Song by Song
1. Sometimes I Don’t Need To Believe In Anything
I was going to call it just Sometimes but then I was thinking of those art pieces with really long titles, and then I thought it would be fun to call it something like that. The thing I like about that song is there’s a lot of space in it. There’s not too many chord changes and it’s quite a linear song. It’s very hard to talk about because it’s quite simple. (Gerard)
2. Baby Lee
When I first heard Baby Lee, I thought it was a classic. (Gerard)
A friend suggested that I go on this thing where a group of musicians get together for a week and write songs. At the end of the week you perform the songs for an audience. Good exercise. I woke up one morning with the melody already formed, so I switched on my recorder and committed it to tape. I actually wrote the lyric with a guy called Ziggy Campbell from a band called Found and a singer/songwriter from Glasgow who goes by the name of Jo Mango. There’s a John Lee Hooker song called Baby Lee, maybe it was some subconscious thing…. (Norman)
3. The Fall
When you write a song, you don’t think, ‘I’m gonna write about this…’ It starts with no idea, and then you get an impression, and a melody, and some words… and then later you’re forced to conclude it as a song. So The Fall I think I had the first couple of lines about arriving and finding yourself in this life, feeling aware of your own situation. I’ve almost gone through phases of being more or less sensitive to things around me… I almost feel like the outlook I’ve had lately is like the outlook I had when I was a kid. More of a sensitivity thing, things feeling new to you. (Raymond)
4. Into The City
That’s the most complicated one, it’s one of the least linear. It’s about the journey back home, really, from the Lake District or something to Glasgow. It seems like I’ve done that journey so many times. As you approach the Lake District, all the lights on the motorway disappear and it’s dark until you reach the Clyde Valley, the outskirts of the city, when all of a sudden the sky lights up. It’s quite a sight to behold. (Gerard)
5. Dark Clouds
Dark Clouds is my favourite, partly because there’s no guitars on it. Sonically I really enjoyed it. (Raymond)
The song’s in a minor key but the drums and the band were much more upfront initially. I recorded it with acoustic guitars and I couldn’t quite get it to work so when Euros was there I got him to play piano on it, and we just went with piano and vocal and that saved the song. I was feeling a little down when I wrote that lyric… (Norman)
6. The Past
It’s not a manifesto for retro, it’s more me thinking about the past coming back to rescue you. Your own past, remembering what you were like before you got caught up with some other bullshit. The song is me singing to me, it’s not like “wasn’t it brilliant in the ‘70s” or that sort of thing. (Raymond)
7. Shock And Awe
Shock And Awe, that’s got a really nice groove. There’s something about the feel of that song that I really like. (Norman)
Really? That’s nice! It’s a very simple thing. The title refers to the recent military campaign, but lyrically it’s probably about the idea of conflict, and instinct versus culture. It’s not something we normally talk about in our songs… It’s not some kind of spokesman for a generation kind of stuff, it’s dealing with a small part of life and what people take for granted. And the numbing nature of modern media. It’s hard to talk about it without sounding like Bono or something. (Gerard)
8. When I Still Have Thee
I’ll try and collate things I’m thinking about and reference them, and one line will lead to another… I was thinking about The Go Betweens, and Grant McLennan, who was a friend… I wrote a total stream of consciousness lyric. It’s liberating to do that because you’re not tied to one specific theme. Again the whole When I `Still Have Thee thing… I was listening to The Vaselines, Jesus Don’t Want Me For A Sunbeam, and Eugene uses the word “thee” in that song to great effect. I suppose that gave me the confidence to use it in my song. I like the idea of using that word in a modern context. (Norman)
9. Live With The Seasons
There’s no real conscious thought or planning with that. Again something I’ve become more aware of is what time of year it. It sounds dumb but 20 years ago I wasn’t as aware of these things, but now I feel more appreciative or nature or birds singing now. Somehow I feel more aware of things than I used to be. Again it makes me feel stupid talking about things in this kind of way! It feels strange to analyze things in this kind of way. (Raymond)
10. Sweet Days Waiting
That’s one of mine I’m more satisfied with because it’s a lot quieter and a lot less bombastic than a lot of things I normally do. Norman will go for quieter and more tender acoustic songs and I feel I’ve got to provide more uptempo pop things… and there were some family issues in there, the song was written in support of a family member. (Gerard)
11. The Back Of My Mind
There isn’t a lot to that song. It’s a four chorder. I was trying to reference Television or something, there are quite long guitar breaks like Television, and I couldn’t really break away from that structure, so I thought I’d stick to this really simple idea. That’s what I do very often! (Norman)
12. Today Never Ends
I was worried that it sounds too like sixth form philosophy. I’m just thinking of wanting to live in the moment, which again is a really dumb general thing and again this song is more about me expressing things to myself rather than trying to patronize anyone else. (Raymond)
Biography March 2010
NORMAN BLAKE is unwell.
“I’ve got a terrible hangover,” he says, not so much forcing the words out as trying to stop them knocking him to the ground, “I went out for a drink with a friend and we came back to mine and drank whisky last night. It’s a terrible thing.”
Norman has reason for celebration, as he and the rest of Teenage Fanclub have just finished their new album, Shadows, which is both reflective and uptempo, soulful and rocky, and excellent and good. Alcohol has not fogged him with gloom.
“I’m actually happier now… we started this record about a year and a half ago and it’s been a long time coming,” he says. “I’m very happy with the way it sounds… We made the last album with John McEntire in Chicago and we didn’t take any of our equipment other than guitars. Whereas this time we took a whole load of stuff, synthesizers, the lot, and we went for it with this record. There are strings and lots and lots of harmonies, so it’s maybe back to what we did with our Grand Prix record or something like that.”
The brilliance of Shadows, like all the best Teenage Fanclub records, is that it sounds like everything they’ve ever done and it sounds like nothing anyone else has ever done, all on one album.
“I suppose when you come to make a record… the way that we work, we can’t really go off on a tangent because it’s three people writing songs, it’s not one person’s vision,” says Norman. “It’s song-based, and all that we can do in terms of making it different is look at the way we arrange the songs. So we do try to make it different from album to album…
“Also the way we work after all these years is just intuitive and you just get a feel for when someone comes in with a song. Gerry’ll come in and play a song and outline how he wants it to work, but at that point he’ll give us the freedom to express ourselves in that context. “
GERARD LOVE is out expressing himself in the freedom of a different context.
“I’m walking down by the River Clyde,” he says, before adding quickly, “It’s not a nature trail or anything… just in the city.”
Not that Gerry is averse to nature. He has fond memories of recording Shadows in rural climes.
"We recorded it in the country, in Norfolk," he recalls, "Fruit trees outside the studio... you just reach up and pick fruit for your breakfast" and he hints at the length of recording process which for some can result in aural stodge but, on this occasion, has provided TFC with one of their most thoughtful albums.
“We always have ideas and we always get to the studio without lyrics… and it’s usually the lyrics that take up all the time, really, and provide all the painful moments of being in the studio. We all had our ideas in place this time but once again the lyrics slowed it up.”
But not, surprisingly, the band’s variable geography. These days, Norman Blake lives in Ontario, with his Canadian wife.
“I moved to Canada about six months ago… but here’s the thing, there is now cheap air travel, and the internet…” he says, not entirely defensively. “I’ve actually been tinkering with the website… Other than time differences it’s actually easy to stay in touch. I have to get up a little earlier in the morning…”
RAYMOND McGINLEY has a ringing in his ears.
“I’ve been getting an alarm system fitted in my home, so it’s been all bells going off all day,” he says. He’s now sitting in merciful silence and able to ruminate about Shadows.
“I feel different things about it. It always seems strange in this interim period between recording and release… I’ve spent a lot more time on this record doing tweaky stuff than the other records. We recorded it in a country studio in Norfolk, and then we went to Rockfield and mixed it. I’ve got a home studio now, and we came back and tweaked things here, and Norman did a vocal, so it seems the record is a bit more ‘think about it and go back to it’.”
Shadows may be a considered and well-put-together record, but it has all the spontaneity of Bandwagonesque. It may have a deceptively simple feel, but it’s as polished and intelligent as Grand Prix. And, despite the input of others and new ideas, it’s still a record that only the three member of Teenage Fanclub could make.
“The time we spend on a record has expanded over the years but that’s natural, 20 years ago you’re in each other’s pockets…” says Raymond, “But everything works in a certain way and this record’s spread out over a period of time.”
“Other people do other things and have a life,” adds Gerard, “And it’s allowed us to participate in other musical ventures.”
A policy which Norman Blake has been able to bring to bear on this record, adding Euros Childs to his rock attack armoury.
“I’ve been working with him in our Jonny band… I liked the idea for a couple of songs, he sings on Baby Lee, I thought his voice would work texturally… his voice is quite high and as you get older you lose the high notes, so we needed to bring in a younger man,” he says, manfully.
But it’s still the old firm who run the show. So welcome to Shadows, a very, very good Teenage Fanclub album.
“Every record you do has some way it works out that isn’t by design,” concludes Raymond. “ Things work out a certain way and a band like us doesn’t do things by design… we don’t have to meet up and work out a strategy. The record is a strange amalgamation of what people are thinking and where they are… We do things intuitively.”
And it shows, and it works.
David Quantick
Teenage Fanclub’s new album ‘Shadows’ will be released May 31st 2010 on PeMa
Teenage Fanclub come from Glasgow and released their debut album, A Catholic Education, in 1990, then followed it with Bandwagonesque (1991), Thirteen (1993), Grand Prix (1995), Songs From Northern Britain (1997), Howdy! (2000) and Man-Made (2005)
