In the early nineties a musical movement came out of the
In the early nineties a musical movement came out of the
Slowdive
Q1, How weird is it that ‘Just for a day’ was released 16 years ago!? Not really weird, it just seems like it was in a past life though!! I was 20yrs old when that was released and life has moved on so much since those days.
Q2, I once heard the early slowdive sound described as like lasagne layers and layers of sound. Would you agree or how would you describe it? Yes, that’s a pretty apt description. I think it may’ve been Neil that said that.
Q3, Do you know who ‘invented’ the shoegazing term and did you ever describe yourself as a ‘shoegazing band’?The phrase was coined by a journalist in the
Q4, Which of the other so called shoegazing movement did you like (ie Ride, Chapterhouse etc)? Both those bands. We did a good amount of touring with Ride, both in the
Q5, What bands / music influenced Slowdive in those early days? Loads really. Jesus & Mary Chain, The Primitives, Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, MBV to name a few. The first cover we ever did was ‘Stephanie Says’ by VU.
Q6, Did the press (I’m referring mainly to the NME here) ‘build you up and knock you down policy’ bother you, either at the time or in hindsight now? As I recall they were fairly brutal in their treatment of bands they considered to be in the ‘scene that celebrated themselves’ of which they lumped Slowdive into. Did it bother me? Yes, I expect it did. But we weren’t naïve about it. By the time we released the third EP – the full working title was “Holding Our Breath (Waiting for the Backlash)”. I think it was frustrating more than anything. We still did quite well in the
Q7, What was it like to be signed to Creation? I always considered Alan McGee to be a bit of a dick but he’s seen as a musical god now cause he signed Oasis, what was it like working with him at the time?McGee was a funny guy. Very positive and enthusiastic in the beginning. Unfortunately drugs got the better of him and by the time we were releasing Souvlaki I think he was in rehab. He signed some good bands and some not very good bands. I think all labels have their fare share of both don’t they? A lot of people have put Alan up on a pedestal over the years. Whether that is truly deserved, who am I to say. It’s the kind of idolization you have when you’re younger I guess. Though I personally didn’t.
Q8, I understand that Slowdive (and a lot of the ‘shoegazy’ bands) have a bit of a cult following in the states, is this true and if so how did that come about? There still seems to be a lot of affection for Slowdive which is great. How it came about, I don’t know. I guess the records have stood the test of time to a certain extent, which was always what we wanted.
Q9, On the second Slowdive album ‘Souvlaki’ I’ve just noticed that a track is co-written with Brian Eno, how on earth did that come about and what sort of an experience was working with a ‘legend’ like Eno? I think our manager approached Eno’s manager and it turned out he had already heard us and liked our music; and was happy to do a collaboration. Neil was the only band member that met him. He said it was an interesting experience. Neil spent a day or two with him (I can’t remember now!), and came back with tapes of bits and bobs, which morphed into two songs – ‘Sing’ which we all collaborated on ultimately and ‘Here She Come’ which was a song Neil had already written and Eno added in the noises…
Q10, Do you think you achieved everything you set out to with Slowdive or are there things you’d love to go back and change? We never had a huge game plan, Slowdive ran it’s natural course. There’s nothing I would want to change about it. It is what it is.
Q11, What is your favourite Slowdive track and why? Souvlaki Space Station because we all had such a laugh recording it, and we all wrote our own parts. I still have picture memories in my head of when we were mixing it and how some of us were quite stoned. Good days.
Q12, Looking at the Slowdive credits, it appears that the majority of the songs are written by Neil Halstead, how much input did you and the rest of the band have in the songwriting process? It depended on the songs really. Some Neil wrote on his own, he would invariably 4 track his ideas and either bring them into the studio or into a rehearsal room, where everyone would just play around with them. I wrote a few lyrics on a few songs. The guitars obviously were layers of lasagne that were built up between Neil & Christian. Neil generally had very clear ideas of what he was after though.
Q13, I’ve read that the Slowdive name came from a dream Neil had, is this actually true? Not quite. It was a dream Nick had. Slowdive or Slowburn were the resulting names from that dream, we opted for Slowdive, obviously.
Q14, Is it true that the band have regained the rights to the Slowdive back catalogue? How does this work and has there been any re-releases / best of / live / rarities recently or planned for the near future? Not that I’m aware. Sony own the rights to the back catalog.
Q15, How would you like Slowdive to be best remembered? Epic guitars and magical layers.
Mojave 3
Q1, How did Mojave 3 come about, I have read that Slowdive never really split they just evolved into Mojave 3? Yes this is very true. Pygmalion was finished a year before it was actually released, so there was a lot of down time. Nick & Christian’s interest in doing any music by the time that record came out was minimal really. Neil had a bunch of songs and we managed to get some studio time through EMI Publishing with whom we still had a deal. We went in as a three piece (Neil, Ian & I) and did some songs. Some songs were recorded in Neil’s house – Love Songs on the Radio. I did the vocals sat on a mattress in his kitchen.
Q2, You signed to 4AD after Creation, was it easy getting a new deal after Slowdive? Yes, it was very easy. We sent Ivo the demo’s and he loved them. That was all it took. Pretty instant really!
Q3, How do you feel you changed musically from Slowdive into Mojave 3? How would you describe the Mojave 3 sound to people? Well the obvious difference is the lack of guitars and the songs with Mojave 3 became more traditional in the way they are presented rather than layers of sounds which is synonymous with Slowdive. Mojave 3 has it’s little areas of ‘alternative country’, some experimentation.
Q4, Mojave 3 why the name? An American friend – Wendy Fonarow (who has just released a book called “Empire of Dirt’ plug plug) came up with the suggestion of Mojave. We had to add the 3 because we found out there was a German band called Mojave already, and there were 3 of us at the time.
Q5, Mojave 3 have released (to best of my knowledge) five albums, how many were you involved in and which is your favourite? I’ve been involved in all of them. My favourite was ‘Out of Tune’ to record as it was the album that for me personally I felt I had the most input in terms of writing bass lines and I always enjoy the singing! We spent a few months demoing in a farmhouse down in
Q6, If somebody was new to Mojave 3 which album would you suggest as a starting point? Out of Tune, followed by Spoon & Rafter
Q7, I believe that Mojave 3 record in a studio in a very beautiful part of the world,
Q8, Mojave 3 seemed to record and release records without any mainstream music press, is this fair? And if so do you feel this ever held the band back? Is it fair? Probably not. It’s frustrating not being able to reach a wider audience and yes it probably has held the band back; but I know that for Neil he isn’t interested in having huge success. And for me personally, there is more in my life than music and other distractions. It’s not the be all and end all.
To be continued as Rachel discusses her own solo album and more!