glasGOwest

Swervedriver returned to San Francisco for a stop on their brief US Tour. GlasGO Pedro sent some questions to Adam Franklin to bring himself and others up to speed on this underrated band. Thanks to Michele and the Swervie Fan Forum for helping out…

Swervedriver formed out of your first band, Shake Appeal, named after the great motor city madness of The Stooges. I recently saw Iggy punish the Warfield here in SF w/ James Williamson on guitar snarl and Steve Mackay on sax assault, while commanding the audience to “Occupy the Stage” which they wholeheartedly did. What was it about this Detroit hi-energy rock’n’roll that got you hooked in quiet, leafy Oxford?

“Well Oxford wasn’t all quiet and leafy in the late 1970s and early 80s. Mine and Jim Hartridge’s journey to school would take us through the old British Leyland car plant in Cowley where a lot of our friends’ parents were employed. I’m not going to say that the sounds of ‘metal-on-metal’ were an influence on the sounds of our guitars or anything – as The Stooges and Black Sabbath have said about their own experiences of being in proximity to factory sounds – but there was certainly something about driving past all of this smoke and car parts everyday. Triumphs, MGs, Minis and Rovers were all created in part there. BL used to do work for Rolls Royce also and the RR and Bentley chassis had to be covered over but occasionally you would see a Rolls Royce skeleton poking out.

 The centre of Oxford itself on the other hand, within the perimeters of the old city wall, can often be a quite beautiful and serene place and is possibly the very definition of the ‘England’s dreaming’ that Johnny Rotten sang about in God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols. It certainly lent itself well to listening to post-punk stuff like Atmosphere by Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen in the days when me and my mates would walk around town in our raincoats with our Bunnymen haircuts.”

 I love the story of your first gig following My Bloody Valentine who ended their set by covering “Shake Appeal”. Did you foresee the impact they would leave on guitar sound and production later on?

“I remember being impressed and intrigued that Kevin had two identical combo amps – Fenders, I assume – either side of the stage with a completely clean signal coming out of one and completely distorted fuzz out of the other. At that period in time I think you stuck together with anyone that you felt was doing anything even vaguely along similar lines as your own band and so we looked out for their progress and bought the Geek! single which came out around the same time. By the time they released Isn’t Anything we had already become Swervedriver and both bands had shifted their line-ups around and the sounds were changing and getting more exciting.”

I believe our dear friend, Mark Gardener (of Ride), was responsible in getting you signed to Creation Records by playing your demo to Alan Mcgee while driving (how appropriate) around LA? When Swervedriver finally hit the states, fans, colleagues, and critics took to your sound and song craft right away. Was the reception that warm back home in the UK?

 “It’s difficult to gauge. Our gigs as Shake Appeal were quite chaotic and although we ended up being well loved in Oxford we confused the hell out of people when we played in London and Brighton. The first Swervedriver show was at the Fulham Greyhound in late ’89 when we performed under the name Junk – or it may have been Rollercoaster. I think the show was with B.A.L.L. as I vaguely recall chatting to Don Fleming and Kramer and them being a little curious about us. I think we still kinda confused people though.

Then McGee signed us and we went out on the road with the House of Love. Graham Bonnar had just joined on drums and his first show was at Liverpool Royal Court in March 1990 where he had reams and reams of prompt sheets for all the songs. Perhaps being put into the context of being a Creation Records band helped people to get a handle on us. I’m sure it did, in fact. It was all about noise and melody back then.”

Fellow live music supporters across the pond, Sonic Cathedral Records, sent us a question: When are you playing in the UK?? (If and when you do, Nat Cathedral is your man..)

“I don’t know when we’re playing – we’ll bear Nat in mind for sure!”

Now for a couple of questions from the Swervedriver Fan Forum:

 Will the new songs definitely be released or is that still being decided?

“No and yes. Will I definitely be knocked down by a bus tomorrow? I can’t say for sure on that either or on how long a piece of string actually is. I think the official line was that we’ve been working on new material for probable release later in the year. You can take an educated guess or interpret that any way you want but we have a couple of ideas we’d like to execute, certainly and we’ll see how that goes. There would be various other ‘variables’ to throw in the mix beyond that of course.”

I notice sometimes you use different amps depending on the gig. Is there a reason you use a Matchless, Marshall, or Vox depending on the gig?

“In Swervedriver I always use a Marshall in conjunction with either a Vox AC30 or a Matchless DC30. The Marshall is quiet and crunchy onstage and takes the drier effects pedals but can be cranked loud out front of course. I’ve always used Vox AC30s for the subtler chiming sounds as well as the crazier, wetter more “showboaty” pedals. I can’t always get a hold of an AC30 when I’m in the US but the wonderful folks at Matchless have me on their client list and can always sort me out with one of their DC30s which were of course based wholesale on the AC30, to the point where it went to court I believe. 

Jim has a similar set-up although his combo always seems to change – I have no idea why that is. We have the Marshalls panned pretty out far left and right at maybe 4 or 5 o’clock one side and 7 or 8 on the other, with my Marshall over on his side and his on mine and with the combo amps further in – mine at maybe 10 or 11 o’clock and his at 1 or 2. This means that the stereo effects – such as Jimmy’s stereo tremolo – pan across the whole stage. A creative soundman can pretty much fill up the room with sound with that set-up. People sometimes say they’re amazed that there are only two guitars re-producing all the guitars on the recordings but with four amps all creating slightly different textures you can certainly fool people’s ears into thinking they’re hearing everything I suppose. It’s all done with mirrors really.”

How did you initially come to use the Jazzmaster? Jimmy seems to have a different guitar, (or at least a different Les Paul) every tour, but you always stick with the Jazzmaster. When did you get the infamous sunburst Jazzmaster you’re always using?

“I bought that Jazzmaster for £400 from Andy’s Guitars on Denmark St in London in 1990. I went in and was served by Brendan who was the guitarist in Dave Vanian’s Phantom Chords and I put my money down and left it with Brendan to pick up the next day. As I walked out and was turning the corner onto Tottenham Court Road I bumped into Kevin Shields and Andy Bell from Ride who asked me what I was up to so I told them I’d just bought a Jazzmaster. Kevin wanted to see it of course so we walked back to Andy’s, I asked Brendan to take it out from behind the counter and gave it to Kevin to have a play on. Kevin played on it for a bit and then said “shit, this is a really nice one.. do you wanna sell it?!”

To be honest, what brought me to wanting one was simply because Thurston and Lee from Sonic Youth and J from Dinosaur played them. It didn’t hurt that Costello played one too. They look cool, have lots of mysterious knobs and switches plus there’s the area behind the bridge that sounds like church bells chiming.”

Thank you for pushing past your experiences with the cutthroat record industry biz fiascos of the past and coming out the other end by sharing your art and thought live and on the road. What keeps you and Jimmy forging ahead these days?

“I’ve been forging ahead for years because I get ideas. I had to re-record a demo of a new song a couple of days ago because the original recording was in a different key and I wanted to send it to the Bolts of Melody guys for a show we have coming up. It was only a demo recorded in the middle of an afternoon but it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do really.”

You’ve been playing, recording, and collaborating consistently over the years with a variety of interesting projects and people. From Toshack Highway and Bolts of Melody to Magnetic Morning and the split single release with current tour support, Heaven. Any other releases to anticipate this year?

 “Definitely maybe. There’s the new Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody album I Used To Live For Music to finish off – we have the drums and bass all down under the original demos so far. There are the Swervedriver ideas, possibly a film soundtrack with a friend of mine plus I’m thinking of making Everyday, Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Saving My Life Vol 3 available, since there have been four albums since Vol 2 and there are some interesting demos/live/instrumental versions of songs as well as unreleased songs and covers knocking around that people might wanna hear and that might help fund the recording of the Bolts album too.”

What bands or records do you recommend we should check out (new or old!)?  

 ”Right now I would recommend Kraftwerk’s Ralf und Florian album which is the one before Autobahn; a David Axelrod compilation called The Edge and Jackie McLean’s 1964 Blue Note release Action Action Action. I quite like that Tralier Trash Tracys tune from the TV advert which is called You Wish You Were Red. Heard a nice tune by Beach House yesterday and the UK band Toy have some cool Television-type guitars going on.”

Finally, any questions for us?

 How long is a piece of string anyway?

A guitar string is about 25.4″ (64.52 cm) or multiply the distance from the nut to the 12th fret by 2.
Chrono String Engines were the source of power for spacecraft. These engines drew their power from Chrono Strings.
Ah, the power and ease of the internet. How long is a Chrono String? First to answer gets a personalized Swervie mix tape on good ol’ fashioned cdr…

Live review: The set was loud, b-side heavy, and we managed to snag prime seating for lift off (or, for our old legs) at the end of the bar. “Space-travel rock’n'roll” at its finest. And as one pleased fan said on the way out, ” They played ‘Cars Converge On Paris’ and that’s all I needed to hear.”

Pedro

The album launch was on April 7th at the Electric Circus. How was it?

“Fabulous! Loved it. Fantastic support from Megan D (very talented singer songwriter, only 16 and this was her first ever live gig), and the wonderful Capitals, who are always great. I really enjoyed the gig. We had cupcakes with plum jam in the centre, butterfly fairy cakes & rum & plum cocktails.”

What are the plans from here?

“…Gig as much as possible, shoot more music videos, gain more exposure?”

I loved the ordering of the song titles from the bottom up on the cd case; a nice little touch. Whose idea was that?

“Thank you, my idea. It was embedded within the concept to start at the bottom & work up.”

I’ve glimpsed at some of the early press. How pleased are you with it?

“I’m really chuffed with the reviews, they have been absolutely incredible. The concept & the emotional story has been well received. I always intended this project to be meaningful, at least to me, so I’m glad the press have been picking up on that side of it, as well as the production.”

Was just re-watching the video for the ‘Seed’, can you share anything about how that came together. The results are very good.

“Well, the idea came about from discussions between myself & Jim Wolff of LEITH Records. I wanted a stop-frame music video…we discussed options, costs, possible ideas, we wanted to use leads as roots/plants. Then Jim got Greg Hoyna involved (who is a cardboard stop-frame master) and he said I had to be in the video. No question. We had a disagreement about the ending. The consensus was originally to throw the plant pot out of the window & have a happy ending (it was just a dream kind of thing), but that missed the entire point of the album. Then Jim came up with the idea of me being plugged in at the end & I loved it! It took 75m of cardboard, 3 weeks of preparation (turning my livingroom into cardboard), and 2 long days to shoot with LEITH Records & Greg directing.”

 Incidentally, who came up with the design for the Plum logo?  It is such an excellent icon.

“I worked with The LEITH Agency on the brand identity, and the man behind the brand identity including the logo was the young & talented Mr Sam Grosset.”

A while ago you made a promotional trip to London handing out fairy dust and other things. Do you have a tale or 2 of some of the encounters this lead to?

“…I didn’t actually hand out any fairy dust in London, lol. I gave away 50 promo copies of the album. I met some lovely people. I also went to the Gotye concert at Shepherds Bush Empire & gave Wally de Backer one of my music boxes. He says he might use it to write a song his dad gave him one that plays the Can Can which sounds amazing.”

I wanted to purchase a copy of the album for someone in North America, but the web shop informed that this was not possible. Will this change in the future?

“Yes. I’m really keen to get the music to the states & Canada & everywhere else. It was a problem with my settings in Big Cartel. Fixed now.”

I’ve been trying to follow up on people’s recommendations. I have to admit that I have not been doing a very good job of it. This morning I noticed you linked a Capitals song on your facebook page. Until today, it was a band name rolling around my head. After watching ‘Ode to End’ I became very intrigued.  That video led me to ‘Hello World’ and they’ve instantly become the next band I want to seek out. What more can you tell us about them?

“Keir MacCulloch from Capitals helped produce my album. He is a world class producer & was also signed to Benbecula Records under the name Araya. Angus Carbarns, the singer is a fantastically talented songwriter, who used to play with The  Cinematics.  Both from Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. They are brilliant & I wish them every success.”

I noticed that, at the moment, you and I and 292 other people’ like’ the Gothenburg Address. What is wrong with the world?

“Luke Joyce is a friend of mine who is always doing really interesting projects including surround sound gigs etc. he also writes music under the name I Build Collapsible Mountains. He’s another very talented songwriter.

 …I’m not sure what’s wrong with the world. Perhaps not enough people like yourself willing to listen to & promote genuinely good music.”

T&P

It is rather nice to see one’s name on the inside flap of the finished product along with all the other sponsors. It has been an enjoyable experience seeing this project come to fruition. When the press kit files came I gave them a listen in the car a few times but my download must have had some corruption. At the time I was also asked to write a review. Since then I’ve pretty much decided that not only do I not want to write ‘traditional’ reviews but that I really can’t. The world would be a better place if I didn’t. Even worse, I was not really sure if I would have been able to recommend it.

When the physical album arrived I dutifully put it into the stereo proper. After one listen my reaction was of astonishment – I didn’t remember it being so good.  ‘Electronica’ for lack of a better label – and it really only speaks to instrumentation on this record not its heart – is not my neck of the woods.  I still have not listened enough to fully absorb the lyrics and still marvel at the little touches that I discover every time I listen to it.  I’ve walked around outside, up and down the hills, with it playing in my ears and it is becoming one of my favourite records. This is obviously an exceptional example, but I truly love how ‘my’ music is becoming more personal again.

What does the Wedding Present have to do with a San Francisco based Scottish Music blog? –  Pretty much everything. In large part, it is why we are San Francisco based and, in small measure, it explains the Scottish focus.  

Back in early ’96, unable to find anyone willing to take the trip to Toronto to see the ‘Mini’ tour, I began asking in the WP mailing list.  I was a relatively new fan having only been made aware of them with the release of Watusi. Eventually one lone soul responded that they would love to go – the only catch being she was in Australia. In the end, I drove 2 hours each way for a 1 hour set. It didn’t disappoint. They played my Favourite Dress!  I bought a signed cd and t-shirt to send to Australia. It was the least I could do.  Speaking to Dave at the merchandise table, I also asked him for a recommendation. He offered up BIS. This led me to purchase ‘The Secret Vampire Soundtrack’ and begin my love affair with Chemikal Underground.  Apparently a mutual love for Gedge is enough to spark a potential long distance relationship. Email turned to phone calls which turned into the idea of meeting in person. You don’t need to have listened to nearly 2 decades of the Wedding Present to know how it  turned out.

It did, however, set up the decision of meeting in San Francisco or London. The obvious choice led to a 10 day trip to England. The chemistry didn’t survive reality but the gigs were pretty decent:

Dave Graney, the Frank and Walters, The Divine Comedy, Mogwai and Urusei  Yatsura twice, Richard Thompson, and Pooka. While there,  I was even asked by a young Stuart Braithwaite what I thought of BIS. Unaware of the family connection, I wisely said they were pretty good

One of the other highlights was listening to Everything Must Go on a Sunday in a Chelsea record shop before the next day’s release. My own life had suffered a horrible self-inflicted blow.  The transition from the Holy Bible to the follow up was deeply personal. I once saw Richard Thompson open up for Crowded House with my ex-wife and at that time thought I never wanted to see him after a break up. It is, of course, exactly what I did that  year; at the Royal Albert Hall no less.

I was quite impressed by the Divine Comedy as well. Casanova was just out and Liberation and Promenade were picked up at the show (avoiding the eternal which was better controversy). When I got home the Manics finally made their way to North America.  I even joined the Divine Comedy mailing list where one day someone asked  what the Manics were like.  The chemistry was right this time. She was from San Francisco. I moved, we married and in between a Cinerama tour that  started and ended here we adopted a cat and named her Sally. It would seem that I had to go to London to get to San Francisco.

Thanks for the wedding Gedge.

Review? They played Seamonsters in its entirety!

I’ve spent the evening creating and listening to a chronological playlist of the 34 Scottish artists we’ve already featured. With a bit of luck you’ll slot in at #35. Not to be too overly dramatic – how is it possible for one relatively small country to produce this much exceptional musical talent?

“It’s true, Scotland seems to be doing something right in the music department. It’s something everyone at home is pretty proud of, there’s a real good community sort of vibe between bands so I guess that helps.”

Have you determined how many songs you’ll include on the debut record? I take it “I Am” will be on it? When can we expect a release date?

“I think there will be around 10 or 11 tracks on it. That’s not set in stone yet, but looking at the list of songs we have to make a record from I think there’s 10/11 that fit nicely together. That list is mostly made up of new songs but there are a few that we’ve been playing for a while, like I Am and our next single “The Old and the Innocent“.

There’s no release date confirmed yet, but we’re aiming for October time. Keep ‘em peeled.”

Having grown up a couple hours south of Toronto, I can visualize your upcoming trip well. Will this be the first time there? How did you get invited to  Canadian Music Week?

“Yeah, it’s our first trip across the Atlantic as a band actually. Cat has been here a couple of times before, but I think this is mostly our first visits to Canada. Toronto is such a cool place, I love it here! We applied to come and play around October/November last year and got an invitation early this year. Excited to say the least.”

Are there any other Scottish acts you’d like to recommend?

“Yeah! In keeping true to your last statement there are a whole bunch of great Scottish bands over for CMW this year, mostly friends of ours from home actually. We went to see our friends Twin Atlantic at the Phoenix last night, they ripped the place apart. Three Blind Wolves are here too as well as French Wives. I’d recommend them all very highly.”

What’s the last show (not your own of course) that the Aerial team attended together?

“Apart from going to see Twin Atlantic last night, the last show that all of Team AU attended was Evil Edison at King Tuts in Glasgow. Our sound man Paul fronts Evil Edison and this was there first show, we seen a whole new side of our Paulie, they were awesome!”

We ask variations of this question a lot – perhaps too much so – so let me turn it towards Glasgow venues specifically. What are your favourites?

“Us Glaswegians are spoiled for good venues! King Tuts Wah Wah Hut tops the bill though, over it’s 20 year history its had all the big names, from Radiohead to Muse, grace it’s stage. I’m actually sitting with the venues first ever booker right now and he informs me it’s like Scotland’s answer to The Horseshoe Tavern over here.”

I once saw Carina Round mop the floor with Snow Patrol in a support slot. Would that pretty much sum up your own experience? I see that you have played Royal Albert Hall as well. I saw Richard Thompson there the one time I was in London. What was that like?

“Nice, it’s always a great feeling when a support act blow you away like that. I hope we’ve been able to make such an impression on fans of SP like that too.

It was pretty incredible yeah. It’s a special place, there’s a real aura about it. I remember seeing tiny little silhouettes watching our set from waaay up in the gods and being a bit taken aback. The seats go right around the back of the stage too so there’s no hiding, 360 degree audience!”

Continually seeing the FATCAT roster is all well and good but we need more. What are your long term plans to get yourselves here?

“You gotta hand it to them, FatCat have such a great roster of Scottish acts! The plan when we return home is to record the album and promote it like crazy. It’d be nice to get some backing to help promote it too, so fingers crossed someone will come on board to help with that – and fly us across to San Fran.”

I just remembered that the French Wives are in Toronto on March 24th also.  That would have been a great bill: Aerials Up/French Wives.

“Funny you should mention it, we’re playing a show with the French Wives while we’re both in Toronto, at the Smiling Buddha on Sunday 25th!”

Lastly, would you be so kind and ask us a question?

“Would you rather have the power of invisibility or be able to fly?”

Fly (to Toronto) obviously. SF is dissappointely too far from SXSW and CMW.

T&P

I downloaded the first record ‘Be Still this Gentle Morning’ from emusic. I’m pretty sure that I just found it ‘accidently’.  The record just seemed to come from nowhere.  It is an incredibly lovely album. Whenever I saw a reference to The Kays Lavelle later on it conjured up the image of something special. The record itself became my central icon for the Kays because I never associated it with  a ‘band’ directly.

Would you mind retelling the tale of the origin and meaning of the band name?

“It was basically a misunderstanding between myself and a friend during a phone conversation.  He had music on in the background and I asked who he was listening to, to which he replied the K’s of  L…as in the Kings of Leon.  I asked who the Kays Lavelle were and the name just stuck.”

You are releasing a  song from the new record as a free download on March 16 for one day only. Coincidently, and quite unbelievably, all 3 of us here at glasGOwest share a birthday that day. What prompted the decision for this little birthday present?

Well I’m working on the second record now.  It’s been almost 2 years since the debut was released and there have been no shows, no interviews, no nothing really, since then to keep people interested in the Kays.  I’d been thinking of ways to help raise the profile again before the album is done and ready to go, just to get some interest back and this seemed like a good taster from the album.”

I have no idea why I didn’t sign up for the recent free debut record giveaway. My thinking ran along the lines of I’ve already got it digitally and I didn’t want to impose or something like that. How many did you actually send to people? What prompted this act of generosity?

Again this had a lot to do with raising the profile and getting people interested in what I was up to.  There would really be no point in doing the second record if I didn’t think people would want a second record, other than to satisfy my own personal need to write and record music.  I just made it available for a limited time to try and encourage people back into the kays music. I had about 20 people asking for copies.

I’m very excited that the work on the second record is apparently underway .  Musically, do you intend to venture into any new directions? Is the new song fairly representative of the rest of the album?

“I always want to push myself as an artist.  Working on the Graveyard Tapes record pushed me far out of my comfort zone as a musician, which was a really important experience.  Its made me approach the new Kays record in a different way. So   hopefully the record will have a very different feel to the debut without ever being anything other than the Kays Lavelle.  I just hope to write and create music that people will connect with.

The new song is not really representative of the rest of the album as it was recorded live and won’t likely be touched again other than a tweak here and there and mastering.  Also, my gut feeling is that there will be a lot less piano led tracks on the new record as I really want to experiment with different instruments and sounds; but it’s too early to tell how the songs will develop and change during the recording process at the moment. Hopefully people will like the record once it’s ready.”

I always like to ask if there are any other artists people would recommend. In this case, I’m just going to just ask about Hiva Oa under the assumption they would be who you would want to tell us about. What makes them special? ( please do include anyone else you’d also like to point out to us)

“Well as a starting point Hiva Oa are just exceptional.  I run mini50 records and their new ep is our latest release so perhaps I have a bias.  But from the first time I saw them live I loved their music.  What makes them special is difficult to explain –   I guess I just connect with what they do musically and I love that they have their own voice and sound.

Other recommendations would include anything on the mini50 catalogue, I guess, and Matthew Collings solo stuff (he’s the other half of Graveyard Tapes).”

Could you give us a sense of the differences between the Glasgow and Edinburgh music scenes? (or is it largely just a question of geography?)

” Well I have to be honest and say I don’t like when people divide Edinburgh and Glasgow.  I think good music and art has come out of both cities and it makes no sense to say there is a musical divide between places in a country so small.  The main difference is that those bands Based in glasgow are not based in Edinburgh and vice versa. “

I’ve read a good deal of your wordpress blog just now. And it appears that, somewhat sadly, the Kays will remain as elusive as my original experience.  “Stunningly beautiful” is a worthy goal. It tends to come out of Scotland quite a lot actually. Why do you think that is?

“Well, I hope I won’t be too elusive but thank you for the kind words on the Kays and I will strive for stunningly beautiful.

A sense of place in music is a really interesting thing.  I think perhaps traditional music creates imagery and sounds that are deeply rooted in a country or a place.  I watched ‘Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus’ about the music of the deep south and it struck me how its impossible to escape the traditions, culture and sound of where you come from.  listening to Jim White, the Handsome Family and similar artists the music they create could only come from the one place. It perfectly evokes the eerie beauty you find there, the humidity, and the music is so fearsome, yet fragile all at the same time.

Maybe the same thing is true of Scotland, of course the sound is totally different, but we’re very embedded in traditional music. You try to move beyond that, but the roots are there and in many ways are inescapable. I don’t think people deliberately go out their way to create something that sounds like their home country, I know I don’t, but maybe its something inherently instinctive.”

I’ll wrap it up with this last question -  could you tell us about the Graveyard Tapes? I couldn’t find any music but the project clearly seems to be a source of optimism. 

“Graveyard Tapes started in 2010 and is a project involving myself and Matthew Collings.  We have recently completed our debut album entitled ‘Our Sound Is Our Wound’ and we’re hoping that it will be released this year.  Its at the mixing/mastering stage so it should be done soon enough.  Its been a great experience for me as a musician and also a person because I think Matt is one of the most talented and wonderful people I’ve met.  I have learned so much from him musically and his drive and passion has pushed me on to not only want to finish this record but to do the second Kays record and plenty of other things in the future too hopefully.  So yeah, I guess you could say it’s been a very positive experience for me.”

T&P

Happy Birthday. March 16th only. ‘Hiding in the Ditches’. Be sure to get the sampler while there as well, it does have some Graveyard Tapes. http://mini50records.bandcamp.com/