Glasgow Hinterland: April 30th May 1st 2009
Title: Live: Glasgow Hinterland: April 30th May 1st 2009
Author: Lucy
Date: 10, May, 2009
On the day when PRS for Music reports that they are losing revenue from live music venues as people choose to save money and do their drinking at home, 15 of Glasgow's plethora of music venues were gearing up to welcome the Hinterland Festival.
The brainchild of Mike Oman, a Scottish DJ and music buyer who had spent the last five years in London, Hinterland aims to become a Glasgow version of London's Camden Crawl, a sampler of new and local acts, with a few better known headliners thrown in with one ticket giving admittance to all the venues.
Despite worries about poor ticket sales, the festival organisers remained enthusiastic about their idea, a replacement for the Triptych Festival that previously took place in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen over the May Bank Holiday weekend. Triptych's triumph and eventually it's downfall was the range of musical genres that it represented on each bill. Hinterland's modus operandi is different, with each band playing a short set and the audience required to travel between venues armed with a timetable and wristband attempting to see some locally familiar and some lesser known bands while getting your breath back from galloping up the hills. I don't usually like festivals and the idea that you have to leave before the end of a band's set. I like to settle in with a pint and get absorbed. Hinterland's set up demands that you put such scruples aside. I decided to use it to catch up with some local bands who I've had my eye on.
First of all I talked to Adam Stafford singer/ guitarist of Falkirk four piece Y'all Is Fantasy Island The Falkirk based quartet take their singular name from a phrase in an American crime novel, God Is A Bullet by Boston Teran. They've release three albums of material in the space of the last year through their website, Wiseblood Industries and have gigged regularly in Scotland for the last couple of years.
I asked front man Adam about the amount of material they've released.
"It's kind of been accumulating, what a lot of people thought that we did, was that we basically wrote and recorded all of these albums in one year, but in actual fact we only really recorded one and half in 2008 and we did an album called Rescue Weekend in 2007. 2008's albums consist of full length third LP No Ceremony and a collection of film soundtrack work, entitled Infanticidal Genuflector, which is a lot more ambient than the band's more regular work. We like to chop and change", says Adam. The band's self sufficiency means that this kind of approach is possible. "Everything is recorded by myself and our guitarist Tommy, who's also a sound engineer, apart from Rescue Weekend which was done in a converted farmhouse studio with another engineer called James Taylor", who Adam is keen to point out is not THE James Taylor of You've Got A Friend Fame.
Y'all's eclecticism and range of influences make them difficult to pin down. Are they just trying to have a go at everything? Adam: "Yeah basically. I find it really boring other wise. The influence list on myspace isn't just a sort of tick the boxes thing. It's all bands that we really like and some of them aren't even bands, like there's Werner Herzog the filmmaker is on there. Films do influence us a lot too."
No Ceremony seems to have picked up great reviews in the Scottish press, but each one highlights a different aspect of the band's musical personality. For some it's country-infused, or acoustica, or stereotypically glum Scottish rock but it could be all of these and more.
Not having an A&R or a label breathing down their necks means the band feel freer to try out different sounds. "I think we've tried to separate the sound of each album so the first two albums are more towards the acoustic side of things and then obviously No Ceremony is us really going loud and rocking out but there's like a few quiet moments there too. And then Infanticidal Genuflector is really instrumental soundscape kind of thing. It usually annoys me when one song is like country rock and then the next will be like a reggae song, it's not that diverse."
Adam was ready for the Hinterland experience and was looking forward to seeing Remember Remember later on and Desalvo who he'd seen before and found utterly thrilling to say the least. But he agreed with me that a lot of the bands being on at the same time was unfortunate, meaning he couldn't see Edinburgh's Meursault, a band getting a lot of attention at the moment. Asked about ambitions he has for the band, Adam was philosophical,"We've done our damnedest to get a record deal and I think there's only so long you can bang your head off a door before you realise that it's not gonna open." I wonder if it was being quite so eclectic and difficult to pigeonhole that had made it more difficult for the band to get signed?
"Totally." he agrees, "We were talking to a record label last year and they didn't like the first two albums but they really liked No Ceremony and openly told us that they had a problem with the acoustic loud thing and the changing of styles but then I thought, you know what, all of Neil Young's best albums are quiet and then loud and sometimes he even does loud covers of his own songs, which is something that we try to incorporate as well. I just think that if people at labels can't see the potential in our music then we just don't want to work with them anyway. There's no point in having somebody that's not 100% behind you. Labels really these days they don't even provide big tours for bands. They probably help a band get a booking agent, which is something that we'd love to be able to do and go on tour. But as far as some of our friends that are in band that are signed, they're not making a deal of money. Not on a sort of
Glasvegas level."
The less said about them the better. But it does illustrate a point, bands don't seem to get the support and the room to grown within the traditional music industry any more.
Adam has a theory about that, "In the early 90s bands like Sonic Youth and alternative bands were allowed to breathe on a big label because there was a resurgence of people buying and replacing their vinyl with CDs. So there was money around. So the record companies weren't worried about who they were signing and where the revenue was going to come from, because the revenue was coming from all those old Led Zeppelin albums that they were remastering and reissuing, and there's none of that now. Quite frankly the music industry's scared shitless and it doesn't know where the next road turns."
Which leaves the option of going DIY. Any tips for someone wanting to release their own stuff?
"I'd say first and foremost, get a website, not to initially worry about making your music free. Where the major label record industry has gone wrong I think is to be openly proud of being ignorant to the fact that there's a new revolution going on in music technology and the way music's distributed, and that's been their downfall. All you really need is a laptop. Press small runs of your albums, put them in record shops and set up a paypal account and get your albums on iTunes."
Adam was looking forward to playing at The Arches after an amazing Twilight Sad gig there.
So what next for Y'all Is Fantasy Island? "There's another album and I think we're gonna take a break for quite a while and try and get our heads around it because it's completely different from anything else we've done." He laughs, "I don't really want to say it's proggy but it's kind of going in that direction!" With the amount of output the band has had in the recent past, do they have a problem with quality control or does a lot of stuff end up not seeing the light of day? "There's probably about three or four albums worth of stuff, no exaggeration, that's just been left by the wayside. Before I think we were known as the group that recorded their first album (In Faceless Towns Forever) in 19 hours, and now we've got this tag of the group that released three albums in one year but our quality control is really strict. The amount of time we spent on just mixing the album No Ceremony was unbelievable... four or five months just solid mixing."
Reassuringly perfectionist then, as demonstrated in their Arches set on the following night, where they play a selection of tracks from No Ceremony. Taking advantage of the club's huge speaker stacks and being loud as hell despite the small audience's reluctance to get close to the stage (maybe it was something to do with the Swine Flu victims found in Falkirk?) Punk Rock Disco's Y'all sellin' out' refrain makes it sound like a subversive Foo Fighters track and the catchy single With Handclaps stands out. On stage Adam moves in a jerky almost Ian Curtis-like way, and his voice has a raw edge that recalls certain 90s grunge bands in some moments and then at others has touches of a countrified Americana influence. They get a bit fired up towards the end of what feels like a low-key showcase set, but it's difficult to end in a hail of feedback effectively when the crowd are too cool to get close to the stage. The multi-venue structure of
Hinterland seems to have split a regular medium venue crowd about 15 different ways at once.
Next I scampered down one of Glasgow's many hills and spoke to three members of Mitchell Museum after their sound check at Pivo Pivo. Guitarist Dougie, Bassist Kris and Cammy who plays guitar, keyboards and sings. I remembered him from seeing the band play at short lived Glasgow venue Cassette a few weeks ago. I suggested that they need a separate keyboard player so he could cut loose on stage. Does he always try to do all three of his roles in the band at once? "That's something I tend to do yeah," he laughs, "I quite enjoy that though in a way."
Fighting to stop the keyboard falling off the stage? "It adds a edge of mayhem and danger, will it happen won't it who knows?! It's actually all carefully planned and choreographed!"
I ask if they thought that the multi-venue format of Hinterland was going to work.
Kris answers "I'm not sure yet, because for us it's an unfortunate thing that we're playing at the same time as Micachu (& The Shapes) which is one of the bands we really really wanted to see. So for us that's not going to work but for other stuff you've got all day to go and run about." "I think if I wasn't in a band I'd quite enjoy running around." Cammy adds, though, looking at this (the very dense schedule) "it's put me into a bit of a cold sweat because it looks like a school timetable and that frightens me a little bit." "What we thought," suggests Kris "is that they should have had suggested route plans. Let's say you want to go and see Copy Haho at the end of the night, so they suggest, if you like them you might like this band or that band at the start and then this is 5 minutes round the way and then you can get into here"
Mitchell Museum's music suggests that they have a lot of different influences but some stand out more than others. There's a definite Flaming Lips arc in there and they've been compared to Animal Collective. "When I'm listening to stuff, songs that I like, I listen to music really carefully to lots of different things .. I steal!" jokes Cammy. Are they consciously going for the chaos factor? It's evident in the music and there is a certain energy in the lyrics. Trying to avoid the word 'wackiness' seems difficult.
"I dunno if it's wacky," says Cammy,
"Does it inspire buckets of gunge?" asks Kris.
"I was trying to avoid visions of gunge. I think we'd want to be away from Noel's House Party more towards chaos theory," laughs Kris.
Who else are they looking forward to seeing at Hinterland?
"Tomorrow night I'm quite looking forward to Wild Beasts and This Will Destroy You and Slow Club that's so far what we've got." Says Kris.
"Zoey van Goey," adds Dougie.
"Where are they on? Flying duck? Can we do Flying Duck to the Arches in the 15 minute break? We should get like a golf buggy!" suggests Kris.
"I can't remember the name of the scooters you stand up on with wheels on the bottom. Segway!" prompts Kris, "Or even a Hinterland rickshaw!"
"I was thinking wheelie bin at first!" laughs Cammy, "That would be alright at the top of Hope Street... but getting back up again!?"
"Could you not have like a ski lift system?" suggests Dougie, "Hopping on hopping off?"
"I can't believe they haven't got that organised!" says Cammy. I'm starting to see how the collective Mitchell Museum mind works. "It sounds a bit like Winter, I was gonna bring my skis" chips in Kris.
"Monkey bars?" says Dougie.
"Walking in a winter Hinterland?" decides Kris. And they all agree...
Back to the music. What have you released so far?
"We've got a limited edition vinyl single of the song Warning Bells which we released back in November. We're about to re-release it on Broken Friend records on a CD and iTunes and make sure everyone gets it this time." Says Kris, the band's keeper of facts. "We only had 300 last time and it wasn't that many. "We've got about 6 left. A lot of them went to Japan!"
The Japanese do love their sevens!
"They do!" says Kris.
"They loved ours!" agrees Cammy, "We got some really odd reviews."
"I think it could also have been the translation programme we used!" hints Kris, "We came from the human bosom of Wolf Parade. Which was my favourite. I get the Wolf Parade reference but I don't know... Human Bosom?"
"I don't know what it means?" says Cammy
Perhaps wolf parade have got especially comforting fronts?
"It's possible, maybe in Japan they're marketed differently who knows. Maybe we could be marketed that way?" wonders Kris
"I don't know if I want to be marketed in that way!" says Dougie.
You're opening up a level of expectation there.
"Yeah," Kris concludes, "they might be disappointed by our human bosoms!"
The single will be on Broken Friend, a small Edinburgh label who have previously released Jesus H Foxx, And Be A Familiar and Sixpeopleaway. And then there's a second single out later in the year. The band have decided which track it will be but aren't yet certain what the title will be, although at the moment it goes by the name Tiger Heartbeat and is one of their set's catchiest tunes. And what does the future hold after that?
"As we release the single we"re doing a tour of North England, Preston, Manchester, Newcastle and then down to London and we"re playing up here (in Glasgow) on the 14th of May for the single launch in the Captains Rest". Reels off Kris. "D'you know you're amazing! I don't know if you rehearse this though." Cammy is impressed.
"I've got nothing else to do Cammy! We're also playing with Cats In Paris at Bloc on the 21st in Glasgow and Cabaret Voltaire in Edinburgh on the 23rd." Kris continues. "He's the wikipedia of Mitchell Museum!" says Dougie.
"Thank you! We've got that tour set up and then we're recording an album as we speak, and we're part way through that stuff, we've got a few more tracks to lay down a couple half written, unwritten. I'm unwriting them as you write them." "Not half written Sir!" cries Cammy.
"I don't mean the ones we play! I mean there's a few more to come There's still a few surprises up the Mitchell Museum sleeve!" Kris finishes his news round up.
I ask them where they got the name Mitchell Museum and each member has a different reason so we decide to have a vote.
Dougie goes first, "Well we're big fans of East Enders, and all of the Mitchell Family, we thought it would be nice if we clubbed together and get artefacts of them all The Mitchell Brothers, Peggy Mitchell, Billy Mitchell, Mo Mitchell I think was a Mitchell briefly. We could put it all together and make a Mitchell Museum."
Kris: "Mine differs quite wildly. But I like that one I'm going to stick with that, but mine, well, it's because Dougie's got a quarter native Cherokee heritage and the Mitchell Museum is the Native American Indian museum in Illinois which was kind of like Dougie?s spiritual home in a way. So that was why I thought we were called Mitchell Museum." The others laugh.
Cammy finishes the interview as the next band's sound check curtails out recording time. "Oh dear I really thought it was just because of the Mitchell Library! Oh dear!".
Later that night I come back to Pivo Pivo to catch most of Mitchell Museum's set. "We are The Fall" shouts Cammy before one song, it's perhaps a little frustrating to be scheduled at the same time as other bands that you might want to see. "I'm the moth you're the candlelight." The chant and repeat in unison off the microphones and with a bigger crowd you can imagine it becoming a chorus that people would sing along to. Sparks fly about in the seated bar it's probably not as full as on a regular night, but the band are surprised there are that many folks as there are, there are so many clashes with other bands. "We're Michachu and the Shapes". Cammy is all Wayne Coyne'ish hair and shrieks, and take it in turns with Kris (bass) to play the keyboard, slinging their guitars around. They're slightly cartoony and definitely chaotic, enjoying themselves and yelping out lyrics. There is something of a Beta Band alternate universe about them, something of Hot Hot Heat (maybe it's the fight to keep the keyboard upright). Take The Tongue Out rattles along like a freight train full of Pavement albums with nonsense chants and a race to the finish. The drummer gives them an argh to start and they are anything but slick, but full of catchy lalalas in Arthur Loves The Shadows.
For one reason and another I wasn't able to see any other bands on the Thursday but after seeing Y'all Is Fantasy Island at The Arches on Friday I stuck around for a few more:
Glasgow Hinterland 09 as seen through the eye's of Lucy
Remember Remeber - Glasgow Hinterland: The Arches
Jon Hopkins - Glasgow Hinterland: Stereo
Wild Beasts - Glasgow Hinterland: Stereo
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