Re: Gerard interview #2

[Andrew Keulemans <keulies@gm...com>]

Thanks nick, great stuff
AK

On 29 Dec 2016 3:41 p.m., "Nick Walters" <nickw@bl...co.uk> wrote:

> I've cut and pasted my interview below as Virgin email is being wank 
> about
> emailing hyperlinks.
>
> NW2
>
> ----------------
> Interview: The Blue Aeroplanes’ Gerard Langley
>
> *❉  The cult indie band’s frontman talks to We Are Cult about the new
> album and what 2017 may hold for the Blue Aeroplanes.*
>
> I’ve been following the trajectory of the Blue Aeroplanes for nigh on
> thirty years, and so I was honoured to have the opportunity to talk to
> Aeroplanes frontman Gerard Langley before the band’s traditional 
> Christmas
> gig at the Fleece (which they own) on Friday 16 December. An instantly
> recognisable figure, in his ray-bans, black garb and tousled black hair,
> Gerard looks every inch the rock’n’roll beat poet that he is. A man with 
> an
> encyclopaedic knowledge of music and vast experience in the music 
> business,
> Gerard is Head of Songwriting and Music Business Tutor at the Bristol
> branch of the British and Irish Modern Music Institute. Gerard lives in 
> the
> same part of Bristol as me, so I have encountered him quite a few times 
> in
> shops or out and around the area (he once walked past my kitchen window 
> as
> I was doing the washing-up), and conversed with him before and after 
> gigs,
> but this is the first time I have actually formally interviewed him. As 
> my
> experience of interviewing rock stars is zero (I drunkenly interviewed
> indie band The Wood Children at Wolves Poly in 1988), I was quite 
> nervous,
> but I shouldn’t have been, as Gerard is an affable dude, clearly proud of
> his band, and excited about the new album and what 2017 may hold for the
> Blue Aeroplanes.
>
> We talked in the attic-like dressing room in the Fleece whilst other band
> members such as Chris Sharp (bass), Bec Jevons and Mike Youe (guitars) 
> came
> and went. I made a lame joke about Christmas not being Christmas without 
> a
> Blue Aeroplanes gig. ‘Not in Bristol, anyway!’ said Gerard. I started the
> interview proper by drawing a comparison between the Blue Aeroplanes and
> The Fall.
>
> *NW:** It strikes me that the Blue Aeroplanes are a lot like The Fall –
> both bands have been around for a long time and seen many line-up 
> changes.
> However, the current line up of both bands is quite stable; with the Fall
> it’s ten years, with the Aeroplanes, it’s..?*
>
> *GL:* Four and a half years. The main difference between the Aeroplanes
> and The Fall is that we’ve had a lot of members, but they tend to be
> line-ups that stick around for a bit, make a couple of albums, then it 
> all
> changes. It’s not people constantly drifting. But we haven’t had a stable
> line-up really since, probably, Swagger/Beatsongs [1990-91]. People stick
> around for a long time but they never overlap a record, so I was always
> putting out a record with one line-up and touring it with another. So 
> this
> is the first time really since the early albums that we’ve had a line-up
> that’s written the stuff, recorded it, and is now playing it live. The
> other difference is, of course, I get on with former band members!
>
> *NW:** I know you see yourself as a national band first, and
> international band second, but you are synonymous with the Bristol music
> scene, you own the Fleece, and Bristol often turns up in your songs. Does
> it bother you that when articles appear about the Bristol music scene, 
> you
> are seldom mentioned?*
>
> *GL:* Well, Bristol decided it was gonna go trip-hop and not guitar
> bands! We can’t do anything about it. Apparently we’re included in
> RyanAir’s guide to Bristol, alongside Bananarama!
>
> *NW:* *The new album is extremely poppy and accessible, in direct
> contrast to ‘Anti-Gravity’ [the band’s previous album, released in 2011]
> Was this deliberate?*
>
> *GL:* To an extent, yeah. ‘Anti-Gravity’ was done a lot around jams with
> various different musicians, but ‘Welcome, Stranger!’ was fairly stable. 
> It
> was basically, initially, me and Bec and Mike, working on loads of 
> material
> on stage at the Fleece. And the material we came up with was so immediate
> and really strong. It’s a long time since Anti-Gravity, so I had a lot of
> words, and I was picking up all the best ideas from those to make it 
> quite
> hooky and strong. And then we thought, well, we’ve got all these really
> good songs now, so we’d better record them properly. So we actually went
> into a really good studio with a really good engineer, and thought, 
> right,
> we’re going to record this to a major label standard, just a lot quicker.
>
> *NW:* *The production is absolutely beautiful, very sharp and clean, it
> really brings the songs to life.*
>
> *GL*: But it’s still basically the all band playing live – two or three
> takes, max.
>
> *NW:* *There’s a very sixties, psychedelic sound to the album.*
>
> *GL:* Sixties but punkier.
>
> *MY [Mike Youe, Aeroplanes guitarist]:* It was recorded at Vale 
> *[Worcestershire
> recording studio situated in a Georgian manor house renowned for its 
> retro
> equipment]* using a vintage Neve console, and ‘classic’ microphones, so
> that might contribute to it.
>
> *NW*: *The production on ‘Swagger’, your most acclaimed album, in
> comparison, at least to these ears, sounds awfully flat and uninspired. 
> It
> seems to smother the songs.*
>
> *GL:* To be honest this is one of the first albums we’ve ever done, apart
> from ‘Bop Art’ *[the band’s first album released in 1984]*, where I
> actually really like the production. I always thought the production on 
> our
> albums sounded a bit tame – it should have sounded louder, on things like
> Swagger.
>
> *NW:** I like the cover, it somehow reflects the playful mood of the
> album.*
>
> *GL:* Yeah – I was trying to get people to do artwork based on
> retro-friendly aliens and rockets, but it nothing seemed to work so I 
> just
> bought a rocket myself!
>
> *NW:* *The guitar riffs in Sweet Like Chocolate, and in other places on
> the album sound remarkably like the distinctive style of Angelo Bruschini
> [former Aeroplanes member and legendary guitarist who featured on Massive
> Attack’s Mezzanine album]. Was this a deliberate attempt to sound like 
> the
> ‘planes of old or was it… how can I put this… alchemy?*
>
> *GL:* Well whilst we were jamming, I played Bec *[Bec Jevons, Aeroplanes
> guitarist]* some early Aeroplanes…
>
> *BJ:* And I said, Wow, this is just like the stuff my band is doing! I’d
> not really properly listened to the Aeroplanes before, but it just came 
> out
> that way, kind of semi-accidentally.
>
> *GL:* With Mike* [Youe, Aeroplanes guitarist]*, there’s a mutual
> influence, in the shape of Richard Thompson, who played modally. So did
> Angelo, and so does Mike – so they’re going to sound similar because
> they’re coming from the same place.
>
> *NW:* *Is the album, and the upcoming tour, a conscious decision to try
> to get new fans on board? To ‘welcome strangers’, as it were?*
>
> *GL:* Let’s put it this way. This Christmas gig used to do all right, but
> never used to sell out. Three years ago, it sold out on a walk-up, so on
> the night. Last year, it sold out a few days in advance. This year, it 
> sold
> out six weeks in advance. So, there’s a curve, and if I can get that 
> curve
> into other cities and promoters go with it… Because normally, if a band
> who’s been going a quite a long time like us, like Theatre of Hate, draw
> 250, then that’s their audience – 250 people. But we’re actually growing 
> an
> audience here, and in London, places where we play regularly, we’re
> building an audience as if the Blue Aeroplanes was a new band. We’ve got 
> a
> promoter on board with that, and if we can get the venues on board with
> that, and give it a go, like a new band, say right we’ll play 150 in
> Liverpool then 300 next time, we’ll see where it goes. At the moment 
> we’re
> literally just writing the songs.
>
> *NW:* *After the forthcoming tour, are you planning further dates later
> in the year?*
>
> *GL:* One of the reasons for this tour in January, apart from that’s when
> the album’s coming out is, I don’t know if I can manage it, but I want to
> have a go, is to get two albums out in a year. I can’t guarantee it,
> because the quality’s got to be there, but if I can, I’ll get another out
> in October/November.
>
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>

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