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In conversation with George
As interviewed - May 2003
A little background
This interview with Suzy from George has been a long time coming to be honest. I first became aware of George back in 1999, I reckon when I bought their debt single, which was a split single with Southall Riot back on the in-famous Earworm Records (now sadly deceased but missed hugely). Their track on the single had this sort of innocent, yet some of beautiful charm that perhaps came through the most touching moments of a Mazzy Starr record, yet also had the starkness of early Throwing Muses records.A full length single "As houses" followed in 2000, I think on Bad Jazz and it was through a press release that came with it, I got in contact with Suzy and found out much to my shock that she worked and lived in the next town up to where I lived. So as a change, I spoke to her and arranged to meet up with her and his musical partner, Michael in a local caf?and do the interview live for Rising Sun.
Sadly, this interview never really came to fruitarian as Rising Sun folded before I could really get it online, which is something I always wanted to get done.
Fast-forward, a couple of years (circa 2003) and straight away I decided to get Setting Sun on, one of my first decisions for a interview would be George, and after talking to Suzy about it both in person and e-mail, she agreed to provide a up-dated interview. Thanks Suzy! George can be contacted through:
P.O.Box 5, Manchester M21 8BW
or through suzy's e mail
Setting Sun: How's things and what's happening at the moment?
Suzy: They seem to be going ok, I hope. We're finally getting an album release in the next few weeks, followed by an EP release in September. It's been very frustrating that we've been working really hard but had so little to show for it. I hope the music we've made can make up for the slowness and silence (sounds like I'm describing the music there). The album, (advert time...) is
called The Magic Lantern and is out on pickled egg records (see www.pickled-egg.co.uk) the EP is called All Good Things, and will be released on a new Spanish label called lejos (see www.lejosdiscos.com. There are also exciting George pictures of what we get up to in our spare time on that site). It will be a wonderful feeling to finally set those works to sail and get on with some new songs, a real feeling of breathing again. I'm very proud, but also tired long ago. We'll definitely try and do a few gigs to promote them around, as and when... touring's not my strong point, but I'd like to for this. I've been collecting so many instruments since we finished recording the records, it would be lovely to take them out of their boxes and show them off. Last week I found a wonderful machine called the Sheltone Companion - it's beautiful, a real 70's electric organ in a brown suitcase. Sounds like an accordion. Very Us.
Setting Sun:
For those who don't know you, can you give us a brief run up
etc of how you got started, who fired the starting pistol etc?
Suzy:
We were at 6th form together. Michael once helped me carry a very large
painting from the art room to the bus stop one afternoon and we got talking
about music. A few days later he came up to me and said, "I think we should
write a song together". We used to spend breaktimes hiding in the miniscule
music room, playing The Stripper over and over (well, I say over but we
couldn't get past halfway we would laugh too much). We put a band together
from then on, then slowly the band split apart till it was once again only
ourselves left. This has been a part of my life for such a long time now.
Mind you, we never did write anything together, not until many years later.
Setting Sun: Why George as a name?
Suzy:
Well, it's been such a long time now it actually feels like my name. It is
the name I have when we play music, when I write or sing any music. People
tend to assume things and I tend to let them... it relates back I suppose to
certain imaginary characters who were very vivid to me at a certain point in
my past. Fictitious things still have a very strong effect on me now. But
there are so many connotations I have collected for it since through the
years, as people perhaps grow to be as their name. Perhaps I should have
called it Tristram... I certainly did have some appalling suggestions. But
it's a very strong contender for a traditional female writer's pseudonym, I
like that about it. It also has such English, nationalistic associations in
it's use, which I find interesting because growing up, not being of British
parentage, I found it very difficult to find any sense of Englishness within
myself, I definitely felt a lack of connection probably over-sensed
throughout adolescence. George is the most British sounding word, but it's
also just a name, an old-fashioned sound and something half-lost.
Setting Sun: Question for Suzy here - Can you tell us a little about your
other musical work with Arbol and your work with Piano Magic and how did it
compare with your work with George?
Suzy:
It's very freeing in many ways to work with music you like but are not
wholly responsible for. It certainly gave me a large confidence-boost, but
still strange, being a "singer" as well as a George-person. I love working
with Miguel on Arbol and we're working on more. I feel quite an affinity
with the understated haunting music he sends to me, and when I feel ready I
twist it back into a song. It's a wonderful way of escaping from my own
sound. It's so far from George... I put a lot in to it, but maybe different
parts of my heart. Piano Magic was also fun, but different because Arbol, by
then, was just my friend Miguel working on some music with me that we've
recorded at our respective homes. I was a fan of Piano Magic, so there's a
peculiar sensation in being asked to do something like that, and performing
and studio work. It was a lovely thing to be part of someone's song that
would have been something you listened to anyway if somehow it wasn't really
me... But I do words, tunes, singing, but then I submit over to them and
it's not my responsibility as a contributor to do any more. With George I'm
nursing it 24 hours a day.
Setting Sun: I can you remember you telling me last time what your
influences were, but you can briefly tell you again and what stuff have you
been listening to recently?
Suzy:
Ah... well... there's the influences via whom I learnt to sing and very
importantly acquired my deep love of vocal harmony - The Beatles
(particularly in animated form), The Mamas and The Papas, Simon & Garfunkel.
I don't know if I'd be doing what I'm doing had I not stumbled across these.
Probably a lot of the harmony style also can be traced back to a Queen
obsession in my childhood. I don't listen to them now really, but I can
still hear the influence.
I read a review of "Postal" (piano magic track) in which someone was
analysing carefully the repetition of the last line in the song, how I was
negating the phrase and rendering it empty and devoid of feeling or some
such. The obvious explanation is that I wanted to sound like Queen. There
has been so much music I've loved and held onto, but the ones I'd claim as
influences are different sometimes... Stars of the Lid and David Lynch
soundtracks, taught me an awareness of room tone, space and drone.
I'm assuming this is musical influences of course? I'm sure we don't have
space for the film; book, personal etc influences, goodness no. When George
as a full band split up several years ago I didn't know how to keep going as
a small outfit - I thought then you needed drums, bass, etc, everyone on
their own instrument, a particular sound. That year I started listening to
the most wonderful music made by bands with one or two people, or recorded
at home or on a small scale but with the most amazing sound.
I really started to get excited by the intimate sound, and the musical freedom, that can be made by "small" bands of musicians. So I became captivated by Low,
Nico, Mazzy Star, Piano Magic, early Elliot Smith albums - I was listening
to Roman Candle when we first started recording on my first 4-track and was
joyful to discover that the wonderful sound he'd made had been recorded
likewise - Leonard Cohen, Velvet Underground's 3rd album. Really I'd hold
Songs for a Dead Pilot and that Velvet Underground album responsible for the
whole darn thing. But there's so much more that I hold dear and that exerts
an influence, and I haven't even approached the rumpy-pumpy music section...
Listening to recently... so many themes, it's difficult to stop dreaming
about them - the Kia Ora advert, Mr Rossi, Picture Box. Tales of the
Unexpected has a wondrous occult saxophone shimmer. Like George doing Live
and Let Die. Today I've been listening to old favourites, probably in
anticipation of question 10... The Boatman's Call by Nick Cave & the Bad
Seeds, and Secret Name by Low. I've been listening to the Chicago soundtrack
a lot, having worn Cabaret down a long time ago... I've really fallen for
Tomita who reinterpreted, Wendy Carlos style, some of my very favourite
composers - Snowflakes Are Dancing is his take on Debussy and it's magical,
to me it's dream music. I found it so cheap in a charity shop; it was a joy
of discovery. I bought his version of Holst's the Planets as well. I also am
listening to a Trumpton record; I find the Brian Cant sung songs so charming
and full of gentleness. Vernon Elliot's music for The Clangers too... I
still can't get over Air's The Virgin Suicides, even though it's been a
while now. It's heart stopping.
The library music selections by Luke Vibert & Barry 7 are also ace and well ahead of their time. I could go on... Nilson: just got "The Point" which is marvellous, and playing his other records. Also just got Frank's Wild Years to fill that Tom Waits shaped gap in the day. I don't really follow indeed music or press any more and can feel sometimes left behind, like I'm losing my feel for music but when I look at what I've just written above and see where my heart really lies I feel I'll always have a musical life.
Setting Sun: What's the story behind Scenic Railway?
Suzy: We stopped playing live in Manchester because it wasn't working really. We could only get gigs where we were the support for some loud rock band and
the promoters thought we were an "acoustic" band (which of course we never
have been) and got shirty if we tried to use our keyboards & minidisks. The
audiences were never interested, we couldn't hear ourselves play because the
talking was so loud - I mean, we can't just play louder, it is the whole
tone I try so hard to steer away from - it just was becoming something we
dreaded and we couldn't find nights or promoters which were suitable.
Last summer we played at an Elvis tribute night to commemorate the
anniversary of his death and we had a wonderful night, which I think I'll
remember fondly for ever. Filled with a bit more confidence that playing
live could be fun, and talking to some people afterwards I figured that I
should try and have the confidence to organise our own club night called
Scenic Railway (it's a wonderfully jazzy Gainsbourg song), really as a
vehicle for us to play gigs in our own town, and to ask bands that we would
like to hear. It's a sporadic night, and really a bit like "George, and
friends" and possibly even a bit Val Doonican show in it's philosophy
(actually I barely remember that!) and we had video projections and did the
dj-ing ourselves so the whole atmosphere can be special and have a certain
feel that I long for but cannot find.
Possibly it's a little self-indulgent? Hopefully there'll be another one
this summer. I rarely enjoy live performances that much these days, but I do
deeply love seeing Stars of the Lid, one of my favourite bands. They really
create a heady atmosphere that draws you in, and is certainly a more
subjective, personal experience than many of the soulless school-hall
atmosphere events I've been to. The last time they played downstairs at the
Star & Garter (the upstairs' electrics blew I think) and they had draped
sheets around to project their beautiful abstract films on to, and they
played the Twin Peaks TV soundtrack album before and after their set. It
really did feel like discovering the most wonderful, secret club. Such
things scarcely exist, but when they're found they are very precious
moments. I tend to be inspired by the performances in club-scenes in Lynch
films, like Silencio in Mulholland Drive or Julee Cruise performing in Twin
Peaks, and so on, although achieving such an environment is of course
impossible.
Setting Sun: What has been your strangest, best / worst experience of been a
in a band has it been everything you expected or as the case may have
proved, not?
Suzy:
Well, truth be told, excluding lending my voice to some other projects, I've
only ever been in one band and it's always been called George. Even if the
music sounded different, or different people were in the band as well, it's
always been Michael & myself playing songs that reflected how we were at the
time. We sound very different now, but also still similar in that we've come
to realise how we really should sound. Like I said, George is now like a
pseudonym to make music by. I don't really have any strange band experiences
- we're pretty odd fellows really, such experiences are unlikely to be filed
under simply 'George'.
There have been plenty of bad luck experiences, we've been so unlucky with
our recordings the last couple of years, as there was a bug in our brand new
8-track, which meant we lost a lot of what we thought were saved songs for
our album. So a lot of time and money was spent on saving what we could and
re-recording, re-mixing etc. This becomes pretty depressing after a while;
songs you had enthusiasm and love for you have to tread out knowing you lost
the version with the spark in it. Also I gave up guitar after recording
first time round, (for health reasons) and had to go through the painful
process of teaching my unbelievably patient husband how to play my peculiar
guitar patterns exactly as they were on the lost recordings. That was not
easy. The best experiences - well we are very happy making our music in our
home, getting our sounds right. We've no rock n' roll stories really, we're
far more soup n' roll.
Setting sun: When you are not in George, what do you do?
Suzy:
As a day job? I work in a bookshop, which suits me down to the ground. As
interests and pastimes? All manner of distinctly uncool but oh so directly
pleasing occupations: I cook a lot, eating & cooking fill up probably
encroaching on 2 thirds of my thoughts. I try and grow things in tiny garden
plot I've claimed. I watch lots of films and read lots of books and listen
to lots of records. I plan adventures in my mind, which will surely never
happen, and are all the better for it.
Setting Sun: Strange question here, now we are getting to the end and
perhaps a little less light heartened. Somebody asked me this one recently
about one of my bands, and since it caught me out, I thought I would ask it
you too....... If you had to describe George in
5 words or under - how would you do it?
Suzy:
I'm maybe cheating here and firing off some phrases, which come to mind,
most of which are 5 words and under. It's easier to think of peculiar
epigrams for us than to actually describe the music. I flounder completely
when someone asks "oh, what sort of music do you play?" and offer neat boxes
called pop, jazz, classical, folk, dance, rock... and I just let my answer
crumple quietly to the floor somewhere behind them.
"Regular rhythm with a gay mechanical tune" (ok, this is over 5 words but in
this one it's nouns and adjectives that number)
"Neither fish nor fowl"
"Percussion-trolley melancholia"
"Gentle lady, kind sir"
"Funny-folk"
"A Simon & Garfunkel for the 90's" (just to show how firmly our finger is on
the pulse)
Setting Sun: - Finally, to finish off (hacking a question one of my friends
used to use in her magazine which I am going to hack here), if you were
stranded on a desert island with a record player (although I could be
tempted to let you upgrade it to a CD Player if I was feeling nice), what 5
records what you choose to have with you?
Suzy:
Well of course this question is a nightmare, and I've been taking it far too
seriously. I've decided to reject a friend's recommendation to take Rick
Wakeman's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" and instead will just take a
plunge, knowing full well that in 10 years time I will go be appalled by my
selections, and that as soon as I'd got there I would simply want all the
records I left behind. All music lovers I know love the diversity of their
collections too much to restrict something to a top 5. I'm far too aware of
how much people's tastes change, there's no stable character. Of course you
can't put new loves on the list because you don't know whether they'll fade
or not.
A tentative list (in no particular order)
The Velvet Underground - 3rd eponymous album
Serge Gainsbourg - now I REALLY cannot choose, even the compilations I have
would leave gaps, so I'd have to cheat and take a home-made compilation cd
which covers all my favourite songs from throughout his career, so I've got
jazz, Latin, 60's pop, sleaze-pop, rumpy-pump, soundtrack whimsy, reggae and
farting all on the one disc.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack - though I love this through &
through, moments of it still frighten me, so I'm assuming it's a cosily
benign island. I couldn't cope with playing this anywhere too spooky. Told
you I take this too seriously. Music is for time and place and mood and
state. Choosing 5 for ever, gives me the shivers.
A tape of my husband's songs. He gave me this shy tape of very lo-fi
tape-recorded home recordings when we first met. It's very special. How
could I not give a place to him, and never hear him again? (See this
question simply makes me sad)
And now the last one, which is an evil decision to have to make - possibly
Stars of the Lid... "Gravitational pull vs. the desire for an aquatic life"
is close to my heart. But there's no classical music in there, so maybe
Satie's Gnossienes, or perhaps Nico's "the Marble Index" or "The Boatman's
Call" Nick Cave & the bad seeds... no room for Nancy Sinatra sings "Sugar"
(definitely a contender for one of the greatest records I've ever heard), so
I'll cheat and copy them all onto an extra long play minidisk. I don't like
this choosing, it's making me foresee a life without Elvis, which is a
barren prospect.