South's 2000 debut, From Here On In, was a beautiful wreck of an album. Produced by infamous Mo' Wax label founder James Lavelle (a.k.a. UNKLE), it clocked in at over an hour and a half filled with seemingly every idea the boys could come up with. With the Tides, their new record, is slightly less ambitious, but it has a focus on concise songwriting the debut lacked. Twelve songs here, none longer than five minutes and most around three, of expansive, tuneful Brit-rock. Producer Dave Eringa (Ash, Manic Street Preachers, Idlewild) brings South's symphonic sprawl into sharp relief. Clearly, a record like this doesn't come about by accident:
Keith Daniels: What did you learn from the experience of From Here On In?
Joel Cadbury: I think we learned a Hell of a lot, really, because it was such a blank canvas. We were able to just spend a lot of time, and deconstruct and play around with tracks in the sessions. It was quite unstructured, I'd say. It was quite a learning experience, and then going on the road and everything... Touring it really focused us up, sharpened us up for this record.
KD: So you felt like a kid in a candy store the first time around?
JC: It was a little bit like that, yeah. No one ever said "No." [laughs] So we did it in quite extravagant ways. We holed up in Wessex, which is a big church, for three or four months, and then mixed in a really expensive studio. So it was kind of like free reign, y'know? It was really good fun.
KD: You made that record in the studio where the Clash recorded London Calling.
JC: Yeah! Yeah, we did. It was also where Nevermind the Bollocks was done, in that studio, and it's quite an amazing place. Unfortunately, it's just been sold to property developers so we've just lost one of the best London studios there was, which is a real shame.
KD: Now you guys were friends a long time before you were in a band together, right?
JC: Yeah, we were at school together since we were eleven years old. We grew up together, learned to play our instruments together, and have always made music together.
KD: Has being in a band together changed your friendships at all?
JC: Not really, I don't think so. I think we've always made music for the same reasons, which is just that we enjoy making music, and building and experimenting - changing things around and seeing what we can push ourselves to achieve.
KD: What were your ideals when you went into the studio to make this record? Is it planned out at all?
JC: The first thing we did was build our own studio in London where we can work all the time when we're not on the road, or not recording albums. We can demo, we can rehearse, and we can write there. We can really be focused on things. The first record we demoed everything, but this record we really spent an intensive summer of writing and re-demoing, going back to some old things and rearranging, and cutting and pasting. So the tracks were really well formed. Then Dave Eringa came in on production and really achieved great sounds, really pushed it that much further with the songs. So it was a very structured process.
KD: And that differed from the way the From Here On In was recorded?
JC: I think the first one we left more things open-ended, and there were more things that were written in the actual album sessions. Whereas this one we really did focus and submit like twenty tracks, and then from those twenty selected twelve that we were going to work on. Tracks did develop more, as they always will do, and the sounds that they got in the studio were just amazing, really projected it that much further.
KD: Now, the record comes out at the end of September...
JC: Yeah. It doesn't actually come out here until January. We've just put out a single this week, so we're just doing a bit of promotion for that. It's a building thing. We didn't want to go out with a really big track, so we put out "Loosen Your Hold", which is quite a mellow, building-block track. It's just been picked up on radio, and we're just going to promote that. There'll be a little break where we come to America and do some stuff there for the album, and then we'll be back here to the album in January.
KD: Are you optimistic about your chances in the States this time?
JC: We've been working on the live shows a lot. We feel like we're more together than we've ever been, which is going to help. Did you ever... I guess we never came to Oklahoma, so you might not have seen us live.
KD: No, I've never seen you live before.
JC: It's quite interesting. It's taken on different forms. When we started we were swapping 'round a hell of a lot. Touring so much with From Here On In really did focus us, forced us to structure a lot, and, with this record, forced us to think about recreating it live - how it was going to work - maybe a lot more than the first one, which was more building blocks. We have a better grasp [now] of what a live show entails, and how it's got to be effective. That's a lot to consider.
KD: That's one of the things you were known for, trading instruments and roles onstage. So you're not doing so much of that this time around?
JC: We did have to curb it a little bit. On the record everyone is playing everything, because there's so much input that Brett and Jamie bring to the instruments. Live, it just helps when you can keep it [stable], but there're certain things that we still have to swap for - it's just the nature of it.
KD: Tell me about a record that you love, and why you love it.
JC: PJ Harvey "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea". I think it's got so much emotion, so much beauty, but it's also accessible to listen to - whereas some of her other records aren't. You've got to be really into PJ Harvey to be into one, but she's got such an amazing voice, and such a great presence. I think she's pretty unrivaled in that sense.
KD: It's pretty awesome what she can do with only a few chords as well.
JC: Oh man. "Is This Love" What a great... when it just kicks in [hums the riff]. Just simple chords. It's just what you want to hear, man. Brilliant.
KD: Tell me if I'm wrong, but when I hear you sing I hear a touch of Freddie Mercury.
JC: Wow! I used to love... I still do! Queen are fucking amazing. It was really the Greatest Hits thing that my mom and dad had. I used to listen to that all the time. So it may be subconscious. I would say Jamie plays quite a Brian May-style guitar as well. [laughs]
KD: Who were some of your other favorites growing up, and who do you like now?
JC: At the moment... I love Beck. Sigur Ros. Radiohead. I'm a bit disappointed by Granddaddy's new record; I was kind of hoping for more. Classic records... Love Forever Changes, brilliant record, lots of Beatles. Things like Leadbelly, lots of really old stuff. Growing up... things like Stone Roses, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Lemonheads, Dinosaur Jr. Those are the things that you learn to play music to, Nirvana and the Lemonheads, such simple chords. Very different bands, but simple chords and melodies that you can really pick up and engage in.
KD: You've done some work for film, and also some of your work has been licensed for television. How does your approach differ when you're working with that medium?
JC: Well Sexy Beast, which is the film we scored with UNKLE - James Lavelle's project, was a very great way of working. We had the rushes from the film, the rough edits, and so we were really sculpting it around the picture and trying to stay out of the way; manipulating very subtle, simple things like bass and drums, mainly, and then through synthesizers and computers just to give it a real flow to help the picture move along. It was a brilliant experience. We took two weeks out to do that during the first album. As regards things on TV and everything, it's nice if it's something you're into. If it's not, sometimes you just say, "No," and sometimes if it's going to be worth, and actually help you out then sometimes it's a very useful thing to [do].
KD: How old were you when you first saw an adult magazine?
JC: In my teens at school, I guess. Y'know, when the magazines get passed around the fuckin' art class. Maybe when I was about eleven or twelve.
KD: What were you like in high school? Would you say you were unpopular?
JC: Actually, it was very different for us. Brett and I played basketball very seriously. We ended up playing for England and going on tournaments, and were really sport-orientated. And obviously football, soccer, is massive here. We're big football supporters.
KD: Who's your favorite team?
JC: Jamie and I both support Arsenal, and Brett supports Putnam. So it's a good London rivalry; they're proper London rivals, so that's always a good get-together when they play. It was actually through sport, really, that we became friends, but it's like anything, if you're getting serious with sport... I was fifteen, had a girlfriend, and that was when everyone started going out, drinking and having fun - and we were going away every weekend in-between studying to go and play tournaments. It was all a bit like, "What do you want to do with your life?" I started playing guitar, and going through my mom and dad's record collection, and that kind of converted me.
KD: So you were saying you playing for England - during high school?
JC: Yeah, it was the under-15, and I think Brett went on to play for the under-19, but I'd got out by that point.
KD: Did you get to go all over Europe with that?
JC: It wasn't quite like that. I came to the States. I came to New Jersey. Went to Trenton, New Jersey, and played there for a summer. We usually played in and around the U.K. If I'd stayed with it, it would have meant a lot more traveling, and hopefully I would've ended up playing for the States and competing with the greats. Going to New Jersey it was like, "Oh my god. This is such a different world." Even the bad players weren't bad. It was quite an amazing thing to see the scale of it. I still love hoops. I still love catching up, seeing what's going on, and playing for a bit.
KD: No offense, but England is not necessarily known for basketball. [laughs]
JC: Yeah, we've only produced like three players that made it to the NBA, something like that. [laughs] So it's no great ratio. Soccer, man, is where it's at here. It's all about football, and the money is just ridiculous.
KD: Is there any analogy to be drawn between being on a sports team together, and being in a band together?
JC: Maybe the thing of always being together, and the intensity levels; they can be quite similar. The pressure of having to be performing at one thing or another, and being in the head-state to do it -- takes a lot of mental preparedness.
You can listen to a preview of every track on With the Tides on South's official website. Tour dates are uncertain, as guitarist Jamie McDonald has broken his wrist playing (what else?) football, but check there for updates. We wish him a speedy recovery.
Keith Daniels
Keith Daniels: What did you learn from the experience of From Here On In?
Joel Cadbury: I think we learned a Hell of a lot, really, because it was such a blank canvas. We were able to just spend a lot of time, and deconstruct and play around with tracks in the sessions. It was quite unstructured, I'd say. It was quite a learning experience, and then going on the road and everything... Touring it really focused us up, sharpened us up for this record.
KD: So you felt like a kid in a candy store the first time around?
JC: It was a little bit like that, yeah. No one ever said "No." [laughs] So we did it in quite extravagant ways. We holed up in Wessex, which is a big church, for three or four months, and then mixed in a really expensive studio. So it was kind of like free reign, y'know? It was really good fun.
KD: You made that record in the studio where the Clash recorded London Calling.
JC: Yeah! Yeah, we did. It was also where Nevermind the Bollocks was done, in that studio, and it's quite an amazing place. Unfortunately, it's just been sold to property developers so we've just lost one of the best London studios there was, which is a real shame.
KD: Now you guys were friends a long time before you were in a band together, right?
JC: Yeah, we were at school together since we were eleven years old. We grew up together, learned to play our instruments together, and have always made music together.
KD: Has being in a band together changed your friendships at all?
JC: Not really, I don't think so. I think we've always made music for the same reasons, which is just that we enjoy making music, and building and experimenting - changing things around and seeing what we can push ourselves to achieve.
KD: What were your ideals when you went into the studio to make this record? Is it planned out at all?
JC: The first thing we did was build our own studio in London where we can work all the time when we're not on the road, or not recording albums. We can demo, we can rehearse, and we can write there. We can really be focused on things. The first record we demoed everything, but this record we really spent an intensive summer of writing and re-demoing, going back to some old things and rearranging, and cutting and pasting. So the tracks were really well formed. Then Dave Eringa came in on production and really achieved great sounds, really pushed it that much further with the songs. So it was a very structured process.
KD: And that differed from the way the From Here On In was recorded?
JC: I think the first one we left more things open-ended, and there were more things that were written in the actual album sessions. Whereas this one we really did focus and submit like twenty tracks, and then from those twenty selected twelve that we were going to work on. Tracks did develop more, as they always will do, and the sounds that they got in the studio were just amazing, really projected it that much further.
KD: Now, the record comes out at the end of September...
JC: Yeah. It doesn't actually come out here until January. We've just put out a single this week, so we're just doing a bit of promotion for that. It's a building thing. We didn't want to go out with a really big track, so we put out "Loosen Your Hold", which is quite a mellow, building-block track. It's just been picked up on radio, and we're just going to promote that. There'll be a little break where we come to America and do some stuff there for the album, and then we'll be back here to the album in January.
KD: Are you optimistic about your chances in the States this time?
JC: We've been working on the live shows a lot. We feel like we're more together than we've ever been, which is going to help. Did you ever... I guess we never came to Oklahoma, so you might not have seen us live.
KD: No, I've never seen you live before.
JC: It's quite interesting. It's taken on different forms. When we started we were swapping 'round a hell of a lot. Touring so much with From Here On In really did focus us, forced us to structure a lot, and, with this record, forced us to think about recreating it live - how it was going to work - maybe a lot more than the first one, which was more building blocks. We have a better grasp [now] of what a live show entails, and how it's got to be effective. That's a lot to consider.
KD: That's one of the things you were known for, trading instruments and roles onstage. So you're not doing so much of that this time around?
JC: We did have to curb it a little bit. On the record everyone is playing everything, because there's so much input that Brett and Jamie bring to the instruments. Live, it just helps when you can keep it [stable], but there're certain things that we still have to swap for - it's just the nature of it.
KD: Tell me about a record that you love, and why you love it.
JC: PJ Harvey "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea". I think it's got so much emotion, so much beauty, but it's also accessible to listen to - whereas some of her other records aren't. You've got to be really into PJ Harvey to be into one, but she's got such an amazing voice, and such a great presence. I think she's pretty unrivaled in that sense.
KD: It's pretty awesome what she can do with only a few chords as well.
JC: Oh man. "Is This Love" What a great... when it just kicks in [hums the riff]. Just simple chords. It's just what you want to hear, man. Brilliant.
KD: Tell me if I'm wrong, but when I hear you sing I hear a touch of Freddie Mercury.
JC: Wow! I used to love... I still do! Queen are fucking amazing. It was really the Greatest Hits thing that my mom and dad had. I used to listen to that all the time. So it may be subconscious. I would say Jamie plays quite a Brian May-style guitar as well. [laughs]
KD: Who were some of your other favorites growing up, and who do you like now?
JC: At the moment... I love Beck. Sigur Ros. Radiohead. I'm a bit disappointed by Granddaddy's new record; I was kind of hoping for more. Classic records... Love Forever Changes, brilliant record, lots of Beatles. Things like Leadbelly, lots of really old stuff. Growing up... things like Stone Roses, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Lemonheads, Dinosaur Jr. Those are the things that you learn to play music to, Nirvana and the Lemonheads, such simple chords. Very different bands, but simple chords and melodies that you can really pick up and engage in.
KD: You've done some work for film, and also some of your work has been licensed for television. How does your approach differ when you're working with that medium?
JC: Well Sexy Beast, which is the film we scored with UNKLE - James Lavelle's project, was a very great way of working. We had the rushes from the film, the rough edits, and so we were really sculpting it around the picture and trying to stay out of the way; manipulating very subtle, simple things like bass and drums, mainly, and then through synthesizers and computers just to give it a real flow to help the picture move along. It was a brilliant experience. We took two weeks out to do that during the first album. As regards things on TV and everything, it's nice if it's something you're into. If it's not, sometimes you just say, "No," and sometimes if it's going to be worth, and actually help you out then sometimes it's a very useful thing to [do].
KD: How old were you when you first saw an adult magazine?
JC: In my teens at school, I guess. Y'know, when the magazines get passed around the fuckin' art class. Maybe when I was about eleven or twelve.
KD: What were you like in high school? Would you say you were unpopular?
JC: Actually, it was very different for us. Brett and I played basketball very seriously. We ended up playing for England and going on tournaments, and were really sport-orientated. And obviously football, soccer, is massive here. We're big football supporters.
KD: Who's your favorite team?
JC: Jamie and I both support Arsenal, and Brett supports Putnam. So it's a good London rivalry; they're proper London rivals, so that's always a good get-together when they play. It was actually through sport, really, that we became friends, but it's like anything, if you're getting serious with sport... I was fifteen, had a girlfriend, and that was when everyone started going out, drinking and having fun - and we were going away every weekend in-between studying to go and play tournaments. It was all a bit like, "What do you want to do with your life?" I started playing guitar, and going through my mom and dad's record collection, and that kind of converted me.
KD: So you were saying you playing for England - during high school?
JC: Yeah, it was the under-15, and I think Brett went on to play for the under-19, but I'd got out by that point.
KD: Did you get to go all over Europe with that?
JC: It wasn't quite like that. I came to the States. I came to New Jersey. Went to Trenton, New Jersey, and played there for a summer. We usually played in and around the U.K. If I'd stayed with it, it would have meant a lot more traveling, and hopefully I would've ended up playing for the States and competing with the greats. Going to New Jersey it was like, "Oh my god. This is such a different world." Even the bad players weren't bad. It was quite an amazing thing to see the scale of it. I still love hoops. I still love catching up, seeing what's going on, and playing for a bit.
KD: No offense, but England is not necessarily known for basketball. [laughs]
JC: Yeah, we've only produced like three players that made it to the NBA, something like that. [laughs] So it's no great ratio. Soccer, man, is where it's at here. It's all about football, and the money is just ridiculous.
KD: Is there any analogy to be drawn between being on a sports team together, and being in a band together?
JC: Maybe the thing of always being together, and the intensity levels; they can be quite similar. The pressure of having to be performing at one thing or another, and being in the head-state to do it -- takes a lot of mental preparedness.
You can listen to a preview of every track on With the Tides on South's official website. Tour dates are uncertain, as guitarist Jamie McDonald has broken his wrist playing (what else?) football, but check there for updates. We wish him a speedy recovery.
Keith Daniels
missy:
South's 2000 debut, From Here On In, was a beautiful wreck of an album. Produced by infamous Mo' Wax label founder James Lavelle (a.k.a. UNKLE), it clocked in at over an hour and a half filled with seemingly every idea the boys could come up with. With the Tides, their new record,...
xnovaapex:
THIS IS SO GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i heart SOUTH very much, so it was refreshing to see this interview on here.....yay ya UNKLE!