I guess it would be nice to be a little more famous!

The tour is over and the reviews are in - bizarrely, more press than for their normal Moshi Moshi releases. Frantic must have been working hard in the PR department of Wymeswold Records. It's just a shame most of them are contradictory (Best lyrics/Worst lyrics) or just plain wrong (recorded by Darren Hayman? Er, no, concentrate harder when reading press releases please internet reviewers.)

Ready for a new album yet? Me too. Bread And Honey apparently. In the meantime, here's a final couple of interviews.

This one in particular is interesting due to Tattersall not being present which forces the normally taciturn Franic to spill the beans on their early days:

http://www.extendedplaypodcast.com/episodes/2016/3/3/ep007-the-wave-pictures

Also:

http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2016/02/29/in-conversation-the-wave-pictures/

IN CONVERSATION

IN CONVERSATION: The Wave Pictures

By Loz Etheridge  · On February 29, 2016

The staff at the Mogal-E-Azam Indian restaurant, just a stone’s throw from Nottingham’s cultural triangle of music venues (Rock City, The Rescue Rooms and Spanky Van Dykes), are always delighted to welcome the night’s performers to their humble establishment. The owners and waiters act with such enthusiasm and appreciation that a group of musicians would choose to bless them with their custom, that you suspect they go to great pains to get the meals exactly right. Given the barnstorming set performed by The Wave Pictures at Spanky’s later on, supported by the hilarious band The Thyme Machine, and a post-show pub visit with both acts where the gorgeous actress Alicia Vikander walked up to the bar in front of me to order a drink (if it wasn’t her, she has one Hell of a doppelganger loitering around the Midlands area), I’d say it was a pretty damn successful evening all round. David, Franic and Jonny peered over their restaurant menus to answer a few questions…

Your new album is called ‘A Season In Hull’.  I always found the place hopelessly grim, yet somehow brimming with character. I’m intrigued to know what appealed to you about the place enough to make you want to base an album around it?

David Tattersall: Well, the title is just a pun on a French poetry book by Arthur Rimbaud called ‘A Season In Hell’. I don’t particularly LIKE the book, but I just thought it was a really funny title, and that’s why I wrote the title track. We’ve always had a nice time in Hull, and I suppose I like that Philip Larkin lived there, and worked in the library there, so there’s a nice romantic association with the place. Since we made the album, though; we’ve found that not many people know the Rimbaud book, so whereas it was meant to be an amusing title, it really doesn’t seem to have amused very many people much!

It’s a vinyl only release. What is it about vinyl only releases that appeals to bands these days?

David: There are lots of reasons. One is purely because we love and buy vinyl records ourselves. Another reason is that it makes it a kind of special and distinct project, so when we were recording it, we knew exactly what it was going to be for. And I suppose it was because, these days, with music being all on the internet, I think we’ve lost something that the band thinks is quite precious in a way, which is the idea of ‘Album as Album’. You know, something that you have to sit and listen to as a piece in its entirety, because with the internet, all the music’s just flying around in the air, and people just click from one to the next – which is fine.  But technology has changed the way in which people listen, and relate, to music. It’s inevitable with any huge technological change, I guess, but making it a vinyl release, if you want to listen to it, you’ve got to sit and listen to it, and not just be online for 45 minutes.

On your last record (Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon), you worked with the great Billy Childish, of course. In which way did he push you that was different from your normal approach?

Jonny Helm: In a much punkier way! That’s the obvious answer anyway!
David: He did a lot of the musical side of things – he brought a lot of riffs and things like that…
Jonny: It was much more of a collaboration than any of the previous Wave Pictures albums…  Although it ended up with just our name on it and not his!

Bit of a weird question this time – when my father-in-law passed away in November last year, we complied with his wish of having ‘The Birdie Song’ played while everyone danced to it as the coffin went behind the curtain. As a result, bizarrely, whenever I think of my father-in-law’s funeral, I laugh. It makes me think of The Wave Pictures, in a way, because it’s like… marrying the ridiculous with something that makes a lot of sense. Is that kind of a “vision” you had when you made your records? Does that make any sense at all, in fact? 

Jonny: It does!
David: Well, I quite like it if people take things as more ridiculous than if they take it super seriously.
Jonny: Yeah, I think a lot of bands take things just a little bit too seriously, and that goes for recording techniques and how they try to project themselves in the world and everything really. It doesn’t mean you have to be Half Man Half Biscuit, but it’s good to inject a little humour into it.

I think I said in my review of the album that you were “the Marr to your own Morrissey”…

David: Oh, I read that review! That’s true as well…
Jonny: …Though he’s probably a bit better than both of them, aren’t you Dave?

When I was in bands and approached cover versions, we used to only ever choose songs that we thought weren’t that great and could make better…

David: …Whereas we like to take great things and make them worse.

I wasn’t going to say that! I was going to say you do some very brave covers – Creedence, Springsteen, Van Morrison…

David: A friend of mine pointed out to me that it’s a bit of an indie trend, taking some rubbish pop songs and doing them in a sort of “meaningful”, indie type of way, and we don’t want to do that. If we’re gonna cover a song, it’s gonna just be because we love it. We don’t do the ironic indie cover game. It’s almost more to show a different side to yourself, these things get pigeonholed, and people think there’s no relationship.  I mean, people see the way you dress, and they just assume you’re just like all the other bands who dress like that. So you do a Creedence song, then you’re showing a different side to yourself, but also how much more music there is in those songs, rather than just being a certain type of song. As soon as I sing them, they just sound totally different, but it’s not a joke thing; if it doesn’t work when we try it, we just sack it off. We’ll try 10 covers, and if one comes off, we’ll do it for another couple of years. The words have to be meaningful to me, though, otherwise I can’t do it. When I covered the Creedence songs, the first thing I thought was that his (John Fogarty’s) songs were closer to mine than you would think because he’s interested in memory songs. So that appealed.

So, now that you’ve worked with one of your heroes in Billy, is there anything else on your “bucket list”?

David: That’s a good question. One of the things that we thought when we got to work with him was that we couldn’t imagine anybody else who would remotely compare to him in terms of how good he is with the sound. And now what we’ve done, is we’ve gotten rid of Billy, but we’re still using his studio! It’s all worked out fine!  I don’t think there is anybody else, really. The trouble with it is, most famous records now by the people you’ve heard of, they sound really bad; and the people who made the best sounding records from the sixties or whatever, those guys are all dead or barely functioning, so I don’t know if there’s anybody left.
Jonny: We’ve always said that we could give Bob Dylan a hand to make a good sounding record again, because his most recent albums have got a bit boring!

Well, you’ve been around for 17 years now, so you’d have the experience! At one point, around the time of Instant Coffee Baby, it seemed like you were going to become really big…

David: It never really happened, did it? We don’t know why. We were confused by it – we should have been really famous (laughs). No, we were on Moshi Moshi Records, and we saw all these other bands on these very specific career paths, with management and long waits between releases and very controlled plans to get famous, and we thought that seemed really stupid. We thought it’d be better to keep releasing records and be totally independent – and of course, in some ways, that is better, because we’ve got a real fanbase.  On the other hand, all of those people got really famous and we didn’t! We were on the label at the same time as Metronomy and Slow Club and both of those got much more famous than us. But then in order to do that, they had to do things that we weren’t prepared to do. We were very inspired by Herman Düne in particular, and Jeffrey Lewis – people we looked up to, who were very independent, and didn’t have management or any of those types of things. It was difficult because we always tried to keep the music business at arm’s length. We’d go and meet these people – me and Fran would go to meetings with these horrible people – booking agents or managers – in horrible offices, and we couldn’t relate to them at all, so we just stayed away. And maybe that’s why we’re not famous. It depends on the way you look at it, though, because we’ve done things in exactly the way we wanted to, so in a way, we’ve been very successful. We’ve probably made hundreds of mistakes, but they were our mistakes that we thought were a good idea at the time. But now…  Yeah, I guess it would be nice to be a little more famous!

And you can’t fault the guys’ work rate.  No sooner has A Season In Hull been released (and critically acclaimed, incidentally, having attained Album Of The Day status on 6Music), than there is talk of another new album to be released in October! 

Whatever successes The Wave Pictures do have, or whatever level of fame they ever do manage to muster, they sure as Hell deserve it.

Oh, and it may not be obvious to the inattentive reader, but you may have noticed that Franic Rozycki didn’t answer any questions. This is not true, however, as I’m sure he did.  Sorry about that Franic, if you’re reading this – it’s nothing personal, honest!

2016, A Season In Hull

Well, doesn't time fly? A quiet second half of 2015 saw The Wave Pictures doing what they do - touring almost constantly, either by themselves or backing Stanley Brinks. My Ass, their latest collaboration with Europe's most prolific songwriter came and went. An excellent collection in my opinion but perhaps missing the hit single the Gin campaign had (I say campaign because, of course, Orange Juice was left off that LP). I would press Another One Just Like That and put out Make Friends With People From Work - surely a radio hit in waiting? But then, neither The WP's nor Brinks strike one as people who look backwards.

So, here comes A Season In Hull. Vinyl only, no digital, one microphone. Sounds perfect, even if the title reminds of punsters like Half Man Half Biscuit.

Says Tattersall,

Darren Hayman suggested to me that The Wave Pictures make an album with one microphone. Everybody together in one room playing live into one microphone. You get the picture right once and you capture it. No mixing later. The idea appealed to me enormously. It’s a really beautiful sound, the one microphone sound. The results tend to be mysterious and lively, and it’s a very romantic way to record, too. It’s how Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys did it, after all (and that’s how bluegrass music destroyed John Fahey’s life).

Thanks, then, are due to Darren for the idea and to Giles Barrett and Simon Trought for pulling it off. Thanks also to Paul at the Adelphi. The Wave Pictures always have a good time when we visit Hull.

This album is dedicated to the memory of Blind Owl Wilson.

Get your copy now. Amazon have it, as does Cargo via the link on the WP's website. Presumably they'll have it on tour too. Here's hoping they sell all the copies and the future is full of similar little gifts. Speaking of the future, this recent interview suggests the next "proper" LP is done already.

http://figure8magazine.co.uk/default/there-is-a-sense-of-space-that-you-cannot-have-with-multi-tracking-the-wave-pictures-interviewed/

“There Is A Sense Of Space That You Cannot Have With Multi-tracking”: 

The Wave Pictures Interviewed.

By Matthew Shearn on January 23, 2016

Never a being a band who cares about perfection, the prolific Wave Pictures are back for another album ‘A Season In Hull’ released on their own Wymeswold Records (named after the Leicestershire town the band originate from). This time around the band has recorded the album over the course of lead singer Dave Tattersall’s birthday, using only one microphone. And in a move just as unconventional as it’s recording, the album is a vinyl only release.

We fired over some questions to Dave covering everything from the decision to record in such an old fashioned manner, to his opinion about the works of Rimbaud.

What inspired the idea to record everything into one microphone?

Dave Tattersall: It appealed to me for a few different reasons. It was Darren Hayman’s idea, not my idea! I thought it was a good idea!

It’s like taking a picture. You don’t HAVE to put it all on separate tracks first, with one microphone (at least) for each instrument. Instead, you just get the microphone in the right place and record everything! No mixing later. And it shows up in your ears when you listen to the record. There is a sense of space that you cannot have with multi-tracking. You can fake it, but you can’t get the real thing. You always want to hear the room: when you listen to a record you should always hear the room that the record was recorded in. Well, you really get the sound of the room with only one microphone.

I was particularly thinking of Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, ‘Blue Yodel Number 7′. It’s a great record that will always sound fresh and real. I wanted to get that kind of a sound. It has a wildness to it. That’s the one microphone sound! That’s how they used to it!

I was reading ”How Bluegrass Music Ruined My Life” by John Fahey, and in that book he talks about the first time he heard ‘Blue Yodel number 7′ and it completely blew his mind. Best record he ever heard in his life! It just knocked him across the room. It’s a good story and it got me thinking about one microphone recording.

Finally, I wanted to have some fun on my birthday, so I booked the studio and we went in to record.

Do you find changing the circumstances in which you record a way of keeping things fresh?
Dave Tattersall: It can be stimulating. I don’t think of it as strictly necessary, though.

What was the writing process like this time?

Dave Tattersall: Really fast. I wrote all of the songs very quickly. It was fast and easy and enjoyable. It isn’t always like that. But sometimes you get on a roll. It’s easier to write ten songs together all at once, than it is to get ten songs by writing them one at a time.

Why have you decided to make this a vinyl only release?

Dave Tattersall: It was a romantic idea. I liked the idea that the songs would only be available in this way. It’s like a message in a bottle, thrown out to sea.

Of all the albums you have made, which one are you most proud of?

Dave Tattersall: It’s definitely A Season In Hull at the moment. It’s always the latest one that I like the best.

This is your first release on your new label, why did you decide to make the leap to self releasing?

Dave Tattersall: It was just that we are the only people who wanted to do it! We wanted to put out a vinyl only, and we hope that it works and people buy it, so that we can do it again. We need to sell 2000 of them, then it all pays for itself and we can do more fun projects like this in future. We might do some vinyl only live albums and things like that. But we don’t know if it’s going to be financially viable or not! I hope it works out, because I love vinyl records and I love the idea of putting out more stuff in this way. I think it’s a really nice thing.

When you were on record labels, were you given a lot of space to be prolific?

Dave Tattersall: Yes, plenty of space. We’re still with Moshi Moshi, they are going to release our next album, but A Season In Hull was only supposed to be a vinyl only album, and Moshi Moshi didn’t want to do that. So, we decided to do it ourselves.

We’re all sort of sick of the internet, to be perfectly honest. Something that has certain practical advantages seems to have taken over too many areas of life. It seemed nice to make it vinyl only, so that it didn’t even exist in a digital form. It’s a totally futile, but rather romantic gesture. That’s all that it is, but I like it that way. A little romance before the machines take over completely. It’s only a matter of time before what happened in the Terminator movies happens for real.

But things are still good between us and our record label. They’ve been very kind to us, and they completely stay out of the way and let us make our own choices. We’ve always had total freedom; it’s been essential to us.

The title is a play on words with a Arthur Rimbaud poem, are you a big fan of his work?

Dave Tattersall: No, not a big fan, but then I don’t speak French. I’ve read translations of Rimbaud, but I’ll never be able to read the real thing. I didn’t like the versions I read at first. I found that there are some translations that are better than others, but I’m not sure that you can translate something like that at all. So, no – not a fan to be honest. The only poet that I really enjoy reading is Charles Bukowski.

Have you had any ideas about the next album yet?

Dave Tattersall: We’ve got another album finished, and another one that we are half way through. It’s very exciting! It’s the golden age of The Wave Pictures!

If someone was curious about getting into the Wave Pictures, where would you suggest they start?

Dave Tattersall: City Forgiveness.

Have you ever considered releasing a best of for all the Wave Pictures neophytes out there?

Dave Tattersall: No, I’ve never thought about it. I don’t really like the idea at all. I imagine someone will want to do something like that at some point but it doesn’t appeal to me very much. I just want to keep moving forward myself.

Words by Matthew Shearn.