26/02/11
Deptford, South London has a mixed heritage of music; there is of course the song writing of Messer’s Difford & Tillbrook responsible for all of Squeeze’s kitchen sink dramas. Unfortunately, it’s also home to the Maudling dirges of Athlete, so with the need to put Deptford back in musical credit it’s mightily convenient that the borough is also home to The Shortwave Set. The three piece whose rather impressive second album ‘Replica Sun Machine’ has been a slow build favourite to many and one of those albums that having been slept on by mainstream music purchasers is all set to grace the important music magazine year end ‘Best Of’ columns. As they’re gracing the stage of Norwich Arts Centre on November the 30th, we here at Outline thought the best way to spread the gospel was via a chat with Andrew Petitt, who alongside Ulrike Bjorsne share vocals and guitar duty whilst David Farrell pushes things away from the mainstream with samples and decks.
You’ve been to Norwich twice before I believe?Yes, both times at the Arts Centre which is a great venue the first as a support to Rilo Kiley just before our first album The Debt Collection came out in 2005 and then as headliners to promote that album.
You parted company with the record label that released ‘The Debt Collection’ prior to the release of ‘Replica Sun Machine’...We released ‘Debt Collection’ through Independiente and to be fair to them, I don’t think they fully understood what we were about. The album was made out of contract and they saw something in it to want to release it, but we weren’t treated with any kind of priority and in the end, were happy to walk away at the end of the period promoting the release. So with the current album we found ourselves being in exactly the same situation of being able to record an album for ourselves. We were under no pressure from outside parties to make it in any other way than what we wanted, so although it was the case of managing a budget, we set out to make ‘Replica Sun Machine’ exactly as we wanted it to sound.
So without a budget you suddenly found yourselves working with perhaps the most in-demand producer in the world, Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton.Brian, it turned out, had been recommended to purchase ‘Debt Collection’ on a record shopping trip when he was over here with Gnarls Barkley, and at the end of the year he was name-checking us as his favourite contemporary act and the album being his favourite release of the year. This led to the support shows with Gnarls Barkley, which cemented the relationship between both parties - as did the daily table tennis competitions. Brian brings his own table on tour and he’s very good. I’d like to say I always let him win to protect my ego, but to be fair I was lucky to get nil every match! So when he found out about the label situation he made the offer for us to travel over to L.A. and have him produce what was to become ‘Replica Sun Machine’ whilst working on good faith that we would get signed and the new record company would pick up the tab. It was a real compliment that he had the faith in what we could create together, particularly as he turns down lots of work offered to him if he doesn’t have belief in the artist concerned. Also, it was through Brian that Van Dyke Parks - famed for his work with The Beach Boys - came to provide orchestration on several tracks and John Cale (one of the founders of the Velvet Underground) came onboard to provide added viola. For an unsigned three-piece from Deptford, as it was then, this all seemed slightly surreal.
But you weren’t unsigned for long…No, Wall of Sound picked up the bill and gave us a home pretty sharpish. They are very much into what we are doing and having such an esoteric roster helps in the way they respect their artists. With a lot of labels you can see they will get an act that sells well and immediately sign bands of a similar ilk so they can be packaged together in a 3 for £20 major record chain promotion, discarding them as soon as sales drop or fashions change. Wall Of Sound see us as a long term project; it may take 2 to 3 years for people to cotton on to some things in music and I suppose we make music like that. What we want to do is make albums that are timeless; so many albums sound dated within 2 years of their release and we hope that what we release will sound as relevant in twenty years as they do now, as do some of our favourite records. The label has the same belief in our music’s durability, which is great as it’s not the norm’ in these times where the industry seems to be panicking at every turn.
I can’t imagine at this moment in time another label taking that view.We know just how lucky we are. Yes, we believe we make great pop music, but probably not in the way everybody sees it. After all, it’s not every band that has a line up as we do.
And how will that manifest itself at the end of the month when you come to the Arts Centre?Well we have just finished supporting Spiritualized on their U.K. tour and worked the live show in a different way. We dispensed with a live drummer, so it was just myself and Ulrike on vocals and guitars, whilst Dave provides the loops, ambiance and texture from his range of wonderful devices. When we reach Norwich it will still be very live sounding, ‘though a bit more extreme as we found it worked so well for the Spiritualized crowd. So for those who have the album, expect things to be more ambient and a lot more trippy and definitely a bigger, more expansive sound. If you haven’t heard the album, firstly, shame on you. Secondly come anyway - we are rehearsing a new tune to play out on this tour so you’ll feel exactly the same as everyone else in the Arts Centre, for one track at least!
Sounds fantastic, but before we let you go we have to bring up the subject of the Shortwave Set remixing the Scissor Sisters… please explain yourselves.Ah that will be Laura; well firstly it didn’t get released, so I’m impressed you know it. It was the first remix we did and to be fair we had no idea who the band we were doing it for was and thought we’d have some fun with it. So cue a rhythm section consisting of a pinball machine and the sound of scissors snipping. We loved it, but I’m guessing the reactions from DJs weren’t the best and it got canned never to be heard of again. Still, I don’t think it harmed the Scissor Sisters at all!
So there you have it, the man himself has told you what to expect on the 30th of November. Personally I don’t think you’ll hear a better album this year than Replica Sun Machine and neither does Danger Mouse (he is rather biased). So, lovers of sixties psychedelia, those partial to the better end of trip hop or just those who have an ear for a good tune, you have been pre-warned - get down to St Benedict’s street to purchase your tickets from the venue or Soundclash, or call 01603 660352 and prepare to be very impressed.