Thanks so much to Matthew for this interview! Back in October I wrote a small piece about the band and soon after I was in touch with Matthew Cheney about his once solo project that became a full-fledged band when he moved to Bristol. They have released three albums and one single, played a bunch of gigs, and these days are involved in many other different bands. Here he tells the whole story!

++ Hi Matthew! Thanks for being up for this interview! How is Bristol these days? What are the most exciting new bands in town?

Hi Roque! Yes, no worries… yeah Bristol is a pretty great place to live I reckon. There’s not that many cities in the UK that I’d like to live in, Bristol is certainly better than most.

I’m not sure that I’m too in touch with new Bristol bands… I mean I am actually on the lookout for new stuff, for gigs which I’m (occasionally) putting on, I kind of wonder if its as much of a thing that people in their twenties want to do, or maybe its me who is not in tune with what’s new. There’s probably quite a bit of really good electronic stuff going on… I saw Livity Sound’s first gig, which I really liked, as a live thing at least, I haven’t heard their records … they are a sort of supergroup of Bristol electronic folks, nice layered rhythmic stuff. Probably a lot of that stuff revolves around Idle Hands (record shop and label) and other labels, I don’t know any of those guys personally… Olanza are great… there’s quite a few interesting guitarry post-hardcore influenced bands around at the moment. Trust Fund, Baby Grey (now Whitebelt), Motes, Margot, Nervy Betters, Two White Cranes are all worth checking out (although probably not all findable online as yet)

++ You play with a band called EXPENSIVE now. Care to tell me a bit about them and how different are EXPENSIVE from the Arctic Circle?

Yeah EXPENSIVE is pretty different I guess. Well it’s a different bunch of people and the music we’re aiming to make is probably quite different from Arctic Circle. I think with both projects there’s a good balance of people having a bit of autonomy in creating the music and us collaborating on stuff. EXPENSIVE band practices are certainly pretty different where we might all be working on different things separately, or sending emails etc. There’s a little bit of programming involved and we don’t particularly spend a lot of time rehearsing. Maybe we should rehearse more. We’re still adjusting what gear to use (not that we have mounds of fancy stuff) for playing live so that we can hopefully be quite dynamic and physical in how we play.

I think in both bands maybe the most exciting/ satisfying bit in terms of music making for me is starting with quite a basic chord progression or maybe a basic melody and sending it off to others in the band, and it quite rapidly becoming a finished song. In Arctic Circle the lyric writing was mostly split between me and Nina and in EXPENSIVE it’s mostly Grace, with me doing the occasional song… I think its working well…I don’t often feel inclined to write words actually, I would probably make more music if I did… Also EXPENSIVE came together at the start because Grace was keen to do a version of ‘Secrets in the Moss’ which was an old Arctic Circle song which had been floating around her shared house on a cd I think.

[Usually there’s no ‘the’ in Arctic Circle by the way! Partly to avoid confusion with a musical collective thing that goes on in London]

++ And have you been involved in any other bands other than Expensive and Arctic Circle?

Yeah, well at the moment I’m also playing in a thing called Acres, which features some of the old Arctic Circle players. I play 12-string guitar and there’s a lot of harmony singing. We are finishing a first album which will hopefully be available in some form in the next couple of months. I hope we will do a lot more in 2014. It’s been a bit slow moving, partly due to visa complications for our saxophonist/ singer Kano who is from Japan. So we’ve actually been playing together for two years now, but really it’s only been for a few weeks at a time, we’ve only played three gigs during that period. I think it’s also quite a different band from Arctic Circle, there’s perhaps a more unified sound for the whole set, using the same instrumentation for all the songs.

I’m also occasionally playing solo as the Amber Nectar – I’d call it a live ambient techno project. In some ways similar to what Heatsick does, in terms of how it is played (all live, no sequencing etc) although I tend to have almost nothing at all pre-prepared and just come up with all the tunes spontaneous as I play. It can be a challenge…I feel like it’d be a better thing if I did it really regularly, it’d be less confusing! Ideally I’d like to play a lot of club gigs or house parties, but I might clear the floor! The Amber Nectar stuff (previously playing as Colonist) kind of precipitated EXPENSIVE, because that band came together after I supported John Maus at the Croft in Bristol, and me, Grace and Pete decided it’d be good for us all to collaborate after that show.

I’d like to make a record or two as Lands End, which was kind of an occasional side project which I have played as with various people over the last five years. I have maybe two albums worth of unrecorded songs from the late 90s. Its probably a bit more bedroomy and introverted than other stuff, I’m not really sure what I think about it.

Going way back, I played in The Daisy Chain (which became Industrial Life Jigsaw) with my older brother and his friends back when I was 13, another band in an indie rock kinda vein with school friends for a few years where we rehearsed and played quite a lot, it was quite a massive part of teenage years actually, and those guys I think are all still doing quite a bit of music (Johnny and Duncan as Dogs, James in Johnny Marr and the Healers… pretty different kinds of stuff). From the last couple of years of school onwards, electronic music seemed to be more relevant, I think generally in those times (1990s) trying not to repeat or reference the past was generally more of a thing for more people making music… I had an ambient/ electro thing called Dawn Treader. I couldn’t get much to work during Uni in Edinburgh, although I did play in an indie rock kind of thing, Euroshoppa whilst on exchange year in Groningen, Netherlands, which turned out to be a really great musicy city to live in, It still hosts Norderslag festival every year, has a brilliant long running venue, Vera, and some great record shops… more so than Edinburgh in my experience anyway… I think that’s about it, theres probably been some other short term things as well.

++ Where does the name the Arctic Circle come from?

Ah, there’s not a whole lot of story behind it, I didn’t want a name that was too quirky… I quite like band names that are fairly meaningless. I was gazing down at miles and miles of arctic wilderness from a plane on the way to Canada and thought it might be a good name. I am quite interested in far northern places and spent a bit of time in northern Canada – the Yukon, as well as Iceland and Sweden. Well I wouldn’t want to romanticising those cultures or claiming to have some particular insight or anything like that though, which is easily done… so yeah the name is meant to be a kind of blank canvas really…

++ Originally the Arctic Circle was a solo project, am I right? And only when moving to Bristol it became a full-fledged band? I’m curious about those early years when you were on your own and recorded two albums. I haven’t listened to them yet, so I wonder what did you sound like? And what was your setup then?

Yeah I started using that name from when I was about 19 I think, I just couldn’t seem to get a band together during Uni in Edinburgh. I got quite involved in student radio and that was a reasonably good way of meeting people who were really into music… I think I had unreasonably high expectations of moving there, it being a much bigger city than where I grew up (Cambridge). The first incarnation of the band was in Spring 1996, under the name of Arctic/ Baltic… we tried to make all the material through improvising, we weren’t really aiming for ‘songs’ as such. Dan Mutch played bass, he had just moved to Edinburgh, I remember he was listening to Tortoise a lot, amongst other things, which I got to really like. We were about to play our first show at Edinburgh’s Transporter Room night, but then I went off to Holland for a year. Dan in the meantime started Khaya, who were the first band in Edinburgh that I liked a lot and were good to go and watch.

Not much happened musically for a couple of years and I went to make pizzas on a ski resort and learnt to snowboard. I came back to Edinburgh and put adverts up and we formed quite a large band with quite a few people passing through it. I found the players through adverts I put up around town, the core of the band I suppose was Vanya McDonnell and Jeremy Rschede, a Canadian couple who’d moved over and Andy Hazel from Tasmania, who’d also just arrived, and had been collaborating with Ben Frost in School of Emotional Engineering. We played together quite a bit, couple of times a week for the best part of a year, there’s a load of practice recordings from this time, but we never got round to playing a show or really finishing any songs. The closest we got to playing was an outdoor rave near Perth (Scotland) where we were due to play at 6am but we got there and decided that our set didn’t suit the euphoric vibes and didn’t bother unpacking the car.

Then I got busy setting up and running this cafe/ arts venue called Forest Cafe, kind of out of frustration with the conversatism of Edinburgh and the lack of accessible venues for starting out and experimenting etc. That was quite a big distraction for a couple of years. Then I kind of gradually restarted the band, mostly collaborating with Dirk Markham for a while… I think we got better and made the kinds of sounds we were looking for, still mostly trying to write stuff together in the bedroom, we played various shows around Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow during this period (2001-2003) and would’ve played our largest show, with Andrew Weatherall in the glasshouses of Glasgow’s People’s Palace but I’d already booked a ticket to go and live in Canada for another six months. I came back in the summer and was mostly busy being a desert chef before moving to Glasgow and doing a course there. Dirk moved to Berlin and got involved with Monica Records and his own music making there, amongst other things.

Well this is a really longwinded way of getting to the two albums I made in 2003/4. Well the first one was really a compilation of various bedroomy mostly electronic instrumental recordings I’d been making for a while. I’m not sure I really pulled off the sounds I wanted to make with the fairly limited gear I had at this point, but there you go. By this point it felt like I should put something out, or that maybe I was failing to finish anything. I was invited to make a live alternative soundtrack to the film ‘Microcosmos’ at a community festival in Newcastle, so that was a good project to focus on. At the same time I was playing more song-based stuff with various friends sporadically. With the 2004 album I just set myself the task of making an album by the end of June, also just to try and get something finished. I guess its a mix of texturey ambient kind of stuff and bedroomy pop kind of songs. Monorail Records were very helpful and I managed to sell a reasonable number of these cds which were only a pound…

++ Then of course you moved to Bristol and you met your band, how was that recruiting process?

Yeah, so I moved to Bristol for various reasons, I felt like trying living somewhere in the south. I’d met Francois Marry as we played together on a bill at Glasgow’s Winchester Club, and came down to Bristol where Francois was a very warm and generous host and introduced me to lots of musical people. I played a show on my own in the first couple of weeks having decided to move down, supporting Fog at the Cube Cinema. The process of putting the band together was strangely surprisingly easy at this point. I’d already been invited to play at Green Man festival in 2005, having run a Forest Cafe stall the previous year selling burritos and our self-released CDs.. and myself and my pal Danseizure were invited to play the next year.

So, if I remember right, within a few weeks of moving to Bristol I’d assembled a band with my housemate Nicole Artingsall, Nina Wyllie and Andrew Hogan who I’d met at/ through the Cube Cinema, Rosalind Leyden and Rose Clark who I’d met through Francois, George MacKenzie who I’d seen drumming in Headfall, Francois’ friend Victor Crespi sometimes as well. People seemed to be up for getting into Green Man for free, and that was basically our first gig, we did a sort of warm up thing a few days before in Bristol. I also fairly much straight away also played some bits and pieces in Francois’ band The Atlas Mountains, which was very enjoyable… and exciting to play alongside Matt and Kate from Movietone, which was my favourite Bristol band who I’d been aware of for a few years and kind of instrumental in attracting me to Bristol.

Mostly due to people’s various circumstances the lineup shifted gradually with Francois concentrating on his own projects, Liam Kirby (now of Boxcar Aldous Huxley) joining on guitar, Rose going off to art school and Hog (Andrew Hogan) joining on drums. Nicole moved away and my new housemate Kasper joined on keyboards. Hog moved to Berlin just after we recorded our album, Tom Kirton played drums for a good couple of years, which covered most of our gigs probably, Rose rejoined on drums later on. Harry joined on trumpet, Robin on keyboard/ bass later on, Rhiannon on cello. After a while we tended to play gigs with whoever was free and people didn’t really have set roles as such.

++ And musically, what would you say were bands that influenced your sound?

I did have quite a strong idea of the band at the start that it would be quite a lot about textures of sound, Sea and Cake, Stereolab and Broadcast were quite big references amongst other things. Lots of post-rock kind of bands, although I wanted to be more upbeat and rhythmic than some of the post-rock stuff. My bloody valentine, Pastels especially the later stuff, Byrds, To Rococo Rot, Mum, Aphex Twin, Syd Barrett, The Clientele, Aislers Set, I think were all big influences.

Then whilst living in Glasgow, I’d started going to National Pop League a lot and listening to more indiepop stuff and maybe thinking a bit differently as this also being good music to dance to. I wrote a bunch of songs whilst in Canada in 2003 which hadn’t got recorded. Northern Soul also, Belle and Sebastian and Camera Obscura especially for the craftsmanship which seemed to stand apart from other stuff of that era.

++ What was your first gig? And did you gig a lot? What would you say was your best performance?

Hmm can’t remember I don’t think… it was probably at Forest Cafe… there was one with Mrs Pilgrimm where we played Forest Cafe and then the old 13th Note in Glasgow (before it got taken over) the next night…. I could send you the poster actually…

Gigs were quite sporadic, I would’ve liked to have done a lot more gigs. With seven of us it was difficult to find dates we could all make, and also hard to break even. Some of us went to the USA and Canada for a few weeks and played some house shows there. I would have liked to have toured more and I think we might have generally got on a bit more of a roll with it all if we had, it seemed to be hard to find promoters as well. The Cube in January 2006 was a good show I think, that one you can watch on vimeo, and we met Adriana Alba of the Semi-finalists there, who went on to make a very nice video for Meanwhile Gardens for us. We played again at Green Man festival in 2007 which might have been our best gig, I have a video of it which I’ve been meaning to upload.

++ Bristol is a city associated with indiepop thanks to Sarah Records and Subway Records. Does it feel ever like an indiepop city? Did you ever feel like an indiepop band? Part of a scene? And why do you think so many good indiepop bands are from the Bristol area?

Ah good question, yeah I think very few people in Bristol are aware of that scene these days. Maybe some slightly older people, who knew those bands in the 80s/ early 90s. I guess people from outside really associate it with the city as well because of the record covers. We were talking about doing an exhibition based around Sarah Records at Cafe Kino where I sometimes work. I think that’d be a good project. I guess around 2007 Big Pink Cake started putting on club nights and gigs, which were great and yeah I suppose made it feel a bit more like an indiepop place, even though those events weren’t always super busy.

In terms of feeling part of a scene, I liked the various Planet Records bands (Movietone, Crescent, FSA etc) and it felt like there was more bands vaguely in that kind of ballpark… and lots of droney bands as well for a while.

Yeah its fair to say we didn’t think of ourselves as an indiepop band, but it’d be a stupid thing to worry about, and we totally appreciated the encouragement and enthusiasm from people like Matthew and Heather from Big Pink Cake, Ian from HDIF in London and others from that scene. Maybe more a case of us collectively listening to a lot of different kinds of stuff, and personally I’ve probably always listened more to some of the 60s bands that really influenced a lot of 80s indiepop like Byrds, Zombies, Love etc.

For a while I was involved with putting a night on called The Milky Way – a parallel universe of pop, which ran at Forest Cafe and then at various points in Bristol, we’ve had some really good nights, I always like getting the slide projectors and mirrorballs out too. But its been tricky to sustain in terms of people wanting to come and venues prepared to host it. I kind of wonder if these days there’s fewer people who are interested in going out to dance to an eclectic kind of set outside of the electronic club scene. The Hillgrove is a great ale pub which has a kind of muso ish vibe about it sometimes, with some good djs playing there sporadically too… our friend Chris Wright does a night called I Can’t Help Myself which is always great. For sure it’d be great to have some new indiepop night going on in Bristol though…

++ With the Arctic Circle you wrote a song called “Mother’s Ruin”. That’s a pub in Bristol, right? I remember visiting it when I was in town. Was this your favourite venue to play live? What other places in Bristol do you like?

Yeah, well I wrote the tune and words and Nina picked the title, I’m not sure if Mother’s Ruin had opened by that point actually. Yeah I like that pub and we’ve played there… the owner Marc now also runs another pub/ venue Stag and Hounds, also good although I haven’t been there in a while. I really liked The Croft (now closed, they run The Exchange, next door to Stag and Hounds), always really powerful sound system, certainly the best sound for electronic kind of stuff. Cafe Kino and Cube Cinema, both of which I have been involved with and have a great ethos, and stand apart from a lot of venues which often have a more corporate, big alcohol business vibe about them. Bristol County Sports is a working-mans club kind of set up and we often use it for putting on gigs. Qu Junktions and Pull the Strings are consistently great promoters too. Roll for the Soul is a new community-bike vegetarian cafe, where there are occasional gigs too, really like that place, I think of it as a bit Portlandia, in a good way. Yeah at the moment Bristol feels pretty good for venues.

++ But you are originally from Edinburgh, right? And Scotland is also a place with a huge indiepop tradition. Do you ever miss Scotland? And what differences do you find from the scene there with the one in Bristol?

No, Cambridge! I ocasionally miss Cambridge and it was a bit unusual as a place to grow up I think in various ways… but then again I would probably be very bored if I was there now. Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd is something that’s stayed with me, and a thing that people I grew up with and parents talked about, it being a fairly small place. I don’t miss Edinburgh actually, there are of course lots of good things about that city and I met a lot of inspiring and amazing people there but somehow never really got on with it as a place or felt like staying there, just wasnt for me.

I was aware of more musical things happening in Glasgow during that time, and often went through for gigs before moving to Glasgow. So yeah sometimes I miss Glasgow, maybe I’ll live there again, perhaps. It’s not a great city for cycling though! I sometimes think I’d rather live somewhere with maybe more like 2 million people, Bristol can sometimes feel limited.

Hmm not sure I can put a finger on how Glasgow and Bristol are different music scene wise, although they are certainly different. I think of Glasgow now having this great kind of infrastructure for music… but as I think Stephen Pastel and others have talked about, it wasn’t always that way…with places like Mono/ Monorail/ Stereo etc its the result of dedicated people over a lot of years. I think Glasgow probably has a powerful draw, and a lot of people move there because of those bands coming from there. I have the impression that the indiepop world in Glasgow is now also influenced by Swedish people and American people and probably other places as well, who are drawn into the city, which is great. I’d like to meet more Americans and Swedes here! The art school and its reputation is probably pretty instrumental to that as well. Ha!, Yeah I miss it now!

++ The only release I’ve been able to track down was the 7″ single on Stitch Stitch Records. This one includes three of my favourite songs! But the opener song is a cracker, care to tell me the story behind “Prancing Pearl”?

Ah yeah, there’s only the two songs on it right? Mothers Ruin and Prancing Pearl. I did also put them together as a sort of promo ep which I think we sent out to some people or possibly sold a few at gigs. That was those two songs and then I remixed Shipping Forecast and Loofah Mitt, which we would have liked to have released as a single too, I think I improved on the mix which went on our album in 2006. I think you can hear/ download all those on the bandcamp.

I’m not sure I can tell you too much about Prancing Pearl, it’s Nina’s words, but I liked how coincidentally both songs referenced driving/road safety/ accidents. We wanted the single to be something very danceable on both sides, certainly we were thinking about minimalist disco/ nowavey kinds of things as a starting point for it, and Electrelane was also something we all liked and perhaps were thinking about with the kind of sounds we wanted. At this point the double percussion with Rozi playing more percussion alongside Tom on drums featured on a lot of songs and I think is quite a key element for that song. I think we mostly wrote that song all together. I had quite a detailed idea for a video, referencing the road movie ‘Radio On’, revisiting its various Bristol and West Country sites, but we never got round to that….

I spent a really long time mixing Mothers Ruin and adding more and more layers of stuff, it possibly worked better as a live thing and I think the recording of Prancing Pearl came off a bit punchier.

++ And yeah, how did you end up signing to Stitch Stitch Records?

Well we didn’t sign to them as such! Stitch Stitch had been set up by Aaron of I Know I have no collar (great band, if you can find them), with Francois and then Steve Brett (now of Nervy Betters) picked up the helm… so yes great to have his support and we were excited to work together on releasing the single,.

++ There is also a 2006 album, right? What are the songs on it? And to those that have never heard it, what can one expect from it?

Ach I don’t know that I’m great describing how any of it sounds, or is meant to sound… I think we had a good clear idea at that point although we were on a bit of a learning curve. I wanted to make a record fairly quickly once we had played Green Man in 2005 and apart from obviously needing to earn a living, I was quite focussed on the band at this point.

Actually there was a bit of debate whether we should release the whole lot, as I think there’s bits which we didn’t really pull off. Thats a tricky call, and I think these days I know a few more people who play in bands and have experience of recording so its easier to get other people’s opinions. Its probably a bit of a west country cliche about everything being a bit slow… at least of the people I know making music in Bristol, years can go by with projects abandoned or albums rerecorded from scratch. Its certainly good to have standards though… I probably feel especially now with easy access to so much on the internet that I’d only want to put out stuff that I’m really happy with…

But I’m really glad we recorded at that point. I think perhaps with all bands its a case of getting snapshots of the best moments if you can, there’s not too much you can plan…

++ You also made two videos. How was that experience? Much different than recording songs?

Yeah, I think playing live and recording were quite different things, and we tried to approach them differently. I suppose videos were more like recording. Meanwhile Gardens was made by our friend Adriana [maybe you know her, she lives in New York?!] who came in with a very detailed plan and clear vision for the video. It was a different interpretation of the song, which I thought of as quite downbeat – we were very happy for someone to come in with their vision and expertise and were really pleased with the results.

True to the Trail I had a fairly basic idea which fitted with the lyrics, there was several weeks of snow that year, which is unusual in Bristol, so I took a ‘snow day’ off work and we shot the song four or five times with a mini DV cam strapped to the back of a bike. I think of it as referencing Massive Attack ‘Unfinished Sympathy’, Verve ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ and Coldplay ‘Yellow’, concept wise. Our friend George Purves edited it all together and produced it.

++ And then what happened to the band? When and why did you split?

Well yeah we haven’t really split, we’ve just stopped doing stuff around early 2011. ‘Indefinite hiatus’ seems to be the term these days! There wasn’t really a particular reason for stopping… we were struggling to get together regularly and there had been so many changes in lineups. I remember once interviewing the Raincoats for student radio and Gina Birch saying something like ‘Being in the band was like living in a squat with constant threat of eviction… it could fall apart at any moment’, which I find pretty consistent with all the bands I’ve been involved with. It felt like it made sense to do different projects rather than keep doing stuff as Arctic Circle.

We had an album’s worth of stuff recorded but weren’t happy with all of it, and it didnt seem to hang together. Perhaps because we were hungry for pursuing all sorts of different directions musically. I think with Acres now, I maybe appreciate having a unified sort of a sound. We then made a whole another album which is kind of very nearly finished, it might be good to put that stuff out there, I’m not sure. Rose had rejoined on drums but then moved back to London, Nina got busy with job stuff, on tour as an actor and then working as a teacher, Rozi was focusing on her own stuff (Rozi Plain), so on a practical level it was tricky to continue.

Well for various reasons I felt a bit downbeat about it as a project. Maybe we’d lost momentum… I think also there was a point where especially in London, which isnt too far away, there were very few promoters able to cover our travel costs, so it seemed to become more difficult to play out of town. Yeah, so a few factors really…

++ And are you all still in touch? Any chance for a reunion gig someday? And what are the rest of the band doing?

Yeah I’m in touch with pretty much all the ex-Arctic Circlers, I think there’s about 20 of them! I wouldn’t rule out us playing again but then again its really not on the cards. Um not sure I can summarise what everyone is doing but I’ll try… Liam – building guitars, and playing in Boxcar Aldhous Huxley, Francois – living in Brussels and making music, Rozi – living on a boat in London and playing as Rozi Plain and in This is The Kit, Nina – teaching and having a baby, Kasper – living in Sweden, early years teaching, Hog – teaching and film projecting in Oxford, George – playing in Acres/ Motes/ Headfall and solo as Attacked by Wolves, Harry – playing in Acres and Macero, Robin – film soundtrack composer in London, Rose – cycle mechanic in London, Victor – living in France, playing in Ladybird… from the earlier days, Andy – playing in Paradise Motel in Melbourne, music writing, alternative medicine, Dirk is making music (as Dirk Markham) as well as working at Native Instruments in Berlin, Vanya and Jeremy in Victoria BC doing community work/ drug policy research respectively and raising a family, Jeremy also playing in Star Sickness…

++ So aside from music, what other hobbies do you enjoy doing? What do you dedicate most of your time?

I’d like to spend more time cooking and think a lot about opening another cafe/ venue, maybe in the north of England. Maybe. I’d like to be doing more outdoorsy stuff soon. At the moment I am actually really busy with EXPENSIVE and Acres as well as various job work. It’d be nice to work a bit less next year and crack on with more musical stuff really… yeah that’s my main thing! I like being sociable and going out and about in Bristol. I really liked being on tour with EXPENSIVE recently too. This feels like dating suddenly!

++ Let’s wrap it here. Thanks so much Matthew, anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks Roque, I hope I haven’t rambled too much!

I don’t want to sound bitter or demanding but, those 2013 year end lists do need some better releases. And I’m not just saying this because I’m biased. How can you exclude The Secret History album from your year end lists? Sure you want to include The Pastels and Veronica Falls, two fine albums, but come on, there was not much meat in them compared to the Sunnyside, Queens, band’s album.  I leave it to your conscience. Another album that I have loved this year is The Proctors one. Sure it’s a bit long. But who cares? There are no fillers in it. All songs are beautiful. Classic indiepop, the jangly kind, that many times reminds me of Marine Time Keepers, Brigher, or Bouquet. But yeah, you can ignore that and have Beach Fossils, or whatever other band that has zero ideas or talent. You’ll probably get a freebie album from their label next year.

I don’t think many people read year end lists, see the top 10 and say, “oh! I missed these ten records, I’m going to buy them.” That doesn’t happen. Does it?

There are also a bunch of releases that I haven’t listened yet as they have appeared at the tail end of the year like Bubblegum Lemonade, Northern Portrait or The Spook School. I assume they are pretty good, because their work is usually strong. So it suprises me that they are not in year end lists. Are they bad or what? I hope I catch up with these releases soon.

Another album that I’ve been listening a lot this week is that of New York’s own Pale Lights. Though this is a bit of cheating. The album won’t be out until next year, so it wouldn’t count as 2013. But what an album this is. It’s only 30 minutes long and opens with a cracker of a song called “Another Broken Heart”. You already know what to expect in the other 9 songs. Just heartfelt jangly indiepop crafted in perfection. Highlights are “Port of Shadows” that reminds me of The Bats, their previous single “Boy of Your Dreams” that has that Felt-ish guitar, or The Chills inspired “Only an Ocean”. I don’t know what will happen in 2014, but this might be a serious contender for your next year list! But let’s return to 2013!

What about Silver Screen’s album? I was happy to see it in the new 80s Guitar Pop guide published in Japan. It was released in 2013, and it’s already considered a classic by the Japanese indiepop fans. I can’t wait to visit the land of the rising sun. I have to see with my own eyes how good is their taste. I need to believe it.

Maybe I’m being exigent. I should be happy to see indiepop blogs celebrating the rewarding work of bands like Vampire Weekend. I should stop talking about these things because then I might be called the indiepop police. The leader of the very serious indiepop militia. But who cares? I love ‘wasting’ a Wednesday afternoon rambling about it. I just think people are always easy on themselves, and even though they love going to Indietracks every year, showing how DIY and indiepop they are, at the end of the day, they are just normal, another gray sheep in the field, with nothing to add to the conversation.

As you know, I’m not a fan of putting together a year end list. I’ve said it many times. It has to do with me being very forgetful. Even if you ask me what are the song names of that Proctors album that has had heavy rotation in the last month, I may be able to name you one or two. My favourite song I think is number 4 (or 5?). I remember them by numbers. I know that when eventually I get invited to DJ, I’ll rip it and burn it and learn the song’s name. I will play it too for people to dance. Or maybe I get to blog about it. That’s how it works for me.

But there are those that need to make sense of the year. That need lists to explain what happened through the whole twelve months. What were the breakthrough artist? What were the important and exciting comebacks.? And that’s really great. I’m curious to read them. There’s always a different point of view between them and me (though lately there’s a trend where there are no point of views, just a long list of Youtube videos).

Anyways, what I’m trying to say is, that even though it hasn’t been the best indiepop year, there have been some pretty solid releases that either because people are lazy and only reading Pitchfork, or these exciting songs got lost in a sea of MP3s, they are not being recorded as best of 2013. People are MISSING OUT. And that’s pretty scary. I feel that we are not that far away from the day when every blog has the same year end list.

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It’s definitely no news that I love Sweden. Not news that I hate it too. Aren’t those relationships the best? I’ve been the happiest there, but I’ve been the saddest as well. I managed to learn quite a bit of Swedish in the meantime and can understand a lot of what I read, and have a basic conversation. Probably useless as every day that passes I really doubt that I’ll move there as I could have thought I might 5 or 10 years ago. Especially since they started charging money for international students. I think that was the debacle of that dream.

Next year I’m going to be visiting again. At last I’ll visit Gothenburg too. Göteborg. Yeah! It’s been a long time since I’ve been meaning to visit, especially as I have this idealized idea of what it used to be during those days of the Starke Adolf tweepunkdisco club. I’ll end up in Stockholm again eventually too. That’s how I roll. Stockholm makes me feel happy, uncomfortable, sad, energized.D I don’t know how to explain it. Let’s say it just gets me dizzy. But the story of today is not about any of these towns, not even Uppsala or Malmö, the other towns I’ve visited in my lifetime. But Varberg. And you ask, where is Varberg?

Varberg and all of Halland are well known for their “typical west coast” sandy beaches. In Varberg the coast changes from wide sandy beaches to rocky terrain that continues north into the Bohuslän archipelago and as far as the North Cape. Varberg is a charming and popular summer resort and many people from inland cities such as Borås are either moving to Varberg or holidaying there.

A fortress called Varberg (at that time written Wardbergh, “watch hill”) was erected in the 1280s as part of a chain of military establishments along the coast, in what was then Danish territory. In the middle of the 14th century, the old settlement “Getakärr” 1 kilometre (0.6 miles) north of the fortress took its new name from the fortress.

Matilda Mus came from Varberg, from a small-ish town of 27 thousand people. Perhaps less. It was the 80s, those numbers are from these days. Matilda Mus of course means Mouse Matilda, and it seems it was a popular children book series. An author that I find associated to it is Susi Adams. But that’s not a Swedish name. Perhaps she lived there. I couldn’t find any information in English about these books. Some titles from the series are “Mouse Matilda cooks pancakes”, “Mouse Matilda is sick”, “Mouse Matilda plays the circus” or “Mouse Matilda has a summer love”. The band must have grabbed their name from these series.

How did I ever found about this band. Aside from a few Swedish bands from the 80s that are not Roxette and are alright known (you could name Watermelon Men and Ubangi perhaps? Happydeadmen for sure), we don’t find out much about the rest. Because there was a rest. A bunch of bands. But it was thanks to stumbling to a blog post by Roger Gunnarsson, of Nixon’s fame, that I was pointed to listen to whatever I could find from Matilda Mus. Two songs, thanks to Youtube. One was the one I’ll be posting here, “Nu E De Jul” (Now is Christmas), because it makes sense being so close to that holiday, and “På Sommaren” (On Summer). Both songs are deliciously fun to listen! Punky, raw, and very pop!

On his blog post Roger praises Matilda Mus because of the DIY approach. Their first two singles were hand-made, photocopied sleeves, and gigged a lot around Halland to build a cult fanbase. He mentions that they were so fun because Halland is pretty well known for their good humour. Among the “fun” things, were a choir dressed as mice on stage and silly nicknames for the band members.

There is not much written online, not even in Swedish. We know that in 1985 they won a local rock band contest and I assume with the winning prize recorded their first single, “På Sommaren” (catalog MM 001). This was recorded during three nights in Abeef Studios in April 1985. The sleeve came in different colours, you could find them in green, pink, yellow and more. The tracklist for this single was:
1. På Sommaren
2. Matilda Mus
3. Du Får Aldrig Gå
4. Intill Min Död

On this first release the band was made up by:
Anna Wiktorsson – synth
Pär Pellepånken Mantéus – guitars
Ulf Lille Bulf Cronheim Bas – sång
Anna-Maja Zadie Mc Zymbal Persson – drums

For their second release there would be some lineup changes. We see that now on guitars we have Thomas Svarta Faran Klint and we find three girls joining the band. This was 1986. Marina Rydellingum on sax, Mada Ultra singing and Jackie Lady Lagom Sofronenkoff singing too. This is the 7″ that has “Nu E De Jul” on the A side, while on the B side, another Christmas-y song “Juleljus I Matildas Hus”. Wish I could listen to that one! This record was catalog number MM 003 and it was recorded in Halmstad (land of Nixon) in the studio Out of Control.

In 1986 they released their debut album, “Pussar Mjölk å Pop’n Roll”. This was catalog MM 002 and was recorded as well in the same studio in Halmstad in march 1985. On this record Paula Vig sang (she was a guest in the På Sommaren single it seems). Also joined Ewa-Marie Wag Nordin in singing duties. The band loved vocalists. This LP had 10 songs (1. Sagan Om Matilda Mus,  2. Lilla Söta Flicka,  3. Sommaren Är Här-lig,  4. Söt Å Snäll, 5. En Banan Till,  6. Pussar Mjölk Å Pop’n Roll,  7. När Du Är Här,  8. Jag Vill Ha En Harley,  9. Kär I Dej  and 10. Krigstid) and had a band photo on the cover sleeve.

Their last release came out in 1987. It was another sing, again self-released (catalog MM 004). The record was titled “Sodapopkid”, and included two songs “Sodapopkid” and “Snaskmadam”. The band appears in very summery outfits on the sleeve cover. Again this was recorded in Halmstad and the curious thing about this release is that “Snaskmadam” (Madame Candy) is actually a cover of The Archies “Sugar, Sugar”.

The only other release I’m aware that had a Matilda Mus appearance is a 1985 compilation called “Rock-DM – Scendrag 85 i Halland”. A sampler of bands from Halland that also included the bands Rock’s, Sabotage and Dead Line. On this record Matilda Mus contributes a song called “Fotomodellen”.

I believe Ulf Cronheim then moved to Halmstad. The band must have split by then. He formed a band called De Nissan Badpojkar and in 1988 released the single “Sommardag” (catalog 1988). Seems the melody from this song comes from Matilda Mus’ Sommaren Är Här-lig”, that’s what the Swedish site Musikon says.

The only other hint comes from Roger’s 2006 blog post. It says that Ulf later owned a café in Varberg called Majas Strandcafé. Upon a little digging on Google I found about this café and tells a bit of the history of how the café started:
It all started when Ulf Cronheim woke in the middle of the night and could not sleep. In the diary, were all written down guidelines for what would become Majas Strandcafé. The next morning Ulf called Anna Maja Persson and after some persuasion, she said yes to the idea of ​​opening a café. A few years earlier Annamaja after much persuasion agreed to become Ulf’s girlfriend, but they broke up after six months. Café ownership lasted just as long, but she completed her duties as drummer in Matilda Mus, the band that Ulf was in, until the band dissolved in atoms.

The café still goes on. Matilda Mus doesn’t. But the two songs I’ve heard from them are just up my street. I love this kind of pop. It reminds me a bit of Throw That Beat in The Garbagecan! I saw some auctions on Tradera that had ended not so long ago. The records were sold cheap. Either they are not that difficult to find or people don’t know much about them. I hope in the near future I get to find them. I would really love to listen to all their songs.

I leave you with this great Christmas song, and I’ll see you after that. Merry Christmas to everyone!

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Listen
Matilda Mus – Nu E De Jul

It’s snowing already in New York. Not much indiepop for me these days aside from listening to Shine! songs a lot. Trying to find the right order of the songs for the upcoming compilation. Also on heavy rotation some old albums by The Times, Throw That Beat, The Earthmen. The only exception being The Proctors album that I recently got from Ed when he was visiting New York. Lovely album. Should be in those year end lists people love doing and that I can’t get around my mind to make one. Still the album I’ve listened to the most this year is Silver Screen’s. But that might be me being biased.

I went to Mondo this past weekend too, after devouring some delicious Korean dumplings in K-Town, and a stop in Bushwick to see Grand Resort play along other hipster bands. Highlights of the dance party were Alpaca Sports “I Was Running” and Go Violets’ “Josie”. I must have been a bit drunk as it seems I recorded some clips of the songs and mailed them to the bands. Geeky fan. At least the bands seemed happy and not annoyed!

On Friday I was supposed to go check a new band that Ed tipped me called Gingerlys. On bandcamp they sound pretty good so I wanted to check them live. Unfortunately it was raining way too much to do that inter-continental trip to Bushwick that night. Hopefully I’ll catch them soon. I haven’t discovered that many exciting new bands as of late, especially in the city. So this could be something!

Also the Twee.net Poll is now open. I should cast my votes pretty soon. And you all should too! Would be interesting to see who wins. I might be wrong, but I feel this has been a year of little surprises. More like a quiet indiepop year aside from some amazing comebacks like The Brilliant Corners or The Haywains. When it comes to new bands, I will look east. I think the best new bands come from Japan and Australia this year (again the exception being Don’t Cry Shopgirl from Sweden). Don’t you agree?

But in general, it has been a good year for me. Plenty of traveling. Many new friends. Three pop festivals. Can’t complain. The idea is to keep it up next year. NYC Popfest for sure. Indietracks 90% that will happen. I have a Travelodge room already reserved so…

Not much more this week, winter seems a bit uneventful, especially December. You’d think people buy indiepop records as presents but that’s never the case. There’s the Big Pink Cake Christmas special, but that’s in London. I can only wish to be there. Anyways, I’ll see you next week, hopefully with some exciting news. Maybe by then I have already book my new vacations.

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Don’t know about you, but these days, I have a hard time to get out of bed. Not because of any sort of sadness or depression. It’s just cozy. It’s warm. And it’s terribly cold not being under the sheets and blankets. I don’t mind the cold weather, I actually enjoy it, it’s just that moment of the day that is difficult for me. So until we are halfway through March I guess this will be the routine. Or maybe I’m just getting older, my thirtieth birthday looming. Scary.

My computer at work broke down. When I arrived from vacations it wasn’t working. Seems that the hard drive was fried. Through some recovery stuff, I manage to salvage a bunch of songs. Most of these are obscure songs that I’ve been sent by friends through email. Songs by bands that I’ve been looking for their records without luck. Hard to find.

The computer was formatted. And now I’m listening to all these songs again. Just for fun. Then suddenly some songs catch my attention. They are by a band called “And So To Bed”. A friend from Portugal, Joel, had shared these with me. I do a google search. As you can imagine a phrase like this gave me thousands of results. So I dug and dug.

Rupert at Turntable Revolution wrote on May 12 2012:
“And So To Bed released one 7″ in the mid eighties which has been on my wants list for a few years and turns up on ebay. Happy days until the listing is ended early by the greedy seller. So has anyone got a copy of this elusive single for sale?”

Then I found the listing on eBay. It was a seller in California. On the item description I find the first hints about this elusive record.
“Great C86 jangly indie-pop from this north London combo active around 1986/1987. Features 4 songs: And So To Bed (She Said) / Just Desserts / Plaindom / Spit It Out. Promo stamped with “Timebox Records: for promotional use only”. “

Indeed, it’s great jangly indie-pop! And we get to know the four songs on the 7″. We also get to know the label, Timebox Records. There’s just one more stop, one last hit google gave me. And that’s the Firestation Records blog that Uwe ran for a short time recommending and tipping some amazing stuff. There he writes: Amazing London-based band which was around the late 80’s. One 7“ single, released on Timebox Records, simply named “The EP“. Four tracks, four hits, full of jangly guitars somewhere between the first two singles by Laugh and The Close Lobsters.

So much praise for this band. So much excitement. And the songs do live up to them. The problem is, why the hell nobody knows anything else about them? Who were they? It’s a safe bet that Timebox Records was their own label they set up to put out the record. So that makes it even more difficult to track them down. There is a blog were it says Sperm Wails played with them. That’s the only other mention I could find online. It seems that aside this 7″ their legacy is non-existent. The band members names? What were they? Anyone knows anything else? They were from London. Someone has to remember!

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Listen
And So To Bed – And So To Bed

Alright. So where are the top ten lists for this year. I’m waiting. It’s already December and to my surprise I still haven’t seen any of these lists, not even on Facebook. Could it possibly be that there hasn’t been that many great releases in 2013? Or to be more sincere, the great releases of this year haven’t been released by the well known labels so they have been under the radar of most people? Could be. I like to think this has been the case. But let’s wait and see, it’s still early December and not even the Twee.net poll is open. So let’s wait and see, I’m quite curious.

Last week there wasn’t a blog post. And can’t say I missed writing. I didn’t even think about it. I had a very intense week traveling in Peru, partying, visiting friends, drinking, eating, etc, etc. I think I napped one day. I don’t think I had much time to relax and take it easy. That’s why I look forward to this Monday as I have requested a day of ‘staycation’. Really need it. I’m not complaining though, I saw the impressive Machu Picchu. I was in awe. I was also very tired to go up all the little rock stairs to the summit to take that classic photograph with the citadel behind you. I ate for the first time alpaca and also went to a restaurant that serves food from the Amazonian region. That was quite exciting.

I got to see Eva & John play live for the first time. I saw them also at a band practice. Both times I liked them a lot. They are unique for the scene in Peru, and it shows. They have followers that know their songs by heart. Now just need to push them to record 4 more songs. The 2-song flexi that they released earlier this year is not enough for a band that has so many catchy songs. I really hope that a 7″ will happen in 2014.

After many years I visited a disco in Lima. The music is still quite terrible, but what can you ask for. It’s not like we get good indiepop discos in New York City either way. I remember I danced to Pulp. And then I mostly just drank. It was cheap. 3 dollars for a huge bottle of beer. Half liter I believe? Those things are very convenient. But beware, not everything is cheap. Food wasn’t. I feel it’s around the same prices as in New York!

I got to see many friends, many that I haven’t seen for years. Some that were part of my gang while I lived in Miami. It made me happy to see that they are doing well. Earning good money. Living alone. Being successful. It also made me proud that Plastilina Records has a name these days in Peru. People recognize the label I started with three other friends and that these days Jalito is the driving-force. Funny though that indiepop is associated to hipsters in Lima. It might be the only place in the world that this sort of music is associated to them (ok, it used to be like that in Sweden for some time). I guess hipsters are the outsiders in Peru? Or viceversa? I don’t know how it ended up being like that. But it’s a bit scary! As long as they don’t ruin it all…

Anyways, I’m back and I have a couple of more posts to write this year. There are also some interviews that I hope I’ll publish as well. There will be Cloudberry news soon too. Lost Tapes 7″ will be out in around a month time. And then there will be new releases announcements! So keep an eye on the blog.

Also, if you are not aware, it seems there will be a new Popfest next year. It will be based in Birmingham and will happen in April. No clue who is organizing it, but the lineup already looks great. I wish I could go, so, if you can, you should definitely head there!

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Now let’s move onto some obscure band, one that I keep losing on eBay everytime it shows up: Boston Crabs.

As obscure as it gets. As mysterious as it gets. Because obviously they weren’t from Boston. They hailed from Hull.

If you google for Boston Crabs, you’ll see some Lacrosse team with that name. But perhaps the name may come from this “Boston crab”:
The Boston crab is a professional wrestling hold that typically starts with one wrestler lying in a supine position on the mat, with the other wrestler standing and facing him. It is a type of spinal lock where the wrestler hooks each of the opponent’s legs in one of his arms, and then turns the opponent face-down, stepping over him in the process. The final position has the wrestler in a semi-sitting position and facing away from his opponent, with the opponent’s back and legs bent back toward his head. The original name for the maneuver was the Backbreaker, before that term became known for its current usage. In modern wrestling, the Boston crab is not treated as a lethal submission maneuver, even though it was considered a match-ending hold in the past. In Japan, it is commonly used as a hold to defeat young and inexperienced wrestlers; the ability to overcome the hold is considered a sign of growth.  In submission grappling, the Boston crab (generally the half Boston crab) can be used to set up a straight ankle lock.

Not much into wrestling myself. When I was much younger, perhaps 13 or so, I did watch a bit of the American wrestling on TV. And once in Miami I met Hulk Hogan. That was odd.

Perhaps they just liked to have an American flavor to their name. When listening to the B-side of their one and only single, the song called “Icebox”, you can feel a bit of Americana in it, thanks to it’s Midwest guitars. But who knows, it’s anyone’s guess.

The A side is my favourite though, it’s proper jangle pop, indiepop, c86. However you want to call it. This classic slice of pop with trumpets is called “Burn”. No surprise that this record was released in 1986 by the D~I~Y label (catalog 1,000,000).

The information about the band is scarce. Thanks to scans on 45cat, we know that the B side is titled on the label as “Your Love is Really Icebox, Baby”, and not just “Icebox” as in the sleeve, that the record was engineered by Peter Kennedy and recorded at Farmhouse Studios in Goxhill. There’s not much to read about Goxhill.

But let’s turn to the sleeve. There’s a cryptic message “A £108.34 including petrol’ recording. Then there are some important clues for solving the case of this band: band members.

Wayne Jordan – vocals, guitar
Luke Luke LD-50 – noisy guitars
Paul Mackay – drums, percussion
Rick Newman – bass guitar

Special Guest Star
Dave Blackmore – saxophone

I try to find them. No luck. Can’t be that they just disappeared into thin air. There’s something else though on the sleeve. A text written by someone called General Zak:

Still in their early 20’s, the Boston Crabs prove themselves the most versatile young singer-entertainers of the day. For here are two exciting numbers delivered in two distinctive styles.
One change of pace after another, that’s the way it goes through this whole dynamic single. Yet never changing is the powerful unique sound of the Crabs as they dominate and control every song. And for the first time instrumental backing by the fabulous Dave Blackmore adds a fiery vigour to the latest Crabs single.

This text leaves me wondering. First because it says “latest Crabs single”. Was there a prior one? Was there anything else released by them? Also, it says they were in their early 20s! They were young. They must have made music afterwards in one way or another. At least one of them, right?!

Dave Blackmore though seems easier to find. Under his name he released a 1996 album called “Fields of Fire” and has worked with bands like Chalktown. There’s even a biography here. But what about the rest, the ones that were actually the Boston Crabs? It seems for now, they will still remain a mystery.

If you know anything else about them, you saw them live, or even have more recordings, let me know. Would love to know more about them!

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Listen
Boston Crabs – Burn

2014 around the corner! This is the last post of November as next week I’ll be out of town. In the very remote chance that you’ll happen to be in Lima, Peru, next week, there’s an event that I want you to attend. I will be DJing on the 28th at a club in downtown Lima after the bands Eva & John and Submarino play. It’s a very happy chance for me as I’m a big fan of Eva & John, who put out one of the freshest debuts this year. The link for the Facebook event is here. If you happen to be around, please say hello!

On some random Cloudberry news, I hope you are all aware that you can pre-order both The Rileys and Lost Tapes 7″. They should be ready by the end of December or early January. I’ll keep you updated as there will be posts in the blog next month of course. 4 at least. So keep an eye on that. And of course there’s a bunch of interviews I’ve been working on, trying to shed some light on some obscure bands that deserve to be known!

I’ve written a bit already about this trip to Peru, perhaps not that much as I use to when I go abroad, but I will definitely go through it when I return. But my arrival doesn’t look that great, I’ve already been told that this coming weekend no alcohol is served as there are elections for some positions in the Lima municipality. Weird laws. Just have to go along I guess.

Let’s travel to Wales today. Though not to my memories of my Welsh holiday a year and a half ago. I have very happy memories of it of course, Cardiff, Swansea, Chepstow, Tintern. One of the best weeks of my life definitely. So many castles visited. I want to go back, to Pembroke, to Caernarfon, to Anglesey, places that I have only read about in all these books about medieval Great Britain that I own. So many places I want to visit, the list goes on. I fell in love with that magical country, full of myths and mystery. True, after that trip I had one of the hardest breakups so far in my young life. And that makes Wales a difficult place for me. But still, I’m hard-headed and want to visit Wales again. And while figuring out and admiring those beautiful castles in the northwest, I also want to figure out one of indiepop’s biggest mysteries, Tynal Tywyll.

Not much of a mystery because of being obscure. I believe a lot of people know about them. But they know the name and little more. A week or two ago Andreas from Hamburg, a true indiepop visionnaire, wrote me about them. He was looking for more information about their releases.  Discogs doesn’t list all of them. So he sent me a list of information he had gathered and could be helpful for researching about them. And hopefully learn whatever happened to them.

I know of them from just some loose songs. I know mostly about them through Youtube I must admit. There’s the video for the jingly jangly “Telyn Wedi Torri” that gives us a little tour of a Welsh town (which town is it? can anyone tell me?), another video for a live performance for “Y Gwyliau“, that sounds a bit Morrissey-like, and also a pair of videos of a live gig that includes a bunch of their songs ( part 1 includes I believe “Emyr”, “Duw Rhyw”, “Cyfweliad” and “Jack Kerouac” while part 2 includes “Crocodeil” and “Showbiz”). To our luck, we also get a live performance of the song of the promo video, there is this beautiful live rendition of “Telyn Wedi Torri” that you all ought to listen and watch. The guitars don’t stop chiming!

After you’ve listened and you wonder why don’t you understand them, you’ll notice they sing in Welsh. I must admit that I didn’t hear much Welsh while I was in Wales. Only at the train stations. I expected to use some of the silly phrases I learned from the Lonely Planet guidebook we brought. But no. Welsh (Cymraeg or y Gymraeg) is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically it has also been known in English as “the British tongue”, “Cambrian”, “Cambric”[12] and “Cymric”. The 2011 UK Census counted almost 3 million residents of Wales. Of these, 73% (2.2 million) reported having no Welsh language skills. Of the residents of Wales aged three and over, 19% (562,000) reported being able to speak Welsh, and 77% (431,000) of these (that is, 15% of the total population) were able to speak, read, and write the language. This can be compared with the 2001 Census, in which 20.8% of the population (582,000) reported being able to speak Welsh. In surveys carried out between 2004 and 2006, 57% (315,000) of Welsh speakers described themselves as fluent in the written language.

Also pretty interesting is their counting system, which is very similar to French The traditional counting system used by the Welsh language is vigesimal, which is to say it is based on twenties, as in standard French numbers 70 (soixante-dix, literally “sixty-ten”) to 99 (quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, literally “four twenties nineteen”). Welsh numbers from 11 to 14 are “x on ten”, 16 to 19 are “x on fifteen” (though 18 is deunaw “two nines”); numbers from 21 to 39 are “1–19 on twenty”, 40 is “two twenties”, 60 is “three twenties”, etc. This form continues to be used, especially by older people, and it is obligatory in certain circumstances (such as telling the time).

Anyways, enough of linguistics, though I find it immensely interesting. I found a very informative biography on last.fm for Tynal Tywyll. This might start solving the mystery.

Tynal Tywyll formed in 1984 in the very confusing landscape of mid 80’s Welsh music. Heavy metal to the left of them. Reggae to the right of them. What could they do? Taking their cue from The Byrds and REM they played a chime-y, rickenbacker infused form of “pop” music and released 3 singles, 3 EPs and 2 albums. On their first TV appearance on HTV Wales they dared to wear turtle neck jumpers, paisley shirts and necklaces, which was enough to elicit, if not death threats, threats of a good kicking from some quarters. They once recorded a TV session on the same day as Heavy Metal legends Wenfflam, who wore skin tight tiger print pants in a sort of NWOBHM Saxon style, and who have gone down in history as the Welsh language Anvil. All Hail Wenfflam. (Indeed all hail Anvil too. But we draw the line at Manowar.) TT were vehemently Metal-phobic at this time, and were naively worried that being in the same studio as a metal band would infect them with the airborne virus know as “Spirit of metal” and make them buy Donington Rock tickets. It did not. As time has gone by the TT members have grown up a bit and actually consider sharing a stage with Wenfflam a privilege. Anyhoo, continuing, the band played many concerts in some very strange places such as Dolgellau village hall, which was actually rafter swinging, riotously good fun. They did get their van headbutted without provocation by a cloven hoofed man beast in Bala but that is another story. At one Eisteddfod, in a starlit field, after midnight, they were accosted by a weeping man mountain know only as “Maharan”. He could have killed the whole band with one thumb thrust but the band quickly offered the tearful behemoth words of solace like Androcles to the lion, and he was grateful and spared them. At one concert a drunken ape of a young farmer manhandled one of their guitars and surveyed it as if it had beamed down from mars, uttering quizzical grunts as he turned it every which way. They did not correct him for they were fey musicians, not ringmasters of feral turnip gatherers. Many and absurd were their adventures. They were “active” (in the musical sense) from 1984 to 1995. A compilation CD of all their records is possible within the next few months. There are no plans to dust off the turtle neck jumpers for a live reunion, as they would rather be remembered as young and relatively pretty, but their spirit lives on in the recordings.

A compilation CD of all their records? I don’t think this ever happened did it? This text was written in 2011.

Let’s head to Discogs then and see what’s listed there as any pop researcher would do as a first step.

There’s one album listed, ” Lle Dwi Isho Bod +… “. It has Scooby Doo and Shaggy on the cover. They too were used to solve mysteries. Scooby Doo was one of my favorite cartoons when little. It was aired in channel 7, a government owned channel, back in Lima. I believe it aired at around 4:30pm. I could be wrong, it was a long time ago. It was before the Cartoon Network and that sort of things. This album was released in 1992, on the Crai label (catalog CD 032) and included 20 songs! Andreas tells me that songs 1 to 14 were originally released on MC (one of the albums, probably the final one) and tracks 15 to 20 are culled from various singles.

The Ankst label  lists an album “Slow Dance Hefo’r Iesu” (Ankst 002), but can’t find any more information.

There are two singles listed. The first from 1986, “’73 Heb Flares / Rhwyma Fi“, included those two songs and was released by Recordiau Anhrefn (catalog Anhrefn 007). The second single was the one from the video, “Mae’r Telyn Wedi Torri” and was released by the Bobby Riggs label in 1987. The catalog number was SRT-7KS-1383 and the B side for this single was “Y Gwyliau”.

The Anhrefn label also released some guitar bands like Y Cyrff or the punkier Fflaps, worth checking on Youtube.

There is of course another 7″ not listed that I did know about, that’s the one that has “Jack Kerouac” on the A side. I used to think this was the most well known record by them, but if it’s not listed on Discogs, well, I guess it’s not.  This one was released in 1990 and R072F. The B side was “Boomerang”.

Then there’s a 7″ on the Ankst label, “Syrthio Mewn Cariad”, catalog Ankst 004. Not sure what the other songs on this are. It is an EP, so perhaps more than 2 songs are included in the record.

But Andreas sends me a link for yet another single, not listed on Discogs. This one from 1988, with catalog number SRT 9KS 1858. I wasn’t aware of this one. With a very 60s artwork, this record includes the songs “Duw Rhyw” and “Gorfennaf Eto” on the A side and “Showbiz” and “Gerddi” on the B side. A veil of mystery covers this one.

They also appeared on the compilation “Cam O’r Tywyllwch” released by the Recordiau Anhrefn label. Catalog was 002. In this comp they contributed the songs “Paid A Synnu” and “Yr Effaith”.

By now I feel terrible. I don’t own any of these records! I should start getting my hands dirty and try to find them!

I keep searching and I stumble on a WordPress blog by the same uploader of many of the videos of the band. It’s called Fanzine Ynfytyn ( I believe this means Fanzine Idiot). There’s a blog post and souncloud links about Tynal Tywyll! It seems these recordings come from a completely unofficial tape! have a look! It sounds amazing. It seems these recordings are from 1985!

Okay so you have questions, what does Tynal Tywyll means? It means Dark Tunnel. This I learn from a book called Blerwytirhwng?’ The Place of Welsh Pop Music  that seems very pricey, but there’s a Google scan of it. Here it confirms that they hailed from North Wales, and they seem to be grouped into a scene called the Bethesda scene. Sadly this is the only mention of the band here.

Gladly Andreas helps me with the band members:
Ian Morris – singer
Nathan Hall – lead guitar
Gareth Williams – bass
Gruffy Davies – rhythm guitar
Dafydd Richards – keyboards
Gareth Hughes – drums

It is still very mysterious but we’ve been putting many pieces together. We have at least a better discography than Discogs by now, and we have some names. Let’s keep digging.

There’s a mention of a Gareth Williams singing in an alt-country band called Colobos in Wrexham. That’s North Wales. Could be him? What about a Gareth Hughes, playing drums in a punk metal band called Act of Supremacy? though it seems that by 2007 he had left the band already.

But I think I hit the jackpot. I found a band called Soft Hearted Scientists based in Cardiff. Nathan Hall seems to be playing there. If he is the same Nathan Hall who I think it is. Will try my luck emailing them.

Though there’s still a piece of the story that I haven’t mentioned. Tynal Tywyll singing in English. They were called The Collectors and perhaps that should be another blog post. But at least let’s mention that they released two CDs  the 1993/4  “Astronaut Girl”  and the “Desolation Angels”, both on Citizen Records.

I haven’t heard these CDs either, but some of the songs posted on Youtube, though Andreas tells me that “The Collectors are also very good and the interesting part is that they re-wrote and re-recorded (at least two) TT songs with English lyrics, e.g. “Jack Kerouac” (with Welsh lyrics) became “World Away” (with English lyrics) etc.”

The first CD, “Astronaut Girl”, is catalog 002, whereas the second was 003. I wonder, was there a Citizen Records 001? I assume this was their own label.  “Desolation Angels” includes 14 songs. 6 of them appear on “Astronaut Girl”. The only song that remains exclusive to the 7-track “Astronaut Girl” is  “What Have We Got To Lose?”. The fact that the address on the back for Citizen Records is what creates a bit of confusion. It states the label is based in Cardiff. Either they moved from the north to Cardiff, which is I think a more English speaking place and started singing in English, or the label was just based there and it wasn’t ran by the band.

And here the research reaches a wall. There are no more places to look on the web at least. But I’m sure people out there must have heard about them, maybe saw them, or own their records! Would be great to hear if you have any more information about this fantastic Welsh indiepop band! A one of a kind band, that deserves more recognition in the indiepop-world!

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Listen
Tynal Tywyll – Jack Kerouac

A week ago I received the second and possibly last album by Electrophönvintage. After listening to it a couple of times on my cd player, the one I carry around in my backpack all the time, I realized two things. First this can’t be the last album by the London band. Second, this album is brilliant.

I’ve been a fan of the band for many years now. I even have asked them many times for songs for a possible 7″ release. This never happened. What did happen was that I managed to see them live once, joined them at a band practice, and bought their first 7″ from Stephen Pastel. But I guess I should start from the beginning, as it’s not a short story.

It’s 1999, and Remi Parson starts this band as a solo project in France. Indiepop child prodigy. He is very very young. The next year, in 2000, he releases his first ever record, a 7″ with Plastic Pancake Records. Four songs, “I Don’t Want to Stay”, “Etap Hotel”, “The Passage” and “Shops” color the twelfth release of this French label. A label that eventually would move to London, the same way that years later Electrophönvintage would follow.

Plastic Pancake was an important influence, and player, for the early days of the band. Since 1997 this label released many classic indiepop acts like Marine Time Keepers, Picture Center or Les Poisson Solubles. It was definitely no surprise Remi found a good home here, and also a very good friend in Pierre, who ran the label. As the label grew in releases, Electrophönvintage stagnated. Remi had joined a post rock band, The Bright Period, where he plays guitar, and eventually releases an album “A Place for Parks” on Unique Records (catalog UR 02).

There’s a break. A couple of years. Until 2003. Then Electrophönvintage comes back, I guess because there’s an indiepop heart in Remi, and even though he does love Migala and some post-rock, he needed to let loose his pop sensibility. By now Delphine Bost has joined the band to what will become a fantastic partnership. Also Sebastien Linares, who Remi worked with in A Place for Parks, joins them on bass. With this new lineup they will release their first album “We Sang A Yéyé Song” with the Unique Records label (UR 03). It’s told that this record only took 1 day to be recorded. It was recorded that year at studio ATL by Pat, and it also counted with the help of Anicet Rohée (from A Place for Parks) on drums. Electrophönvintage is no more a solo project, but a full band. This album is a beautiful collection of smart songwriting, of songs written during a long time period, the newer ones written while being a student in Grenoble, and the older ones rediscovered from old tapes sitting in a cupboard. It’s a beautiful debut album, it’s classic indiepop, and as the Facebook page of the band nicely puts it, “short wooden pop songs”. For a taster, definitely head to Youtube and check the video for “Where You’re Not“. Delphine stars, and Remi’s trademark drawn-self appears too.

Upon re-listening the album it’s impressive the change between that first album and the second. But before we fast forward lets stop in 2006. This year the band contributes three songs, “Rescue”, “The Former President”  and “Where You’re Not”, to the Unique Records compilation “Just Close To You (A Five-Year Compilation Of Unique Records)” (catalog UR 13 from this French label). This is not their only compilation appearance though. In 2009 they will appear on a WeePop compilation called “Starting Anew” with the song “Don’t Wake Me Up”.

I believe it was in 2006 that Remi and Delphine relocated to London. Perhaps earlier. It was in 2006 when I first heard of the band. It was through their other project, at that time, just a side project, The Sunny Street. With The Sunny Street I have so many stories, that I hold very dear, but that’s for another time (though I’m pretty sure there’s a writeup of the first gig I ever saw by them in Hamburg 2010). With The Sunny Street I ended up working on a 3″, and an ill-fated album on Plastilina Records (thanks to the terrible work ethic of my partner in the label during that time). Ill-fated because it took more 6 months than the announced release date to appear in people’s mailboxes. It was a shame. I felt cheated. And I’m sure a lot of people out there did too. Those who ordered the album. Gladly this taught him a lesson and the Plastilina label seems to be much more reliable these days. Shame though it happened with one of the bands I loved the most, to a group of friends that I cared for. Shit happens they say. Things weren’t the same since then. Anyhow, back to Electrophönvintage.

As a side project, Electrophönvintage, didn’t live up to The Sunny Street fame. Musically they were two different creatures. Influence-wise you could say the same. The funny thing was that it was the same people playing. Remi had recruited Ian Cowen on bass (from Pocketbooks and now in The Understudies), and Christos Kalyvas on second guitar. A band with Christos let me tell you is a winner. No one sports better indiepop t-shirts than him, all made by himself mind you! This was The Sunny Street lineup. But when it was Electrophönvintage, Johnny from Pocketbooks would join on drums.

With this lineup they played a bunch of gigs, mostly in London. They did play one Indietracks gig in 2012. At the chapel. Those were happy days for me. 2012 was a good year just before Indietracks, then things went a bit downhill for me. But during Indietracks, sitting next to Alex, on the coldest summer I’ve experienced, rainy, visiting cows and donkeys, a week in Wales, a happy heart and dreams of a future by the coast of Skåne or in a wooden cabin in Unalaska, we enjoyed one of the most beautiful indiepop gigs of the year. I have the setlist still, dedicated to me, an illustration of a man open mouthed, all colored, and in that open mouth the songs to be played: “Siq”, “Where You’re Not”, “You Met a Girl”, “Football Teams”, “Shops”, “The Former President”, “Orphée”, “That Loving April”, “Michel”, and my favourite “Burgundy”. I’ve never seen so much effort put on making a such a neat setlist. You can tell aesthetics were important for them, and they cared very much for their band. Details like this speak for themselves.

Let’s rewind a bit, the previous year, 2011, I went to Indietracks too. Before that I went as sort of a roadie with Very Truly Yours to a couple of cities in the UK. One of those cities was Glasgow. Upon arriving our friend Krister was there waiting for us to give us a bit of a tour. Before that we had some food of course. I had haggis and beer. Krister tried the Arbroath Smokies. So adventurous we were. We headed then to Mono, the store Stephen Pastel runs. We were lucky that that day he was around. Krister introduced me to Stephen, and I as thrilled that he knew about Cloudberry. We took a photo, though not as cool as the one Daniel So Tough has. Anyhow, I went through the store and found Electrophönvintage’s debut 7″. Didn’t think twice to buy it, even though I already had it. You can call me nuts. But it had to be done.

If I rewind a bit more, to 2010, but earlier. February 2010. London Popfest. By now it’s over. But I’m still hanging around. I’m invited by Remi to join Electrophönvintage for their band practice. I had never seen them live, so I said yes. I would love to. I carried some instruments around. I think the practice space was around Oxford Street, but I might be wrong. We took the bus. We sat on the second floor. Ah! The double decker buses. I miss them, sitting on the front of the second floor just like Jennifer taught me. Until next July probably huh? Anyways, Johnny didn’t come to practice. So there was no Electrophönvintange practice anymore. Resourceful Remi decided then that it would be a Sunny Street practice instead. My luck then was that I would never see them playing live. I would have never imagined that two years later I would end up seeing them. Funny fact: I recorded the ‘video’ for “Insull” of The Sunny Street during this would-be Electrophönvintage practice.

Fast forward again. 2013. “Play Harp in Your Hair” is released. This is their second album. From what it says on bandcamp, these recording are not new. They are from 2006. These are the credits stated there:
released 23 June 2013
Recorded by Pat at Atl Studios. France. Summer 2006.
Personnel: Delphine Bost, Rémi Parson and Sébastien Llinares.
All songs by Electrophönvintage.
Big thanks to Pierre-Antoine, Alexis, Anicet, Bart, Bruno, Camila, Christos, Gérald, Ian, Jean-Louis, Jonny, Martin, Pat… + Everyone we forgot (thousands).

I ordered the album and arrived promptly. 5 pounds plus postage for a nicely packaged CDR. Hand-made. Handwritten. Assembled with scissors and glue. Released by  Remi’s classic imprint “Phonic Kidnapping Records” (home of Remi’s solo CDR, Cocoanut Groove first 7″ and more), and only limited to 50 copies (run for your copy). 8 songs. Short and sweet. If it’s fair enough, to say for a 2006 album, this is one of the best albums of 2013 for me. I keep playing it again and again. Songs like “Burgundy” and “Football Teams” are classics in my book. I love how Delphine sings in “Putefix” too. My favourite in the album is “Carrots Code”. The melodies are smart. There is a warmth that you don’t find often in songs anymore. It’s all simply done. There’s no tricks, no cheating. It’s what it is. It’s heartfelt music. It’s like opening up Electrophönvintage’s members souls and pouring it into a blender, and getting these 8 songs. Without artifices. Honest. Sincere. Transparent. You feel this is a band you want to be friends with. Spend a night with them listening to their favourite songs, and hearing their anecdotes about growing up, while drinking beer around a bonfire. You can tell these songs are made by people like me or you, people that love pop, that breathe pop, that dream pop.

Within the envelope there’s a note with Remi’s handwriting, a nice cursive, one you don’t see much anymore. He hopes I’ll like the album, he asks me to let him know what I think. I hope this post answers the question. To the other question on the message, how is NYC treating me? Well, it treats me pretty well Remi. Today is pretty cold, 2 degrees Celsius. Your record accompanied me once more on the subway ride from home to work. There’s something very autumnal about your album, but I can’t pinpoint what it is. It’s an orange and sepia album, leaves falling, and nostalgia. Why? I can’t say. They are wooden pop songs. But most importantly, they are eternally hopeful songs. That’s something I like about your music in general, it feels that whatever happens, the outcome will be good.

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Listen
Electrophönvintage – Football Teams

Thanks so much to Shaun Blezard for this fantastic interview! The Peach Thieves were around in the late 80s and only released one flexi with two songs “Out of Nowhere” and “Morecambe Bay”. A very rare record, that probably many of you haven’t heard, which I’m still trying to track down, but definitely worth your attention! It’s proper indiepop, with the right influences, with the right jangle. Now discover the wonders of The Peach Thieves!

++ Hi Shaun! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! I see you are still involved in music? Not indiepop though, right? Tell me what are you up to these days?

I work with electronics these days – part ambient (darkish) and improvisation and free jazz – kind of experimental I guess – I play solo as Clutter (working with field recordings and part sound art), Hugs Bison (iPad duo), Kipple (6 piece free jazz and electronics) + other one off things as they come along. You can see the kind of things I do at my website shaunblezard.net

++ Let’s go back in time. Were you involved with any other bands before The Peach Thieves? If so, care telling me a bit about them?

The Peach Thieves was my first band – I’d been very into music before then but never played an instrument till I joined the band.

++ And so when do The Peach Thieves start as a band? Who were the members? What did you each play? and how did you all know each other?

The Peach Thieves started in 1986 – Members Phillip Messenger: guitar, vocals – Johnny Picthall: guitar, vocals – Shaun Blezard: bass & Chris (can’t remember his second name): drums

Me & Phil went to school together so had known each other for years, Johnny we met in the training school at the shipyard we were all apprentices at in Barrow and Chris was a friend of a friend – he didn’t stay long as he was a serious rock type and we were a little cutsey and silly for him – he left and Neil Kemp joined on drums

++ When was the first time you picked up a bass? Do you still own your first one? What’s your favourite bass that you own?

I bought a cheap bass after joining the band it was an Italian copy of a rickenbacker (the guitar shape not the bass) not sure where it ended up, I then had a Peavey which was OK, then a 70’s white Rickenbacker which was lovely (I had to sell it to pay a tax bill though 🙁 still miss it) got given a Westone which is still my main bass – looks horrible but sounds and plays lovely, the only other bass I have is an acoustic

++ Where does the name the Peach Thieves come from?

It’s from a film The Peach Thief a 1960’s Bulgarian film, that I’ve still never seen – I think we were wanting to sound a bit arty – it’s on youtube if you want to see it http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dPBalNuBxfE

++ And I do need to ask this kind of silly question, but are peaches your favourite fruit? Did you all like them?

Not a massive peach fan – I love bananas, satsumas and Royal Gala apples the most – not sure about the others – there was no crazy peach parties that I remember

++ Who would you say were bands that influenced your sound as The Peach Thieves?

Orange Juice, The Pastels, Weather Prophets, Jonathan Richman, The Chesterfields, Primal Scream – we would have died happy to put out a 7″ on either Subway, 53rd & 3rd or Creation

++ Tell me about where were you based? What were the other cool bands in town? And the best places to go to gigs or play gigs?!

We were and I still am based in Cumbria – a beautiful part of the UK – we’re just outside the Lake District so lots of mountains and lakes but Barrow where we played most is a tough working class town – the bands we got on with were Red Hour and Masai Buckeroo the only other ‘indie’ bands around Red Hour were kind of like the Wedding Present/Television and Masai Buckeroo wanted to be Butthole Surfers – we played our very first gig on the same night in 86 in fact – Best venue by far was The Labour Club – sadly not there anymore but a great left wing bar with an upstairs concert hall – spent many happy hours in there.

++ Talking about gigs did you play many? Which were your favourite gigs as The Peach Thieves and why?

That first one in a village called Leece at a place that our friend Johnny G rented – it was an old farm house and we played in the driveway with lots of other bands on during the night – Johnny’s parties were legendary and lasted a couple of days…also Johnny G’s birthday in 1987 where we played in his living room for him and a dozen friends – the best we ever went down. The other one that sticks in the memory was in Lancaster where people took us seriously, which they often didn’t in Barrow and we signed autographs – that was great

++ You only released the one flexi with two songs, “Out of The Nowhere” and “Morecombe Bay”. Any chance you could tell me the story behind these two songs?

Out of The Nowhere was just a dumb song with Phil trying to be cool name checking the Man From UNCLE etc – Morecambe Bay is based on a jazz excercise and is based in the local area of Morcambe Bay – We tried to do songs with a local flavour – still like this song a lot, lovely melodies. You would have to find Phil to ask him about any deeper meanings.

++ What do you remember from the recording session of the flexi?

Not too much, it was at Low Fold, about the only local studio run by a ‘rock’ type – thus the overly processed production – we wanted it to be rougher sounding but didn’t know enough about things to change it – the recordings are OK though 🙂 I wasn’t at all good at this time and all my parts were written for me by Phil or Johnny so it was slow going……

++ Were you also behind the label that put it out? Uncle Records? How was that experience of promoting, selling, distributing your own record?

It was our own label as no label were interested and there weren’t many we would have signed to in our youthful principled way – promotion was mainly through fanzines so we sold quite a few that way and at gigs – we were far too innocent to understand real promotion, you just talked to other bands, swapped records, sold stuff at gigs – a real nice scene

++ And why did you decide to do it as a flexi and say not a 7″? And how come you didn’t get to release more records?

We did a flexi as everyone was doing them at the time, I think we liked the throw away quality of them, we were planning to do a 7″ next but Phil decided he wasn’t cut out to be in a band and so we split up – Myself and Neil went on to form a 7 piece psychedelic country band called The Clementines (https://archive.org/details/inhanksgarage), Johnny was in a band called Cloudtown for a bit and Phil popped up in a post rock band in Manchester for a while in the 90s

++ Do you happen to have more recorded material? Are there more Peach Thieves songs hiding in tapes in someone’s cupboard maybe?

I have some rehearsals and a couple of gig recordings on cassette – no studio stuff though. I have transferred a little of the tapes to CD but I think they will have to stay in the volt for now 🙂 I must go back and have a listen, we were getting pretty good towards the end

++ The curious part of the flexi is that it is dedicated to Vic Goddard. Were you good friends?

No we heard he was retired from the music industry and was a postman after his stuff like Holiday Hymn went down badly which we all loved so we dedicated it to him for that reason.

++ And then what happened to you guys? When and why did you split?

Phil decided he wasn’t wanting to be a musician so he left, and as he was the main songwriter it finished the band – He wasn’t interested in the travelling about and rehearsal etc – this was mid 1986. A short while later The Clementines formed on the picket line of the shipyard we worked in – Me, Neil and a few others thought it would be fun to put a country band together to raise funds for the strike, this is why we ended up a 7 piece – we played the usual fast Johnny Cash covers and 60’s byrds type stuff – we ended up being together for nearly 5 years

++ After The Peach Thieves, were you guys still involved with music? And do you still happen to listen to indiepop?

Phil left the band and moved to Manchester and lives there with wife and kids – not seen him in ages and I don’t think he plays music anymore. Chris went off and last thing I heard was brewing his own beer, Johnny played a little in town and still plays but not in public, Neil played in some great bands but sold his kit and got married I think, I played in The Clementines, then a Neil Young inspired band called The Behans then drifted into dance music – this ended up as Clutter, not really dance but have been involved in electronics for 15 years or so, but have started playing bass again here and there in Krautrock types things, also I’m learning to play the banjo old timey style. I still listen to some indie pop – Wedding Present, McCarthy, Wolfhounds and Orange Juice among lots of other stuff

++ Looking back, what would you say was the best part of being in The Peach Thieves?

Being a really shy boy, nearly sick when we played with my back to the audience to actually enjoying it and starting to feel like a musician, which has never left me – I still love playing live, not nervous anymore but it still excites me and I enjoy the travelling when I can. The feeling of really playing well together, when it clicks is like nothing else, much more important to me than fame.

++ Today, aside from music, what other hobbies or activities do you enjoy doing aside from music?

Music is still a huge part of my life but I also do film, animation, photography, graphic design and production management – I’ve been freelance for 14 years doing all this as an artist but also in the community – working with school kids, older people doing all kinds of exciting art and music. I love this side of things as much as the being paid to create – I’m just about to start a big animation and digital art project in 6 primary schools in Barrow which will be brilliant!! I am also Learning Officer at a working 18th Century water mill – I work there 2.5 days a week finding interesting ways to share the mills history and heritage – so far this has included a one off radio station with teenagers, animations and getting to know the area.

++ Let’s wrap it now! Thanks a lot Shaun! Anything else you’d like to add?

Just how nice it’s been answering your questions – after so long I can only guess it’s like being from an old garage band and knowing people still enjoy your little thing you created 🙂 Been real fun

Wow! It’s November already. The year went fast but it’s not over yet. There’s always news in indiepop, like for example I hear tomorrow there will be more band announcements for Madrid Popfest or the Shelflife Records sale were almost everything seems to be just $1.

Indiepop is alive and kicking even if i was announced that The Leamington Spa series is over (Uwe don’t do this to us!!!). NYC Popfest also announced the dates for next year festival, May 29 to June 1st, and of course there’s people already requesting a lot of terrible stuff. I look at the thread on Facebook and it scares me how people want the SAME bands that have played previous Popfests. Even the ones that played last year. Also of course there’s the people who has no shame and ask for bands that have no indiepop in their blood like Crystal Stilts or The Beets. I understand they love these bands and want to see them, but I strongly believe Popfests should showcase the new and the best of indiepop. If not what’s the point. Let’s just do a whatever festival like CMJ and that’s it. We know that Popfests are a big support to keeping alive the scene, so I wonder when will fans stop being so silly and stop thinking just for their sake instead of the scene sake. In any case I trust Maz and his taste for next NYC Popfest. He always delivers.

But not all is bad. There’s people that come with great ideas like Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike, The Woodentops, Northern Portrait or The Brilliant Corners. It’s half and half, the people that recognize the importance of Popfest and embrace it, and the people that think that any band could do.

Those who read me know my position of course. I’m with the half that supports indiepop bands.

Another good news is the launch of a new book in Japan called 80s Guitar Pop. It’s written in Japanese sadly but I think that, if similar to the Neo-Acoustic Guide, it will be a must-have for every indiepop lover out there. I’m doing everything possible now to secure a copy.

Last but not least came to my attention a post on the Twee Lovers Club group on Facebook where I was tagged. There was a nice comment recommending the blog. It said something along these lines “Plenty of obscure bands getting mentioned over there. Mostly really hard to find stuff.” Can’t complain. But the previous comment on this same thread reminded me of bad times: “one of my faves used to be run by this German guy who used to upload rare stuff, but he got harassed a lot by people who used to run labels and artists who made those songs and collectors who didn’t want their collection to lose their value. i can’t recall the name of the blog anymore.”

That blog was There and Back Again. Of course it was the favorite blog of many people, it was a full download blog. People love being lazy and getting everything after one click. People also loved the person behind the blog, they could relate to him. A martyr, the Robin Hood of indiepop, fighting against all the labels and collectors, giving all the wealth to the poor, etc. The underdog. Indiepoppers love that. What they don’t see is that ANYONE could do a blog like that. And worst of it all, it doesn’t add anything to the scene. It just makes it more throwaway, less meaningful, it misses all the points. The idea of an indiepop blog should be to step in where the 80s fanzine writers left. Sharing the excitement for the music. Not making it a worthless piece to collect as MP3s. Please. Stop being part of that half that only cares for themselves. Stop being selfish. Stop the greed.

And so, into another topic: The Hill Bandits

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Strange that in the last day or two I’ve been emailing with someone from Leeds. And yes, Leeds is the place where I want to transport you all. To 1986. That’s when the story started.

First stop, their website: http://www.thehillbandits.co.uk/ . As an fan of guitar pop you are surprised to know that they have a website. I was too. It’s not common these days. At best you get a Soundcloud. But a proper website? Not common. Going through it you realize that they set it up for a reunion sort of gig that they played in March this year. It was at a club called The Chemic in their native Leeds. There are some videos of that gig in this Youtube account.

That Youtube account belongs to Kevin Lycett. Him and Fiona McMillan seem to have been the driving force behind the band. They were around for three or so years, from 86 to 89. In that time they toured the UK but also Germany. They released two records, two 12″ EPs, the first one which is listed in Discogs: “Hotrod Buckboard Boogie “.

This was release through Ediesta Records in 1987, catalog CALC 40, and it doesn’t seem to be that pricey (I still need to get it, but I already spent a bunch in music this week). The record included on the A side “Love Me Or Leave Me” and “Aragon Mill”, whilst on the flip side we had “You’re Gonna See” and “Out Among the Stars”. The curious part about this record is that on the credits we don’t see Lycett or McMillan. We see other names like Walter Donaldson, Si Khan, Adam Mitchell and S. Davidson. That doesn’t make any sense, does it? Maybe there’s an error there.

Their second record doesn’t show up on Discogs, and it seems to be the one indiepop collectors know more about, the “Nowhere Train” 12″. On this record they continue with their own brand of country-influenced guitar pop. Again released by Ediesta in 1988, catalog CALC 52, this slab of plastic included just “Nowhere Train” on the A side and “Pills and Trouble” with “Seventh Bar in Heaven” on the B side. There’s a very cool video of them performing “Nowhere Train” in the 80s that you shouldn’t miss.

This record was produced by Jon Langford, and recorded at Offbeat  (Leeds) and Berry Street (London) in March 1988. The engineers for it were Tony Bonner in Leeds and Ian Caple in London. Emma Bolland played fiddle, Rob Worby played strings and Jon Langford mandolin. The front cover photograph came thanks to John Ingledew.

The story says they even recorded a third record. But that one never saw the light. On their Soundcloud there are a bunch of unreleased songs that may or may not have been part of this third record like “Old King Cole”, “Cross My Broken Heart”, “Wild Women”and “Planning Tomorrow’s Sins”. They seem to be just teasers sadly, the songs are not complete.

Weird. The website doesn’t have a contact page. But it has a cool biography page with information about both Keving and Fiona. I will copy/paste it. Quite interesting!

Fiona

1986 -1989 Hill Bandits

1989 move to Berlin

From 1990- 97 and 200-05 The Barflies; a Berlin semi acoustic outfit doing covers of the great female vocalists from country, jazz, blues; Ella Fitzgerlad, Nina Simone, Patsy Cline, Sarah Vaughan. (I found a video of them here)

97-2000 ‘Bars’ a 3 chord rock band in Berlin

93- 03 Studio session singer with the Berlin music scene, everything from very heavy rock like St Vitus to Americana like the Jever Mountain Boys.

From 2010 current project is Itch, an acoustic duo with French guitarist Anthony Hildenbrand. Gigged extensively around France with several visits to UK. Album out in April 2013.

Kevin

1977 – 1989/2003 Mekons

1985(?) Sweet Valentines Cowboys a shortlived Cajun/country cross over outfit featuring among others Ms Emma Bolland on fiddle and Kevin lead vocals, not the wisest of steps.

1986-1989 Hill Bandits

1989 Retired from rock music and took up classical guitar, like you do.

1990-1994 promoting the cheesiest imaginable nights at many clubs in Leeds, catering to just about every genre, age and inclination. Seems like every person in Leeds between late teens and late 20s in the early 90s passed through the doors of one or more of his nights.

1989 – 2003 contributed to a lesser and lesser extent to most Mekons recordings but thought it best to finally let it lie after their 25th anniversary tour saw him on stage again with the Meeks in New York and Leeds.

So from what I understand, this gig in March of 2013 was just a one off as Fiona is living in France. But still pretty cool, isn’t it? Maybe they keep on doing it. I love when bands get together again and revisit their old songs.

Anyone out there remember them? Did you go to any of their gigs? Did you happen to have their records? Spare copies? I would love to hear more. Even these recordings on Soundcloud fully would be good. That “Cross My Broken Heart” sounds awesome!

If you know anything else about them, please share!

The most exciting part of running a label, at least for me, is discovering a new band and offering them a release. Sadly, I don’t do that much these days. It was much easier when I was putting out the 3″ CDs as they were homemade mostly and it wasn’t an expensive ordeal. It was also much easier 4 years ago when people were spending more on records and it was a bit more steady the way I recovered the costs of the vinyl records I was putting out. Though this doesn’t mean that I’m not discovering new and exciting bands every so often, it does mean I can’t offer the release. So it’s only half of the excitement I was talking about, and actually the least exciting part of the two if you were to compare it.

And that’s because when offering a release you start a new plan. From the basic ‘which songs are going to be released’, to deciding the RPM of the record by acknowledging how many songs we’ll be including. From then on it’s a get to know the band phase, exchanging emails, knowing their hopes and expectations. At some point I may even interview them for my fanzine. We decide about the artwork for the record. We talk about setting a release date. We work as a team in every little detail. And that’s what I enjoy the most. Getting the product done. I read once on an interview to Roger Gunnarsson on how was his experience running a label and he mentioned that the fun part for him was exactly what I’m telling you. Then the records would arrive home and that was like the best moment. Piles and piles of boxes of vinyl, with beautiful color jackets. A success. He then said that after the records arrived home the excitement started to die out. And that is true for me too, it is not fun the next piece in the process of releasing a record, it’s not exciting at all to promote, or send them to distributors, writing press sheets, etc. Having to deal with that bureaucratic sort of system can’t be any fun. It’s not a creative experience, it’s not even rewarding. A lot of times it even ends up as nerve-wracking!

During the past 6 years I’ve been running the label I’ve released a lot of records. A LOT. And most especially I’ve worked with with so many bands. But the fact is, there’s been a bunch of other bands that I’ve contacted and for a reason or another I never got to work with them. I would have loved to have put something out by them, a CD, a record, but due to them or myself, it never happened. One of the bands I was interested in putting out at some point was The Arctic Circle.

Truth is I only contacted them once as far as I remember. It was on Myspace. Those days when it was the preferred platform for finding new music and being in touch with your favourite band. If I remember correctly I had just started releasing vinyl. Myspace with it’s new upgrade and faulty behavior won’t allow me to pull up the email exchange with the band. What I do remember is asking them if they had any interest in releasing a record with me. Their answer I believe was a yes. Thing is, I never heard again from them after that. I may or may not asked them again to see what was going on. But I never heard from them, years passed, I lost track of the band and only recently I have been rediscovering them.

Okay, that’s not completely true. There was a compilation called “Piece of Cake!” that included them. This compilation was released in 2009 as the first release ever by Big Pink Cake. As many of you might know, Big Pink Cake was originally  a club, an indiepop club, that booked bands and had disco nights in Bristol. The good readers of the blog would know that I have interviewed Matthew, half of Big Pink Cake. The other half is of course Heather. With Big Pink Cake I have a very nice relationship for many years now. They were one of the few clubs that gave away the Cloudberry 3″ CD compilation “Where are the Supremes Tonight?”. After that I’ve joined Matthew a couple of times on the decks, DJing music for some cool crowds. And it has to be the first time I met him, in Hamburg 2009, when he gave me the CD compilation “Piece of Cake!”. In this compilation that includes many favorites of mine like Horowitz, The Hi-Life Companion, The Parallelograms and more, the Arctic Circle contributed the song “Meanwhile Gardens”.

So yes, I was reminded of their existence. Why didn’t I try again to contact them? Probably I assumed they were no more. Or that they didn’t have any interest. I didn’t know much about them. I remember seeing some gig listings and their name on there. I’m pretty sure they played How Does it Feel? and many classic London venues. But as I said I lost track. I don’t remember even which songs I might have asked them to release with me. A good guess would be “Loofah Mitt” and “Prancing Pearl”. Though who knows, maybe “Mothers Ruin”? The title of the song makes me grin. The Mothers Ruin of course is the pub where Big Pink Cake used to happen at. I only visited once. I think in early 2010 after London Popfest. What a fun night that was!

On Discogs The Arctic Circle has another compilation appearance. With the song “Trawler” they appeared on the 2005 comp ” Oh Sew & Tell: A Stitch-Stitch Compilation” on the Stitch-Stitch label. My only knowledge about this label was thanks to Ray Rumours. But it seems I need to dig a little bit deeper with their releases. Maybe there’s a surprise or two. In the meantime I ordered the one and only release that is listed on Discogs, directly from the label. A 7″ with “Prancing Pearl” on the A side and “Mothers Ruin” on the B side. This was released on October 2008 and has the catalog stitch013.

There’s a small bio about the band in the label page, but I found a much better one on Last.fm:

Beginning in Edinburgh in 1999, Arctic Circle, now based in Bristol, were formed by Matthew Cheney, a singer/songwriter steeped in psychedelic folk and early 90s electronic sounds. With a fluctuating line-up, a sideline in social politics and establishing The Forest Cafe in Edinburgh, Cheney turned down label offers and set about managing the band himself, bringing in visual and collaborative art components. The songs remained acute observations about urban planning, social dynamics, instrumentals about natural Arctic phenomena and communication in relationships.
Once in Bristol, Cheney brought in an all-new lineup which currently includes Nicole Artingsall, Rozi Plain, Kaspar Lurcock, Francois Victor, Ladybird, George MacKenzie, Nina Wylie, Rose Clark, Hog, and Liam Kirby. The band completed a tour of Canada and the US in 2006 and became regular fixtures at the Green Man Festival. Arctic Circle are currently working on their third album. Previous releases Volume 1 (2004) and Volume 2 (2006) were released through Forest Arts Publishing. The first single Prancing Pearl/Mother’s Ruin were released on the Stitch-Stitch label based in Bristol and showed a far more band-oriented approach to songwriting.

I’m not sure if they are still going. As you see, they’ve been around for such a long time, and I didn’t have a clue. I thought back in 2008 they were kind of newish. But that wasn’t the case clearly. If you head to their bandcamp you’ll notice that there are recordings from 2003 all the way to 2011. All of the songs seem to be available for free download.

Something to check out is that they made some videos too. Seems they made two, “Meanwhile Gardens” and “True to the Trail”, though sadly the links seem to point to the same video, the “Meanwhile Gardens” one.

Also there are a bunch of links to live gigs.

For me the recordings that you can’t miss are the ones called 2009 EP. These are their best songs for me. They are top! This is the sound I remember loving, the songs I wanted to release. I’m happy that eventually someone put their songs out. Shame it wasn’t the whole EP, there 7″ could have easily have included “Shipping Forecast” and “Loofah Mitt”, as they are just fantastic!

I read a comment around saying that Stuart Murdoch was a fan. I can see that. There’s some sort of Belle & Sebastian influence, sure. But I think the band that reminds me more to them is another band I used to love back in 2004 like Tales of Jenny (who probably deserve a post in this blog), or even the later Zoey Van Goey, with their boy-girl vocals. You know, beautifully crafted melodies, crispy guitars, sort of folkish and literate lyrics, subtle keyboard arrangements, and sing-a-long choruses. Just beautiful!

But back to their biography, it says that they released two albums already and were working on a third. So the question is, where can one get the first two albums? And was their third album ever released? I wonder whatever happened to them. It’s surprising they didn’t become a well known name in indiepop, that they never played Indietracks or any Popfest. The songwriting quality was just brilliant. It’s a shame most of my friends don’t know it. Hopefully this little blog post makes them some justice.

A public address system (PA system) is an electronic sound amplification and distribution system with a microphone, amplifier and loudspeakers, used to allow a person to address a large public, for example for announcements of movements at large and noisy air and rail terminals.

So this is definitely not a public address. No sound here. But here we I am, ranting, wondering, and discovering new sounds. The usual. What’s been going on since last week? Of course, I need to give everyone an update. That’s how I proselytize here. Trying to convert everyone into indiepop militants against the hate of the Shoreditch hipsters. Kidding. Anyhow…

On the Cloudberry page I’ve added a pre-order button for The Rileys retrospective. I’m hoping to send to press the record by early November, so it’s out by Christmas time. That’s the plan. There’s also a new 7″ that will be released pretty soon by Spanish band Lost Tapes. On Tuesday check the website as well as the Cloudberry facebook page as there will be announcements there. There will be a video for the A side “War in the Netherlands”, as well as a downloadable MP3, and the beautiful artwork made by Marta Llumbart Jambert.

Last weekend I got to see The History of Apple Pie on Friday at The Living Room in Manhattan and Joanna Gruesome at Baby’s All Right on Saturday in Brooklyn. I got to chat with both bands, and I was happy to see them giddy about playing in New York. Both bands told me that the crowds here had been very good and very into them. I’m always skeptical about this of course, because usually indiepop shows in New York only gather 10 or 15 fans at the most, but I guess, because they were part of the CMJ thingie, and the lineups were quite mixed in musical styles, they got some new listeners and fans.I was especially surprised by Joanna Gruesome’s crowd. I saw people pogo. Dance. And some even knew the songs. That’s surprising as their album is pretty recent. When was it released? A month ago? Also I was thrilled by their new vocalist. I had seen them before at Indietracks, and I remember someone different. I had read too that Lan had been part of Evans the Death but when I saw them, she wasn’t there either. So that was all new. And she was a great front woman I have to say. Great addition to the band, she brought a lot of energy, excitement, and attitude. The terrible part of the gig was that we had to wait for like 40 minutes because they were missing an amp. Gladly Mr. Fortuna Pop was around, being a fantastic roadie, and fixed the whole situation. It was really heartwarming to see Sean -Fortuna Pop- taking care of the band like a true manager, taking care of every detail.

About The History of Apple Pie I was really surprised they never saw the girl behind Cool in a Crisis, that defunct label that put out their first tape, a split with Sweater Girls, a bunch of years ago. She lives in NYC. I guess, I was quite right that it was just a fad. There were a bunch of hipsters that jumped into the indiepop bandwagon around 2008-2010. Of course, I was told that I was mean and hateful and all those things. But hey, you know, time proved me right. The band has a new 7″, that I’ve really enjoyed, and they sound much better than the first time I saw them, at the London Popfest of 2011 I believe. I still have their setlist of that gig somewhere. I still think “Mallory”, their first single, has to become an indiepop classic in the near future.

And that’s how my indiepop week ended. I took some “groupie photos” with the bands and that was it. Now I don’t see any exciting gigs coming up. I guess it will be pretty quiet until NYC Popfest. Saving energy until then.

Talking about saving energy, next weekend I’m going to the Catskills, to a wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere just to relax and drink with a bunch of friends. It looks pretty exciting. The owner of the cabin told us to beware of leaving food out as bears can show up. I doubt I’ll be hiking, though my friends seem to be keen on that idea. For me the plan will be to disconnect. Barely be online. Get to play some board games, or card games. Drink. Maybe visit Woodstock. Something like that. A relaxing weekend. Okay, this is more like replenishing energy. But it works, right?

Oh! and before I forget, on Plastilina we have a new release coming up, a co-release with Fortuna Pop. It’s Cocoanut Groove’s new album “How To Build a Maze”. You can pre-order the CD from the Plastilina website already. It will start shipping not later than November 15th!

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Lately I’ve been in touch with a great Portuguese indiepop fan, Joel. He has sent me and introduced me to a thousand new bands. All of them obscure, exciting, jangly, the kind that I like. Some of these bands he had shown me I knew by name, others I’ve heard one song, and others were totally new. I’m very grateful to him for it. Today I’ll try to solve the mystery of one of these bands, a band I had heard one song “James Dean” on Youtube ages ago, and that thanks to Joel I heard the B side, and eventually made me curious enough to track some more songs of them online.

So, let’s start this way. Head to ReverbNation. Here you’ll find 7 songs by Public Address. These are “James Dean”, “Why Does My Heart Ache” , “Goodbye From Her (demo)”, “Can You Hear Me Now? (demo)”, “She Don’t Remember (live)”, “Katherine’s Kite (live)” and  “Rescue (live)”. The first two were part of the one and only 7″ they released.

Of course, this is not the first James Dean song by an indiepop band. From the top of my head I can think of the one by James Dean Driving Experience, “Dean’s Eleventh Dream”, and My Favorite’s “James Dean (Awaiting Ambulance)”. But this one is truly great too! Could have been a classic if more people knew about it. Great jangly guitars, great melody, great lyrics, great vocals, great everything! Just the kind of pop I love here in Cloudberry!

According to the ReverbNation page we know that the band was around 1985 and 1987. The only other piece of information is that they came from Worksop. Strange, as usually bands fill in their band members, and some bio, on these sort of pages. But hey, I took this job as a detective, so let’s keep digging.

Worksop is the largest town in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England, on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about 15 miles (24 km) east-south-east of the City of Sheffield and its population is estimated (mid-2004) to be 39,800. Worksop is included in the Sheffield City Region of England. It is also twinned with the German town Garbsen.  Worksop is known as the “Gateway to the Dukeries”, so called for the number of ducal residences in the area.Sherwood Forest. I’ve always wanted to go there. I always liked Robin Hood you know. I’ve been close. In Nottingham, but never for more than a couple of hours. The longest was that time with Nana and Andreas when we were given a tour of the city council. What a fun day that was.

The record doesn’t seem to be listed on Discogs. But I found it on 45cat. There are scans for the sleeve and the labels. And so we learn that the band was formed by:
Derron Rafter – Drums
Stuart Smith – Lead Guitar
Glenn Day – Bass
John O’Sullivan – Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Mick Ellison – Keyboards

The two songs on the 7″ were recorded and mixed at Input Studios, on December 1986. It was produced and arranged by Public Address. Engineered and mixed by Nick Wild.

The label that put it out was called The Fabled Stable Records. It was released in 1987 and the catalog number is SLS 101. I assume this was the first and last release by this label. Most probably a self-release.The credits for the songs are quite simple. “James Dean” was written by John O’Sullivan, while “Heartache” was written by Public Address. And this is were I hit a wall. I keep googling but nothing else shows up.So this is the time when I ask you people out there. Do you know anything else about this band? If you ever saw them live? If you happen to have any spare copies of this record? I’ve never seen it on eBay, and only seems to be listed once on Popsike.Please, help solve the mystery. This is a Public Address.