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Logo magazine - interview with Frank

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Ten Percenter
- FB Enquirer -

United Kingdom
1733 Posts

Posted - 09/19/2003 : 01:24:16

Interview conducted by Mia Clarke - some interesting points - Everything is New is Frank's fave on the album?:

Frank Black And The Catholics Interview

Logo caught up with Frank to discuss 'Show Me Your Tears' the fifth album featuring Black's band, recorded in the heart of Hollywood

It is, of course, difficult to begin an article on Frank Black without mentioning The Pixies. The seminal Boston based alternative rock group were adored by anyone who bought their records or caught them live, and famously influential to bands such as Husker Du and Nirvana. Frank Black, whose Pixies alias was then Black Francis (real name Charles Thompson), sang in trademark off the cuff time signatures with a voice that could cut between a razor sharp yell to cartoon character high. Following the band's break up in 1993, due to continuing disagreements between Francis and bass player Kim Deal (who wanted more creative control, and later went on to form The Breeders), he emerged shortly after as Frank Black and began recording and performing as a solo artist. After releasing three critically acclaimed albums, he recorded Frank Black and The Catholics, for which he assembled a band he- appropriately- christened The Catholics. Show Me Your Tears is the fifth album featuring Black's band, and was recorded in the heart of Hollywood.
"Working in Hollywood made us feel instantly successful." Frank confirms, stirring his cappuccino and leaning back comfortably in a chair situated in the North London hotel that is now his temporary home. "We weren't in some industrial lot on the edge of town, like with a lot of cheaper recording studios. We were right in the centre of everything. Just down the street from where Frank Sinatra recorded his music. We had windows with a view, and we felt like the kings of Hollywood. It felt like we had arrived."
How do you feel working there affected the general spirit of recording?
He cracks his knuckles triumphantly and grins. "Well, we just thought 'We're in a great place, and a great location. We're going to do great things.' It added a very positive element everything. I actually own my own recording studio. It's packed into flight cases and I can just move it around anywhere I want, set it up wherever. I love the flexibility of it all."
Despite having made multitrack albums over long periods during his time with The Pixies, Black now prefers a back to basics approach to recording techniques, which explains the feeling of vitality and freshness apparent in his most recent albums.
"We always record live without editing. I've done about five albums like that, and it's become my thing really. After years of making records in the modern way, where you overdub and edit, I felt that working live lacked the tedium of the so called 'normal' way of recording."
Does this encourage a more organic quality in your music?
"Well, our goal is not necessarily to sound more organic, or sound like anything in particular." he considers. "Our goal is just to be playing. To all be in the studio together. One Two Three Four. We play, and then we go and take a listen. It's all put down onto two tracks, just stereo sound left and right. When we are making a record, we're actually listening to the completed sound as we're making it. We do, like, ten takes, and then just pick one. It's great, as it's just there. It makes it a lot easier for me to listen to my own music, as I wouldn't have heard it a million times at a million angles, which is the disadvantage of multitrack recording. I never get bored with it, whereas with multitrack I would have heard the songs so many different times it would become tedious. And most people don't record the way I do nowadays, so it feels good to be different on that note."
Show Me Your Tears is, as the title implies, a somewhat sorrowful album. Songs such as 'Horrible Day', 'When Will Happiness Find Me Again?', and 'This Old Heartache' are all tinted with a sense of loss. When Black tells me he recently got a divorce and is moving from L.A- his home of the last thirteen years- to Oregon in order to "start over again", the structure of the album begins to gain more clarity. Although lyrically blue, there is also a strong feeling of positivity and moving on, confirmed by a track that is revealed to be both our favourites, 'Everything Is New', in which jazz pianos and guitar shimmer seductively behind a beautifully sung chorus.
Having played together for so many years, it's interesting to hear how The Catholics work so fluidly with Black's style of songwriting. It's a confidence that leaks through the music, and the fact that a fair few songs were recorded only a few minutes after they were written is proof of a deep sense of musical intuition within the group:
"It gives me confidence to be working with a band I know well," he says. "I know I can express my ideas on a song very quickly, and they will understand and come up with something good. I feel part of the group too. We don't really discuss things, we just get on with the music. When we play shows we never write a set list. While I'm playing one song I'm thinking about what will be next, so we have little hand signals on stage, like 'Monkey Gone To Heaven' would be...(crooks his arm and holds an imaginary banana). I don't have a problem playing the golden oldie Pixies tunes at all. I'm over that."
Next up on Black's agenda, after the anticipated move to Oregon, is a full on tour round America and Europe. He jokes that all he gets to know of the cities he visits so swiftly are the best places in which to get his dirty washing done, but admits that he'd be lost without the opportunity to escape occasionally.
"I enjoy touring, I really do," he smiles, "but the grass is always greener on the other side. Right now I'm dying to go, but I know I'll find parts of it boring when I'm there. I never write music on tour. The most important thing I think about is where to get my laundry done. Also, because we exist at quite a cult level we don't have any entourage. I do a lot of the driving and book the hotels. Our drummer deals with the money. It's nice not dealing with many personalities. Seven guys on tour is quite enough. We don't want any new wildcards. We've all been in bands long enough to just want to be peaceful. We can't handle too much drama."

No man is an island, unless he is in the bath

Stuart
- The Clopser -

China
2291 Posts

Posted - 09/19/2003 : 04:27:58

Ten Percenter - Review genius! Do you just read shitloads or do you actually go and hunt these down like escaped convicts?? Cheers for posting all these reviews, it's great to be able to read these without having to make the effort of a websearch.

Anyway, good interview.

Who's the man that won't cop out when there's danger all about?