In Conversation with July Skies – December 03

 

A little background:

 

A lot of my love for July Skies actually comes from one mad two and a bit minute burst. A few years ago (Cannot remember when) I was

getting a lift home from some local concert up where I live in Manchester, when I heard this incredible little track come on the radio. I heard

the guitar gently strums behind some beautiful reflectful vocals. The song in question was “The Games we played” was by July Skies.

 

It had this sort of effect which looking back now a few years later is rare with music. It made me want to rush out and buy the single

the track came from. I managed to get hold off it a few weeks later and I was hooked. There were four tracks on the single, each a little

beauty in it’s own right. Two instrumental and two with slight vocals. All contained this rare sort of ambience and beauty that is all

too rare in music nowadays.

 

Fast-forward in time, and an album followed a few years later (Beginning of 2002, I think) called “Dreaming… “ which contained a

similar amount of heartbreak and hushed silences that could have only come from a deeply British band. Much to my surprise then, I discovered it was only one man, Anthony Harding who had created this music.

 

The interview in question simply came from contacting Anthony in person after looking at his website, and discovering he has

recorded a second album “The English Cold” which is hopefully due for release sometime next year and then e-mailing him to

ask was he interested in doing the interview.

 

The interview has taken a while coming, but from the depth Anthony has put into the interview – it was certainly worth

the while.

 

Cheers for everything Anthony – I hope everybody enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed reading it for the first time myself

When I received it.

 

Andy N – Dec 03

 

For more information on July Skies, click Here

 

 

Setting Sun: How's things and what's happening at the moment?

 

July Skies:

 

Things are fine thanks! It has been quiet on the July Skies release front since ‘Dreaming of Spires’ came out, but that doesn’t

mean things have been quiet in terms of recording. The second album ‘The English Cold’ is fully completed and just needs

some kind soul to master and release it.

 

Lots of other tracks have been recorded that should see the light of day over the coming year, hopefully along with a split CD

with epic45. The third album is also about 60% complete and I am trying to progress this as quickly as possible. There will

also  be two July Skies tracks on the forthcoming Make Mine Music CD compilation which also features Portal, Yello6,

epic45, Avrocar, Innerise, Schengen and Wayland. The Skies tracks will be ‘The Days We Played’ and the new track

‘Royal Observer Corps Amongst the Norfolk Dunes’ which came about after finding an abandoned nuclear observation bunker

in the Norfolk dunes! There are literally thousands of these underground bunkers across the country and you are probably

within a few miles of one right now! The Royal Observer Corps that manned these stations were disbanded in 1991 but the

majority of  these structures still remain in situ and act as decaying reminders of the Cold War. Some were recently

auctioned on ebay  and went for a fair few thousand pounds! Would make a superb recording studio out in the middle of a field

though…… I am sure I read somewhere that Boards of Canada have a bunker in the countryside where they record, I wonder if it is

one of these????

 

Setting Sun:  I've been aware July Skies for quite some time now, but clearly they are people who wouldn't have heard off you,

so could you introduce yourself to us, tell us who fired the starting pistol etc., etc.?

 

July Skies:

 

I guess the best way of describing the music is pretty dreamy, lots of echoes, reverb and space. Its mostly just guitar with

differing effects to add textures with the occasional vocal. 

 

Setting Sun:  I love the image of July Skies as a name. What's the idea behind that as a name? Is it

reflected in all of the beautiful images that crop up on your debut album "Dreaming of Spires”?

 

July Skies:

 

I have always had a fascination with the English countryside and skies especially during the summer months when you

get massive beautiful ‘stretched horizontal skies’ late in the evening. If you have seen most of the Hood album artwork

you will know exactly what I am trying to explain. For me, the best skies are across East Anglia as the Region has

such a flat landscape and shifting weather pattern, you really do get awesome skies there! I like to think the name might

also gives an idea as to how the music might sound.

 

The album is essentially all about the summer months and on certain tracks, exploring the hidden bits of England

that have survived from the past. I hope there is enough texture and space for people to explore these places in their own mind.

A few people have frighteningly picked up on the fact that the music isn’t just about now but maybe how things may have

been 20 or even 50 years ago. It is really hard to describe, but there is definitely some sort of nostalgia running through the

whole album.

 

There are so many good bits of this country that get overlooked or are not fully appreciated, follies, old-field systems,

abandoned places and buildings that just don’t get visited and I love finding things that have survived from past decades

that really shouldn’t have…..like old country road signs or advertisements……I recently spotted a faded advert fixed to a

Norfolk village shop wall that had the old 70/80’s ‘Walls Ice Cream’ kids on it…….they were very faded but it was wonderful

to see the familiar retro faces, clothes and bowl haircuts once more. I hope this kind of thing comes across in the music and I

guess the clearest historical reference on the album is the track ‘The Ruined and Disused Churches of Norfolk’.

That one came about after exploring the subject of the title for a couple of summers. There are literally hundreds of

these ruined and disused churches all across Norfolk in varying degrees of decay. Many were abandoned when whole

villages were wiped out by the plague and some were lost to the sea. The amazing thing with many of these ruins is

that they are in the middle of nowhere with loads of overgrown forgotten gravestones and artefacts……just left

abandoned waiting for travellers to stumble upon them once more or to disappear completely. You can tell some of these

places have not been visited for a long, long time and some of the ruins and graveyards had really weird odd atmospheres

where it feels like it is best not to hang around.

 

I also have this 1960’s children’s book, which I grew up with in the 1980’s called ‘The Open Road’ by H J Deverson.

It captures the images of the album perfectly through the most amazing artwork of a journey through the English countryside

and towns in the 1960’s.  The illustrator was Ronald Lampitt who also created artwork for ladybird books in the 1960’s.

The book definitely reflects the sound of the album and I would love to know whether either the author or illustrator

are still alive today.

 

 

Setting Sun: What stuff (tunes wise) have you been listening to recently and what are your influences for July Skies? 

I originally thought among the lines of The Durutti Column in places, as I think you use Silence in your songs in a

very similar way in places, but listening to your vocal songs, it goes in a completely different way.

 

July Skies:

 

I have recently been listening to a tape copy of the Slowdive Pygmalion demos and their soundtrack to the film ‘I Am

The Elephant, You Are The Mouse’. Both are superb and it is criminal that they have not been officially released.

I think Slowdive are still vastly underrated but it good to see them some recognition from certain quarters of late.

I do hope someone has the initiative to put out a box set of their ep’s, soundtrack and unreleased songs soon.

I believe Neil Halstead has recently hinted at this on a webzine interview, fingers crossed!

 

I have also recently picked up an album called ‘From Gardens Where We Feel Secure’ by Virginia Astley which is a

reissue from 1983. The album is split into two parts, morning and afternoon and charts a day in the Oxfordshire countryside

in the early 1980’s. The music conjures up a long lost innocent summer, early morning mists across apple orchards,

morning shadows moving across cottage gardens, country lanes with distant churchbells peeling, there is a creaky

gate (possible a church?) that has been sampled which provides the rhythm to one track, the sound of oars on the

Thames provide a backdrop for a pretty track called ‘Summer of Their Dreams……but there is a really uneasy

element that underpins the innocence of the album, a few reverse bass notes during ‘a Summer Long Since Passed’

hint at something lurking, maybe watching you play in the fields from afar……the track ‘When the Fields Were On Fire’

also adds a further strange atmosphere to the proceedings with reversed sounds and what sounds like very

odd children’s voices underneath…..this track paves the way for Boards of Canada to follow over a decade later.

 

Actually, do you remember when farmers set light to their fields to remove the stubble? The countryside appeared to

be burning through September, amazing sights now consigned to memory.

 

I have also been listening to The Tornados 2*CD Anthology. Lovely dreamy instrumentals and of course, their big hit

‘Telstar’ which is such a sad delicate piece of music. It just reminds me of wet Autumn Saturday afternoons in

northern towns in the 60’s.  There are so many great tracks on this CD set, favourites are ‘Globetrotter’,

‘Dreaming on a Cloud’ and ‘The Ice Cream Man’.

 

I must also mention an album by The Caretaker called ‘A Stairway to the Stars’ which uses old 78rpm dancehall

records to form new music by treating a effecting the sounds. At times this really is beautiful music that has a real sad

haunting quality.

 

Other recent music worth a mention:

 

Mojave 3 - Spoon & Rafter

Interpol - Turn on The Bright Lights

Bent – The Everlasting Blink

Portal - Promise

British Sea Power - The Decline of British Sea Power

Different - Come on and Bring Back the Broken Sound of Yore!

Prefab Sprout - Jordan The Comeback

 

The inspiration behind July Skies was not the Durutti Column as I only became aware of Vini Reilly’s music at a gig in late

1999 after the first 7” and many other tracks had been recorded. The sound engineer at the gig was playing the

Durutti Column album ‘Vini Reilly’ and I was mesmerised by the gorgeous sounds, the music was so melancholy

and ached with sadness

 

……luckily the sound guy told me who the music was by and I guess I have been a fan since! I was definitely

listening to loads of bands like Quigley, Hydroplane, Flying Saucer Attack, AMP, Red House Painters,

Sweet Trip, Blueboy, Secret Shine, Hood, Orange Cake Mix, Aphex Twin, Piano Magic, Aberdeen around the time though.

 

The big influence for the inception of July Skies was finding the music of Slowdive in 1995 and realising that such  

beautiful sounds could be made using guitars. I think it was towards the end of 1997 I decided to buy a second

hand electric guitar and delay effects pedal and learn a few chords. After recording tracks at home in 1999,

I saw a review of a Portal 7” on Roisin Recordings in Record Collector magazine and thought it would be

worth sending a CDR off to the label address. I guess I was lucky that Stuart Newman wanted to do a July

Skies 7” ep. Getting the first box of 7”s back from Stuart was pure magic and a dream come true!! The

same goes for Vinita at Rocket Girl for putting out the album on her label, which I really admired prior to

getting the 7” released. It is all down to luck and timing!

 

The really great things that has occurred over the past few years has been all of the connections and

relationships formed with other likeminded bands such as Portal, Innerise, Yellow6, epic45, Schengan etc……

a friendly voice or musical help is only a phone call away!

 

Setting Sun:  I normally ask what releases / tours do you have planned for the future, but I know already that

you are currently working on a new album " The English Cold".

 

How does this compare to "Dreaming of Spires"?  What developments do you think you have made from

the  previous album and how does it feel working with additional people on this album, e.g. some of the guys

from epic 45 when on "Dreaming.."  it was just you really?

 

July Skies:

 

Yes indeed, The English Cold is finished. The overall dreamy feel remains on the album but I think it is

less carefree than Dreaming of Spires. The inspiration behind The English Cold came from finding an

old WWII airfield and its abandoned buildings out in the countryside in 2002 at Chedworth.  I hope the

album manages to capture the feelings of the people and communities that were involved and lived

around these enigmatic places during WWII …….the endless grey British skies, the persistent heavy

rainfall and mud, the welcoming village people……the feeling of getting up night after night with fear

in your stomach knowing that tonight’s flight might well be your last, just like the guy that used to

sleep in the next bed to you …….the sub zero temperatures for hours on end up in the sky with the

deafening sound of the engines and the nauseous smell of cordite and in some cases blood ……

waiting in the watch office for the first radio signals of returning planes across the countryside…….

counting the planes home in the night sky……the surrounding countryside which lay beside

all this upheaval……..the harvest fields at dusk on the other side of the hedgerow to the airfields

which would offer respite.

 

I have since been to many of these old abandoned airfields…….they are amazing places that are

falling by the wayside due to neglect, demolition and redevelopment……. all of these deserted

old buildings that were once used by todays fading generation. Some even still have the old

murals and artwork that pilots and crew during WWII painted on the walls! Some are seriously

spooky places as well!!

 

The artwork for the album features photos taken around Thorpe Abbots airfield in Norfolk

during WWII….you can see trees, Nissen huts above a hedge, a road and crew standing about

in the distance. I visited the same site in the summer to see if I could find the exact place of the

artwork to see how things have changed. A volunteer at the local airfield museum took me

across the decaying runways amongst the wheat fields to the access road which features on the

artwork  and found the remains of old huts and pathways on the photo amongst woodland.

 

The really amazing thing was finding lumps of coke all over the floor which was left over  from the

stoves in the huts, which was used to keep the crews, warm. 

 

Ben and Rob from epic45 have played on parts of the album and when we were recording

together we spent time up on the old deserted airfield at Wheaton Aston in the evenings,

watching nightfall across the freezing cold fields as we explored the old structures.

 

We found the old Watch Office, Hangers, underground ‘Battle HQ’ bunker and also this massive

firing wall that still stands sixty years on.

 

Working with Ben and Rob from epic45 was a real pleasure as they have so many ideas, songs and

sounds and are both really into capturing the countryside in sound. In return for their efforts I

recorded some clarinet on their forthcoming album ‘Against the Pull of Autumn’ which should be

out in 2004.

 

Setting Sun:  How do your live shows compare to your more studio-based stuff? Considering I think

Dreaming... is generally such a private, almost naked album to listen to in places, I could imagine it

being very difficult in places?

 

July Skies:

 

There have only been two July Skies live gigs both of which were in London, I would love to do more but it

is all about finding time. I like to think that our last gig offered a contrast between the quieter songs such

as ‘Swallows and Swifts’ and ‘The Countryside of 1938’ with ‘Coastal Stations’ and ‘The English Cold’

which sound much larger than the recordings as we applied massive washes of reverb. Someone mentioned

that it was sounding pretty glacial at times. I wish there was more time to hook up with Ben and Rob, who

knows, maybe next year there will be a few more gigs.

 

 

Setting Sun: What's the story behind "Coastlines and Laughter”, track 5 from Dreaming... That is probably

my favourite track from the album, in the way the loop comes in and then after you have finished singing,

you then finish off with some  beautiful strummed guitar work.

 

July Skies:

 

Glad you like it! There is a sort of loop on that track through the distorted guitar in the background,

but it is all hand stitched together as I don’t have a looping facility……I remember that well as it took ages!

The actual song is about a moment on Hunstanton Beach in Norfolk on a cold June afternoon a few years

ago looking out to sea underneath the lighthouse as storms raged overhead.

 

Setting Sun: In a lot of ways, what I love about the first album like I mentioned before is the way you use

Silence to make quite some beautiful points. Take for example, your first track on “Dreaming.. “ – Coastal Stations,

where we hear a radio announcement announcing the weather report. I found that incredibly touching when I

first heard it. What was the inspiration behind that etc, etc?

 

July Skies:

 

Yes silence can sometimes make as stronger point than actual noise, think about the music by Low and

The Red House Painters, both masters of silence.

 

Like many of the songs the inspiration for Coastal Stations came from a geographical location. In this instance

the starting point was a visit at dusk to Beachy Head and Birling Gap on the Sussex coast….I remember lying in

the grass watching the car headlights pass by on the coast road into the night. The use of the Shipping Forecast

just seemed to fit the dusky nature of the track. There is just something so enigmatic about the Shipping Forecast,

I love listening to it late at night and wondering who else at sea might also be listening in to it for serious shipping

reasons.

 

 

Setting Sun:  Is it true that you / have played with Avrocar? I've got quite a few bits n pieces by Avrocar.

I must admit I was surprised when I was told this. How does this compare etc., etc.?

 

July Skies:

 

Can’t say too much about Avrocar….but…..we have a new  six track 12” due for release in March/April 2004

called ‘Guidance’. It will be on a German label called ‘Short Sharp Shock’. We have recently received the

test pressings and are really pleased! I guess if you liked the album ‘Cinematography’ you should like the new music.

 

Setting Sun:  What's the local live scene like you where you live? Have you seen any good gigs lately?

 

July Skies:

 

The last gig I saw was British Sea Power in Birmingham and Warwick, they were amazing and I love their

1940’s/50’s ethos….they are a refreshing change, the support band The Killers were also great! I also saw epic45

at the Flapper and Firkin In Birmingham……an awesome set of new material. They finished on this really dark version

of ‘When the Cold Weather Comes’ which was immense. Catch them live if they play near you.

 

Setting Sun:  When you are not in July Skies, what do you do?

 

July Skies:

 

As you have probably guessed exploring the landscape, ancient monuments, abandoned places etc.

I also love taking photos with really cheap cameras. I picked up an old Polaroid Landcam 103 (early 70’s)

from a car boot for £8 last year. This is the most magical camera which I have ever come across as with a

bit of experimentation with the focusing you can take really dreamy landscape shots! The lens for

such a cheap camera is magnificent!!

 

Setting Sun:  Lastly, something slightly less serious to finish off with perhaps ...  (Nicked from a pal's Zine

in a way "Imagine you were ship wrecked on a desert Island and could have (clearly second sight here - lol)

the choice of  having 5 records or cds with you with a stereo of course. What would be your desert island discs?"

 

July Skies:

 

Very difficult!

 

Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left

epic45 - Reckless Engineers

Flying Saucer Attack - Further

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

Slowdive - 5 e.p.

 

Ok, rounding off, thanks for the opportunity and I wish you the best for your webzine in the future!

Regards Antony