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Interview
by SashaS
21-9-2001
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| A patient elbow |
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Twisted New Despairism
Elbow’s decade-long perseverance finally pays off with the band’s album being nominated for the Mercury Award
Elbow, a Bury fivesome formed nearly 10 years ago who survived a couple of major label catastrophes, are so dedicated to their music they spent three hours tuning wineglasses for a tiny segment on their debut album. ‘Asleep In The Back’, finally released by V2 label, is rumbling, dark, yet tender and stirring rock that has been wittily-but-misleadingly described as “Prog-rock without the solos” by singer/guitarist Guy Garvey. It is actually a distinctive acousto-rock, identity and sound fully grown, that can keep everyone emotionally alert.
We find ourselves in a foyer bar of a West London hotel with Garvey and bassist named Pot, imbibing caffeine and chewing the tofu. Few months back Garvey complained how he needed to do something else onstage to make their show more of a spectacle. The conversation suddenly diverted to alternative employment and GG-man confessed he had wanted to be a priest at the age 11.
Why not fulfil the fantasy and don the black-attire/dog-collar for the shows? Music is preaching, in a sense…
“You have a point there,” Garvey’s sense of humour is on, “I might try it; Minister Guy Garvey addressing pop fans. It might not do me any favours with the chicks but it could be a striking image.”
Desperado alchemists
It’s often cited that road to hell is paved with failed ambitions and Elbow can well attest to it. Their attempt to launch a career was quashed twice (Island, EMI) by the major roster downsizing but, luckily, Universal’s swallowing PolyGram resulted in the new corporation developing disinterested in holding onto the master tapes of Elbow’s unreleased album. The band found it handy to use it as basis for this version.
“We were lucky in that respect,” Garvey says stoically of their industrial elbowing. “We finished recording the album although we knew, for a year, that we’d be going. It was a strange situation hanging over our heads that affected us greatly. It felt like a great waste of energy and money but it worked out quite weirdly. They (Universal) had to get read of 40 percent of the guitar bands and the ones they’ve kept don’t appear to be doing that well.”
“A lot of people assume,” Garvey continues anticipating unplanned question, “that the title of the album is aimed at the suits but it has much more humble history: it is a name of a song that is still unfinished about a shared memory from our childhoods of sleeping in the back of parents’ car and pretending to be asleep at the destination, to be carried in.”
Cavernous incisions
As a euphemism for a harmless deceit, it is certainly accurate to the album’s and finely-wrought glimpses into the heart, with lyrics Garvey adjudges to be “Too much” autobiographically and “Overdone” on inner exposure. Elbow’s agonizing honesty is more credible – and discomforting – than the current crop of emotional analysts such as Travis, Doves, Coldplay, JJ72 and one has to wonder whether its intensity might have been mistimed if it had been issued two years ago.
“It is possible,“ Garvey hesitantly agrees, “that the market might not have been as responsive then. I think the situation was shifting at the time with a lot of bands releasing records that were using ballads and chord structures that were melodic. You can attribute it all to Radiohead. But yes, there is more appreciation now for plaintive sounds made by guitar bands.”
“If it all failed,” Pot speaks at the end, “before we got the record deal, it wouldn’t have been worth it. But now, it has been… Maybe not completely: looking back at it, being on the dole and missing on university and travelling, but at the time it didn’t matter because we were doing something we really wanted. And, we’ve only just started…”
Even the nomination for the Mercury Music Award simply appears to fit into this pattern.
Update: Elbow have finally recorded the title song to the album; ‘Asleep In The Back’ single is slotted for 28 January 2002 release.
Tour dates:
04 October – Sugarmill, Stoke
05 October – De Monfort University, Leicester
06 October – Anson Rooms, Bristol
08 October – Junction, Cambridge
09 October – Concorde 2, Brighton
10 October – University, Southampton
13 October – L2, Liverpool
14 October – Ritz, Manchester
15 October – Foundry, Sheffield
17 October – University, Newcastle
18 October – Doghouse, Dundee
19 October – Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh
21 October – QMU, Galsgow
22 October – Metropolitan University, Leeds
23 October – Waterfront, Norwich
24 October – Astoria, London
SashaS
21-9-2001
‘Asleep In The Back’ (album) by Elbow is out now on V2
'Asleep In The Back' (single) is released 28 January 2002 on V2
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