While the band would change members throughout the late eighties and early nineties, the original core lineup of vocalist Robbie Grey, bassist Mick Conway, guitarist Gary McDowell, and keyboardist Stephen Walker have been recording and releasing a string of incredible records in the modern era, with their latest, this year’s fantastic 1, 2, 3, 4 earning massive accolades across the board. The band are about to head out on an expansive tour that takes them across the world, joining both The Buzzcocks and Thomas Dolby at various points.

We had a chance to talk to Modern English vocalist Robbie Grey about the band’s history, the new record’s political leanings, and the secret to keeping a band together over the years:

Your latest record, 1,2,3,4 has the same vitality as any of your work – it truly sounds like Modern English in the best way possible. How did the record come together?

Well, what you’re getting there is the live feel of the record. The first thing we thought about when recording this album was to consciously get away from that homogenized radio sound where everyone’s using Pro Tools and splicing things together. We wanted to make a live recording as much as we could, so you could feel the movement from  the verse to the chorus. When we first started writing the record, it would have been right around when the pandemic hit in 2020. In England, we were only allowed to go outside for a couple of hours a day, unless you were going to a workplace, which you could go to three days a week. So, we would go over to Mick’s studio, which was nearby in Suffolk. We all gathered there to write the record, but we always knew that we wanted to keep it raw. We had done that for a while and we wanted to get a producer who would allow for that. So, Mario (J. McNulty) came along and we talked about sticking to that live feeling. We then went to a great studio in upstate New York in Rhinebeck and it all just came together really well. It doesn’t always work out like that. It’s like a painting, I suppose. You can either do a really bad one or a really good one, and all the pieces just really fit together for this album…

That’s cool you were in Rhinebeck. I actually grew up in Goshen, which is only an hour or so away from there. It’s such a beautiful area.

Well, Mick lives in Hudson now, I believe. He’s been living in that area for quite some time.

So were any of the songs written before you entered the studio, or were they all written there? 

No, no, we never really come in with a full record ready to go. Actually, for the first time probably ever I wrote a full song for the record in advance, and that was “Long In the Tooth.” When I wrote that song back in my little studio room to when it was recorded and released it’s not changed at all really. Normally though, we start things off with just pieces of music that we develop. We don’t really have complete songs generally. “Not Fake” was another song that was already kind of written, and Mick’s song “Not My Leader” didn’t really change all that much either from the beginning. So, I suppose there are a couple of songs on there that were written from the start, but generally we kind of fiddle around quite a lot as we go.

The lyrics seem quite political – can you tell us a bit about them?

Yeah, I mean, I’m just pissed off with everything, you know? It’s just crazy that people in power just don’t give a shit about anybody else and that’s so frustrating after all this time that the decent side of humanity never seems to get very far but the corrupt people and those who generally crave power seem to be much nastier. It seems to me that if you want to stay in power, you have to be that way, and decent people on the street are just sort of fed up with it. I am at least, anyway. When we first started and came to your country, we had Margaret Thatcher and you had Ronald Reagan. Fast forward from the late 70s and early 80s and it hasn’t changed all that much. In fact, you’ve got a clown like Donald Trump who is very likely going to be your president again, from the looks of it…

Ugh, no one learned anything. It’s kind of maddening.

It’s not even funny, is it? It’s just crazy.

The only way I can survive is to laugh, sometimes. I just can’t believe how surreal it all is most of the time. 

Right! So, a lot of the lyrics on the album, like “Not My Leader” are all about that. “Not Fake” is about things becoming less and less rooted in true humanity really, you know people wanting to have different faces, different bodies, and different brains. Everyone wants to be something else all the time, it’s about that deconstructed sense of nature. I spend a lot of time in Southeast Asia and I live in the countryside in England. Both are near the beach, and seeing the amount of garbage in the ocean inspired another song on the album called “Plastic.” It’s maddening – they clean the beaches daily but they’re filled with trash again in the blink of an eye.

In “Voices” – it’s interesting that you namecheck Billie Holiday and Karen Carpenter – two of the saddest and most tragic figures in pop music. It makes me wonder, what’s that song about in the context of the political machine and how do those lovely singers factor into the story?

Well, I just know that they’re too the best voices I’ve ever heard of my life. That song to me is about gun culture and how young people are brainwashed into believing that the only way out is to go out and blow people up. The song is about someone sitting in their bedroom with a gun in their hands and the internet in front of them, and being disturbed enough to actually go out and hurt someone. Perhaps if they heard a voice like Karen or Billie’s it would help them and they could find some solace in the music. Maybe if they listened to these voices they could hear the beauty and loss they sing about and it could soothe their soul…

That’s really beautiful, and that track is such a standout.

Thank you, thank you.

I love how active Modern English has been over the years, I’ve seen the band several times and you’ve always been one of my favorite live acts. Your energy on stage is unmatched, and you always have so much passion, no matter if you’re playing new music, deep cuts, or the hits. I’d love to know what the secret is to keeping a band together in harmony after all this time.

Well, as you get older, you do tend to let people get away with a lot more than you would have when you were younger! You don’t end up fighting with each other so much. Really, we’ve known each other since we were teenagers, we came from the same town and lived in London for over 30 years. We went through so much together in the eighties and nineties that at this point, we can just sort of take the piss out of each other and people won’t get offended, which is a good thing. Otherwise, the energy level on stage is just how it’s always been. I guess I don’t know what else to do apart from what we do. I feel that energy and react as I always have.

I’d love to hear more about the formation of the band – what brought you all together in 1979? 

Well, that’s brilliant you should ask that because you know, we’re not jaded yet! The creative process is the most important thing about music. The rest of it, once it leaves your hands, is business, really. That part overshadows the creative process a lot, but as long as you can keep writing songs and keep that creative energy flowing, you’re doing all right.

As for  the start of things, it was just an amazing time to be in the UK. Punk happened, and you had people like The Clash and the Sex Pistols on TV which was all very new and very exciting. Before that, we’d listen to Bowie and Roxy Music, things like that, but we never dreamt that we could play music. We thought it was something that other people, these immense talents and virtuosos, could do and that we never could. So when this punk thing happened, we felt empowered, we became part of that whole thing. It just swept over the nation and changed the whole landscape of music almost overnight. After a bit, it got a bit boring, playing just this fast and furious music all the time, so everyone started experimenting in that framework, forming what everyone now calls the post-punk thing. This is where bands started going off on their own and exploring their own ideas, carving out more soundscapes and doing what they wanted with that punk energy. It was such a brilliant time around 1978-79 with all the bands that came out around us. Joy Division, The Cure, Wire, Gang of Four, and so on. This all shaped so much of England’s musical culture, so we were able to put our band together to do something similar.

It’s kind of amazing to think about all the bands that formed and quickly embraced this sound more or less independently from each other, yet still there was this unified movement of sorts…  

Well, John Peel had a lot to do with that. He championed a lot of the bands around that time would play play bands on the BBC that nobody else would go near, at all this kind of crazy wild music by bands who never would write a love song or make music that was like everything else on the radio. He had a lot to do with that unification, but also in general, the whole country was on fire and we were all reacting to that. It was brilliant. There was no money around, the UK was a very poor country outside of those who were in power and who were already rich. Most didn’t have anything at all. We used to steal microphones from concerts, and Gary’s first guitar was worth only $30 or so. Most of these bands, including us, really started from the ground up, and it was all very exciting. That energy was present from the start, you know?

Yeah, and with that in mind, Gary got such a unique sound out of that guitar. To me, those early Modern English guitar textures are otherworldly – so atmospheric and intense. 

Yeah, you know, stick it through a chorus and a flanger and it sounds brilliant!

Can you share any stories about your time on 4AD?

Well, it was if you remember Vaughan Oliver died, you know, I think five years ago now… I think his first artwork was the “Gathering Dust” single in 1980.

Right – with the shadow figures sitting next to the television set! 

Yeah! So that was the first artwork he ever did for the label… His last ever work was the re-imagining of Mesh & Lace and After the Snow, which came out just a few years ago. So it’s a real sense of synergy with 4AD there.

Otherwise, Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent were the guys that signed us. We sent them a demo, and you know, it was just a wild demo we made of our earliest tracks, and they liked it and picked up on us. We were one of the first bands who signed with the label, along with Bauhaus, and then of course it all built up from there with Cocteau Twins, The Birthday Party, Dead Can Dance, and so on…

So we were kind of in at the beginning, at a time when Factory was also operating in the north with all those bands – Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, Crispy Ambulance, and of course Mute Records were doing their thing with Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget, and Daniel Miller. It was such an exciting time… All of us used to play with each other quite a lot – we did some gigs with The Birthday Party and so on. It was a wildly creative period, that 79-81 era…

I really liked that first 7” you recorded – the “Drowning Man” single. but the band really took it so much further out once you locked in with 4AD. Was that where you were heading naturally, or did 4AD’s early lineup and mission statement influence your sound? 

Well, the simple answer to that is we just became better musicians rather quickly. When we recorded “Drowning Man,” we couldn’t even really tune our guitars. We didn’t know how to do that. If you listen to that single, you might notice that we’re out of tune completely! That said, it’s got a certain quality to it that works. Mesh & Lace however, we went in the shooter. We did that record live as well, actually. A lot of that’s live. It’s a very experimental record. Ken Thomas who worked with Throbbing Gristle, engineered it and Ivo was in the studio with us as well. We were in the studio for only two weeks. It all very quick, you know, there was no back and forth, no debating about what was right and what wasn’t. We just went for it without too many overdubs, and it gives it that kind of quality. Everything’s a bit wild. We always enjoy using atmosphere more than musical playing, if you know what I mean… We’d rather explore the texture or do something more abstract than worry about a guitar solo or a beautiful musical passage or anything like that, really.

I think even your more pop-oriented works have that sense of experimentation and abstraction. Even “I Melt With You” or “Chapter 12” have some really interesting counter melodies and production techniques that elevate those tracks. That’s something I’ve always loved about your body of work – that you’ve never lost sight of that knack for experimentation, even on Soundtrack and Take Me to the Trees, and of course, the latest record. 

Yeah, that’s just how we operate overall, you know?

So, I still think it’s kind of wild that one of 4AD’s most beloved projects was birthed from covering two of your tracks – the live medley of “16 Days” and “Gathering Dust.” I love that you were all involved with This Mortal Coil in one form or another. Can you tell us more about your experience with that project? 

Well, really Ivo just felt that those two songs were such classic tracks and he wanted to re-record them the way we were playing them live. It was around that time that more electronic drum kits and samplers were being utilized a bit more. Ivo asked Mick and Gary to play on the This Mortal Coil version. They agreed and then Robin from Cocteau Twins and Martyn from Colourbox played on it. Liz came and did the vocals with Cindy, and the rest was history. I did that Colin Newman song “Not Me” on the first album, It’ll End In Tears. It was just Ivo’s hand’s-on project where he wanted to really celebrate everyone’s music and have his own project. He would get anyone he fancied to come in and play, whether it be us or Cindytalk, or Simon Raymonde, really, whoever was around at the time…

After the Snow really felt like more of a romantic record, though you still retained some that core energy in songs like “Life in the Gladhouse.” I’d love to hear more about that record. Was it a conscious decision to explore a more lush sound, or did that come naturally as well? 

Well, I mean, we’ve never been the sort of band that do the same exact thing twice. That’s been a bit of our downfall in some ways because we’ve confused a lot of people that way. A lot of other acts are happy to do the same thing, but we’ve never really been like that.

With After the Snow – a lot of that sound you mention is due to our producer, Hugh Jones, who encouraged us to focus more on our songwriting. We didn’t even know what that meant at that point, you know? He showed us how to string together a verse and a chorus and then a verse and a chorus and then a middle eight, and those things. His influence was massive! We were all interested in bringing in different instruments to change things – acoustic guitars, violins, and so on. We also tried different things. For instance, “I Melt With You” is probably the first song I never shouted on. I was so used to shouting into the microphone before that…

Did you approach that song from that perspective at first? Did you shout on earlier incarnations of the track? 

No! This, this is a good story actually. I was told to go up to the microphone and just speak into it…and I was like, “what? What the fuck are you talking about? You want me to go up to the microphone and just SPEAK into it?” But that really helped the song, it helped change it up to give it that sort of spoken word sort of feel in the verses, and that makes the chorus work so well.

…and then somehow between trying to softly speak the verses and then adding this lush, soaring chorus, you created one of the most beautiful, perfect pop songs ever recorded. Does it ever shock you how much that song has meant to people over the years? I mean, it’s truly timeless in that way. I almost hate to admit it, but in a previous life, that song was my wedding song, and it’s always funny, since the lyrics are both romantic but also about nuclear fallout and war, and a similar sense of dread that has always been present in your work. 

You know, you’d be amazed at how many times I’ve been told that! There’s definitely that idea of a couple you know, during the Cold War era. When I wrote it, I was staying in a cheap housing complex in London, freezing my arse off, stoned and scribbling down lyrics on a piece of paper, and within ten minutes, the lyrics were finished. It was like poetry really, I used stanzas, and of course, it’s basically about love. I was writing about the bomb dropping while this couple were making love, melting together… I’ve always said that it was a dark love song.

Otherwise, in some ways, it’s just another song for us on the album, you know? At one point we were wondering if we even liked it, or if it was a bit too commercial sounding compared to our other work.

I wondered if you struggled with that in the moment, especially when comparing it to songs like “Swans on Glass” or “Move In Light” which were written not long before that by comparison, you know?

Yeah, we did for about ten minutes, but Hugh was like “don’t be ridiculous – this a good song” you know, blah blah blah. In fact, going full circle, “I Know Your Soul” on the new album is a bit like that. We weren’t sure whether we’re going to put that song on the album, you know, because it’s the most crafted really of all the songs on the out on 1, 2, 3, 4, but Steve Walker, the keyboard player, was a big champion for that for that song. Mick, Gary, and I weren’t too sure about it, but we put it on there…

Did you leave anything on the cutting room floor? Are there any leftover tracks from the latest sessions?

No, no, pretty much everything’s on there!

So, one thing I’ve always admired about Modern English these days is that you always seem to have your finger on the pulse and have taken a lot of newer, underground bands on tour with you, bands like Entertainment or Bootblacks. A lot of older bands don’t seem to be as in tune with what’s going on in modern music and I was wondering what informed that. 

Well, I think we just, that’s just how we are. We’re no different when we started as people, making the kind of music that we want to and seeking out bands that are similar. It’s no different for us now than it was in 1979, except that we were lucky enough that “I Melt With You” gave us the security to carry on however we want to. Mick and Steve are more in tune with music than I am even, and they find that same energy in these bands that we feel we have.

As for me, I’d say I listen to more English music than anything these days, whether it be Fontaines D.C. or Idles. However, Mick would find these new, still obscure bands from Brooklyn and Steve would find some from Poland. We’re always looking for bands that are younger to come on the road with us mostly because we’d have wanted the same thing when we were younger, you know?

That’s great that you do that – I’ve heard so many conflicting stories over the years, some bands have shared stories of scene camaraderie, but others have told me that it was actually more competitive and cutthroat, not as romantic as all that. It’s interesting to hear your perspective on that and to see you lifting up other bands these days. 

It’s really true, though. People in America romanticize about this scene with all these bands hanging out in the pub, but it wasn’t really like that. Everyone was just doing their own thing. You might bump into somebody in the studio somewhere and have a moment with them, but you’re too busy doing your own thing to hang out really. That said, we did tour with Cocteau Twins and Bauhaus, and support Matt Johnson of The The when he started out – 4AD felt more like a family-oriented thing. Outside of that, it was often about getting a drink at the bar, you know?

What are your touring plans for 1, 2, 3, 4? What do you have planned for the year?

Oh my god, we’re not stopping this year! I mean, once I leave Thailand, I’m flying to Mexico City for rehearsals and a show. We’re playing with The Buzzcocks there. After that, we’re going back to America to play in Tucson and LA, two sold out shows with The Buzzcocks again. We’re going to go to Disneyland as well, but then we fly back to England. We’re doing a radio show for the BBC before linking back up with The Buzzcocks again for a few dates in Europe, plus a few on our own.

After all that, we’re going back to America as part of the Totally Tubular festival with Thomas Dolby, The Romantics, and other bands like that. We’re doing a six week run as part of that tour.

I’ve always enjoyed those tours, it seems like they aim to recapture a certain era, but for me, being too young to have seen many of these artists in the eighties, I always have a great time basking in that energy. It’s always great to see your band, whether it be a full headlining set or part of these tours. How long will the set be in the States? 

It’ll be about 25-30 min.

So you really have to carefully pick and choose, then! I imagine you’ll have to balance the new material, some early deep cuts, but I’m sure you have to play the hits, right? 

Well, you know, if we didn’t, we’d probably be hung! You know, it’ll be “I Melt With You” plus five or so other tracks.

I was sad to miss the After the Snow tour. Do you think you’d come back around to the States for a full tour for the new record? It’s always great hearing a full set, being able to enjoy the range and intensity of your material…

Oh yeah, whenever we get the chance, we’ll be playing. For some of these shows, we’re planning on playing three or four tracks from the album. I imagine even on this tour in the States we’ll throw one or two of them in.

Well, I’m a fan of the whole catalogue and anything you play at this point would go over well in my book. Have you found that other fans have been embracing the new material in the same way? 

Yeah, absolutely. It’s been incredible! I get stuff sent to me, you know – press clippings and reviews. It’s been brilliant, the response has been absolutely amazing. It might be the best critical response we’ve ever had if I’m being honest! §

1, 2,3, 4 is out now via InKind Music and available via the band’s Bandcamp page, as well as other outlets. For a full list of tour dates, visit the band’s website here.

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Header photo by Sheva Kafai.

The post Move In Light | An Interview With Robbie Grey of Modern English appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

However, 2023 saw a flurry of new activity from Cranes, straight from the source. Firstly, the band released a string of radio sessions recorded for the late, great John Peel in 1989 and 1990, many of which had never been circulated previously. Additionally, the band announced two shows, one in hometown Portsmouth and the other in the heart of London, both of which sold out immediately. Both shows were meant to celebrate the 30th anniversary of 1993’s Forever, one of the band’s most beloved recordings that also earned them a slot opening for The Cure’s celebrated Wish tour, which alongside a single remix of “Jewel” remixed by Robert Smith himself, helped usher in a new legion of fans. These new gigs reunited the Shaws with original guitarist Mark Francombe as well as Paul Smith, who began recording with the band with 2001’s Future Songs album. These shows were special occasions through and through, with fans (including myself) traveling far and wide to attend. While the band was originally unsure what would be in store next, they seem to have rekindled the spark and reclaimed their stake in today’s robust scene. More live dates have been booked for 2024 in Leeds, London, Brussels, and Rotterdam, and a new reissue has been announced – this time unearthing Fuse, the band’s very first release and one of their deepest obscurities. Originally released on cassette in 1986 via Bite Back!, Fuse has been lovingly remastered at Abbey Road and will be reissued via the band’s own Dadaphonic imprint on April 5th of this year. Like the Peel Sessions release prior, this new edition of Fuse features artwork by Chris Bigg of V23, who originally helped design much of 4AD’s classic artwork over the years. To sweeten the pot, this beautiful new edition features “New Liberty,” a song recorded during these early sessions that has not been heard until now.

We had the immense pleasure of speaking to vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Alison Shaw about all of this activity. Check below for our conversation, as well as a full list of upcoming tour dates and Fuse reissue details…

~~~

Firstly, I just have to say it: WELCOME BACK! It’s really great that all these new gigs are popping up on the horizon. After years of radio silence, it really was so exciting to see this flurry of activity. What, what was the catalyst for getting back together? What got you thinking about it and what’s been fueling the fire so far? 

I guess it was the end of 2022 when, quite by chance, Jim and Matt (Cope) met up. Around the same time, Jason, who was our manager throughout the Dadaphonic years also got back in touch and told us that if there was any chance that we wanted to do something again, he’d help us. For the last ten years, it was the last thing on our minds, you know? We were all just doing other things in our lives. Somehow, things just fell into place. We all thought that we wanted to take it slowly, to see what happens. When we announced that first London show, we actually weren’t quite ready in our minds. We weren’t sure if we were able to do it, or if we really wanted to do it. But it went on sale and it sold out really quickly in a day and a half, and so we were like “oh my God, we’ve got to do it, we’re committed now.” It really was a good experience though. You were at the show, right? The audience was amazing! For us, it was a very happy show and it made us think that we might quite like to do some other shows.

Yeah, EartH is such a gorgeous venue and there was so much great energy in the room. It was a perfect fit! 

Yeah, exactly I think that was kind of a special evening for us all.

There aren’t a lot of bands out there like Cranes, so it’s great that you’re back in that sense. There was a big gap left in the scene when you left…

Yeah, our last record was in 2008. And I think our last gig was about 2012 or 13. So there’s been a long gap!

It seems like you just went dormant and life carried on for you all. Had people been asking for shows or for new material over the last decade? 

Well, when we went dormant, I also wasn’t connected to any social media at all for about ten years. I just couldn’t deal with it for one reason or another. I was vaguely aware that somebody out there was reissuing our records. It was the Music on Vinyl company in Holland, they’ve become good friends now and they’re really big fans of the band. They’ve reissued all our albums and they make really lovely vinyl editions. At the time though, I was only vaguely aware of this, but now I’ve kind of clipped my brain back into being doing Cranes stuff. We’re much more in touch with everything.

It’s been brilliant being back in touch with Mark (Francombe) again, because he was, as you know, he’s the original guitarist from the late 80s and early 90s. He’s been living a totally different life these days, because he lives in Oslo, in Norway. We’ve remained friends over all of these years, only seeing each other maybe once a year or something. But now we’re in contact every day, on the phone, or messaging or talking. He’s a very creative person and he helps with all the social media stuff.

So really, it’s weird. We’re just slowly motioning back into being a band again after such a long break, taking it at our own pace.

That’s great! And it’s great that Mark is so invested and so involved as well. So, these next batch of shows in the Spring, can you tell us a bit about those? 

Actually, we just announced another one in Brussels! It’s part of a really lovely festival called Botanique. We just announced we’re going to play there on April the 30th. There’s been a good response already for that one!

Will these upcoming shows still be part of the Forever anniversary celebration, or will you be doing a more varied set? 

To be honest, we haven’t decided yet! I think we might do more of a kind of a mixture, maybe a few songs from the Loved album, but we’re not quite sure yet.

Right, and Mark played on Loved as well, yes? That first era of the band with Mark and Matt on guitar and Jim on drums had quite a groove going throughout the nineties. But then you changed lineups and your sound evolved from there…

Yeah, Mark actually first played with us in 1988, I think. And then he left in 1997/1998, soon after the Population Four album. We did a long American tour for almost every album we did up until that point, but I think the last time we were there was for Future Songs in 2002.

Yeah, I was supposed to go to the NYC show back then, but I was nineteen at the time and couldn’t get in, sadly… I should have snuck in! So, I’d love to talk about the upcoming Fuse reissue. I was curious to hear about any great stories from the era. I’ve read a lot about the early days, recording in your garage and how Martin Hannett was one of the first people to have heard the Fuse recordings. It seemed like things really ramped up quickly for the band from there… 

Well, the Martin Hannett thing, that was kind of an isolated incident, because Fuse was only a cassette. It was the first thing that we released. Jim and I spent months working on it, literally day and night. We used to do it in shifts, and I would work in most of the daytime, and he would work most of the night. We were still developing our sound at that stage and we weren’t quite sure what we were doing! We were kind of experimenting and trying to find our own path. We did what we could given the time constraints. We weren’t sure, to be honest, if it was any good. We’d never released anything, we’d never had a review or anything like that. For some reason, we also decided that we didn’t want to send the cassette out to anyone. But Ian Binnington from Bite Back! heard that Martin Hannett was looking for unsigned bands, because there was potentially going to be a new TV show up in Manchester. So Ian sent him a tape with a lot of local Portsmouth bands on it. When he called Martin back a few weeks later, Martin wasn’t sure who he was, or who any of the bands were, but then he remembered our song from that demo tape. We were very, very honored.

Yeah, you never know who hears things or how music travels around, especially in the cassette culture days…It’s amazing you got that kind of feedback early on.

Yeah, after that we kind of went back to the drawing board for a couple of years. We weren’t playing live at that stage, it was just me and Jim in my dad’s garage that we turned into a little tiny studio with the drum kit and everything in there. It took us a good two or two-and-a-half years to come up with the Self Non Self material which, at the time, we felt was more our identity, our real identity if you know what I mean.

I tell you what, literally dozens of people have asked us to reissue the Fuse tape, and we’ve always said no because we just thought that it was just our very early thing – that it was just a tape and we were happy to let it stay that way. It’s taken us decades to consider it, and it was really because of Jason (White), who is also the manager at 4AD. He’s so in tune with music and has very good instincts. He said “listen to it again Ali, would you just listen to it again for me?”

Do you often listen back to your music, or? 

Not often, no. But I listened to it with fresh ears and I could see what he was talking about. It was so early for us, listening to it now I’m kind of taken back – how did we produce those sounds with such basic equipment!?

Well, that’s exactly what I wanted to ask you next! How DID you produce those sounds with just the bare bones guitar and drums setup that you had back then? There was a lot of sonic experimentation taking place in those early days. 

Yeah! Well one of the key things that we were we were using very early on was a tiny sampler pedal, which was a similar size and shape as a distortion pedal. It was one of the very first sampling instruments that you could buy that didn’t cost a zillion pounds, you know? Jim used that for some of the drum sounds and we also used it on the voice as a delay and echo thing. Other than that, it was just guitars and the way we played. Jim always dreamt that his first instrument would be the drums, but he also plays guitars and bass and cello and keyboards, and, you know, whatever else. He’s kind of a multi instrumentalist, I guess.

Great to have that in your back pocket!

Yeah that definitely helps! So, I think everything we’ve ever done emerges quite naturally. We just make sounds and then see if it elicits a response in either Jim or me. The things that we both instantly connect to – that’s what ends up being a Cranes song. If one or the other of us doesn’t get it, then it gets left behind.

So I guess that leaves it pretty wide open to create whatever feels right and whatever comes to mind. I can’t imagine the two of you back in the day carefully selecting and mimicking records over the years, trying to carve out your sound that way, as some bands do. It sounds like this has always been a very organic process for you.

Yeah. It was quite important for us not to sound like anyone else directly. We used to edit ourselves. Jim’s kind of obsessed with the idea – if anything sounds remotely like someone else he’ll get rid of it. We were fans of other people’s music at the time of course, but it was a key thing in Cranes, to choose our own path…

Well, that’s certainly what’s always appealed to me about your music – that you’ve done your own thing. There are definitely bands that you’re peers with, like Slowdive, who you played live with in the early nineties, or Chapterhouse, who you were label mates with. But really, when I got into the band in the late nineties – I had never heard anything like your music. It was so singular, so different, so eclectic, and I haven’t heard all that much out there that I feel the same way about. I’ve always appreciated that. With that in mind, from the early days of being in the garage to the electronic material you’d produce in the 2000s, how did your writing process evolve over the years?

Well, I guess there were two big musical shifts for us. The first shift was, when we first signed to Dedicated. We were able to buy some new equipment, and we bought keyboards, which Jim had always wanted. Up until that point, we’d never had a keyboard that could make string sounds and orchestral sounds and piano sounds. So that was a big shift for us. On Fuse and Self Non Self, there were no keyboards. Wings of Joy, Forever, and Loved were all recorded in the same studio in London, called Protocol Studios. It was the same studio where everyone at the time recorded, including The Sundays, or My Bloody Valentine, who were recording Loveless at the time. So many bands who were recording in the early nineties recorded there, and that place felt like our home, just off Holloway Road in North London.

The more electronic stuff that you you mentioned, that was our third phase, after the year 2000. The old version of Cranes had finished – we ceased to be around 1998. Mark left in 1997 and got married after we did that last tour in America, and we pretty much stopped for a good three years. We weren’t sure what we were going to do or if we were going to record again. But then Jim and I just got together, I guess because we’re brother and sister, it’s hard to split up completely…  I had been living in London at that time and during that break at the at the end of the 90s, I’d been doing some other stuff. I had a couple of ideas for some songs and I came back down to Portsmouth one day, and Jim had couple of ideas for some songs. We basically just started to write and we felt that there was the basis for some new material, and that’s when Future Songs started to come together.

I recall that you considered changing the name of the band, but at heart, it was still just you and Jim, so it still felt right to be a Cranes record. Is that the case?

Yeah, that’s kind of right. They are quite two sort of distinct phases of the band, I guess. But it’s still Jim and I at the center of it.

I mean, it’s not like the electronic material came out of the blue – there were hints of that direction on Population Four, La Tragedie D’Oreste et Electre, and a lot of the EP material from that era. Some more delicate moments, electronic touches, and so on. So while the early, chaotic nature of the band wasn’t present on Future Songs, it wasn’t a total 180, in my opinion, minus the lineup change. So now that the original catalogue has been reissued, is there any talk of reissuing the most recent trio of records, the ones on Dadaphonic? 

Well, we haven’t started on that project yet. But people are asking, you know, especially because those records weren’t originally released on vinyl. It’s a bit early for us at the moment, but it’s definitely possible!

Going back to the gigs you’ve been playing – once you were committed to doing the shows and were back in the rehearsal room, was the focus really just on the older material? Did you happen to do any writing, whether it was accidental or intentional? 

To be honest, it was a lot of the focus was on the Forever songs, because quite early on, people asking if we were going to play the entire album. There are several songs on the album which we’d never played live before..

Yeah! I remember you mentioned at the EartH show that one of the songs had never been performed before, though I can’t remember which it was…

It was “Sun and Sky” – I don’t think we’d ever played it before and I’m not sure why we hadn’t… It’s not a difficult bass line, but I guess because I’m playing it and singing at the same time, I guess we just didn’t have enough time back in the day to rehearse it properly. But this time, I had months to practice it, so I did, and it eventually came together. I think when we first met up to rehearse after not having played together with this lineup for thirty years, our first song was “EG Shining.” And you know, it sounded the same as it always did all those years ago, which was kind of nice.

That’s one of the first tracks Mark had played on, right? 

Yeah, and it was it was one of the first songs we ever wrote, to be honest. Even though it didn’t come out until we were signed, we did it early on at a Peel Session. It was written a couple of years before we recorded it and released it on the Espero EP. It was an original Cranes song, that was one our earliest moments together.

It was great hearing such an intense response to songs like that, as well as “Inescapable” and “Starblood” when you played them. Do you still feel a connection to that material, or was it just something from the past that you exhumed for these shows? How does it feel to play those songs again?

So, that’s the weird thing, if you’d asked me a year or two ago, I’m not sure if I could have played those songs or if it would feel right at this point in my life. That said, there’s something that happens when Jim’s on the drums. One of those key moments in our past was when Jim decided he didn’t want to play drums live at that stage, so he changed to guitar. We had two or three different drummers in the years from 2000-2008. They were all great drummers, but the drumming style of those later albums were different, and of course these drummers used more electronic drum kits and pads and things like that where you can have more control and make more interesting electronic sounds. The earlier tracks were all oriented around Jim’s drum sound. For me, playing these early tracks needed to have Jim Shaw on the drums in order to feel right. That’s what made authentic and believable for me – Jim on drums and Mark on guitar, with Matt joining us for early rehearsals. It really made me connect to the material again. Something was there that I can’t quite describe but makes the songs come alive again.

I hate to jump the gun or anything, but do you think you’ll do any writing together – or are you still taking it one day at a time?

Well, you never know, you never know… There’s some writing going on but I can’t really elaborate! *chuckles*

Well, since we’re hinting at some vague things here – what’s the scoop on returning to America? Is that something we can look forward to in the coming years?

Ahh, well, I can’t say much at the moment, but I’ll give you a hint. Just recently we have been offered something in America and it’s looking very positive…

Well, I accept that you can’t tell us more, but that’s very promising news! We’ll stay tuned for some more details on that, if and when the time is right! So, here’s a more open ended question – do you have a favorite moment throughout all the years you’ve been together as a band? 

Favorite moment? Well, I mean obviously the tour with The Cure was completely awesome for us. I remember especially on the American leg of that tour, I remember just being happy every day, like every moment of every day, driving from city to city and playing these incredible arenas and auditoriums and stadiums, even…

How did that come about – how were you first approached by the band?

Apparently, Robert, and Simon had heard the Wings of Joy album, and they liked it. We had an agent at the time, and I think that’s how they approached us. We met them around that time, they did a few warm up shows before the tour, playing in much smaller venues in the UK. They played in our local town hall, which is called the Guild Hall in Portsmouth. We were invited to the show, and that’s where we met the band and that’s when they invited us on the tour.

Well, it was a perfect match, and obviously they’ve invited you back regularly since then, for the Trilogy shows and some other one-offs over the years. It seems like the door is always open!

Well, they’ve been so amazing to us over the years. Every few years we’ll get a call. I’ve chatted to Robert a few times recently, over email, and he’s really supportive of what we’re doing now. They’ll always be a really important part of our journey.

I’m so glad it’s still be so positive over the years. It seems like it’s a lifelong friendship with the two of you, and some of the other bands they’ve been friends with over the years, like And Also the Trees… 

Yeah, he’s pretty amazing…as you might imagine.

So what else are you planning with the back catalogue at the moment? It was great to see you bring the Dadaphonic brand back into the mix…

Yeah, the Peel Sessions release that came out last year was also under Dadaphonic, and Fuse is going to be on vinyl and CD as well. We weren’t sure if people would want a CD, but people are still requesting it. We won’t do a huge amount of them, but it’s there if people want it.

Yeah, people come back around again when it comes to physical media. I mean, after growing up in the CD era, I’ve switched fully to vinyl and digital. I don’t miss having to pack and carry a CD wallet to take things with you, and really like having a lot of music at your fingertips these days, through all kinds of mediums and services. It’s great to see the back catalogue has been well cared for after all these years… How has streaming treated you? 

I think most of our catalogue is now streaming, which helps for people who haven’t discovered us or heard most of what we’ve recorded, even some of the more rare things like La Tragedie… For many years, we didn’t think anyone would be interested in all that stuff. But Jason’s really helped us to find that focus again.

What about the Inrain single you did with Rudy of A.R. Kane? Is that something people still ask about? 

Yeah, and actually, Rudy and I have stayed in touch over the years. Every few months we get together on the phone. We’ve had several people offer to reissue it for us, and I suppose we’re just waiting for the right moment there as well. He just did a really great A.R. Kane reissue box set and has a few other projects in the works, so perhaps we’ll see an Inrain reissue in the near future!

I love seeing bands reactivate on social media, to come out of a long slumber and just poke their heads out on social media, like you or A.R. Kane and maybe even Catherine Wheel are doing at the moment. As a fan, I always get extremely, almost scarily excited when this happens. I feel like Cranes were one of the last bands from my youth that I never had the chance to see over the years, and I’m glad you’re back. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say, and with so many bands reforming and having a second victory lap, so to speak. I hope it’s been great experience for you. 

Yeah, it certainly has. We’re taking it slowly but we’re really, really happy that people seem to be receiving the idea of us in a such a good way. We’ve always been flattered when people ask after all these years, but it never was the right moment until now. But really, we’re glad to be here! §

Cranes – Fuse LP/CD
1. Pillow Panther
2. Fuse
3. Valentine
4. Gas-Ring
5. Things That I Like
6. Wrench
7. Fracture
8. New Liberty (previously unreleased)

Order via Bandcamp (UK and US) and via Linktree

Cranes 2024 tour dates: 

• Tue April 30th – Brussels – Orangerie (Boutanique Festival)
• Thu May 2nd – Rotterdam – Maassilo
• Thu May 9th – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
• Sat May 11th – London – Islington Assembly Hall

Header photo by Phil Nicholls

The post Hopes Are High | A Conversation With Alison Shaw of Cranes appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

The track begins with a short, yet ominous organ and piano melody, before kicking into high gear with a deep bass groove and infectious dance beat that moves and shakes with the ocean breeze. Dee’s passionate, yet soulful vocals soar above the din with impressive power. The hooks are endless and executed perfectly across the board, with shades of Sade, Enigma, Bedtime Stories-era Madonna, and Colourbox all melding together seamlessly. The video, directed by Thought Group and styled by Dru Barnes, taps into the band’s occult magick, with the band performing a ritual as well as the song on an rocky beach. The video has us yearning for summer through and through, but has just enough chill throughout to keep us  grounded.

Wish Upon A Star is out today via Bandcamp. The rubedo/red vinyl LP deluxe edition, shipping out on February 26th, is limited to 500 copies and features a double-sided 11×17 lyric poster. Check below for the full album track list and album artwork.

Dee Fortune & Thought Group – Wish Upon a Star
1. Deep Water
2. Lonesome Dove
3. Again
4. Fallen Angel
5. Heaven Knows
6. The Gate
7. Mysterious Love
8. Shattered Pieces
9. Wish Upon

Banner photo by Kimsu Theiler
Album Artwork: Eric Adrian Lee
Poster Artwork: Daniel Martin Diaz & Eric Adrian Lee

The post Brooklyn-based Dream Pop Band Dee Fortune & Thought Group Dive Into the Mystic in “Deep Water” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Before the publication of the memoir, Russian label Infinite Dawn had pressed a vinyl reissue of Peter’s first solo outing, 1999’s excellent Pathways and Dawns, which was originally released on Projekt Records and among additional tracks, contains both sides of the Taqaharu’s Leaving 12” from 1990. Peter has issued several releases since, including a follow-up solo record in 2005 and a trio of releases under The Peter Ulrich Collaboration. I had the pleasure of meeting with Peter and friends/cohorts Bret Helm (Audra, Unto Ashes, Black Tape for a Blue Girl) and Greg Fasolino (The Harrow, Bell Hollow, The Naked and the Dead) for a discussion of Dead Can Dance’s music, in which we ranked the band’s records and interviewed Peter about his career in addition to his memoir. As a follow up – Peter has lovingly constructed an addendum to his memoir that covers the events since the book’s release, and we’re honored to publish it here.

Without any further ado…

Addendum to:
Drumming with DEAD CAN DANCE and Parallel Adventures
the published memoir by Peter Ulrich

Such is the process of bringing a book into being, two years drifted past between my completion of my memoir and its publication in November 2022. A significant chunk of this period saw the world on pause while health organisations struggled valiantly to contain and control Covid 19, then tentatively emerging from its bunker. As we now head into 2024, another year and a bit has escaped since publication, and this overall extended period has thrown up some further ‘parallel adventures’ and reflections from which I offer this addendum:

April 2022. Following enforced cancellations of tour on tour, Dead Can Dance finally hit the road on a re-scheduled European Tour. Shortly beforehand, I heard from Brendan that preparations had been thrown out of kilter when Lisa went down with Covid while touring with Hans Zimmer’s orchestra, and a bad reaction caused her to miss virtually all the DCD rehearsal period – both a nasty scare for Lisa and a significant issue for Brendan who was introducing new arrangements of several DCD classics.

Percussionist David Kuckhermann was not available this time – principally because of commitments to his young family (ah, that rings a bell) – so Brendan was also re-arranging and redistributing percussion parts. For the support act, long-established DCD touring band members Astrid Williamson and Jules Maxwell would step into the breach, taking turns to open the shows with selections from their respective solo catalogues. In the months preceding the tour, I’d tried to help Jules arrange a couple of low-key warm-up gigs in England, but my efforts had fallen on stony ground, largely again because of the reluctance of venues to commit while the Covid threat still lurked menacingly in the wings.

The tour was scheduled to open in Glasgow on April 7th. As this would be DCD’s first ever show in Scotland, a couple of days later was our daughter Ellie’s birthday, and we (Ulrich family) had long wanted to visit the lands north of the border, Nicki booked the trip. In the foyer of the Royal Concert Hall before the show I was re-acquainted with Looby – the first time we’d seen each other since he’d toured with us back in 1987. Despite the passage in time, we recognised each other instantly, though he immediately demanded to know what had happened to the slug that used to live under my nose – an appendage which I hadn’t sported for nearly as long as I’d not seen Looby, and which we agreed had never been a good look (despite Confucius maintaining that ‘A man without a moustache is a man without a soul’). Also in the foyer was old DCD stalwart Tony Hill, making me envious as he was planning to get along to several shows on the tour while this would be my one and only.

I’d assumed Astrid would provide the opening set in her native land – albeit she’s a Shetlander – but it was Jules who took the stage, and surprised me with a set of folk songs rather than the more ambient, filmic repertoire I’d expected. Then, as the houselights dimmed, I waiting curiously to see how DCD would be greeted in Glasgow – notoriously difficult to win over! The initial reception was very warm, then took a while to properly lift-off, but ultimately the audience brought the house down for the encores as Brendan apologised that ‘it’s only taken us 40 years to get here!’ For a tour opening night, the performance was remarkably relaxed, with both Brendan’s and Lisa’s voices already hitting the highs, Astrid and Jules front of stage either side, Dan providing the percussive bedrock, Robbie flitting seamlessly from instrument to instrument as ever, and Richard supplementing his bass playing with some accomplished forays into the percussion department. The set covered pretty much the entire 40 year span of DCD’s canon and included seven or eight of the pieces we’d played live back in my drumming days. Amongst the new arrangements, I particularly liked how Brendan had breathed new life into “In Power We Entrust…” and “Severance”.

After the show we managed a quick chat with Brendan, Jules and Robbie before the DCD tour bus rolled out of town, leaving us with a couple more days in Glasgow, then a few days up around Loch Lomond. While our Tartan adventure was great, I was curious to know how DCD had fared the following night in Manchester Cathedral. Cathedrals can offer magnificent settings, but the acoustics can be very difficult to manage. I badgered Tony Hill for a report from the front line in the knowledge that, as a Manc, he’d be there on home soil. He’d been surprised – and in turn surprised me – to find that the audience was all standing, and reported that there’d been some mildly aggravated jostling around the Cathedral’s great pillars for a better view of the stage. But Tony had found the sound to be ‘special’ and considers that night’s rendition of “The Host of Seraphim” to be the best live version he’s ever encountered.

Back home, and rummaging around Norwich vintage emporium ‘Loose’s’, I came across an old bass (kick) drum case concealed under a rack of hanging rugs. I pulled it out to find the name ‘The Monochrome Set’ stencilled across the lid, a band I never saw, and whose path DCD didn’t cross during our early touring, but who are on my radar from having featured on the seminal and wonderful 1979 Cherry Red compilation album “Pillows and Prayers”. Both case and drum inside were in ‘heavily used’ condition, but after a light bit of bargaining, I secured it for 40 quid. Although the heads were knackered and a few of the tensioning bolts had seen better days, the shell was sound and it is, I believe, an old Tama Swingstar model, which will bring a tear to the eye of a fair few drummers from back in the day. With the noble efforts of Tristan who runs Drum Attic somewhere in deepest Somerset and keeps an heroic stock of salvaged parts from days of yore, and the purchase of a new pair of Evans EMAD heads, the Tama’s restoration is nearing completion, ready to feature in an upcoming recording. It seems to add something that there’s a bit of history behind it.

It’s been widely reported that Covid lockdowns caused much hardship to musicians prevented from earning their crust through live performance and having to rely on income from sales and airplay. This, in turn, brought back into sharp focus the issue of the pitiful level of payments squeezed out to songwriters by the various download and streaming services. Glancing through my own statement for the April 2022 royalty distribution from the PRS (the UK’s Performing Right Society) gave me a reminder close to home. To pick just one example, my song “The Scryer and the Shewstone” had registered a total of 215 streams/downloads across monitored European territories in the previous accounted quarter. As sole songwriter, I retain a relatively high 75% of the income on that song (the other 25% going to the publisher) – yet in total for that, I received the princely sum of 15.62 pence!

At much the same moment, I happened to read a newspaper article which referenced a tweet by former Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey from March 2021 that a UK musician would need to register 7,343,157 streams per month just to pocket the legal ‘minimum wage’. The same article observed that, while eight out of 10 music creators earn less than £200 per year from streaming, the average base salary for Spotify employees in the UK is (or was then) £60,563 per annum, while in late 2023 it was widely reported that Spotify Chief Financial Officer Paul Vogel resigned his post after cashing in $9.3M worth of shares in the company. In Europe, new copyright regulations should now be starting to bring musicians an increased share of the proceeds of digital streaming, but thanks to the UK’s near-suicidal ‘Brexit’ vote and a government with its thoughts elsewhere, British musicians are back to square one. ‘Mad’ and ‘world’ spring to mind.

May 2022 brought down the curtain on the English Premier League football (soccer) season which saw Norwich City claim the dubious honour of becoming the most relegated club – having now managed the feat six times in the League’s 30 year history. I attended all but three matches, only missing two of those because I contracted Covid on the away trip to Newcastle and had to self-isolate for 10 days. I was lucky, thanks to the vaccinations, to get away with a few days with a bad cough. In a generally dismal season, the outstanding highlight was a 3-0 away win at Elton John’s Watford back in January, but ultimately both teams went down. Sir Elton apparently didn’t bear a grudge as Norwich’s Carrow Road stadium hosted a concert on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in June.

When embarking on my memoir, I had no idea of the grief that lay in store when it would come to tracking down the images I wanted, and gathering the necessary signed permissions. It was epic – writing the book had been the easy bit! At final reckoning, we ended up with 32 illustrations and – I think – a decent balance between images already well-known to DCD fans, and others newly revealed. Several I found and would like to have used eluded me, but one in particular still bugs me. I didn’t even know of its existence until after I’d finished writing the text and Brendan emailed me a photo he’d found online with the subject line: “Hardly recognised you!” It had been taken at an in-store “meet’n’greet” in Paris in 1989 to which I’d accompanied Lisa because Brendan didn’t want to do it. The picture is amusingly odd in that, despite being over 30 and already a father when it was taken, I appear to be about 12 years old. I’m looking over Lisa’s shoulder as she signs an autograph, and there’s a promotional backdrop of “Serpent’s Egg” album covers behind us. The photo is (or was) uploaded on the Pinterest page of a user called only ‘Yaroslava’, but all attempts to contact her failed or were ignored, and in any case, it looks to be a picture she probably downloaded from a third party source, though we could find no trace of an original. It would have been very different from all the other images in the book, and it neatly illustrates a specific event described in the text… but it wasn’t to be.

DCD announced another European tour for the autumn/fall of 2022, and confirmed the re-scheduled US/Canada/Mexico dates for spring 2023. While the Americas tour broadly set about reinstating the shows cancelled and re-cancelled through the pandemic, calling the autumn tour ‘European’ was a little misleading. Although it would kick off down well-trodden paths through France, Germany and DCD-fanatical Poland, there would be debuts in the capitals of Lithuania, Estonia and Finland, and first times back in Oslo and Stockholm since our Scandinavian mini-tour in 1984.

In June 2022, former Cocteau and 4AD label-mate Liz Fraser emerged from self- imposed exile with the fruits of a collaboration with partner Damon Reece (drummer in stints with Echo and the Bunnymen, Spiritualized and Massive Attack) – both project and EP called “Sun’s Signature”. At pretty much the exact same moment Kate Bush – apparently without lifting a finger – reached number one in the UK charts (and, indeed, around the world) with her 1985 single “Running Up That Hill” – a mere 37 years after release. This record-busting feat – the longest ever period between release and hitting numero uno – was the result of the song being prominently featured in Netflix TV series “Stranger Things” which poured it down the collective throat of a global audience. Even at the pitiful royalty rates I bemoaned a few paragraphs earlier, with Spotify logging well over 300 million streams and with the song reportedly appearing in around two million TikTok creations by the end of June, a startled Kate found her bank balance expanding by substantially more than minimum wage. The phenomenon also makes her the oldest female singer to attain the chart summit at 63. Keen-eyed fact-absorbers will have noted that I’m the same age as Kate so, probably illogically, I’m rather chuffed. I’d also like to point out that my 1990 single “Taqaharu’s Leaving” would love to be rediscovered should anyone…

In support of the charity our daughter Ellie then worked for, Nicki and I went to a fund-raiser for Prostate Cancer UK at London’s Royal Albert Hall on June 22nd hosted by Jools Holland and his big band which provided our first live sightings of an array of big name guest performers, including Sir Rod Stewart, Sir Van Morrison and ‘Sir-in-waiting’ (perhaps – though he might not accept if offered) Paul Weller. Highlight of the night, though, was an appearance by Celeste, disappointingly limited to a single song. I’m not sure if she was ‘new’ to a lot of the audience, but there was a discernible ‘electric’ surge through the gathered mass during her performance and, while I’d been mightily impressed when I’d previously seen/heard her on Jools’s TV shows, it was genuinely thrilling to hear her sing live. The same week ended with the post-Covid return of the UK’s Glastonbury Festival. DCD have never played it, and I’ve not been as a punter – a quarter of a million people in a field doesn’t fire my desire – but it’s always compulsive TV viewing. Top spot went to another senior knight of the realm – Sir Macca still rocking as he turned 80 and became the oldest ever headliner (hats off to that) – but a smart bit of scheduling saw the previous night fronted by the Festival’s
youngest ever headliner – Billie Eilish (at 20) – whose set I really enjoyed.

The World Wide Web continues to veer between indispensable information source and purveyor of utter tosh. I was alerted to a site called ‘allfamousbirthday’ which purports to dish the dossier on celebrity folk, and wherein I’m apparently worthy of a listing on account of being a ‘famous percussionist’. Initially the personal details were correct, having been lifted directly from my verified Wikipedia entry, until the website’s algorithm determined that my August birthdate renders me a ‘Capricorn’ (if you don’t know, look it up). This early clue to questionable content was then royally trumped by the revelation that my parents were Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia and Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and my spouse is, or was, Catherine the Great. Presumably then spotting that Catherine the Great died in 1796, the no-flies-on-me algorithm advised ‘as of May 2022 Peter Ulrich is not dating anyone’. The site further confessed not to know my shoe size (though tantalisingly my body measurements ‘will update soon’), but revealed my net worth to be ‘approximately $1.5 Million’. Bouyed by this wonderful news, I ordered a luxury yacht…. but then failed the credit check. Pah!

August 2022 bestowed grandparenthood on Nicki and me, courtesy of daughter Louise and partner Chris introducing baby Anna to the world. Utterly joyful – enough said. Later the same month came a new album from Lisa’s ongoing collaboration with composer Marcello De Francisci, this called “Exaudía” and said to be inspired by the expulsion of Sephardic tribes from Spain in the late 15th to early 16th centuries, and their subsequent dispersal around the perimeter of the Mediterranean. The album’s seven pieces give great breadth to both Lisa’s vocal styles and Marcello’s compositions, ranging from gentle, tender passages to moments of swirling drama, and have a thematic base in that heady cooking pot where the musics of Andalusia and northern Africa meet, which I love. As a small aside, there’s an interesting interview with Lisa and Marcello on YouTube with our friend and great music supporter Claudio Bustamante on his Fairfax City Music channel – worth checking out!

For the final months leading up to publication of my book, I was deeply back into my old press & promo role, compiling e-lists of music and literary reviewers, sifting through old contacts, drafting my news releases, designing a postcard, identifying retailers who might support it, checking out upcoming literary festivals, and so on. In late October my parcel of author pre-publication copies landed on the doorstep and there I was holding a copy of my first book in my hands – much akin to the thrill of receiving my first vinyl record decades earlier. Publishers Red Hen Press had done a fabulous job – the cover which I’d only previously seen in e-form looked great, and there’s a lovely kind of sheen matt finish on it which doesn’t fingermark. This moment suddenly made the exhaustive process a reality, and shortly after, on November 15, 2022 – publication day arrived.

There was no launch party, no fanfare and no blaze of publicity, but a websearch of the title quickly revealed that Red Hen’s distributors had also done an amazing job – my title was listed by booksellers across the planet. I’ve no idea if it sells in Norway, Switzerland, Chile, Columbia, Taiwan or Korea (to pluck a few retailer locations I’ve seen at random), but it’s out there! Reviews have rolled in steadily ever since and have really exceeded my expectations. I won’t regurgitate them en masse here – suffice to say that, happily, as well as bestowing high praise, they broadly bought into what I was trying to achieve, a few examples of which include:

so different from the typical sex-and-drugs-and-rock-and-roll memoir…really smart recount of a life in music
Eric Alper, That Eric Alper Show, SirusXM

detailed descriptions of the band’s [DCD] unusual songwriting and recording processes left me pretty enthralled
Greg Fasolino, Goth and Post-Punk historian

deftly weaving in tales of life… a vast musical landscape
Jane Cornwell, Songlines Magazine

Happier still, the response from DCD fans across online forums and social media has been overwhelmingly positive, for which I’m hugely grateful. It’s very exciting to create that connection with people who have supported our music over the years and to provide a means for us all to relive the experience. I was also somewhat unexpectedly thrown back into contact with various characters from the plot. Brendan put me in touch with Ivo Watts-Russell for, I think, the first time in around 30 years, triggering a very touching email exchange. Ivo really enjoyed the book and particularly felt I’d captured the serendipity of those early 4AD years when everyone was winging it, acting on gut instinct and clinging onto the stone that had been set rolling down the Alma Road hill in London SW18. Steve Webbon of Beggars Banquet independently gave me much the same response, while Ivo tipped off former Cocteaus and 4AD manager Colin Wallace who then similarly embraced the retro ride and memories. Former v23-er Tim O’Donnell sent a hearty thumbs-up from Pennsylvania, while original DCD bassist Paul Erikson sent his seal of approval from DCD birthplaceMelbourne. Piano Magic’s Glen Johnson was in touch, having received the book as a birthday gift from his brother to bring his own memories flooding back, and we met up at London’s Barbican Centre for him to interview me for his ‘Arcane Delights’ website. Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal loved a story I recount in chapter seven about a dinner one evening in Venice, and then give Lisa’s quite different recollection of the same event, thus confirming his belief that all memory is faulty and there is no reality… a somewhat questionable endorsement for a memoir!

While all this activity was a pure delight, my big opportunity to ‘shift some units’ was going to be the merchandising for DCD’s upcoming tours of Europe and North America. I was in planning for this, as well as hoping to fly over to the States with Nicki to catch a few shows, when news of the cancellation came through. In my fan capacity, I immediately regretted not having attended more shows in the 2022 tour, but this was also a big blow to sales. The American tour was due to play to 60,000+ people, and losing the opportunity to put my memoir right there in front of all those fine folk… well, no need for explanation. Along with the DCD fraternity, I awaited news.

Continuing to check my memoir’s availability across the globe, I found it offered on the website of American supermarket giant WalMart then, scrolling down the page, nearly toppled off my drumstool on encountering a suggestion panel headed ‘Similar items you might like – based on what customers bought’ proffering “Spare” by Prince Harry. Really…??? I clicked through to “Spare” to see if the Duke of Sussex’s readership might be returning the interest, but disappointingly my tome was nowhere to be seen.

March 2023 saw the release of a debut album by an artist unfamiliar to me – Lucinda Chua. What caught my eye was a review in the UK Observer newspaper which began: ‘Signed to 4AD (home to the Cocteau Twins and Jenny Hval)…’ and how curious it seemed that 4AD might be summed up thus. Thinking about it further, I guess writer Tara Joshi had simply chosen to bookend the label’s output with one of its earliest acts and one of its most recent. In April, Cincinnati kids The National – who had inadvertently become a 4AD act following a reshuffle within the Beggars Banquet stable back in 2009 – released new album “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” featuring a guest appearance by global superstar Taylor Swift, which somehow seemed an extraordinary stretch from those early ’80s days! Then in May, 4AD alumni Nick Cave unexpectedly (I suggest) popped up as an invitee to the Coronation of King Charles III of the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth Realms. Old Nick was spotted entering Westminster Abbey in deep conversation with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, prompting one journalistic wag to speculate they may have been discussing Cave’s lyrical disbelief ‘in an interventionist god’. Cave was later reported to have been ‘extremely bored’ during the ceremony, begging the question what exactly was he expecting?

Old 4AD connections seemed to be flavour of the moment. In April a contestant on the BBC’s renowned quiz show “Mastermind” nominated ‘The 4AD Record Label’ as his specialist subject for two minutes’ worth of hard grilling by presenter Clive Myrie. Much to the glee of a swathe of the old guard, Colin Wallace emerged as the answer to one of the questions, setting off a chain of messages including Tanya Donnelly and Emma Anderson posting on their respective Instagrams. In May Glen Johnson invited me to contribute some percussion and sundry bits to tracks for his project Allegory of Vanity, in which old Wolfgang Presser Mick Allen was also due to participate, though ultimately that fell through. And in June, a friend of mine – writer and filmmaker Juliet Jacques – secured a slot for her to interview me about my memoir at the prestigious Stoke Newington Literary Festival in north London, where I discovered on the programme for a couple of days later was Miki Berenyi discussing her memoir “Fingers Crossed”.

June saw Lisa awarded an Order of Australia Medal for ‘service to the performing arts through music’ in the King’s Birthday 2023 Honours List – richly deserved say I, and she seemed mightily chuffed. June also brought the announcement that filming had finally started on “Gladiator 2” – the movie having reportedly been in planning for some 20 years! Way back in this process, word circulated that Nick Cave had been contracted to write the script and had submitted a time-warped tale under the working title “Christ Killer” in which central character Maximus – revived and cursed to live forever – battles his way through the Crusades, World War II, the Vietnam War, and ultimately winds up in The Pentagon. Somewhat disappointingly, Cave’s concept didn’t fly, and it’s reported that the eventual storyline, written by David Scarpa, gives the central role to a now grown up Lucius, being played by Irish actor Paul Mescal. Whether or not Lisa will be involved in creating the soundtrack again I cannot say – principally because, at time of writing this, I genuinely have no idea. Then a while later, in a nod to a hitherto little aired string of 4AD’s bow, I spied a ‘Q&A’ in the UK’s Guardian newspaper with Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell in which, when asked his choice of best song to have sex to, he replied ‘anything by Cocteau Twins – every song sounds like an orgasm’.

On the flip side, a headline caught my eye in a Songlines circular in July: ‘MARRS supporting Iranian musicians at WOMAD’. It turned out to have nothing to do with pumping any volume up, and – more as a sad sign of the times – this current acronym is for ‘Musicians Artists at Risk Resettlement Scheme’, an organisation established in Northern Ireland in response to persecutions under regimes which censor or even outlaw music. It seems we are going backwards, rather than making progress.

Suddenly the online DCD community was buzzing frantically with the news that Lisa had given a couple of interviews stating that DCD was no more, dashing hopes that previously cancelled tour dates were being rescheduled behind the scenes. I’d been out of touch with both her and Brendan for a while, so thought to let the dust settle a little. Then Lisa contacted me asking how the book was doing and if there was anything she could do to help – she gave it a fresh shout-out across her social media which generated a lively response. And then, following a YouTube blog session I recorded with fellow Projekt alumni Bret Helm and post-punk aficionados Frank Deserto and Greg Fasolino comprising a two hour long appraisal of the DCD back catalogue, Brendan emailed to say he’d seen it and really enjoyed it, then shared it on the DCD Facebook page. That both these wonderful friends are still looking out for me after all these years is something very special.

Among various themes in my memoir, classification and ‘pigeon-holing’ of music pops up a few times, and 2023 has emerged as a year to bring that strangely elusive category of ‘Goth’ back into focus, at least here in the UK. In July the publishers of ‘Uncut’ magazine issued their ‘Ultimate Genre Guide’ to Goth, with a front cover listing the eight bands/artists it apparently sees as its most prominent flag-bearers:

Siouxsie and the Banshees
The Cure
Nick Cave
Bauhaus
The Cult
Joy Division
The Sisters of Mercy
The Cramps

The inclusion of Joy Division in this Top 8 surprised me as I’ve never thought of them as ‘Goth’ and can’t recall having seen them previously categorised thus. The Cramps were ‘psychobilly’ until becoming aware they were gathering some goth following and swiftly coining the additional category of ‘gothabilly’ to welcome them in. Emerging from a clutch of ‘Goth’ books – rather oddly issued in the height of the UK’s summer months – publication of original Cure drummer/keyboardist Lol Tolhurst’s retrospective entitled ‘Goth: A History’ might seem to confirm their credentials, until he revealed in an interview with the Observer newspaper in September: ‘there are loads of fans who are going to say ‘What? No, the Cure were never goth!’ In fact, the original title for the book wasn’t Goth. I wanted to call it The Lesser Saints, but the publishers said: ‘What’s that about?’ I tried ‘Post-Punk’ on my editor, but he said that was too broad.’

I’ve previously said in the early days of Dead Can Dance we were surprised – albeit very grateful – to be so taken to heart by the Goth community, and my memoir explains Brendan’s thinking behind the DCD name which had no intended Goth connotations at its inception. But, having been firmly planted in the heart of Goth territory by so many commentators, I combed through the 124 pages of Uncut’s Ultimate Guide and initially thought we’d been overlooked. A second trawl through revealed I’d missed the inclusion of “Severance” in a Guide to the Top 50 Goth Club Anthems tucked away on page 112, describing Brendan’s opus as “The ‘Jerusalem’ of the late-1980s goth scene”. If I’m honest, I would have been miffed if DCD had been entirely omitted!

To many it appears the currently emerging primary issue facing musicians (and artists/creators/performers more widely) is Artificial Intelligence – ‘AI’. It polarises opinion between the highly alarmed and the dismissive, and personally I’m inclined towards the latter. Polly Jean Harvey makes an interesting point in a recent interview in The Guardian newspaper: ‘I can’t imagine that the imperfection of the human touch will be outridden by the perfection of a computer. I think there’s something beautiful about imperfections and failings of us as human beings.’ I guess AI proponents would counter that imperfections can simply be programmed in to mimic human frailties where desirable – perhaps so, but I’m still not convinced. To me, AI in the music world is just another songwriter and performer. There are millions already out there, and that doesn’t prevent any of us continuing on our creative paths. For decades songwriters have tried to bottle the formula of what makes a ‘hit’, but while some clearly churn out more chartbusters than the average, nobody has ever come close to a definitive blueprint. And they won’t, and I’m highly doubtful AI will either. As regards another application of AI, while avatars may be harnessed to great effect to bring back to life and re-imagine performances of artists and bands no longer with us, would that ever entirely replace the live shows of human beings? And OK, I appreciate that ‘deep fake’ videos in which artists can be replicated and misrepresented are bad news, but those artists (and their management people) are going to get wind of such incidents almost immediately, and can issue disclaimers to their legions of followers and complain to the hosting media – seriously annoying, sometimes upsetting, and a sad reflection on elements of our society, but still not an overly-daunting threat to the artistic community… is it?

The last album of The Peter Ulrich Collaboration’s trilogy – 2019’s “Final Reflections” – opens with the song “Artificial Man”, whose lyrics were written by chief among my cohorts Trebor Lloyd, and in which the protagonist is ’empty of all feeling’ and ultimately confined to an ’empty hell’ – ironic, perhaps, that Trebor found a source of creative inspiration in the robotic world. The clue is in the tag – the ‘Intelligence’ is, by definition, ‘Artificial’. Sorry to bang on, but can a computer be given the ability to create a catalogue of music as widely varied as that of Dead Can Dance – from (and I pluck randomly) “The Trial” to “The Host of Seraphim”, to “The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove” to “Kiko” to “Dance of the Bacchantes” – but incorporating the intangible essence of what makes all those pieces intrinsically DCD? And even if it can, what really would be the purpose? And can AI clone and re-project Lisa’s spine-tingling live renditions? I’m doubtful, but in any case, isn’t that just like offering people the chance to go and see a virtual tribute act? Maybe I’m missing some greater point, but I’ll stick with the real world and its imperfections… thanks!

Updates from Lisa’s world find her remaining in insatiable demand for movie soundtracks. Another intriguing collaboration with Marcello De Francisci has spawned the music for a Nepalese film “Gunyo Cholo”, while a return to her earliest big screen collaboration saw her contribute to Michael Mann’s latest blockbuster “Ferrari”. I still love that Lisa’s voice can sit with equal comfort in such extraordinarily different worlds!

Returning to another theme of my memoir, it seems that sales of physical music formats are going from strength to strength, with 2023 seeing a rise in vinyl sales for the 16th consecutive year while CD and cassette sales continued to hold up. Seemingly an increasing number of people weaned on the disposable, background noise of streaming are newly discovering the joys of getting immersed in an ‘album’ and properly ‘listening’ to music. And for those readers who recall my particular frustrations with UK music retail chain HMV, it was bought out of administration by ‘Canadian tycoon’ Doug Putman in 2019 and is being revitalised with a greatly increased emphasis on vinyl sales. Symbolic of this rebirth was the recent re-opening of the original HMV store on London’s Oxford Street, originally opened in 1921 and whose closure four years ago had previously seemed terminal. The album format has long-since infiltrated my DNA, and its resurgence inflates my optimistic sails.

Talking of albums… just as I was about to sign this additional chunk of memoir off, Brendan has leapt back into the spotlight with a retro classic. His beautiful first solo album “Eye of the Hunter” has been re-mastered and re-released in a package together with his live solo performance at London’s ICA in 1993. I wax lyrical about this performance in Chapter Eight of my memoir, but hadn’t previously realised it had been recorded, then the tape stashed away in the proverbial attic. It’s wonderful to be transported back these 30 years later and re-live the experience. And I believe I’m right in saying that it’s reunited Brendan with 4AD for the first time this century. Anyway, it’s been on repeat play in our house since I got my hands on a copy, and I can’t recommend it strongly enough. That feels like a perfect point on which to end.

©️ Peter Ulrich 2024

* * * * * * *

Read the full story:
Drumming with Dead Can Dance and Parallel Adventures
by Peter Ulrich
with foreword by: Lisa Gerrard
published by Red Hen Press
ISBN: 978-1-63628-073-8

available NOW from:
book and music stores everywhere, both bricks’n’mortar and online
Amazon worldwide
Projekt online store: https://www.projekt.com/store/product/reh80738/

eBook also available – usual sources

news, updates and chatter at:
https://www.facebook.com/DrummingwithDeadCanDanceandParallelAdventures/

The post Peter Ulrich | Drumming with DEAD CAN DANCE and Parallel Adventures – An Addendum appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

“The Gate” begins with a deep, infectious groove and an ominous synth line before catching fire and exploding into an ethereal barn burner. The track combines genres with the greatest of ease, with dashes of Sade, Everything But the Girl, A Certain Ratio, and Madonna’s underrated 90s era blended seamlessly with a myriad of house, trip-hop, and 4AD influences. Fortune’s vocals are passionate and powerful, and the music twists and turns in unexpected and delightful ways, featuring an acoustic guitar solo near the track’s rhythmic climax.

The video, directed by Joan Pope (Temple Ov Saturn), is a colorful, kaleidoscopic affair, tapping into the track’s deep circadian rhythms and burning embers. Watch below:

To celebrate the winter solstice, the band and label are offering “The Gate” as a free download via Bandcamp. Be sure to download it and stay tuned for more Dee Fortune & Thought Group news in early 2024!

Follow Dee Fortune and Thought Group:

• Instagram
• LinkTree

The post Dee Fortune & Thought Group Celebrate Solstice in Fiery Single “The Gate” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

New York’s Bootblacks has remained a prominent force on the scene, dating back to their inception in 2010. This year has proven a busy one, including a triumphant return to the stage and and a lineup shift marking a new era for the band. Hot off the heels of their successful tour with Twin Tribes, the band has planted seeds for their anxiously awaited fifth LP, Paradise, due out on Artoffact Records in 2024. The LP will be their first as a trio, with vocalist Panther Almqvist and synth player/programmer Barrett Hiatt joined by Kalle Falleberg, formerly of German post-punk favorites Liste Noire. We’re honored to premiere the second single from Paradise, titled “Wilderness.” Listen below:

“Wilderness” begins with swirling, ominous synth tones before giving way to a shuffling electronic beat and throbbing synth bass. Almqvist quickly delivers the opening lyric and immediately, the track opens up with driving synth melody courtesy of Hiatt that would make Depeche Mode stalwart Alan Wilder stop dead in his tracks. Newcomer Kalle Falleberg’s descending guitar lines, which recall Bowie sideman Carlos Alomar’s rhythm-based licks, are sprinkled throughout the track, which also incorporates a series of spoken word and falsetto passages from Almqvist. Whereas previous Bootblacks material has always featured deep electronic flourishes among a post-punk bedrock, “Wilderness” (and previous single “Forbidden Flames“) mark a welcome shift to a more synth pop-enriched sound, aided in part by producer Xavier Paradis (Automelodi). As such, “Wilderness” is ripe for the dancefloor, yet retains the band’s trademark penchant for top-shelf songwriting. Shades of Technique-era New Order, Duran Duran’s eponymous 1993 LP, and the aforementioned Depeche Mode run deep through the track, these touchstones launching the band into full electro-bliss. Frankly, we’re here for it.

Almqvist offers a bit of insight to the band’s new direction:

The post New York’s Bootblacks Return With New Single “Wilderness” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

The video, shot by Bryce Riedesel, evokes the perfect gothic ghost story, shot in an old, dimly lit mansion and featuring a series of unsettling characters. Mr. Watkins often can be spotted ominously plucking is trademark bass guitar while Mrs. Watkins’ roots in dance throw shapes and shadows across the dark and dusty decor. There’s a deeply haunting undercurrent throughout the video that is reflected perfectly in the song, which contrary to some of the band’s previous barn burner singles, is a more understated and heartbreaking affair. The track, which features some carefully strummed acoustic guitars, devastating drum patterns, and echo-dripping vocals, would fit right at home on an early Projekt Records compilation or a lovelorn mixtape from a forgotten era. Yet again, Coatie Pop offer up a stunningly fresh track that put them miles ahead of the modern pack.

Courtney Watkins offers a few words on the video and the history and significance of the location:

The post Haunting and Heartbreaking: New York Dream Pop Duo Coatie Pop Reach Into the Ether in “Embody” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

If there’s but one band who has remained both extremely consistent and deeply engaging over the course of their forty-year tenure, it’s The Church. Known to some as a sprightly, psychedelic jangle pop/post-punk band, the band has evolved over the last few decades, expanding their horizons to explore cosmic psychedelic soundscapes, post-rock tension and release, and dream pop bliss across an extraordinarily rewarding string of albums. Their 26th full length The Hypnogogue is one of our very favorites of the year, and we’re still reeling from their recent stop in NYC, which found vocalist, bassist, and sonic architect Steve Kilbey and his players in fine form, combining a heavy selection of tracks from the LP with a series of fan favorites and deeper cuts.

As previously reported, the band is due back on the road at the end of this month, expanding their US tour and continuing the celebration of their triumphant new LP. The new string of dates includes a stop at Austin’s highly regarded Levitation Festival, where they’ll be right at home with such cosmic alternative acts as Codeine, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Blonde Redhead, and The Black Angels. In addition to the upcoming digital deluxe edition of The Hypnogogue, The Church will also be selling a brand new physical release on this tour – a companion piece to The Hypnogogue. The new album is titled Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars, and will feature fifteen new tracks that expand the story and mythos of the album. We’ve recently shared the lead single off the record, the hypnotic and ever-catchy “Realm of Minor Angels,” and we’re honored to premiere the new video for the track, directed by Clint Lewis and featuring additional footage shot by Danial Willis and Randall Turner. Watch below:

We also had the immense pleasure of speaking to Steve Kilbey about both releases, the band’s legacy, and the celebratory nature of the band’s most recent tour.

The Hypnogogue is your first true concept album. Did you have the concept in mind before recording the album?

It was very serendipitous, it all happened together. The songs started coming, I started singing these words. I didn’t know why I was singing them – these words and these names and these things. As the album came along, I realized we were making a concept album and then, you know, that influenced the music we were making and that strengthened the idea.

Strangely enough, we’ve now made a companion album that is coming out. Fifteen new songs to do with The Hypnogogue. It will be on sale on our tour and some of it will be on Apple Music and Spotify and all that. Also, I’m writing a novella about it, which will be on sale at the gigs as well! While writing the novella, I’ve had to really firm up a lot of vague ideas. It’s very easy to say “we’ve got an album and it’s about a machine called The Hypnogogue and in thirty years time this rock star uses it and it really fucks with his mind,” It’s easy to do that, but when you’re sitting at the typewriter typing it out, you realize that a novel has to have a lot more form and continuity and has to make sense. So I’ve had to spend time developing more of the story and firming up the details, more than I initially ever thought I would.

*Chuckles* So, I know a lot more about The Hypnogogue now than I did when I started this all four years ago. It’s been a bit of an obsession.

The new album, the companion album, is called Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars. Eros is the protagonist – this future rockstar, this flaky, feckless fool who winds up using The Hypnogogue because he can’t write songs anymore. He’s got his own album now that The Church has made…and the story has just firmed up a bit more as this has gone on.

That’s great! I remember at the New York gig you shared a lot of the story between tracks, some of which I had already picked up from the record and the liner notes, but I loved hearing you talk about it all – it seemed like you have such a deep passion for the concept.

Yeah! It’s taken over my life. The people in the story, I really see them and feel and now and so on. I have sympathy for these characters. You know, I’ve done a lot of writing, I’ve written a lot of songs, I’ve written a lot of poems, and I wrote my own memoirs and stuff. But it’s so different sustaining a story over the long haul, a story that has to make a certain amount of sense. Otherwise, people won’t enjoy it. A song can change tense, it can change person, there can be complete non sequiturs that don’t have anything to do with anything because the music is there to support it – it doesn’t have to make any sense. A novel can’t be like that… A novel has to make some sense, there has to be some continuity. You can’t say something earlier and then change your mind about it later on, otherwise people will lose interest.

Right. Only a few authors can pull that off a broken narrative or a surreal concept as such…

That’s right, I’m not even attempting that, I’m just a beginner you know? I’m trying to make my book make as much sense as it possibly can.

I appreciate how much the concept is tangible in that way, because there are so many concept records over the years that just don’t make sense as a narrative. Things like Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, for example, don’t really hang together in reality when you think about it, especially when some key tracks were swapped out or others slapped on before the record was released.

You know, I really was obsessed with that record when it came out. Bowie himself said in the end that it’s not much of a concept, there’s no real story to it. Some of the songs don’t seem to fit in at all. As opposed to say, Tommy, which starts with his birth and his childhood and you see all the things that happened until the very end. That’s a tight concept, which starts at A and ends at B, showing all the stuff in between, while Ziggy to me was more of a feeling.

Of course, then you have Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, which is a concept album but only in a certain state of mind. So there’s a lot of room to wiggle within an album and within a song, and you could have a concept album that isn’t a very much of a concept at all, and people will like it. However, I’m definitely finding that when writing the book, I’ve got to throw all that away – one thing has to follow the next.

Do you feel like The Hypnogogue connects to any of your previous work in any way, do you find any parts of yourself in the concept?

No, not at all. No, I feel it’s a brand new thing. It’s a brand new bunch of musicians. You know, if you followed my adventures over the years, even though my days of drug addiction are long behind me, I still had to abdicate all my power a bit in the wake of that, and it took me until about 2019 to come back around and go “I’m in charge again, we’re doing things my way.” Different people rushed into the void left by me being a junkie and the band was being steered by different people and I was just a voice in the crowd. Things weren’t always going the way I wanted.

In 2019, I put this band together, or this band formed with these people, all firmly devoted to the idea of teamwork and I’ve assumed my position as the leader and the boss and things were going to be done my way. So it’s truly a brand new thing and this record has not much to do with the other records at all I don’t think. I get disappointed when people hear it and say it reminds them of Gold Afternoon Fix. I beg them not to say that, it’s nothing like that, nothing to do with it. I think Priest=Aura, the record we made in 1992 was a beautiful and brilliant record…

…It’s one of my very favorites.

Well thank you. So you see, it was my favorite until we did this one. I feel like The Hypnogogue all hangs together better for me, though I do love some of the things in the past. A lot of them disappoint me now though, especially Gold Afternoon Fix, I find it to be a disappointing record. But I know I’m very enamored of this one and the companion record and the whole thing and the band as it is now and the fact that we’re all working together, instead of being four Johnny Superstars all on a stage together, disregarding each other for our own personal glory. I find this band is very much like a team and everybody is trying to understand what everybody else is doing and accommodate them personally and musically, and that’s really refreshing after years of struggling against other people. Not always their fault, mind you, I know I wasn’t the easiest person to work with either and it was a struggle a lot of the time…

So I’ve had the pleasure of hearing “Realm of Minor Angels” from the companion record, and it’s truly great. I’ve been one of the fans that have absorbed the whole Church discography, you know? I’m not one of those Starfish-only sort of guys, I think the first record of yours I heard in college was Forget Yourself, so I’ve always embraced the later records you’ve done and loved the progression of sound over the years. I feel like “Realm of Minor Angels” and The Hypnogogue have a certain feeling and style that makes them unequivocally your creations, but it’s just so confident and carefully and strongly composed – there’s no chasing past glories or trying to tap into nostalgia – you’re just putting your best foot forward… It’s quite admirable.

Oh, thank you very much for that! Yeah, I’m trying to defy the usual trajectory that most bands follow when they have their glory days and then they fade off into mediocrity and just churn out the same old thing. I don’t see why it has to be that way and I always try to imagine a painter, or a brain surgeon, or architect, or even a jeweler. At my age, with all the experience I’ve had, you would imagine that in those other professions, those people would be doing their very best work. Yet, when it comes to rock musicians, we accept the mediocrity that most of these old guys, they’re so feeble and worn out and they’re not trying hard anymore. They’re not pushing the boundaries. They’re not using all of their experience. I have so much experience. I know so much about rock and roll. I know very little about anything else in this whole fucking world. One thing I understand is rock and roll. I understand recording studios, I understand the way a bass, two guitars, and a drum kit can work together. I understand lyrics, I understand recording techniques, and reverberation and the whole damn thing. With that in mind, why wouldn’t my next record be better than the one I made this year? It SHOULD be!

Agreed!

It should be better and better until I drop off my perch with senility. But while I’m still relatively together, I would want everything I do to be better than whatever I did before. Now I’ve surrounded myself with this cast of absolutely excellent players, not necessarily virtuosos, since musical virtuosity never really interested me…

..nor I!

It’s all about songs to me. It’s all about affecting people, affecting them, putting them in some place. If that place can be found with one chord, with one note, with a very simple thing, then I’m up for that. If it demands complexity then myself and my players are across complexity. I have some players now who just feel like they were born to be in The Church. One of the songs on the new album is called “Sublimated in Song.” That’s what we are – we’re all sublimated in song. None of the musicians are showing off and trying to show what they can do, it’s purely about what the song truly needs. All of my favorite music is like that. It’s not about someone who’s an amazing fucking musician, although they could be… You know, Lou Reed wasn’t an amazing musician, but he wrote a lot of my favorite songs with two chords. It’s not necessarily about that. It’s not a punk ethos about not wanting virtuosity. I just don’t want it when it’s unnecessary and I don’t want people thinking that it IS necessary to be good music. Sometimes the best thing isn’t the most complicated thing.

Photo by Hugh Stewart

You know, I’ve seen The Church live about four or five times now, and I feel like there’s so much pride in this lineup and so much joy on stage together when you are all playing together, firing on all cylinders. I feel like the band feels truly alive on stage these days.

A lot of joy, yeah! You know, I had forgotten about how that can feel. There were many nights coming off stage with all the old guys, there was animosity and resentment and envy and disinterest and boredom. It’s so amazing to walk offstage these days and have people coming up and going, “Oh, you all played really well tonight, Steve.” It’s more like a play. I’ve done a few plays, I’ve done a few musicals, just comparing the live shows to the way that the cast of a play all work together and realize that it’s no good being a brilliant actor if the people acting with you aren’t any good. This feeling of cooperation that we have is just, you would think it was always the case, but it wasn’t always like that for us. Sometimes people were too big for their boots, they didn’t feel like cooperating at all.

So, with such a vast catalogue of songs, forty years worth of material worth to choose from, how do you choose which songs complement the new material in a live setting? How do you land on the setlist while also exploring the new album with this set of players?

It’s mostly intuitive with me. I guess when we come to America to play a concert “Under the Milky Way” has gotta be in there no matter what else is happening, you know? Or “Metropolis,” of course. The trouble is there’s a few songs that we’re obliged to play, I think, and they have to fit in no matter what. Other than that, it’s just a bunch of guys sitting around going, “Hey, what about this song? How would that go?” If everybody was up for it, everybody wanted to do it, we’d give it a try. Some of them work. Some of them didn’t work. They don’t all necessarily fall into The Hypnogogue trip, but just by talking it out, we’ve reached a good compromise. The set we will be doing on this next bit of the tour in the US will be pretty similar to that set we were doing in March, since we’re playing in different places but in the same country, and we want to give people a similar experience. 

We’re definitely going to put “Realm of Minor Angels” in there though. That’s my new favorite song. I’m very enamored of that song. I’m not sure why, it just sort of ticks all the boxes for me.

Yeah, that’s great! I do love that you’re able to play things like “Grind” or “Kings” or “One Day” – bits that you all pick out from the catalogue that may not be as well known as those ubiquitous hits. I’m certainly a deep cuts kind of guy. Speaking of celebrating the catalogue, do you have any plans to reissue the 1996-2006 records? Many of those are hard to get, or have never been released on vinyl at all. 

It’s a can of worms trying to figure it all out, all the publishing and all that. All I can say is that it would be great if all our records were out and available in the format that everybody wants them to be in. There’s a record company in England called Easy Action that released The Hypnogogue. I believe they want to make everything available on vinyl, every album from every period. Some of those records are very hard to figure out, we need a team of lawyers to navigate that, to figure out labels and rights and who sold what to whom, and so on, and then getting ex-members’ permission and all the rest of it. It’s a long and involved process that I’m not interested in. I’ve got my hands full.

I always say to the band, “I’m the Minister of Esoteric Affairs!” *Chuckles* You know, my job is to write lyrics and write music. Untangling this web of contracts and stuff is just foreboding to me and sort of puts me in a bad mood even trying to figure out. I’m not very good at it.

So hopefully, yes. In theory, I hope all of our old records come out on vinyl. How that will actually turn out and work out and whether that will actually happen, I’m not sure. We’re definitely on the right track. Easy Action is a small label and they seem very enthusiastic though, they want to put it all out eventually.

Is that a T-Rex reference by the way?

It IS! “Solid Gold Easy Action” – I can’t get no satisfaction. All I want is easy action…

BABY!

Such a fun song. It was one of those songs when they were in decline…

…a last hurrah…

Yeah!

Speaking of being The Minister of Esoteric Sound, I’m also that fan who has dug into a lot of your other work outside of The Church – projects like Hex, Curious (Yellow), Jack Frost, your solo records, and so on… You’ve always been wildly and admirably prolific over the years… Do you have any other material you’re working on outside of The Church these days?

Well, I released an album a few years ago, with an Irish guitarist named Frank Kearns called Speed of the Stars. We went to Italy and made the second album that’s coming out on Easy Action next year. I’ve also made another album with longtime collaborator Martin Kennedy, I think we’ve got our seventh or eighth album together coming out. It’s called Near Death Experience. I’ve got solo records in the can that are waiting to come out and I’ve also re-recorded The Blurred Crusade on my own, just me and one other musician. We’ve reimagined it as more of an acoustic, folky kind of thing. I have so, so many records in the can right now, it’s just unbelievable. I’m confused trying to keep track of it!

Well, with that in mind, looking forward to hearing it all. Have a wonderful tour and long live The Church!

Thank you, thank you, see you around sometime!

Visit thechurchband.net for complete ticket information.

Tour Dates

• Sep 28 Seattle, WA Neptune Theater
• Sep 30 San Francisco, CA Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2023
• Oct 1 Mill Valley, CA Sweetwater Music Hall
• Oct 2 Ventura, CA Ventura Music Hall
• Oct 4 Pomona, CA The Glass House
• Oct 5 Las Vegas, NV Brooklyn Bowl
• Oct 6 Chandler, AZ The Showroom at Wild Horse Pass
• Oct 7 Santa Fe, NM The Lesnic
• Oct 9 Omaha, NE The Waiting Room
• Oct 11 Ferndale, MI The Magic Bag
• Oct 12 State College, PA State Theater
• Oct 13 Covington, KY Madison Theatre
• Oct 14 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
• Oct 15 Birmingham, AL Saturn
• Oct 17 Ponte Vedra, FL Ponte Vedra Concert Hall
• Oct 18 Orlando, FL The Abbey
• Oct 19 Clearwater, FL Capitol Theatre
• Oct 20 Fort Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
• Oct 21 Fort Lauderdale, FL  Culture Room
• Oct 23 Pensacola, FL Vinyl Music Room
• Oct 24 New Orleans, LA House of Blues
• Oct 26 Austin, TX Levitation Festival
• Oct 27 Houston, TX Heights Theater
• Oct 28 Dallas, TX Kessler Theater
• Oct 29 Oklahoma City, OK Tower Theater
• Oct 31 Evanston, IL SPACE
• Nov 1 Evanston, IL SPACE

The post Realm of Minor Angels | An Interview with Steve Kilbey of The Church + Video Premiere appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Synth trio Twice a Man have been a fixture in Sweden’s new wave scene since the dawn of the punk era in the late 70s. Kicking off their career in progressive and ambient projects, the original duo of Karl Gasleben and Dan Sönderqvist bonded over the changing landscape and formed Cosmic Overdose in 1978. Reacting primarily to the world around them, Cosmic Overdose combined fiery punk ethics with art-rock flourishes, eventually evolving into Twice a Man in 1981. Embracing the synthesizer and constantly evolving their sound to incorporate natural samples and ambient passages while still retaining their political sensibilities, Twice a Man have released 21 records, and show no signs of slowing down. From dark minimal synth and new wave classics to commissioned video game soundtracks, the band have left no stone unturned,  and remain a cult favorite whose work can still be heard in clubs to date.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Karl Gasleben, Dan Söderqvist, and Jocke Söderqvist about Twice a Man’s illustrious career, their future endeavors, and the circle of influence.

Can you tell us about your early days? How did Cosmic Overdose come together?

Karl: Cosmic Overdose was a project where we took our ambient spine from our earlier bands (Dan in Älgarnas Trädgård and me in Anna Själv Tredje) and tried to develop it into vocal-based short stories. We were inspired by the energy in the punk movement and the sounds from synthesizers. There were no plan of becoming a synth band. We just did follow the flow and ended up where the music took us. Cosmic Overdose is afflicted with the epithet of being the first synth band in Sweden although we used a guitar as one of the sound sources. But as some of the fans said that the guitar sounded almost like a synth with all the effects on it.

Dan: Karl and I met the first time in school 1969. We made some ambient tapes together in the early 70s. Our first bands, as Karl mentions, had their origin in psych and minimalistic music. Both bands were instrumental with long improvised pieces. The atmosphere among people changed a lot in the middle of the 70s, from the dreamy hippie times to a new much harder society. The dream of peace and love was over and the neo liberal/conservative forces were strong. People struggle to make a living and the music reflects that. There is a strong social aspect in the punk movement and it’s music and we could not go on gazing at our navels. I visited Karl at the end of-77. We listened to Bowie’s Low, Wire’s Pink Flag and other new music and discussed to form a small band with only us on synth and guitar and out of necessity a rhythm machine as a drummer. That became the start of Cosmic Overdose. Little did we know that there were other bands working in the same direction.

40 years is quite a long and impressive career – congratulations! Can you share some highlights over your time together?

Jocke: I’ve been a part of the band in two periods 1983-1986 and 2013-? I was very young in the first period and a highlight for me was to suddenly face a bigger audience and work professionally with both composing and giving concerts. We made many really good live performances in the early 80s. From 2013 a highlight for me has been how our political views and thoughts about life and the future have been implemented in our music without losing the wonderful mystery that music should be.

Karl: The answers to this question could maybe be found in the book Songs for Sunken Memories. But we never wrote it. Some memories floats up to the surface when we sit in the studio together, others are forever forgotten. In a way there are two kinds; the more personal ones with nice concerts, exciting meetings, best dinners and so on. And those which put more fire to our way of making music. These where often connected to new technical equipment for doing music. Like when the personal computer appeared with Digital performer and Opcodes Vision. Prophet 5, DX7, Emulator II, Absynth, Reason and more.

Dan: I agree, that is one way to put it, although Twice a Man has never worked in a vacuum. We were and still are connected to the music scene that develop around us and we also have many impressions from other artistic expressions. The years between 1983-85 we were a very good live band and played a lot in northern European and there are many memories connected to that period. A fine anecdote is to be served tea by a young whimsical Elizabeth Frazer back stage in Rotterdam. Another highlight was the first time we made theatre music for The Royal Dramatic Theatre and Ingmar Bergman was in the audience, liking the performance. For artistic achievements it is hard to pick a winner among 21 albums, several multimedia performances, 20+ theatre plays, exhibitions, dance performances, computer games etc… One thing that I am proud of is that we still are curious and that we always try to develop our expressions.

Can you tell us how your songs come together – do you produce demos, or do things come together organically? How has your writing process changed over the years? 

Karl: In the ancient times, when we started, the only way to hear a composition was to play it together. Then the computer was born and our process did change with it. At the same time we got an 8-track recorder. We were still sitting together most of the time but we did make our efforts one at the time too. When the sound recording crawled into the computer and the soft synths appeared it was easier to take the compositions from our studio and work elsewhere in a more solitary way. And after that meet and put bits and pieces together. Nowadays we meet in the studio and compose most of the stuff together when we are in the same environment. This happens 6 or 7 times a year as we live in different locations. (Dan in France during the winter, Gothenburg during summer, Jocke in Stockholm and Gasleben in the woods north of Gothenburg – 50 meters from the studio).

We record and make demo mixes and then we send the files to Daniel Kaufeldt (our fourth member in a way) who does the final mix and add some additional synths. We also do some compositions, ”the old fashion way,” playing together and improvise the way to a new piece; for example the album “Cocoon” and the song “Black” from Presence are made likethat.

Aside from other musical artists – what else inspires you to create?

Karl: Nature, dreaming, small wonders, other peoples thoughts, moving and static visual arts and moods from the environment.

Dan: Well put, it summons it up pretty well. If I would elaborate a little; I think the basic inspirations for Twice a Man are in the landscapes of our childhood. Brought up in a sometimes desolate, cold and during winter, a dark environment forms the being experiencing it. These natural melancholic moods inspire not only the music, but it becomes a part of your soul. The Swedish society’s in some ways socialistic experiment during the 60s and 70s has also formed us, I believe, to think in a more collective and empathetic way. We react on what is going on in our ”modern world,” all these things that needs a response and to channel that energy and sometimes desperation into music. To be angry can also be inspiring. Through the work in making music for theatre we learned how to make a good working process when starting a new project. This involves a lot of reading and research, to find inspirations not only from nature and society, but also from other artistic expressions. Some artists have been very important in our development; Andrei Tarkovsky, Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Aldous Huxley to mention a few. Artists that have been groundbreaking and had a vision beyond their contemporaries, changing the way we experience the world.

I’ve always loved “Across the Ocean.” with its message and especially the way it builds with the drum patterns and whale samples – always get a nice reaction when I DJ that track in NYC. Can you tell us more about that track in particular – and how the world around us inspires Twice a Man?

Dan: (Nice to hear that “Across the Ocean” is played in NY clubs :). Much has been answered already above about our inspiration from our childhood landscapes, nature etc. We were invited to make a sound track for an exhibition about whales and dolphins at Kulturhuset in Stockholm. Digital sampling just became available in those years and we could sample whale sounds and be able to ”play” on them. The creation of the whale bass sound was made with 4 digital echo unites, as I remember, each playing one note. Later, when we got the Emulator 2, using sampling became much easier and changed the sound of Twice a Man. We made a lot of field recordings and samples from our surroundings, best illustrated perhaps in the environmental album Driftwood from 1988.

For the latest Songs of Future Memories compilation, what inspired the track selections? Was it difficult to choose favorites?

The idea to make a compilation came from our German record label Dependent with the saying that there is a need for a teaser of the band’s work. Or for us to make ”The young person’s guide to Twice a Man.” Early we decided to not include our soundtrack-based work, like theatre music, but to concentrate the collection out of the 14 song-albums. To put the collection together was not a big problem. Decisions were made by the three of us with advice from the record company, friends, and fans. Since we still work together and have the same taste in music it was quite easy to come up with a list of songs. There are some obvious choices that could not be missed, especially from the 80s. Since we basically are an album band we normally spend a lot of time selecting songs in an order where they benefit each other in a good way. Some of the songs on the compilation may sound even better if you listen to them on the album they originate from. But for us this work has given us a bird’s eye view of the drawer of our work in the past.

For the gear heads – what tools/synths/etc. do you use to record these days?

Karl: Mainly software-based synths and guitar. Our main DAW is Logic, but Reason and Ableton are also involved sometimes. We use the Logic synths a lot, especially Alchemy, but also Animoog Z, Synthmaster 2, Thor, and the favorite, Absynth by Brian Clevinger. The last year we also have been using his Plasmonic synth.

It is a shame that Native Instruments do not support the Absynth any more. We will soon have our own funeral feast to honour all the great work this synth have made for us. Ipad synths is another big sound bouquet in our work. Apardillo, Factory, SynthScaper, Cyclop, Nave, Thor and others, all through AUM with FX busses. A big part of the sounds on the album Cocoon where made on an Ipad.

In our studio we also have a bunch of hardware synths. (Wasp, MS 20, 2600 (Behringer) Pro one (Behringer), JD800, DX7, AN1X, BasStation. But these days we mainly sample sound for them to put in Logic sampler.

Twice a Man has bounced between more electronic/wave/techno material but has also done quite a bit of ambient work – can you tell us a bit about the ambient material and what inspires that?

Karl: We have done a lot of theatre music for The Royal Dramatic Theatre and other theaters in Sweden. And when you do that kind of ambient music there is a script to be inspired from. Setting musical emotions to words by Almqvist, Kushner, Shakespeare, Norén, Lorca (and many others). To get inspired then it is easy.

Working with ambient music from our own spring is something we did in our early bands Älgarnas Trädgård and Anna Själv Tredje. So it is in our spine really. Inspiration floats around us and every sound you here in the daily life is a composition if you treat it the right way. When you stand in the forest you don’t need drums to perceive the musical emotions. And when you talk to the wind you just have to filter out the sounds you need from the universe. And in the voices of the environment noise there is a lot of threads to pick up. An urban city could be a fantastic ambient concert if you listen to it in that way.

What does a Twice a Man concert look like in 2023? How often do you play live?

Karl: Back in the days a Twice a Man concert had a lot of visual ingredients like scenography, performance, dance, and happenings around us when we played the music. In the 80s it could take hours to build the set before we went on stage. In these days we do not get that option, because nowadays we mostly get booked in festivals where you just have a small time frame to put up the gear. So now we present ourself more as a ”normal” band. Maybe that’s why we don’t play that much live anymore. Our wish is to present a visual performance.

Any plans to tour the US?

Karl: Of course we would like to come and perform in US. But we are musicians/composers so we need someone to help us organise a tour. But that person has not appeared yet. Suggestions are appreciated?

What’s next for the band? Any plans to record a new album?

Dan: During the work to produce Songs of Future Memories we recorded two new songs, “Lotus” and “Dahlia.” We were very pleased with them and the working process worked out well too. So, we decided to continue creating new songs for a future album. At this moment, summer ’23, we have 5-7 new songs that will be the basic tracks for this new album. As we want to work in the same room and not only send files through internet, the process will take some time, but we are in a good way.

Songs of Future Memories (1982-2022) is available on 3x CD and digital formats. Check below for the full track listing and be sure to follow the band on social media.

The post Observations From a Borderland | An Interview with Twice a Man appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Many of the album’s tracks were recorded over the last fifteen years, and as such, Vessel of Voices is a wildly eclectic, yet rewarding affair. “At one point a couple of years ago I almost lost all the recordings and it saddened me,” Belief mentions. “I felt like I abandoned some part of myself that was sacred and decide to release the music before it was too late. Releasing work that’s deeply personal is risky, especially when it’s riddled with imperfection. It was time to let it all out and it scared the hell out of me.”

Vessel of Voices is a peak into Belief’s mind, through and through. The LP swings wildly, shifting styles and structures at the blink of an eye. Inspired in part by the minimal synth movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s (a loosely defined genre in itself that combines the sonic experimentation of early Cabaret Voltaire with the pop wizardry of OMD), Belief’s work expands on these DIY ethics, combining fast and furious rhythms with lush waves of vintage synthesizers, all unified by Belief’s vocals and direct lyrics. Some tracks, such as “Invisible Woman” and “Carrion” retain minimal synth’s punk ethos, while songs like “The Last Time” and “Binding Life” aim for the fences with thick, driving synth pop energy. “Dull Horoscope” is another highlight, a slower, slithering affair full of noise and texture. “Wolf in the Fog” adds a dash of coldwave romanticism, featuring hypnotic synth interplay that recalls Martin Dupont’s best works, while “Sara Strobes” is a fast and furious synth punk workout, more experimental and frantic than anything else on the LP.

“I don’t really have full control when I make music or go into the process with any premeditated ideas. Ironically I often find myself in the studio just after tough moments in life,” Belief adds. “Art often sabotages and looks for instigators. Generally I create music depending on the mood I’m in and rarely stick to any one style. I have no allegiance to any one sound thus Vessel of Voices is a rather eclectic release.”

While many of the album’s tracks have been rescued from the vault, there are several new recordings mixed in for good measure. Many of the newer tracks were written for Belief’s recent live performances, serving as a means to keep the creative process alive and to tap into a more sonically balanced atmosphere. The album ends with a remix of “The Last Time” by fellow synth maestro Automelodi, which brings the track to new emotional levels. While bonus tracks often dilute an album in my experience, the remix is a welcome bookend to an album full of exciting twists and turns, expanding on a familiar motif to bring the album home.

Stream Vessel of Voices below via Bandcamp and check out the full album artwork and track listing below:

Nina Belief – Vessel of Voices
1. Lights Out
2. Tehran
3. Lysistrata
4. Come Alive
5. Carrion
6. Invisible Woman
7. Black Tango
8. The Last Time
9. Dull Horoscope
10. Delirium
11. Binding Life
12. Simulate Contact
13. Wax Ride
14. Paraphilia
15. Wolf in the Fog
16. Sara Strobes
17. Darkness in You
18.The Last Time (Automelodi Mix)

The post A Wolf in the Fog | Catching up with Nina Belief appeared first on Post-Punk.com.