Jarvis Cocker reveals more details on Steve Albini produced album

Oh my, this has sparked my interest this morning.

We brought word of Jarvis Cocker releasing a new album this year, what we didn’t know is that it’s been produced by uber-producer Steve Albini (and a personal hero of mine… awwww).

Jarvis has shared some notes he’s made on the album below and that picture up there ^^ is the album cover. Painful.

NOTES ON THE ALBUM SO FAR

In January of this year we went to the United States to record at Steve Albini’s studio, Electrical Audio, in Chicago. Between the 3rd & the 24th of January we recorded 15. I’m sorry that you can’t hear them yet but due to the idiosyncratic way in which Electrical Audio functions, the whole record will not be fully mixed until the 25th of March. Ho-Hum. (I hope this is not coming across like a school-kid’s excuse for not handing his homework in on time)

Please allow me to anticipate some of the questions you might have:

1 – WHY CHICAGO? WHY STEVE ALBINI?

Last year we were invited to play at the Pitchfork festival in Chicago during July. Steve Mackey (he plays the bass, you know) suggested that we try recording some songs with Steve Albini whilst we were in town. This made sense on many levels – to go all that way just to play one show seemed a bit wasteful  (eco-awareness) Plus, I had already decided that I wanted this record to be more of a group effort than the last one. So we had worked songs out in rehearsal rather than me delivering them fully-written & now I wanted to record them in an environment where we could all play at the same time & hopefully capture something of the spirit of a band all working together, all aiming in the same direction (though at what I really couldn’t say). Electrical Audio (Albini’s studio) is specifically designed to record bands in that way.

Plus, it was very cheap.

(The two songs we tried out in July worked out , so we booked time in January to finish the album. The pound collapsed against the dollar in the interim).

2 – WHO DOES WHAT ON THE SONGS RECORDED SO FAR?

Jarvis sings & plays various bits & pieces.
Steve Mackey plays the bass
Ross Orton plays the drums
Simon Stafford plays keyboards & sings backing vocals
Tim McCall plays the guitar in the right-hand speaker
Martin Craft plays the guitar in the left-hand speaker + occasional keyboards & backing vocals

This applies to all the songs so far except “Pilchard” where Jarvis plays the guitar in the left-hand speaker & Simon & Martin had a lie-down.

Jarvis also played the synthesiser on “Fuckingsong” & “You’re in my Eyes(Discosong)”.

Extra musicians:
Daniel Knox sings backing vocals on “Angela” & “Hold Still”
Mary Lattimore plays harp on “Hold Still” & “You’re in my Eyes (Discosong)”
Yvonne Gage, Leveeta Renee Robinson & Shawn Roberts are the heavenly choir on “You’re in my Eyes (Discosong)”.

3 – HAS JARVIS GONE ROCK?

No – but during the course of touring his last record he discovered that , with this band, he COULD rock & so he’d be a fool not to. (When the situation demanded it).

4 – WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE SONGS ON THE ALBUM?

Hmmm – that’s a toughie. Especially seeing as the track-listing hasn’t been finalised yet – but I’ll tell you a bit about all the other songs we recorded.( They’ll all see the light of day in some shape or form, anyway.) SLUSH is a song I wrote whilst aboard a ship that was sailing up the west coast of Greenland last year. I guess that slush will be the ultimate outcome of global warming.  CAUCASIAN BLUES is an attempt  to understand the pain of a man whose Honda Goldwing has run out of petrol. I NEVER SAID I WAS DEEP  is the phrase that I would like carved on my tombstone. GIRLS LIKE IT TOO takes its title from a phrase in one of the speeches made at John Peel’s funeral. THE NIGHT THEY LET ME OUT OF THE HOME portrays the difficulties of using public transport whilst on crutches. APPARENTLY is about how you can be in love with someone without realising it. I FOUND MYSELF LOOKING FOR GOD lists unlikely places one can look for spiritual enlightenment  & HOMEWRECKER! is an absolute racket featuring saxophone from Steve Mackay (he played on The Stooges’ “Funhouse”, you know) .

The record won’t feature all of these songs (that would make it too long) but we will have a finalised running order available from March 26th onwards if you are interested. (+ you can hear all the songs then, too).

& FINALLY – WHAT’S WITH THE BEARD?

I grew it to keep my face warm in the Arctic & then I kind of got attached to it. (The amount of grey in it horrified me at first but now I think it acts as a handy reminder of my own mortality.)

Thankyou for taking the time to read these notes.

Further complications await.