Tell me about Volo. It’s your forth album. What changed?
We wanted to approach how we did it in a different manner. Previously, we had all the songs written , knowing exactly how they would sound before we went into the studio. This time we wanted to create it during the recording process and then pass it on to Richard Formby who mixed the album. We had a couple of songs we knew were definite, but mainly it was to experiment, to see how we could make music in a new way.
So you really had little idea of what the album would end up like?
We knew we wanted this album to sound a little bit more atmospheric than the last one, Dead Fires & The Lonely Spark, a bit less based on regular songs, although we’ve always done long, rambling songs! I hesitate to use the word “concept”, but we knew we wanted a narrative running through it. But we all wanted to leave the rest to the interpretation to someone else. We made a definite decision very early on that we would pass it to Richard Formby, and he could do anything he liked with it. Anything. Once we had recorded our pieces, we wanted to stay out of it completely.
That must have been rather intimidating, completely trusting your work with someone else?
It was and it wasn’t. Richard had recorded our previous album, so we knew how he worked. We had watched him work, and knew we were in safe hands. It didn’t feel too bad. But when we got the cd back, when we sat down to listen to it, I’ll admit we all had a moment of trepidation.
What do you think you would have done if it came back sounding nothing like you had hoped for?
If it had been awful, if we had hated it and it wasn’t us at all? We’d probably have started over again.
It took you some ten years before you learned let go of this complete control over your own music. Being a rather tight knit group of people, was it sort of a pitfall, not having people around you giving you their honest, professional opinon on what you were doing?
Absolutely, yeah. We were starting to worry about becoming a bit insular about those things. I would like to say that I don’t care about what anyone thinks, but I do. Obviously you want people to like your music.
You all live in completely different parts of the UK. How does that affect the dynamics of the band when you are together?
I think it’s much more exciting when we’re together. We’ve got rehearsals for the tour next week, and that really does make it much more special. David (Armes, guitarist -ed) and I have been doing this for ten years, so when you get that excitement of seing people you haven’t seen in a while, it really helps. And we all get along. Of course, with seven core members of the band, and other people playing as well, there are challenges when it comes to the organising, but all the members of the band are happy to do it. We all have a passion for the band. I’m not sure all the laughing comes across in the music though…!
Volo has a very rich, textured sound. Where do you get all these different ideas from and how do you see the band evolving?
James Youngjohns, who plays more instruments than I can name, is great. He’ll get an idea, suggest we use an instrument that I’ve never heard of, and that constantly adds a new sound to the band. It’s about feeling confident about what we do and then seeing what else we can do after that to almost make ourselves uncomfortable again. That nervousness, I think it’s about mastering that.
The review of Volo here at Americana UK mentioned that, since you’re from Manchester, you’re no stranger to miserablism. Do you walk around miserable all the time?
Well, Manchester is a place that is often linked with miserablism. That’s pretty evident. I don’t come from Manchester originally – there’s only one or two members of the band who actually come from the city – but most of us have lived here at point or another. I’m not sure whether Manchester has affected us, or if we’ve been drawn to the city. But yeah, there’s a certain parts of the grandeur, the mills, that I find pretty. It’s an aesthetic I like and I feel quite comfortable here. But you know, there’s also a lot of dance and indiepop around here, and we DO try to steer away from that as well!
Your sound is very dark, gloomy and somewhat bleak. But then again, that’s not the entire story, is it? I’m not sure I can desribe where and how I hear it, but there is a different side to your music, right?
There is. All the reviews we’ve had seem to mention how gloomy we are. I wouldn’t say that I can’t hear that gloom and miserablism in our music, cause it’s fairly obvious, but at the same time, I don’t think they’re as black and bleak as people say they are, and it’s strange having someone say that the songs you’ve written are filled with bleakness. They’re not intended to be. We try to put elements of humour in there, but I don’t think they translate very well in the music. It’s great when someone DOES hear that it’s not all just gloom and doom. And besides, when I think of genuinely bleak music, I tend to think of something by Throbbing Gristle or Diamanda Galás. I think we would actually come across as rather cheery in comparison.
You might have noticed that the last couple of weeks have seen the UK Americana scene mentioned in, among other places, The Independent and The Sun. There’s definitely been a lot of attention aimed towards this part of British music – but where do you see Last Harbour’s place on the musical map of Britain?
Americana has always been a strange and lovely term that I’ve not quite fully got to grips with. I’m happy with us being called Americana, but I’m not really sure what it means though. I’ve always considdered us fairly British, but there are elements of Americana – whatever it is – in our music. We toured with Robert Fischer of Willard Grant Conspiracy when he came over for a UK tour not long ago, and there are definitely parallels, musically, thematically and lyrically between us and them. But yeah, it’s a strange and wonderful thing being called Americana.
Your tour starts in a few days. Describe a Last Harbour show.
We tend to be a little bit noisier than people expect sometimes. Well, not myself, but we always try to do something exciting for people. And I hope that the humour I mentioned earlier is a bit more evident on stage. But we really try to have as much fun on stage when we’re together, cause it’s such a rare thing for us to actually be in the same room at the same time.
When you play music that’s mainly gloomy, I suppose you try to build sort of an atmosphere at the gigs. So no funny jokes between songs then?
Well, I’ve been accused of telling jokes between songs, but I’ve never been accused of telling funny jokes between the songs. But we always try and enjoy it as much as we can on stage, and I think if we just came on and kept our heads down, it might not be the best of shows for everyone. Obviously, with the songs being quite dramatic, that’s what we do, but between the songs, we try to avoid being too gloomy!
Last Harbour’s Volo is out now on Little Red Rabit Records. Their tour begins April 1st in London. For all dates, music and other info, go to Lastharbour.com or Myspace.com/lastharbour
