Interview

Black Midi

Black Midi appeared in what lots of publications like to consider a puff of smoke. In late 2018 and early 2019 murmurings of them could be heard throughout the music scene and a month after their debut album released they were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. Ahead of their intimate show at the Norwich Arts Centre we had a chat to Geordie, the lead singer of the band.

by Callum Gray 2 February 2020

Firstly, a bit of a big question whether you thought Black Midi as a band, or project has a modus operandi?

It’s just to keep making good music, keep pushing it forwards! And um, keep it interesting!

Also, I’ve really heard you guys enjoy your video games what have you been playing lately?

Not much to be honest, last time on the tour we were playing Chambara, this USC game. Not much other than that to be honest.

Do you find it difficult to find time on tour to do things?

Yeah pretty much, when you get back you just wanna chill. So you haven’t done much of anything

What would you say your favourite video-game was?

Not sure, maybe metal gear solid or something.

Is Crow’s Perch a reference to the Witcher 3? Do you try to bring in reference intentionally?

Yeah! But not really, it’s just if we can’t think anything. It was just a placeholder. Just had to keep it, so we couldn’t think of anything

Also, I noticed Anthrox studios do a lot of your graphics?

Anthrox Studios, yeah yeah.

How did that come about?

Well, we wanted to have our computer-generated video. The record label just tried to contact loads of different companies and things to see if anyone could do it. And someone was like, these guys have just left Rockstar games and they’re starting their own kind of company. They were really into the idea, and really wanted to do it so it worked out excellent!

It’s a different thing for them to do, it really stands out!

Yeah, definitely

How did you come to the idea of wanting to do computer generated things like that?

Um, sort of thought it would be interesting. Thought it would be cool. We didn’t wanna do a video where we’re in it playing guitars and we didn’t wanna do one where we’re walking down the street in slow motion or something. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to be in the video full-stop, so it was just something interesting.

Did you have a lot of input in the development of it then?

Nah, not at all. We kind of told them the general idea and just let them do whatever they wanted to do. We didn’t actually see it until the day before it came out, so. We didn’t want to get involved too much, if you hire them and tell them what to do, that kind of destroys everything y’know.

It seems like it still came out exactly as you would’ve liked it though.

Yeah, yeah absolutely. Wouldn’t have hired them in the first place if we didn’t like what they did, so just let them do their thing!

I also wanted to ask, whether – would you qualify video games as an art form that is equal to literature, music, film, painting.

I mean there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be, but their output so far doesn’t have to be on the same level as, I don’t know, Anna Karenina, but definitely has the potential to be. I mean why not y’know. Eventually, yeah.

Would you agree that it’s perhaps because of how video games combine a lot of art forms?

It’s the only medium that potentially has the viewers, where the audience are in control, and are as part of it. It has tremendous potential. It probably is one of the most commercialized art forms we’ve seen yet, for which will probably bring a lot of hurdles. But yeah, it’s definitely got potential. We’ll see.

Moving on – wanted to ask about Brit school background. What do you make of lots of people being keen on talking about it? Is it relevant? Also, there’s this mythology of mysteriousness that has been perpetuated a little bit, do you think that’s an accurate representation?

It’s quite silly because people go on about it, as though it’s a smoking gun to say that we are a manufactured, posh band or some crap. But the Brit school is free to attend- anyone can go, you just need to pass an audition. No one brings up all the bands that go to universities y’know. It’s quite silly I think, but um – the whole thing about mysteriousness is not a conscious thing at all, well it is, but it’s not like we’re trying to be mysterious and have a mystique, it’s more just like we’ve only ever done what we felt necessary and not what we felt was not necessary. It’s just like no messing around, no putting up stupid posts about what we’re eating for breakfast.

Did you feel comfortable at Brit School, I know a lot of the representations are like: ‘all these famous people went, all these famous pop stars went.’

Naturally they’ll only say about the pop artists that went, because they’re the only people that you’ll know. Loads of people go to Brit school and it’s really encouraged to do different things. So you’re only gonna know like, Adele, because they’re the only ones that become famous. They become famous when they left because they were always going to become famous. Whether they went to the Brit school or not, and that's 'cause they’re doing middle of the road music y’know.

I saw a comment – a while ago – someone said after they saw your show at Earth it made them cry what do you make of it?

Ahh that’s very nice.

Do you get a lot of different reactions to your shows?

Yeah absolutely, it depends how much you’re willing to give into it or not. How open you are, where you’re standing in the venue. How many people are talking at that gig – which by the way, is a terrible thing about UK gigs. The crowds talk so much – especially compared to other places. But yeah, I think that’s good to have different reactions. If someone wants to cry, if someone wants to cheer, if someone hates it, it’s not up to me, they’re all equally good.

What is your most, memorable performance that you just really enjoyed?

Some festivals here and there. The thing with festivals is that it is a total gamble. You can show up and it’s great, so good. Or it can be pretty terrible. Often the ones that are the best organized, and you’re really looking forward to it and everything’s in perfect position - once you get to the actual gig, for some reason it just doesn’t go well. But, you never know which ones are the amazing ones – I can’t remember to name a few but there’s also been some good gigs in London. There’s definitely been some very good gigs.

Is there someone who you look towards in terms of their performances. Someone who influences you in that way at all? Or absolutely no one and it just comes from yourself?

Yeah, I don’t know. There’s definitely bands that you see, or artists you see and you think wow that’s pretty cool. Uhm, I’m not sure. I can’t think of it at the moment. But yeah, definitely we’re just trying to keep it exciting.

Are you happy with how the album turned out? I know you seem to quite enjoy doing performances, and having it a bit more organic. Was it difficult trying to do an album where it was more structured?

No, not at all! I loved it. I’m very happy with how it turned out, the whole experience was so fun. I think that maybe even more fun than the live shows in many ways because of all of the control you have. You still record all of the initial parts in one go, but then you can keep going, keep embellishing. Keep adding in all of the bits you’d already filled in your mind while you were playing along. So um, yeah, it was huge fun.

In terms of writing a lot of the songs on there – for you where does that originate from. Do you just have the idea in your head and you just bring it to playing? Or is it more, you just start playing and it happens there, organically?

Kind of both. Most of the best stuff you just kind of stumble onto. Sometimes you will think of a song, you’ll have it down, it’ll be kind of OK but there’s nothing really good about it. But you don’t know that, you’re just playing the song, and then you make a mistake, you play something different – and then you think actually, that’s quite good that. And then that becomes a song. It’s sort of 50/50 of having a structure and it being thought out and freeform, playing together and finding stuff.

Were you considering any other album titles, or did it have to be Schlagenheim?

Um, I mean yeah there were definitely a lot of other good ideas. That was the one that everyone seemed to like enough. Um, it wasn’t a compromise either, we all agreed.

How did you find the Mercury Music prize performance? Have you found anything has changed for you since then at all?

Uh, not from what I can tell, but it probably has. The event itself was really fun, it was really funny. Uh, it was the most kind of over organized performance of 3 minutes that we’ve ever done. Two full days of soundchecks and all this bureaucratic stuff for just three minutes. It was fun, being in the room and evetything.

How did the audience react in the room?

It was quite funny, you could just see everyone just sitting at their tables and stuff at the front. A lot of people are into it, but it was a very strange thing. It was a bit like playing a wedding or something.

Have you ever considered playing weddings, then?

I’ve done it before. But yeah, but thinking as a band it’d be funny yeah.

Do you enjoy touring?

Touring in general can be amazing. It can be quite bad as well – it depends. It depends on the budget of the tour. How much you can live in luxury or whatever.

Has your recent tour been that luxurious?

Yeah that was amazing, yeah. We just stayed in nice places. It turned out really well and the crowds were really good too. It kind of just depends.

Have the crowds been changing at all, have you noticed any differences over the past few months?

Yeah, absolutely. The longer the albums been out the better people know the music. The crowds are quiet when it’s gonna be quiet now and loud when it’s gonna be loud so that’s all you want really and it’s been really good!

Your lyrics are quite fantastical, and sometimes strange and the imagery can be really vivid, yet also quite abstract. A lot of great writers seem to have a method of coming up with unique words, or unique phrases. Do you have any recommendations for someone looking to write some off-the-wall words?

Not necessarily, with Ducter it’s more based on the sounds of the words and all that kind of thing. With anything to do like that, it’s just about doing it consistently. Every day, or every two days or whatever and doing it from the knowledge that 95% of it is going to be absolutely terrible. And then as time goes by that percentage will decrease. You’ll get better and better but just know forever it’s mostly going to be terrible, but it’s gonna get less terrible.

Do you write most of the lyrics?

Anything I sing I’ll do it, yeah.

When did you start writing kyrics?

Just like a year before the band. Like years ago or something.

So it kind of grew parallel to the band?

Yeah, pretty much.

Improvisation for you guys seems quite key, where did that approach develop for you?

Well, when we were growing up, we were playing church music and that’s sort of based in improvisation. Me and Morgan both separately played in gospel church music and that’s really improvisation based. And we also played a lot of house band stuff, like lots of funk and soul all that kinda thing. When we went to school, they were just teaching us how to play in ensembles which would require improvisation.

Do you think improvisation is important for bands?

Yeah absolutely. I mean not every band needs a five minute jam in the middle or whatever, but it’s more just about knowing that things go wrong and it’s fine, you can just keep playing and play it by ear. A lot of the times improvisation isn’t anything crazy, it’s just knowing that in the middle of the song we can keep playing one bit for a while and move onto another bit in a while.

Have you ever been to Norwich?

Nah I’ve never been there before. All I know about Norwich is Alan Partridge haha!

Do you guys have any plans for the future, or is it more you’re just looking for it to organically develop and see where it all goes?

In this new year it’s going to be very good, but we’ll see!

What do you do to relax?

After a show, go backstage and see what they’ve got in the ride. Chill a bit. Before the show, very much the same. But outside of the touring don’t do much, go bowling. Do whatever y’know. Hang out with your friends, read your books, watch your films.

What was the last book you read?

It was Sentimental Education! I really enjoyed it, it was good.

Thanks for talking to me, I hope you have a good day!

Thanks man, you too. See you in Norwich.

Callum Gray - Words

Anthrox Studios - Images