Re: Gerard interview #2

[GORDON WILHELMI <gordon.wilhelmi192@bt...com>]

At one point, many of the faithful began calling for standards.
'Colour Me'
'Weightless'
Gerard pointed at his watch.
'Have you seen the time ?'
G
----Original message----
>From : keulies@gm...com
Date : 29/12/2016 - 23:47 (GMTST)
To : blueplanes@bl...org, nickw@bl...co.uk
Subject : Re: [BluePlanes] Gerard interview #2
Thanks nick, great stuff 
AK
On 29 Dec 2016 3:41 p.m., "Nick Walters" <nickw@bl...co.uk> wrote:
    
 
I've cut and pasted my interview below as Virgin email is being wank about 
emailing hyperlinks.
NW2
----------------Interview: The Blue Aeroplanes’ Gerard Langley
❉  The cult indie band’s frontman talks to We Are Cult about the new album 
and what 2017 may hold for the Blue Aeroplanes.
I’ve been following the trajectory of the Blue Aeroplanes for nigh on 
thirty years, and so I was honoured to have the opportunity to talk to 
Aeroplanes frontman Gerard Langley before the band’s traditional Christmas 
gig at the Fleece (which they own) on Friday 16 December. An instantly 
recognisable figure, in his ray-bans, black garb and tousled black hair, 
Gerard looks every inch the rock’n’roll beat poet that he is. A man with 
an encyclopaedic knowledge of music and vast experience in the music 
business, Gerard is Head of Songwriting and Music Business Tutor at the 
Bristol branch of the British and Irish Modern Music Institute. Gerard 
lives in the same part of Bristol as me, so I have encountered him quite a 
few times in shops or out and around the area (he once walked past my 
kitchen window as I was doing the washing-up), and conversed with him 
before and after gigs, but this is the first time I have actually formally 
interviewed him. As my experience of interviewing rock stars is zero (I 
drunkenly interviewed indie band The Wood Children at Wolves Poly in 
1988), I was quite nervous, but I shouldn’t have been, as Gerard is an 
affable dude, clearly proud of his band, and excited about the new album 
and what 2017 may hold for the Blue Aeroplanes.
We talked in the attic-like dressing room in the Fleece whilst other band 
members such as Chris Sharp (bass), Bec Jevons and Mike Youe (guitars) 
came and went. I made a lame joke about Christmas not being Christmas 
without a Blue Aeroplanes gig. ‘Not in Bristol, anyway!’ said Gerard. I 
started the interview proper by drawing a comparison between the Blue 
Aeroplanes and The Fall.
NW: It strikes me that the Blue Aeroplanes are a lot like The Fall – both 
bands have been around for a long time and seen many line-up changes. 
However, the current line up of both bands is quite stable; with the Fall 
it’s ten years, with the Aeroplanes, it’s..?
GL: Four and a half years. The main difference between the Aeroplanes and 
The Fall is that we’ve had a lot of members, but they tend to be line-ups 
that stick around for a bit, make a couple of albums, then it all changes. 
It’s not people constantly drifting. But we haven’t had a stable line-up 
really since, probably, Swagger/Beatsongs [1990-91]. People stick around 
for a long time but they never overlap a record, so I was always putting 
out a record with one line-up and touring it with another. So this is the 
first time really since the early albums that we’ve had a line-up that’s 
written the stuff, recorded it, and is now playing it live. The other 
difference is, of course, I get on with former band members!
NW: I know you see yourself as a national band first, and international 
band second, but you are synonymous with the Bristol music scene, you own 
the Fleece, and Bristol often turns up in your songs. Does it bother you 
that when articles appear about the Bristol music scene, you are seldom 
mentioned?
GL: Well, Bristol decided it was gonna go trip-hop and not guitar bands! 
We can’t do anything about it. Apparently we’re included in RyanAir’s 
guide to Bristol, alongside Bananarama!
NW: The new album is extremely poppy and accessible, in direct contrast to 
‘Anti-Gravity’ [the band’s previous album, released in 2011] Was this 
deliberate?
GL: To an extent, yeah. ‘Anti-Gravity’ was done a lot around jams with 
various different musicians, but ‘Welcome, Stranger!’ was fairly stable. 
It was basically, initially, me and Bec and Mike, working on loads of 
material on stage at the Fleece. And the material we came up with was so 
immediate and really strong. It’s a long time since Anti-Gravity, so I had 
a lot of words, and I was picking up all the best ideas from those to make 
it quite hooky and strong. And then we thought, well, we’ve got all these 
really good songs now, so we’d better record them properly. So we actually 
went into a really good studio with a really good engineer, and thought, 
right, we’re going to record this to a major label standard, just a lot 
quicker.
NW: The production is absolutely beautiful, very sharp and clean, it 
really brings the songs to life.
GL: But it’s still basically the all band playing live – two or three 
takes, max.
NW: There’s a very sixties, psychedelic sound to the album.
GL: Sixties but punkier.
MY [Mike Youe, Aeroplanes guitarist]: It was recorded at Vale 
[Worcestershire recording studio situated in a Georgian manor house 
renowned for its retro equipment] using a vintage Neve console, and 
‘classic’ microphones, so that might contribute to it.
NW: The production on ‘Swagger’, your most acclaimed album, in comparison, 
at least to these ears, sounds awfully flat and uninspired. It seems to 
smother the songs.
GL: To be honest this is one of the first albums we’ve ever done, apart 
from ‘Bop Art’ [the band’s first album released in 1984], where I actually 
really like the production. I always thought the production on our albums 
sounded a bit tame – it should have sounded louder, on things like Swagger.
NW: I like the cover, it somehow reflects the playful mood of the album.
GL: Yeah – I was trying to get people to do artwork based on 
retro-friendly aliens and rockets, but it nothing seemed to work so I just 
bought a rocket myself!
NW: The guitar riffs in Sweet Like Chocolate, and in other places on the 
album sound remarkably like the distinctive style of Angelo Bruschini 
[former Aeroplanes member and legendary guitarist who featured on Massive 
Attack’s Mezzanine album]. Was this a deliberate attempt to sound like the 
‘planes of old or was it… how can I put this… alchemy?
GL: Well whilst we were jamming, I played Bec [Bec Jevons, Aeroplanes 
guitarist] some early Aeroplanes…
BJ: And I said, Wow, this is just like the stuff my band is doing! I’d not 
really properly listened to the Aeroplanes before, but it just came out 
that way, kind of semi-accidentally.
GL: With Mike [Youe, Aeroplanes guitarist], there’s a mutual influence, in 
the shape of Richard Thompson, who played modally. So did Angelo, and so 
does Mike – so they’re going to sound similar because they’re coming from 
the same place.
NW: Is the album, and the upcoming tour, a conscious decision to try to 
get new fans on board? To ‘welcome strangers’, as it were?
GL: Let’s put it this way. This Christmas gig used to do all right, but 
never used to sell out. Three years ago, it sold out on a walk-up, so on 
the night. Last year, it sold out a few days in advance. This year, it 
sold out six weeks in advance. So, there’s a curve, and if I can get that 
curve into other cities and promoters go with it… Because normally, if a 
band who’s been going a quite a long time like us, like Theatre of Hate, 
draw 250, then that’s their audience – 250 people. But we’re actually 
growing an audience here, and in London, places where we play regularly, 
we’re building an audience as if the Blue Aeroplanes was a new band. We’ve 
got a promoter on board with that, and if we can get the venues on board 
with that, and give it a go, like a new band, say right we’ll play 150 in 
Liverpool then 300 next time, we’ll see where it goes. At the moment we’re 
literally just writing the songs.
NW: After the forthcoming tour, are you planning further dates later in 
the year?
GL: One of the reasons for this tour in January, apart from that’s when 
the album’s coming out is, I don’t know if I can manage it, but I want to 
have a go, is to get two albums out in a year. I can’t guarantee it, 
because the quality’s got to be there, but if I can, I’ll get another out 
in October/November.
_______________________________________________
The Blue Aeroplanes mailing list
BluePlanes@bl...org
http://www.blueaeroplanes.org/

_______________________________________________
The Blue Aeroplanes mailing list
BluePlanes@bl...org
http://www.blueaeroplanes.org/