They've covered him before, and indeed played as his backing band, but the real scoop is the band will be selling a studio version of their covers as a tour only cd. File next to their Springsteen and Molina covers records. Will they sell copies when they return? Will they put it on bandcamp? Will the rest of the world forever be envious of the 100 people who buy it over the course of the gigs? Time, as ever, will tell. I imagine this is the sort of thing they can bang out in the time it takes to listen to, so hopefully some of the recent recording sessions which have been mentioned were to capture original material. Don't let 2014 be the first year without a WP's album!
In other news, a recent interview here - http://www.histericasgrabaciones.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=121%3Athe-wave-pictures-city-forgiveness-2014-entrevista-a-david-tattersall&Itemid=114 - was happily translated on the site:
Why the name The Wave Pictures?
We took our name from a book that my parents gave me for Christmas one year. It was called ''Art Now''. It was a little paperback book about modern artists. In it, there was a chapter on an artist called Zoe Leonard. She created a series of photographs called ''Wave Pictures'' which gave us our band name. It's not that we were fans of her or even that I liked that book especially. It just sort of sounded right. It's not a very exciting story, but that's the truth. That's where the name comes from. We've been called that for so long that the name has absolutely no meaning to me, it's just what we are called!
The
songs of The Wave Pictures sounds to Rock, to Folk, and obviously to
Pop, a curious mix of styles that results in the exquisite sound of your
music, what really are your musical influences?
We
listen to loads of things and take whatever we can from wherever we
can. I suppose the biggest influences on the band are the 60s groups
like The Rolling Stones and The Kinks, and also 70s things like the
Ramones, Television and Jonathan Richman. We all listen to loads of
blues and rock and roll, music from the 50s – T-Bone Walker, John Lee
Hooker, which is all about feeling and musicianship. We can't really
play as well as those people, but it certainly inspires us a lot. As for
songwriting, ''The Natural Bridge'' by the Silver Jews was a really big
influence on me. It affected the way I thought about what lyrics could
do. Again, I can't write as interesting stuff as David Berman, but it's
something to aspire to.
Why you titled "City Forgiveness" to your new disc?
The
title came to me in a dream. It's the only time that anything useful
has ever come to me in a dream. I woke up, and wrote it down, and then
went back to sleep again.
Something has changed from previous albums, who is different in “City Forgiveness”?
We
have some great special guests on City Forgiveness: our mate Dom
playing a whole second drum kit on some tracks. That was a great day!
Two drummers playing at the same time! Chaos! We also did a bunch of
tracks with Paul Rains from Allo Darlin – he's a great guitar player.
And we did some with Stanley Brinks, who is always so creative and
talented and just brilliant to be around. It was a lot of fun!
12 albums and 16 years on the road. Many things have happened at this time to The Wave Pictures. Any anecdote you can tell us?
I'm afraid not – musicians have a saying: ''what happens on tour stays on tour''.
You
will start a new tour around Europe. What are you going to offer in
your live concert, and what do you hope from the public in your shows?
Franic
Rozycki has been playing some really amazing bass lately. Every show he
does something new that impresses me. He is very creative and a really
original bass player. I can't believe that he does it every show – every
show he surprises me! You should watch out for that at the shows.
Do you have any surprise or any plans alternative to this tour for 2014? Can you anticipate anything to us?
We're
recording an album at the moment and it's going to be great when it's
finished! It's really really fun at the moment. We're having a lot of
fun in the recording studio. That'll be out soon. I hope it will anyway!
Do you think the digital world will end with music as we know it today? What do you think is the future of music?
The
thing that makes me most sad is that record shops struggle to survive.
They sell so few records these days that they can't afford the rent
anymore. Ever since I was young I really liked record shops. I even like
the smell of them! When The Wave Pictures go on tour we really look
forward to checking out the record shops in each new town we go to.
Unfortunately, a lot of times the record shops are closed down, or maybe
there will be just one left in a town. Loughborough, which was the
nearest town to where I grew up, used to have four record shops. Now it
doesn't have any. I guess I'm just nostalgic, but I don't think the
internet is a good substitute for everything. The internet is wonderful
in all sorts of ways, but I think it has taken over in too many areas of
life. The internet is no substitute for record shops. But it is putting
record shops out of business.
What is your best memory about music?
We
did a tour a few years ago where we played as Daniel Johnston's backing
band. I just found his music so uplifting to play. It was so much fun
playing his songs every night. That's a great memory. It was a really
happy time.
What do you think about current economic situation in Europe and World in general?
I
am worried about Britain. A very right wing party called UKIP has
become popular here. They are quite a racist party. I am afraid that
this is a trend all over Europe. I wonder if the economic situation
makes people scared and the fear makes them vote for more conservative
parties. It is a worrying time.
Could you tell us about...
... A book?:
Savage Night by Jim Thompson
I
really like Jim Thompson. He writes these very dark, strange thrillers.
A couple of them were made into films. There's two really great films
of Jim Thompson: The Grifters (directed by Stephen Frears) and The
Getaway (directed by Sam Peckinpah). You would get a sense of how dark
and strange Jim Thompson is by those two wonderful films, but when you
read him you see how much more experimental he was than most pulp
fiction writers. Sometimes you're reading pure prose poetry, other times
it's a hard-boiled thriller. I particularly liked ''Savage Night''.
That would be a good one to read first. He's great.
... A movie?:
Starship Troopers, directed by Paul Verhoeven.
This
is a really strange, long, very dark film, with these incredible
moments of beauty in it, too. It's also completely kitsch, very camp and
completely fake. It's kind of just it's own reality – it's very
postmodern but it also works just as a straight film. It's not really
like anything else. I think it's great. So entertaining and funny. I
love Paul Verhoeven: Total Recall, Robocop, Basic Instinct... he made so
many fun movies!
... A song?:
Be My Baby de The Ronettes
The
other day i was in a bar and ''be my baby'' by the ronettes came on the
jukebox. There's just nothing better than that song! The intro is so
great and it's all so melodramatic and moving. It's a little bit kitsch
but just incredibly emotional at the same time. It's just one of those
songs that gets me every single, it doesn't matter how often i hear it, i
always respond to it.
... An album?:
Leave Home by The Ramones
The
last album I listened to was ''Leave Home'' by The Ramones. That's a
great album! So many fun songs, including their excellent cover version
of ''California Sun''. It's got a lot of their best stuff on it: Oh Oh
I Love Her So, I Remember You, Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment. I always
liked Joey Ramone's voice, he is a sort of a ridiculous singer but he's
still kind of moving. He does a fake British accent, which is very
unusual because usually British singers put on American accents!
.. A group or soloist?:
Barbecue Bob.
Lately,
something that I really like is a cd called ''Chocolate to the Bone''
by Barbecue Bob. Barbecue Bob was very popular in the 30s. He was a
blues singer, but with kind of a humourous, gentle style. In his day he
was much more popular than Blind Willie McTell or Leadbelly, but history
hasn't been especially kind to him. He's not exactly a very famous
name! He doesn't get mentioned when they talk about the great blues
singers. There's something kind of humble about what he does. It's very
simple, almost innocent music. But the more I listened to it the more I
realised what a strong and brilliantly intelligent musician Barbecue Bob
was. The first track on the album is called ''Motherless Chile Blues''.
You've got to hear it: it's one of the most beautiful pieces of music
that I've ever heard. Somehow the sound and his voice and the really
simple guitar part just make this perfect, mysterious little whole. It's
like a dream, that song! The whole ''Chocolate To The Bone'' cd is
worth getting, though, in my opinion. It's such a brilliant collection. I
have to say, I'm a Barbecue Bob fan!
