Previously heard wowing us with the supple grooves and canny remixes belonging to one of his two Peter Astor-related projects ELLIS ISLAND SOUND, DAVID SHEPPARD returns with the beautifully langorous instrumentals that make STATE RIVER WIDENING'S new album "Early Music" such a gently compelling listen. TIM PEACOCK dropped him a line to find out more about the SRW modus operandi.
Our proposed phone conversation gets off on the sort of footing normally associated with Victor Meldrew when your correspondent rings what he's led to believe is David's number and receives a reply from the Holiday Inn in Chingford. Right...OK, this isn't happening, is it? Finally, after a series of phone calls and decisive intervention from David's very helpful press officer and voila...we're on. David, the last time we spoke was about the "Ellis Island Sound" album last year. This new album sounds much more organic. How did it all come together?
"Mmm...it's a record that took a long time," David muses.
"Since the first SRW album came out we've been gradually piecing this one together. We were very conscious of repeating ourselves and took our time with the recording process, coming back to the tracks on "Early Music" over several stages. Actually we spent enough time on it to have made an old-fashioned three album set!"
Interesting idea, though while I'm contemplating something akin to a post-rock "Sandinista!", David brings me back to reality...
"Whether it's serendipity or not, I think there's something great about a 40-minute set ("Early Music" clocks in at around this time) and I think you should be able to say all you need to in that time," he says.
To these ears, the tracks on "Early Music" suggest they were built predominantly from jamming? Am I right?
"To be honest there's absolutely NO jamming," laughs David, scotching that one rapidly.
"What usually happens is that either Keiron (Phelan - multi-instrumentalist partner with David in SRW) or I would have a starting point, but then it would be fleshed out in the studio. Like I say, we had no time restraint, so we'd try stuff from that point. Sometimes we actually had too many ideas, but we weren't rushed as everything was recorded in down time at the studio."
Tell me more about the album title, "Early Music," David. It seems to refer to something simplified or untainted?
"Yeah, the title came very early on actually," replies David.
"It is a nice title that Keiron and I both liked. Initially we thought of it because Keiron and I had a record of viol music (early violin forerunner - technical Ed) made by some renaissance composer we got in the US on the Hyperion label for about 50 cents and it has a real source of affiliation with electronic music now."
Really?
"Yeah, because it works with repeated/ embellished sounds and has a kind of binary to it. Originally we thought the title "Early Music" sounded humourous but then we thought more about it and it is an evocative phrase, with an almost child-like quality. It suited us."
Meanwhile, when we last spoke, we mentioned your love for Krautrockers like NEU! and Cluster and I could see that in the nagging grooves of "Ellis Island Sound." This one personally reminds me of something closer to - say - late period TALK TALK. Does it remind you of anything yourself, however subconsciously?
"Hmm...I see what you mean, but I personally feel that so much music these days hammers points home. I like elliptical, less obvious things as a rule. Despite that, this rocks for me!"
"Keiron and I are both into the Kraut thing, certainly," he continues.
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"We like them for what they suggest...an open-ness. If that means Post-Rock then I can accept it, but there is an emotional undercurrent. It sounds a bit 'Spinal Tap', but there really IS a thin line between hypnotic and boring!"
"Early Music" also sounds like music that would be good to generate live. Is SRW currently a solid thing for live work with you, Keiron and drummer Jon Steele. Will you expand this for live work?
"Yes, we'll be getting back into live work for the summer," says David.
"It's difficult, though, in the sense that there's 3 of us playing 8 or 10 instruments, so we've got two choices. We either hire people, which is not really viable, or we go the stripped down route, which is more likely."
Of the tracks on "Early Music", "Highest Point On The Island" seems a little different in feel, in that there's more emphasis on loops and sequences, with the marimba groove. Was this one built up in a different fashion?
"The starting point's actually a Fender Rhodes electric piano," reveals David.
"It suggested that cloud-like thing. Rather than watercolours, it had a natural tremelo and suggested marimbas. We basically played it until we got it right, so it's not grafted on electronica. In fact Keiron plays a clarinet on that one."
I suppose it's de rigeur for every artist to make a statement about how their new album is their best ever, but did "Early Music" come out exactly like you'd envisaged it, David?
"Well, it's funny," he sighs, "...it becomes very hard to listen to after a while, because you've heard it so many times. In my mind a record's never really finished, but you have to eventually agree to stop. I admit I personally have to be pulled away."
"That said," he continues, "I'm pleased with this one as a whole. I really like the closing track "Softscene", which is actually one of the oldest ones. It has that completely unchanging bass loop with a few elements coming in and it's just a nice arc. To be honest I can't even remember much of the process of making that one..."
If this sounds absent-minded, then don't be surprised as David also works with Peter Astor on two seperate projects, Ellis Island Sound and Wisdom of Harry. So what else is in the pipeline at present, David?
"Right. There's a new Wisdom Of Harry record coming out on Matador in September, plus Peter and I are rehearsing an Ellis Island Sound Ep for the end of May. It'll be a 12" on Static Caravan with 7 tracks again."
"I've got many plans, though the summer will be gigs mostly. I've also been producing. No-one you'll know...some Spanish artists. To be honest, making definite diary entries and scheduling is difficult...making logical space."
Right. Plus there's that summer season in Chingford you were trying to avoid earlier...
"Right! Ha ha ha! Yes...we musn't forget that," David laughs heartily. "There's nothing like being big in Chingford!"
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