Indie rock outfit British Sea Power are hauling anchor and setting sail for Perth for not one but two fantastic appearances as part of the Perth International Arts Festival. The first appearance is at Beck’s Music Box. The second? As the sound providers for the obscure 1935 documentary Man of Aran. Either way you see them, they are sure to eclipse with their seminal guitar droning rock.
Band member Yan caught up with OUTinPerth to talk about their upcoming appearances.
Where are you calling from today? In bed. Which is also where we’re working and recording. We’re in a farmhouse, actually, for this last year, so I’m sort of at work but in bed.
And you’re in England at the moment, yeah? Yeah, yeah.
What can you tell us about the new album you’re currently working on? Well, we sort of took on the ideas we started on when we ended Do You Like Rock Music, because we had trouble recording that one. We ended up recording two or three of the main songs on it again, and we did it all ourselves. We enjoyed that a lot more than being in the studio, with someone else doing all the mixing up, so we agreed on a whole this sort of isolated farm out in the middle of nowhere and got a year, rather than a few weeks, to sort of experiment with all the sound. It’s probably one of the dreams come true for us to record a record, for us to make a record.
For people who aren’t familiar with British Sea Power, how would you describe your band’s sound and music? I don’t like doing it, but if I had to, on the spot, I’d say something like (a cross between) Joy Division and Sigur Ros but with a sense of humour. I probably wouldn’t like that but I’d have to say it anyway.
Because I noticed that it’s very majestic and orchestral sounding in its rock-ness… Yeah, I mean, we sort of don’t distinctly describe it. We get described as Sigur Ros a lot, recently, on the last record, and recording the new one even more, I guess; it’ll be more that way. It’s pretty eccentric. The only thing is, we included a lot more non-instrumental sound; manipulating recorded sounds through machines and more synths and things like that.
What can you tell us about the soundtrack that you guys are making for the movie Man Of Aran? It’s pretty different. It’s the opposite end of the spectrum to normal rock gigs. It’s instrumental, instead of singing I’m playing a cello for 90% of it. There’s a few loud bits but it’s pretty fast at times, quite long songs. It’s designed to be heard watching the movie, not just… you want to be sitting down, basically, watching a black and white film about these crazy island people.
In your music you tackle some quite unusual subject matter. What can you tell us about some of the subject matter you’re tackling on the new album? I think that’s why we get branded eccentric, because pop or rock music – however you want to call it – we just think it’s capable of holding bigger ideas than just writing about dancing or girls or whatever people have done before. Saying that, the new record is largely quite secretive, to be honest. I think we got a bit fed up of having to feel like every song’s got to have a massive weight to it. Lyrically, we’ve maybe gone against that a bit, this time.
What would you say is your favourite music festival to play? There’s a couple of smaller ones in England. I think England, it’s one of the things we’re quite good at, actually, music festivals. It’s a bit like different characters. There’s one called End Of The Road I like. It’s when we play 5 or 6 thousand people and it’s quite friendly. I don’t like the sort of massive ones that are like football pitches with hotdog stands. Those are my least favourite.
What makes a good festival, for you? I like when they’re somewhere pretty, like Wales or somewhere. The scenery’s part of it, and you get somewhere there’s proper camping and that.
Do you have an all-time festival horror story that’s either happened to you or someone you know? There’s one from Glastonbury that springs to mind. That’s not so bad for a big festival, because it still has some character. But, we woke up and we were in about three feet of water, lots of people were. So we nearly drowned, and then there was mudslides and it took about 3 hours to get out of this field. When it starts getting into the toilets and they start overflowing then it’s pretty disgusting.
Do you have any hot predictions for rock music in 2010? There’s a little band in Brighton called Esben and the Witch and it’s early days but I think they could do really well. I really like them myself, anyway. I doubt they’ll be in Australia for a while, though.
British Sea Power will be appearing at Perth International Arts Festival Beck’s Music Box on Wednesday February 17 and at the Astor Cinema for Man of Aran on Thursday February 18. For further info about the festival’s lineup and to purchase tickets visit www.perthfestival.com.au.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
