WEBVTT - Ep 38: Alex Kapranos 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:16.840 Loud and Quiet presents Midnight Chats. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:23.919 I was feeling quite nostalgic in the run up to 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:28.680 recording this latest episode of Midnight Chats, mostly because the 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:32.440 last few weeks I've had my nose stuck in Lizzie 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.239 Goodman's book Meet Me in the Bathroom Now, If you 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.000 haven't come across It yet, released earlier this year. It's 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.120 the story of the rebirth of rock and roll in 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.559 New York City from two thousand and one to twenty eleven, 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.599 told via a series of interviews with the people who 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.279 were there. So we're talking about the Strokes, Yaya Yeahs, 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:57.200 LCD sound System interval, the Rapture TV on the radio, 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:03.920 all starting with artists Live Jonathan fire Eater. Everyone has 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:07.360 their era of music growing up, and this was mine. 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:10.200 If you've not come across it yet, stick it on 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.920 the Christmas list. It is really good. My guest on 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.319 this podcast is actually in it. He wasn't in one 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:18.840 of those New York bands, but he was in the 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:23.080 thick of the scene at the time, and it got 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:25.760 me thinking also about the first time that I saw 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:30.840 Franz Ferdinand. I was a student in Cardiff and they 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.880 by then at this point in late two thousand and five, 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.520 they were an arena rock band Take Me Out You'll 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.600 remember Crash the top three in the charts a couple 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.920 of years before, and the Glasgow band had won the 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.840 Mercury Prize for their self titled debut album, bagged brit 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.840 Awards after that, got nominated for Grammys and supported You 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:53.480 Too on a stadium tour. 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:55.040 So massive stuff. 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.600 But as you're about to hear, Alex Caprana says he's 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.000 not a nostalgic person and he doesn't spend a lot 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.120 of time looking back on all that stuff. My guess 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:10.240 is that's why Franz Ferdinand's new album, which is out 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.520 early next year, their first in five years, is called 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:18.320 Always Ascending, a deliberate hint maybe towards their plan to 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:23.000 always keep moving forward. Anyway, last weekend Alex rode up 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.560 to our offices here in East London on his bike, 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:27.960 warmed up on our sofa with a cup of tea 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.799 and we had this conversation. He just got back from 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.560 Europe and we talked about lots of stuff, including his 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:38.919 travels to Cuba right back at the start of the year. 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.600 What it's been like changing the lineup of the band 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.560 the past eighteen months and going through that, and also 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:48.960 how he's learned that having a dog in the studio 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:50.520 can actually help you make. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:51.840 A better album. 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:56.280 Lots of stuff in between as well. Just finally, this 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:01.079 is the penultimate episode of Midnight Chats this year. There 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:05.560 will be one more after this, a twenty seventeen special, 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:10.280 a bumper deluxe edition where Stewart and I who take 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.840 it in terms recording, this podcast will revisit some of 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:17.960 the highlights from the series this year. Fortunately there's been 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.639 a few of those, so we're looking forward to putting 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:25.600 that together and keep your ears peeled for that. Until then, 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.000 I should leave you with Midnight Chats Episode thirty eight 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:46.280 with Alex Kapranos. 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.840 Thing's been how are you? Yeah? Pretty good? Nice to 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:57.520 be in London on a beautiful clear Sonny coul D 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.760 my favorite kenned Dy. So yeah, I'm in a good mood. 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.680 It's been out in the last few days weeks, well 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:05.520 the last couple of weeks. I've been in Europe talking 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:10.040 about when you record, Yeah, you get to do all 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.440 the fun bit of making a record, and then you 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.080 have to talk about it again and again, which I 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:19.400 still really love. I mean, I love that people are 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.320 excited and want to talk about it, but it can 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:30.279 be quite It makes you doubt your identity to agree 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:34.240 when you say, I think it's just unusual to talk 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:37.960 about yourself for long periods of time. Yeah, actually know 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:39.880 that's not true. I have some friends who love talking 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.960 about themselves. Maybe I should get them to do this. 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.800 When you're to presumably you kind of heading to Europe 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.640 for a week or two whatever, and you're essentially traveling 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.560 around radio stations and speaking to magazines and whatnot about 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.760 the new record When you're there, is there anywhere in 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.120 Europe in particular where you can kind of like sneak 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:01.640 off for a few hours and go and see some 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.960 friends or go to like an attraction or gallery. Is 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.320 this anyway you particularly like going because you know, oh, 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:09.840 I know I can catch up with so and so, 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:11.640 or I can go and see a bit of this. 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:15.000 Yeah, it's funny, like like over the years of touring, 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.200 you do tend to find you have your neighborhoods and 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:20.839 cities around the world, and also your friends around the 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.520 place as well, and people move around and so you 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.719 have new friends or old friends and new places. So 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:32.320 I was in Berlin last week, and yeah, I wanted 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:36.760 to hang out with my friend Michael Miki, who's one 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:38.040 of my those friends. I used to hang out with 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.760 him in Berlin in the late nineties early two thousands. 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:43.560 But he was going to see Noibout and I couldn't 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.160 get tickets. I know, I know it would have been 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.640 really good, and also I wouldn't have been able to 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:53.400 get away in time. But my friend Sam Potter from 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.279 Late of the Pier, he's now living in Berlin, so 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.279 I got to hang out with Sam. And you know, 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:03.120 it's always to go to places, you know, like if 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:06.520 I was in Berlin, I always end up in eight millimeter. 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:11.159 Ord's Giftda's gift is the bar barry from Magua opened 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.400 up a little while ago. But then Sam took us 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.040 to some new places. Good to discover new place there 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.600 was in Paris, and got to hang out with Philippe, 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:22.440 who we just made the record with. Yeah, I feel 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:24.839 quite at home in Paris at the moment because we 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.799 spent quite a few weeks there earlier in the year recording. 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.160 So this is Philip Ziddar that you've done the record with, 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:35.680 Philip M. Zadar, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, what's he likes a character? 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.120 I mean people will be familiar with his name because 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.560 of his work with Cassius obviously, but like as a 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.839 producer and working with Frans Ferdinand and as a character. 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:45.200 What kind of guy is he? 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:53.960 He? He's genial, extrovert, force of nature, a great person. 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.279 Having the studio he's kind of like the you know, 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:00.400 most social groups or sort of like groups people you 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.600 go out with, there's usually one person who, if they 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.599 are going out with you, will transform the evening into 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.440 something a little bit more fucked up than it might 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:14.840 be an otherwise the kind of night where somebody ends 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:18.000 up getting arrested or in hospital or bringing or something 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:23.640 like that. Oh yeah, having some transformative life experience. He's 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:27.360 the kind of guy who is the catalyst for that 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.920 sort of thing. The wild card. Yeah, yeah, he is. 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.880 And you can tell that he's always been like that 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.600 in his life as well. Quite interesting life too, you know, 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:40.240 he had to go in the army when he was 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:42.400 young before he did any studio work, and was a 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:45.680 medic and the Paratrip regiment as well, and all these 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:49.600 sorts of things. He's had a really interesting and bizarre life. 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.040 But to have a character and the studio is great 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.600 because for me, that's what you're really looking for from 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:59.160 a producer. You want that kind of wild person who's 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:00.960 going to push you to do something you wouldn't normally 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.400 do if they weren't there, you know, Like do. 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:06.000 You always look for that as opposed to I mean 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:08.920 there must be some geys who are looking for somebody 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.560 who follows their lead, is there to kind of deliver 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:14.679 what their vision is? Where is there are other artists 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.920 who they want the producers to be involved but actually 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:21.480 be like a person of creative friction, just somebody who 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.600 actually be like, oh, okay, that's not the idea I have, 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.640 but I do now because this person's actually challenging. 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.280 It's true. And like I've some great guys in the 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:35.679 studio that have had different rules and different approaches, like 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.559 guys like Rich Costume and Mark Ralph that there coming 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.080 at it much more from a I guess, a purely 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:45.240 sonic perspective, and they're really interested in shaping the sound 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.719 and getting something that sounds beautiful to your ears. But 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:49.760 they're not really they want to leave it to maybe 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.439 the most Steve Albini. He's the most extreme in that 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:54.200 that sort of world. I've never worked with him, but 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.720 he always credits himself as an engineer and not not 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.640 a producer, even though he has this just to sound 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.240 I think you also have. But I feel for producers 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:08.120 themselves that you have the active ones. The ones who 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:12.679 play an active role have two approaches. They're either adversarial 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.040 or avuncular. You know, they either want to be your 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:20.600 friend and help you along to get to something together, 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.640 whether they become part of the gang, the social group, 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.120 the pack of dogs all moving towards the same thing, 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.679 which Philip definitely is. And then you have the more 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:33.360 of the fuel spectral approach of putting a gun against 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:35.120 your head till you play that chord right. 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.480 When you're in Europe? Did you record any podcasts with today? 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:40.680 Any of those crop up? Oh? 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.240 No, I have. I didn't record any podcast I did 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:50.400 one radio show which was quite cool. Yeah, I just 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.080 got to take over a Dutch radio show and play 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:55.719 records that I wanted. But no podcasts as yet, but 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:57.840 I think there are some some more on the horizon. 0:09:57.920 --> 0:09:59.880 Are you generally a fan do you listen to that? 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.200 I do listen to podcasts, but my listening tends to 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.840 go it tends to depend upon what I'm doing with 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:10.360 my life. So from January onwards, I'll be touring a 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.160 lot and we'll be listening to a lot more podcasts 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:14.920 than I am at the moment. When we have people 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:16.760 on the podcast, they often talk. 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:21.120 About the music world that they shape around them, and 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.520 by that I mean like whether they go record shoping 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.439 or if they listen to radio where they read things. Interviews. 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:28.840 We had Nadine Shah on a while ago. She was 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:32.040 talking about how she's like an avid gig goer, and 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:33.920 she was surprised to learn that a lot of people, 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.280 when we speak to them, a lot of artists don't 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.280 tend to go and see other bands, which I don't 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.400 know what you're like, but obviously, as somebody who certainly 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.760 has put on numerous gigs over the years and is 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:45.800 kind of like a fan of other artists, I imagine you 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.320 probably do see quite a lot of bands. But some 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.200 people really want to close down and not really have 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:55.000 any music infiltrate their brain when they're trying to create 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:57.280 something themselves, and others are the opposite way. They want 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.520 to consume everything and just find those moments of inspiration. 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.240 What do you like Yeah, I like going to gigs, 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:06.880 but I kind of go to gigs for the reason 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:08.960 I've always going to gigs because it's a laugh. I 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.600 really enjoy it, you know, it makes me feel good 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:15.120 going to a gig. And so when we were in Paris, 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.959 I remember Paul and I went down to pan FM 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.080 to see moon Landings just because we know it would 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.560 be a good night and it was what great band. 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:26.360 I loved it. And I went to a gig last 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.000 night up in the Finsbury Yeah, yeah, which I'd never 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.319 been to for a gig before, like a nice backroom, 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.199 like classic old London pub back room kind of thing. 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:40.000 I want to see Maggie Brown and she was really cool. Yeah, 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.080 I loved it. But I know what you mean though 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:47.959 about not wanting to bring something else in, because sometimes 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:53.160 you do feel your your brain is saturated. And I'm 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.960 also wary about when you're at certain points in the 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:00.880 creative process of you know how the things you shouldn't 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.600 put in the fridge because they have too strong a flavor. 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.920 It's like like you don't put blue cheese next to 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.679 the butter or whatever because I don't know, whatever, it's bananas. 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:13.480 That's another one, like like bananas are going to make 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:18.160 your margarine taste funny. I sometimes feel it's like that 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:19.760 if you if you over listen to a piece of 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.160 music while you're recording. I'm wary of it because I 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:27.720 don't want that that flavor to enter my creative fridge. 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.559 The idea is, yeah, you have the distinction of being 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:34.880 our final guest of the year. Just in terms of 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:38.160 this year twenty seventeen. Take us back to like right 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.080 at the start. Can you remember heading into January and thinking, 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.000 you know, what does the year ahead hoold for you? 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:45.760 Going back to that point? What? 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:47.719 Yeah, kind of what was the start of the year 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.840 like for you? Yeah? Started? It was amazing because I 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.800 was in Cuba. Oh I was in Cuba last year. 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:54.240 Oh were you? 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:54.600 Yeah? 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.199 Yeah, one incredible place. Yeah yeah. My girlfriend and I 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:04.160 last minutes, Oh yeah, we should go somewhere else. For 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:08.720 the last ten no more years, I would host Christmas 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:11.720 and New Year at a place in Scotland and have 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.320 the family there, and then family members couldn't make it, 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:15.720 so we weren't going to have a family thing, so 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:17.880 I said, and so yeah, my girlfriend have it like, yeah, 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:20.679 let's go away, Let's go to Cuba. And I wanted 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:22.719 to go somewhere that had never been before and had 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:28.679 never played in the band. And yeah, so on the 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.600 night at the time of the bells, we were watching 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:36.520 this incredible sort of percussive Cuban band playing and it 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:41.680 felt really wild and how New Year should be full 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:46.760 of energy and optimism despite the wider political situation. 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.600 Yeah, I mean, I know that like Cuba is a 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:53.079 kind of emerging tourist destination. It's opened up in recent years. 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:55.040 That's why a lot more people are going, probably why 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.080 you and I thought we'd go sort of thing. But 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:00.640 what did you make of it as a place? Did 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.120 you find it a curious place to visit with a 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:07.320 certain things about society that you thought were interesting were different. 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:09.839 What was your kind of lasting impression of it? 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:15.559 Yeah, there were quite a few fascinating things, some surprises, 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.320 some things that you expected to see. I mean, even 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:22.160 on a physical level, there were everything that you were expecting. 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:24.760 Even the things that were expecting were there, they weren't 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.240 quite how you imagined that they would be. The most 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:30.880 obvious thing, and it's maybe a good metaphor for the 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:34.520 society in general, is the cars that you see over there, 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.400 the old fifties cars, which Cuba is famous for, particularly Havana. 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.760 I got chatting to a guy on the side of 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:44.840 the road about chatting. I know five words of Spanish. 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.560 It was kind of in sign language, really, but he 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.160 was showing me his car. Was obviously really proud of this, 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:55.080 this old fifties cars, and like a lot of the cars, 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:57.760 it looks like a toll banger, but I really cared 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:02.920 for banger and lots of hours of love and preservation 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:04.800 gone into it. But when he lifted up the bonnet, 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:09.560 he showed me the engine, and the engine wasn't the 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:11.720 original engine. And most of those cars don't have the 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:16.200 original engines. They have what's essentially Soviet era tractor engines 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.440 in them, and when they're driving around, they're producing these 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.560 clouds and clouds of diesel fumes everywhere, and all city 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.680 has this air of diesel around it. And yeah, I 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:30.320 think Cuba is a good example of a place where 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:35.880 you arrive with expectations and they're subtly confounded. Good music 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:40.000 as well. I love the music. I found that incredible, 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:42.800 fascinating place there. Yeah, I loved it. An amazing place. 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:45.360 When you got back from Cuba, then was it down 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.880 to work. Was it to bring people up to speed 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:52.080 obviously with Franz for Nick left the band in the 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:54.360 middle of last year, and you've got two new members 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:54.760 of the band. 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:55.200 Yeah. 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.080 Do you start recording the new record at the end 0:15:58.080 --> 0:15:59.840 of twenty sixteen or has that been a whole twenty 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:00.680 seventeen thing? 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:05.000 So, oh gosh, sure. Beginning of twenty seventeen, I suppose 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.680 we were right in the middle of kind of getting 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:11.920 the final stages of the record together. Julian who now 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.760 plays keyboards with us, he joined us around about August. 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:19.480 We'd been working on the record, getting things together since 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.880 the end of twenty fifteen, when we finished touring the 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:26.840 FFS thing. And so when I got back beginning of 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:31.720 twenty seventeen, we had most of the songs written and 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:37.480 we were getting ourselves in a shape to record. And 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:38.960 I guess we could have gone into the studio at 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:40.320 that time. We could have actually gone into the studio 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.120 a lot earlier, but we wanted to do it in 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.520 a kind of flipped way. It's when I was I 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.520 was doing a thing the other day and met Felix 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.000 from the Maccabees, and he said something that the kind 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:53.880 of struck me. He said, he's talking about when bands 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:55.720 make an album and he's talking about touring, and he 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.280 was saying, Yeah, bands spent ages making an album and 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.240 then they spent a year touring and by the end 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:04.200 of that year, they've learned how to play the songs. 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:08.359 And what we wanted to was kind of like to 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.800 subvert that's because it's true, that's that is what bands do. 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:14.080 You do all this stuff in the studio and then 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:16.080 you kind of go, oh shit, how are we going 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.040 to play this now? And we wanted to do the opposite. 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.240 We wanted to write the songs, like create a songbook, 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:24.119 and that's what we was stuck doing write the end 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:26.560 of twenty fifteen, So like have a song where that 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.040 could be played in any form, so that you can have, 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.280 you know, play them as a purely electronic song, play 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.760 them with a different tempo, play them acoustically, play them 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.639 elect well, whatever you want, because the song would be 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:41.119 strong enough to stand up to it. So write the songs, 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:45.520 then work out how you're going to perform it, and 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:47.840 work out a sound that's new to you. Because with us, 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.080 it's the beginning of a new decade for the band 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.560 and new new lineup, literally a new decade. Last album 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:55.800 we did was the end of ten years of the band, 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:57.439 so this one feels like, yeah, the beginning of a 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:00.320 new decade. So you get a new sound, and we 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.560 wanted to be able to play it and play it 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:07.359 live and tight and really good, like we'd been on 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.880 the road for a year, and so when we went 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:13.440 into the studio, which was the beginning of March this year, 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:16.960 we tracked in six days. But we could only do 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:19.400 that because we've been spending a year and a half 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:20.600 getting it together as well. 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.480 And Julian and Dina who have now joined the band, 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.199 were they friends from before? Like, how did you get 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:29.399 to know them? Did you have to audition anybody? 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:32.960 Ha? Did that process with? It's funny. I was watching 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:36.640 I've never seen it before, but I watched Some kind 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.720 of Monster when we were on the two of Us recently. Yeah, 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:44.919 the Metallica film so amazing, so funny and so depressing simultaneously, 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:48.640 like a great, great film. But there's the section where 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:52.399 they're auditioning a new basis and the poor producer guys, 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:54.679 his face is really glum because he can tell he 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:59.040 wants to be the bassist all along but when they're 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.840 auditioning him, they came in to play old classic Metallica songs. 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.800 And I just realized the other day that that's the 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:09.720 opposite of what we did when we were looking for 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:13.400 a new member. Julian didn't play any of the old 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.439 songs until we actually had a gig to do. And 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.879 so we spent all these months getting a record together 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:22.840 and not once had we even like mentioned one of 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.800 the old songs. Never mine played them. And as for 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:31.120 an audition, well, we we went for a curry mother 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:37.719 India's curry show in mother in Hiscafe rather in Glasgow 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.679 who he used to deliver curries for a long time ago. 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:43.480 And yeah, so because I think it's key. You know, 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:45.760 a band is a group, it's a gang, it's a 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.520 it's a social group, and you've got to get on. 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.119 And so I wanted to see if we got on 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:54.159 with Julian and had laugh And then a couple of 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.760 days later my studios down to southwest Scotland near Doune 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:01.440 Free starts away near a small village and the first 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.399 thing we did when we got down there was go 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:06.919 to the pub and have a few more drinks and 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.440 see how we got on and you know, we knew 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:11.160 we were having a laugh. We knew that we got 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:14.880 on and then we went in and played music and yeah, 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.919 that was cool. But it was new music and new things. 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.960 But I hadn't met Julian before. I knew his work, 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:25.639 before he played with us. He had a solo project 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:32.320 called Miamiao on Chemical Underground Records. And last year I 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:36.320 was over in Ireland for a film called Lost in France, 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:38.600 which was kind of about some of the history of 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:43.720 the Glasgow music scene. It's particularly about Chemical Underground Records. 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:46.440 But I was over and we were visiting this place 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:50.520 where a few of us had played twenty years earlier, 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:53.840 this small town in Moron. Anyway, I was over in 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:58.000 Galway for the premiere of this film and that sounds 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:01.679 really grand. Premiere of the film was actually sewn and 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:03.880 literally shown in the back of a caravan, a very 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.760 big caravan admittedly, but it was. It was really cool. 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:08.800 The Golbie Film Festival. If you think of going to 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:11.639 the film festival, it's it's my kind of film festival. 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:14.359 It's always an amazing talent as well. Anyway, I was 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.920 there with a student from Maguay and Emma and Paul 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:21.119 from the Delgados, and I said to them in passing, oh, 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:23.680 do you know anyone in Glasgow who would be cool 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.920 to meet music with? And all of them said, yeah, 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:30.800 Julian because Emmon Paul had worked at them before with 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:37.560 Chemical Underground, and Stuart's girlfriend had been working with them too, 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.879 and yeah, worked out recommendations not auditions. 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:42.600 Yeah, I was gonna say, it's interesting to hear you 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.840 say that, like you're not trepidation, but you're kind of 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.040 The important thing to do was first ascertain are we 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:51.480 going to get along? Are we going to have a laugh? 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:53.680 Are we going to all enjoy this ride together? Rather 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:56.240 than being like can they play the songs really tight? 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:59.480 Because bringing new people in the involvement, the key thing 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.080 is going to be at points living in each other's 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:03.879 pockets for the next eighteen months or whatever. 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.119 It's partly for selfish reasons, you know, like like, well, 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.080