Ahead of the release of their upcoming record, Still Life, we interview lead singer Rob Goodwin from The Slow Show about the album and its creation.
Hello hello. Finally, you’re about two months from the record release – you must feel like it’s about time!
Yeah, that’s a nice way of putting it, that’s how it feels. It’s been a long, long journey with this one.
It definitely feels like you guys have shifted sound a little bit and on this record there is a real love of music that shines through, with you experimenting a little bit with your sound. Can you talk about the journey from the past record to this one?
Yeah, I think there’s so much to say with this record because there was so many difficulties that it was just the way we did it. Everything about it was new, we were trying a first with everything – with sounds, with the way we did it. So, I think there’s definitely something different about this record. We wanted that. If we weren’t all isolated and separated, I think it would have felt new and different anyway, but because of the necessity and the reality of the situation, it added a more intense sort of change.
It has been a stark change for everyone and the way we record music, it must have been very strange recording remotely. I know you’re used to feeding off each other’s energies -was that hard at times to have that remote experience?
It was, I mean, we should have been better at it than we were because we’ve always lived apart and been remote, but I think that we underestimated the importance of the time together. We would often meet in Manchester and record for four days and talk about the music we were making and experiment and then we’d go away on our own, and we’d think about it, and we would observe what we were doing, and then we’d go back. I think we really underestimated how important those times together were. With this record in complete isolation, it was difficult. I think we did well in the end, but it took a while. I’d say for the first sort of eight months, we were really finding our feet with it.
I think we missed one another, we missed the feedback and there’s something so unromantic about getting an about a song you’ve just sent – nothing beats being in a room with someone.
I was also looking through and ‘Weightless’ – the latest track to be released – was inspired by a poem and then I know you’ve also been led by samples on ‘Rare Bird.’ How does your songwriting process usually evolve as a band?
Yeah, it’s changed and evolved a lot over the years. When I first recorded ‘Whitewater’ those were kind of fully formed songs that I’d written on an acoustic guitar and then we produced them afterwards. As the records have developed, the process has become more diverse. Now, sometimes it comes, like you say, from a poem that I’ve written, or it might be a fully formed song that I’ve written, or it might be maybe an idea that Joel’s had on his guitar, or a production idea that Fred has. I think it used to be very one-dimensional, there was one sort of way we wrote songs, and then we produced them afterwards and now it’s really different. I think we kind of hoping changing the process would also change the outcome, and that the songs would reflect that.
I feel like it’s the natural evolution of the band, generally, you’re going to evolve your sound and the way that you kind of see the world and the way that you consume it.
Yeah, I think we were really worried that if I continued to write with an acoustic guitar, as a singer-songwriter that the records could feel a bit flat after one or two. I think that the process seemed an important component of the writing and the full-finished product.
Yeah, I mean, I even see all the inspirations everywhere. Obviously, you’ve got ‘Breathe’ which deals with everything that happened in the past few years, with John Boyega’s cry in there. Was that important to to have some sort of statement pieces in there and have songs with meaning too?
Yeah, it’s a good question. I think at first we shied away from that. We were really adamant that we wouldn’t write a lockdown record and dwell on the last couple of years. I think we were very adamant about that and we really worked hard to avoid that, because we felt like we wanted our record to be at least a break for people listening to it, but we kind of failed miserably in avoiding it, because I think we realized that it was inevitable. What was going on would seep into the record and that was fine. I think as we’ve now we’re finished the record and looking back, it would have been strange to just completely ignore the two years. We’ve all been sort of consuming this this sort of new cycle. I think it would have been strange, I think it would have been a mistake. I’m happy that some of that stuff made it on there. That’s what we’ve always written about – what we’ve seen, what we’ve done, what we felt, how we felt – and it was impossible to avoid some of those scenes, even if they weren’t totally what we’d done or seen, there were still really strong feelings, really strong emotions and some heartbreaking, heartbreaking stories.
It’s a stunning piece of work and it feels very much like a natural evolution of what you guys have done before, but it’s only when you take the context into account that that hits you in the face and you realise the timeline and time in which this was created.
Thank you. I’m pleased. I’m really happy to hear that. I think, like we said, we were really worried at first, we didn’t want it to feel glib or overly dramatised, but I think to avoid the years we’ve had during writing this record would have been silly.
The other thing I want to talk to you about sort of about, I feel like this is one of those records that you have to listen to the whole thing to appreciate it and appreciate each track as a part of a work. How much thought do you put into crafting the record and the whole piece when you’re creating it?
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Yeah, we do. We’re lucky enough to still be in a genre of music, where I think people do listen to records in their entirety and I think that still exists. It’s very common that people that will come to our shows and would listen to a record in a full sitting. We wanted that. I mean, we get really excited about the whole record and imagining how people feel having left the record and having having heard the whole thing and we’re always so interested in creating moments of feeling with our music. We’re very passionate about that, it has to mean something else to feel make someone feel something otherwise it’s been a failure. We want them to feel something new or feel differently, having listened to the whole record.
You definitely will get that and I felt that’s what’s lovely to be able to listen to a whole project and know that the artist has put effort into viewing it as a whole work of art rather than just individual songs. So, congratulations, I’m really excited for this record to be out in 2022.
Thank you for your kind words.
