4.52am Issue: 058 9th November 2017 The Sweet Gum Tree Issue
This week we have: An interview with Sweet Gum Tree Guitar Lessons for Queen and the Kinks Cabbage Rain Serenade The Stars The Lovely Eggs, and La Contessa Introduces - The Beatles - 10cc - Secret Affair - Space - McFly, and - Petite Meller
This week we have:
An interview with Sweet Gum Tree
Guitar Lessons for Queen and the Kinks
Cabbage
Rain
Serenade The Stars
The Lovely Eggs, and
La Contessa Introduces
- The Beatles
- 10cc
- Secret Affair
- Space
- McFly, and
- Petite Meller
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T<br />
his week in <strong>4.52am</strong> we have an interview<br />
with the rather wonderful <strong>Sweet</strong> <strong>Gum</strong><br />
<strong>Tree</strong>.<br />
Learn to play sees us tackling some classics from<br />
<strong>The</strong> Kinks and Queen (no pressure.)<br />
More music from Cabbage, Rain, Serenade <strong>The</strong><br />
Stars and <strong>The</strong> Lovely Eggs and then we skip into<br />
the twilight with La Contessa as she introduces<br />
<strong>The</strong> Beatles, 10cc, Secret Affair, McFly, Space<br />
and Petite Meller.<br />
Hope you enjoy it<br />
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Contents<br />
<strong>Sweet</strong> <strong>Gum</strong> <strong>Tree</strong> ..................................................................... 9<br />
Learn To Play: Queen ............................................................ 31<br />
Learn To Play: <strong>The</strong> Kinks ....................................................... 33<br />
Cabbage ................................................................................ 35<br />
Rain ...................................................................................... 37<br />
Serenade <strong>The</strong> Stars ............................................................... 39<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lovely Eggs ..................................................................... 41<br />
La Contessa Presents… .......................................................... 45<br />
1960s: <strong>The</strong> Beatles ................................................................ 47<br />
1970s: 10cc ........................................................................... 49<br />
1980s: Secret Affair ............................................................... 51<br />
1990s: Space ......................................................................... 53<br />
2000s: McFly ......................................................................... 55<br />
2010s: Petite Meller .............................................................. 57
<strong>Sweet</strong> <strong>Gum</strong> <strong>Tree</strong><br />
I<br />
T happens every so often around here that we come across a<br />
band that is new to us (and that is our fault) that totally<br />
blows us away by offering something just that bit different to<br />
the norm.<br />
<strong>Sweet</strong> <strong>Gum</strong> <strong>Tree</strong> did exactly that, and we were many kinds of<br />
chuffed to be able to catch-up with main man Arno Sojo for a<br />
chat.<br />
We asked him to tell us about himself and the band and happily<br />
he did exactly that.<br />
“Since my previous band Sojo Glider split in 2009, <strong>Sweet</strong> <strong>Gum</strong><br />
<strong>Tree</strong> has become my solo project, allowing me to collaborate<br />
with a wide array of musicians (guests, former bandmates,<br />
orchestras...) or just operate on my own. I have gained more<br />
flexibility and creative freedom.”
In terms of influences, who are they and how do you go about<br />
bringing them into your music?<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y range from late-sixties orchestral pop and seventies<br />
psych-folk to 80's new-wave and shoegaze, even a great deal of<br />
90's indie rock. I’m also very curious of jazz and classical music,<br />
but my main influences could be filed under pop-rock. I spent<br />
most of my childhood under the spell of early Cat Stevens, Pink<br />
Floyd, Françoise Hardy, <strong>The</strong> Beatles or David Bowie. My parents’<br />
record collection originally did the job. As a teenager the first gig<br />
I bought a ticket to was Talk Talk’s “Colour Of Spring” tour,<br />
doomed to be their last, but it would turn out to be a longlasting<br />
love affair, especially with such a genre-defying record as<br />
“Spirit Of Eden”. In a similar vein, David Sylvian’s work made<br />
quite an impact on me. But if I needed to narrow the list down<br />
to one specific genre or trend, I would probably refer to the<br />
shimmering guitar pop heydays of the late 80’s-early 90’s (<strong>The</strong><br />
Church, House Of Love, Echo & <strong>The</strong> Bunnymen, R.E.M...), later<br />
sustained by exciting britpop bands, such as Doves. I'm also<br />
obviously very keen on the timeless singer-songwriter type, from<br />
Lee Hazlewod to Ed Harcourt, from Neil Young to Joseph Arthur,<br />
from Suzanne Vega to Leona Naess, it has been a constant<br />
source of inspiration for me. Lately I've been listening to a lot of<br />
Kurt Vile, Flaming Lips, Gaz Coombes, Hope Sandoval & <strong>The</strong><br />
Warm Inventions, Melody's Echo Chamber, Emily Haines & <strong>The</strong><br />
Soft Skeleton, Max Richter... Those records you enjoy on a<br />
regular basis unconsciously permeate your work at some point,<br />
one way or another. Out of this natural spongy process, you're<br />
likely to extract a mix of your own, hopefully something unique.”
Going back to the beginning, when did you know that you<br />
wanted to be a musician?<br />
“I had an epiphany listening to Pink Floyd at the age of two.<br />
David Gilmour's liquid guitar spellbound me and triggered the<br />
need to learn how to play the six-string, which sounded to me<br />
like the perfect means of self-expression. Since then, playing<br />
records, writing songs and performing them has been my main<br />
interest in life.”<br />
How did you go about it ? (first bands, college, lessons etc.)<br />
“I got my first guitar at the age of three and taught myself how<br />
to play until my late teens, when I completed my knowledge in a<br />
professional musical institute. By then, I used to practice on the<br />
electric for 12 to 14 hours a day. Meanwhile, I had played guitar<br />
and sung in many ephemeral college bands. As a teenager I also<br />
had piano lessons for a few years and learnt how to read and<br />
write music. I used to have fun with synthesizers and effects too.<br />
Much later the need to capture rhythm ideas and commit them<br />
to tape pushed me to dabble in bass and drums. In parallel to my<br />
own projects, I worked a lot as a session musician between 1996<br />
and 2004, and got to join many different bands, covering a broad<br />
range of styles : rock, jazz, electronic, world, pop...”<br />
Who were your early influences, and can you see them in your<br />
early work? If so, how about now?<br />
“Bowie, Beatles, Pink Floyd, <strong>The</strong> Church, REM, INXS... I could<br />
hear some aspects of their music in my early work, and I still can<br />
hear their influences now, although it might only sound obvious<br />
to my own ears, I suppose. Anyway, it was fortunate that I never<br />
actually tried to sound like any of them. <strong>The</strong> whole point of<br />
creating music always seemed to be self-discovery.”
So how did you manage to turn that into a song?<br />
“I suppose it came naturally, out of listening to the works of<br />
revered craftsmen. Like most songwriters I have improved with<br />
time, honing my skills. For me it took a great deal of experience<br />
and building more self-confidence to be able to come up with<br />
something more distinctive, more personal, and it's an ongoing<br />
process. But I'd like to stress the fact that I hardly ever consider<br />
songwriting from a technical point of view. After all, inspiration<br />
remains this magical, barely conscious process, and your main<br />
ideas seem to be here before you even realize. So really, the<br />
best songs seem to come out of the blue, in a relatively<br />
effortless way. I wouldn't go as far as to say that songs write<br />
themselves, but it's almost the case.”<br />
Can you describe your sound?<br />
“I would consider it textural and atmospheric, with a written<br />
approach. Cinematic songs with romantic exaltation. Widescreen<br />
pop incorporating elements of psych-folk and indie rock. Dreamy<br />
melancholia. A bittersweet, subtle blend of acoustic, electric and<br />
electronic sounds, with room for mystery. Stimulating the<br />
listener’s imagination is a matter of great importance to me.”
When did you start gigging - what was your first gig like?<br />
“At the age of seventeen, I played my first gig on the pavement,<br />
in downtown Angers, with a local cover band. We performed<br />
songs by <strong>The</strong> Police, <strong>The</strong> Clash, U2... <strong>The</strong> street was crowded,<br />
and I remember struggling to protect my gear from people<br />
having a terrible fight in the audience. I was striving to push<br />
them back with my foot while singing and playing the guitar, just<br />
so my pedal board wouldn't drown in beer. It was a bit too wild<br />
for my taste, but we went on with our set until it started raining<br />
cats and dogs. Although someone stood on it throughout, my<br />
open-back guitar amp made it home relatively safe, with much<br />
broken glass and cigarette ashes in its belly.”<br />
Tell us about the big gigs you’ve played and how did you enjoy<br />
them.<br />
“I'm not too keen on big outdoor events, although I've played<br />
quite a few over the years. I feel it's easier for me to make a<br />
connection with the audience in an intimate setting, like a<br />
stripped-down solo performance in a small club, even if people<br />
aren't familiar with the material, the music never fails to get<br />
through somehow. But I fondly recall touring with a six-piece<br />
band a few years ago, to largely undersold beautiful venues,<br />
such as London's Union Chapel, great vibe. Also, finding myself<br />
performing on stage with Heather Nova or <strong>The</strong> Church's Marty<br />
Willson-Piper, some of my personal heroes, felt like a dream.<br />
Getting to play with a string section on many occasions also<br />
ranks among the most rewarding live experiences I've known, as<br />
I find classical musicians pretty awe-inspiring.”
What was the first thing you recorded?<br />
“Besides early demos in my college days, the most notable, and<br />
very first thing I released was a cover of Steve Kilbey's "<strong>The</strong><br />
Egyptian", which came out on a US label as part of a tribute<br />
album to Australian band <strong>The</strong> Church. I taped it at home on an 8-<br />
track cassette device. I couldn't believe it was actually selected<br />
by the executive producer of this project, a warm and friendly<br />
person who soon became my manager. In those early internet<br />
days, back in the late nineties, I was approached by major US<br />
labels, such as Arista and Maverick, if you can believe it !”<br />
Is there anything you wish you'd known then?<br />
“Well I wish I'd known about tube preamps, compression and<br />
de-essing, that kind of stuff, but I was modestly equipped and<br />
did the best I could with whatever was within reach. Technical<br />
limitations do trigger your creativity I believe, and those home<br />
sessions with my 8-track cassette recorder were a big part of my<br />
learning process in terms of musical production.”<br />
How does that compare to how you recorded the album?<br />
“Since my early recordings a couple of decades ago, technology<br />
has much evolved and I have really honed my skills as a<br />
musician. Most of all, I can actually listen better. What remains is<br />
the excitement in the creative process, it does feel fresh as ever.<br />
But since 2004 and the recording of Sojo Glider's second LP, I<br />
have always worked in a professional environment, teaming up<br />
with top-notch producers (Dare Mason, Malcolm Burn, Peter<br />
Deimel, David Odlum, Ken Stringfellow, to name a few). I've<br />
learnt a lot from their advice and guidance, especially as each<br />
one has a distinct method, approach and taste.”
“My new album "Sustain <strong>The</strong> Illusion" has been the fruit of a<br />
very close collaboration with Irish producer David Odlum (Glen<br />
Hansard, Gemma Hayes...), who I had become friends with over<br />
the mixing of <strong>Sweet</strong> <strong>Gum</strong> <strong>Tree</strong>'s previous effort ("<strong>The</strong> Snakes You<br />
Charm & <strong>The</strong> Wolves You Tame"). With David brilliantly handling<br />
the technical aspects of recording and mixing at Studio Black Box<br />
somewhere in my neck of the woods, I was able to focus on the<br />
music itself, and that's enough to keep yourself busy for sure.<br />
Besides, my producer challenged me to play almost every<br />
instrument this time (drums, bass and keyboards in addition to<br />
guitars and vocals), for a distinct vibe (bearing in mind I had<br />
recorded my previous LP with a crowd of about thirty<br />
musicians). We did have a couple of brilliant guest musicians<br />
aboard though (Romy on keyboards and backing vocals, Elise on<br />
violin), for extra flavours and welcome camaraderie. <strong>The</strong>y were<br />
also key to transcending this record.”<br />
Can you talk us through the tracks on the album?<br />
BREAKING THE BOND : A light-and-shade track, about breaking<br />
free from a toxic relationship, a declaration of independence.<br />
TWINKLE : It’s the most cheerful number I ever came up with. I<br />
think of it as a playful mid-life review, a humble reflection on the<br />
gears of life, naturally failing to come up with answers but<br />
finding joy along the way. It’s about choices made, paths taken,<br />
the people you love, and facing tomorrow. Although it has an<br />
unconventional structure, it’s a light-hearted track which offers a<br />
nice contrast to the darker material on the album.
SOMEDAY : A brotherly piano song with a humane message,<br />
written after the initial series of terrorist attacks in Paris. I must<br />
have been unconsciously trying to revive the spirit of John<br />
Lennon's pacifism.<br />
ROLLERCOASTER : A tribute to inspiring female figures, a mix of<br />
various acquaintances of mine, heroins for the modern times.<br />
FAIRWEATHER FAITH : This one is about betrayed friendship,<br />
easy for anyone to relate to I guess. When a song starts in a<br />
relatively dark place, I naturally tend to drag it into the light. So<br />
there's a sense of deliverance here, almost a palpable serenity,<br />
underlined by Elise's soulful violin and the electronic tabla.<br />
STARS ALIGN : A little variation on romance and fate. Driven by a<br />
little bass hook, for a change. I find it both catchy and<br />
mysterious.<br />
GUILT TRIP : A little rant about the modern witch hunt. I enjoy a<br />
bit of social satire and the occasional use of irony. On a musical<br />
note, this is the most new-wavy material I ever recorded, with a<br />
motorik beat. Entrancing and noisy at the same time. It was the<br />
last song written for this album, and I remember doubting that it<br />
would stylistically fit, but somehow it does.<br />
CLEAN SLATE : A stripped-down and mysterious keyboard-driven<br />
tune about an evil trunk full of childhood memories, and how to<br />
deal with the past.<br />
BURN YOUR ICONS : Another one of my social observations. I<br />
was afraid I might sound slightly cynical here, but there's also a<br />
lot of empathy for those fallen idols. As my producer David<br />
Odlum pointed out, it's that ambiguity which makes the song<br />
interesting. Musically, it's the most multi-layered song on the<br />
record, and kind of captivating from beginning to end, even if I<br />
do say so myself.
THE GIFT : I wrote this open-hearted ballad for my son. It's so<br />
deeply personal that I wasn't sure I wanted to put it out. Yet it's<br />
probably the most universal song I ever came up with. I recorded<br />
it live with Romy and Elise at Studio Black Box, David Odlum later<br />
contributed bass and drums. <strong>The</strong>y were all big supporters of the<br />
song and convinced me to include it. Romy's long Philicorda<br />
outro, in which the listener tends to lose track of time, is my<br />
favourite moment on the album.<br />
KEEPER : Probably my best piano piece yet. Recorded live and<br />
kept as such, although I wasn't too pleased with the vocals at<br />
first. Eventually this take grew on me. Besides Romy and Elise<br />
worked wonders. Originally it was going to be a lullaby for my<br />
son, written to help him deal with night terror. In this regard I<br />
probably failed miserably, but I still like how metaphorically the<br />
song takes on a more universal meaning, about why we must not<br />
yield to fear, which basically is the album's common thread.
Tell us about your guitar gear?<br />
“My favourite electric six-string is a Gretsch Tennessee Rose<br />
G6120W-1957 (the Chet Atkins signature model as modified by<br />
Eddie Cochran, a guitar which was more recently brought back in<br />
the spotlight by Richard Hawley, among others). I also cherish<br />
my Gibson Hummingbird for all things acoustic, and often tune it<br />
to DGCGCD, something I learned from Jimmy Page (Led<br />
Zeppelin's "<strong>The</strong> Rain Song" was based on this tuning). My<br />
current favourite amp is a Vox AC-15, the recent version, with its<br />
built-in reverb and tremolo very present on <strong>Sweet</strong> <strong>Gum</strong> <strong>Tree</strong>'s<br />
material. A former effects junkie, I now tend to use them<br />
sparingly, so the only stompboxes I indulge in these days are a<br />
Boss Space Echo RE-201 ("Breaking <strong>The</strong> Bond"), a Boss DD-5 for<br />
its reverse delay ("<strong>The</strong> Gift"), a Zvex Fuzz Factory (which you can<br />
hear in "Someday" 's noisy solo), a Boss OD-3 for the occasional<br />
extra overdrive, sometimes a Dunlop Cry-Baby (for the wah<br />
effect on "Burn Your Icons")... In certain live situations I also use<br />
a Boss RC-50 to trigger samples, depending on my band's lineup.”<br />
You can find out more about <strong>Sweet</strong> <strong>Gum</strong> <strong>Tree</strong> here,<br />
Twitter Facebook Web Site
Learn To Play: Queen<br />
B<br />
Y the time Queen became a pop band, it was easy to<br />
forget just how good they, and Brian May in particular,<br />
were.<br />
And Wayne’s World cliché it may be, but we feel everybody<br />
should be able to play at least some of Bohemian Rhapsody if<br />
you are going to keep hold of your AxeMeister card.
Learn To Play:<br />
<strong>The</strong> Kinks<br />
N<br />
ot only were the Kinks the inventors of the distortorama<br />
fuzz guitar sound, but they wrote the best songs around,<br />
and so for Dave and Ray here is a wee guitar lesson of<br />
one of their finest.
Cabbage<br />
G<br />
reat news for fans of seriously cool music, the brilliant<br />
Cabbage have announced a new tour for early next year<br />
and tickets are about to go on sale.<br />
January 2018<br />
Weds 31st<br />
Hull <strong>The</strong> Welly Club<br />
February 2018<br />
Thurs 1st Nottingham <strong>The</strong> Bodega<br />
Fri 2nd Stoke-on-Trent <strong>The</strong> Sugarmill<br />
Sat 3rd Sheffield Plug<br />
Weds 7th Southampton <strong>The</strong> Loft<br />
Fri <strong>9th</strong> Bristol Fiddlers<br />
Sat 10th Leeds Brudenell Social Club<br />
Wed 14th Newcastle Think Tank<br />
Thurs 15th Glasgow King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut<br />
Fri 16th Liverpool <strong>The</strong> Magnet<br />
Sat 17th Birmingham Castle & Falcon<br />
Tickets on sale 10am Friday 10th <strong>November</strong> from<br />
gigsandtours.com / ticketmaster.co.uk / seetickets.com
Rain<br />
F<br />
ormed in late 2015, Rain took no time in making a name<br />
for themselves. <strong>The</strong>ir debut EP Symphony Pains (Close To<br />
Home Records) saw them receive love and attention from<br />
the likes of BBC Radio 1, Seattle's KEXP, Stereogum and Rolling<br />
Stone. At just three tracks long it hit hard enough to make an<br />
impression. One band we really love here in 452-land, being<br />
quite partial to a bit of Punkish Emo Hardcore, are Rain who in<br />
2015 released a fantastic E.P ‘Symphony Pains’ which was<br />
frankly marvellous.<br />
Having spent the past year and a half writing and recording a<br />
follow up record, RAIN are incredibly proud to be releasing<br />
Abstract Vision on <strong>November</strong> 24th via Venn Records and we<br />
can’t wait for everybody to hear it.<br />
You can pre-order Abstract Vision on red and black vinyl from<br />
Venn Records Here
Serenade <strong>The</strong> Stars<br />
D<br />
ecember sees the release of a brilliant new track from<br />
the utterly unique ‘Serenade <strong>The</strong> Stars’ although it is<br />
only going to be a taster for an album that will land in<br />
late 2018, in an innovative CD + Book format. Speaking about the<br />
track ‘She's <strong>The</strong> One,’ guitarist and songwriter Damian<br />
Carruthers says:<br />
"She's <strong>The</strong> One is a tale of falling hopelessly for the girl of your<br />
dreams and the ensuing battle that goes on in your mind about<br />
how to confess your love... <strong>The</strong> inspiration actually came straight<br />
from the heart this time and the ending to the story is yet to be<br />
written! - I am hoping for a fairytale ending ;-) Either way, the<br />
song will no doubt spawn a sequel... Who knows, it could be the<br />
start of an epic trilogy?"<br />
You can find out more and pre-order the track,<br />
Facebook<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lovely Eggs<br />
Y<br />
ou don’t need to be psychic to realise that we are rather<br />
in love with <strong>The</strong> Lovely Eggs, so it is again a happy smiley<br />
kind of place when we find out that not only are the band<br />
releasing a new album, ‘This is Eggland’ in February, a single<br />
called ‘I Shouldn’t Have Said That’ now and they are hitting the<br />
road for a proper tour.<br />
February Tour Dates<br />
With support from Phill Jupitus (Porky <strong>The</strong> Poet) on all dates:<br />
Thurs 8: <strong>The</strong> Yorkshire House, Lancaster<br />
Fri 9: <strong>The</strong> Brudenell Social Club, Leeds<br />
Sat 10: <strong>The</strong> Cluny, Newcastle<br />
Sun 11: <strong>The</strong> Mash House, Edinburgh<br />
Mon 12: Stereo, Glasgow<br />
Tue 13: <strong>The</strong> Adelphi, Hull<br />
Wed 14: Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff<br />
Thur 15: <strong>The</strong> Cellar, Oxford<br />
Fri 16: <strong>The</strong> 100 Club, London<br />
Sat 17: Band on the Wall, Manchester<br />
Find out more HERE
La Contessa Presents…<br />
A<br />
S you would expect, in a week that has seen all manner<br />
of political shenanigans, it was good to find that some<br />
things never change and La Contessa has pulled out all of<br />
the stops to find us a varied, surprising and generally super-chilly<br />
collection of songs from across the decades. Starting with a<br />
Beatles rarity, moving through 10cc and the astonishingly<br />
overlooked Secret Affair, we meander our way through Space,<br />
sidestep McFly and end up in the arms of Petite Meller.<br />
Well, it was never going to be predictable and the lady doesn’t<br />
do requests no matter how much you beg, Jermiah.
1960s: <strong>The</strong> Beatles
1970s: 10cc
1980s: Secret Affair
1990s: Space
2000s: McFly
2010s: Petite Meller