YELLO co-founder and instrumentalist Boris Blank is to release a boxed set of unreleased soundtrack material recorded between 1977-2014.
Together with partner Dieter Meier as YELLO, the Swiss duo’s tongue-in-cheek avant pop attained a worldwide cult following with songs such as ‘I Love You’, ‘Lost Again’, ‘Vicious Games’, ‘The Race’ and ‘The Rhythm Divine’ featuring Dame Shirley Bassey. Their music notably appeared in films such as John Hughes’ ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ and Michael J Fox’s ‘Secret of My Success’.
‘Electrified’ is a solo collection of soundtrack work from Blank; this limited edition boxed set will contain 3 hours of unreleased music. Over the years, he wrote a large number of soundtrack ideas that were never publicly released.
Originally launched as a Kickstarter project, the 58 musical sketches range from the race friendly uptempo title track ‘Electrified’ that was commissioned for Volkwagen, to the more abstract, spacey vibes of ‘The Time Tunnel’. The reggaefied synth strings of ‘The Last Mile’ give a stylised diversion to the rhythm while ‘Future Past’ buzzes and whirs over a thumping four-to-the-floor beat. The unsettling beautiful ‘One Minute To Go’ could have been in a John Carpenter movie while the sombre, tribal jazz of ‘Cult Of Mirrors’ is in another world.
These tracks make up the main 45 track part of the release covering 1984-2014. But there is a bonus cassette / download of material that was originally recorded between 1977-83 onto Revox A77 2-track or compact cassette. The electro scratch flavoured ‘Aqua Marine’ begins this ‘Rote Fabrik’ archive section and will not disappoint YELLO fans. There’s also the surreal drama of ‘Echo Gang’ and ambience of ‘Violetta’ while the percussive ‘Young Dr Kirk’ brings in some detuned harmonics into the equation. The boxed set also contains a 36-page booklet of Boris Blank’s personal photographs, biography and comments.
Boris Blank kindly spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about ‘Electrified’, his career with YELLO and working with the late Billy MacKenzie…
How did you manage to have so much unreleased material in the vaults for this ‘Electrified’ boxset?
I have a great similarity with squirrels. They bury their nuts and dig them out when needed. But sometimes they forget about them. In the last 35 years, I’ve written about 200 tracks that were never used. Ian Tregoning, the man who brought YELLO to the UK, was on a visit 2 years ago and we started listening to the vaults. One hard-drive alone contained 26 songs that are now on ‘Electrified’. That was the decision to launch a boxset on this scale.
‘Electrified’ was made possible by the Kickstarter platform. Is crowdfunding the future for an artist in your position?
I think, there are two important points for crowd-funding:
1. A set of this complexity would never be published by a record company, because it would be too expensive. I also have complete control of content and packaging.
2. You have an immediate feedback from your fans, so you can see very quickly whether the project is concluded or not. This saves energy.
It must have been fascinating to listen back to the recordings, but also be reminded how the electronic instrumentation was developing through the years?
Amazingly, they sound very good. Some of them almost timeless. Working with modern technology is much more convenient though, it stops you making final decisions.
What were your favourite synths?
The ARP Odyssey was my first love. One of the few analog synths I still have. Herbie Hancock used it on the ‘Sextant’ album and it changed my life. I saved up and bought one.
Did the variety of recording media that would have been used present any issues in terms of the final sound quality of the product? For instance, was there any good material that had deteriorated which had to be left out?
In the early days I recorded directly onto cassette, sometimes bouncing tracks and playing new parts at the same time. The synths were also pretty noisy so there were several ‘technical challenges’ on the ‘Rote Fabrik (1977-83)’ material. Luckily, no material was dropped because of deterioration.
Was any of this ‘Electrified’ material ever considered for YELLO?
For 35 years now, I make music for YELLO like a painter who paints dozens of pictures for an exhibition. In the end, however, it takes only 12 or 14 tracks for a YELLO album so the rest of the images remain in the workshop. These are the songs. These are now ‘Electrified’.
What are particularly your favourite tracks on ‘Electrified’?
Mmm, it’s like asking a father to pick his favorite child. My current favourites are ‘The Time Tunnel’ and ‘Electrified’. I recommend the videos, they’re amazing.
With this box set, and Dieter Meier performing solo concerts, what is the state of play at the moment with YELLO?
2014 is the year of the side-chain. 2015 starts in a few months and YELLO will return to the main street. The new album is nearly ready.
The late Billy MacKenzie was a regular collaborator of YELLO, what was he like to work with and what was your favourite work you did with him?
The songs ‘Capri Calling’ and ‘Because You Love’ still get under my skin. Working with Billy was always a pleasure. He worked fast and sang with his whole heart and soul, he gave everything. You could see it was very emotional for him. And for me.
What would you say were your proudest career moments with YELLO?
Proud is a funny word but yes, I am proud that YELLO still exists in 2014. In 1977, I never would have believed it.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Boris Blank
Special thanks to Lee Puddlefoot and Josh Cooper at 9PR
‘Electrified’ is released by Blank Media as a vinyl / CD / cassette boxset on 15th September 2014. A limited edition 20 track promo CD is also available.
The book ‘Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s’ is to be formally made available in the UK.
In the book’s foreword by DURAN DURAN’s Nick Rhodes, the flamboyant synth player says: “It was a culture where the predilection was standing out from the crowd rather than fitting in. Artists were musically adventurous, less driven by commerce… While those in their teens and early 20s have a limited musical vocabulary, they remain the key source for change in music”. Concluding in the afterword, Moby states: “New Wave was its own world. With its own influences, its own codes, its own bailiwick(s), its own aesthetics, its own sonic landscape…”
Launched in North America to great acclaim last April, it discusses many of the artists who formed the British Invasion of the US with the advent of MTV; the Americans referred to these types of acts as New Wave.
While not definitive, ‘Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s’ delves into the spirit, the politics and the heartache behind some of the best songs ever recorded, regardless of genre. The book does bias towards a Stateside viewpoint courtesy of self-confessed Anglophile and Duranie Lori Majewski, but the content is balanced by the critical input of LA based Glaswegian Jonathan Bernstein.
The two met at Spin Magazine during the height of Grunge and found themselves to be kindred spirits as they quietly bonded over Synth Britannia and New Romantics, much to the chagrin of their scruffy, plaid shirted colleagues.
Photo by Paul Natkin
The dynamic between the “sour by nature” and “staunch supporter of the sheer oddball” Scotsman and the “obsessed past the point of sanity” American ensures that ‘Mad World’ celebrates the triumph and innovation of the era while simultaneously pulling no punches. For example, while accepting their places in the book, Bernstein lobs a few hand grenades in the direction of KAJAGOOGOO and THOMPSON TWINS! The pair’s differing viewpoints on the two phases of OMD are another enjoyable discussion point.
‘Mad World’ is ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s kind of book… it is affectionate and respectful, but also objective and discerning; this more than makes up for previously feeble attempts by other writers to capture the era by combining acts as disparate as SIMPLE MINDS and JASON DONOVAN into a single volume!
While the Adam ‘n’ Moz laden front cover might indicate otherwise, many of the artists who impacted on the Post-Punk synthesizer boom figure prominently in ‘Mad World’. As well as OMD, DEPECHE MODE, SOFT CELL, ULTRAVOX, NEW ORDER, JOY DIVISION, YAZOO, HEAVEN 17, TEARS FOR FEARS, DURAN DURAN, A-HA, A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS, SIMPLE MINDS, there’s Gary Numan, Thomas Dolby and Howard Jones, there’s also THE NORMAL and the early HUMAN LEAGUE to represent the trailblazers from 1978 who helped define the era.
Daniel Miller describes electronic music like ‘Warm Leatherette’ as “pure punk music” as opposed to “punk rock”, due to it adopting that true punk ideal of do-it-yourself. Meanwhile, Martyn Ware waxes lyrical about the realisation of ‘Being Boiled’… the chapter was to have been about ‘Don’t You Want Me?’ but with Phil Oakey’s continued refusal to give interviews about the past has ensured its omission. At the end of the day, Oakey misses an opportunity to reflect and give his story of the era.
However, Oakey’s contemporaries don’t disappoint; as usual, Andy McCluskey gives great copy and his interview nicely sums up the rise and fall and rise and fall and rise of OMD to highlight the pressures of achieving and maintaining success. And while ‘If You Leave’ from the film ‘Pretty In Pink’ may not be the greatest song he and Paul Humphreys have ever written, it is certainly not their worst and its success in America is a handy pension pot for the duo.
The joy of this book is that even if an act is of no interest musically, the back stories are fascinating and a number have not been widely known. Like did you know that the true origin of the name SPANDAU BALLET is even more unpleasant than JOY DIVISION? Or that ‘True’ was inspired by Gary Kemp’s unrequited relationship with ALTERED IMAGES’ Clare Grogan? Or that DEXY’S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS’ Kevin Rowland is a right miserable sod, but he always has been and always will be!
Meanwhile, the entertaining KAJAGOOGOO chapter proves that like in much of today’s music scene, ego can often exceed inherent talent and actual artistic success. The diva-ish spats between Limahl and Nick Beggs in ‘Mad World’ are almost worth the purchase price alone.
While ‘Mad World’ is full of tales of excess and hedonism, one very interesting chapter is about the clean living and philosophical Howard Jones. While quietly making his fortune in the US, the happily married vegetarian readily admitted to having a wandering eye that inspired his biggest American hit ‘No-One Is To Blame’: “It’s about being attracted to other people and admitting that. You are attracted to maybe half the people you meet, and that isn’t a bad thing. You shouldn’t blame yourself for that… but if you want to consummate that attraction to other people, then you have to be prepared to take what comes with it”.
‘Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s’ is a terrific read, but there are the odd date errors and what some might consider irritating translations of distinctly British terms for the primarily American audience.
And while the book covers most bases, one important song that is missing is VISAGE’s ‘Fade To Grey’. A complex story in itself, that probably would have made up a book on its own! But overall, these minor aberrations do not spoil what ‘Mad World’ is… the best book so far capturing that MTV era which many like to refer to as ‘The 8*s’ 😉
Following her highly informative interview earlier in the year, co-author Lori Majewski reflected on the Americanisation of New Wave and why certain UK acts came to become more highly regarded in the US than back home…
Why did it seem the only US acts that seemed to ride on that UK synth wave were BERLIN and ANIMOTION?
LA had a very big New Wave scene with MISSING PERSONS, THE GO GOS, THE MOTELS, BERLIN and ANIMOTION but what you have to remember is that it kinda got watered down by the time it got to America. As we say in the book, you had Brits trying to be Germans wanting to be robots, and then Americans who wanted to be British!
So the Americans were already two steps removed from the conception of New Wave. You look at something like BERLIN, so they’re named after the city that inspired New Wave and 6,000 miles away singing about ‘The Metro’ in Paris where they had never even been!
But I think what LA New Wave brought was glamour. First of all, there weren’t a lot of women in New Wave full stop although in the UK, you had Annie Lennox, Alison Moyet and BANANARAMA. So in LA, we had BERLIN’s Terri Nunn who was a model and tried out to be Princess Leia in ‘Star Wars’, there was THE MOTELS’ Martha Davis who was very old school Hollywood glam and THE GO GOS; plus you had MISSING PERSONS’ Dale Bozzio, who was the first woman I ever saw and thought “oh, that’s what a breast implant is”*laughs*
I think in general, Americans put their own spin on New Wave but as Jonathan likes to point out in the book several times, it wasn’t something we exported back to Britain; it was something that we kept here that Brits didn’t really go for.
What did you think about bands like TEARS FOR FEARS, SIMPLE MINDS and THE PSYCHEDLIC FURS tailoring their sound for the American market when their initial charm was sounding British in the first place?
It’s something we talk about in the TEARS FOR FEARS chapter. We forget that TEARS FOR FEARS had the biggest album of the era in ‘Songs From The Big Chair’. Curt Smith talks in the book about how they did consciously move to appeal to a wider audience but also to make a different record to ‘The Hurting’.
They were listening to more American things like Frank Zappa. So they didn’t make a conscious decision to be American, they made a conscious decision NOT to make the first record again… and as you point out, that record was very British. I don’t know if ‘Songs From The Big Chair’ is American sounding, it just not as New Wave sounding.
The Americans really loved THOMPSON TWINS and Howard Jones? What was it about them that appealed Stateside?
Howard Jones did well here but I think he would have made it no matter what decade it was because he wrote classic songs… but he happened to use synthesizers and he had the haircut! When you look at a song like ‘No-One Is To Blame’, it’s a good pop song, period!
As for THOMPSON TWINS, Jonathan knew of their previous incarnation while I did not, so he was suspicious of how they were this art conglomerate that suddenly wanted to be pop stars and on the cover of Smash Hits! I have to say, they were visually arresting and those songs are built to last. You hear ‘Hold Me Now’ today and what an incredible song!
And I always remember that was the first time I thought about couples fighting because the idea that a man will placate a woman and say “you ask if I love you, well what can I say? You know that I do and if this is just one of those games that we play”, and I thought “Oh my God, that’s right… that’s what women do!”*laughs*
So I felt Tom Bailey was a pop star with a romantic side that really appealed to me, especially with the song ‘If You Were Here’ at the end of the John Hughes film ‘Sixteen Candles’, that’s one of my favourite songs from the entire era.
Why do you think acts like A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS, THOMAS DOLBY, WANG CHUNG and NAKED EYES were perhaps more popular in America than Britain?
I think this IS the advent of MTV, you guys in the UK didn’t have it and we did. ‘I Ran’ by A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS was a huge MTV hit, but it only started going up the US charts and being played on radio after people were requesting it because they saw the video on MTV. So they rode a wave that was not available in their own country.
It was the same with NAKED EYES and I love their version of ‘Always Something There To Remind Me’. MTV helped a lot of bands that were using the medium of video to get to an audience.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Lori Majewski
Meanwhile in Brooklyn at Rough Trade NYC on Saturday 14th September 2014, ‘A Mad World Conversation with Midge Ure’ takes place at 5.00pm – details can be found at the Mad World website
METROLAND are the Belgian conceptual duo with synthetic sounds from the ‘underground’.
Highly influenced by KOMPUTER and KRAFTWERK, although the capital letter ‘K’ is highly resonant in their sound, METROLAND are perhaps more textural.
They are like a ride through an electronic landscape, layered with authentic warm sequences, robotic vocals and uniquely vintage drum machines, all designed for the commuter world.
Their version of IGGY POP’s ‘The Passenger’ has to be heard to be believed and such has been the quality of tracks like ‘It’s More Fun to Commute’, ‘Enjoying The View’, ‘Harry Beck’ and ‘2013’, several unscrupulous eBay dealers in Russia were passing off CD-Rs of three tracks from the debut long player ‘Mind The Gap’ as KRAFTWERK demos in 2013! Meanwhile, METROLAND were invited to work their technological magic on well received remixes for OMD, MARSHEAUX and RUSTY EGAN.
METROLAND have now returned with their Kling Klang flavoured Technopop courtesy of the multi-formatted single ‘Thalys’, a tie-in with the European high speed train operator. Passengers S and A kindly spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about their upcoming railway journey…
You supported OMD on the Benelux leg of their ‘English Electric’ tour, how was that for you?
Imagine that a local priest gets an invitation from the Pope to do a service in Vatican City. Well, it mostly felt like this. Everything fitted so well.
Andy McCluskey was browsing for information on ‘Metroland’ one evening whilst travelling homewards on the train and he stumbled across our material and instantly liked it due to the KRAFTWERK touch. He got in touch via e-mail and the funniest part was that in his correspondence, he mentioned his band ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK, as if we never heard from them.
How modest can you be? Here we have gotten an e-mail from a man, who wrote himself into history several times, and that is precisely who Andy is: an amazing person to whom we looked up during our childhood (and we still do), who gave us hours and hours of listening pleasure and then, one day, you get to meet him in person and support that ‘band’ we never heard of 🙂
A highlight in our career, no doubt… proud we had that opportunity!
Last time we spoke, you had just completed your rework of OMD’s ‘Metroland’. They must have liked what you did because they asked you to do another of ‘Night Café’ which many consider to be even better?
When we played together in Brussels, we talked about loads of things, amongst which we talked about the new single to come… by that time ‘Dresden’ was the presented single and the outside world was not aware yet that ‘Night Café’ would become number three.
Of course we also discussed the ‘Metroland’ remix, how we got to do it and especially that it took over 50 hours in total to do the final mix down. But Andy was most happy about the fact we did not butcher the song to death, making it something that was unrecognizable. He stated that it was an OMD song with a different approach, and it was precisely that what made him give us a second opportunity.
The very next day, we were already in touch with the friendly people at 100% Records, who also were happy with the results. We noticed that the ‘Night Café’ remix was doing well on Soundcloud and in particular on Youtube. Passenger H boosted the remix into a much higher region by creating two ex-tre-me-ly nice videos.
Your remix for RUSTY EGAN of ‘Dreamer’ has had a very positive response as well
So far we did indeed only read nice reviews, so we hope that when it gets released, more people will find their way to METROLAND. The funny thing about this remix is that RUSTY EGAN himself is truly fond of our remixes…even so, we stumbled across tweets and messages in which he asked if there is a METROLAND mix available. So kind and warm of him 🙂
But 2013 was killing us on the remix part, we actually did nothing else but creating ‘versions’ for other people. You should know that we quite often integrate new sequences, sounds, melodies, bass sequences into our remixes and we repeatedly felt that we were only making music to give away. So we decided to stop doing remixes until we finished our own material, ‘Thalys’ included, as this was a monstrous project in every sense of the word.
Talking of dreaming, who would be your dream artists be to remix?
There is only one which we both have high in our lists, and that is ORBITAL. Next to that, we have ERASURE, CHVRCHES… quite some 🙂
We would also love to do MARSHEAUX again, as we feel we did not do so well with ‘Can You Stop Me?’.
That remix was our first one we made as METROLAND, and we did not want to go too far and next to that, f*cking up songs from such a top-top-top-top and even over-the-top good band… we were too modest and too shy at the time… regarding making a remix that is, we’re always modest and shy 😉
2013 was an interesting year for METROLAND as your songs were being bootlegged and passed off as new KRAFTWERK demos…what were your feelings about that?
We still don’t know if we should take this as a compliment or not. On one side, it is a true shame this has happened for sure, especially when our songs where regarded as only demos.
“Are our songs nothing more than demos?” we kept asking ourselves. Looking at it differently, it is amazing that people would then think that our songs could have been from the godfathers of electronic music.
Now, there was some buzz about it, but not that much….we only got an invitation from Ralf H to come over for tea, as he liked our music a lot and he wanted some tips… but we kept that as a secret 😉
What did you think of KARL BARTOS’ new album ‘Off The Record’?
Passenger S loves it, typical Kraftwerkian material with these lovely melodies… wow! Passenger A is a bit more critical and only found it so-so. It is just a matter of taste, and that cannot be discussed. We saw him live in Brussels, and that was a stunning good show. It is good to see that someone continues the real KRAFTWERK spirit. Not a lot of material since 2003 from the godfathers…
So what is the concept behind the new single ‘Thalys’?
A train, that’s the simplest answer we can come up with 🙂
The story behind it is something else. When we had ‘Mind The Gap’ out into the open, we got a lot of reactions like “nice concept, but how long can a band continue with that?”...
True, but do we need to continue with underground and transportation themes? No, we don’t… but still, there were some things that we felt were not completed, and it was one day that we texted a message to each other saying “a song about a train”… ok, eh… crazy lads…
And so we had an arrangement about ‘The Elephant’ (due to the fact it is linked to Belgium), but it stayed an arrangement. Some weeks later, we had a new 6-second melody… and months later it ended up being a song lasting more than 11 minutes. We felt fascinated by the Thalys trains immediately. OK, they are normal high speed trains, but the typical colour makes them so unique.
Whilst we had the idea growing slowly in between all the remixes and the OMD support, we picked it up several times and continued working on the song at a very, very, very, slow, slow pace… at a certain moment, we decided to involve the Thalys company as we saw this ‘concept’ was growing bigger and bigger. This means that at this very moment, we are writing history, as no band ever before us has written a song about Thalys, and so we hope that our name will be linked to these burgundy red trains for as long as they exist 🙂
You have gone on a multi-format extravaganza with this release?
Seeing our ages and background, and our sources of inspiration, there is one name that should instantly pop-up and this would be Mute. We are so truly fond of their marketing approach that we always wanted to do something similar. This made us propose to our label Alfa Matrix and ask if they would allow us to release a 12 inch vinyl (and not an album). Strangely enough, they went all the way with this (again) crazy idea.
The management at Alfa Matrix have been close friends from us for over 20 years now and they know that when we have an attitude towards our ideas, that we go for the full 150% to make it happen. Yes, it was a crazy ride with quite some obstacles to be where we are, but we made it 🙂
On top of this, we decided to go vintage all the way and created a cassette tape (how 80s can you get, right?) to accompany the vinyl. Of course, the label had their say and marketing-wise, they wanted to add a CD to the vinyl for the fans. So they have not yet turned totally grey or bald and have their ‘modern’ (but nearly outdated as well) digital medium 😉
Next to this we went one step further and thought, with a blink to the past, “why not create several versions in a different language?”. Thus we created a radio edit of the 11 minute-song in English, called the ‘London edit’ (which can be downloaded in regions where they don’t speak French or German) and a ‘Düsseldorf edit’ for the German speaking countries and a Paris edit…you can guess the rest.
Let’s not forget that we also have three totally blasting remixes so you will have loads of ear candy to enjoy! Did we also mention that every medium has exclusive versions ? Yep… again the Mute way of thinking. But it has been quite stressy getting this together, so ‘Thalys’ will just be a unique fact and happening 🙂
Where do you think METROLAND will be heading for the next album?
We do have at the moment of taking this interview, 16 tracks ready for musical review. In other words, the arrangements have turned into demo songs, and these demos turned into unbalanced songs and we need to put the dots on the i’s.
After this focussed time consuming (not to mention good beer too) job, it is time to do the production mixdown, making sure everything is in balance and off it goes to the mastering. Then all files will head over to the pressing plant where the complete concept will take shape too. For the central theme and concept for this next album, we will be musically travelling to Germany, but it will be something that no-one will expect, truly not 🙂
The style of music is a little darker and harsher than on ‘Mind The Gap’ which was at times mellow while still having a sort of tristesse drenched in electronics. The new album has a different tone of darkness and synthetic sounds. We never experiment, we always go for the up tempo sequences and bass lines… so no need to worry yet 😉
What would be the perfect location for one of your live presentations?
The Transport Museum in London, the one place we would love to go and present our audio-visual experience (we prefer not to call it a live performance). And of course the Hammersmith Odeon in London. Can someone make this happen? 🙂
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to METROLAND
‘Thalys’ is released by Alfa Matrix in a 12” vinyl / CD / cassette bundle package and three territorial download EP formats, further information at http://www.alfa-matrix.com/bio-metroland.php
Without doubt, Jo Callis is one of the unsung heroes of the Synth Britannia era. The Rotherham born guitarist first found fame during the post-punk era with THE REZILLOS.
Formed in Edinburgh where Callis was studying at the local college of art, they scored a Top 20 hit ‘Top Of The Pops’ in 1978. THE REZILLOS fragmented after one album so Callis formed SHAKE and then joined BOOTS FOR DANCING before releasing a solo single ‘Woah Yeah!’ in 1981. His manager when he was in THE REZILLOS was Fast Records supremo Bob Last who also looked after THE HUMAN LEAGUE.
Following the well documented split between Phil Oakey and Adrian Wright with Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh in 1980, the former pair continued as THE HUMAN LEAGUE with Ian Burden recruited as an additional musician plus Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley as backing vocalists.
Despite this line-up recording the band’s first Top 20 hit in ‘The Sound Of The Crowd’ under the production supervision of Martin Rushent in 1981, THE HUMAN LEAGUE felt they could benefit from the input of an experienced songwriter… enter Jo Callis! He joined just in time to record the Top 5 breakthrough single ‘Love Action (I Believe in Love)’ although he did not feature on the single’s cover photo.
His first public outing as a songwriter for THE HUMAN LEAGUE was with the psychedelic synthpop hit ‘Open Your Heart’. The parent album ‘Dare’ was released shortly after and has since being hailed as an iconic recording of the period.
Jo Callis’ three year tenure with THE HUMAN LEAGUE directly contributed to their imperial phase; classic numbers in The League’s catalogue such as ‘Seconds’, ‘Darkness’, ‘Hard Times’, ‘Mirror Man’, ‘(Keep Feeling) Fascination’, ‘The Lebanon’, ‘Life On Your Own’ and ‘Louise’ were all co-authored by him. But his most famous song with the Sheffield electronic pioneers was ‘Don’t You Want Me?’ which reached No1 in both the UK and US charts. However, after a difficult gestation for ‘Hysteria’, the follow-up album to ‘Dare’, Callis left THE HUMAN LEAGUE in 1984 to concentrate on his own songwriting.
Post-League, Callis co-wrote Feargal Sharkey’s’s ‘Loving You’ before partially returning to THE HUMAN LEAGUE in 1990, penning two songs ‘Heart Like A Wheel’ and ‘Get It Right This Time’ for the ‘Romantic?’ album. Another Callis co-write ‘Never Again’ appeared on 1995’s ‘Octopus.
More recently, Callis has been in the news in his adopted homeland as a result of ‘Don’t You Want Me?’ being adopted as a football crowd anthem by the supporters of Aberdeen FC. The song was given a boost in download sales as a result of The Dons victory in the 2014 Scottish League Cup.
With his profile at its highest since his HUMAN LEAGUE days, Callis is about to return to the live circuit with his new band FINGER HALO, playing alongside ANALOG ANGEL at Glasgow’s Classic Grand on FRIDAY 15TH AUGUST 2014. Now well and truly “back-Back-BACK”, he kindly chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about his career.
THE REZILLOS made it into the Top 20 with ‘Top Of The Pops’ in 1978 but briefly, what happened that led you into becoming a free agent in 1981?
THE REZILLOS split up (mid tour) around 1979, probably at my instigation more than anything else. From there, I formed SHAKE along with former REZILLOS rhythm section Ali Paterson and Simon Templar, and remained signed to Sire, THE REZILLOS’ former label. With the addition of Troy Tate (later of TEARDROP EXPLODES fame) on guitar, we released a four track EP followed by a single ‘Invasion Of The Gamma Men’ and gigged quite consistently.
The initial EP was pretty well received and the lead track ‘Culture Shock’ garnered a fair amount of Radio1 airplay. But with little record company support, things eventually just fizzled out. Broke, we eventually parted company with Sire.
From there, I joined local indie leftfield punk / funk outfit BOOTS FOR DANCING, whom I really enjoyed playing with. They could have been contenders, but bottled out of going for gold so to speak, so there was no future there for myself. Around the same time I had also been making in-roads into The League camp, who were in the process of re-inventing themselves after a split up scenario of their own, with a view to help them with new material.
What did you think when you were first offered THE HUMAN LEAGUE job by Bob Last and told you’d have to play a synth?
My memory of events here is that I simply got together with Adrian Wright, whom I was friendly with at the time, in order to do a bit of writing, which led on to my quite significant contributions to THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s canon of tunes. Although, with hindsight, I guess that the ‘svengali’ Bob Last would have certainly been pulling a few strings and making some subliminal suggestions behind the scenes, and certainly encouraging my association with Adrian.
Around that time I was also feeling a little jaded with the guitar, particularly as an instrument for composition, and felt that a change was in order. I wasn’t exactly sure what kind of change, but the opportunity of The League, synths and moving with the times certainly appealed.
Is it true Martyn Ware showed you how to use a synth at Monumental Pictures studio?
Yep, with the then fledgling HEAVEN 17 / BEF still sharing the same studio space as the ‘new’ League, Martyn Ware kindly spent a day running me through all the basics of subtractive synthesis, and also pointing me in the direction of the keyboard playing equivalent to Bert Weedon’s legendary guitar tome ‘Play In A Day’ (in another move encouraged by the venerable Mr. Last no doubt). I had soon purchased a second hand Roland SH09 synth, and began patching away when at home in Edinburgh.
Did you have a favourite synth?
I still have a great love for the old SH09, its big Bro’ the SH2 and its progeny the SH101. But the Roland Juno 106 is still hard to beat. I do still have (hopefully) working examples of ’em all. Although primarily a vintage Roland fan, I do have the odd bit of Korg and Yamaha kit, and of course the wonderfully proletarian Casio VL Tone… required equipment in my League days, we all had one in our make up bags!
Did you ever feel the tension between the two parties as the shifts changed at the studio?
Oh yes, but more in general. We would all hang out together in my early days with The League whilst in Sheffield writing the material that would ultimately comprise ‘Dare’ etc. It all seemed quite light hearted initially, but I was aware of quite deep rooted competition and rivalry between Philip and Martyn. But there was a mutual degree of respect all round.
I had to laugh really, having come out of a fairly similar situation myself recently and being aware that Bob Last had carefully handled THE HUMAN LEAGUE split with the benefit of knowledge gained from the chaotic split up of THE REZILLOS, Bob having managed both bands. So there were no handbags at twenty paces, unlike the biliousness of THE REZILLOS’ break up which was arguably fuelled by the divisive music press of the day – I did feel I was somewhere between a rock and a hard place on occasion though.
What was the creative dynamic between you, Phil Oakey, Adrian Wright and Ian Burden?
With Adrian, I would generally pick out the best of his formative ideas, develop them with him and add parts etc.
Phil and I would often find that we could graft together independent ideas we had, which would compliment each other… or else Phil would add lyrics and melody to one of my backing tracks which would just have a working title – ‘The Lebanon’ for example, came about in this way, even retaining the original title in the finished article.
With Ian, himself being a (very good) bass player and myself a guitarist, we could plug into amps and jam out ideas old school stylee sometimes. And when Jim Russell (originally Martin’s engineer, then later a band member), a seasoned drummer who’d played with the like of CURVED AIR and MATTHEWS SOUTHERN COMFORT was around, we’d have a power trio and just jam all day…
Joanne and Susanne contributed to the quality control, they were very down with what was happening in the clubs and what ver kids were digging at the time, so if they liked what they heard, then it was definitely worth persevering with. They were total Duranies then, and had previously been BAY CITY ROLLERS fans (a fine Edinburgh band – check out their version of ‘Rock & Roll Love Letter’). But their big love was JAPAN. Strangely, we seemed to listen to a lot of Grace Jones and JUDAS PRIEST during the writing of ‘Dare’.
What was the first song you wrote for THE HUMAN LEAGUE?
‘Open Your Heart’, if memory serves – originally started on the guitar and provisionally entitled ‘Women & Men’.
Legend has it that Phil freaked when he saw you brandishing a guitar during the recording of ‘Don’t You Want Me?’?
Ha! Axeophobia I believe it’s called, a rare condition and one most unusual in the case of a JUDAS PRIEST and SAXON fan! I remember Phil once saying: “I’d happily have you play the guitar on tour Jo, so long as the jack lead is only six inches long”. Classic! I feel he probably suffered from the much more common complaint; ‘Callisophobia’.
The main riff of ‘Don’t You Want Me?’ was appropriated from the guitar line of ABBA’s ‘Eagle’? Discuss!
Aha! The passage to which you refer to is definitely ABBA inspired and was originally the bassline to the bridge section of ‘DYWM’ – the “Don’t, Don’t You Want Me, You know I don’t belieeve it! Etc” bit. Martin Rushent picked it up and turned it round and made it into the top line of the intro passage… so it’s all his fault, ‘onest Guv!
How do you look back on the ‘Dare’ album now?
With my head tilted to the right, and squinting with one eye. ‘Dare’ was the result of a unique coming together of an unlikely bunch of switched on, eccentric, bloody minded individuals who, against all odds and with no great ‘industry’ expectation, created a truly wonderful work of electro glam pop – timeless, wonderfully sparse, most influential, and a true combined vision, very much the sum of its parts.
How were those ‘Dare’ tour dates, especially with those temperamental synths and taking the Linn Drum Computer out live?
Tours can be the absolute best and worst times of your life condensed into a relatively short period of time – so, careful what you wish for sometimes. We fortunately had a terrific tech and road crew on the ‘Dare’ tour which eased a lot of the potential pain, no MIDI or computer sync in them days. We had to have the Linn Drum reloaded (by cassette tape) half way through the set as its memory could not contain the entire show, we switched to the Roland TR808 for one song during the reboot! The synths all seemed to perform reliably and well, despite the abuse I would give mine on occasion. Made from Tiger tank and Me262 parts them Roland Jupiter 8s!
Things seemed to be going swimmingly for the follow-up album with the releases of ‘Mirror Man’ and ‘(Keep Feeling) Fascination’, but it all started falling apart around the recording of ‘Hysteria’?
That’s right, it was all taking far too long and frustration was setting in. We had to try and follow the unexpected success of ‘Dare’ and I think a fear of failure began to loom. The pressure maan!
The two versions that were released of ‘I Love You Too Much’ indicated there was some confusion in the band over direction?
That track actually had a synth playing back through a guitar Wah Wah pedal on it – which was my idea. As I recall the first version on the ‘Fascination!’ import EP was produced by Martin Rushent and the ‘Hysteria’ version was by Chris Thomas… or was it Hugh Padgham?
‘The Lebanon’ had a bit of a mixed reaction didn’t it?
I love a bit of contention, it was pretty much guitar driven, which is down to me again, but I think it sat okay in The League repertoire and Phil was actually quite enthusiastic about the style and direction it took. It went down well with the BIG COUNTRY / SIMPLE MINDS / U2 crowd of the time, almost a bit of a crossover track. The music press of the day, particularly the NME were fond of ripping the pish out of the lyrics, but in a very affectionate and ‘onside’ way. I still think it’s possibly the strongest tune on ‘Hysteria’, and one I’m very satisfied with personally.
Martin Rushent left the sessions apparently over something Susanne said… what was the straw that broke the camel’s back in your case?
I tried so hard to keep everyone together at that time, we weren’t too far away from having a follow-up album finished with Martin, I thought I’d managed to patch the ship up so to speak at one point, but things soon fell apart again.
Do you look on the ‘Hysteria’ period with much affection?
Not greatly.
When THE HUMAN LEAGUE said they wouldn’t tour ‘Hysteria’ because they couldn’t perform your songs without you, what that just an excuse on their part?
Never heard that one before… dunno really.
You sort of returned for ‘Romantic?’ in 1990… how did you come to contribute ‘Heart Like A Wheel’? and ‘Get It Right This Time’ ?
I’d always left things open ended, and had said I’d always be happy to contribute to writing at any time. I did initially offer them a song called ‘One For The Angels’ for ‘Crash’, the album after ‘Hysteria’, but they didn’t take it – perhaps not quite enough water had passed under the bridge by then, but I’d had such a good response from publishers etc.
With ‘Heart Like A Wheel’, and having been working a lot myself on various projects with Martin Rushent at Genetic Studios around that time, when The League came to thinking about the follow up to ‘Crash’ (which would become ‘Romantic?’), I thought there might be a good opportunity to try and get ‘the old team’ back together again, which I did manage to achieve for a couple of tunes at least. I was kind of middle man there, having a foot in both camps – helping The League out with a bit of writing now and then, and working on various production / writing projects with Martin.
I also co-wrote ‘Never Again’ with Phil for the ‘Octopus’ album, and will be revisiting ‘One For The Angels’ with my new band FINGER HALO!
With Martin Rushent on board, it looked like there was an attempt to recapture the magic of ‘Dare’. But why did things not really work out with that album as a whole either? Any thoughts?
As an addendum to the previous question; I had hoped to resurrect ‘The Old Brigade’, for the entire album, but I think Phil wanted to experiment with different producers, doing a couple of tracks with each. ‘Heart Like A Wheel’ did well for all concerned I think, so it often pays to not burn bridges… and ‘Never Say Never Again’.
Mention must go to Martin Rushent, now sadly departed. A true maverick, a passionate if headstrong fellow and one of the greatest cutting edge producers of all time. He always followed his gut instincts which invariably led him in the right direction. I learned so much from Martin and he was great fun to work with.
Noddy Holder describes ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ as his pension, is it like that for you with ‘Don’t You Want Me?’?
As a huge SLADE fan, Noddy is seldom wrong, These days, I tend to view ‘Don’t You Want Me?’ more as a kind of capital investment, to trade with. In basic, cynical economic terms, ‘DYWM’ to me is something akin to what Cornflakes are to The Kellogg company.
You are still active in music, what are your upcoming plans?
What would you consider your proudest achievement?
An old acquaintance of mine who served with The Royal Marines during The Falklands campaign told me that he had The League song ‘Seconds’ running through his head all through the conflict, which helped him keep focus and get through serious life or death circumstances.
That instance in particular, and other, albeit rare, occasions when somebody has remarked that your music has had a positive impact on their lives, are moments when I realise that what we do, we happy band of wandering minstrels, really can have great value to humanity, and it’s not just about self indulgently fannying about, having more control over our lives and never having to grow up, as I might have previously thought. I speak for all performers, entertainers, composers, authors and artists. I think we oil the wheels of life in many respects.
And as the Big Man Winston Churchill once said: “If you find a job you love, you’ll never work again” – now there’s an achievement in itself! These are the things that dreams are made of (and nightmares sometimes but…)
And finally, why do you think guitar synths never really caught on?
Quite simply Chi, I think that the technology had moved so rapidly then that you could use a regular guitar, with a few ‘bolt ons’, and pretty much do anything that a dedicated synth guitar could do. Also a lot of guitar players who loved the ‘Synth Guitar’ idea didn’t really think that the instruments themselves were particularly good as guitars. That Roland G-77 looked really cool though, but they never made a left handed version, the c***s!
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Jo Callis
Special thanks to Ian Ferguson
FINGER HALO featuring Jo Callis play the Classic Grand, 18 Jamaica Street, Glasgow G1 4QD on FRIDAY 15TH AUGUST 2014 alongside ANALOG ANGEL
American musician Tom Shear, primarily through the vehicle of his band ASSEMBLAGE 23, has spent over a decade building a career anchored in a personal relationship with his fans.
Those self same fans appreciation for his brand of harder edged electronic music, as showcased on albums such as ‘Compass’ and ‘Bruise’, was once again demonstrated in a massively successful crowd sourcing campaign for recent side project SURVEILLANCE.
Now with a newly released remix companion to that album ‘Oceania’, Shear chatted about life as a one man band, the challenges faced in his early years and the pros and cons of crowd sourcing…
Can you give us a brief overview your early years as a musician and ASSEMBLAGE 23?
Sure. My interest in electronic music was sparked by hearing Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’ for the first time as a child. Something about the sounds really grabbed my attention.
Late in elementary school, I’d mow lawns in the summer for cash and eventually saved up enough to buy my first synth, a Korg Poly-800. I eventually added a drum machine and a four-track cassette recorder to my set-up and that began my love of songwriting. The early stuff was all instrumental, as I was too shy to sing. But when I reached high school, I started recording music with vocals as well through an old guitar delay pedal. It was during this time I went to see DEPECHE MODE perform for the first time and they had a DJ spinning music in between bands that was playing industrial music. It was the first time I had ever heard it, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Hailing from Seattle in the early 90s, how difficult was it being an electronic musician which runs counter to the recognised ‘Seattle Sound’ of the time?
Actually, I’ve only lived in Seattle since 2001. I grew up on the east coast and lived in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Hampshire and New York. But the effect was the same. Electronic music was very out of favor in the mainstream while grunge dominated everything for a few years. Most of the purely electronic industrial music at the time was coming out of Europe, and although it existed in the US, the more coldwave / metal guitar style of industrial was most of what got attention from labels. I got rejection after rejection, or worse, totally ignored.
This was before the internet really took off, so as an American, it was tough to find out how I could even submit material to the European labels. So it was a very frustrating time. My demos were getting actual airplay on college radio stations, people I sent the demos too were really enthusiastic, but the labels just weren’t biting.
What were those first few years like? What main challenges did you face in respect of getting your work heard?
Even before getting signed, I did my best to start getting my music out there, which basically meant mailing cassettes out to any college radio station, music zine, or interested person that I could. The first things that officially got released were compilation tracks on American labels such as 21st Circuitry and Arts Industria.
Around the beginning of 1998, I finally got a label’s ear, which was the Gashed! Records label out of Canada. At that point, getting the name out and getting exposure became a bit easier. The label handled things like getting material reviewed, advertising etc, so I could shift my attention to getting out and performing live. We were lucky enough early on to get opening slots with really popular acts such as COVENANT and HAUJOBB… that got the ball rolling.
Had you always envisioned ASSEMBLAGE 23 to be a solo project or were there plans to develop a full studio band over time?
It was nothing I really thought about. I started out as a solo act out of necessity. Where I grew up, all anyone listened to was classic rock. Most kids in my school didn’t even know who DEPECHE MODE was. So I started out working alone and just never found a reason to add anyone else to the equation. I was really eager to learn, so doing all the work was a lot of fun to me. After awhile, I was pretty self-sufficient, so I just never really had a need to bring anyone else in on the creative end. Live, obviously, is a different story.
With that in mind what challenges were there in taking ASSEMBLAGE 23 live in those early days?
I’m not going to lie, we actually were very lucky in those early days. We were booked to open for HAUJOBB… they couldn’t get into the US – suddenly, we were the headliners. VNV NATION and APOP cancelled a show when we were to open for them for – yet again, we were the headliners and had access to these big crowds. That’s not to say we didn’t play some tiny shows or faced indifferent or outright hostile audiences in the early days, but I feel like a few lucky breaks gave us a bit of an easier time than many bands.
You have embraced the internet fully as a way of not only selling ASSEMBLAGE 23 product but also, with Facebook in particular, a mechanism for keeping in contact with your fans. How much of a boon and possibly problem has this been?
Musicians in general vastly underestimate the importance of having direct interaction with their fans. Before the internet, that wasn’t really practical. But with the ability to talk to people all around the world almost instantaneously, you suddenly have direct access to the people who are listening and (hopefully) buying your music.
I have a theory that if bands want to lessen the impact of file-sharing, they should interact regularly with their fans. My reasoning is, when fans get to see the personalities and daily lives of their favorite artists, they begin to see those artists as people just like them – not some ivory tower, unapproachable deity sleeping atop a mountain of cocaine and sports cars. Who would you rather support? The guy who takes times to answer questions and talk to you, or the one won’t talk to their fans at all, unless they pay for some retarded VIP package? The downside of this access to fans, and their access to you, is that there are definitely some unstable issues out there that can be difficult to deal with.
So the new project, SURVEILLANCE. What make this different from ASSEMBLAGE 23?
I keep several ‘ideas’ folders on my studio hard drive where I quickly sketch out musical ideas as they come to me, so I can go back and, if there is anything interesting there, develop them into songs. Obviously, not every idea I get is for an ASSEMBLAGE 23 song. Sometimes it’s something harder, sometimes it’s something more ambient or experimental. Anyway, I had a folder of material that was more EBM-focused and one day noticed I had enough of what I considered decent ideas to make an album. There are definitely elements of ASSEMBLAGE 23’s sound in SURVEILLANCE, but overall, the project is mainly influenced by the early EBM bands that got me interested in the style to begin with… FLA, FRONT 242, NITZER EBB etc. So the idea was to take those roots as inspiration, but give it a more modern polish.
You crowd sourced to fund the SURVEILLANCE ‘Oceania’ album, how long did it take you to decide upon the rewards in the package?
Most of them I came up with in the course of an evening. Before I launched my crowd-sourcing campaign, I studied others that had been successful (such as Matt Fanale’s for ‘Caustic’) and tried to look for common things among these successful campaigns. So some ideas I got from other campaigns, some were just sort of obvious, and eventually, some were suggested by the fans and added. The most important thing is to offer fans something SPECIAL that they can’t just get off iTunes and to make a wide variety of pledge levels available. If your project is good, your fans will WANT to give you money. So give them the opportunity to do so. Have lots of reasonably-priced perks, but also offer some more expensive options if fans feel they want to support you that much more. The worst thing that can happen is no one bids on those perks.
Were you surprised at how quickly you hit target?
Astonished! I thought the amount of money I was looking to raise was do-able, but I expected it to take the full 30 days. Instead, I reached it almost within 24 hours. I think this is really another case of having a personal relationship with your fans being beneficial. Matt Fanale, who I mentioned before, is brilliant at this, and sure enough, his campaign did amazingly.
Given the negative press some crowd sourced projects have gathered, do you feel this is a valid way of funding a release? Would you do it again?
The tricky thing about crowd-sourcing is, it really has a limited shelf-life. I think it’s a great way of gauging interest in your project and getting it off the ground, but I think after that, the fans expect the project to be self-sufficient.
And if crowdfunding becomes more popular, there is also the risk that fans will just get sick of all the bands constantly asking for money. If I did use it again, I would basically use it as a glorified pre-order system for a project that was ready to ship. That way, people can just pre-order the album, or if they want something more special, they get that too. One thing I will say, however, is that a big campaign is a LOT of work to keep up with. I don’t recommend it unless you have time to put into it and are an organized person.
What is the biggest challenge you face as a one man band (and this isn’t exclusively from a music point of view)?
The workload, I guess. If I’m having a bad day or experiencing writer’s block, there’s no-one else to step in and take over. I don’t mind that, but it does mean the project lives or dies by your ability to get stuff done, and no one else’s.
You are DJing now, how does the preparation for a DJ set differ from a band gig?
When we put a set together for ASSEMBLAGE 23, it’s a very deliberate and planned thing. I generally try to make it up of the songs popular among the fans, material from the most recent album, and sometimes a surprise or two such as remixed versions, covers etc. When I DJ, I definitely rehearse in the sense of just mixing music, trying to find which tracks mix in and out of one another well etc. But I don’t plan what I’m going to play at all. I’ll generally choose a tempo I want to start my set at, and then just spontaneously choose tracks after that. It’s more fun that way.
Who are you listening to now? Any new bands you feel readers should give try?
GESAFFELSTEIN is probably the one I am grooving on the hardest at the moment; a very cool mix of old school EBM basslines, plodding techno beats and aggression. There’s a band called BLASTROMEN I recently came across that sounds sort of like what would happen if MIND.IN.ABOX formed a KRAFTWERK tribute band. I’m also loving the new CARBIN AIRWAYS. The band are kids… brother and sister in fact, and although I have a feeling there is a fair share of ghost writing going on, the material is great.
And if I can make a crass plug for my live band mates, ASSEMBLAGE 23 drummer Mike Jenney has just released a new album for his project ALTER DER RUINE, and it’s a stunner… utterly unlike anything they did before. Paul Seegers, my keyboard player, is also about to release an album for his project THY FEARFUL SYMMETRY which is very dream-pop sounding with lots of ambient guitar, big washy reverbs, and distant vocals. Even if these guys weren’t in my band, I’d love these albums.
What does the future hold for Tom Shear…?
I plan to attempt an entirely new level of baldness called Super Baldness.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Tom Shear
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The songs ‘Capri Calling’ and ‘Because You Love’ still get under my skin. Working with Billy was always a pleasure. He worked fast and sang with his whole heart and soul, he gave everything. You could see it was very emotional for him. And for me.
delves into the spirit, the politics and the heartache behind some of the best songs ever recorded, regardless of genre. The book does bias towards a Stateside viewpoint courtesy of self-confessed Anglophile and Duranie Lori Majewski, but the content is balanced by the critical input of LA based Glaswegian Jonathan Bernstein.
as “pure punk music” as opposed to “punk rock”, due to it adopting that true punk ideal of do-it-yourself. Meanwhile, Martyn Ware waxes lyrical about the realisation of ‘Being Boiled’
… the chapter was to have been about ‘Don’t You Want Me?’
but with Phil Oakey’s continued refusal to give interviews about the past has ensured its omission. At the end of the day, Oakey misses an opportunity to reflect and give his story of the era.
from the film ‘Pretty In Pink’
may not be the greatest song he and 
by A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS was a huge MTV hit, but it only started going up the US charts and being played on radio after people were requesting it because they saw the video on MTV. So they rode a wave that was not available in their own country.
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