TRANSCRIPTIONS FOR THE VIDEOS AT EIS'04 Andy & Vince speak about some tracks off the Acoustic album and Nightbird) Vince: We decided last year, or also the year before, that we�d, hm, must record an acoustic record, and... So we chose songs from, from all our previous albums, songs that we felt perhaps could have been singles. And, hm, got together with, hm, an acoustic guitar player called Steve Walsh to make, this record. Andy: Well the first song�s Home, from the acoustic album, and, hm. Can`t remember what, what instruments are on there, but, hm, there�s loads of lovely kind of medieval sounding drums and stuff. And, hm, (horns sound) See? That�s the London traffic...for years it�s very peaceful round here. Hm, and, to me, Home was always a kind of a song, of hm, of like, you know that 'Billy don�t be here' old song?. Kind of like going off to war or something, and hm, and being, and being lost and kind of never being, never being able to find your way back. And, hm, eh, it�s quite, hm, sort of heart�rending for me to sing that song. Don�t know why, some songs just do that, and that�s one of them. Got to love going home really, but, hm, that�s it. Andy: Second song is Spiralling, hm, eh, which is, this one I think it�s got a cello, it�s kind of very sad, cellos on there and strings. (NOTE: it reads in the picture that the strings are on another track actually) and hm, this was on the Circus album, and, I think it was, one of the last songs on the album, and.. I remember being one time in Los Angeles, with my friend Victor, really sweet, and we were driving off to the beach, and we had a little spliff, you know what little spliffs are like in, LA, and you just smoke the grass on its own with no, no sparkle. And they, we put The Circus on and hot Spiralling came on, and I was like, warily, you know, that�s hm, a, and hm, I just thought, like, I didn�t even recognise it was me, singing the song!. And hm I, couldn�t, there�s kind of so, there�s kind of like a tremelo in the voice, and it sounds quite Marilyn, Marilynish., I think, and hm, we seem to use the word Spiralling quite a lot, hm, don�t know why. Maybe�s to do with the, hm we�re reading that book, the, hm, the, ah, the �The ventricle�, maybe it�s to do with the flipping arty sequence. I don�t know. Vince: (it reads a heading that goes �he�s reading from a bloody list!) For Spiralling we used Ben B, he plays northern string guitar. Vince: On Piano song there�s, hm Steve on, on, acoustic guitar, Gordon T on dobro, Richard H on acoustic bass and Ben Whitman playing percussion Andy: Piano song, hm... (plays air piano with one hand as he goes...)Dum, dum, dum dum. Dum, dum dum, dum. Think I�ve, the completely wrong key. There�s conga going out there. Even though it�s out, of comission now. Hm, Piano song, what instruments were there? Eh, oh, (sings) 'never get angry at the stupid people'...It�s with guitars, maybe a twelve string, and, r, real bass. Hm, and this is the song about tolerance. Vince: The idea in the beginning was that I was gonna use Andy�s original recordings on the vocals. Then Andy felt that he had to do them again and re-interpret them. A lot of vocals are, are off the first takes, and very very good Andy: Tenderest Moment, hm, was, a song, I think Vince had completely forgotten about it. And, hm, it�s one of those b-sides that I really love. I think there�s a few b-sides that, hm, were too good to be b-sides. And, hm, Tenderest Moments is one of these songs that we�ve originally done in a very high register, so when we did this first version, at the lead was the low harmony, and then we put high vocals on afterwards. Hm, I kind of think it was with guitars, but I might be wrong. Hm, and, it�s a, a very tender love song, and, to do with flying. Vince: On Tenderest Moments has Spencer T on guitars and, together with Steve Andy: Nightbird Vince: Originally, we were gonna call the record �Snail�, and hm, the record company didn�t like the, that title for some reason. I think it�s brilliant, but there you go. And so Andy come with the title Nightbird, and it�s called Nightbird because...I have no idea Andy: Let�s take one more rocket to the moon, is one of those really long winding titles, hm. It was gonna be called �Rocket�, hm, and we are gonna do, well, I hope we�re gonna do (crosses his fingers) �Brother and sister�, from, hm, from ..eh, Wild!, and hm, hm I don�t know, that song just, the, the line just came out straight away, let�s take one more rocket to the moon, has an interest to the song, so it was hm, a song about, trying to sleep and having your lover besideyou , and the, hm comfort, in, having your boyfriend, your girlfriend beside you and when there�s magic in sleep, when they�re there. Vince: We started writing the new album Nightbird, I think, hm, the year before last. It�s a few, we wrote a few songs while we were, actually, hm, making the acoustic record. So we did a couple of songs then. And then Andy stayed again with me for a while and, hm, we kind of wrote the songs while we were recording. Andy: Here I go impossible again, hm, the original chorus was, hm, so �here I go impossible again�, �should I cause a scene to keep the night from ending?� and Vince said let�s change it to, hm, �should I hold you close to keep the night from ending?�, �cause hm, �cause �should I cause a scene� is very Abba, and hm, which kind of faults us, in a way, and, how�s it go?, (sings) �here I go impossible again dada da, dada, dada da ... I guess I�ve put you on a pedestal in my eyes, in my eyes....� which is something that I tend to do with all my friends, hm, I�m a bit of a hero worshipper, on the quiet. And so far I haven�t been disappointed, really, but hm, hm, it�s nice to have people though, not to look up to them, to have them on an equal footing as you. So it�s something I�m learning. Vince: the songs were writen in acoustic guitar, hm. I want to be, hm had the melody ideas recorded and I, I started programming. And I was actually working with, hm, a guy called Jon Collyer, JC, and he lives in London, and we were exchanging ideas via Internet. So I would come with some melody lines, or some drum programmes. He�d come back with some, hm percussion lines, hm, or sequences, and then we, kind of worked that way. Andy: All this time still falling out of love is a track that was mixed by Mark Saunders and Vince, hm, in New York, and I was a bit, hm, iffy about it at first. I did like Tom Elmhirst mix, which is more, which is more brutal but hm, it had, the mix�s grown on me, and I think it goes, fitting really nicely with the , with the other tracks in the album.. And this was, just a song about, hm, how I�m such a flop when I go out, and hm, I love coping off with people. Vince: Ah, the record was produced by, by everybody. Everybody who had an opinion.(laughs) Andy: The song Breathe was of the last, or the, or the penultimate song, that we wrote for Nightbird. Hm, hm, it�s kind of, it�s a little bit like, hm, it�s quite soul-y, I suppose, the beginning of it. And it�s one of those walking down the street songs, and it remains me a bit of, the Massive Attack, hm, (sings) �all the things that I have spoken, da dada, dada, da...hey, hey...hey� if you can recognise that song. Hm and the chorus is one of those...hmmm breathe in, hmmmm breathe out, was it that way around?.. Breathe in, in w, out with the old...No, in with the new, out with the old. THE END |
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| Home |
| Spiralling |
| Piano Song |
| Tenderest Moments |
| Let's take one more rocket to the moon |
| Here I go impossible again |
| All this time still falling out of love |
| Breathe |