FRAME UP

Rip It Up, Issue 88, 1 November 1984, Page 14

FRAME UP

George Kay

The Boy Wonder Takes A Knife Ufa hasn’t been too hard on Roddy Frame. A few years back and his band, Aztec Camera, surfaced on Glasgow’s very fashionable Postcard Records, a label that harboured other Velvets’ offspring in the shape of Josef , Kj and Orange Juice. From there Frame and band were snatched up by Rough Dade, which issued their first album, last year’s High Land , Hard Rain. jH Since then they’ve signed with WEA and their first instalment for that label, Knife is imminent. And that’s the chief reason behind this interview with Frame. It was originally scheduled for the previous week but “a tummy bug that only lasted a day” prevented him from reaching the phone. Lineup Changes Always a good place to start, any news is good news: “Were rehearsing a new keyboard player, Eddie Kulak, he’s Polish. He’s doing really well, it's only taken him 12 weeks to learn everything we’ve dona" Frame's is a lightweight Glasgow brogue speaking from London. He’s probably a little sleepy because it’s before noon over there And there’s more t lineuplchange§n^fyp@HP4BßßlQ3 "We’ve got Malcolm Ross from Orange Juice on guitar. He’s really great; I’ve wanted him in the band for ages." Because he suits yourstyl|?]|QHP[HH . "No, because his style is at odds to mine. He plays like Bob Quine from Richard Heills band. He had this band called Josef K and he’s played with Paul Haig.7HBQOBPHHHHHBHH Why take on Ross? I thought you regarded yourself as a good enough guitarist? “Yeah, but I’d rather hand it over to Male as he does it in a much more uptight way. I sing more on stage and he plays more, so Aztec Camera has a different approach to what it was last year. It's a bit more aggressive. Some people say we’ve sold our souls to rock ‘n’ roll.” And talking of selling souls, what’s this about Van Halen’s 'Jump' being on the flip of your latest single? "Yeah, that’s right. It’s a sort of ‘Sweet Jane’ version flip of 'All I Need Is Everything’, a track from our neWjalbum.’JßMM^ftß^ That’s an unusual choice of single from Knife there are songs on the album that are much more commercial. “Yeah, but that’s good because it’s in keeping with what Aztec Camera have been doing. 1 I don't want the band to become part of the pop treadmill like Madness and Haircut 100.1 just do what i want.” We Could Send Postcards Postcard Records was always described as a j refuge for young Scots completely besotted with the Velvet Underground. BHRSH

“That’s completely true; I don't see that as a criticism. That kind of New York music appealed to us because it sounded like they were describing what was happening in Glasgow. Their music sopnded more believable, sweeter and melancholy and that's good." Is there any such thing as Glasgow music? “I always think of the Scottish scene as being us, Josef K and Orange Juice and that was the Postcard scene and it was very exclusive, unfortunately. People like the Bluebells and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions were never a part of that, so now the scene has become much broader. Now the Glasgow sound has become a deteriorated, wimpy sub-generation sort of Orange Juice sound and it doesn’t appeal to me as much." Aztec Camera’s move from the cosy independent home of Rough Trade to the heady heights of WEA must have been a big transition and a restriction of past freedoms? “No, it’s not. You’ve got to try and work within the space that you've been given. I’d like to think that I could come up with at least an album a year and that’s all that’s asked of me. I write the songs and put them on an album and they seem to be doing quite a good job. Plus I wanted to get my records to more people and I didn't want to see Rough Trade sacrificing finance that could’ve kept a few bands putting records out just to try and make one of mine a hit. Rough Trade didn’t have enough resources to make us such a priority that we are at WEA. I don’t work for the record company in the same way that Nik Kershaw does." We Could Write Songs Last year Elvis Costello described Frame as the only British songwriter that he feared or respected. “He was probably being quite generous. He’s a great collector of old records and so I’m sure he stands much more in awe of somebody like

James Brown than he does of me. Elvis was very good to us when we went across to the States with him and he was doing all the promotion that Warner Brothers should’ve been.” (Laughs) Both you and Costello are similar in that you are both old fashioned songsmiths who can write songs in isolation from the social and political climate. “It seems to be that way. I don’t do it deliberately as I actually like to take part in pop and not be too far removed. It’s quite exciting getting back into it as I Ve been away from it the last eight months writing and playing for no one but myself. I wouldn’t like to be seen as some quirky character that was completely aloof. I want to do tours and make records but we should give my music a few years before we can say whether or not it has survived fashions and political trends." Listening to Aztec Camera requires patience. Frame writes songs that are delicately understated, melodies that are unassuming and initially elusive. He seems to avoid the old songwriting formulas. “Yeah, but I have my own little formulas although I don’t like to use verse-chorus all the time. It’s nice to put something different in and I like to make little historical references in my songs in the same way that Julian Cope does, by using parts from older songs that symbolise things for me. For instance, ‘Old Man’ by Love I’ve used some guitar and vocal lines from that on the new album. “Eccentric things like from people like Arthur Lee, Bryan McLean and Tim Buckley have been lacking in pop music they had a more sensitive approach and I’d like to bring some of that back, although in a very deliberate fashion." What inspires you to write songs? “Division. The whole of Knife is about that. It’s been a subconscious thing, but in retrospect I think a lot of my songs have been about division, either division of the brain, ie, left and right or the whole idea of two lovers who have split or the idea of self-division. You can see it in titles like 'Backwards and Forwards’ and ‘Pillar To Rost! I like opposites.” Do you find songwriting difficult? “No, I seem to be quite good at it. I’m so aware of what I don't want to the extent where I can force myself into a corner that’s on my worst days. On my best days I can come up with something good. I don’t want to start churning out riff after riff. We’re not the kind of group who says, “Oh wow, that’s a great bassline, let’s jam around and see if anything comes out of the air, man." Some people can pull it off Echo and the Bunnymen, for instance but it’s very hit and miss. What I do is much more to the point. I write songs, rehearse them, play them live and on record, rather than collaborating in some sort of democracy. I don't have that idea at all. I’m a songwriter and I work with a bass player, a drummer and a guitarist.” As a writer you’re improving but rock ‘n’ roll seems to be getting worse. “I don’t think it’s getting worse but there’s not many things around just now that I’d want to compete with. I’d like to have the respect that someone like Scritti Politti’s Green has here rather than have the 10-minute ride of someone like Nik Kershaw which doesnt seem built to last.” As a live band Aztec Camera have a reputation as being low-key. There’s no flash or theatrics, just the band and their music. “It doesnt have to be low-key but the Postcard thing wanted to be different from what was going on at the time, which was people running around in new wave outfits with exploding guitars and this big rock sound was coming back and we wanted to be removed from that. And

now everyone’s got their acoustic guitars out and myself, Malcolm and Edwin are getting back to the old electric sound of rock ‘n’ roll.”

Paolo Hewitt of NME accused the band of lacking style, in an interview he did with you last year. “Yeah, but he seems to be some sort of Jam fan (disgust evident on those last two words) and I think*We’ve got style. Our style is such that we can just stand and play and sometimes it really comes off and people want to stand and sing along with us a lot of the time rather than punch their fists in the air. Our style is something that transcends the current trends and I’ve always been happy with the way the band’s performed on stage. I don’t see it as a problem.” Knife Last year's High Land, Hard Rain album served as the collecting place for the early Aztec Camera singles like ‘We Could Send Letters', ‘Pillar To Post’ and the later ‘Oblivious! as well as revealing Frame’s deft and deceptive talents in the likes of ‘Walk Out To Winter’ and ‘Down the Dip! “It took us a long time to get round to making our first album. It suits us as it was very much in keeping with the way we sounded then. I’m not ashamed of anything that’s on it and Knife is a continuation of it really." Knife is definitely a second album; few bands could have made an album this sure on first attempt. It has a unity of sound, approach, philosophy and assurance that bypass the formative charms of High Land. But that’s to be expected. Knife is produced by Mark Knopfler and although he doesn’t play on it his influence and guitar sound are evident. Yeah, but he’s got a nice idea of guitar sounds that I wanted to use. I love the sort of classical thing I used on ‘We Could Send Letters’ but this is more a Fender album, as I was much more into Fender guitars and that was an influence of Malcolm’s and Mark’s. The album’s consistency is a credit to Mark as he’s a good hard worker who wouldn’t have let something go if it wasn’t right. He’s very aware of his profession.” The new single, ‘All I Need Is Everything; tapers off with some tasty guitar runs. “Yeah, that was fun to do. The keyboard player had these great chords and the band just played around them. We dont do that very often but it was great, it was much looser” The first track, ‘Still On Fire’, which is an obvious single, sounds Orange Juice-ish. “I think it’s more like a much rougher, more British Young Americans’ that guitar sound, it’s very white.” Speaking of America, what about ‘Just Like the USA?’ “I went to New Orleans for 10 weeks and I wrote it there, in fact I ended up writing about 10 songs there. I spent the whole time in my bedroom with this little Portastudio. That track sums up a lot of things about America for me, even down to the way I’ve played and arranged it.” It’s full of cliches. “Yeah, I like cliches. I took the middle eight from Otis Redding’s Try A Little Tenderness! ” You’ve said ‘Head Is Happy’ is like the Velvet Underground. In what way? “The piano figure is like the Velvets and the horn section is like Love. The song has different themes in it and the way the first line (“I recall the biggest beach”) is sung reminds me of the Velvets. These things just seem to come out, they’re not premeditated.” The most important songs on the album seem to be the title track and ‘Backdoor To Heaven! ‘Yeah, they’re very stark, they hinge on atmosphere. The one I’m particularly pleased with

is ‘Knife’, because I wrote that guitar part with Malcolm completely in mind and I think I used the elements in the group better than ever before.” Does the band contribute anything? “Of course, much more so than before. The rhytnm section is, I think the rock ‘n’ roll term is ‘shit hot’, they’re really tight and soulful. Campbell and Dave play like a mchine sometimes and that’s something the old Aztec Camera lacked.” Back to 'Backdoor To Heaven’ and ‘Knife’, they seem to be about chance: “There is that idea of chance in that certain things are outside our control, the idea that a child could have the trigger and the idea of understanding that we can’t dis-invent nuclear weapons. They’re here and they could rip the sky wide open if somebody incapable is in charge.” If ‘Down The Dip’ was the acoustic finale to High Land then the nearest thing on Knife has to be the catchy philosophies of ‘Birth Of the True’: “It occurred to me that the acoustic intro is really the first thing that most people play on an acoustic guitar. I can remember playing things like that all the time when I couldn’t really play very well. Neil Young springs to mind. My favourite chords used to be things like B flat diminished but now I like things like G because they ring so well. “I didn’t spend a lot of time writing that song as you Ve got to be careful you don't labour things too much. That used to be one of my criticisms of Costello, that some of his stuff sounded too clever and it shouldn't be too far removed from the idea of someone talking to you. “The ‘Birth Of the True’ is a sort of vow and I didn't want to become too bogged down in the cleverness of it. There’s millions of people who can think up something clever but the important people are those who say something meaningful.” Frame fits into the latter.