Re: Gerard interview #2

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

Whilst acknowledging that it could unleash a torrent of similar requests,
but on the basis that the voodoo rooms is the first time the band has been
a mere bus ride away from me since Cardiff university back in the eighties,
can misfiring, pony boy or up in a down world elbow their way into the set?
Who is the support, BTW?
AK

On 30 Dec 2016 3:11 a.m., "GORDON WILHELMI" <
gordon.wilhelmi192@bt...com> wrote:

> At one point, many of the faithful began calling for standards.
>
> 'Colour Me'
> 'Weightless'
>
> Gerard pointed at his watch.
>
> 'Have you seen the time ?'
>
> G
>
> ----Original message----
> From : keulies@gm...com
> Date : 29/12/2016 - 23:47 (GMTST)
> To : blueplanes@bl...org, nickw@bl...co.uk
> Subject : Re: [BluePlanes] Gerard interview #2
>
> 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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