INTERVIEW: Lamb
- Joe Silva
If you've even spent ten minutes in your local DJ shoppe lately, you'd realize the small percentage of stuff that actually escapes the breakbeat kingdom and acquires even a nodding acquaintance with mainstream pop circles. In the worse case scenario we'll have more Prodigy-like material escaping from the confines of the subcultcha, but in a more just world the future musical schema will approximate Lamb.
At the onset of their recent tour of the States, Louise Rhodes and Andrew Barlow took time to chat re: their blissful mix of warm vocals and instrumentation (double bass, horns) and the thumping and frenetic beats of the drum n bass corps.
Consumable: So you're co-headlining this tour with Gus Gus, right?
Louise Rhodes: Actually, we're opening for Gus Gus now. Somewhere along the line we became special guests. (laughs)
C: Is the setup for the show very similar to other electronic, technology based bands?
LR: We're very different from that. Very visual with Andy going completely mad on stage, and we've got live double bass, as well as a live trumpet player. There's a lot to watch, more like a live band. Once (someone's) seen us live, they can't make those comparisons. It's a very human experience.
C: Now these songs we're finished and released in the UK some time ago. Do you still feel excited about the material?
LR: I still get the buzz. I realized half way through singing "Cotton Wool" last night, that it still had the capacity to move me. I am 100% in those songs when I'm singing. But it's different each night and there are a whole load of factors as to why - the response you get from the audience, the moods we're all in. That's another difference between us and the other electronic acts. We rely on a lot more on a two-way thing with the audience. I know I do particularly when I see people responding to the songs. It's relatively rare that we have a bad night. We usually manage to connect with the audience. That's more likely to happen when we're playing for a festival.
C: Now I know you played Glastonbury (England festival). What was that like?
LR: One of the biggest buzzes of the summer. It was a weird one, because it was really bad weather, and sort of knee deep in mud all weekend. But it felt brilliant! We'd had a real ordeal getting in there. Basically all the tour buses were booked out that weekend. So we didn't a tour bus. So in the end I wound up driving down in a transit so I could sleep in the back. It took us ten hours to get on to the site from just outside. When it came to our show we were sort of wading through mud. I was just feeling so low and tired and weary and just like I was going to fall apart, like I couldn't do it all. And then when I met up with the rest of the band who sort of energized me a bit and when we went up on stage, the response from the audience was so amazing, I couldn't stop smiling. Despite the mud they were really up for it.
C: Well you've had four singles from the album over there which is a lot. So people must have been familiar with you.
LR: Yeah we've been milking that album (laughs)! But really, we've had four singles, because we wanted four singles. All those tracks were sort of asking to be singles.
C: What was it like at first composing with Andy considering your different backgrounds?
LR: That was what I was looking for. Basically, we didn't really discuss much in advance what we were going to do. We just got some free studio time and went in and wrote "God Bless" which was kind of a celebration of this bringing together of our various skills. Andy never wanted to work with vocals, so it must have been a weird one for him, because he wound up doing something that he hadn't really forseen, but enjoying it all the same. I knew I wanted to write songs, but do it in a different way like using the exciting beats that were inspiring me as well. Day in and day out we have problems because of the different people we are and the priorities we have. We fall out about everything. We fell out this morning about who was first in the shower.
C: How has your work ethic changed over the time you got to be more familiar with one another?
LR: It's constantly changing. Because we've been basically playing live solidly over the last year, I think our whole approach has changed. We've become a lot more spontaneous about how we treat our songs. Our approach to writing songs has kind of metamorphisized a little bit from playing live. We're more likely to get more basic ideas and jam them through as a band and let it develop, then go back into the studio and then put stuff into the sampler and mess around with it. We have a port studio on the bus with us. Andy's devised this wonderful little thing in a flat case where you just flip up the lid and there's your studio. We were doing things like putting down live double bass on the motorway in Europe and trumpet in a hotel room. So that's going to make a big difference. It's kinda hard to get motivated since you sort of have a half-life when your on tour. You come alive when your onstage, and that's it. It's a learning process, obviously.
C: I particularly noticed that the lyrics on this record are positive personal statements. Is that a conscious thing?
LR: Most people say we're really melancholy, and I don't know where they get that from. They try to lump us in with all those bands that are trip-hop and melancholy. I'm a total romantic, and very optimistic, and have that approach to relationships. Basically, you know that life is about learning and getting hurt and learning again. And with relationships you have a choice of either getting hurt and get bitter and twisted or rise like a phoenix from the ashes and hopefully go on and have a better relationship the next time. All our relationships are there to teach us something. The other people that we meet in life, especially the people who we form close relationships with, are there to teach us something. I love modern music, but sometimes I get frustrated because it lacks emotional depth. I need to have that in my music. People don't want to give that, they'd rather hide behind technology and not show any of themselves. It's very male dominated, especially the techno side. Young guys who do not want to show any emotion at all because it shows vulnerability. A lot of the stuff I listen to is old music like Roberta Flack featuring Donny Hathaway. It's a classic album. It kind of verges on corniness in the pure emotion that it's expressing, but I love that in it. I can't be really any other way. I've been so much more of a happier person since I've been able to express it in songs. Probably a bit self indulgent as well. You chose your role in life, and I think mine's definitely to communicate things like that cuz not so many people are doing. I might come out like a bit of an idiot sometimes, cuz I am so open about it, but I don't give a shit really.
C: Andy, how are the performances for you? Fairly busy?
Andy Barlow: We could have done it easier. You could have had me and Lou on tour with a tour manager and a DAT machine, but we've chosen to do it this way. It could have worked either way I suppose. With a DAT machine you've got stability, of course every show's the same, but that not what we're about- we're more interested in taking risk and taking chances. Having a unique show for better or worse.
C: Who's idea was it to take the live instruments on tour?
AB: Neither. It was a logical thing. Double bass is one that instruments that Lou and I both agree is one of the most tremendous instruments ever - the warmth of it. All of Lamb has been a string of coincidences. The more that we go on there's some kind of form. It goes wrong unless we do it as mutual as possible. We both like those instruments, so we got them included in the live set.
C: How have your personalities meshed up 'till now?
AB: It's hard work some times. There's lots of energy going with two people who are strong willed. That's why Lamb's got a spikey exterior, but a soft underbelly.
C: Lou says you've brought the studio along for the tour.
AB: Yeah, my mobile studio, it's wicked. You see when we get back from the states, we've got six months in Manchester (to write the next album) and we've already got four or five ideas. Half the fuckin' album's written, no problem!
C: Will there be certain aspects or techniques that you'll carry over from the first record to the second?
AB: The first album was all over the place. We don't really have a formula for writing stuff. Some samples or loops I've put together will inspire us or even just one sample will inspire Lou to come up with some lyrics. Sometimes she'll have lyrics and some guitar parts and then everything will get changed around and the guitar will get thrown out. It's pretty fluid. However it starts it starts. In fact we actually kind of take turns, because we see it has an effect on how it turns out.
C: Have you spent a lot of time keeping up with all the stuff that's going on now in drum n' bass?
AB: I haven't listened to a lot of music lately. I think drum n' bass has really gone up its arse. Even the shining pieces have a real effort to shine because they're really surrounded by all this shit.
C: Even Tricky?
AB: I can only listen to that so much, because it puts me in a bad mood. I saw him once at Glastonbury while I was tripping and he gave me a bad trip (laughs)!
