Everything But the Girl are currently fighting to get the first number 1 of their entire career in the United Kingdom. Enter Shikari have pulled out their nails and have lowered their new album and signed cassettes, and Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn will not enter that game. Even so, ‘Fuse’ may be the first top 2 or the first top 3 of his career. Until now, his best data was the number 4 achieved by his great masterpiece, ‘Walking Wounded’.
The public was so eager for the iconic duo to return. It’s not every day that we see the return of a couple who never stopped being after 24 years. Ben and Tracey serve me via Zoom and thankfully they consent to the use of video. This Zoom thing is quite cold, but there is an advantage that is paradoxical.
Suddenly, you see yourself on a screen in the same plane as the artists, in this case of the first order. That means it’s easier to keep that surreal image on your retina than it is from an in-person interview. Right now it seems very distant to me to have interviewed Thorn in Madrid. Surely such a thing will not be repeated in person, with this elusive and elusive group that will not offer a return concert.
I talk to Everything But the Girl about this period, about their new work, about the identity of the duo or about the lyrics of the album, until their recording freezes never to return. The interview ends 10 minutes early, but it’s worth it.
When did you realize you had a new Everything But the Girl album under your belt?
Tracey: “We finished in October of last year.”
Are there any songs that are really old?
Ben: “Most of the record was written between the spring and summer of last year. But there’s an older song, ‘Run a Red Light’, which is a demo I had and had forgotten about. At one point during the recording of this record, Tracey asked if she had anything else and I said yes, she had some junk on my phone. Tracey liked it and we decided to do it. We worked on it a bit more and now it’s the oldest recording on the album.”
What date are we talking about exactly?
Ben: “I probably wrote it like 2019, before ‘Storm Damage’, which was my last solo record, but it didn’t fit with the rest of the album, so it just kind of sat in the drawer.”
And that’s why it’s the only one you haven’t co-written on ‘Fuse’…
Tracey: “Yeah, we wrote the rest last spring and summer.”
Why did you produce the album yourselves? To me it sounds influenced by new artists, curiously, but you have done it by yourself. I don’t know if it was never an option to use an external producer.
Tracey: “You have to understand that when we started the process, we didn’t even know we were making a record. We were just making music, playing. There was no pressure for a big comeback to take a super producer. Ben and I worked together at home, and he brought an engineer friend, Bruno Ellingham, to the studio. At that point we realized it sounded good, like an Everything But the Girl record, and we started working more seriously, but at first we didn’t feel like we needed a producer. And it was really nice to see where we were going and what we could do for ourselves.”
Ben: “A lot of people say the record sounds modern but Everything But the Girl, and I think that’s because we did it on our own. There is a great temptation today to put collaborations, lists of other artists… It is a marketing tool more than a creative idea. But for us it was a matter of making a record by ourselves and seeing what happened.
After the success of the ‘Missing’ remix, you made 2 electronic records. Was it never an option to release an acoustic record? Did this have to be an electronic record?
Tracey: “There wasn’t a grand plan, like ‘let’s do an acoustic record’ or ‘an electronic record’. We tried to do something free, see where it went, and then that’s what came up. Ben is the one who puts it all together, and we try to do something different. We work on piano improvisations and electronic textures. We experiment.”
Ben: «The last 3 records that I have made solo were vivid, with a band, the first two were on guitar, another on piano with electronics… That’s why in confinement I decided to do something different. It influenced me that the ‘Storm Damage’ tour had to be canceled due to the pandemic. At one point I had put together a band and had 40 concerts lined up that I couldn’t do. That is why in confinement I wanted to experience differently ».
“It was very nice to see where we were going and what we could do for ourselves”
Do you think people think of EBTG as an electronic band, ‘Walking Wounded’? Some will also think of the 80s, when you sounded much less electronic.
Ben: “We mean a lot of different things to different people, because we’ve been around for such a long time. People come and go. They have favorite records and favorite songs. We cannot control what people think of us. What we can do is look to the future and make new music.”
Tracey: “I never had the idea that we were just one thing, it didn’t make sense. We’re just people making music. It may seem a bit nonsensical to say this, but that’s how music is made. We’re just humans making music, we’re not labels.”
Ben: “You don’t want to reduce music like that. We just make music. All the people who make music for a long time experiment. Look at the Bee Gees, look at Bowie. The Bee Gees went from ‘Massachusetts’ to ‘Saturday Night Fever’!”
Who are the lyrics of the album addressed to? For example, who are you talking to in ‘When You Mess Up’? When you talk about forgiving yourself, I don’t know if you’re talking to your inner child, to your younger self, to your children…
Tracey: “In that song I talk to myself. I’m in a moment of transition, when you get older. Maybe most of your career is over, your kids are leaving home, and you’re not sure what’s next. It reminds me of when I was young. That’s why it starts there. It’s me, it’s how I feel sometimes. It’s about the uncertainty of the future when I was younger.”
Listening to this song, ‘Flipside’ came to my head, that song from 96 that began by saying «London, summer 92, I think I’ve changed a lot since then, do you? (…) Have I changed? Will I change again? What would you say to your self back then? What would you change or not?
Tracey: «Yes, you will change again (laughs) It is the law of life. There is a moment in your life of certain complacency, but there are things that happen and it is obvious that you will never stop changing. You realize that the old you is going to change and you will be a different person each time.
When I listened to those songs as a teenager, I felt like a very adult. But at the same time, when you are older, you are still an eternal adolescent for certain things. I don’t know if I’ve changed that much…
Tracey: “You can always recognize parts of yourself. With each passing year, you experience different things. There are all kinds of layers. When I say there are changes, I’m not saying the old you will disappear. But layers are being added.”
Ben: “The lyrics to ‘Flipside’ are mine, and the summer of ’92 is when I was in the hospital, about to die. The song opens with a 29-year-old young man, who has changed dramatically physically and mentally. I wrote the song against that background and was talking about changes that can come at any time. Friends can die, you can lose your job, you can get divorced, you can have a serious illness… All of that changes you. You have to restart.”
“I remember thinking: ‘Walking Wounded’ sounds so fresh… there’s no one who sounds like this, hopefully we’ll be the first, let’s get it out!”
I remember listening to ‘Walking Wounded’ a lot and it was a very intense experience for me. I was so impressed with the sound and the lyrics. It is a very special record. What does it mean to you personally? Would it be your great masterpiece or not at all?
Tracey: “I think it could be! (laughs) It’s up there in our top 2 or 3 records (laughs).
Ben: “It’s just a record that works. Sometimes there’s some compromise on a record, you’re not convinced what you want to do, and people around you start suggesting changes and possible things to do. And with that record we were so convinced of every step… and we wanted it to come out so badly… I remember thinking: “these grooves sound so fresh, there is no one who sounds like this, I hope we are the first, we have to put it out”. Of course, it’s not that it was entirely original, and I was very influenced by certain people I knew from the underground, like the Omni Trio, Alex Reese, Peshay, Photek… But in terms of a pop record it was very fresh.”
What do you think makes ‘Fuse’ work as a project?
Ben: “One of the good things is that there’s been a lapse since the last one.”
“‘Fuse’ has been like making a first album all over again. Everything was possible»
Well, I wouldn’t call this “lapse.” I would have to invent a new word…
Ben: “Sunset” (laughs)
Tracey: “Big Canyon!” (laughs)
Ben: “Because the gap has been so long we didn’t have any pressure. It was like making a first album all over again. Everything was possible. We didn’t need to impress anyone, or get approval, we didn’t have a label or manager, it’s been very free. And that’s why it works.”
Is there a concept behind the album?
Tracey: “When we were writing, we didn’t have a theme in mind, something concrete that we wanted to express. But when we start doing interviews and thinking about lyrics, I think there’s a lot about trying to connect with people, about reaching out to others, about desperately wanting to connect. Also about dreaming of being in a club, or in a karaoke, or having lost someone. And all of this comes from the pandemic, from desolation, from loneliness, from being separated from people you love. It’s something that’s there.”
There is a song about a ‘Karaoke’ but it is dark. ‘No One Knows We’re Dancing’ is not a song to dance to. ‘Lost’ equates losing your mother to losing a client. There are very particular letters here, they are not the obvious letters that you would expect, from what you say…
Ben: “I think ambivalence and mixed feelings are a big part of the work of our songs. Many of our lyrics do not offer solutions, but present situations. We invite people to enter the song, to think and feel. That’s why they connect with people, because they can play with the world we build. We leave questions, not answers. This is how we establish a relationship with the listener.”
Tracey: That’s what you said if it wasn’t obvious. It is what we try to do very consciously. The song ‘No One Knows We’re Dancing’ is a memory of being in a club, not being in a club. Putting “I’ve lost the bags” next to “I’ve lost my mother” is unexpected and that’s why it works. That’s why it has so much power. Because you’re not expecting it. It doesn’t offer you a heartbroken no-brainer.”
2023-04-26 07:41:58
#EBTG #Collaborations #marketing #creative
