Having kick-started the
folk-explosion of the past few years, and earning critical praise along the way
and a reputation for playing more... unusual venues. Taking a minor detour from
their ‘Month of Sundays’ residency to play at the Cathedral for Liverpool Sound
City, NOAH AND THE WHALE’s Charlie Fink took some time out of his hectic
schedule for a chat with Laurie Cheeseman
about recent happenings and films.
Bido
Lito!: Hello Noah and the Whale, you have a new album out I believe- ‘Heart of
Nowhere’. Last time I saw you guys play live you were still a cutesy, folksy
band but you appear to have slowly transmuted your style to something all
together, dare I say, new wave, or even edging into some Red House Painters
style slowcore. Has this change been intentional or something more organic?
Charlie Fink: Yeah well, I suppose the time you must have seen us a long time
ago?
BL!:
Yeah it was Clapham Common or something like that
CF: [laughs] that must have been 5
years ago or something. I think we have evolved naturally, every record’s
changed in some way and so I think the change has been quite gradual. What we’re
trying to do with this record was, because the previous three have all been
quite different, we’ve tried to establish what combined the records, and what
was it about this band that was unique to our sound and try and investigate
that I suppose.
BL!:
I really like the earthier feel on the new material of yours I have heard;
especially on your lead single, ‘There will come a time’. What sort of inspired
the change from the high-production values of your last album, ‘Last Night on
Earth’ to the... not rootsy as such but definitely earthier sound on your
current material?
CF: Yeah I mean I guess the major
difference is we recorded this album live..., which is, you know a very
different process to the last one. And the reason is why we wanted to do that
is we spent so much time on the road touring the previous record, I think we’ve
grown much sort of... tighter and more... confident as performers. We wanted to
capture that, and I think that is what you get- a more earthy, organic sound.
Recording an album live you exchange that technical perfection for more
emotional intensity. So I think that is why we decided to do it that way.
BL!:
Brilliant, it actually sounds more, well
not to put too fine a point on it, you sound more like a band than on your last
albums. You can tell you have been spending a lot of time together.
CF: That is definitely true, and the writing is a bit more
collaborative on this record so I think of the four albums, it is definitely
more of a ‘band’ record.
BL!:
You really can tell the difference. During your ‘Month of Sundays’ residency at
London’s Palace Theatre you are making the odd trip from the big smoke to
Liverpool Sound city (obviously), Manchester,
Bournemouth and, of all places, the Hay-on-Wyre lit festival What have
been your experiences of Liverpool been so far, playing live or otherwise?
CF: I mean I love Liverpool, and I
think we have played some really great shows there. It is funny I actually
watched a documentary a couple of years back called ‘Of Time and the City’, by
Terence Davies, about Liverpool and there was a lot about the Cathedral in that
documentary so we wanted to play there, in such a beautiful space.
BL!:
Yes, it is such a beautiful space... and you have By the Sea supporting you as
well. Those guys always seem to fill the space. So are you going to try and
sort of do the same sort of very
atmospheric sound.
CF: Yeah, music needs context. There
was that David Byrne book that came out recently, ‘How Music Works’, which
talked about how all music is written for its context. Like you know, the
reason a lot of African music is percussion is because it is for the outdoors
so the sound needs to carry. I think you do need to consider your venue when
you think about what it is you are going in there to do. You need to use all
opportunities to try out the more, like you say, more atmospheric and sort of
string led numbers.
BL!:
Is there any one in particular you fancy seeing around Liverpool Sound City if you
have got the free time? This year has a particularly good line up.
CF: You know what I have not really
had a chance to study the line up too much... but are Savages playing this
year?
BL!:
They might be, I am not too sure myself!
CF: It is always easier when you are
at a festival in a city to go and see bands rather than when you are in sort of
a muddy field. And hopefully we will get to go see some bands play.
BL!:
Especially in cities like Liverpool, all the venues are so close together you
can sort of just dash in and out all the gigs. Also, I see you have returned to
the director’s chair for this album as well. I really enjoyed the film you did
accompanying ‘First Day of Spring’, especially the slightly surreal edge the band’s music gives it. So what does the,
you know, this film have lined up for us?
CF: This film is slightly different
to the ‘First Day of Spring’ film in that in a sense there is more... dialogue,
and is a more conventional, half-hour short film. The film also involves the
themes from the record, like friendship and memory, it is a coming of age story
about these four friends in a slightly futuristic world where teenagers are
separated from society.
BL!:
That sounds really interesting! You can sort of see that coming through in the
artwork accompanying the record and film. The poster is slightly redolent some
of John Hughes’ less cheesy (and actually sort of quite good) flicks or even
some of the likes of Leos Carax. Have any of these directors been an influence
on your style?
CF: Yeah I mean... yeah the
influences on this film were a film called ‘Over the Edge’, which was a big
influence, and a little bit of Spike Jonze. There’s a short film he made called
‘How They Get Here’, which was also a big inspiration for this, and then maybe
[the Terry Gilliam film] ‘Brazil’. Lots of different things really!
