|
This page: Perils of Perfection; Moving Forward
'Annie Holland's bass playing was such a major driving force in Elastica's music that without her we just didn't cut it.'
Perils of Perfection
Are you a pretty prolific writer?
No. I sound quite prolific as a writer, but I'm not very prolific as a finisher. A lot of songs get written and come out and never really get there one way or another. Also, I'm a bit too much of a perfectionist: If it's not as good as I hoped, I'm not going to record it or put it out. Quite a lot of stuff gets recorded and never sees the light of day. That's something that I'm going to have to really try and change because it's just a huge waste of time. A lot of the time people are like, "It's great, what's the problem with it?" And I'm like, "Well, it's not as good as the original with the acoustic guitar the first time I sang it, and I think that is probably the biggest problem." Quite a lot of stuff gets demoed and never really gets beyond that, so I think that's the problem with me.
Is it important to have people around you whose opinions you trust, because you know you're unlikely to consider anything to be good enough on your own?
Absolutely. I really value Marc Waterman's judgment. He's really good at giving me a kick up the bum and just going, "Look, this is great, you can't do any better than this, you've gotta move on." This album wouldn't have actually got done without him, because we went in for six weeks with him producing, and he was just like, "Play it live, that's great, move on," and that was it. It really helped having him around saying that, and I do really trust his opinion.
Do you want to continue to work with him?
I tried to work with lots of big-deal producers, but Marc and I have a really lucky relationship where we just communicate well. We're in a similar headspace, you know. He was there for the whole first album and he knows where I'm coming from.
When were you trying to work with other producers? Was that between the two records?
Yeah, we went in and did almost a whole record with Adam Moulder, which quite subsequently he just couldn't stand and didn't want to put out. But the band was also going through a really weird period because we lost Annie Holland, the bass player, and her bass playing is such a major driving force in Elastica's music that without her we just didn't cut it; we really didn't. And it was like whatever we tried to do just didn't cut that vibe and that energy. It certainly wasn't Adam's fault; he didn't have a lot to work with. We were all arguing and really confused about which way to go, and the band that actually played together didn't really work that well.
'Having too much money is never a good thing for creativity'
Moving Forward
Do you often reconsider your decision not to play a lot of Elastica's older material?
Actually, some of it I think probably is worth rehashing, but to be honest with you, at this point we just have to move on because there's a limit to how many times you can have a go with something. The reason it worked when we went into the studio to finish this record is that we stopped looking back and I stopped trying to make things work that hadn't worked. I just did new stuff; that's the only way we could really do it.
What prompted you to stop looking back and decide to move on?
Getting a new band together and completely running out of money. We had, like, ten grand left. I realized that if we didn't make a record with that last ten grand -- that was it. It was goodbye.
That sounds like being a new band -- hungry, and hungry for work.
Yeah, I think it is. And I think that having too much money is never a good thing for creativity. It certainly wasn't for us. And it's kind of good really -- needing. I don't think it's a good idea to do it for the money ever. But it's good to have limited choices; it's good to know that I can't spend a week in the studio doing the job, especially for me, because I am a fiddler and a perfectionist, and it's good to know that I can only afford one day in the studio and we have to get it right and have to make the decision quickly.
Do you thrive better under pressure?
I think I do. Whether I do or not, I'm not sure but I think I do. I think I can only work under pressure in a way, because I've always got too many choices.
Sometimes when there is such a long gap between albums there's a tendency to be thinking ahead -- if only because from a creative standpoint you're trying to make up for lost time because there's a lot to say.
That's absolutely true. Even though I'm doing a few gigs, all I'm worrying about is the next album because I absolutely know this time how important it is to be writing all the time and getting songs finished. Otherwise it will be like going in with nothing and starting from scratch. The first record, we did these three songs in the studio and demoed them; a couple would work. By the time it went into the album we already had, like, half the album done -- we already had the singles done -- and that was the only way I think we could really do it. Actually trying to write an album from scratch is just an impossible task.
|
