Hi Dan, how are you today, still in sunny Hackney?
Fresh as a daisy thank you, all be it a daisy trying to grow between the paving stones of Hackney Road . Yes, still in sunny Hackney... the English Riviera .
Is there any inter-linking theme between your previous Coastguards records, your solo Sudden Fiction album and the new Coastguards record Blindspot or are they all stand alone albums?
There's certainly common ground between them.. there's a strong relationship between Sudden Fiction and Blindspot as they share a timeline and a story. If they were vases or bookends, I'd refer to them as companion pieces. Those two records we're both written in the present, where as the records that preceeded them were written looking back and grabbing moments from a longer period of time. So they either share an ideal, or they bring down an ideal and replace it with something new, depending on your outlook.
Can you explain the themes and ideas behind how you decide to write the songs, what is the inspiration?
I never really decide to write a song, I've tried to retire myself from the silly business several times but then these things pop into your head. It usually starts with a line or phrase that seems to adequately express something I was struggling to say in any normal mode of communication.. Then I feel like I have to contextualize that, and the only way I can do that is with a song.. So I write around that line until I have something I'm not too embarrassed with and I give it a title. The inspiration is always that first line, without that I have nothing.
Was there any different approach to recording this album and were there any surprises during the recording this time around?
The last record was very consciously minimal and stripped back, with Blindspot I wanted to start rebuilding from these new foundations.. which felt both clearer and stronger than before. That was the idea from the beginning; I just didn't have an idea of exactly how that would manifest itself. I'd been going to see a lot more classical music so I wanted to make more of the simple building movements that you find there. Not to attempt to replicate classical music, but to take something away from that experience and use it in a different way. In terms of surprise, its always a surprise when its finished.. Its a bit like being lost in a forest for weeks on end, then you finally find a way out and walk a good mile away from the forest before turning back to look at it. At which point you realise the forest was only 10 trees. This is a ridiculous way to attempt to explain it. Still, I've done it now.
Do you have a old trusty guitar or did you use any new instruments on this record?
You're going to let me talk about my guitar? Great news! When I began writing for the first Coastguards record, I sold the guitar I used in my previous band and bought a 1964 Gibson LG-1 (Have you fallen asleep yet?).. It is a thing of great beauty and it's older than me so it commands my respect. In the 4 albums and how ever many tours I've done since that day, I have never laid a finger on another guitar. As for new instruments, we found a wonderful French Horn player... its a sound I've been in love with forever and I finally found someone who was right for what we were doing. So we kidnapped her and forced her to play against her will.
When and how did you learn to play the guitar?
I had a guitar teacher when I was 8, but she died unexpectedly after my third lesson. I should have taken this as a sign to stop right there, but I misread the signs. I can only play very basic guitar, which is why I have a very good band around me. Its fair to say you'll probably never see me on the front of Which Guitar? or StringBenders! magazine..
Who is in the Coastguards for Blindspot and are Absentee still on a long lunch?
For the record, Its Laurie Earle playing piano, Horse playing pedal steel and guitar, Gabriel Stebbing on Cello, Henry Spenner on drums and Emily Cunliffe on French Horn.
If you could tour with any other band, who would it be and why?
There's a few. It would depend. Though no one would believe me, I would love to have played in LCD Soundsystem whilst that was going on... was there a place for an acoustic guitar player who doesnt like standing up and refuses to smile? NO. So I'll say Wilco.
Who designed the Artwork for the Album?
My dear friend Christopher Ciancimino. He lives in New York , making films and taking photos. I'm not sure yet why I was so attracted to the image of a horse for this album, but as soon as he sent me this stuff, I knew it was the imagery for the record.
Finally, is there a record that you brought in your School / College days that you still play today and what is the best record that you have discovered on all your travels?
I bought Lazer Guided Melodies by Spiritualized when I was 15. They were the home town heroes from where I grew up. I still listen to it once in a while, and it still feels good. The records by These Animal Men and Marion sadly ended up in the bin though. Life is cruel. I discovered Sam Amidon via a producer from Iceland I was working with.. his album All Is Well is a treasure. I bought a very old Ida Cox record in New York about 10 years ago that I still listen to a lot. She's a blues singer from the 1920's.. very rude also, Her songs seem to all be telling her man to shape up and give her some lovin'.
