Music > Interviews

Embrace

29/10/14

It’s the 90’s. You’re in a club and All You Good Good People comes on at the end of the night. You’re drunk. You love your friends. Life will always be this good. Conclusion: this song equals fun and friendship. That’s the last we heard from tousled-haired band Embrace, anyway, and as a result, the world has a lot of happy memories of their songs. Oh, apart from that football song when it went a bit crazy. But hey! They’re back! Life might be very different for their more elder fans now but the band are still full of energy, emotion and style. Their latest self-titled album has delighted new and old fans alike. Not only that, but they’ve been having a lot of fun with their fans. I spoke with their charming bassist Steve Finch to find out wha’ happening.

Embrace started in 1990 and you joined in 1995. How did that come about? How was it for you joining an already established band, especially with 2 brothers?

They’d had a go for a year as a band and got a bad review from a festival saying they were the lowest common denominator of Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division and they realised they were just copying their influences. They decided to quit playing live and decided to reinvent themselves as a proper band with their own identity, and that was when I joined. I’d always been in bands that never amounted to much; in fact I’d given up playing in a band two years previously as I though I can’t be bothered any more, lugging gear about and booking rehearsal rooms, etc. I was working in an office, and one night one of my cats ruined my only work suit by scratching it to pieces. That was the day I picked up the local Freeads; I was looking through the musicians wanted section and noticed one that was looking for a bassist. Their influences were the same as mine; PJ Harvey, The Stone Roses, Nirvana. Plus they lived half a mile up the road from me. I went up and met with Danny, we got on straight away and I was in the band. We spent two years rehearsing before we got signed. It was all really fortuitous really…written in the stars!  

You had 3 number 1 albums, sold out arenas and promptly disappeared. Why?

We never intended to take time away, we were all just burnt out. We did the England football song, were at a level of fame we’d never experienced before and we felt a bit uncomfortable with it. We didn’t really like playing arenas, we found them soulless and not really our sort of thing. We just decided to take a break, which was meant to be six months but it went on for two and a half years before we could get everyone back in the room together because we’d all gone off to do separate things; Danny started a nightclub, Micky started his own band. When we got back together we had nothing, we were starting from scratch, so it took a long time to reinvent ourselves. We had no producer, no record label, just the desire to do it, and I suppose we were like a new band. That’s why we called the new album Embrace, it felt like our album without any other influences. We didn’t care about radio play or record labels. You go into the studio saying right, we’re going to do exactly what we want and we’re not going to compromise, but the producer pushes you one way, and then the label comes in and picks out the ballad…they always pick the ballad…and say “Oh, Radio One or Radio Two will play that” and then you find yourself saying “Oh, go on then”, and find yourself compromising yourself at the last minute. We’re trying to get away from expectation…we’ve always thought we were a different band to who we are on record to who we are in the rehearsal room.

What does the symbol of the front cover of the album represent? It’s also in the videos for Refugees and Follow You Home.

Danny writes loads of notes on stickies and puts them up on the wall and he has all these little messages in his bedroom. We created this fictitious bedroom in the studio for him. We felt like recording an album is a bit like a self-imposed prison; you don’t get out until you’re happy, and unfortunately Danny’s very rarely happy with his music so it took some time!

The new album is quite dynamic, punchy and even dancey at times. What was the songwriting process for this album?

When we got together again Rick had been working on some music and he’d come up with his own voice more so than he had before. He was determined, whatever happened, that we would keep it dark and melancholy, as in the past we’d always been quite a happy band, like The Good Will Out for example. Lyrics can be positive but if you do them in a melancholy way it seems to resonate more. A lot of my favourite musicians like Nick Cave show there is beauty in darkness. We always jam the music out together, but Danny and Rick have the final say. It’s a democracy and it works for us, we haven’t beaten each other up yet anyway!

You’re releasing Embrace on CD, deluxe CD, double vinyl, digitally and in a super deluxe box set. What do you get in the super deluxe box set, and what format do you prefer?

The super deluxe box set is really really good actually. You get a t-shirt, artwork, hand written lyrics… I’d recommend that! CD’s are dying, unfortunately, I’ve stopped buying them myself. There’s no intrinsic value to them really. I’m thinking of buying a record player, buying vinyl copies of the albums I really love and just downloading the rest.

100 songs were written for this new album, and you used 10. What’s your favourite song on the new album?

I think it’s Refugees. It’s the first song that Rick brought in that gave us a direction. This was the song that we want to sound like, using modern technology but still sounding like Embrace; it’s dark and beautiful and has lots of intricate music in it. It set the template for the album really.

Can you tell me about your series of Secret Gigs which were conducted in complete darkness? You played in some very intriguing places including the Big Brother House.

They hire the Big Brother house out for business conferences, and we had a contact; so we arranged to meet half a dozen fans, put them in the back of an armoured truck and pretended we were breaking into the Big Brother House! We turned up with wire chain cutters and when we got in we did a half hour acoustic set for them and gave them beers. They were all really nervous at first, thinking they were going to get arrested. You’ve got to use these opportunities when you can! The last secret gig we did was in the village where they filmed Last of the Summer Wine. It was a zombie vs soldiers kind of event where everyone dressed up either as a zombie or a soldier and met up at various points around the town and chase each other! 700 people turned up. It was one of the best gigs I’ve ever done.

The band’s been going officially for 24 years now. That’s an amazingly long time. You must have some loyal fans. Do you get some interesting stuff in the post?

We used to have a PO Box and we used to get some interesting stuff, especially from the Far East, teddy bears and stuff, but we no longer have the PO Box. Since we were last around eight years ago obviously Facebook and Twitter have taken off so now I speak to them every day and know them all by name. In fact I got a message the other day “I’ve just driven past your house…”

Do you see people crying in the audience during Gravity, All You Good Good People or Come Back To What You Know? They are such emotional songs.

We just played the V Festival and I looked out at the crowd and there was a group of three lads who were all holding each other and crying while we played Gravity. It’s part of your life, isn’t it, music, and you never forget when you first played it. When I listed to punk music I’m 14 again.

What can we expect from your show in November?

It’s time to dust off a few oldies for this tour. This year we’ve played a lot of greatest hits so far, so perhaps we’ll revisit a few of the second, third and fourth albums and play a few from there. It’s daunting how much material we have really! I’m just off to rehearse now as we have another secret gig next week.

Embrace play UEA on 28th November. Tickets available from www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk