one owl – it’s actually two, doing a call and response. I think it’s maybe a mating call, I’m not sure. I probably should have researched that fact better by now. Sorry.
Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard about who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.
Have you had Withered Hand yet? Withered Hand. He’s also from Edinburgh. There’s a lot going on in Edinburgh at the moment, actually. Meursault, Withered Hand, Conquering Animal Sound, the Last Battle, the Occasional Flickers, Rob St. John, Enfant Bastard, the Douglas Firs, Jesus h. Foxx. They’re all pretty good.
Recommend a book.
I’m reading Mark Cousin’s Story of Film at the moment. I’m probably the wrong person to ask about books, as most of the books I read are actually about films, or film making.
Which literary character would play you in the book of your life?
Linus Van Pelt.
What’s the worst record in your collection?
I have quite a lot of dodgy metal albums from the mid 90s. But I secretly still quite like them.
My friend gave me a copy of the Best of Eilart Pilarm, who is a Swedish Elvis Impersonator that doesn’t really look or sound like Elvis, and appears to have little ability at singing. Technically it’s probably the worst record in my collection. But I love it.
What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.
Q. What are you wearing?
A. None of your business.
Into The Fold, eagleowl’s latest e.p. is available from their website which is hereand kilter records can be found here.
Woodpigeon are set to launch their third album, Die Stadt Muzikanten this week in Europe and the UK after releasing it to critical acclaim in Canada and the US earlier in the year. Below, the album is reviewed and frontman Mark Hamilton tackles questions set by The Beatles, Neil Young and Aretha Franklin – who says you can’t get the staff these days?
Around eighteen months ago, when I first stumbled upon Woodpigeon by clicking a link from Edinburgh band Eagleowl’s website, all that was available was the free six track e.p. Houndstooth. It was a delicate collection of tentative folky songs and I loved it right away. Now, a year and a half later, the song count on my i-pod has reached 125 and I’ve seen them live more times than is probably sensible or indeed plausible given the thousands of miles of land and ocean stretching between their home and mine. To say that Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton is prolific would be a serious understatement.
Die Stadt Muzikanten is Woodpigeon’s third album and is the sound of a band growing in confidence and enjoying exploring the parameters of their own music. At the core of this record is the same sound and feel as that on the Hounstooth e.p. but now the music is stretched and pushed in all sorts of different directions. There are brass brands, plucked strings, loops, drones, fuzz and distortion, rich orchestration, accordions, ethereal backing vocals, speeded up tapes – this is an ambitious and expansive record, by turns stark and lonely and pulsating and intense.
After the disarmingly frank autobiographical content of their first two albums, this collection of songs is a little more third-person, inspired as it was by Hamilton’s ancestors’ journeys from Europe to a new life in Canada. His vocals are no less heartfelt though. What marks Woodpigeon out from the rest of the indie-folk pack is Mark Hamilton’s voice which has a bleeding quality more reminiscent of Chairman Of The Board’s General Norman Johnson or Al Green than Simon & Garfunkel.
Q&A with Mark Hamilton.
What’s Your Flava?
Last night, I ate my way through a piece of celebratory triple fudge layer cake. The boyfriend had carrot cake.
Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear, Every Time You Are Near?
I smell of Canada, which reminds them of the forest, and home. Also, I’m tall like a tree.
How Soon Is Now?
Not soon enough. This day at work is one of the slowest days of the year.
Are Friends Electric?
Depends if they’re plugged in or not.
Who Put The Ram In The Ram-a-Lama Ding-Dong?
Alberto Tomba.
If A Picture Paints A Thousand Words, Then Why Can’t I Paint You?
I hate wasting time just sitting. IE. work.
Why Does Your Love Hurt So Much?
You get used to it.
Why Don’t We Just Do It In The Road?
That old chestnut?
Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
Above and beyond.
Are You Ready For The Country?
Get out of cities and return to the trees.
Is She Really Going Out With Him?
“You’re not our friend boyfriend material.”
Who Let The Dogs Out?
My bass player’s neighbour, apparently.
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
Call me around noon and we’ll discuss.
Woodpigeon release Die Stadt Muzikanten this week, click herefor further information.
Last week they released the Spirehouse e.p., click here for more details.
Icelandic volcano permitting, they play the following European dates shortly.
April 29th – Reykjavic @ Sódóma
May 1st – Leeds, UK @ Holy Trinity Church/Live at Leeds Festival
May 2nd – Edinburgh, UK @ Cabaret Voltaire
May 3rd – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institue
May 4th – Brighton, UK @ Hanbury Ballroom
May 5th – Manchester, UK @ BBC In Session
May 6th – London, UK @ Union Chapel
May 7th – Paris, France @ ESpace B
May 8th – Brussels, BG @ Le Botanique/Nuits de Botanique
May 9th – Turnbridge Wells, UK @ The Forum
We’re back on-line, and what better way to do it than with the second instalment of The Leisure Society Q&A. Following on from Nick Hemming’s answers to the regular Suitcase Orchestra Q&A, which you can find here, Christian Hardy attempts something new. This time, the questions are set by Paul Weller, Morrissey, Neil Young and, erm, The Baha Boys…amongst others.
What’s Your Flava?
Mashed Potata.
Are Friends Electric?
Yes. In Japan.
What Time Is Love?
If you’re looking at your watch then it isn’t really love.
Just Who Is The 5 O’clock Hero?
John Craven.
Have You Ever Had It Blue?
Yes, in France. Turns out I prefer it pink.
What Difference Does It Make?
All the difference, since you ask.
Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
I don’t know what this means.
Are You Ready For The Country?
We just got back, but I’m already ready to return. We’ve been making a record don’t you know.
Even with a sore throat, James de Malplaquet sings like Ella Fitzgerald. Hoarse and whispery in conversation between songs, The Miserable Rich singer’s voice never once falters while in full flight during this, the opening night of their current tour.
Despite the constant threat of vocal breakdown and the numbing cold of the venue, Cellist Will Calderbank and violinist Mike Siddell have to warm their hands against a radiator before taking to the stage, the band manage to give a run out to new single Somerhill and its b-side Bye, Bye Kitty, a cover of IggyPop’s Shades and a handful of old favourites from their 12 Ways To Count album including the sublime Boat Song.
What makes the Miserable Rich such an attractive proposition when playing live is that the strings aren’t there to simply augment their sound; they are the sound. Mostly, that’s a gorgeously lush sweeping sound, but Calderbank and Siddell aren’t afraid to ratchet up the sound. At times they are as close to a wall of sound as two instruments more at home in the orchestra pit can be.
Somerhill is available now through Humble Soul with an album to follow at the end of May.
Sore throat or no sore throat, James de Malplaquet has also croaked his way through the Suitcase Orchestra Q&A.
If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?
That’s going to be pretty tricky as the track I’m thinking of, Oliver, is on the new album and thus net yet available. I think you can probably get a preview of it live on YouTube though.
I’m choosing this one because it encapsulates a lot of what the band is about now. It was written by the group as a whole, and we all had a hand in it. It’s in an unusual time signature, and has fairly strange subject matter – and yet it’s extremely catchy and immediate. It also has both the tender and the raw sides of our output.
You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?
It is You Forgot It In People by Broken Social Scene
What was the last album you bought?
Marissa Nadler – Bird On The Water, which I learned about on 6Music R.I.P. Fittingly sad.
Tell us an interesting fact.
All firefighters and rescue teams in Chile are unpaid volunteers.
Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.
There’s this husband and wife/brother-sister duo from the states.
Wear a lot of red and white……..
Oh, alright then. We played with a band called Vadoinmessico in London. We like them.
What film would you be a character in?
Ok. Since we’re in fantasy land now, can we please please be the characters in Withnail and I?
Reckon there’d be stiff competition for the parts of Withnail and Danny.
Somewhat less for I and Uncle Monty.
Personally, I’d be happiest dressing up lots and playing all the bit parts.
Recommend a book.
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo.
But of course.
Which literary character would play you in the book of your life?
Wilkins Micawber.
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”
What’s the worst record in your collection?
That would be one of Jim’s many Status Quo records.
Although I believe I have a copy of Love Is In The Air by a Spanish flamenco singer which really does need to be heard to be believed…….
What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.
A lady at the student radio in Newcastle (hullo Laura!) asked us this question, so we’ll nick that.
Which band would YOU like to cover a song of YOURS, and which one?
Again, this is fantasy land, so let’s have the Pixies doing Pisshead please.
The Hidden Cameras release their new single Underage/Origin:Orphan on the 22nd March through Arts and Crafts, preceded by the re-release of their latest album Origin:Orphan on the 15th March. The band will be over from Canada for a series of UK dates which beginning in Brighton on March 17th at the Audio.
Full tour details are listed below.
In the meantime, Joel Gibb has kindly tackled the Suitcase Orchestra Q & A and you can kick back and watch the video for Underage here.
If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?
Party shuffle! Let fate decide things. My songs are like my babies.
You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?
I wouldn’t take any album, what’s the point? You’re in space!!! I would be too distracted to listen to an album. But “Scott 4″ is good.
On the subject of being sent to the moon, what 3 things would definitely be in your suitcase?
Wouldn’t I have some sort of moon-pack instead of a suitcase? Toothbrush, long-johns and tooth paste.
Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra
Hmmmm, haven’t anything new in a while. I really do like the new Mocky record, have you heard it? It’s called “Saskamodie”…
What film would you be a character in?
To quote Sarah Palin, “Any of ‘em, all of ‘em”. My Left Foot would be a good start.
Recommend a book.
Mephisto – Klaus Mann
Which literary character would play you in the book of your life?
See above
What’s the worst record in your collection?
I couldn’t say really, I usually don’t have records I don’t like.
What question should I always ask in a Q & A?
How lazy.
And answer it please.
I’m even lazier.
The Hidden Cameras embark on a UK tour for the following dates:
Wed 17th March Brighton Audio
Thu 18th March London St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch
Even with a sore throat, James de Malplaquet sings like Ella Fitzgerald. Hoarse and whispery in conversation between songs, The Miserable Rich singer’s voice never once falters while in full flight during this, the opening night of their current tour.
