TLOBF Meets… Doves

Travel arrangements are the corner stone of any expedition. And my expedition to the North of England, from low-lying Cambridgeshire, would take some planning. Cambridge, for all it’s loveliness, has found itself in a bit of black hole when it comes to travelling by public transport. It’s impossible to get anywhere without having to change somewhere first. So, for me to get to Stockport to meet Manchester’s finest, Doves, on a cold but bright Thursday, I’d have to be up, out and at Cambridge station at 7am. Why, you may ask? Well, to get onto the Manchester line I’ve got to go into London first.

Whilst I waited in my dirty trainers, threadbare duffle coat and satchel, mixing it with the London commuters and looking a little out of place next to the Moss Bros suits, I had time to contemplate what I was to be doing. This was an exciting day. A chance to go to the studio in which Doves were rehearsing for their first live tour in years, and get a sneaky listen to the highly anticipated new album, Kingdom of Rust. What would it sound like? What would the BAND look like? It’s been over 4 years since Some Cities, so what, if anything, has changed?
Of course, this trip allowed us to embrace the Twitter revolution. For those of you lucky enough to have subscribed to our feed, you had the joys of reading me “tweet” my way northwards, then describe, track-by-track, the new album as I listened to it for the first time. For a more considered opinion, look out for our review this week.

So, once we’d had a chance to inwardly digest the music, we had a chance of a chat with the lads. Well, just Jimi and Andy as Jez had his sleeves rolled up and was sorting out some “technical issues” with their new live kit. But a chat nevertheless. I was joined by John, editor of The Quietus, for the day as well, and I have to thank him for bringing his voice recorder as I’d left mine at home…

As we discussed the playback of the album, it became apparent that they’d been busy on the follow up to Some Cities for some time:

Andy: We’ve never worked so hard as we did on this record though. I think we generated 50 plus songs and ideas.

Jimi: But that’s also because if you count Sub Sub we’ve been together for 19 years. It was a bit harder to prize it out of each other this time. And we were working out if the chemistry was flowing. We had to get that chemistry flowing again. Because we just know each other so well. It was a case of how do we surprise ourselves again really.

Was it a troublesome process getting it down from the 50 songs down to the 11?
Both: Yes.

Andy: Because we work like a democracy everyone has to be happy with the song. If someone doesn’t like the song then it doesn’t go in.

Jimi: There’s only ‘Winter Hill’ and ‘Kingdom Of Rust’ from the earlier sessions that made it through to the album. That was just part of the process. The more you work the more things become apparent. It took a while. Some people say to us ‘Where have you been since _Some Cities_?’ and we’re like ‘In the studio 11am until 10pm Monday to Saturday working. We’ve got a heavy work ethic about it and we have to otherwise it would never get done.”

Did that have to do with the amount of time between now and the last one?

Jimi: Undoubtedly. And outside life’s habit of getting in the way.

It’s quite an eclectic record, and yet it still feels like a Doves record.

Andy: It feels very different to what you might think of as Doves. But then we always say ‘What is Doves?’

Jimi: Eclectic is quite an easy word to spout. Schizophrenic is how Jez (guitar) puts it. We really didn’t know what we had on our hands until we compiled it on January 14 and took it to New York to get it mastered. Up until that point . . . I wouldn’t say it was touch and go but CDs were still going back and forth with only 24 hours to go. You always blow hot and cold with what you’re doing but it was more so with this record I think. We were quite anxious at times.

I suppose ‘Compulsion’ is the trendiest song on the album – the hippest – because it’s got that punk funk, post punk disco feel to it. NYC, DFA, LCD, ESG – it’s a real three letter kind of track.

Andy: Is that trendy? I can’t keep up.

The LCD album is about two years old . . . That was the track that stood out most for me on the album. It sounded really different. The most un-Doves track.

Andy: That was a late-comer.

Jimi: It almost didn’t make it on to the album. I was really pushing for it to be on there. Some people were asking ‘Does it stick out too much? Is it too sticky-outy?’ But we managed to find a place for it and I’m glad we did.

So apparently this album features a delruba, which is an instrument I just heard about ten minutes ago for the first time.

Jimi: On ‘Birds Flew Backwards’. Yeah, I wanted an esraj which proved quite hard to sort out but the delruba is a close relative. Andy heard the demo of the song which was quite crude, quite simple and it reminded him of ‘Nobody’s Fault But My Own’ by Beck which is off the album _Mutations_ which we both love. That’s got that that swirling Indian string feel to it. And that got us thinking.

Andy: It seemed appropriate y’know. For a start it’s got an Eastern melody and with the background vocals and that it seemed to lend itself to that instrument.

We were just talking about it on twitter while we were listening to it . . . Are you aware of . . .

Jimi: I’ve heard of it but I don’t want to get involved!

It was a bit odd because it means you have to formulate an opinion very quickly.

Jimi: So the idea was you were kind of free-writing your opinions as they occur? Well that’s more interesting than ‘I just took a fucking dump.’

Both laugh

As I was tweeting I noticed that there was a schizoid feel to it. There was a lot going on. Was there any kind of theme to the album before you started or did you just whittle it down from 40 or 50 songs?

Jimi: The latter. Really it’s as organic as that.

Andy: The strongest material goes on there.

Jimi: And miraculously, last September we did this Heavenly gig . . . we weren’t forced into it but we couldn’t not do it. At first we moaned and groaned about doing it but it was . . . joy . . . because it got us away from doing the record and thinking about it. We were in a rehearsal space for two weeks getting a set together and we didn’t discuss the new album once.

Andy: We were musicians again rather than song writers.

Jimi: And then when we got back it all came together. We finished all the songs.

Do you think there’s a link between yourself and the other Mancunian bands, especial Elbow who are taking plenty of pludits at the moment? Is Manchester an important factor in your songs?

Jimi: I blow hot and cold about civic pride, me. Of course coming up you wonder ‘Do you shape your environment or does your environment shape you?’ And of course, collectively, you shape your environment. But growing up you couldn’t escape Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths. They were a huge influence on us in the 80s and it empowered us. Joy Division weren’t glamorous and you didn’t expect to be like them but Morrissey and Marr were huge; it was like they had this massive overview of musical history. They had an agenda and seemed to come quite fully formed. You knew straight away that there was something quite special about them.

Andy: Joy Div were before our time. We grew up with New Order. They were the template for us. They had the blue print and the attitude. They taught us that we could stay up here and we could do things for ourselves.

Jimi: The Hacienda was probably the biggest influence on us. We get asked this question but how do you know? We could have come from Utoxeter but we didn’t did we? It’s fucking hard to answer.

Andy: It’s for other people to answer I think. We’re too close to it.

Talking about Manchester, how do you feel about the rejuvenation of the city and how it has changed over recent years?

Jimi: The last record touched on that.

Andy: And even then it’s changed a lot again since that record.

Jimi: Like a lot of cities, they’re partially constructed from piles of sand with chisels and shovels stuck in them. Because there’s no money to pay people to get on with it. There are a lot of places like Ancoats that are half built. I don’t know how many flats this city can take – it’s tiny. They can’t sell them. Loads of them are standing empty. It was like after the Hacienda in the early 90s, suddenly all these funky bars appeared, that had wooden beams or were opened in warehouses and then there were no people to go and drink in all these places. I don’t even know what I make of it really . . . I just know that the city is tiny and it doesn’t need that many glamorous homes.

Andy: Saying that though, the city is in better shape than it was in the late 1970s and the 1980s. It used to be like a ghost town if you went out at night.

Jimi: Even in the Hacienda in the mid 80s. You’d go there on a Thursday night and you’d see five people. And then you’re running the gauntlet back to Piccadilly. It was fucking moody. I’m more afraid of Oldham Street than I am of walking through down town Washington DC. You walk through the ‘hood over there because you can’t avoid it because one street’s dead posh and the next is like the ghetto but it’s alright compared to Oldham Street. I’ve got my eyes and ears open going down there. You hear a lot about the violence in America but I’ve never seen any.