Speaker 1: Loud and Quiet Presents Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to the Loud and Quiet interview podcast
Speaker 2: Midnight Chats. We're up to episode twenty six now, and
Speaker 2: this week's interview is with early nineties Shuegas band Slowdie,
Speaker 2: who returned this week with their first album in twenty
Speaker 2: two years. Their last record was pig Melian in nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety five, which they managed to just about release before
Speaker 2: calling it a day. Back then, the shoegay scene that
Speaker 2: they were very much part of, along with bands My
Speaker 2: Bloody Valentine and Ride Lush and Chapter House and all
Speaker 2: of those early nineties bands were kind of pushed aside
Speaker 2: by Britpop when Britpop went insane. Since then, all the
Speaker 2: members of the band have continued to make music, but
Speaker 2: in twenty fourteen they reformed for a reunion tour, which
Speaker 2: kind of kicked off at Prima Era Sound with a
Speaker 2: huge show, the biggest show the band will have ever
Speaker 2: played until now. And they had always muted around that
Speaker 2: time of like, maybe they're going to make some new music,
Speaker 2: and here we are three years later, and indeed they have.
Speaker 2: They didn't fall out on that reunion tour. They got
Speaker 2: on as well as they ever have done, and they
Speaker 2: made a new record which they've chosen to call Slow
Speaker 2: Dive and it's out this week on May or May
Speaker 2: the fifth, if you're listening to this when it goes up.
Speaker 2: So this is an interview that I conducted with singer
Speaker 2: Rachel Goswell and drummer Simon Scott. They came past the
Speaker 2: office about a month ago now. The day that this
Speaker 2: was recorded, as you're here at the beginning of the conversation,
Speaker 2: was coincided with a show that they were playing, special gig,
Speaker 2: a small show here in London at the Garage which
Speaker 2: was being broadcast on live on Facebook, and they had
Speaker 2: only announced it the day before, a very tiny venue
Speaker 2: here in town, and it's the place where they played
Speaker 2: the very last show, their last UK show in ninety four.
Speaker 2: So special thanks to them coming by on that day
Speaker 2: because I think they were probably a little bit nervous
Speaker 2: about this show because it was being broadcast and it
Speaker 2: was quite a big thing, and that the album had
Speaker 2: just been announced. But we had a great chat here
Speaker 2: in our office about everything really, about the fact that
Speaker 2: how it all ended before, what it was actually like
Speaker 2: being in a band in the early nineties and part
Speaker 2: of that creation scene that was so kind of so
Speaker 2: legendary for its partying and just madness and and other
Speaker 2: things like what it's like to just suddenly release a
Speaker 2: new record after twenty two years. Obviously a hell of
Speaker 2: a lot has changed in the music industry and suddenly
Speaker 2: you're back being in a again with the people that
Speaker 2: you were in a band with in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast if
Speaker 2: you if you're new to what we do, please check
Speaker 2: out our previous twenty five episodes. Last week's Mac DeMarco
Speaker 2: one proved pretty popular. I think that might be our
Speaker 2: most listened to one now, so yeah, check that out,
Speaker 2: and there are some others. Feel free to subscribe, leave
Speaker 2: a comment, all of that kind of stuff that you're
Speaker 2: meant to do online these days. And in the meantime,
Speaker 2: we'll be back in two more weeks with episode twenty seven,
Speaker 2: but for now, his number twenty six with Rachel Goswell
Speaker 2: and Simon Scott from Slow Dive.
Speaker 3: We all went to bed qu early last night. I
Speaker 3: thought that was quite funny.
Speaker 4: It was quite a civilized night.
Speaker 2: What time did you sleep last night? What time did
Speaker 2: you get to bed.
Speaker 3: Two, it's probably two. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Last the night before was like four, which was kind
Speaker 5: of felt like, yeah, we're entering into that twilight world
Speaker 5: of being on tour, where like one o'clock in the afternoons,
Speaker 5: like six o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 4: How dare you woke me up?
Speaker 2: You know? Yeah, so you set so you woke up
Speaker 2: this morning? This morning you woke up on a.
Speaker 4: Bus behind the garage.
Speaker 2: On the garage at But was it by the shell
Speaker 2: garage on Holloway Road?
Speaker 3: Now we're down side straight down side by the venue.
Speaker 5: Aren't sort of the road on the road behind the garage,
Speaker 5: which is the venue by a little part. It was
Speaker 5: quite sweet actually, a bit of cherry bossom. It's nice
Speaker 5: and quiet, nice place to wake up. Yeah, yeah, right
Speaker 5: by up the street for a nice little coffee and
Speaker 5: a class or whatever it takes your fancy it one
Speaker 5: o'clock in the morning or in the afternoon, which is new.
Speaker 2: Do you ever get used to the bus life sleeping
Speaker 2: on a bus?
Speaker 3: No, I can't.
Speaker 6: I don't really sleep very well on them at all.
Speaker 6: I used to twenty years ago, probably because I was
Speaker 6: very inebriated and I just passed out.
Speaker 3: But I can't sleep on them. Now. I struggle when
Speaker 3: I go on tour.
Speaker 6: And it's it's the movement of the bus that stops
Speaker 6: me from sleeping.
Speaker 3: I can't generally sleep until it stops, right, which can
Speaker 3: be really unfortunate if you've got an eight hour drive
Speaker 3: after a gig.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we have to look after Rachel on tour. Bless her,
Speaker 5: she's the only one out of.
Speaker 4: Nights sleep. We've all got children.
Speaker 5: So actually, to get on a tour bus, you know,
Speaker 5: have a little little kind of nightcap and go to sleep.
Speaker 5: You get a great night sleep. Apart from Rachel, she's unfortunate.
Speaker 5: You've got to sing and I.
Speaker 3: Don't sleep well at home, or I don't sleep well
Speaker 3: on buses either.
Speaker 4: That's just on stage while she's singing.
Speaker 3: As long as I can get through that moments.
Speaker 2: That's so other than the sleep patterns and back on
Speaker 2: their oad. How does it? How does it feel to
Speaker 2: be back on on slow dive duty after twenty two
Speaker 2: odd years?
Speaker 4: It feels good, it's exciting.
Speaker 2: Does it feel that it was that long ago? It does?
Speaker 2: It feels like a lifetime?
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I think it does.
Speaker 5: It does a long time ago. Yeah, everything's changed. We've changed.
Speaker 5: The whole music industry has changed massively. Yeah, but you know,
Speaker 5: the songs are still there and the songs still sound fresh.
Speaker 5: So that's the kind of really crazy thing. And obviously
Speaker 5: we never expected people, you know, twenty years from you know,
Speaker 5: nineteen ninety three for or whatever to kind of be even.
Speaker 4: More into it.
Speaker 5: You know, most bands they released a few records and
Speaker 5: they fade away and you know, they just live in
Speaker 5: aurocal collection.
Speaker 4: But it was different for us. So that's really.
Speaker 5: Amazing, you know, and it's super super exciting to be
Speaker 5: able to get together and have those same creative sparks
Speaker 5: flowing writing new trails.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it's fantastic, isn't it.
Speaker 3: We're lucky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're lucky. I think the fact that you're still
Speaker 2: sleeping on a bus that's actually quite old school. That's
Speaker 2: one of that. That's one thing that in this whole
Speaker 2: cycle of you promoting another album you probably did last
Speaker 2: time that most a lot of bands, I don't know,
Speaker 2: have many bands get buses now these days? We do.
Speaker 6: It depends logistically where you've got to go, because it's
Speaker 6: kind of the lesser.
Speaker 3: Of two evils.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, if.
Speaker 6: You do festivals generally you tend to fly in and
Speaker 6: out and just take guitars and bare minimum ped awards,
Speaker 6: which is just a logistical thing that actually works and
Speaker 6: actually what makes more financial sense.
Speaker 5: It does well, there's an element of it where we're
Speaker 5: going on. So we haven't played for eight months and
Speaker 5: actually for us all to get sort of sit around
Speaker 5: the table in the in the lounge.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know, I prefer a hotel in personally.
Speaker 4: But you can be one.
Speaker 5: But the rest of us, like you know, and with
Speaker 5: our crew as well, we've got the same crew we
Speaker 5: had back in the early nineties, so they went off
Speaker 5: and spiritualized and well we've got a few new people,
Speaker 5: you know, one off and did the kill and spiritualized
Speaker 5: and stuff. But they've come back to Slow Dive. So
Speaker 5: we kind of have that. We've kind of got a
Speaker 5: family around us, which is really great. And so actually
Speaker 5: you know, to get your bag and throw it on
Speaker 5: the bus and sit and chat and you know, it's
Speaker 5: really sociable and that's part of being in a band.
Speaker 5: And you know, even though we're now well in our
Speaker 5: mid forties, that that's still a very kind of essential
Speaker 5: part of the group. And I guess, you know, because
Speaker 5: we're all really good friends and that helps in music
Speaker 5: and the vibe. Let's go on stage and you know,
Speaker 5: you kind of tighten up and you have that kind
Speaker 5: of rolling tour relationship with one another, and it's a
Speaker 5: really nice thing.
Speaker 4: But we do that when we're when we're.
Speaker 5: In hotels, we all kind of go, right, we'll meet
Speaker 5: down in the bar in five minutes, or go and
Speaker 5: have dinner together. And you know, so it's even though
Speaker 5: we take it very seriously and we are a professional band,
Speaker 5: et cetera, we're still a bunch of you know, dibucks
Speaker 5: having a here and a chat and talking nonsense with
Speaker 5: one another and having a laugh.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how about things like obviously in nineteen ninety four whatever,
Speaker 2: there was no social media. How's that going.
Speaker 3: I think it's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, online presence they call it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's great.
Speaker 6: You know, I think, oh God, on multiple levels. The
Speaker 6: Internet is an amazing invention, isn't it. I think it's
Speaker 6: I think it's a good thing for bands personally. It's
Speaker 6: a great way to be able.
Speaker 4: To connect.
Speaker 6: To connect with people and you know, and just listen
Speaker 6: to music and know what's going on in the world
Speaker 6: and you know, like everything, so instance, sometimes I kind
Speaker 6: of would like to turn everything off and just sit
Speaker 6: in a room with nothing, just because you get you
Speaker 6: get so bombarded, don't you get bombarded everywhere? You know,
Speaker 6: and it's very hard to I think, turn your phone
Speaker 6: off and just not read anything.
Speaker 3: Or not check something.
Speaker 6: And I think it's harder for young people having the
Speaker 6: internet in some ways, growing up and having their sort
Speaker 6: of there must be bigger pressure, don't you. Yeah, then
Speaker 6: you were just in a school playground.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it was bad enough when I was at
Speaker 2: schools around the time that everyone started getting phones well okay,
Speaker 2: kind of fifteen sixteen pay as you go phones. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was bad enough texting a girl and then they're.
Speaker 3: Not getting to reply.
Speaker 4: Yes, I can't.
Speaker 2: Imagine what it must be like. I know they've got
Speaker 2: to check all of that. Oh, I've only got ten
Speaker 2: likes on that photo, I know, yeah, across everything. Yes,
Speaker 2: they've probably got you know, maybe five different digital platforms
Speaker 2: to basically not get replies from girls.
Speaker 3: I feel even more crap about yourself.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and vice versa.
Speaker 5: I mean, we've we've all got we've got children, and
Speaker 5: a few of us have got daughters, you know, and
Speaker 5: when you know, yeah, trying to kind of get confidence
Speaker 5: and self validation as young teenagers and you know, as
Speaker 5: she said, not get enough likes. What's wrong with me?
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's kind of dangerous.
Speaker 5: But as long as you know, as long as they're
Speaker 5: made aware that not to take you know, snapchat or
Speaker 5: whatever too seriously.
Speaker 4: You know, I think.
Speaker 6: It's hard when you're that age because everything's bill and
Speaker 6: end all when you're a teenager. Absolutely, I remember thinking
Speaker 6: I knew everything when I was fifteen.
Speaker 3: You know, just being really self right to someone you
Speaker 3: know you really know nothing about it, didn't have any doing,
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 4: I mean with the internet.
Speaker 5: Actually, I think one of the reasons why Slow Dive
Speaker 5: are playing the sold that show tonight because the internet
Speaker 5: is because yeah, and because you know, we released those
Speaker 5: songs and they went off into you know, the ether
Speaker 5: for a while, and they were put online and somebody
Speaker 5: mentioned slow Dive, somebody typed in Slowdive, google it or whatever,
Speaker 5: and we're on Spotify or we're on bleep or iTunes
Speaker 5: or whatever and YouTube and just thought, hey, this is
Speaker 5: really good music, you know, and that just spread.
Speaker 4: And that's because of the Internet.
Speaker 5: So we've kind of got the Internet to be thankful
Speaker 5: for for kind of reforming and getting sighted at oceans
Speaker 5: and being able to play live shows today seventeen.
Speaker 4: It's great.
Speaker 2: So tonight you're playing at the garage. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 2: talking of social media. It's going on. It's live streaming
Speaker 2: on Facebook.
Speaker 3: It is, yes, but that's quite you're saying.
Speaker 2: You were saying before we started that there's like kind
Speaker 2: of crew and it's quite down there at the venue
Speaker 2: at the moment, there's lots of Stewart.
Speaker 5: You're making me feel very nervous now butterflies ago seriously, Yeah,
Speaker 5: but becafully. Actually, you know, we give a damn about it.
Speaker 2: We care.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean we've got feel right at the moment.
Speaker 6: I'll give it, give it about well a few hours
Speaker 6: and I'm sure i'll be a bit.
Speaker 4: It'll be fine. We'll leanrus, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and at least you're going to be there playing.
Speaker 2: So I don't know if you if you notice, but
Speaker 2: when you do a Facebook live video and you're doing
Speaker 2: it and it's in front of you, the computers in
Speaker 2: front of you, it shows you in real time how
Speaker 2: many people are watching at that moment. So at least
Speaker 2: you're not going to have that because you're you'll be
Speaker 2: blissfully unaware of because it's never a good size. If
Speaker 2: it's a million people, that's frightening as hell, and if
Speaker 2: it's two, you think, well, why are you here? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Right, So it could start with a million people if
Speaker 5: we were extremely lucky.
Speaker 4: Halfway through there's yeah, there's one per level gone.
Speaker 3: Loads of light cor mads, right, but.
Speaker 2: It's a big What I was going to say, Well,
Speaker 2: so you were saying there's lots of people meaning around,
Speaker 2: so it's a big I didn't realize that when something
Speaker 2: like that happens, when a show is streamed, that there's
Speaker 2: a big kind of production value to it because.
Speaker 6: We haven't done it before apart from festivals. Obviously some
Speaker 6: festivals live stream stuff. But then that's different, isn't it,
Speaker 6: because it's kind of generally quite big plays with you know,
Speaker 6: the boom camera and.
Speaker 4: Cameras. It's a stage but at the garage, and it's
Speaker 4: the time really small.
Speaker 3: So that's that's going to be quite.
Speaker 5: It's going to be great because we only announced it yesterday,
Speaker 5: didn't we We just we kind of announced it with
Speaker 5: the album news in the video and stuff, and to
Speaker 5: know it's sold out. You know, it's sold out the
Speaker 5: day the tickets went on sale. It will be really vibey.
Speaker 5: Once we get up there and plug in and start playing,
Speaker 5: it will be like, okay, you know, we'll just forget
Speaker 5: about that. We'll be playing to the audience and really
Speaker 5: kind of starting to get into them exactly.
Speaker 3: I think that's that's all you can do, isn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's all I'm going to do. Yeah, it's live
Speaker 5: music as well. So if it's not, it's kind of
Speaker 5: no perfect. It's live music.
Speaker 3: You know, it never is. No perfect, never is.
Speaker 6: But that's the beauty you've been seeing a well. I
Speaker 6: mean some bands are immaculate, you know.
Speaker 4: It were not bad, it's not.
Speaker 3: It's always for improvements, like yeah.
Speaker 2: It's a feel life of course.
Speaker 3: That was of course. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But the garage where you played your last London show
Speaker 2: as your fall lineup, yeah.
Speaker 5: In ninety four, I think ninety three, December nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we went on and did We did an American
Speaker 6: tour after that in ninety four. So the last, the
Speaker 6: final show completely was actually in Toronto, but we didn't
Speaker 6: know that at the time. We didn't know that was
Speaker 6: the final show. But the last u K show was
Speaker 6: of the garage.
Speaker 3: I don't really remember much about it.
Speaker 4: I do it was empty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was really strange, said.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5: That whole tour was when the press had kind of said,
Speaker 5: you know, Shoe Gaze is awful and it's all about
Speaker 5: Nirvana and Jimmy Roquai and God. Yeah, and I remember
Speaker 5: it's it was seven hundred capacity back then. It's a
Speaker 5: bit smaller now because I've referbed it, but it's it's
Speaker 5: much much nicer, with much better pa and I remember
Speaker 5: sitting there. Yeah, they've done a good job inside.
Speaker 4: It's nice.
Speaker 2: I think it's recently reopened. Yeah, pretty new refurb Ye.
Speaker 5: Yeah, looks it looks squeaky clean, but it definitely doesn't
Speaker 5: look like it used to. But yeah, that was it
Speaker 5: was half empty. I think there was about two hundred
Speaker 5: and fifty people there and people were just chatting at
Speaker 5: the bar.
Speaker 4: So it wasn't It wasn't great.
Speaker 2: He's hoping for us slightly better kind of, I think.
Speaker 4: So it's a good sign.
Speaker 5: It's sold out in a day, so at least there'll
Speaker 5: be a few more people in there.
Speaker 3: It'll be full, It'll be full.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you don't remember Rech you don't remember much
Speaker 2: of the show.
Speaker 6: No, but I don't remember a lot of the early
Speaker 6: nineties anyway.
Speaker 2: Just because I think that means you were there.
Speaker 4: I was there, I was there present.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there's a big nostalgia at the moment for
Speaker 2: the nineties. Everything about it was. It as kind of
Speaker 2: crazy as people imagine, if from the point of view
Speaker 2: of being in a band at that time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I guess the early we were really young.
Speaker 4: So you were you giving.
Speaker 3: Signed to Creation? Yeah, I think initially the first year
Speaker 3: or two it.
Speaker 4: Was Creation were rowdy.
Speaker 5: They were, Yeah, they were That was party HQ and
Speaker 5: it was the rave culture thing had blown up in
Speaker 5: the eighties, so that kind of there were there were
Speaker 5: a lot of drugs knocking knocking around, not necessarily in
Speaker 5: the band, but that whole thing was quite hedonistic and
Speaker 5: like trance was a big thing, and it was sort
Speaker 5: of influencing bands like Primal, Scream, Screaming Delica, and you know,
Speaker 5: there's lots of sort of indulgence and a Creation. They
Speaker 5: had a dance label which was part of part of Creation,
Speaker 5: and but we kind of stayed away from that, we
Speaker 5: had our own thing going on. We didn't live in London,
Speaker 5: so we were really young.
Speaker 6: Just kind of pop up for meetings and there would
Speaker 6: still be people there high on drugs that had been
Speaker 6: up all night.
Speaker 3: We kind of observed they're all a bit older than us.
Speaker 4: We weren't straight by any Yeah, that's.
Speaker 3: It, just a little bit older.
Speaker 2: The Creation office around here here, Yeah, it was above.
Speaker 5: It was above, Yeah, just at the top of the
Speaker 5: road to left and it was a walk up there,
Speaker 5: just by the railway bridge on the left hand side. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and you go up there and people will be knocking
Speaker 5: white powder off the table.
Speaker 2: And so it really was what people kind of imagine
Speaker 2: of the Creation.
Speaker 5: People lying up the stairs with their pupils dilated, shaking,
Speaker 5: staring at you like, you know, because they're hallucinating. It
Speaker 5: was like that, and we'd be walking in the cans
Speaker 5: of Coca cola.
Speaker 2: You know, it must be quite especially like as eighteen
Speaker 2: nineteen year olds, that's probably quite. That must have been
Speaker 2: quite an overwhelming experience.
Speaker 3: I think we were just really excited to be excited.
Speaker 4: Yeah, excited.
Speaker 6: Records were they were the best indie label at that time.
Speaker 5: There's so many good bands and you'd go in, Yeah,
Speaker 5: be Bobby Gillespie and Kevin Shields and you know, stopping
Speaker 5: the current. Yeah, just fantastic, really great label, great heritage.
Speaker 5: And Alan McGee was was is a really nice man.
Speaker 2: Because Creation were your favorite, they were your favorite label.
Speaker 2: They would label that you wanted to sign to, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: And then managed to sign to them. And at such
Speaker 2: a young age, at like nineteen or whatever. Did it
Speaker 2: feel at the time that everything was just balling into
Speaker 2: place and it was all did it feel kind of easy?
Speaker 3: I guess it kind of?
Speaker 6: Did?
Speaker 4: I mean it?
Speaker 3: You know, we did that.
Speaker 6: We got signed because we'd supported five thirteen Reading and
Speaker 6: they they're publishing guy Steve Waters from me and I
Speaker 6: was there to see them, who was a friend of Alan's,
Speaker 6: and he caught arset and then and I had I remember,
Speaker 6: we got there to do our sound check and we
Speaker 6: hadn't brought any demo tapes and so I had to
Speaker 6: run home lived in Ready at that point, and sort
Speaker 6: of ran home and got a demo tape just in
Speaker 6: case to give to anyone. And then Steve was like,
Speaker 6: you know, loved it, gave that to him, and then
Speaker 6: McGee phoned up that's Neil and I were living together
Speaker 6: that point. He phoned us like three days later and
Speaker 6: you said, I love I love the CP. You're going
Speaker 6: to put it out. And it just kind of snowballed.
Speaker 6: And for about a year or so, it really, it
Speaker 6: did really snowball.
Speaker 3: And you just kind of just riding on it.
Speaker 6: Really won't mean we had really positive press and all
Speaker 6: that sort of stuff for a bit.
Speaker 3: He just kind of went with a flow.
Speaker 6: And then I think by the time we got to
Speaker 6: Demo and Sue Flarky, it was it was already going
Speaker 6: a little bit more difficult at creation because I don't
Speaker 6: think they weren't as interested. Alan was wasn't well, you know,
Speaker 6: he was in rehab and different people came in and
Speaker 6: all the Sony staff.
Speaker 3: And who were palmed off to s b K in America.
Speaker 5: Who were pretty terrible, and the press that that were
Speaker 5: terrible for us, and the press were on down or
Speaker 5: about us completely. And you had Richie from the mannisk
Speaker 5: of saying slow Diver worse than Hitler. You know, really
Speaker 5: he said that we hate slow Dive more than we
Speaker 5: hate Hitler. I mean, what a stupid thing to say,
Speaker 5: but we kind of laughed at that it was pathetic
Speaker 5: talk about your band, not about us.
Speaker 4: So there was this big kind of backlash.
Speaker 2: And was that that backlash was even though sometimes you
Speaker 2: were kind of on the end of it, was it
Speaker 2: was it not more that kind of the shoegaze thing, And.
Speaker 3: I think it was. Yeah. I mean like grungeur coming,
Speaker 3: isn't it?
Speaker 6: And then you had bit pop and what we were
Speaker 6: doing wasn't also wasn't fashionable. But I remember going into
Speaker 6: Creation when Sue Flaky was coming out, and I remember
Speaker 6: just feeling that pretty much most people work and they
Speaker 6: just weren't interested, and I was, you know, I found
Speaker 6: that quite depressing. I still remember that, Yeah, are still
Speaker 6: kind of going in there to do press stuff. I'm
Speaker 6: just thinking nobody cares.
Speaker 2: Really, Yeah, and.
Speaker 6: By pig Malion, credit to them for putting it out
Speaker 6: because that record is so far removed from everything else
Speaker 6: at that time that was that was coming out, you know,
Speaker 6: But yeah, kind of got I've got mixed memories. But
Speaker 6: I think it's probably saying for any band on you know,
Speaker 6: I think all bands go through that.
Speaker 2: Do you think that your youth at that time kind
Speaker 2: of protected you from that kind of criticism or I
Speaker 2: think maybe it could have gone either way, because I
Speaker 2: think when you're when you're really young and you go
Speaker 2: through that kind of you know, someone in a band
Speaker 2: saying your band worse than Hitler, you can when you're
Speaker 2: a certain age, when you're young, I think you can
Speaker 2: either more easily laugh it off or more easily be
Speaker 2: absolutely destroyed by a comment like that and kind of
Speaker 2: bad press.
Speaker 5: I guess, yeah, we weren't destroyed by it. We kind
Speaker 5: of laughed it often and just sort you.
Speaker 3: Know, I think the I think the bad press did affect.
Speaker 6: The eventually, did I think now for me, I don't
Speaker 6: care what people write, and I haven't thought the last
Speaker 6: twenty years.
Speaker 3: Just don't care.
Speaker 6: From that experience, you know, O care less. As you
Speaker 6: get older, I think I think you have to. You
Speaker 6: prioritize your life more and you you kind of understand.
Speaker 6: I think a lot more about life and what's important.
Speaker 5: Yeah, how everything's subjective to you know, someone's going to
Speaker 5: love it, someone's going to hate it. You know, we
Speaker 5: don't all order the same dish off the menu. Do
Speaker 5: we we like different things? But I think we we
Speaker 5: definitely kind of thought for a while, we'll just be
Speaker 5: over here and do our own thing and write our music.
Speaker 5: But yeah, eventually, just when everything seemed to be saying,
Speaker 5: you know, there's nobody turning up, the press hate it,
Speaker 5: people have stopped sort of wearing a slowed eyed t shirts,
Speaker 5: and we're now very unfashionable.
Speaker 6: It was like, hang on a minute, But we were
Speaker 6: still really proud of the records that we've made at
Speaker 6: the time. At the times, we were like, you know,
Speaker 6: we loved what we'd done, and that was I think
Speaker 6: that's the aim of any musician, is that you have
Speaker 6: to love what you do and.
Speaker 3: And be proud of what you put out. And we were,
Speaker 3: you know, and we stood by that. We still stand
Speaker 3: by that.
Speaker 6: Now clearly a lot of other people have cottoned onto it,
Speaker 6: which is fantastic, and.
Speaker 2: That's probably why that's probably why you sold out tonight's
Speaker 2: show in a day, and essentially why you're more popular now.
Speaker 2: Like the records stand up.
Speaker 4: Now, Yeah, I think we are definitely is the.
Speaker 2: Key to it. And you're playing are you playing bigger
Speaker 2: shows now than you would have played back there?
Speaker 6: Not in this particular one, because these are all small
Speaker 6: club shows and that was for the reason of making
Speaker 6: them a bit different. But I mean yeah, I mean
Speaker 6: we you know, the American Tour we did a couple
Speaker 6: of years ago Terminal five in your three thousand capacity.
Speaker 3: That's way more than we would have done. We always
Speaker 3: did okay out there, but not nowhere near that.
Speaker 6: Well, so it's we are definitely playing bigger venues than
Speaker 6: we would have done then, and I think we only did.
Speaker 6: We did Slough Festival in the nineties, legendary nineteen ninety one,
Speaker 6: thousand yards stare.
Speaker 2: I would love a Slough Festival t shirt. I bet
Speaker 2: that's probably wasn't quite a bit of money, was there?
Speaker 2: What was there? One? Was there just one day once?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: It was only that one time, wasn't it. I don't
Speaker 3: think they.
Speaker 5: Repeated just that one time and someone lost an awful
Speaker 5: lot of money.
Speaker 2: I think it was anyone at slow Fest.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of people there. I was really drunk.
Speaker 6: I can't remember, but by two o'clock I was really drunk,
Speaker 6: and by the time we went on, I was.
Speaker 3: Really really drunk.
Speaker 2: I'm a bit of a theme here. Children.
Speaker 3: Well that's what I don't remember much year from that time. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I was young and enjoying myself.
Speaker 2: You're having a good time.
Speaker 3: I was having a great time.
Speaker 2: You're at slow Fest. What do you expect exactly?
Speaker 3: You know, we got there early in the morning. What
Speaker 3: else is there to do. I don't know what time
Speaker 3: we went on, but it was a few hours drinking.
Speaker 5: It certainly wasn't Primavera, okay, which we played in fourteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I don't think we did any other festival's
Speaker 3: apart from Sloud.
Speaker 5: Well, we got off to Glastonbury and their manager said, yeah,
Speaker 5: I would love to play Glastonbury, which we obviously would.
Speaker 5: The thing was, he said, but Slide I want their
Speaker 5: own stage.
Speaker 4: And this is exactly.
Speaker 3: Ridiculous thing ever, and.
Speaker 5: They sort of went, Okay, we'll probably someone else. And
Speaker 5: we found out about that a few months later.
Speaker 4: We were.
Speaker 2: A great demand.
Speaker 6: So that is so mortified. Even now, I think that's
Speaker 6: really more.
Speaker 4: Really embarrassing for us because it makes us.
Speaker 2: Whatever because they would have they would have thought that
Speaker 2: would have been your demand.
Speaker 4: Do they think they are?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: Is Sting?
Speaker 3: Who does that?
Speaker 4: Even Sting wouldn't ask for his own stage.
Speaker 5: At maybe like a tent like him and truly could yoga?
Speaker 6: Yeah tent yet stuff the Sting?
Speaker 2: Yet it makes me it so the new album was
Speaker 2: announced yesterday. Yes, how was the Has the reaction been?
Speaker 3: I think it's been good.
Speaker 4: Great.
Speaker 2: We've come back to the internet again, haven't we. Where
Speaker 2: the reaction?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's been good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Yeah.
Speaker 6: It's nice to actually have the news out there because
Speaker 6: we've we've known the release dates since last year December January.
Speaker 5: Bish mixing in November and there was a schedule we
Speaker 5: were we signed the Dead Oceans and stuff.
Speaker 6: And it's been that kind of floating interim period where
Speaker 6: you're not allowed to say.
Speaker 3: Things, but you really want to tell people but you can't.
Speaker 6: Then you want people to hear the record, but I
Speaker 6: can't or some can, you know, but it's quite strict.
Speaker 3: So it's been funny. But I'm glad it's I'm glad
Speaker 3: the news is out. So it's exciting.
Speaker 5: It's nice that it's Yeah, in the same way, it's
Speaker 5: been brilliant to do these two shows we did Monday
Speaker 5: and Tuesday, Glasgow and Liverpool to play the new songs
Speaker 5: for the first time ever live.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: It's like we want to get them out there, you know,
Speaker 5: because we really care about the songs and obviously we
Speaker 5: wouldn't put out a new record. If we thought it
Speaker 5: was pretty good or quite good. We believe in it
Speaker 5: and we think it's brilliant. So it's really exciting for.
Speaker 2: The Premiverse show that you mentioned. I was at that
Speaker 2: show actually were you, And that was like the first
Speaker 2: big one back, wasn't it. I think maybe you've done
Speaker 2: like a couple of small huge Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Twenty five thousand people the promoted told us came to
Speaker 5: see us, which was unbelievable because as you were there,
Speaker 5: you know about the rain Yeah, until about twenty minutes before, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Felt so sorry.
Speaker 6: Cool, Yeah, well I felt Yeah, I felt really sorry
Speaker 6: for oursel.
Speaker 3: It's just really ship.
Speaker 4: That came in the rainbow, and.
Speaker 6: It was I still look back on that and it
Speaker 6: was still a very magical experience for me that I
Speaker 6: just was amazing.
Speaker 3: I don't think we really we didn't really know what
Speaker 3: to expect, and they were like, you know, you've been
Speaker 3: off with this.
Speaker 5: Yeah, maybe there'll be one hundred people there to see us,
Speaker 5: something we genuinely saw.
Speaker 2: And you probably thought, did you Maybe you also think
Speaker 2: you'd be honest because you're like one of the main stages.
Speaker 4: We were really high.
Speaker 5: We were like they've made a mistake, seriously going to
Speaker 5: regret that.
Speaker 6: But right, But the penny didn't really trot. I didn't
Speaker 6: even drop it because we sound checked at nine o'clock
Speaker 6: in the morning there, it didn't even drop. Then, my
Speaker 6: penny didn't drop in my brain. Then it was only
Speaker 6: when the backdrop went down just before we went on stage.
Speaker 6: And then you know, the audience were cheering, and then
Speaker 6: I kind of poked my head out and went, oh
Speaker 6: my god, non swearing that this is huge, and I felt,
Speaker 6: you know.
Speaker 4: Quite emotional, teary. It was kind of strange.
Speaker 6: And then but then and also that was the first
Speaker 6: experience of having the cameras and all, because that was
Speaker 6: all films. We'd never had that before either. So it
Speaker 6: was like a double whammy of there's a massive audience,
Speaker 6: it's a huge stage, and you've got cameras everywhere.
Speaker 2: The sun was going down. You started on sunset and
Speaker 2: it didn't That's the perfect.
Speaker 3: Sense, absolutely, Yeah, of course.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was just like this between some selfie taking,
Speaker 5: I was I'm glad you took photographs qundreds of them
Speaker 5: and all those different kind of color.
Speaker 4: Changes in the sky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was amazing at that point in time, obviously,
Speaker 2: So that's twenty fourteen, and you'd got back together with
Speaker 2: the intention of playing some shows that summer and kind
Speaker 2: of seeing where you were at at the end of
Speaker 2: that and make some new music if it felt like
Speaker 2: you should do that when you first met, just to
Speaker 2: kind of get in a room and start perhapicing the
Speaker 2: old music, and made that decision to like, let's do
Speaker 2: some reunions just to do some shows with the oldster.
Speaker 2: Can you remember what was that that was like? And
Speaker 2: had you all remained in contact and were you was there?
Speaker 2: Is everything cool in that situation?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 6: I think being in contact pretty much with everyone apart
Speaker 6: from Simon, But also I did my Harvey three with
Speaker 6: Neil for ten years after that, and we kept in
Speaker 6: touch when that finished as well, just occasionally, and he
Speaker 6: asked me to do some singing with him Accessful Sharp
Speaker 6: Pass in twenty thirteen, so I.
Speaker 3: Went and did that, and the idea.
Speaker 6: Was floated then because Premium of everything had come up then,
Speaker 6: and Nick and Christian came to that as well, and
Speaker 6: because we said, you know, coming up, they came to
Speaker 6: the show and then we got in contact with Simon,
Speaker 6: Nick and Christian and I'd not been in touch with
Speaker 6: massively and occasionally dip in and out of contact with
Speaker 6: some simon. We'd lost contact over the years, hadn't we.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we bumped into each other occasion.
Speaker 5: You know, it wasn't like we all fell out or
Speaker 5: anything like that. But you know, twenty years is a
Speaker 5: long time and you go off and get married and
Speaker 5: have kids and then get divorced and you know, all
Speaker 5: that stuff happens.
Speaker 6: But that first came into the rehearse the first time,
Speaker 6: the first time we did with Slow Dive, and it
Speaker 6: was just like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it just felt really easy and very comfortable.
Speaker 4: We went for lunch and had a beer and hung
Speaker 4: out and it was just like that.
Speaker 5: Twenty years went really quickly because it was exactly like
Speaker 5: it was before, you know, yeah, but we were really better,
Speaker 5: but much more quite exactly before, not exactly a.
Speaker 3: Few things under the bridge, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: And how about at the end of so, at the
Speaker 2: end of that kind of run of shows, that original
Speaker 2: run from Premium Are onwards, that what was it? When
Speaker 2: was that moment when you thought we should make we
Speaker 2: should go and make some music.
Speaker 6: Now, well, we discussed it at the beginning, because we
Speaker 6: didn't we did, I remember we did sit down and
Speaker 6: discuss it right at the beginning, and we were a
Speaker 6: bit like didn't want to come back. We didn't want
Speaker 6: to come back just to be a nostalgia band and
Speaker 6: just to play old songs. It was kind of like,
Speaker 6: and see why, you know, why brands do it, you know,
Speaker 6: and that's fine, but I think for all of us
Speaker 6: it needed to be something a little bit more. But
Speaker 6: of course we acted really see how we got on
Speaker 6: that year as well, and things really just snowboard with
Speaker 6: the amount of shows we ended up doing was way more,
Speaker 6: I think than anyone could have anticipated. And I think
Speaker 6: by the end of you I mean, it was a
Speaker 6: great year. It was a great year, but it really
Speaker 6: just just it was. It was a roller coat snowball,
Speaker 6: didn't it.
Speaker 5: Because we really did one point like we've got Premavera
Speaker 5: and like the warm up show and we're doing Premia
Speaker 5: in Porto and maybe one other thing, and we were like,
Speaker 5: there's not a lot of gigs coming in, there's not
Speaker 5: a lot of excitement.
Speaker 4: Is anybody going to show up?
Speaker 5: And then as soon as we did like Village Underground
Speaker 5: and then Premifera, it was like there was a couple
Speaker 5: more and then a couple more and then do you
Speaker 5: want to go to Asia?
Speaker 4: You should go to America. There's all these offers and
Speaker 4: its good. Yeah. Great.
Speaker 6: I think that at the end of that year, it
Speaker 6: was kind of you know, we all took a couple
Speaker 6: of months off, have a breather, you know, reconnect with
Speaker 6: your home life, and and.
Speaker 3: Then we started checking checking our Google calendar, like when
Speaker 3: can we all get together to try and do some stuff.
Speaker 6: So we just we had like little weekends here and
Speaker 6: there and going into studios and just recording stuff to
Speaker 6: see what.
Speaker 3: Comeing out of it. And it was quite a slow
Speaker 3: process over twenty fifteen.
Speaker 5: It took a a while for the songs to come together,
Speaker 5: but then it kind of really flowed once we went
Speaker 5: back to Courtyard where we did recorded the other albums.
Speaker 5: Funnily enough, we had a great engineer that we worked
Speaker 5: really kind of quickly and creatively with and that's how
Speaker 5: the album came together.
Speaker 4: So it was kind of last year, wasn't it.
Speaker 3: I Mean I remember going in in July.
Speaker 6: Last year and I bashed out about seven vocals in
Speaker 6: two days. Because everything else was finished. It was kind
Speaker 6: of was relying on everyone else doing music just coming and.
Speaker 3: Which is which is historically what I've always done.
Speaker 5: And Neil produced it, and I mean Neil's the core
Speaker 5: songwriter and even though we've all co written other bits
Speaker 5: on the album, he was in the driving scene produced it,
Speaker 5: and yeah, it took him a little while to kind
Speaker 5: of find the flavor, but once we got.
Speaker 7: It, it was sweet. We had the record on yesterday.
Speaker 7: We've heard it. You've heard it, okay.
Speaker 2: It sounds to me more vocally a bit just a
Speaker 2: bit clearer, a bit less cloudy.
Speaker 3: That word, yes, and.
Speaker 2: Maybe a bit more up tempo as well, the first
Speaker 2: two things that I kind of.
Speaker 4: Took from you.
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's definitely more up tempo there. They are definitely
Speaker 6: more up tempo.
Speaker 4: On their poppy album in a way, not all of it.
Speaker 4: Fallen Ash is very.
Speaker 3: Ambient spy in a slow dive way.
Speaker 4: In a slow diveway, yeah, more like soup Flerky than
Speaker 4: pig Melian.
Speaker 3: But there are nods to Pygmalion.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and there's nods to the future.
Speaker 5: There's a track that I wrote with Neil called fall
Speaker 5: and Ashes right at the end of the song, and
Speaker 5: that's me. I use this signal process in software called
Speaker 5: max MSP and Neil was struggling with this piano piece,
Speaker 5: so I was just like looping him and in real time,
Speaker 5: and then he kind of was like, I don't know
Speaker 5: what to do, and I played him and he was like,
Speaker 5: that's it exactly that, you know, and that is something
Speaker 5: we kind of want to do more. You know, there's
Speaker 5: so much great music technology we want to kind of
Speaker 5: like kind of use those sort of more experimental sounds.
Speaker 4: Perhaps in the future.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I think new was very excited by that,
Speaker 5: but it's a very sort of as you said, it's
Speaker 5: a very sort of poppy kind of up or recording places.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like all this time on and having
Speaker 2: a really dedicated following and new followers obviously, but having
Speaker 2: people who have kind of been waiting for more solid
Speaker 2: dive music, especially since twenty and fourteen, now it's finally hit.
Speaker 2: When you're making that your first record in twenty two years,
Speaker 2: do you feel any kind of pressure to sound like
Speaker 2: slow dive.
Speaker 4: It wasn't that considered. Really. It wasn't like we need
Speaker 4: to make a record that sounds like slow dive.
Speaker 6: I think there was a little there was a small
Speaker 6: element of some things we did return that that's not quite.
Speaker 3: I think there were small elements of keeping because we
Speaker 3: were all.
Speaker 6: Right, and we've all written in different bands, and stuff
Speaker 6: I do is very different.
Speaker 3: Stuff you do is very different. Outside Neil stuff is
Speaker 3: sing a song like acoustics, so quite a lot of different.
Speaker 6: Dynamics within the band. But I don't think there was
Speaker 6: I don't think there was a pressure to make it
Speaker 6: a certain way.
Speaker 5: No, it wasn't like, let's make a record that sounds
Speaker 5: like slow because side is like the five of us
Speaker 5: and Neil and Rachel's vocals are very sort of distinguishable always.
Speaker 6: I mean, there is a classic sound to the band
Speaker 6: and that's that's the guitars, and there is definitely a
Speaker 6: certain classic element to it. I think that we have
Speaker 6: retained on this record to a certain extent.
Speaker 4: The rhythmically as well. Knicks, baslines and stuff are very important.
Speaker 3: I think drumming wise, it's quite different something exactly, which
Speaker 3: is good.
Speaker 4: It's good.
Speaker 6: It's good that it's not the same. It shouldn't be
Speaker 6: the same. Every record should be different, and I think
Speaker 6: that I think just for a days, Flaking Pigmarlin are
Speaker 6: all quite different records. And I like to think that
Speaker 6: this eponymous album is different again. I like to think,
Speaker 6: you know, it's different again, and I'm really pleased with it.
Speaker 2: When you made the first record, I read that you
Speaker 2: told Ana McGee that you were ready to make a record,
Speaker 2: but you did actually have any songs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2: And then they so you've got fooked into.
Speaker 3: Six week courtyard.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, panic, loads of Chinese food and smokes, cigarettes
Speaker 5: and went.
Speaker 3: Lots of weed. So I don't remember much of it.
Speaker 5: And our managers said, don't put your singles on it, like,
Speaker 5: don't put.
Speaker 2: A manager that demanded their own state it is.
Speaker 4: It is no longer managing. But yeah, that was hard.
Speaker 4: That was hard work.
Speaker 3: That was it was Yeah, it was it was yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but you know we were we were nineteen, and
Speaker 6: they just kind of, yeah, we've got a record.
Speaker 2: It's worth We had nothing?
Speaker 4: Was it?
Speaker 2: Because you were worried that if you didn't, if they
Speaker 2: would have wait around, and you just say no.
Speaker 3: I think maybe we were a little bit scared.
Speaker 5: I think it's a bit like your parents want to say, yeah,
Speaker 5: finished it finished.
Speaker 2: It was exactly.
Speaker 6: I think I think exactly that it was like yeah,
Speaker 6: your dad, but quite a fiery, feisty off all dad going.
Speaker 2: Was it lucky where you worked with Brian? How was
Speaker 2: that expensive?
Speaker 5: Well? Frustratingly for the four of us that didn't meet him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he didn't.
Speaker 5: He basically said, I just want like the songwriter, main
Speaker 5: songwriter to come on down. He plays guitar, right, and
Speaker 5: intend to bring a guitar. I'm really busy. I think
Speaker 5: it was like three days.
Speaker 3: Come to my studio.
Speaker 4: You've got like four hours. So they just recorded all
Speaker 4: this stuff really sort of free form, no metronome, click track.
Speaker 3: It's just I just told Neil just plug in him.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Plug He put a clock on the mixing desk as
Speaker 6: well because he was timing stuff.
Speaker 4: You've got to leave and pick my kids up sort
Speaker 4: of thing. So he was.
Speaker 2: And it kind of takes a bit of the mystica.
Speaker 5: At that time, like Neil had no idea. He was
Speaker 5: like the kind of godfather of ambient and then form
Speaker 5: DG did music for airports and all that stuff, and
Speaker 5: you know, Neil basically came back with all these cassettes
Speaker 5: because used to kind of put stuff in cassette, didn't you.
Speaker 4: And we went into.
Speaker 5: Protocol in on just behind Holloway Road, and it was
Speaker 5: it was all a mess, but just yeah, just loads
Speaker 5: of it.
Speaker 4: Was just yeah, it was all quite quite New age
Speaker 4: a lot.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but there was some beautiful ambient stuff and we
Speaker 5: found some loops and wrote sing.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I do remember that recording session, and I remember doing
Speaker 6: the vocals on that one, and I remember you doing
Speaker 6: the drums on that one because I wrote.
Speaker 3: That, so I do. I do remember all that.
Speaker 6: I remember staying in a flat in a high rise
Speaker 6: somewhere Swiss cottage. We had massive beds. Remember that separately obviously,
Speaker 6: But yeah, it was like.
Speaker 2: This weird guys called Brian.
Speaker 4: Think it was the idea, wasn't it.
Speaker 5: I think he's we reckoned with Brian.
Speaker 6: Didn't We We sent with our manager Faxes manager the
Speaker 6: same big fans producing our album, and he sent a
Speaker 6: fax back saying I don't want to produce it, but
Speaker 6: but you know, like I'd be happy to write some
Speaker 6: stuff with you.
Speaker 3: And then then it was Neil that went in and
Speaker 3: then we yeah, I'll just say, got the stuff back
Speaker 3: and then jigged them around and then sing and if
Speaker 3: she comes.
Speaker 6: Come out of those those sessions.
Speaker 5: There's a load of really good stuff actually that I've
Speaker 5: still got on tape.
Speaker 4: That I still listened to. There's some really beautiful stuff
Speaker 4: we have to We're big fans. We've got these tapes
Speaker 4: from those sessions. Can we use somebody you never know?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we would have. Is a legendary well, yeah, clearly
Speaker 3: is a massive legend.
Speaker 1: Midnight Chats is a Loud and Quiet podcast production by
Speaker 1: Emma Snook Music courtesy of gold Panda. Search Midnight Chats
Speaker 1: on iTunes for more episodes and to subscribe. For more information,
Speaker 1: visit Loud and Quiet dot com