MUSIC | Previews
EXPOSURE Tomorrow’s music today STUBBORN HEART
Assumed to be a couple of kids from south London after a white label of their zeitgeist-seizing track ‘Need Someone’ circulated among tastemakers, Stubborn Heart is in fact two thirtysome- thing electronic music veterans finally bringing a long-gestating studio project to fruition.
Vocalist Luca Santucci takes up the story as he and beats/synths man Ben Fitzgerald prepare to take their One Little Indian- released self-titled debut album of ‘electronic soul from the heart’ on tour for the first time. Me and Ben go back a long way – we were in a band in the mid-90s when we were teenagers and always stayed in touch. I got into electronic music and so did he, and every now and then we’d get together and make tunes. We made that track 'Need Someone’ and a mate said 'Put it out on a white label, 12”, you know – old school.' We pressed up 300 copies and it went really well.
How did record labels react when they realised they were trying to sign thirtysome- things?
I think they were quite disappointed! Because so many of the acts are teenagers these days – Disclosure, Bonda . . . every week there’s another one. And they all make music with a bit of depth to it – for their age it’s amazing. You’re often compared to post-dubstep artists like James Blake, SBTRKT and Mount
Kimbie – do you recognise those associations? We love all those artists, but our stuff is a bit more song-based. I need to feel what I’m singing – that’s why they end up all being bloody heartbreak songs. That’s going to be a problem on stage – I’ve got to get up and moan about my ex-girlfriends. (Malcolm Jack) ■ Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, Thu 24 Jan.
HIGH WOLF
France’s High Wolf (real name Max, surname unknown) makes a blissfully hypnotic cloud of droning, meditative sounds using guitar, effects pedals and instruments picked up on travels around the world. Claire Sawers finds out more.
Describe your music in five words
Human. Danceable. Spiritual. Colourful. Emotional.
What’ll your set-up be for the Scottish shows? Mainly a sampler that I use as drum machine, then play guitar on top of. Maybe some minimal vocals too.
What effect would you like to have on your audience?
I want them to feel love, pure joy to be alive. I want them to feel what I feel while playing – it works when people are focussed and connected to the music, it makes me dig deeper in my emotions, it’s like a feedback loop actually. I love when people demonstrate how they feel: dancing, whistling, clapping. That’s the dream. I don’t like people just sitting on chairs.
How do you relax?
I read, write, do yoga, spend time with people I love . I wouldn’t say making music relaxes me – there are too much emotions running through my mind and body then.
Where is home for you right now? In the present. Or at least I try to make it my home.
Your music could be described as ‘new age’ sounding. Are any other areas of your life ‘new agey’? Do you meditate for example? I don’t really meditate, although I live with someone who is into it. I have a different way of meditating, more like the ancient Greeks (epicurists or stoicists for instance), it’s like working on your self, trying to understand who you are, how you wanna act and behave etc. I don’t really agree with the ‘new age’ description, but I totally see the relevance. It’s not the idea I have of my music or of my personality. But if reading books, smoking pot, being a vegetarian, listening to weird music and reaching for serenity is new agey, then I’m definitely new agey! ■ For a longer version of this interview, see list.co.uk. High Wolf plays Summerhall, Edinburgh, Tue 29 Jan; The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, Wed 30 Jan, listen at highwolf.bandcamp.com
SHOEGAZE/ DREAM POP ROBIN GUTHRIE TRIO Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Thu 7 Feb; Mono, Glasgow, Sat 9 Feb
‘To be honest there’s very little interest in me in the UK,’ says composer of haunting instrumental soundtracks, co-founder of the Bella Union label, Grangemouth man, prodigious swearer and yes, former Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie. ‘You know what the media’s like, it’s very fickle, it’s all about young bands. So I go to where I do well. Tomorrow I’m off to Japan, then South America and back to the UK. The best thing is, I get salt‘n’sauce on my chips in Scotland at the end of it.’ We find the bit about ‘no interest’ hard to believe.
After all, Guthrie’s legacy is as part of one of the seminal British groups of the last 30 years, trailblazers in the art of indie balladry and much copied ever since. ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ he says, ‘I feel very privileged to tour round and do this, but nobody comes to my shows and shouts for Cocteau Twins songs. I’ll pre-empt you asking me: we’ll never get back together, it’s in the past and doesn’t reflect the best part of my life. Drug problems, broken relationships, getting ripped off by fucking record companies . . . I don’t want to go back there and I don’t want to go through the motions for the money.’ Now based in France with his wife and family, Guthrie’s
recent output is prodigious, taking in soundtracks, collaborations with Harold Budd and John Foxx, and five solo albums including last year’s Fortune. It’s a satisfying living, he says, and his live playing is better than ever. As for the recognition? ‘I don’t need the approval of some 20-year-old journalist saying I’m an old cunt,’ he laughs. ‘Who cares? I’m 51, why should I give a fuck?’ (David Pollock) To win tickets to see the Trio live, see page 79.
74 THE LIST 24 Jan–21 Feb 2013 24 Jan–21 Feb 2013 THE LIST 74