place. It’s also how I write my songs as well, is to try and wander off and maybe if I’ve got a line, I’ll often take it and go for a big long walk and start singing things into my phone as I find other lines. So yeah, I do try to get lost as often as I can when I’m away.
Tat shows innate bravery. I don’t think I’m as plucky when it comes to the journey… Haha, well you’ve got to get one of those phones that tells you exactly where you are and then you can’t get lost!
Yeah, we’re brave now we have GPS! Exactly – you can’t get lost any more.
I’ve read about your desire to create a texture with your albums – how much of this can you do alone and how much do you need the other people around you? Well with the songs I write them myself and then I bring them to the guys in the band and we arrange them together, so we flesh them out and sort of create the texture and shape them, so you know, that’s the collaborative process. With the artwork, I do all of that but then I get my friend Clíona to photograph them beautifully, so you know, it’s all good. Tere are a lot of collaborations along the way. You have to work with other people to really bring out the best in what you’re doing and inspire you, and stuff. I really enjoy working with people, you know, bouncing ideas off people and stuff.
Te input you have with the artwork, and the brilliant concept you had for the ‘Knots’ video, do you see these elements in tandem when you write the songs? Tey come at different times; with the ‘Knots’ video that came way after it had been written and recorded and I always wanted to do a video where all the instruments were being played by something like that great Daft Punk video where people are dancing in time to the music. Because ‘Knots’ is just so rhythmical and precise – all the parts are quite precise – I just thought ‘yeah, this would work really well’, to have paint
HA I DIDN’T REALLY THINK ABOUT
playing the instruments. Yeah, it didn’t necessarily translate that well because of course it was such an approximate medium, but the intention was there anyway! It was great fun.
I think if you’d have tried to choreograph it too much, it may have lost that one-take feeling though – - Yeah, I mean we choreographed it very solidly, we knew exactly what we were doing, but you’re shooting your super soaker in time and by the time it reaches my dress, the spatters aren’t quite in time! Tat looked like it took some hella concentration from you! Ha! It did! I think because I knew it was obviously a one-take thing and there was no chance of there being another take and we’d worked out the choreography and everything, then when it started I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s really COLD!’ It’s really wet! I didn’t even think about how cold it would be! I just had to keep going, then the paint in my mouth I knew was going to happen, and I wanted it to happen visually but I didn’t really think about having to sing the word ‘whiskey’ with my mouth open for five seconds while pints of paint were being thrown at my face! It was a really wonderful experience though actually, and god we laughed at the end when we’d done it! I just couldn’t stop laughing – I couldn’t even breath with laughing and I kept going round hugging everyone in their white space suits.
‘Passenger’ was recorded in north Wales, wasn’t it? Te pictures of glimpses of Snowdonia looked beautiful from Bryn Derwen… Yeah, it was beautiful.
Does the place you record have much bearing on the recording? Did
Lisa Hannigan comes to the Norwich Arts Centre on November 15th. For tickets, go to
www.norwichartscentre.co.uk. Read the uncut version of this interview at
Outlineonline.co.uk
outlineonline.co.uk /November 2011 / 37
VING TO SING THE WORD ‘WHISKEY’ WITH MY MOUTH OPEN FOR FIVE SECONDS WHILE PINTS OF PAINT WERE BEING THROWN AT MY FACE!
Snowdonia press its weight upon you? Yeah, we were right under a mountain in this converted farmhouse. It was just stunning; a really, really stunning setting and it was just what I wanted, for us all to be piled into a place together and not be too far, but not have anywhere to go either. I mean the boys did venture into the village a couple of times for a pint but in general we were just stuck in this wonderful place. I was asking around just wondering if anyone knew of a residential studio in the country that had old things and just sort of suited my vibe. My friend David Koston had actually recorded Bat for Lashes there and he had loved it.
You recorded much of the album live – does that mean when you bring it to Norwich it’ll be a fair representation of the record we’ve heard? I don’t know now because we’ve been playing it live for a while and I haven’t heard the record for a while. It’s funny how far it does go, but yeah, it’s the same players. It’s settled in a bit more now, but it’s the same players, so it’ll certainly by a fair representation, I would think.
We often ask musicians that as you promise a fantastic show for us, what would you like from us, your audience? Ha, just yourselves please… yourselves and maybe some singalong vibes, that’d be good.
Emma Garwood
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64