FUTURE SOUNDS VIA VINTAGE TRANSMISSIONS


Welcome to the magnificent, macabre and imaginative world of THE SMILES AND FROWNS. RICHARD S JONES talks to Arizonian duo ADAM MATTESON and CHRISTOPHER JAMES about children’s television, songwriting and why they may possibly-never-not tour


For a gifted pair of multi-instrumentalists touting around one of the year’s most delicately hewed gems, it could be considered a little strange that Arizona’s The Smiles And Frowns are yet to play any of their new material live. In fact they’ve never really performed live at all. Aside from the odd occasion where, as member Adam Matteson mysteriously describes, they’ve done so in “the shadows of our own discretion.” “We will eventually,” explains fellow founder Christopher James, shedding some much-


needed light on the issue. “Being that we are only two people, it isn’t easy to create a full sound live. But we are working on it, and if we can get it to the point that it impresses us personally, we’ll do it. You will not see us ever doing something just because it’s what bands do.We have to have a reason.” One of those reasons could be, if they were to ever try and recreate their extraordinary


debut live, it’d have to be as special for them individually as it would inevitably be for all those lucky enough to witness such an event. “We’ve had countless offers to entertain listeners, but we wouldn’t feel right unless we were


providing them with something that was more of an art experience, rather than two dudes rocking out for the fans,”Adam is quick to underpin. “A chef wouldn’t serve an unfinished entrée and the same goes for us.We are just a little under baked at the moment.” Maybe they are just their own toughest critics on this particular aspect of musicianship, in


light of the fact that The Smiles And Frowns has been cooked to near perfection. Employing the warm, charming elements of The Zombies, with late ’60s Kinks, The Pink Floyd and the sincerity of latter day songwriters like Elliott Smith; it’s a wonderful creation, enveloped in the virtues of a sci-fi-lo-fi quaintness fans of Joe Meek will appreciate. More noticeable however is the album’s many compositions which could contemporarily


THE CALIFORNIAN RENAISSANCE MAN


Two new albums, a 2007 iMac advert, his past life as blues- wailing mod stylist. JON ‘MOJO’ MILLS talks with BART DAVENPORT about reinvention and how it feels to be one of America’s prime unknown musical talents


“I’m glad I had that special sense of style and cared about having the right guitars and haircuts,” says Bart Davenport of his early days as a face on the Californian mod scene. “Eventually I wanted to express more in my songwriting and my appearance. I just couldn’t re-enact The Civil War on a regular basis any longer.” Just like ’60s chameleon David Bowie felt a necessity to try new things and move forward – there’s still something touched by the hand of mod in Davenport’s inherent cool style and musical touchstones. Yet not having stuck with one predominant style may


be one reason why this truly gifted singer-songwriter hasn’t broken through. Much of his acoustic music could have seen him reap the success of Devendra Banhart or Joanna Newsom, two younger San Franciscan locals he knew well. Even more commercially viable are the incredibly melodic classic pop songs he’s written. So why is Davenport still not a household name? “First of all, if I knew how to get more popular of


course I would do it. Do you think I enjoy not knowing from month to month how the rent will get paid?” As with the blues singers and LA troubadours he so loves, singing is all this man with a guitar knows how to do. Music is his trade. If he has to suffer for his art that’s what he’ll do. Whether singing sweet soul, rustic country-rock, ’70s


AM pop, Prince-like funk, upbeat ’80s pop or even guesting on dance records, Davenport’s reinvention has always worked. So what makes his magpie-like blending so


effective? “There’s a sort of ‘trouble in paradise’ feeling 10


you get when you hear The Beach Boys or even Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac,” he states. “I don’t know if it’s because I am a Californian or what, but I am very at home with that feeling.” Bart has just returned from Dallas, Texas where he


recorded an acoustic covers set for German label Tapete. Last year he cut tracks with Daniel Collas and Quinn Luke, his two friends from The Phenomenal Handclap Band, which will soon be released on the Spanish Lovemonk label.“We’re calling the supergroup Incarnations.We recorded With All Due Respect in Tarifa, southern Spain in a studio five minutes from the beach. At night, from our little artist’s bungalow we could see the lights of Africa. It’s a nine song album and the tunes range from lowrider oldies to soft-rock to folk/funk.” With a new album due from another Bart sideline,


Honeycut (who’ve achieved some major airplay and bagged an iMac ad), it looks as if 2010 may be his year. Even if Davenport never achieves the degree of success he deserves, his songs of love and redemption, his soulful voice and happy demeanour will continue to soothe, inspire and speak to those who know a good thing when they hear it. Incarnation’s With All Due Respect will be released on Lovemonk late Autumn 2010, whilst the Davenport solo album on Tapete follows after. Bart Davenport’s four previous albums are all available from Antenna Farm Records To read our interview with Bart Davenport in full visit www.shindig-magazine.com


theme a newly unearthed Oliver Postgate animation, as well as script the storyline, fashion the feel and animate the motions of every character. Such are the vivid picaresque tales and touches woven fondly into the narratives of their song. “I definitely have a deep-rooted interest in ’70s and ’80s European and Canadian


children’s television. These ‘story songs’ are really just mini-scriptures, specifically built for an escape from modern times, which hopefully will encourage people to look within themselves,” Adam elaborate when asked about the process of songwriting.“The only way to do it is either go to sleep, go to Disneyland, or just allow yourself to be carried away by your imagination, and then try to manifest what you have experienced in song form,” he explains. Over that long lineage of characteristically English sounding psychedelia, this manifestation


between “the personal” and “the pure” is something songwriters have often looked to the pages of classic children’s authors for help with. Proving to be the most brilliant of bedfellows, from The Beatles’ fleeting name check of Edward Lear to the poeticism of Syd Barrett’s tantalising, nonsensical lilts around Lewis Carroll’s wordplay, that childlike fascination with the fantastical is perpetually timeless. And that The Smiles And Frowns similarly share in the inventive delights of songwriting, however you listen to them, live or otherwise, to hear them once is to capture an imagination so rich you could frame it. The Smiles And Frowns debut album is out now; marking the 50th release from of the celebrated Manchester label Akoustik Anarkhy. For more info visit www.akoustikanarkhy.co.uk


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