noah and the whale are: charlie, urby, tom & doug
interviewed may 26th, crawdaddy smoking area
i'd last seen charlie and urby december 8th outside the sugar club after they'd supported and played with laura marling. i was there to interview laura, but decided to chance my arm after seeing the lads play, unprepared as usual.
i bumped into charlie early on in the night when the first support crayon smith were playing. he looked better rested that the last time i'd seen him, which he told he found surprising when i was talking to him outside a little while after. he felt wrecked. maybe he and the other lads had just become accustomed to the schedule of touring musicians.
the interview was conducted outside. charlie could only spare a few minutes as he had to go back to the hotel due to a 6am Ferry, and we were soon to be kicked out of the smoking area and onto the street.
gareth: what have you been up to since december? you've been touring quite alot.
charlie: yeah we've done this... this is our second headline tour this year. ehm... we, recorded an album.
tom: two albums.
g: yeah, i heard about that. actually two albums.
c: yeah yeah we recorded like, i guess the noah and the whale album and then, a punk album as well.
g: i noticed a bit of a tinge of that... tonight.
c: the punky-ness.
g: yeah.
c: that's good.
g: it was a bit obvious. you were a bit heavier than what i remember, from the sugar club.
c: we were kind of subdued tonight.
g: yeah but. it's kinda nice to see. it's always good to see ehm... musicians branching out from what they usually do.
c: i think it's more a case of just like, feeling free ya know. feeling free to make a punk album. 'cause if you put pressure on yourself as a band, put pressure on yourself to recreate that, i think for us maybe it's more a case of finding something people like and then, trying to do something completely different. or maybe trying to find something completely new for them to like maybe.
g: lollapalooza, that's weird. you mentioned it earlier. i still find that really odd. do you know who you're playing alongside?
c: radiohead, bloc party.
t: kings of leon are there as well. janes addiction.
c: i guess with janes addiction who knows.
g: they're back again?
c: i don't, maybe.
g: what's the punk stuff like. out of curiosity, what are the lyrics like? are they less, uhm... ya know, talking about something beautiful and saying then how it got torn apart, and then...
c: it's kinda like. it's completely... it's a lot less, i don't wanna say self-conscious but. at the end, it basically, the thing about the punk album is we made it in two nights. we did it in 8 hours -- the whole thing took to record. and it was just, it was pure energy, pure fun, pure enjoyment. and everything was pretty much first or second take. ehm, and the a lot of the lyrics, just sorta improvised a little bit. so it's a lot i guess... yeah, maybe... the lyrics for noah can often be a bit painful to write even, or you really feel like you get in a cage for them, but for the punk album i just kinda of...
g: you didn't feel restricted to kind of ehm... to fit into some sort of folk box.
c: deffinately not. that's part of the fun of it. it wasn't.
g: so it would of been a great buzz to see the mae shi play tonight.
c: yeah, it thought they were awesome tonight. really good... i've never seen them live before. best shows have the energy you know.
g: yeah. i was teary eyed. these guys were just, lovely. that's a really weird way to put it.
c: lovely?
g: it was really heavy -- they were lovely.
c: they were lovely guys.
g: an albums out what, august 4th?
c: oh, wow, look at that, bang on.
g: uhm, that's pretty kick ass. i'm looking forward to it. are you going to release the punk album soon or after -- or?
c: i think the plan is they're gonna be sort of released together. kind of like a supplement for the other album. not really sure. i mean the thing is, we want it be treated as a proper album.
urby: it really works as well -- as an album.
c: yeah.
u: we have completely shocked ourselves, as continuity, and there's quiet ones and it works at a pace you know, where you get halfway through and... we kinda nailed it. the running order i think first time round. i'm really chuffed.
g: so the flow from one track to the other is quite nice.
c: yeah.
u: music still applies to it but it's a punk album.
c: with the other album it's such a big emotional project for us, you know, the whole process of it, the whole process of writing it. putting it together in the studio. making it all. making it coherent. where as with the punk album, you know it just fitted immediately. it was just easy.
my mate jill and myself accompanied by tom and urby spent the morning wandering from bar to bar. some were closing, and the others wouldn't let us in due to not having id. urby's nearly 25, as well as myself, and jill had id. i could blame tom, but i don't know him well enough to do that so i won't. a wonderful night, and lovely lads. the above remark about tom was a joke which i hope he'll remember.
noah and the whale's debut album is released august 11th, and is available to listen to for free on their myspace page. the singles "five years time" and shape of my heart" are available at all god record stores.
gareth
No comments:
Post a Comment