Author: electricityclub (Page 86 of 441)

“I don’t like country & western, I don’t like rock music… I don’t like rockabilly! I don’t like much really do I? But what I do like, I love passionately!!”: CHRIS LOWE

“Good taste is exclusive”: NICK RHODES

Vintage Synth Trumps with SPRAY

23 August 2022 / electricityclub

Sibling duo SPRAY continue their adventures in the subversion of pop with their new ‘Untitled Covers Project’.

Ricardo Autobahn and Jenny McLaren first terrorised the mainstream as members of THE CUBAN BOYS who topped John Peel’s Festive 50 with ‘Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia’ aka ‘The Hamster Dance’ and took on Cliff Richard’s ‘The Millennium Prayer’ in the race to be the 1999 Christmas No1, only to lose…

However, their main project was SPRAY, set up to ride on an anticipated resurgence in synthpop with two albums ‘Living In Neon’ and ‘Children Of A Laser God’ issued respectively in 2002 and 2007. Finding a home at US label Ninthwave Records, just about the only record company in the world at the time interested in anything synthy that even HEAVEN 17 signed to them for the release of ‘Before/After’ in 2005, as it turned out, no-one was interested in either SPRAY or HEAVEN 17. It was left to LA ROUX to cash-in on the synthpop revival with a No1 single in ‘Bulletproof’ in 2009 and a Grammy for ‘Best Dance Recording’.

SPRAY would not return until 2016’s ‘Enforced Fun’ and since then, they have been regularly releasing albums with the most recent being 2021’s ‘Ambiguous Poems About Death’. Since the start of 2022, the sister / brother pairing have been releasing a cover version per month to build a new collection of work. So far, there have been reinterpretations of THE DETROIT SPINNERS, BLINK182 and KISS as well as ‘Diamond Lights’, the surprise 1987 hit by England footballers Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle!

Over a game of Vintage Synth Trumps, Ricardo Autobahn and Jenny McLaren chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about dragging seemingly incongruous songs from yesteryear kicking and screaming into the SPRAY Universe and how electronic acts covering DEPECHE MODE is not a particularly good idea…

The first card is a Korg MS20, as used by BLANCMANGE on ‘Feel Me’…

Ricardo: I’ve always liked BLANCMANGE without ever being a big fan of them, they’re one of those bands, a bit like CHINA CRISIS. You can’t imagine them being someone’s favourite band. I always thought they had a great sense of rhythm and got World music into synthpop in a more authentic way than most people. I like Neil Arthur’s solo songs as well, I love ‘I Love I Hate’ which is fantastic.

LADYTRON used MS20s too and started around the same time as SPRAY back in 2000, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has always credited them as being the first of the newer wave of synthesizer bands, as opposed to electronic dance acts…

Ricardo: Of all the modern synth acts that aren’t EDM, LADYTRON seemed to be the most melodic and threw in the most over-the-top production gimmicks and things, people at the time seemed to think themselves too cool to use certain sounds whereas LADYTRON were happy to do what sounded great, that’s what I always liked about them. But what I always hated about them, which was something I hated about all synth acts of the 21st Century is that when THE CUBAN BOYS were kicking around, we tried to get people interested in SPRAY; we said to people that there was going to be this big synth revival but nobody listened to us or took us seriously… I was irate that other synth acts made it big in the mid-noughties other than SPRAY, one of them was LA ROUX! *laughs*

Jenny: Oh yes… *laughs*

Ricardo: I said to THE CUBAN BOYS’ manager that there was going to be this big synth revival coming but he poo-pooed it and laughed at me… he went on to manage LA ROUX, leaving us in his wake!

One of the things that struck me most about LADYTRON was girls were singing lead vocals on synthy stuff and it wasn’t a blokey thing anymore…

Jenny: Definitely, yeah, I think female voices always sound better generally on pop and electronic music, I enjoy a lot of rock music, men on that is fine, but the more women, the better as far as I’m concerned!

Yes, male voices just don’t grab me that much anymore on synth based music because it was done to death back in the day…

Ricardo: There a few things here; they all tried to sound like Dave Gahan, there was that synthpop voice which was sort of deep and nasal, and everybody wanted to be like DEPECHE MODE. But there is this thing about frequency response, if you’ve got your kick drum and bass drum in the low frequencies, you’ve got your doomy industrial DM synths in the mid-range, if you have a mid-range voice, then everything’s concentrated to those frequencies. BUT if you bring a female voice in on top of that, you’ll spread the spectrum.

Yes, in the old Synth Britannia days, you’ll have done that with a higher end synth melody which is WHY that era of music worked… like let’s swing it the other way, what about blokeys who sing falsetto? That to me is old hat now!

Ricardo: We are big SPARKS fans so we’ve got used to the falsetto but Russell Mael always realised it was a gimmick and his tonal quality changes left, right and centre from low to high. There was a period in late 80s pop when singing in falsetto was a by-word for “soul”, the worst offenders being BIG FUN in that ridiculous way! *laughs*

Jenny: It was just showing off… but one of my favourites with falsetto is Morten Harket from A-HA, he showed his range very much like Russell Mael; Morten and Russell know how to place certain types of singing in the music, how certain types of voices suit certain types of songs.

That’s a good point Jenny, Morten Harket, Russell Mael, Jimmy Somerville, Andy Bell, they knew how to do it, there was a degree of restraint, they knew where to place it, whereas others do that overblown thing…

Ricardo: This is WHY those singers you have mentioned were successful. Morten Harket knows which songs to sing high and which songs to sing low on, so you’ve covered the frequency range.

If you sing in the same frequency range in ALL your songs, regardless of what your music is doing, people will get sick of it very easily.

A good example is A-HA ‘Summer Moved On’, Morten Harket does a 21 second falsetto note in it, but it’s not the centrepiece on the bridge that it’s in, it’s there but it’s not pushed in your face, it’s not the dominant part…

Jenny: Yes, it just happens and then you go “OH MY WORD, THAT’S INCREDIBLE” but mixed in with the rest of the music, it’s perfect. It’s an example of it being done well.

Another card and it is a MemoryMoog…

Ricardo: I’ve never had a Moog, but I have been tinkering with VIEON’s Moog Grandmother recently. It was very atonal, I was noodling and he was tinkering away and I felt like I was in Karl Bartos’ book *laughs*

It was a beautiful moment of things melding together in a ray of light, this is the sort of thing that makes music great, analogue synths that sound robotic but there’s humans playing them and it was great fun, I must get one! But the synth wasn’t THAT special to be honest, it’s good synth but I didn’t think I was playing a Stradivarius, it was good but they’re all the same!

Has the iconography of Moog meant anything to you as synthpop purveyors?

Ricardo: It IS a cool name, if I was to buy one, it would be to look cool on stage. I bought one of those reissued Korg ARP Odysseys just because that Helvetica font looks really good on stage. We wrote the song ‘Félicette (Space Cat)’ on that.

Jenny: Yes, Moogs are the cool one…

This highlights how iconic these synth facias with “Moog” and “ARP” are from ‘Top Of The Pops’ because you have “Fairlight” on your live keyboard controller…

Ricardo: I tried to borrow a Fairlight from someone but they wouldn’t let me take it down from their loft, so next best thing, I customised my keyboard to look like a Fairlight… now who had done it before me???

Yes, it was Martin Gore who put “Fairlite” on a Casiotone MT-30…

Ricardo: I didn’t know that! I think it was inspired by Ron Mael from SPARKS who put “Ronald” instead of Roland on his keyboard… the thing about that is it gets across SPARKS’ sense of humour very easily. That’s why I loved SPARKS so much and why they are such an influence on SPRAY. They have a sense of humour that is sadly lacking in pop music these days, I don’t mean novelty acts or comedy bands but artists who include jokes and light hearted asides in their songs…

Jenny: …and write songs that aren’t necessarily about girls and boys and love and that, they talk about other interesting things that happen in the world.

Ricardo: Having Ronald in Roland font on his keyboard was a very good indicator that they were not just any old band.

Just out of interest, where do you stand on people wearing T-shirts of synths they don’t own, who are often those who complain about girls who wear T-shirts of bands they don’t listen to?

Ricardo: Oh it’s fine, it’s aspirational isn’t it! It’s like wearing a T-shirt with a Ferrari logo on it or British Leyland! *laughs*

Again, it’s like Ronald and Roland, it’s showing your personality, what you’re interested in, what you care about and what you maybe don’t care about. I’ve worn T-shirts with “Muzak” written on them, I don’t like Muzak a great deal but I love the concept of Muzak and I like the word and the font they use as well.

I bought an Akai T-shirt to wear ironically cos I have no Akai equipment, it just looked good…

Ricardo: We bought two Akai S5000s in 1999 with THE CUBAN BOYS and we made our entire album on them…

Jenny: Oh yes!

Ricardo: They were very basic, they didn’t have any external memory, we just used the floppy drive to load the samples and it was a massive thing. It cost about two and a half grand back then, I remember saying it was more expensive than the car I was driving at the time! We were using the Soundblaster 16 card in a PC to do the demos which was how the John Peel stuff was done, so to move to the Akai was mindblowing. But again to reference Karl Bartos, when you have a limitless horizon, your creativity suffers and that was a problem too because we didn’t have any boundaries to work with.

A point I’d like to bring in about the whole sampling issue in reference to Karl Bartos was he says in his book that ‘Numbers’ was inspired by the intro beat to ‘Do Ya Wanna Dance?’ by Cliff Richard, only he programmed his interpretation into his machine, got it slightly wrong and out came as ‘Numbers’. But today, you would actually sample the beat of inspiration wholesale, and that defeats the object of any actual artistic creativity, there’s no individual variation or happy accidents now… that’s why I struggled with the ethos of sampling, I find it difficult to have an emotional attachment although I can appreciate the technical innovation…

Ricardo: The thing about KRAFTWERK in the 70s was it sounded robotic but was done by humans but after ‘The Mix’, it sounded like computer demos more than anything. So yeah, the pre-digital era is clearly the best era. With things like THE ART OF NOISE in 1985, sampling was very exciting from a technical perspective, there was ‘19’ by Paul Hardcastle as well. I’m not sure anyone has actually had an emotional response to ‘Close (To The Edit)’ despite it being fantastic. But that 1985 sampling sound got tired very quickly and it became “that thing” as a loop on a record rather building a record out of bits.

SPRAY are songwriters at heart, but when you heard KRAFTWERK for the first time, what did you actually think?

Jenny: I liked ‘The Model’ and ‘Computer Love’, but I didn’t relate to it enough because it wasn’t vocally exciting cos I enjoy a singalong. I do love them but my formative music was more vocal-led.

This is the point I’m trying to get at, my sister and my cousin thought KRAFTWERK went on a bit and just kept repeating the same words, so I understand why girls aren’t into KRAFTWERK…

Jenny: It’s not because I’m a girl, I think people might find it boring… *laughs*

Ricardo: But then you’re not a fan of the 12 inch mix either generally…

Jenny: It’s very rare that I will listen to a song that’s more than four and a half minutes… I was shocked to learn that the tracks on more than half of FAITH NO MORE’s ‘The Real Thing’ are five minutes and over, I don’t think I’ve got the capacity for that! I like a nice snappy pop song, Eurovision style, three minutes, on-off-done!

Ricardo: When we were doing THE CUBAN BOYS, we had very little interest in the project, we were more interested in getting SPRAY away. While we were having great success in the charts and EMI were happy, we were more about the pop songs that SPRAY were doing.

Weirdly, I’m in that zone, I find the whole 12 inch mix thing tedious, yes I’ve got a lot of 12 inch singles but only for the bonus B-sides… so back on the subject of songs, what inspired you to do a covers album?

Jenny: What was it that kicked it off?

Ricardo: We had these cover versions we’d recorded over the years but never released, mainly because we can’t be bothered to do all that licensing business! So it’s always just easier to put out original stuff on platforms. But then we did a Halloween cover for a radio show last year, ‘Come Back Haunted’ by NINE INCH NAILS for our friend Terri MacDonald’s ‘Cabinets Of Curiosities’ podcast… it was so easy to do so we thought, why not do a few more and this gimmicky idea of one per month was partly to keep our focus through the year and partly because it’s a good way to get stuff out without overloading people. There’s no real need for a new SPRAY album just yet *laughs*

Jenny: It’s keeps us posting stuff, especially for our ‘SPRAY Social Mondays’ doing little things to keep us in the public eye… public yeah, the three people who follow us… *laughs*

…and who come to ALL your shows! *laughs*

Ricardo: God love ‘em! *laughs*

Jenny: It gives them something to look forward to each month and other people then get into the idea…

Ricardo: It’s the classic situation, as much as PET SHOP BOYS put out an album and four singles over a year, that’s just not like that anymore, it’s all about content and driving the algorithm or what have you. So we thought this was a fun idea to make sure nobody forgets us! *laughs*

So how does one choose a suitable song to arrange in an electronic pop aesthetic, one that is not a bloody DEPECHE MODE cover? *laughs*

Ricardo: It’s all very accidental apart from when we did THE OFFSPRING ‘Self-Esteem’ for the SPRAY live show, this was a few years ago. We did it because the chords are real Europop major chords, it sounds absolutely fantastic as a HI-NRG record.

Jenny: We deliberately don’t try and find electronic records to cover, we try and find things that we think might sound good as an electronic poppy record, would you agree?

Ricardo: I would agree but also we are arrogant enough to believe we can make anything sound good, so sometimes we will find something that is bloody atrocious because if we can’t make it worse, we’ve got to make it better! *laughs*

Having listened to the cover versions so far, what has been particularly interesting about the majority of the choices is they have a degree of familiarity but at the same time, they sound new, which is quite a difficult thing to pull off… a good example would be ‘The Rubberband Man’?

Jenny: It was in ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’, I didn’t know it and you suggested it… so it’s one of those that’s in people’s consciousness but not overly, so it’s something we can remind people of very gently.

Ricardo: It’s 70s funk which we’re not into at all but it’s got those really pronounced dramatic chords in the chorus which are really poppy, which you can always tell will work in a synthy style.

So when you are recording a cover or any song for that matter, do you do the quality control yourselves or do you have some trusted confidantes who you will run things by?

Ricardo: NO! We never have trusted confidantes, if you do that, you’ll never release anything! We care, it’s all that matters, if anybody else likes it, then that’s a bonus as they used to say in the NME in 1991! *laughs*

I’ll do a basic arrangement of a track, then Jenny will record a vocal and then I’ll build something around it. So we get away from the original straight away, we try to forget what the original sounded like if we can…

Is there a danger in forgetting the original that you could leave out what was good about it in the first place? For example, this British independent electronic artist did a cover of ‘Blue Monday’ recently, so mistake No1, he picked an electronic song. Then he tried to change the familiar elements of it, so the rhythm structure lost its funk as it become a straight four. Thing is, despite it being mechanical, NEW ORDER’s ‘Blue Monday’ has a weird groove because of the way Bernard Sumner sequenced those off-notes that just sat there. So this cover now has no groove and because he did away with the familiar hooks, he made up his own, which were frankly not very good!

Jenny: Yes, you want to put your own spin on a cover version, you have to give it a different feel, otherwise there is no point at all. With FAITH NO MORE’s ‘We Care A Lot’, it features a rap so it has no tune whatsoever so I did try to give it a more melodic slant. It was trying to change it a little but not change it, just add to it. You can change little bits and add little quirks, like I sing with an English accent so a lot of the American things we do, there’s a different thing straight away.

My funny FAITH NO MORE story, well it may not be funny to you, is when I first heard ‘Midlife Crisis’, I thought the verse was in German! I was confused, for years I thought they were from Germany! *laughs*

Jenny: If you can’t place immediately where a band is from, I think that can only be a good thing! *laughs*

How did ‘That’s What I Want’ by Lil Nas X come to be selected?

Ricardo: I love it when I hear something I like on Radio1 because it means I’m not old yet, Ava Max is also great, it’s refreshing and I sometimes think SPRAY can still have a hit if we sound like Ava Max these days but we haven’t quite managed that yet!

Jenny: She’s fab!

Ricardo: Covering Lil Nas X proves that we still listen to pop radio…

Jenny: It’s R ‘n’ B but quite poppy, he’s quite genre busting, that ‘Old Town Road’ when he sampled Miley Cyrus’ dad, I didn’t really like it so I didn’t really appreciate him until he was doing the pop stuff. His videos are incredible, he’s very risqué shall we say…

So here’s another card, a Korg 900PS, do you use Korg?

Ricardo: I bought a Korg Wavestate just before lockdown, it’s like a John Shuttleworth keyboard but made by NASA! You can do your one-fingered accompaniment, drums on one key, bassline on another. The idea was that we’d be able to do a whole show on this one synthesizer with no backing tracks. It would be the closest thing to SPRAY Unplugged, but with just one plug! If you open it up, there’s nothing more than a raspberry pie in there *laughs*

You have covered some more familiar tunes for the project, one of which is KISS ‘I Was Made For Loving You’…

Jenny: What a song!

Ricardo: Anybody that says they don’t like rock music, listen to that! That’s my kind of rock, DISCO ROCK!

It’s not really a typical KISS track though is it? But perfect for an electronic pop cover! I first knew the song from German band QUEEN OF JAPAN’s electroclash version which appeared on a TOO MANY DJS mix CD…

Ricardo: I wish KISS had done more songs like that, I always think this of bands who have a hit with an unrepresentative song, why not write a load more songs in that style? They could have a hit factory! KISS never really had hits in Britain until the late 80s…

Yeah, they had a hit with ‘God Gave Rock & Roll To You’, which funnily enough was a cover…

Ricardo: ARGENT wasn’t it, it was bloody terrible! *laughs*

Jenny: That was the one from ‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey’…

You’ve done a sparse reinterpretation of BLINK 182 ‘All The Small Things’…

Ricardo: This is one of Jenny’s favourites from yesteryear with her being the rock fan…

Jenny: I do like a lot of rock and as I mentioned earlier, it’s more difficult to do an electronic pop cover of electronic pop songs and make then your own. ‘All The Small Things’ is pop punk and its fast, so to slow it down like that, you have be careful not to do that twee girl with ukulele thing like a John Lewis ad, but you can do that and do it well, so that you can hear the song itself rather than all the fireworks.

Ricardo: We first recorded ‘All The Small Things’ about 20 years ago as a demo or the first SPRAY album and forgot about it. One day it turned up on the hard drive, we took the vocal acapella and experimented around it to see what we could come up with, but in the end, we had to re-record the vocal due to the earphone bleed! Using the vocal first and then shaping the music second was why it’s such an unusual cover.

Jenny: I think it came out really well, it’s one of my favourites so far.

Bringing Karl Bartos back into the conversation, he did a rather radical speeded up vocodered electronic cover of Eddy Grant’s ‘Baby Come Back’ as ELEKTRIC MUSIC…

Ricardo: I remember at the time being very excited at this because ‘The Mix’ was in 1991 and Karl Bartos had left by then, but then in 1992, the NME charity cover compilation ‘Ruby Trax’ came out and ‘Baby Come Back’ was Herr Bartos’ comeback on that. However, it was pretty awful… c’mon Karl, spend more than an hour on it please! It clears up why KRAFTWERK were so unproductive, they couldn’t be bothered really, they were too picky! They spent a week writing ‘Electric Café’ and 5 years mixing it! *laughs*

‘Gentle On My Mind’, as made famous by your late friend Glen Campbell, what did you think of Gil Trythall’s radical Moog modular version for ‘Switch On Nashville’ from 1972?

Ricardo: That reminds me of what I said earlier that of that roboticness but with a human feel, I do like 16ths and stuff as heard on ‘No1 Song In Heaven’, I think it’s marvellous, you can hear humans playing but it’s still technical.

Now Glen Campbell did quite a few Jimmy Webb songs, you have covered ‘The Highwayman’ before…

Jenny: Yes, we’ve done it live and it’s gone down incredibly well…

Ricardo: Originally in 2003-2004, we were going to record it as SPRAY featuring Glen Campbell. But it never came to pass because I don’t think he quite understood what we wanted him to do, which was record vocal and send it to us. My previous recording session with him to do ‘Rhinestine Cowboy’, I flew over to his house and I think he assumed that was what I was going to do this time! *laughs*

So will ‘The Highwayman’ come out on this cover project?

Ricardo: It’s on the Bandcamp download version of ‘Children Of A Laser God’.

What else is on the cards with these covers?

Jenny: There’s five more to come… one is ‘Love Rears Its Ugly Head’ by LIVING COLOUR, it’s very funky and jazzy, we have yet to get it finished but about a month ago, it came on in the car and I was like “oh my God, we need to do this…”

Ricardo: This should be a successful one cos I hate the original! I always say that about earnest American rock. So after Jenny sends her vocal back and I get my hands on it, it should be a little bit more interesting to get away from the original.

Jenny: I think the vocal will sound very different…

What about the other ones?

Ricardo: We’ll probably put out that NINE INCH NAILS one, ‘Come Back Haunted’ to tie in with Halloween but ‘Born To Be Alive’, the old Patrick Hernandez disco record is in the running. We started it a few years ago but never finished it, but I did get a guitarist to play the riff for me so as it’s on file, we may as well use it.

Did you know who programmed the Roland System 100 sequence on ‘Born To Be Alive’? To give you a clue, an electronic music fan, you’ll probably guess the band he was because they were connected to SPARKS!

Ricardo: It’s not TELEX is it?

Yeah, Dan Lacksman from TELEX!

Ricardo: I had no idea! Right, we’re definitely doing that then! Now, I want to do a cover of my favourite Italo disco song which is ‘The Different Story’ by Peter Schilling, It was produced by Michael Cretu aka ENIGMA. But we can’t do it because every time we try, it sounds either exactly the same as the original or to my ears, slightly worse!

I think Italo disco covers wouldn’t work as SPRAY are spiritually not that far removed from the form, it would be like you doing PET SHOP BOYS covers although Jenny singing would give it a twist…

Jenny: That would be the only thing though wouldn’t it? But we’d like to do ‘No1 Song In Heaven’ live, but that would be something we wouldn’t want to replicate unless we could do it properly.

Ricardo: So my three favourite songs are ‘The Different Story’, ‘No1 Song In Heaven’ and ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’, over the years I’ve tried to cover all of those but it just doesn’t work…

Jenny: There’s no point! *laughs*

Another card, and it’s an EMS Polysynthi, described by Vince Clarke as the worst sounding synth ever made…

Ricardo: Didn’t Jean-Michel Jarre use an EMS? I like the colours on it…

Yeah, it’s the best thing about it, tried one at college, no matter what knob you twiddle, it still sounded rubbish!

Ricardo: It’s cool, it would look good on stage and that’s why I’d get one! *laughs*

So why have you covered Chas & Dave’s ‘Ain’t No Pleasing You?’

Ricardo: Someone suggested it as a joke but we did it anyway…

Jenny: I think it was Terri MacDonald…

Ricardo: On her ‘Cabinets Of Curiosities’ podcast, she had a SPRAY Song of the Week, these little internet radio shows that spring up out of nowhere, some are quite good so we associate ourselves with them like Terri’s.

Jenny: I miss her show, it was very good.

Ricardo: So she suggested Chas & Dave, we changed the rhythm to 4/4 and it worked out ok.

Football songs, so why ‘Diamond Lights’ and not ‘Ole Ola’ or ‘World In Motion’ or ‘Top Of The World’ which was utter rubbish despite being co-written by Johnny Marr? *laughs*

Ricardo: All football songs are terrible, including ‘World In Motion’ , yes it’s the best football song but it’s the worst NEW ORDER record, the lyrics are appalling !

Jenny: But ‘Diamond Lights’ is fabulous…

Ricardo: It’s such a strange record to have been made in the first place, that why I’ve always liked it, it was released on Radio Shack!

So it was connected to Ian Levine?

Ricardo: He wasn’t involved but it’s a late 80s gay disco record by two footballers, there was only the most oblique reference to football in the lyrics, what a strange thing to be a success. They were called Glenn & Chris, but Hoddle & Waddle would have made a better moniker…

This isn’t really a football record as such as it’s not about winning or beating someone, this is more Ant & Dec as opposed to PJ & Duncan; it was never as good when PJ was with Harvey cos the stuff was really gloomy and miserable…

Ricardo: I used to have a really big collection of Ant & Dec and PJ & Duncan CD singles, they used to sell them dead cheap for 99p! I sold them as a job lot on eBay and some bloke came round in a Range Rover and took them off my hands, good times! Back to ‘Diamond Lights’, we did it totally straight, there’s no irony involved, we covered it as a fantastic pop song.

Jenny: Oooh, I’ve only just seen it but Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle have commented on Twitter about it.

Ricardo: Them both commenting leads me to believe that they have been talking about it behind the scenes.

Jenny: But I think you sent it to them it to them *laughs*

So your process? When you decide to do say ‘Diamond Lights’, are you sourcing sheet music or working it out by ear?

Ricardo: I play by ear, I use my hands, but I play by ear! You work out the chords, programme them into FruityLoops and then forget about the original and start tinkering like you are writing an original song.

What advice would you give to electronic acts that are looking to do cover versions as an extra string to their bow or for publicity or whatever?

Ricardo: Well, nobody wants our advice, after 20 years, I couldn’t really offer any… but if I was to, gimmickry is not a dirty word. Do something that is not in your usual style but turn it into your usual style.

Jenny: I think that’s pretty much what I would say, but also, don’t listen to us because we don’t know what we’re doing! *laughs*

Final card, the Oberheim Matrix 12…

Ricardo: What a great name, if there wasn’t already a synth called the Oberheim Expander, I would name an album that, it’s such a glorious collection of syllables. I’ve a plug-in called OPX which is a knock-off of the Oberheim OBX and got all the VAN HALEN presets, it’s got RUSH and the ‘Tom Sawyer’ bass, and the ‘Love Beat’ organ which was used by THE SPACE BROTHERS in the dance hit ‘Shine’.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to SPRAY

‘Untitled Covers Project’ is available as a free download from all good newsagents from
https://spray.bandcamp.com/album/untitled-covers-project

https://www.facebook.com/spraypopmusic/

https://www.instagram.com/spraypopmusic/

Vintage Synth Trumps is a card game by GForce that features 52 classic synthesizers

https://www.juno.co.uk/products/gforce-software-vintage-synth-trumps-2-playing/637937-01/

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
23rd August 2022

VANDAL MOON Queen Of The Night

18 August 2022 / electricityclub

Already veterans of five albums, California-based duo VANDAL MOON opened their account with the self-released ‘Dreamless’ in 2013.

Purveyors of a modern form of electronic goth rock fusing THE SISTERS OF MERCY with DEPECHE MODE, Blake Voss and Jeremy Einsiedler presented their most synth-based long player ‘Black Kiss’ in 2020.

From it, ‘Robot Lover’ reimagined ‘Enjoy The Silence’ covered by THE MISSION while ‘Suicidal City Girl’ took its lead from THE DANSE SOCIETY in its enthralling electronic post-punk disco.

For their new album ‘Queen Of The Night’, VANDAL MOON don’t tamper too much with the template of ‘Black Kiss’, but they add ambition in a concept record about a young woman navigating a world that is falling apart. Written during the worldwide lockdown, Blake Voss attempts to articulate the claustrophobia and insanity of those coming of age limited to communicating with the outside world via social media only, unable to mature in real life situations. All this while facing an uncertain future like being trapped inside a JG Ballard novel.

Each song focusses on the ‘Queen Of The Night’ character, “singing for the youth of our world”. Both featuring additional synthesizers from FM ATTACK’s Shawn Ward, ‘Young. Deadly. Beautiful.’ is an opener that signals business as usual using pitched up voice samples for its main hook in a sister song to ‘Robot Lover’ from ‘Black Kiss’, while the ‘Queen Of The Night’ title track delivers as it suggests in its brooding gothwave.

With crashing drums borrowed from THE SISTERS OF MERCY’s ‘Dominion’, ‘Sweet Disaster’ is an entertaining vampiric set piece with menacing keyboard motifs. But ‘Chemical Love’ moves towards more classic gothic moods straight out of the ‘Disintegration’ songbook with only Blake Voss’ baritone indicating this is not THE CURE. Meanwhile, ‘Sunlight’ heads straight into Motorik goth rock with live bass guitar from Kate Hummel.

Clowns can polarise and are often seen as sinister so ‘Laughing Like A Clown’ provides an eerie anthem to suit. However ‘Easy To Dream’, a duet with Masha Zinevitch from Belarusian band DLINA VOLNY doesn’t quite hit the spot although much better is ‘Too High To Cry’ with Johnny Dynamite which has more of a hook.

‘War’ is a moodier ballad structured around an offbeat with some great keyboard work by Jeremy Einsiedler, while with gated synths and a funkier bassline moving off a straight four structure, ‘Kiss Me Goodbye’ provides the first real musical development on the album; but it fades after just over two minutes thus sounding incomplete. That’s a shame because it has greater potential as the highlight of the album.

Back to a more traditional approach and not a cover of the Prince song, ‘Diamonds & Pearls’ featuring Vangie Lee adds sax and tinkled ivories to good effect before the album closes with ‘The Way You Cry’, a mighty alternative rock anthem that wouldn’t have gone amiss on an earlier album by THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS with a thematic string machine helping to rouse the chorus along as the guitars stridently power up.

VANDAL MOON have not gone rockabilly or anything and ‘Queen Of The Night’ will keep fans satisfied with its stronger storyline variation on the ‘Black Kiss’ theme. Despite the poetic angst, there is hope and there are any number of tracks here that can be playlisted for a good darkwave disco party. So rise, reverberate and keep the body electric…

‘Queen Of The Night’ is released by Starfield Music on 19th August 2022, available as a crimson vinyl LP, cassette or download from https://vandalmoon.bandcamp.com/

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Nicole Fraser-Herron
18th August 2022

TIM BOWNESS Live at Kings Cross Everyman

14 August 2022 / electricityclub

Album launches are a weird and wonderful thing. Usually consisting of either a payback of the latest release in a club to an invited audience where the band sit around disinterested waiting for the bar to open or a gig used to guilt folk into buying the new opus neither are really a celebration of the hard work and effort put into getting the product out.

The approach taken by Tim Bowness for the release of ‘Butterfly Mind’ was, as usual for this most singular of artists, to beat his own path. The Everyman 4, venue for tonight’s performance, is a cinema so not your usual cathedral of rock and roll excess and seats about 50, so not an excuse to shift 1000 copies of the album.

The small queue outside were given access once Tim and his band casually wandered into the venue. Once inside a taste of how tonight was to go came from the sight of Bowness having piles of CDs pushed into his hands by his longtime collaborator Steven Wilson, and this set the tone for what was less gig and more akin to going round to your mates to watch him jam in his living room. With backing consisting of Fierce and the Dead guitarist Matt Stevens and another established Bowness contributor Peter Chilvers on keys, this was not going to be a full on rock and roll show, there was just enough room for a small merch table in the venue, let alone lasers and pyro.

Bowness started the evening by acknowledging the reason for us all coming together, the new album ‘Butterfly Mind’ and then promptly told the audience he is going to ignore that and go for a wander through his own extensive back catalogue. This ‘disregard’ for the new release even extended to there being no copies of ‘Butterfly Mind’ available to buy on the night. As I say, ploughing his own furrow.

Things kicked off with a very early composition ‘Never Needing’. We were then treated, and it was a treat, to ‘Brightest Blue’, a track written with another long term musical sparring partner Richard Barbieri. This was a theme for the evening with a number of unexpected treats played, some for the first time in decades.

The most enthusiastically received tracks were from the band Bowness formed with Steven Wilson, NO-MAN. The first of these ‘Time Travel In Texas’ featured some fine playing from Stevens and apparently a hidden homage to Roobarb and Custard!

The work with Peter Chilvers was represented by the melancholy ‘Days Turn Into Years’ from the ‘California, Norfolk’ album, a holiday destination we were all encouraged to visit.

Anyone who has listened to the excellent ‘The Album Years’ podcast will know Bowness is an engaging conversationalist and this carries forward to his back and forth with the audience. The first set closed with ‘Back When You Were Beautiful’ which was introduced with a tale of shoplifting in a Norwich Thornton’s chocolate shop. As I said, not your typical gig…

The interval was a chance for the band to mingle with the audience in the evening sunshine. This included well-kent faces like John Mitchell and comedian Al Murray. Tim got so caught up in mixing with his guests, he had to be reminded by Peter Chilvers he had a second set to play.

That second set picked up where the first left off with more NO-MAN music in the shape of ‘Wherever There is Light’ and the Bowness track ‘The Warm-Up Man Forever’ which was welcome as it is a particular favourite not only of mine but also the audience.

‘Not Married Anymore’ once again highlighted how wonderful Bowness’s voice is. In an almost ‘torchsong’ setting and with minimal instrumentation, it is allowed to come to the fore. I have never hidden my regard for his vocal style and the up-close nature of this show only reinforces that. His ability to deliver the saddest of lyrical content without it seeming forced is a skill few possess.

A ukulele free ‘Rainmark’ heralded the home stretch for the set which did include one ‘Butterfly Mind track’, ‘It’s Easier To Love’ before that back catalogue was raided for a final time with an excerpt of Sweetheart Raw. This showed age has not diminished Bowness’s vocal prowess despite his worry about the song being in the original key.

There was also welcome outing for the early NO-MAN song ‘Days in the Trees’. Another run through of ‘The Warm-Up Man Forever’ as ‘voted’ for by the audience closed proceedings off.

This was an album launch unlike any I have attended before. It was more a celebration of a career which thankfully, on the evidence of that new album ‘Butterfly Mind’, shows no signs of decline. I look forward to more live outings, hopefully in the very near future.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Tim Bowness

‘Butterfly Mind’ is released by InsideOutMusic / Sony Music as a limited 2CD and vinyl LP+CD editions via https://timbowness.lnk.to/ButterflyMind

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Text by Ian Ferguson
Photos by Chi Ming Lai
14th August 2022

INFRA VIOLET Interview

12 August 2022 / electricityclub

INFRA VIOLET are the Brighton-based duo comprising of Beth Munroe and Toby Campen.

Adversity often fuels emotive creativity and INFRA VIOLET were a product of the worldwide lockdown. With dynamic self-production of a high standard for an independent release, their synth rock flavoured debut album ‘Dream Tether’ issued in Summer 2021 has been well received with Munroe’s heartfelt vocals being singled out for praise.

Making a lot of noise for two people, INFRA VIOLET provide a warm injection of enthusiasm whenever performing live, aided by their inherent musicality and instrumental versatility with an aim not to get trapped by on-stage computerisation.

Having just returned from the first live tour of the UK, INFRA VIOLET spoke about their musical journey so far to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK before heading back into the studio to write new material for their second album.

INFRA VIOLET have a quite eclectic musical background, how did synths become part of your sound?

Beth: It was Toby that got me into the synthwave sound, before that, I was doing my own thing as a fingerstyle guitarist / indie solo artist until Toby sent me a message at the beginning of lockdown. I loved the combinations of our sounds straight away.

Toby: My parents were big fans of new wave music so I was brought up on a lot of synth music and played piano from a young age. Although I was in a lot of rock bands prior to INFRA VIOLET, I always had a curiosity for synths and when I heard CHVRCHES’ first album, that re-ignited my love for more modern synth music. Along with growing up listening to alternative / rock adjacent acts like NINE INCH NAILS and THE PRODIGY.

What VST emulations have you particularly taken to? Is there a vintage hardware synth that you covet?

Toby: In the studio, we use a lot of the Arturia and Native Instruments emulations, I’m a big fan of the Roland Juno and Jupiter synths as you can probably hear in our music, along with the Korg Mono/Poly and MS-20. Growing up, my dad had a Yamaha DX7 and Korg M1 in the house so I have fond memories of those. Live I play a Roland JDXi, as we prefer not to rely on laptops at the moment.

The fretboard soloing that INFRA VIOLET use is perhaps more closely associated with The Blues which gives you an unusual sound?

Beth: Some of the solos might sound a bit like classic rock which comes from Blues I suppose. The tapping that you see comes from acoustic fingerstyle, playing with both hands that you might typically see on an acoustic guitar, we’ve been experimenting with moving that over into our genre on electric, with mixed results but it gives a good show.

How would you describe your creative dynamic?

Beth: We both come up with original ideas that we take to the other. The first few songs, including ‘Polaroid’, Toby just presented me with this polished track that just needed vocals. As we worked together more, I put forward tracks as well. Overall, I’m really good at starting songs, and Toby’s really good at getting them finished and actually sounding good, but our roles are pretty fluid.

From your first single ‘Polaroid’, INFRA VIOLET were quickly embraced by the synthwave community, did that surprise you?

Beth: Yeah it really did, coming from a rock / singer songwriter background, those genres are so oversaturated that there just isn’t a community there anymore. I was so blown away from the support we got right from the start, how lovely everyone was, and how interconnected the UK synthwave scene is. It feels very hopeful for the genre.

Toby: Yes it was a pleasant surprise. There are a lot of musicians in this genre putting out great music, so to be noticed quite early on in our journey was very rewarding and for our first venture into this type of music as well.

Was there a need for you to study the synthwave form as it were? Did you have any particular inspirations or acts who you looked up to?

Toby: Being children of the late 80s / early 90s, the nostalgia element of this sort of music comes quite naturally. When we started making music as a duo, we weren’t really that aware of synthwave as a genre, until people started comparing our song ‘Polaroid’ to acts like The MIDNIGHT and Dana Jean Phoenix. When I first heard these acts, that was it, I was hooked. It mixed synthpop with lots of the 80s soundtrack music I loved like ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘The Terminator’.

‘Grow’ has become your most popular track, what was its genesis and realisation?

Beth: Toby gave me the track, it was originally a lot slower and more ambient, and when talking about a lyrical brief, we both agreed it would be quite nice to have an environmental song, with both of us being environmentalists. I wrote the lyrics about how it actually feels to be in this generation and see the ecosystem and life sustainability of the planet dissolve around us, rather than getting on a soapbox about it. Over time we sped up the track and found the groove of the song, and it all came together.

Toby: From a musical standpoint this song is definitely more post punk / dark wave inspired. I’d been listening to a lot of JOY DIVISION and NEW ORDER at this point in time, along with some newer bands like PALE WAVES and KORINE. However I knew once this was given to Beth with her vocal and guitar style it would transform into something a little different. She suggested making it more upbeat and dancey which helped tackle the difficult subject matter of the lyrics.

Is the confessional of ‘Mess’ autobiographical or do you write as characters?

Beth: All of the songs come from a very personal space, and all of the stories within them are true and mine.

Toby: One thing I have always quite liked about Beth’s lyrics is they are very personal and written from life experience. Quite a few bands in our genre write fictional lyrics so if this sets us apart a little, that’s not a bad thing.

Your debut album ‘Dream Tether’ was very well received and got reviews in mainstream media, it was released in all the usual formats including cassette while the vinyl has sold out. As independent artists, how did you decide what formats to go with and how much of a gamble is it?

Beth: It was my idea to push cassette tape, as I noticed when touring as a DIY artist previously, lots of people started asking for tape, what I didn’t expect was to sell out on our cassettes as well, that was absolutely wild.

Toby: It was a bit of a gamble to do all the formats on our first album, as Beth mentioned our cassettes moved pretty quickly and as a format cassettes are having quite a resurgence right now, especially in electronic music. I think I pushed more for the vinyl as it has always been a dream of mine to put something out on vinyl and in all the bands I’ve been in over the years (going on 20 now) this is the first to do so. Due to huge backlogs in getting vinyl pressed, we went with lathe cut from a company called Lathe To The Grave who I can thoroughly recommend and this made it faster to get our run made. They were a very limited run but we might make more if there’s a demand… message us and say!

Which are your favourite songs on ‘Dream Tether’?

Beth: I like ‘Water’, it’s one of the first we wrote together, and I love the sense of power and gravitas it has, although so much of that is Toby’s production. I like ‘Run’ and ‘Mess’, my two little fingerstyle experiments as well, with the really personal lyrics they both have a nice sense of fun to them. I’m proud of all of it honestly.

Toby: It’s hard to pick as I’m also very proud of it as a body of work. ‘Grow’ will definitely always be a favourite of mine, but some of the lower key songs like ‘Radio’ and ‘Gold’ are also personal favourites because of the way they came out production wise, and also Beth’s lyrics. It’s not on this album but our new single ‘Easy’ is probably one of the songs I’m most proud of to date and it has quite a different sound.

INFRA VIOLET have taken to playing live with aplomb, but what have been the challenges in bringing your sound to the stage?

Beth: It’s definitely very different from anything I’ve known playing live before. Playing to a backing track with in-ear monitors gives a very different feeling, and there’s a lot of tech that could go wrong. Luckily Toby is there to sort the technical side, we’re still finding our feet live for sure, but it’s getting there.

Toby: Initially working out how we would perform everything was a challenge and deciding whether to sequence hardware or go the laptop route etc. In a perfect world everything would be performed as a bigger band with more musicians, but right now that’s just not logistically ideal for us. Our songs also have quite a few patch changes from start to end, with lots of different synths and samples as we write to make the songs the best they can be, then worry about live later. So we are tied to using backing tracks for now, but for me the way we perform with the main synths, guitar and vocals gives enough of a show visually and we can still be entertaining and have fun performing live.

INFRA VIOLET released an instrumental versions EP, but was there any pressure on you to do this as there is this strange line that’s been drawn between vocal and instrumental synthwave. Just taking off a vocal from a song does not necessarily make it a good instrumental track, which is why a number of synthwave instrumentals sound like someone has forgotten to sing…

Beth: I mean I definitely agree, instrumental tracks require texture, melody, and some sort of theme or build that keeps the reader engaged. If you’re going to remove the texture and melodic layer of vocals, you need to either replace it or shift the track around to accommodate the empty space and keep us interested. Toby’s a fantastic producer, and I’m lucky to find someone who knows what they’re doing and can pack the track full of these interesting sounds and textures and little harmonies and hooks that you don’t always notice at first. It’s something not everyone gets right in this genre, so I’m glad Toby can.

Toby: Agreed, I think initially we did feel the pressure to release some as instrumentals and we did actually get requests from people to do so early on. When we do release instrumentals, I’ll remix the songs to suit this format, but we haven’t released all our songs this way for the very reason that some of them would just be boring without the vocals.

But INFRA VIOLET have specifically written instrumentals and contributed ‘Nightmares’ to the soundtrack of the short ghost film ‘The Understudy’. How did that come about, did you compose to moving images and would you like to do more of this kind of commission?

Beth: Yes, we also specifically write instrumental music for film and TV, and we’d love to do more. We wrote ‘Nightmares’ which was a lot of fun writing a spooky synthwave tune with lots of heavy distorted guitars. Our instrumentals are also going to feature in the upcoming documentary ‘Cult Of VHS’ and we’re working on another horror soundtrack at the moment as well. It’s a world we’d love to get more into.

Toby: As my day job I’ve been working in film and TV as a sound designer for most of my career, so some of these opportunities have come via directors that I know. We’d definitely like to score more films as INFRA VIOLET and when we do we compose to the picture as a Hollywood composer would. In that world of film composition, I’m largely influenced by the work of composers like Geoff Barrow, Trent Reznor, John Carpenter

If you were a ‘Stranger Things’ character, who would you be most like?

Beth: I’d be Dustin, I think. He’s my fav, I relate to his clownery and silly upbeat attitude a lot.

Toby: Probably Hopper because I’m partial to a Hawaiian shirt.

So DEPECHE MODE or NINE INCH NAILS?

Beth: I would actually say DEPECHE MODE, but only marginally more my favourite, I love them both.

Toby: For me definitely NIN (if that’s an unpopular opinion) as I grew up listening to a lot of their music and although it’s maybe not audibly obvious, the work of Trent Reznor is a big influence on my music.

How supportive have your parents been in your pursuit of a music career? Have they offered any friendly advice or guidance?

Toby: Mine have been very encouraging of me being in bands. Music has been in my family for many generations, so I had piano lessons as a young child and learnt other instruments after that. My dad was also in numerous synth bands over the years – namely GREY PARADE who were on Numa Records, and you can see that recently mentioned on ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s social media! He’s given me a fair bit of music industry advice over the years and been a good sounding board for song ideas.

Beth: My dad taught me some fingerpicking acoustic guitar when I was younger, I think you can still hear echoes of that when I play now. My mum bought me my first electric guitar and CD player so I could play along to MUSE and GREEN DAY. They’ve both been very supportive of me since, and only a little disappointed I didn’t become a writer instead.

Your most recent single ‘Easy’ appears to have entered more countrified direction? So what’s in store for your next body of work?

Beth: I think people might be a bit surprised when they hear what we have in store after ‘Easy’. It didn’t occur to us ‘Easy’ sounded a bit like country, but it makes sense with the upbeat vibe and the guitars. We’re working on a few different things, and still figuring out our sound, but our next release is likely to be a lot darker and more deviant, I can’t wait to see people’s reaction.

Toby: As Beth said some of our yet to be released songs have taken us in some unexpected directions so we have some darker and lighter sounding ones in the bank. After our first album we’re now taking some time to experiment and see where we can take our sound.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to INFRA VIOLET

‘Dream Tether’ is available in various formats direct from https://infravioletuk.bandcamp.com/

INFRA VIOLET play Duskwaves at Electric Medway in Rochester Victoria Gardens in Chatham on Friday 19th August 2022 from 1.30pm to 6.30pm – entry is free, info at https://www.facebook.com/events/s/electronic-picnic-with-duskwav/1076694056270892/

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Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
12th August 2022

GEMMA CULLINGFORD Interview

9 August 2022 / electricityclub

Just 13 months after her debut solo long player ‘Let Me Speak’, Norwich songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Gemma Cullingford will be presenting her second full-length album, ‘Tongue Tied’.

A member of acclaimed post-punk funk duo SINK YA TEETH, Gemma Cullingford’s solo career was accidental consequence of lockdown. ‘Let Me Speak’ was an autobiographical statement, stepping away from the collaborative format which began with indie band KAITO.

Using largely electronic instrumentation, ‘Let Me Speak’ steadily gained momentum by word of mouth with an unexpected snowball effect and its recent shortlisting in Loud Women’s Hercury Prize was the culmination of that acclaim. Now comes ‘Tongue Tied’, a more confident and polished follow-up that Cullingford says is “perhaps the fruits of that voyage of discovery…”, although the endearing emotions conveyed remain anxious and introspective yet joyous and defiant.

Taking a break from assembling the Dinked edition LP and CDs of ‘Tongue Tied’ with their accompanying zines and screen prints, Gemma Cullingford chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about the motivations and inspirations behind the making of her new album.

Your debut album ‘Let Me Speak’ has just been shortlisted for the Loud Women Hercury Prize, how does that feel?

I feel very honoured! Cassie et al at Loud Women work so hard and do such a great job at championing female and trans artists and giving us a platform to be heard. There are a lot of great female artists out there and on the shortlist, so to be amongst them is quite something!

You released your first single with KAITO in 1998 while the debut SINK YA TEETH release came out in 2015, but there appears to have been a gap between 2006 to 2015, what was happening with you then?

I got a proper office job for the most of it, I needed some money and routine! Did a couple of bands GGGRITS and KOMIZA, decided I wanted to work in music so got some teaching qualifications and set up my own business offering ukulele lessons to primary school kids (which is still my job), dabbled in floristry and got obsessed with flowers for a couple of years.

Bass, guitar, ukulele, flute and synths is quite a wide ranging instrument portfolio, how would you describe your abilities with each?

Bass guitar will I think always be my main instrument. I feel most connected to that and when I play it on stage, it feels like an extra limb! Flute is from my childhood really. I got quite good at it but dropped it at high school for guitar, which I’m not great at as it has too many strings and frets for me. The flute is the only instrument I ever learned how to play properly with notation and music theory and stuff.

But in general I like to work things out my own way, I don’t like having to stick to rules. So although I consider myself fairly good on bass, I don’t know what the notes are or anything and wouldn’t be able to read music. Same with guitar. And with ukulele I learnt a little bit of tab but only enough to teach kids. I have no desire to progress much further on any instrument to be honest. I like working within a few restrictions. I’ve tried to play the flute live at my first ever gig but no notes would come out! I must have been breathing funny. So I’ve got rather rusty at that!

What encouraged you to take a more electronic dance direction for your solo work?

If you have a laptop with a DAW (I use Logic Pro X), you then have every instrument under the sun at your fingertips, and you don’t have to know how to play each instrument. I’ll sometimes plug my bass and guitar in but the majority of stuff is done on Logic. It can be done in my spare room, I don’t need tons of equipment, session musicians etc so it was perfect for lockdown! Also when writing both albums, I developed Rheumatoid arthritis and couldn’t play bass or guitar for a good few months, hence a lot of bass sounds are programmed. I appear to be over it now though thankfully, at least for the moment so I can play bass live again.

Has this been sort of the music you have always wanted to make, but maybe 25 years ago the technology wasn’t as portable and affordable, you haven’t been able to do it until now?

No, I’ve always made the music I’ve wanted to make regardless of the limitations I’ve had. Where there’s a will there’s a way! Electronic music just opens up so many more opportunities.

It wouldn’t surprise me if I end up going acoustic or more ‘bandy’ in the future but I don’t like to plan, so who knows what I’ll do?! (Hoping to have a bit of a break to be honest!)

You’re a SUPER FURRY ANIMALS fan so did you like Gruff Rhys’ electronic side project NEON NEON?

I must admit I never checked it out! Super Furries were very much an era of my life when I first started discovering cool music and they’ll always have a special place in my heart. But so many more discoveries followed so quickly, actually a lot of electronic music that I like now (perhaps embarrassingly), I only discovered very very recently. I was a post-punk fan followed by dreampop. But I’ve also always created music and when I’m creating, I try not to listen to other music as I don’t want to be too influenced by anything else, so I go through bouts of not listening to other music at all for months or years.

On ‘Let Me Speak’, you included a very original cover version of ‘Ode To Billie Joe’, how did that come into being?

I was making a playlist for my mum’s birthday and my boyfriend suggested ‘Ode to Billie Joe’. I’d never heard it before and was mesmerised by it. I loved the melody, the fact that it was quite a happy sounding song but the lyrics seemed quite dark. Then I read the lyrics and saw just how dark they are, and I kinda jokingly said I’d do a cover of it. And I did really quickly. It just came out! I had no idea that it was such a well-known and loved song and I’m sure to some Bobby Gentry fans think what I’ve done is sacrilegious, but there are plenty of covers of it out there!

‘Queen Bee’ was another highlight from ‘Let Me Speak’ and featured a closing instrumental synth passage that came over a bit like Gary Numan? What was your thinking?

I don’t really think when I’m writing! ‘Queen Bee’ was the first song I ever wrote on my own in the style I’ve become known for. I barely ever remember the actual writing process, but I would imagine I found a synth sound and just played whatever my fingers came out with to the drum track. It’s usually about finding a sound I like, one that speaks to me at that moment in time and then just seeing what comes out of me! There’s little to zero planning with me. I’m just not that organised. If I did have a plan, whatever I write would come out completely differently anyway.

Has the positive reception for ‘Let Me Speak’ surprised you as something of an indie music veteran? Do you have a key memory from the making of the album?

The positive reception has surprised (and delighted) me but not as an indie music veteran. The only indie music if you can call it that would her been through being in KAITO, and I still take a lot of influence from those days. Particularly the creative writing process, and approaching sounds in an experimental way. The noise comes from those days, and some of the minimalism in places does too.

I didn’t really set out to make an album, it just kinda evolved as I had a bunch of songs. I do remember it going from “I have enough songs for an album (in fact more)” to “maybe I’ll pop them on Bandcamp under an anonymous moniker?” to “I wonder if Outré would put it out digitally?” to “Outré are gonna release it on vinyl” to “I think I’ll just use my own name actually” to “It’s just a studio album though, not gonna play live” to now I have a second album out and am touring and enjoying playing live!

The new album ‘Tongue Tied’ is out on September 2nd and the title song has this glorious Walking On Thin Ice’ art disco vibe, but what was its actual inspiration, musically and lyrically?

All my songs start with the music. Lyrics aren’t really my thing. Musically I THINK it came from me taking my (B side to ‘Wide Boys’) track ‘104’ and messing around with it until I came up with something completely new. My boyfriend provided the lyrics knowing that I often get tongue tied and mince my words so he knew they’d mean something to me.

I knew I wanted it to be quite poppy so the melody I remember coming up with while singing to myself walking my dog. It’s where a few melodies have happened actually! I do love ‘Walking on Thin Ice’ and was listening to it a lot around then, so I guess it did rub off! Not intentionally though. See that’s why I try not to listen to much music when I’m writing, I soak up inspiration like a sponge but I want everything to be my own when it comes out!

‘Holding Dreams’ features a wonderful blend of icy synths, hypnotic bass and wispy vocals to a good beat, what was the genesis of this idea?

I’ve no idea! It probably just all developed round the live bass line.

Again I wanted something quite catchy so this one has a double chorus which I do remember humming whilst walking my dog again.

‘Accessory’ is a bit like mutant Giorgio Moroder but where did that subtle textural guitar solo come from?

I don’t generally like guitar solos like that, too blokey for me, so I wanted to incorporate one into a song and use it and mould it to suit me and put me at ease with it. My boyfriend suggested his friend Phil Searchfield for a guitar solo, so I sent him the drums and bass and he recorded the guitar solo from his house in Brussels.

It was perfect!! And in fact I didn’t have to chop it up, I just added some delay and reverb as it fitted perfectly and just felt so right. I love it now. Job done! Aim achieved!

Where does the phrase ‘Bass Face’ come from? There appears to be some A CERTAIN RATIO funk motifs too alongside your flute?

Yeah SINK YA TEETH toured quite a lot with ACR so there’s another example of me being influenced a lot! In fact Martin Moscrop gave me some production mentoring for this album! I think ‘Bass Face’ was one of his favourites. I wanted a flute on the album somewhere to connect it with my debut album.

‘Bass Face’ was actually initially gonna be a much more stripped down instrumental on ‘Let Me Speak’, but it didn’t fit in with the rest of the album so I saved it and revisited it for ‘Tongue Tied’. The name ‘Bass Face’ occurred due to the kinda talking synth noise I use on it, which sounds to me like they’re saying “Bass Face” (they’re not. They’re not actually saying anything!), and what with bass being my instrument, I thought I’d go with it. It also conjures up images to me of funny faces bass players sometimes pull, like her from HAIM! Ha ha!

‘New Day’ has quite an unusual structure with some great synth hooks while the vocal veers between BLACK BOX RECORDER and SAINT ETIENNE?

Another one I wrote the music to years ago when I was living back at my parents’ house and wrote it in my old bedroom which we turned into a temporary studio. I couldn’t work out a top line for it for love nor money, but I started to think I wanted something delivered in a similar way to ‘West End Girls’ by PET SHOP BOYS. My boyfriend showed me a poem he’d written, and I read it to the music and it fitted! I did actually approach Neil Tennant to do the vocal on this song but he was “too busy” ha ha! You never know if you don’t try, right?

My vocal style is like that mainly because a) I’m not a strong singer and b) I get really embarrassed recording vocals and singing out loud in case my neighbours or my boyfriend can hear, so a lot of them are very whispery and gentle. If there are songs where I belt it out, then I must have had the house to myself that day!

‘No Fail’ goes fully into some deeper house vibes, which were your own favourite clubs or dance locations?

Ironically I don’t like going to dance clubs etc! I like to go to bed early and I’m a bit sensitive to noise and crowds. But I like to write music that others can dance to. I lived in Brighton for a bit so went to a couple of dance clubs there, but I’m happier with smaller clubs after a few drinks.

Anything I can play air guitar too and jump around to and get home before 1am is good for me. I don’t do much of that though, never really have! Rock ‘n’ roll!

‘Red Room’ is a highlight, there is so much going on, how was do you ensure it did not get too messy?

Thanks. Yeah I call this one my electro-glam SCISSOR SISTERS type of song. No idea how it’s not too messy, some may argue that it IS too messy! It’s another one where I wanted it to be quite ‘pop’. In fact, it started off as a ukulele song I’d written for 5 year olds, ha ha!

The ‘Tongue Tied’ album comes over as a much more confident record than ‘Let Me Speak’, do you have any particular favourite songs on the album?

Not really. It changes all the time, but I think today it’s ‘Accessory’ for that guitar part. I also enjoy singing it live as it’s so different from my other songs. It’s a bit more angry.

You are touring the album this Autumn, how are preparations coming along? What is your set up live?

Yeah just a handful of dates. I can’t wait. Headlining the Norwich Arts Centre in my home town is a dream come true. I may have some familiar faces join me on stage for that too (and possibly London) but that’s a surprise! Also having Alice Hubble as joint headline for some gigs is gonna be fun as I love her stuff so watching her is a treat for me. Then later I have Rodney Cromwell joining me for Manchester and Bristol too.

For those who may be considering coming along, what can they expect?

Expect me grinning like a loon on stage, no doubt some bad jokes and some visuals I made.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Gemma Cullingford

The album ‘Tongue Tied’ is released on 2nd September 2022 by Elmo Recordings as a CD and vinyl LP, digital version can be pre-ordered from https://gemmacullingford.bandcamp.com/

Gemma Cullingford 2022 live dates include:

Brighton Residents Records (2nd September), Norwich Arts Centre (8th September)*, Ipswich Smokehouse (9th September)*, London Dalston Shacklewell Arms (10th September)*, Manchester Talleyrand (17th September)+, Bristol Crofter’s Rights (29th October)+
*with Alice Hubble +with Rodney Cromwell

https://www.gemmacullingford.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/gemcullingford

https://twitter.com/gemcullingford

https://www.instagram.com/gemma_cullingford/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6WR6hPeb9Qq39fAm88GtcL

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
9th August 2022