Arab Strap

During the CMJ Festival I spoke with Aidan and Malcolm from Arab Strap. They were staying at The Gramercy Hotel. I had just seen an interview with them in The Face. They were interviewed by model Helena Christensen, who claimed to be a big fan, which seemed unlikely. There were pictures of her with Aidan's arms around her. This was a bizarre matching.

I am big fan of Philophobia, one of the darkest records ever made. Arab Strap has been together about ten years and are from Falkirk, Scotland. In the recent year, America has seen the release of Elephant Shoe and a live record, both on Jetset Records. Malcolm Middleton and Aidan Moffatt have been an inspiration to many, including Belle & Sebastian, who named a record after them. I never liked Belle & Sebastian, and was surprised that fans of this horrid band tended to like Arab Strap as well. I found myself waiting outside the Bowery Ballroom to see Arab Strap with a bunch of B & S nerds. I feel like Jack Black in the film High Fidelity when the other nerdy guy puts on their lame-ass records.

Malcolm and Aidan ordered a coke, talked about seeing the new Exorcist and playing video games. Their show was gloomy and bizarre. People were really quiet and respectful.

*****

AL: Have you toured in America often?

Malcolm: We toured for two weeks in 1998. Mainly in the Northeast.

Aidan: We just finished a long tour with Tindersticks.

AL: You toured with Dot Allison about a year ago.

Aidan: That's right. She's doing quite well over here. She was better received here than in the UK. I was surprised that she was supporting us.

AL: You did a remix of a Dot Allison song.

Malcolm: Yeah. We don't do many remixes, but it's something to do. That was the least special remix we did.

Aidan: It's fucking amazing. We do remixes when we have time. It depends if we like the person who gave us the tape.

AL: How do you feel about Belle & Sebastian calling their record The Boy With The Arab Strap?

Aidan: They have a sense of humor.

Malcolm: Because Arab Strap is quite an interesting name. The words go well together. That's why we chose it as a band name. We're friends with them, but there's a limit to putting someone else's name on a album. They’re taking away something from us.

AL: Did people think it was an Arab Strap album?

Malcolm: Uh. yeah.

Aidan: Helena Christensen did.

Malcolm: Many people bought it because they thought it was a collaboration between both bands. We still see them around in Glasgow.

AL: Is it hard living in a small town?

Malcolm: People in Scotland don't like to see other people do well for themselves, for some reason. It's a Scottish thing. We don't talk about being in a band to normal people. You have to be in a band to have any interest in touring Japan or America. They wouldn't understand it or appreciate it.

Aidan: Most of our friends are somehow connected to a band.

AL: Elephant Shoe was release quite a while before in the UK. Why the delay?

Malcolm: It came out a year ago in September on Go Beat Records. It was a fiasco. We couldn't manage to get it released over here in time. The live album will be coming out on Go Beat and Jetset in January at the same time. We hardly played any songs from Elephant Shoe the other night, because we played it to death for a year.

Aidan: The live album is material from the first two albums. The first two albums were released on Chemikal Underground, then we went to Go Beat briefly, and now we're back on Chemikal Underground this year, which is run by The Delgados. That's their label.

AL: So you will come back to do a proper tour?

Malcolm: Yes. Since we are back on Chemikal Underground, we can have more control over what happens. Our next album will come out in February and it should be synchronized so it comes out here at the same time. Hopefully there's not a fuck up like there was with Go Beat.

AL: Go Beat is probably more concerned with Gabrielle?

Aidan: She's doing quite well.

AL: How did you guys meet up? Was there an idea that you would form a band from way back?

Aidan: I'd like to think that some greater force predestined it. It was always in the cards.

Malcolm: When we were 19 or 20, we were always in bands and stuff. It's such a small town that you meet people who listen to the same kind of music. We just decided to do some stuff together. Aidan had done some demo tapes himself, under the name Arab Strap. It was good.

AL: So you were the original Arab Strap?

Aidan: Not in any good way.

Malcolm: We had sent off some tapes to nine or ten labels and when Chemikal Underground wrote back we were shocked. But it seemed natural too because we were confident about what we were doing. After we finished the first record, the label said you have to play and promote this record in two weeks time.

AL: How did you feel about that, Aidan? You look uncomfortable up there onstage?

Aidan: No. Not really. I enjoyed it. Everybody gets in a bad mood.

AL: You pace around onstage. You fidget with the gear. Or you look for a beer.

Aidan: You need a drink, definitely?

AL: Is drink a major influence?

Aidan: It comes enough.

Malcolm: It's one of the pitfalls of touring with a band, because there's nothing else to do. You get to the venue, and it's usually a bar. It's usually in the middle of nowhere.

Aidan: We're becoming more professional though. We're very conscious of not drinking too much before playing live. Because the first two and half years of playing we just got totally wasted. It was very amusing to watch but it wasn't very musical in any sense.

AL: What about the songs?

Malcolm: Aidan writes all the lyrics and we both write the music. It's not just about writing, it's about actually producing ourselves. We make the songs on tape. We both come up with ideas. We used about three studios in Glasgow.

AL: Why do you write these sort of lyrics?

Aidan: I just write to piss off my girlfriend.

AL: The lyrics seem like a diary.

Aidan: I never kept a diary. I like to think of the album as a diary. Just key events. Just what I'm mulling about at any given point. I like to mull. That's something I'm very good at.

Malcolm: Some journalist described it as picking scabs once.

AL: But from what part of the anatomy?

Aidan: The brain. A scabby brain. I don't care what anyone says. Doesn't matter.

Malcolm: We have that advantage. We always made demo tapes for friends and each other. We always made records in the same way. We have no notions of a third party hearing the songs. The records are very intimate.

AL: It's also unique. You or anyone would be hard pressed to find an influence. Do you think that this music is agitated or is it something you can chill out to?

Aidan: I think that you can take it both ways. There's a lot in the records to relax to but there's also a bad mood. I like to encourage that.

Malcolm: People can relate to the subject matter of the songs. It's not stuff that many people sing about. It's not about "Oh baby I miss you." It's the small things that everybody can relate to. It's a record you want to listen to by yourself, not with friends or at a party.

Aidan: I like making records for the stoners as well. There's a lot of interest in us from the stoners.

AL: What do you think of some of the focus on Scottish music, especially now with Travis?

Malcolm: Travis is fine. They are just one of those bands, like Texas, which are, from our point of view, harmful to music. Travis is selling a shitload of records, that you can get them now at supermarkets, all over the world. It's just pop music.

Aidan: Music to buy at a supermarket. Meaningless.

AL: It seems like you guys utilize silence and quietness in your songs. It means more when you hear those blank spaces. When someone is talking it just ruins the effect.

Aidan: I was really impressed at the level of silence in the audience the other night. I was surprised because it was a CMJ show and people get in free and they could not give a fuck. They could just chat among themselves.

AL: Do you have any other hobbies?

Aidan: I have a Dreamcast actually. I like to play that whenever I can.

AL: Do you get on the Internet and check out what people are saying about Arab Strap?

Malcolm: Occasionally, yeah. The official site doesn't have much on it. The unofficial one has more activity. It takes up a lot time.

Aidan: I don't pay any attention to it at all. If I had an Internet connection I would just look at the Star Wars sites anyways.

AL: You were talking about the Exorcist. Did you like it?

Aidan: I think it's a wonderful film. But they ruined it by adding on a terrible ending. Stupid.

Malcolm: I hate stuff like that. Imagine that they re-released an album in ten years time with overdubs on it. Took bits out and change bits. Surely you don't touch it once it has been made. They always come out with director's cut.

Aidan: The Star Wars Special Edition was terrible as well. It's just pointless. The time and the feel of a film when it was made and released is very important.

AL: Do you have a personal messages to the fans out there?

Aidan: Buy our new record.

Malcolm: I always like to say to our fans, "Please don't be an asshole." And "Be good to your Mum."

AL: Are these words to live by?

Aidan: I'm a total asshole and I'm rotten to my mother. Don't shit where you eat.

AL: Don't shit what you eat?

Aidan: Actually I have to make a trip to the bathroom quite soon. It's annoying when people pay money to see you and act like fucking idiots when you're on.

Malcolm: It's perfectly understandable. They might have a few drinks. They might get excited.

AL: Some girl might have something slipped into her drink. Then she jumps on stage and takes off her clothes. She goes crazy.

Aidan: It doesn't happen often.

Malcolm: There's this image of us being these mad Scottish alcoholics. People outside Scotland think this is how we are and we'll do the same. Bunch of drunks. Just buy our records and not the other guys.

AL: I'm going to go home right now and put an Arab Strap CD in the player and glue it shut.

Aidan: That would be wise. Wait till the new record comes out though.

******

Website: http://www.arabstap.co.uk/

Arab Strap

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Dot Allison Interview 2002

DOT ALLISON
An Interview with Alexander Laurence

Dot was born Dorothy Elliot Allison, on 17 August 1969, in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the early 1990s, she was the lead singer of One Dove. It was a band that made a major contribution to the club scene, as comedown music in the morning. The implosion of One Dove amid record label wrangles and band arguments disappointed the multitudes that had relied upon the Scottish trio.

Five years later, Allison emerged from the wreckage and a serious car accident and signed to Heavenly Records. With the instrumental talents of Mani (Stone Roses, Primal Scream) and Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine), and lyrics from legendary songwriter Hal David, 1999's AFTERGLOW was not a radical departure from her former band's sound. It featured dub excursions, dynamic pop and heartbreaking songs. Her live shows, complete with a string quartet found Allison tipping her hat to Beth Orton and were always spectacles. Her latest, WE ARE SCIENCE, is a mixture of electro and folk music without the pop narcotics. It showcases her ability in programming and her embrace of the new electro music.

______________

AL: What are your sets like nowadays?

Dot: I started playing a One Dove track. I play a couple of tracks from Afterglow. I play an instrumental version of one song, "Mo' Pop," that is one part "rocky" and has uptempo guitar. Wait a minute, I am just getting into a taxi. I like the older stuff when it gels with the newer tracks. I think that it is important to play the back catalogue because it's part of my history.

AL: Have you been DJing a lot in the past three years?

Dot: I have been doing it more and more. I do it in London quite a lot. Then I ended up with a residency in Barcelona. I played at Arthur Baker's club in London and he liked my set. He wants me to go on tour with him in Europe and New York.

AL: What sort of records have you been playing?

Dot: A mixed bag of electronic music. It's quite uptempo. Even my album is quite like warm up tracks as opposed to mid-set tracks, excluding the remixes. I have been playing the same stuff for years: electro and techno tracks.

AL: There was one track that was a B-side on one of your earlier singles called "Melted." Was that a precursor to a lot of the electro stuff that you did three years later on We Are Science?

Dot: Definitely. I was listening to electro then but it didn't fit in with the rest of Afterglow. Afterglow was more of a classic pop album. Yet there was a couple of B-sides that were electro, and "Melted" was one, and another one "Mr. Voyeur." On that one I actually sampled Gary Numan. That was during the Afterglow sessions. That was indicating where my head was at although it wasn't reflected by the album much.

AL: Do you like Ladytron and Adult.?

Dot: Yeah, I do. I like Adult. and Le Car. Le Car was a precursor to that. I like almost everything on that Ersatz Audio. Most of the groups on that label are really great.

AL: Are you a member of Death In Vegas now?

Dot: No, I just collaborated with them on two songs. It's like Massive Attack or something, where there is two core members and a cast of long-time collaborators who come and go. I am just one of those collaborators in Death In Vegas.

AL: You recorded the early parts of this record in upstate New York with Dave Fridmann at Tar Box Studios. What was that like?

Dot: Oh, that was brilliant. They are all talented musicians and lovely people. It was an enjoyable session. I am a big fan of Mercury Rev. I also liked the work that Dave had done with The Flaming Lips. I like the fact that Dave Fridmann is a technically proficient producer. He's good at recording and at the same time he doesn't over-process things. He is able to keep the human element and it sounds like a performance as well. Tarbox is a music studio that is in the middle of the forest and it's quite remote. It's a real beautiful surrounding to make music in. There's no distractions. It's better to be in nature than in a London studio with madness outside.

AL: Did you take a lot of time off after the previous album?

Dot: Not really. I spent a lot of time sorting out my new studio. I bought so much new equipment. I had my head in the manual just working. I was troubleshooting with the new gear because I changed my software package. I changed to Logic. It wasn't a big leap. I also moved into a new apartment. My prized possession is an Arp Odyssey which is quite cool. I had a digital analog too. Some of the sounds are cool even though it's a digital keyboard.

AL: Were the songs "Strung Out" and "Lover" written before most of the new album?

Dot: They were written first. When I was out touring Afterglow I was already playing them live. They were already in existence and had life and had arrangements at that stage. Since they were guitar based and guitar lead I knew that I wanted to work with someone like Dave Fridmann. At the same time I knew I wanted to make a diverse but quite electronic album. I wanted to have all those loops and samples and also have guitar tracks near to keep it "space rocky" and electronic like a bad marriage.

AL: When did you work on the new album and when was it released in the UK?

Dot: I finished it about a year ago and it came out in April.

AL: How did you write this album? Afterglow had a bunch of piano based songs.

Dot: Probably in a similar way. I did more programming. I still like to sit down with a guitar and worked out chords. My primary instrument is piano really. I work out chords and play them in parts and edit them on my computer. I experiment a lot now too with the computer. I play around with bits, playing them backwards and transposing them. You can record parts and put effects on them, and then re-record them with other effects. You can keep processing things till you get something original. I always spent time on pre-production. I always came in with templates of songs that I had sampled up with Afterglow. I always had bags of records and notepads with notes of which songs and which parts I wanted to sample. I had a rudimentary setup in my flat and not a very good computer. You need a lot of memory for some samples. Now that I changed systems I can record all that on my hard drive.

AL: Are you going to do an American tour soon?

Dot: I like being in America. I would like to come back as soon as I can really. I would like to do an acoustic tour as a tastemaker of the songs on this new album that I can do that way. I can play some stuff from Afterglow and One Dove. Then I can come back again with a full band. I have been touring in Europe all year. I think that it has come of age as a live set. So I can't wait to bring it over.

AL: Have you read any good books recently?

Dot: I read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman. It was really cool. I read "Atomised" (The Elementary Particles) by Michel Houellebecq. It's quite bleak.

AL: Have you seen any films recently?

Dot: Yeah. I saw Almodovar's "Talk To Her." It's the new one. It's good. There's a British comedy called "Once Upon A Time In The Midlands" with Rhys Ifans. The guy who was in Notting Hill.

AL: I heard that the Marquee Club opened again in Islington.

Dot: I went to the opening. It's cool because Primal Scream played. It's quite a small stage to see them on so it was like a treat. It was good. They really rocked. Everybody was going mental. I have worked with Mani before on Afterglow. He said that he would be on my next record. We agreed that he would be on a couple of tracks on my next record. So I am going to hold him to that. I have worked with Andrew Innes and Kevin Shields too. So I work with them one by one but never together.

Dot Allison Interview 2002

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