Yob Funk Theory

Rip It Up, Issue 97, 1 August 1985, Page 14

Yob Funk Theory

Russell Brown

"Love, authenticity and energy" what Shriekback say:

It’s 9.30 pm on a Friday night, I’m sitting at desk with phone, currently missing Goblin Mix at the Windsor. Barry Andrews, on the other hand, is on the other side of the world and has just risen to greet the day. Hasn't even had a cup of tea. Says something for the man, then, that he’s affable and co-operative. Chooses his words well, enunciates the good ones in the manner of a man who likes words. Sense of humour, appreciates the twin edge of a good adjective. He is, of course, keyboard player for Shriekback, the thinking person’s supergroup that formed in 1981 from the debris of several other lineups. Andrews left XTC in 1979 and was for a time part of Robert Fripp's short-lived League Of Gentlemen and his own rather curious Restaurant For Dogs, before meeting up with bassman Dave Allen (just ex Gang Of Four) and guitarist Carl Marsh for what was originally to be a shortterm project in early 1981. Drummer Martyn Baker took the oath in 1984. Contractual hassles mean we'll never get last year's Jam Science LP but Andrews doesn't see much of a gulf between the new one. Oil and Gold, and the last Shriekback album released here, Care: “I think, in a way, it's the same kind of album as Care, whereas Jam Science was a bit of a mutant," he explains. The sound is different, however; altogether wilder... “Yeah, we've just been learning more about the tools of the trade really. So, if you like, Oil and Gold is Care moved on a little bit, it's made by people who know what they're doing a bit more.” Since Care, the band has shifted from ill-fated indie Y records to a position under the wing of Arista Records. Did that mean a move to expensive, state-of-the-art studios? (Care was recorded in 19 days at a small 16-track studio.) “This album was mixed in expensive studios, because we felt that that justified the cost, using a computer desk. But it was actually recorded fairly cheaply although it was incredibly expensive in the end because we ran over quite a

lot but the actual studios were not that expensive. We wanted to use the money on getting in expensive people, and we thought that as long as everything goes down on tape cleanly it doesn’t matter very much." One of the first impressions from Oil and Gold is that it would sound great on a big sound sys-

tern, really loud, but Andrews claims it wasn’t envisaged that way. “It was actually mixed on little hi-fi speakers. The theory behind that of course is that if it works on little ones it should sound great on big ones. But it's not a 'play lou" record particularly. The stuff on the album does sound as if it must be a lot of fun live ... “I'm glad you said that,” Andrews smiles back over the phone, warming to the subject. “I think the live band is really one of the better things about this year. We've just put together an eight-

piece live band the four Shrieks plus two girl singers, a guitar player and a keyboard player who also plays guitar. Quite a formidable array of forces. We did these gigs in London which’ were absolutely wonderful and I think it's only scratching the surface of what we’re capable of. So by the time we get to you, which should be the end of the year with any luck, it should be a finely-honed fighting machine." Shriekback do not use sequencers or computers when they play live: “Don’t believe in ’em! It’s obvious really, Martin’s drumming is the heartbeat and depart from that and you’re in big trouble. So we just let him get on with it." Has the tendency for people to nail themselves down with electronic rhythms had a detrimental affect on music? “I don't know really. If it’s a natural kind of expression to you, then that’s fine. I mean, there’s a place in the heart for those kind of things I personally don’t get any excitement out of doing it any more, it’s finished. On this last album we really completed a two year romance with a drum computer and I just feel that’s behind us now, we’re not interested in the digital pulse any more. “For me, certain kinds of real drumming are far more interesting and Martin’s is one of the kinds of drumming I find very exciting. I like the variables, there’s such a lot more richness to it than boom-krrboom-boom-krr ... I suppose also the hip-hop thing came along and really took that as far as it could go in a way. Like 'Okay, this is mechanical and pure, no imperfections what do you think?’ And having said that there wasn’t a lot more to say about purity and lack of imperfection." Would Shriekback object to being called “white funk’? Laughter: "Call it what you like! We call it 'yob funk’ funk as played by noisy young herberts. I think actually funk’ in a way is a bit of a red herring with it. It’s one of the areas we dabble in but I don't think it’s the actual core of the band. I think in a way the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll is more central to it. The big, noisy kind of fuck you!’ thing is more it than the quite subtle thing which is funk. I suppose we would try and appeal to the body in that way.” On the other hand, Shriekback have generally been publicly perceived as intellectuals or “serious" musicians. “Yeah, that’s right, you bet (laughs). We just go as far as we can with the things we’ve got really. And if that be arty or intellectual then so be it.” Andrews has been quoted as saying that when Shriekback was formed, the central aim was to "express love, authenticity and energy” an in-

terestingly non-musical way for musicians to phrase their objectives. "Yeah, I hadn’t thought about that for a long time actually,” Andrews admits. "But I think that's true, I’ll stand by it. I think it’s good not to get too bogged down in the day-to-day muso-ness of it all. To retain this kind of overview of what you’re actually doing it for, which on those long, dark nights is a good thing to have.” Would you say you believed in music for its own sake, or should it evoke something? Songs on the album like ‘Nemesis’ and ‘Hammerheads’ carry a pretty definite political message, rather than just being pieces of music ... “I think what those songs are meant to evoke lyrically is very much part of the overall musical thing we wanted to have happen on it. It’s not separate any more than the sound of the snare drum is separate. It’s all one thing. Like the idea of 'Hammerheads’ was to do something that would sound sort of heroic and taking itself very seriously like a political anthem or something, yet completely ridiculous at the same time, in the same way that those kind of things are.” And even by the fact that it is "body music” it encourages the listener to do something? "Yeah, I think it’s got to work in that way really, before it does anything else. It’s got to hit you with something that’s very physical and then if you choose you can thread your way through the Shriekback labyrinth of meaning,” he laughs. Do you think it will get played in dance clubs? "It would make me very happy if it was. I think there are three or four tracks on it that are eminently suitable for playing to the drug-crazed youth of Auckland.” One of the things that has always stopped Shriekback from being quite as good an actuality as they are an idea is the generally dry vocal delivery, courtesy Andrews and Marsh. Not natural singers, they’ve a tendency to enunciate while the music wails ... but Barry Andrews has no thoughts of bringing in an outside lead vocalist for a track or two. “I think Carl and I are far too huge egomaniacs for that to happen. And were interested in getting good at it really. And also on this album we’ve worked very much within our limits. Neither of us are fantastically gifted vocalists, so we’ve tended to work within our limits and do what we do as well as we possibly can, just really getting by by having it 100 per cent. To me that works I don’t think there’s a vocal on this album that doesn’t work. “But I see how you can say that sort of thing ... but 'Nemesis’ and ’Malaria’ are quite songy really, we were bellowing along tunes and all that. Whereas some of the quieter ones that I sing, I’ll get close to the mike and whisper it, so

this tiny little voice comes out of the speakers. It’s just a method really." Another ongoing impression of Shriekback is that the songs come across less as a series of songs than as a soundtrack to a series of events almost like film music in the way they involve atmosphere. Andrews agrees: "Sure. But I don’t know, it always seems to me when I listen to anybody else’s songs that there’s a movie going on like I listen to Aswad and there’s definitely a movie going on. And that’s what makes it nice, that the music has all these associations and all these colours that just conjure up something else. And then you’re in that movie theme. I think that’s true for, y’know, George Gershwin ... and Montiverdi. It’s all the same issue really and all of those things, if you want, could be seen as film music. "In producing this last album I tended to look very much at what pictures were evoked as early as I could in the tracks. What could be the atmosphere and character of the track what kind of movie it was going to be. That tends to be something you can use to guide you through it. When there is a decision to be made about whether the guitar should be distorted or clean, should this vocal be yelled or quiet, you can make it in the light of what would be appropriate to the film you’re making." Andrews explains that this album, like previous ones, was built from the rhythms up, the final tracks being plucked from an original 30 or 40 rhythms generated in the rehearsal studio, recorded and then getting instrumentation and a vocal. So why work from a rhythm rather than a tune? "I suppose it always seemed easier. Because a rhythm has to make sense within itself, has to make sense to the body. And if your song does that then you're a long way there. Whereas if you come in with a freshly-written song that you’ve been playing on your guitar at home and then ask the rhythm section to put something to this, maybe it'll work, maybe it won’t, and there’s nothing worse than a rhythm that’s not quite right. It would defeat the whole object and spoil it really. Having a half-baked rhythm with a really good song is quite depressing really.” It can be a shame to drop a half-baked tune on a great rhythm too ... When John Cale visited this country a couple of years ago, as part of his policy of being keen to talk about anything but his own music, he was

singing the praises of Shriekback ("I wish I’d discovered them He even mentioned that he might have been keen on working with them, but Andrews didn't even know JC was a fan: “No, I had no idea ... that’s interesting news wait till I tell the lads!" Is there anyone the group would like to work with? “Well we quite fancied working with Eno, predictably enough, at one point, but a lot of things happened, he was too busy and we did the album later than expected. But there wasn't really anyone else it seemed like it would be a fruitful collaboration with really, rather than just a record company policeman coming down to make sure you don’t do anything too weird. But, y’know, we’re up for it, if somebody came along I think the idea’s got to suggest itself really, there’s got to be positive reasons for doing it, rather than ’Well, everybody has to have a producer! It works quite well at the moment with me producing it and everybody contributing things." So Shriekback are still happy as a selfcontained group in a day when it’s almost fashionable to be a project, or a collaboration, or a corporation or whatever? "Well we started off with just that in mind actually. Because everyone was a bit shy of joining another group I was at the end of working with Robert Fripp and that had got a bit ugly, Gang Of Four had split up in ranting acrimony and Carl had just finished with a band of his called Out On Blue Six, which was apparently quite a painful split as well. So we were all feeling like ‘Hey, we don’t wanna get into anything too heavy.’ So the initial thing of Shriekback was just a loose collaboration between old friends of Dave’s basically. And it was only after about seven or eight months that we started to discover that power that a bunch of committed people did give. We started to rediscover what it was being in a group of people who’ve made a fairly long-term committment to work together, and what extra leverage that gives you. It’s a very powerful thing.” So Barry Andrews has his cup of tea and I get along and see Not Really Anything. I dare say we both enjoyed ourselves. Andrews’ wife is a New Zealander and he’s keen for the band to visit these shores after their American tour ends in November. Given the character of the music on Oil and Gold and Andrews’ expressed attitudes, it seems likely that Shriekback would be tremendously good live. Inspiring, even. Here's hoping.