super groovy delicious bite: 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."

super groovy delicious bite

Sunday, November 24, 2013

electric arguments

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