Sunday, November 24, 2013

electric arguments










The Fireman developed from an experimental instrumental pseudonymous side project to sing the changes of a lifelong passion in this more legitimate liberation.  Sir Paul McCartney had first teamed up with Killing Joke's Martin Glover (Youth) in 1993 for 'Strawberries Ocean Ships Forest', and again in 1998 for 'Rushes'; but, for 'Electric Arguments' they were ready to try something different. 

Youth reveals:    “On this one I was determined that we would go further with it without it being a task for him; so I’d go in a few hours earlier and prepare some completely different loops. They were very specific directions — one might be delta blues, one might be English folk, one might be Irish, one might be more electronic. Then he’d come in and we’d find out which one he felt he resonated with most that day and then I’d say, ‘Grab an acoustic and pick out the chords and change them if you want, and let’s start jamming to this loop.’ So we’d do a couple of overdubs and then get the bass and really I’d just keep him rolling.   I’d bring down all these poetry books or play him some really old traditional folk music and say, ‘Listen to this story and see if you can write some words.’ Or I’d go, ‘Take these poems and just pick out five words on that page and write a line out of those. (Laughs) And you’ve got 10 minutes!’ And he did it! I’d arrange the music while he was getting the lyric and he’d throw down a few vocals and then he’d say, ‘OK I’ve got to go home and cook Bea some tea.’  Then I’d really radically arrange the vocal tracks, rearrange some of the words and double some up from different sections to create little backing vocals. So the next day, first thing, I’d go, ‘OK we just need a couple of backing vocals on this and we’re done’. And he’d hear it and go, ‘Wow, fantastic.’ Then we’d mix it, often the same day. We literally spent 13 days and we recorded 16 tracks. He’s so incredibly fearless, maybe because he had the trust in me by then. But he was still making disclaimers, especially with vocals.”




McCartney explains:     "I would go into the studio with absolutely no idea; neither of us had any idea what the song was going to be, what the lyrics or the melody were, which could be said to be kind of a frightening prospect. Our collaboration then just became fun...I would pull some words out of a poetry book, do a cut up, stick it with some other words, make some other words up that went with them.  And suddenly we found ourselves on this kind of exciting trail, where 'Whew, it's a song...The pseudonym allows you to be anyone you want to be.  We always say, The Fireman can do anything. I think you can get into a bit of a straightjacket; you know, I am 'Paul of The Beatles' or I am 'Paul McCartney' who makes albums a certain way. So it's very liberating."


Youth now says:    "We first started that project 20 years ago, and we're still working on different Fireman projects.  There's a longevity to it that I don't think would have happened if I'd been doing Paul McCartney solo albums, so I'm very happy I have that relationship with him.  I thought it was good that with The Fireman, Paul managed to get a little more acknowledgement for his avant-garde expression, which was a big part of The Beatles. John [Lennon] did get a lot of the credit for that, especially from when he was with Yoko [Ono], because Yoko was so associated with that. And absolutely, that was a massive part of it as well.  Paul was actually the one who did the tape loops for 'Tomorrow Never Knows' and was coming up with a lot of the out-there arrangement suggestions for 'Sgt Pepper's...'... and hadn't really been acknowledged for that."






McCartney elaborates:    "Well, you know we made two Fireman albums, and they were instrumental, and those were very much based on the one chord – they were very trancey (makes droning noice). So having made two albums like that, we fancied a change. First of all we decided we’d use more than the one chord, and then tracks would go somewhere else. So we thought we could do anything. Youth suggested a vocal, but I told him I didn’t have any songs. He asked if I’d try a bit anyway, and I said sure, why not? It could have been the worst moment of my life, but I gave it a try and suddenly I started to find words. I looked in poetry books, and would find words – I kept singing these things at the track, and eventually a song came out of it. So the Fireman has found his voice through experimentation...I feel like I’m having fun, and that I get to enjoy myself in the studio. I still do, there and on stage. I feel kind of privileged to get into the studio with a nice guitar and an amp – I still think that’s really cool. I can just look at an amp and think, Wow. I think that enthusiasm is what drives me; it’s what I run on. I just really like what I’m doing, so this doesn’t feel like a risk to me. When to gets to this stage, when people are looking at what we’ve done, that’s when it seems risky. But I don’t like playing it safe really, and never have. Thinking back, releasing ‘Sgt Pepper’s’ was a risk. One newspaper had suggested we’d dried up, that we were finished, but all the while we were working on ‘Sgt Pepper’s’. Pushing boundaries keeps things fresh. We had the freedom to make this album the way we wanted – we could have been very precise, but that wasn’t the Fireman. The whole point about the Fireman is that it’s very free. I’m very lucky to have that. I’m not in the straight jacket… yet...I think it’s good to have someone to bounce ideas off of. Youth is a very easy guy to work with – he’s easy going, and has a great attitude to life, but he’s also hard working. I like working with someone, and I don’t need full control all of the time. I like to turn it over: What do you think? It’s better than sitting in a room working on your own all day. You do have to admire the person you’re working with, to do that...I’m the world’s worst expert on my voice, because I don’t think about it. So I don’t fuss about it that much – I expect it to work. On the Fireman, it’s a Fireman vocal, so I can just goof with Youth. But then he’ll say something works, so we’ll try it again, and I’m suddenly singing like Tom Waits. It’s fun, and interesting. It takes you to places you didn’t plan to go to, so that’s an interesting aspect. Linda used to like to go for a drive, to deliberately get lost – that was exactly the point, because it’s hard to get lost. You drive around London and there’s Big Ben, there’s a big sign saying West End… it spoils it. So this idea of losing your bearings – as long as it’s not in deepest Africa, and there’s a reasonable amount of control – is something I quite like. You don’t always know what’s going on so you can surprise yourself...I think that’s one of the tricks with expressionism, and abstract experimentation – you’ve got to know when you’re finished. It’s a trick you need to have when painting – I’ve done pictures that I’ve thought weren’t finished, but I’ve added something and ruined them, by going too far. I think I can now kind of tell when something’s finished, and I think Youth can do that too. So, I would do bass, drums, mouth organ, vocal… And he’d put it together almost like a DJ, because he is a DJ too. He has a good sensibility of what’s good to use, and that’s a sensibility that comes from being a DJ – he knows to use that sample, but not that one. He’d listen to a track and then just stop – it’s finished."

'Electric Arguments' saw the debut of the Fireman on the album charts in both the UK and the US, reaching seventy-nine and sixty-seven respectively. 









http://www.thefiremanmusic.com









http://www.youtube.com/user/ElectricArguments/videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az28S9MGR_Y











"Two Magpies" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1ziiEisb9c







"Sing the Changes" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcfiViHa1F4







"Travelling Light" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PlnMkwws6A






"Highway" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2D_tLtbGdg







"Light from Your Lighthouse" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaDsEjcmbsg






"Sun Is Shining" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqqAPd3WSP8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wOJieFeyr4






"Dance 'Til We're High"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaILCRMpby4






"Lifelong Passion" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YWvL-aD1Wc



"Lovers in a Dream" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqPBojDs54g






"Don't Stop Running" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gliv1h8WX0Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS_VWcdI16c















'Electric Arguments'
full album:




All songs written by Paul McCartney.

"Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight" – 4:55
"Two Magpies" – 2:12
"Sing the Changes" – 3:44
"Travelling Light" – 5:06
"Highway" – 4:17
"Light from Your Lighthouse" – 2:31
"Sun Is Shining" – 5:12
"Dance 'Til We're High" – 3:37
"Lifelong Passion" – 4:49
"Is This Love?" – 5:52
"Lovers in a Dream" – 5:22
"Universal Here, Everlasting Now" – 5:05
"Don't Stop Running" – 10:31
(includes hidden bonus track: "Road Trip")



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