In Reference Points, we ask our favourite artists to reveal what inspires them from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with The Phantom Band’s Rick Redbeard to find out about the north face of the Eiger, a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland, “a brooding monolith drawing the eye and confounding the spirit”.

The Eiger Nordwand

The sublime, as I’m sure many of you will be aware, can be differentiated from ordinary beauty in that it encourages feelings beyond those normally associated with the purely visual. Kant explains it perfectly: “Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the sublime, attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt”. I’ve had this sensation in a variety of landscapes and surroundings, both natural and man-made, but one such place that transcended even those feelings and became something of a mild obsession was the north face of the Eiger.

The phrase alone evokes images of a foreboding rock mass, a huge black vertical wall- lonely and unforgiving. In 2011, on a Phantom Band European tour, I was reading The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer – a great book detailing the first successful ascent of the face along with the myriad failures. I finished it just as I was on the train to visit my girlfriend’s family in the Bernese Oberland for a couple of days, and so had the perfect opportunity to go and see the face for myself. It did not disappoint. In an environment full of breathtaking scenery it stood out; strangely separate and apart from the mountains around – a brooding monolith drawing the eye and confounding the spirit. There is an added element to seeing the north face – it is not just that it is (obviously) a spectacular view, but it has also been a stage for some of the most extreme examples of human endeavor – incredible tales of courage, fear and loss. When you look up at the face with any knowledge of these stories, the names hang in the air like whispering ghosts; Heckmair, Hinterstoisser and of course the tragic Toni Kurz, to name but a few.

The face has been climbed many times now and the once impenetrable mystique lessens slightly when you consider the likes of Dani Arnold and Ueli Steck can scale the face and be back down in as long a time as it takes some of us to have a bath. But still, the history persists and death visits the face with enough regularity that it is not going to lose the nickname ‘Mordwand’ (Murder Wall) anytime soon. There is a wealth of literature and great documentaries out there to feed any curiosity this piece may have awakened (The White Spider book is a must, as is the BBC documentary Eiger: Wall of Death) but if you are able to go and visit the face in person that would top it all. There is even a train up it for those of you who don’t fancy taking the traditional route.

Rick Redbeard’s album No Selfish Heart is available now through Chemikal Underground and he is currently on tour, set to play the following UK live dates:

March

12 – Edinburgh, Electric Circus
15 – Aberdeen, Peacocks
16 – Inverness, Mad Hatters
17 – Glasgow, CCA
18 – Brighton, Komedia
19 – London, Slaughtered Lamb
20 – Winchester, Railway Inn
21 – York, Basement

In Reference Points, we ask our favourite artists to reveal what inspires them from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with Welsh indie-rock trio The Joy Formidable to find out about the discovery of a character that would go on to inspire a song on the band’s new album. 

There are many stories weaved into our latest album Wolf’s Law. Some are first hand, others are tributes to friends and family. There are daydreams, imagined scenes and then other moments of a much realer nature, that pay homage to figures that have lived a life that has spoken to us. One such song is ‘The Leopard and the Lung’ and the protagonist at its core; Wangari Maathai.

I feel almost guilty that I hadn’t heard about Wangari until January 2012, when a documentary about her life aired on PBS. We were recording in Maine, in a small cabin on the outskirts of Sebago Lake, living the simple life, free of phone signal and Internet with only a handful of TV channels, but thankfully a fully loaded record collection. What does Springsteen sing? “57 Channels, with Nothing on”? Sometimes it feels more like 800 channels, with the grotesque faces of The Real Housewives and Dance Moms staring back at you. This documentary stuck out, a moment of inspiration amongst the bilge.

Wangari Maathai was a feminist, environmentalist and a political activist. She was the founder of the Green Belt Movement in 1977, a Kenyan organisation that focuses on conservation and promotes women’s rights through training and growing resources for a more independent way of life.  The statistics are pretty incredible, 51 million trees planted since the movement started and over 30,000 women trained in forestry, food processing, bee-keeping, and other trades that help them earn income whilst preserving their land and resources.

Outspoken, brave and pro active, Wangari was starting to ruffle feathers within the Kenyan government and from the late 1980′s she was repeatedly targeted by President Moi’s regime. Evicted, imprisoned, beaten, her reputation maligned and her name on an assassination list and yet she didn’t back down, she fought back, she carried on protesting.

It’s a remarkable tale of courage, more detailed than what I can capture in this short piece, but the overriding sense of it for me, is few people have the heart and the tenacity to stand up to an entire establishment, to completely sacrifice yourself for what you believe in. Many of us will never be tested in this extreme, but it puts your own daily challenges in perspective, makes you question the power of the individual, how we can make a difference.

We wanted to write about her, Wangari – her name means leopard in Kukuya and she called trees the “lungs of the earth”. A truly remarkable woman, a legacy to be so admired, The Leopard and the Lung.

The Joy Formidable’s latest album Wolf’s Law is available now through Atlantic. 

Reference Points is the weekly column where we get the chance to ask our favourite artists to reveal what inspires them from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with Liverpool’s Wave Machines to hear about the striking inspiration that can be drawn from your surroundings.

Photo credit: Tim Bruzon

For around eight years I lived and worked on the top floor of a large Georgian terrace just a few minutes walk from Liverpool’s city centre. The flat sat on a hill with a view that took in the mountains of Wales to my left, Liverpool’s sky line to my right and between them, the imposing Anglican cathedral. Despite the far reaching scenery either side, this monument dominated the landscape. It was a constant presence right outside my window, a huge beautiful artwork, often intimidating as I sat trying to complete my puny album of 10 songs. But it was an inspiration also. It would baffle me with it’s complexity and magnitude. How do you go about making something like that? Where do you start? How the hell do you get those spiky bits up there on top of that huge tower?

Photo credit: Tim Bruzon

From time to time I would take a break from the computer screen and jog in the cathedral gardens that lay in a large excavated space at the foot of the building. I would run the paths past regular dog-walkers, truanting school kids or dozing drunks, going over and over the lines of songs trying to find lyrics in maddening loops, up the grassy ramps on one side and back down the other. A lot of the album writing is connected in some way to our proximity with that building and also to the other church (St Bride’s) just around the corner where we rehearse and record. Both Carl and Vidar lived for a time within throwing distance of the cathedral, each with their own particular view of the iconic tower.

There is no God in my universe, yet here I am connected and influenced by these monuments to religion. It is an unlikely relationship but one I value.

Photo credit: Tim Bruzon

Pollen is available now through Neapoliton, and the band will play the following live dates: 

January

31 – Moles, Bath, United Kingdom

February

01  - Kazimier, Liverpool, United Kingdom
02  - Broadcast, Glasgow, United Kingdom
03  - The Cluny 2, Newcastle, United Kingdom
05 – Bodega Social, Nottingham, United Kingdom
06 – Scala, London, United Kingdom
07 – Joiners, Southampton, United Kingdom

Reference Points is the weekly column where we get the chance to ask our favourite artists to reveal what inspires them from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with Prince Rama, a band who were perhaps better prepared than most for the rumoured end of the world, which was supposed to happen in December. Then didn’t. Nevertheless, the Brooklyn duo made sure that a super soundtrack was in place to accompany the planet’s end in the form of their latest album, Top Ten Hits of the End of the World and here, sisters Taraka & Nimai Larson reveal what the world would look like it they were allowed to rebuild it following an apocalypse.

P.A.U.P.

One of my favorite hobbies is P.A.U.P. (Post Apocalyptic Urban Planning). It’s a great way to pass time when you’re on tour locked in the van for hours driving through cities that make no sense whatsoever. I don’t know how many fictional cities I’ve designed at this point, but I keep detailed notes of them for when the time comes and they might be of use. Each one is named after the pop culture icon who is elected leader of the city. The most recent one I’m designing is New Björk (constructed on the island formerly known as Manhattan). Below is a list of some main bullet points summarizing daily life in New Björk.

Government

The government of New Björk is a free market social democracy where citizens vote on pop culture icons in the fields of art, architecture, physics, music, literature, sports, film, and fashion. These icons become the new leaders who then determine the laws and cultural zeitgeist of the era.

Housing

All domestic housing consists of standard issued inflatable structures that are portable and easily attachable to the ventilation systems of virtually any pre-existing structure. Each house consists of one white room with walls that can expand or contract depending on one’s spacial needs. A 360 degree video projector is provided with a selection of custom interior spaces that one can select and project on the walls, so the transition from kitchen to bedroom can be made with the flick of a switch.

Electricity

New Björk only runs on naturally occurring bio-electricity. Lights are powered by colonies of fireflies who live inside mirrorballs. Giant pools filled with electric eels are placed at the center of each block, giving citizens a place to charge electronics sub-aqueously.

Time

There are no instruments to measure time. All faces of all clocks read NOW.

Recorded Music Part I

Music in New Björk is recorded as soundwaves etched directly onto grooves in blocks of ice. The ice records are played through skating over the grooves; the speed of the song is determined by the speed of the skater. The grooves on these sonic ice skating rinks are ritually erased and switched out every day so the record is always fresh and new.

Recorded Music Part II

All the pre-existing cassette tapes in New Björk were confiscated in the Great Anemic Outbreak and the ferric oxide that provided the magnetic sonic coating of the tapes was dissolved and compressed into iron supplements. Because anemia outbreaks are an unfortunately frequent occurrence, cassette tapes are used solely for their nutritional value.

Travel

In New Björk, there is no distinction between space travel and time travel. The farther the distance in miles you travel, the farther backwards or forwards in time you go. Different neighborhoods are zoned for different temporal eras, beginning with the labyrinth at the city center marking Year One. But because time is always NOW, there is no conception of ever entering or exiting the past or future.

Skyscrapers

Skyscrapers are set up like a set of drawers with each floor having the option of being “pulled out” from central column and becoming an open air sun-deck. Elevators not only connect the floors, but other buildings as well.

Money

New Björk runs on the Alphabet System of currency. Instead of numbers having intrinsic value, one’s name is synonymous with one’s worth. The more letters one has in their name, the richer they are; everything they buy costs letters from their name. Vowels cost more, consonants cost less. The richest man in New Bjork has a name that is fabled to be seven pages long.

Food

A link between people’s color fields and energy fields has made it possible to “eat color” and gain energy from it, thus eliminating the need for solid food. Large cafeterias with various colored chambers affixed with monochromatic neon lights make it possible to spend thirty minutes a day in a chamber of choice “breathing” in the color one needs to boost their energy field. The only other supplement needed is the iron tablets made from dissolved cassette tapes.

Education

There are no officially designated educational institutions in New Björk. Instead, all education is executed through subliminal means; patterns in street signs, messages in background music, cracks in pavement that form words, manicured landscapes that form faces, newspapers laced with codes, etc. The whole city is an open book designed to teach each citizen according to their own level of cognizance.

Crime

There is very little crime in New Björk. The punishment for any crime is the doomed fate of having to repeat the action again and again and again until its been completely erased from one’s system. No police are necessary; this process happens organically according to natural karmic law.

Dating

Matters of courtship are conducted through the arena of the sauna. In the sauna, everyone is nude and everyone is equal– there is no physical mystery, thus no energy wasted on pursuing sexual curiosity, taboos, or games of seduction. Because the physical mystery is eliminated from being factored into the laws of attraction, citizens of New Björk come to see their bodies in a non-possessive light and pursue connections with others based on other metaphysical factors. Communal saunas can be found in the bottom floor of every building, and serve the dual purpose of steam-heating the rest of the floors.

Top Ten Hits of the End of the World is available now through Paw Tracks Records. 

Reference Points is our weekly column where we get the chance to ask our favourite artists to reveal what inspires them from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with Poliça who reveal how humble homelands and long lasting friendships have inspired their musical creations.

Friends.

We come from the Upper Midwest of the United States. This area of the country is not well-known throughout the world. It’s not as vital at the East Coast is to culture and business, nor is it as majestic as the West. But what our little part of Earth is known for is the good nature of its people. There is a certain solidarity amongst the people there that is unparalleled. Wherever we travel as a band, whether its to the far corners of our country, or deep inside of Germany or Switzerland, we are almost always greeted by people from the Midwest.

This connectivity amongst each other has resulted in each of us having an intense connection to the friends in our lives. People are often surprised to learn that I still spend time with people I’ve been friends with since I was 8 years old, but it is not all that uncommon in the Midwest. Our web of friends is vast and eclectic, with each person offering up their unique personality and influence to each other. Even friends whom we’ve just recently met end up having a large influence on us. There’s our friend Ryan who pushes everyone to explore their artistic extremes and work our asses off. There’s Graham, who provides us with those deep-belly laughs that we didn’t know we needed so badly. There’s the ever present feeling that whatever comes our way, Nate can help us get through it. And when all we need is someone to hear us think out loud for a while, Robyn is there and ready to listen. Knowing that these people, and the many many others just like them are watching us from home is a huge motivational factor for us as a band. It’s like we can see them standing at the finish line, equally anxious to greet us when we get home as they were excited to send us on our way.

- Drew Christopherson

(drummer of Polica, friend of the Midwest)

Give You The Ghost is available now through Memphis Industries and Poliça will play London’s Heaven on 20 November.

Reference Points is our weekly column where we get the chance to ask our favourite artists to reveal what inspires them from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with The Magnetic North who reveal how maps and Cartography have inspired their musical creations.

“Here be dragons”

A celebration of maps

From the ancient Mappa Mundi to Grayson Perry’s ‘Map of an Englishman’ there is something very satisfying about an overview of an area or land whether it is current, historical or completely imagined. Maps have a magic all of their own.

And having spent many a childhood holiday, pissed wet through, tramping across boggy Cumbrian fells with a sodden Ordnance Survey map trying to find a path that no longer exists and ending knee deep in sheep’s entrails, you also get to see the real purpose and frustration of relying on a map to get you from A to B.

The Ancient cartographers positioned themselves at the very centre of their known worlds whether it was the Middle East, Japan or Greece because they had such a limited knowledge of what lay outside their boundaries. Each quite rightly considered himself to be at the centre of the earth. These maps seem inverted or reversed from our modern world view, with countries and continents squashed together and contorted making them almost unrecognisable.

Over the course of the Middle Ages maps gradually take a more recognisable shape as the science of cartography develops, and map makers become more accurate. Suddenly the world seems more plotted and defined. Even so this still leaves unknown areas of mystery for the traveller. The 16th century Hunt-Lenox Globe has around the east coast of Asia the phrase “Here be dragons” to denote an unexplored land inhabited with terrible creatures. And even up to the 18th and 19th century, maps of Africa show whole swathes of the continent’s interior is yet to be explored by the western map maker and hence is shown without any physical features at all.

In the 21st century GPS maps have almost replaced traditional paper maps. We are again individually and uniquely placed in the very centre of our own personal world maps. It has been suggested we now go from ‘Me to B’ instead of ‘A to B.’ The ancient map makers’ knowledge of the globe was so limited that their maps only went as far as the edges of their discovered lands, they had to imagine what lay beyond, whereas we can now cross the entire globe accurately without looking up from our phones to see the actual landscape around us.

With Erland and the Carnival we recorded a song ‘Map of Englishman’ inspired by and celebrating Grayson Perry’s playful masterpiece in which he maps out an Englishman’s brain (or his own) as an island in the style of an old Cartographers map. This experience indirectly led us on to create The Magnetic North where we took the idea of creating a musical travelogue of the Orkney Islands with each track title on the album being an actual physical place; the whole album became a kind of musical map.

For The Magnetic North artwork, we used an old hand drawn map from a 1930’s travel book so the listener could see the track names situated in the actual geography of the Islands while enjoying the music. Then with a brilliant flash of inspiration Hannah Peel suggested we make our own folded OS style maps to sell at shows. On one side we put our hand drawn 1930’s map and on the reverse, with the help of Erland’s father who very kindly wrote out his favourite local walks, we added local stories and information on the various sights and landmarks which we had gathered from Orcadian history books and other sources.

We hoped that by making our own map we would inspire people to travel to and explore the Orkney islands while listening to our album. Dozens of people, from as far away as Russia, Germany and France have already written to tell us they have made the long pilgrimage up to the ‘magnetic north’ with our CD and map in hand.

The map we have created is not the most scientifically accurate map in the world and I wouldn’t recommend relying on it to get you across a desolate moorland in a heavy fog. But then again maybe it’s good to get lost sometimes, you never know what you might find.

The Magnetic North’s new single ‘Bay of Skaill’ will be released 19 November, and the album Symphony of The Magnetic North is out now on Full Time Hobby. Catch the band at the following live dates: 

November

18 – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
22 – London, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre

Reference Points is our weekly column where we get the chance to ask our favourite artists to reveal what inspires them from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with Manchester’s Magic Arm also known as Marc Rigelsford, to find out about the setting that inspired his new EP, Put Your Collar Up.

In 2008, I moved into a flat on the top floor of a big victorian house. It was basic; no heating, missing floorboards and squirrels in the roof (and one time on the kitchen table). Slowly over the next couple of years the tenants from the four other flats started leaving until in the winter of 2010 it was just me and Dolly the cat (RIP).

I was surrounded by so many amazing spaces and importantly no neighbours to aggravate that I began thinking if I went down the studio route of the first album it would be a wasted opportunity. I realised that making a record at home would be possible, with guidance from a friend on what equipment to buy and some maverick piano movers (up the fire escape in a snowstorm) I was ready to start.

The landlord (who subsequently became a good friend and source of inspiration) lived on the ground floor, he was in his late 80′s, lucid and a brilliant painter. During the making of the album we spoke a lot about finding inspiration in areas outside of music. He offered to give me lessons in life drawing and asked me in to watch the latest of his opera DVD’s to draw my attentions elsewhere, and mostly it worked. In the evenings I would go down to his flat, draw a little and then back upstairs to continue making songs into the night.

I was very fortunate, I had a flat to record the piano, another for drums, one in the roof for guitars and violins (with perfectly shaped ceilings to give a lovely natural sound), a bathroom for recording vocals, a gutted kitchenette for keyboards, the stairwell for distant trumpets and percussion, and finally, the birds in the roof (which appear on several tracks).

Obviously, having too much space, time and being quite chilly isn’t always conducive to ‘getting on with it’. It took at least double the amount of time that I and the label had anticipated but ultimately the experience shaped the majority of the themes and allowed me to drift gently into a different sound. For that, for now, I’m grateful. The house has since been sold, which is sad, but I might just get in touch with the new owner and see if he’ll let me back in for the next album.

Put Your Collar Up EP is out now on Switchflicker.

Reference Points is our weekly column where we get the chance to ask our favourite artists to reveal what inspires them from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with Ben Dalton of Toronto’s Southern Shores who, on the cusp of releasing New World EP, tells us about the paramount importance of that first cup of morning coffee.

Jamie and I live in the same house and we’ve been constantly refining our daily routine for creative potential. It all starts with one essential ritual: morning coffee. Back in the early Berlin days of Southern Shores, we used to drink the instant java variety with rollie cigarettes, just to wake us up. We’ve come a long way since those days of grainy, sour bitterness. The early hours of the day are our optimal time for creativity and before whatever either of us needs to do or wherever we need to be for the rest of the day, we always try and fit in a little time to mess around in the studio and make something.

We used to end up arguing over what tones and textures to use so we’ve developed a non-verbal system of music making where one of us throws sounds at the other and records any good ideas. Discussion is good after the fact, but in the moment it tends to slow things down. We’ve got so many little nuggets stored away from these sessions, and most of them will never see the light of day but it’s always a delight when you revisit one you completely forgot about, have a sudden burst of clarity then find yourself engaging with the idea with renewed vigour. Some of our best songs have been birthed in this manner, and the key for us is to keep things focused yet casual in those crucial early stages. Morning coffee is the essential catalyst for these processes to happen.

Southern Shores’ New World EP is out 02 Oct on Cascine.

In Reference Points, we ask our favourite bands what inspires them from from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with Jordan Koplowitz from Seattle outfit Beat Connection fresh from releasing latest album The Palace Garden, who tells us his love of cooking.

Although this is barely a specific thing, learning how to cook has been one of my favorite pastimes these last two years. I’ve spent a great deal of time on the Internet and looking through books and magazines discovering new ways to prepare and present food. Although I’m by no means a professional, I feel that cooking has given me a new respect for patience and time management.

It’s harder to see the consequences of a lack of patience towards friends and social interactions because people tend to hide their feelings. Food is unforgiving. If you don’t knead dough for a certain amount of time or you don’t add a correct measurement of a certain spice, you will immediately be able to know that you’ve done something wrong. And you won’t be able to go back and fix it, you must start over. It’s about patience with yourself as well, knowing that the more a meal turns out poorly, the more likely you are to make it better next time. It’s all about learning from experience.

Having a solid chunk of time to dedicate towards creating a meal from scratch is one of the most peaceful things for me. I love going through recipes and venturing to the store to find new spices and flavor mixtures to experiment with. I find that people take the creativity out of meal preparation, and make it too easy for themselves. Spending time on a meal is often like a work of art and when you can share that creation with your friends and they can literally consume what you’ve created, it’s extremely worthwhile and fulfilling.

- Jordan

The Palace Garden is out now via Moshi Moshi/Tender Age Records.

Photo by Bálint Rádóczy

Each week, we ask an artist to tell us about something that they find inspiring from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with Dalma Berger, singer with Hungarian outfit Volkova Sisters, fresh from releasing latest EP HOPE, who tells us about the inspiration that she finds in the mythology and stories of sirens of the sea.

I have an unexplainable bond with sirens. One of my favorite paintings is Hylas and the Nymphs by John William Waterhouse. This inspired the Volkova Sisters logo. Even though there are Nymphs dragging the man down to the bottom of the lake, the essence is the same: to mesmarize, to enchant. No wonder that these two characters of female seduction are connected to the water so much, which is one of the basic female symbols.

There are many different stories around about sirens, but all are about a female character who seduces the sailors on the sea, or the wanderer on the shore of a lake.

Hylas and the Nymphs by John William Waterhouse

When I was a little girl, I used to dream about swimming in the sea with a half female half fish body, but I only understood the core of the siren story later, when I first mesmerized the audience and saw madness in the eyes of those who can really open up to music and singing. I find this a bit scary, because it gives you a power that you have to be able to handle and use wisely, otherwise it will drag down not just the audience but the performer too. That’s why there are two sirens linked together by their arms: the two of them are still dangerous, but their diabolic power is balanced out by becoming limited as a couple.

Where I also feel similar to them is that they didn’t choose to have such a voice, but were given this talent which they sometimes use well, other times not so much.

On the other hand, my star sign in western astrology is double ruled by Mercury, which is connected to water and air in alchemy. They are both indispensable elements of transformation and transmutation. I see the Sirens’ connection to the water as a kind of mercurial characteristic, where the voice and the water as transformational powers are strongly related. In other words, the little mermaids are not seducing, but transforming, transmuting the listener and opening up a different existential form for him. Whether the wanderer is prepared for it or not is another question…

Volkova Sisters’ latest EP HOPE is available now via their Bandcamp page. 

Photo Credit: Danny Payne

Each week, we ask an artist to tell us about something that they find inspiring from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with Paul Thomas Saunders, fresh from releasing latest EP Descartes Highlands, who tells us about the inspiration that he finds in the work, approach and career of Francis Bacon.

I find it hard to knowingly channel anything into music. It’s fruitless and frivolous for me to approach any song with the intention of colouring it with a particular sentiment. There aren’t many things that I can say directly affect my song writing, I don’t have the skill set to consciously turn emotion into creativity, but regardless, while it may not be consistently autobiographical, I keep writing, hoping that unconsciously I can channel something visceral and real. In this pursuit, for years now I’ve found Francis Bacon an abiding inspiration.

I’m under no illusion that any ties lie between the immediate beautiful terror in his art and the disposable nature of the pop music I create, but it’s not necessarily his paintings, and their acutely direct and shocking nature that I find so inspiring.

Quite a few years ago I visited Dublin where Bacon’s South Kensington studio has been relocated and meticulously reconstructed at The Hugh Lane Gallery. I suppose it was here where I began to find his approach, work ethic and self-perceptions so fascinating. It’s a feeling I experience more regularly with records, but there’s a distinct moment when something becomes more than just entertainment. You want to absorb everything you can about it, from its very conception, and then personally, I begin to dissect it, curious about how it, whatever it is, can be so affecting. Perhaps this is where the line is drawn between the things that you simply enjoy and the things that begin to influence the way you think.

It’s hard to describe his studio. Each wall, a colour palette in itself, resembles an abstract painting, and the floor, which you can only assume is still there, is carpeted with enough craft paraphernalia to stock paper chase twice over. Out of the cramped chaos of his workshop came the most visionary order, I think it was a juxtaposition he appreciated. I sometimes worry that my stubbornness to stay in our patchy home studio is ill founded, but his relationship with a workspace is something I strongly relate to.

He was a self-taught artist, and free from any art school indoctrination, his technique was organic. I still find it hard to jump the tracks from my seedy classical music past, but as a producer, I’m grateful to always be at loggerheads with the technology I’m using. I’m happy to be my own guinea pig and not know the limits of the equipment in front of me. Bacon’s uncompromising approach is a constant reassurance that the idiosyncrasies we acquire are what give any creation lasting merit. At least that’s what I tell myself when we’re wrestling with Logic at 5 in the morning.

His creative process was very intuitive. He said in an interview “I have an overall image of what I want to do, but it’s in the working, where it develops”. As an artist he’d rely solely on instinct and chance, without attempting sketches or drafts, he’d paint straight to the unprimed side of the canvas, meaning every stroke was final. Quite literally he either embraced, or burned his work. It’s a reckless approach but in such a processed age, it’s a refreshing notion. With lower aspirations, I like to think that in not demo-ing tracks we’re attempting to capture a similar essence. It’s a liberating way to work and it gives vitality to a task that can easily become laborious.

I’m generally quite reserved about discussing the meaning and inspiration behind my lyrics. I think there’s nothing more self indulgent than a songwriter discussing his own songs, yet, I wonder if the only reason anyone writes anything is in the hope that somewhere, those feelings are replicated by someone else. So perhaps what I find most inspiring about Francis Bacon was his willingness to let people read into his art with so little guidance. He had a relentless faith in the unconscious, and with all his equivocating, the pure violence of life and the shrewdest realism translated through his distorted portraits.

Descartes Highlands is available now through Atlantic Records, and catch Paul at one of his tour dates listed below.

Each week, we ask an artist to tell us about something that they find inspiring from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with Pond from Perth, Australia, fresh from releasing latest album Beards, Wives, Denim who let us into the secret of what helps to keep them on their toes creatively.

When you constantly watch your friends creating amazing, beautiful things for absolutely no reward except the appreciation a couple of other freaks in Perth, you pretty much have to be a Zen master not to feel inadequate standing by and watching. I have never studied the Dharma, and thus we need to keep trying to do stuff – hopefully good stuff – so as not to feel like a complete wash-up.

Our friends are always popping up with poems, songs, bands, giant paintings and sculptures, generator gigs, backyard galleries and videos, so you can’t just sit back and eat downers while they get all the buzz. I guess this could just as easily be called ‘competitiveness’, but I think it’s a little different, a little more on the ‘prove yourself’ side of things than the ‘disprove others’.

Here’s what we’re talking about…

A song written and performed by Felicity Groom and the video made Amber Fresh – both very close friends.

A foundation started by friend Peter Bibby to basically put on shows to fund the needs of friends.

An art space started by friend David Egan in his house in North Perth

Pond’s album Beards, Wives Denim is available now through Modular and the band will be making the following UK appearances throughout May and June:

Thurs 10th May – The Great Escape – Brighton
Fri 11th May – The Great Escape – Brighton
Fri 18th May – Sound City – Liverpool
Sat 19th May – Cockpit – Leeds
Sun 20th May – Hare & Hounds – Birmingham
Tues 22nd May - Rough Trade East Instore – 1pm
Tues 22nd May – Cargo – London
Weds 23rd May – Craufurd Arms – Milton Keynes
Fri 25th May – Arches – Glasgow
Sat  2nd June – Field Day – London
Sat 2nd June – Dot To Dot – Bristol
Sun 3rd June – Dot To Dot – Nottingham
Mon 4th June – Dot To Dot – Manchester

Each week, we ask an artist to tell us about something they find inspiring from outside the world of music. This week, ahead of the release of latest album Always, we spoke to Xiu Xiu‘s Jamie Stewart who recounted a marvellous tale of a realising a longing ambition on an inspirational trip to Guyana.

Thee Capuchinbird

In the Spring of 2011, hard to believe it has been that long, I took a bird watching trip to Guyana. I am just a hobbiest when it comes to our feathered betters, but when I’m able to it go on a trip to see them, it frees my heart like nothing else. Jonathan Meiberg of Shearwater, holding an advanced degree in Ornithology, upon my asking where in the world he would go to bird watch, said Surianame. I looked and looked but could find hardly any info on it, but next door is Guyana, where there is at least a guide book (actually only one). So off i went.

Guyana is, with the exception of one very small city, Georgetown, totally undeveloped rain forest. Luckily the government there understands its value and has no plans to destroy it to make hamburgers. Because of this though, bird watching there is a bit of a trick. Unless one is a Green Beret, one needs a human guide to get through the jungle.

Without going into details, the trip was astounding. At almost every moment, there was a new fellow earthling I had never seen before flying past my face. I have never been so consistently exhilarated.

There was one bird on my list however that was eluding me: Thee Capuchinbird.

As you can see from the photos it is singularly bizarre. It has a blue head, orange pom poms on its rump and generally looks like an evil 10,000 year old woman in a fur coat.

It is my favorite bird in the world. It was the main bird I needed to see.

On the last day I was there, very early in morning, the guide I had for that part of the trip asked me how the vacation had been and I said great but that I was sad I had missed the aforementioned grail.

He started laughing and said “let’s go!”

We walked through the jungle for 20 minutes and suddenly l heard its distinctive cry (play audio sample now!) right over my head.

There were three Capuchinbirds in perfect view, unobscured by leaves. They were displaying and preening like mad. They looked INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!

We spied at them for 30 minutes and they seemed to know somehow that this was a deep moment for me as they stayed there. Hopping around now and then but mainly, opening their wings, contorting themselves, puffing up their pom poms and making their awful, wonderful sound. It is like a cow strangled a rat.

My single prop flight back to Georgetown was leaving soon so we had to walk back. This moment was so moving I began to weep, hiding my tears from the the nature toughened bird guide.

It has been a goal of mine since to some how turn this experience into a sound or a composition/song. Not so much to imitate the call of Thee Capuchinbird but to translate that feeling of amazement, bafflement and adrenalized awe into something sonic. This bird has such a singular and almost impossible aesthetic, it has inspired me like nothing else in years. I have no idea how to do this, but its living on the same planet as us lowly humans has crimped my mind into trying to think about music in a new, albiet unclear way. This may be idiotic, but it is exciting to me to have been opened up in this way and I feel gracious to it for having done so. (Play audio again now!)

Xiu Xiu’s album Always will be released through Bella Union on the 27 February 2012.

Each week, we ask an artist to tell us about something they find inspiring from outside the world of music. Today it’s the turn of Californian semi-legend Chuck Prophet.

Lots of things have come and gone in my life. People… places. But, corny as it sound the music has always been there for me. What can I say about art without sounding totally pretentious? Here goes: I guess I try not to take myself too seriously. I try not to be terribly precious — but then again, I don’t think it’s ever hurt me to be obsessive and dogged at times. To have some inner drive to get things right. Even if that’s not really possible in the end. So there’s the rub.

And as for inspiration? Visit hunting lodges. Taxidermy is good. The more on the walls the better.

Okay, I made that up!

Well, inspiration is everywhere. It’s anywhere. Thinking bout the energy and weirdness that brought me to this city, I remember looking at some old posters…. I noticed how the old posters always said: ‘Minors welcome’. I guess as long as they served food the ABC would allow kids in the bars. I remember those days. The Berkeley Square would panic if someone ordered food. Then they’d send someone to the store and come back and throw a 7-11 burrito in the microwave. Every once in a while you’ve got to send someone out for a burrito, right?

[During the writing and recording of Temple Beautiful] I was listening mostly to records from, say, 1979. That period. Roky [Erickson], Roy Loney, S.V.T., Flamin’ Groovies. Early Petty, Dwight Twilly. Stuff like that. Guitar music. I moved up to San Francisco to go to college, majoring in student loans back in the day. I saw the Dead Kennedys at the Mabuhay Gardens and all the early Slash Records bands like Rank and File (with Alejandro Escovedo on guitar). Saw The Flamin Groovies at the Temple was another one of the first gigs I saw. Weird and then some. In fact, I was talking to Brad Jones my producer about that gig recently and he asked me, “Did they play Slow Death”. I’m like, hell I don’t know what they played but I can tell you what they were wearing!

Anyway, that’s the records. And we were making a San Francisco record. And so consciously or not I was listening to music from that period.

[Playing live] can work for you or against you. If I were a comedian I’d be the kind that keeps telling a joke just because I like it – or I’m convinced that it’s funny, regardless of whether or not the audience laughs. So, I don’t always test songs in front of an audience. And often times the first time I really perform a song for the first time is if I do a demo of it. But I’m always paying attention. And if I do a demo and suddenly the vibe in the room changes with the musicians or the coffee boy or whoever . . . . well, I’m hyper aware of that. For better or worse.

But a song is a song. And if it’s a good song you can beat the hell out of it and it’ll still stand up for itself. But you CAN get attached to an arrangement in a here-comes-the-strings kind of way. I guess you just have to unlearn the song to learn it again. I mean if your record is just a sound or something that’s totally all atmosphere, that could be a problem.

I can play a song a million ways. The problem is hearing the right one way. It’s all a process I suppose. I hate to hear people explain their process. There’s a lot – probably too much talking about writing and recording and mike pre’s and stuff. But what you really want is magic. And no one really knows where to dig for that. If they say they do. Even the best guys are 1/3 bullshit. But I’d say but for me. It’s something like (And don’t quote me as I might be quoting someone else here). The process is something like: You get an idea. You play. You play some more. Sing something. And the idea turns into another idea. Somehow the ideas start to connect. The music moves it along. You think of ways to start it; you think of ways to end it… and the rest is history or misery depending on how hard it is to get it to sound and sing and turn into a record. The rest is where to eat lunch.

I suppose I’m a little weary of getting attached to one version though. And then if I get in the studio and we’ve been playing it one way? Well the band can get a little stubborn. And you feel like you’re driving with the brakes on. And the fear for me is falling into a kind of ‘well it was working good live…people were diggin’ it’  trap. Songs are mercurial. You got to be on your feet. Stay nimble.

It was fairly easy going recording the new record. We tried to stay away from the world of digital. But we broke down here and there. I’m not a purist weirdo. I just like things to sound good. We got it to behave without much tears. I think the solos and the vocals and the whole thing was liver than ever. In some cases no overdubs at all – live. It was a small cast of characters in the studio. Brad slept on the studio floor. Stephie would drop by after hours and over-dub vocals or some keys here or there. We got hot. We weren’t complacent. The tape was rolling and we were desperate. Going straight to tape we had no choice. I mean, you can’t just go to lunch and expect the pro tools to magically fix your performance. So yeah, we were going for takes. And that’s as hard as the song wants it to be. Some more than others.

Temple Beautiful is a San Francisco record though and my favorite drinking hole [in that city] is the Li Po Cocktail Lounge - where the gin and tonics are mostly gin. If I ever start drinking again, that would be the spot.

Temple Beautiful is out now on Yep Roc. Stream the whole record here.

Each week, we ask an artist to tell us about something they find inspiring from outside the world of music. Today, Raf from costumed house duo The 2 Bears tells us about…table tennis.

Fittingly enough, Raf has kindly provided us with a pair of 2 Bears table tennis bats to give away. Check below for details on how to win.

For us bears in the studio, table tennis is the ultimate oblique strategy. When we hit a creative brick wall or can’t agree if something should be one way or another we break for half an hour or so and play table tennis. It is the most simply absorbing game and in order to play well you have to turn off your mind and relax. The minute you try and hit anything with any kind of misguided aggression your game is sunk. Joe has a table in his backyard and it is unlikely our 2 Bears album could have been made without it. I’m often asked in Q ‘n’ As which piece of equipment wouldn’t you go in the studio without and the answer is always a ping-pong table. We’re fiercely competitive. Joe has the edge but I claim that’s because he has the table in his yard. I don’t know if we’re any good or not, we’ve never really played anyone else. We’re having a tournament to celebrate our album release, hopefully we don’t go out in the first round.

Want to hone your own table tennis skills and (and potentially write a frighteningly enjoyable pop-house record while you’re at it)? Just leave a comment below telling us the name of the band’s debut album to be in with a chance of winning two pairs of 2 Bears table tennits bats.

Be Strong is out now.

Reference Points gives some of our favourite new artists the opportunity to tell us about something that has had an impact on their work – whether that is a song, a band, a date, a pair of shoes, or an entire country.

This week: ’60s-loving psychy duo Hyde & Beast – who couldn’t keep it to one influence, so they kindly gave us two.

Fleance – Third Ear Band

It’s like a medieval Velvet Underground song!

I first came across this song on a psychedelic compilation album put together by Amorphous Androgynous and was instantly smitten! The open line “oh your two eyes will slay me suddenly” had me hooked. Anyone that has been besotted by someone before will know the power of this line. I must have listened to the song about 50 times on repeat when I first got it.

Its very simple, only about 4 chords with an acoustic guitar, violin, hand drum and a meandering seemingly improvised flute line. It really, really reminds me of The Velvet Underground. It’s a drone, almost a dirge and I can totally imagine Moe Tucker singing it.

The lyrics are actually taken from a Chaucer poem: “Merciless beauty” and “Oh your two eyes will slay me suddenly, I may the beauty of them not sustain, so pierceth it throughout my heart keen” – just amazing! One night after a few too many gins I attempted to write a song using medieval language. I failed. Perhaps if I had been drinking mead I may have had a greater success.

A couple of very strange facts about this song: it’s actually sung by a very young Keith Chegwin! WHAT? Yup, it’s true, this fact put me off the song for about a day but then I crumbled and started listening again. The song was written for the soundtrack for Roman Polanski’s film version of Macbeth and the character who plays Fleance in the film was a young Cheggers who also sang this song.

Also strangely Johnny Rotten picked this song as a favourite of his when he appeared on a Capitol radio show in 1977.
Its a funny old world isn’t it?

Dead Man’s Shoes

Click here to view the embedded video.

This Shane Meadows film is my favourite film of all time. Just like the song above, I must have watched this repeatedly for weeks.

It’s violent and upsetting at times but also very, very funny at moments and it has some sense of justice. I don’t want to spoil the story for those that have not seen it, but it’s about a character who returns home from the army to discover that his brother who has learning difficulties has been suffering abuse from a gang of hapless drug dealers/thugs.

It has taught me that should I ever need to dish out a brutal revenge on anyone, then it’s best if I spike them with LSD first and then turn up at their house in a gas mask with a hammer!

The soundtrack is gentle and lilting and features songs by Smog, Calexico, Richard Hawley and Aphex Twin. I’m pretty sure that Warp Records released the soundtrack. Anything by Shane Meadows or featuring Paddy Considine is alright by me.

Slow Down by Hyde & Beast is out now.

Every artist has their own reference points: the things that lead them to make the music they do. Gigs, records, dates, clothes, books, people….they could take virtually any form.

In this new series of features, some of our favourite artists will tell us about their own reference points. Today: Oh Minnows‘ Chris Steele-Nicholson.

—

Influences are hard for me to tease out but I can say that Grapes Of Wrath affected me. I’m drawn to things that augment the interconnectedness between people. Maybe it’s because I feel the divisive effects of external forces at work in western culture. I don’t mean to say that there is a conspiracy, rather there is a consequence of merging a certain politic with a certain economic system. The book is an illustration of how we are connected both physically and ideologically. Grapes Of Wrath in some way makes the case that the quality of human relations depend on some kind of proximity, that you regard those close to you in a physical and emotional way but strangers are regarded ideologically.

Oh Minnows – You’ll Never Know Us by The Line Of Best Fit

Definitely place is important. I like going to small towns in the States. There is usually something very focused going on like someone has the most amazing collection of vintage soda bottles in the world, or maybe someone has kept a diner from the 1950’s in pristine shape. Creating a contained world within a certain culture is amazing. At the same time I love the city for the way information is passed between people. Living in NYC is like getting an advanced degree in whatever subject a stranger you just met in some coffee shop wants to tell you about.

In the last year or so I’ve been into 50’s and 60’s music. For me there is a certain amount of escapism there as though the USA just wanted to disappear into a dream. I’ve been listening to people like Marianne Faithfull, Santo and Johnny, The Crystals, The Ronettes, Scott Walker, Dusty Springfield, Tommy James & The Shondells, Phil Spector, and The Platters to name a few.