In Conversation with

Magdelena

 

November 2004

 

A little background….

 

Like with Indogo who I interviewed several months ago for “Setting Sun”, I also found Glasgow based Magdelena through an excellent review of their demo which compared them to The Delagados if my memory is correct.

 

Interested, I stumbled over to their website and was pretty impressed by what I heard and saw. Here was a band that certainly crossed some of the same territory as perhaps The Delgados but was if I don’t say so myself incredibly different and also much better.

 

Impressed, I e mailed Jo from the band and got a lovely e-mail and the interview came quickly after that.

 

Thanks to Jo for the interview. Hopefully I’ll see you play Manchester someday.

     

      More information about the band can be found on…

                           

      <http://www.magdalenaband.tk>

 

      Thanks

 

      Andy N xxx

 

 

Setting Sun:

How are things and what's happening at the moment?

 

Jo:

Things are so unbelievably complicated. We're pulling through though, we always do.

 

Steph:

We need to all live closer together...its a bit of a nightmare. Not been able to get to the studio as often as we would like..but hopefully that will change when we eventually get our own place.

 

Setting Sun:

Next can you tell us a little about all of yourselves, introduce yourself if you like - tell us what got you started or who fired the starting pistol be it for a better word?

 

Jo:

I formed Magdalena in school, and after numerous (some fucking awful) member changes, Andrew and Me solidified the perfect lineup with Steph and Colin.

 

Andrew:

Yeah Jo implemented the whole thing. It all started with a one off cover of My iron lung by Radiohead, when I played drums in public for the first time. That was cool. The spin off band from that one song didn't work so Jo asked me to join his other much better band.

 

Steph:

Funnily enough, I met Jo and Andrew at a Magdalena gig when it was a different lineup.

 

Colin:

I moved to Glasgow last year and met Jo through my girlfriend at the time. He was looking for a bass player and the band I was playing with in Edinburgh was going through a period of extreme non-activity, we found we had similar interests musically so joining Magdalena just felt like the right thing to do.

 

Setting Sun:

Music wise, what are your influences and what are you also listening to at the moment?

 

Colin:

My music taste at the moment is kind of schizophrenic. I've been a big fan of anything Kevin Shields related for some time, and for ages I over indulged in really mellow reverb drenched stoner melancholy, but more and more now I find myself being seduced by darker, more fucked up music.

 

Steph:

Right now, I shall mostly be listening to Squarepusher, Sigur Ros, >Sonic Youth, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Spiritualized, The Breeders.

 

Setting Sun:

What's the inspiration behind your name  "Magadlena?" It's an interesting name if I don't say so myself?

 

Steph:

Alison Goldfrapp's middle name. We all fancy her.

 

Setting Sun:

Do you do concerts? If so, how do they compare to > your recordings/ is their one you prefer over the other?

 

Andrew:   

Gigs are a cathartic experience for me personally. They've ended up fairly destructive as of late but it felt right. Some songs we're cagey about doing until they're ready. I can't wait to get into a studio-recording environment because there are some things you just can't do in a studio with three hours to rehearse all your songs.

 

Jo:

Some songs I personally refuse to record right now because it's meanings to us and probably the audience can only be achieve through live performance and improvisation. I.e. Second Best. Some songs however rely on studio techniques and effects to fully release their potential. Our gigs tend to be a lot more free and reckless than the calmness of our recordings, probably due to lack of any "real" studio space

 

Setting Sun:

I seem to recall from what I have read about you all, first you are from Glasgow (although I could be wrong with that). What's the live scene like up where you live? Have you seen any good concerts recently?

 

Andrew:

There will always be good bands out there, it's just that they are usually sacrificed for some other much more palatable bands out there. It's just a consumption thing I guess.

 

Setting Sun:

Probably my favorite song on your website is "going no-where beautifully", possibly because I think it's such a great title. What's the story behind that song out of interest?

 

Jo:

The title is how some BBC reviewer described the debut album by Neu!, I thought it was the most perfect review I’ve ever read, and so I felt I had to implement that sort of ideal into a song. The song itself relates to grim teen culture. A lot of teens today really are going absolutely nowhere, to put it bluntly, and the song is beautiful. Ha.

 

Steph:

It’s a very upbeat song. It’s a song that we started out with and we haven’t ever got bored with it. It’s fun.

 

Setting Sun:

What plans you have for the future? Do you have any  releases / gigs planned? I guess you are also writing new material. How do these compare to the current material for example as listed on your website?

 

Jo:

I personally write far too fast, constantly bombarding the other guys with CD after CD of new ideas, I think we'll spend a lot of time in the coming months perfecting new songs and gigging them a lot over the summer, hopefully building up a bit more of a fan base. Our songs maintain a natural progression in complexity and ideas, we’ll never write a song that... sounds like something we've already done, we just have to move on.

 

Colin:

It's true! So many fucking songs to learn! I think it's definitely a good thing to have such a wealth of material though, rather than churning out the same set at every gig we'll have the luxury of being able to mix it around a lot, making it more interesting for us and the audience.

 

Setting Sun:

Anyway, to finish off with ……… Here is a slightly more lighter hearted question to finish with…… “if you were not a rock and roll star, what > would be your dream job?”

 

Steph: Ballerina.

 

Colin: A Web-Slinging Crime Fighting Vigilante Type. Or an Opium Taster.

 

Andrew: Funeral director.

 

Jo: Rally driver.