TINDERSTICKS
3/12/2008 20:00 - Tindersticks, the popular British band which returned to the music scene this year, are coming to Czech Republic on December 3rd. Organised by Charm Music
They will play at Prague's Archa Theatre as part of the tour for their new album The Hungry Saw, which was released in April 2008. Audiences can look forward to their traditional melancholic melodies, subtle humour and fresh energy.
The new album was released five years after the previous album by the band hailing from Nottingham, whose three founding members now live in different parts of Europe. Since 2003, when they released Waiting For The Moon, Tindersticks has basically not been working. Front-man Stuart A. Staples, singer and guitarist, meanwhile released two solo albums, which he says gave him the chance to crystallize what he wanted from the band’s album. The Hungry Saw was created in eight days in the informal atmosphere of the studio which Staples built in his house in the French region of Limousin, where he relocated from London with his wife and children. Only the two other founding members of the band, Neil Fraser and David Boulter, were present at the recording. “The release of this album after being alone for such a long time is great and exciting, but at the same time I’m worried about how it’ll turn out. Tindersticks isn’t at the end, it’s at the beginning,” said Staples.
“Many songs were written during a creative period when ideas come very quickly. It’s the first time we had too many songs. It could have been a longer album, but we were ruthless in selecting the material,” said Staples. He also added that the middle part of the album, from “The Hungry Saw” to “All The Love” is full of songs which “I can’t say I understand why I wrote them. They’re like dreams, hard to capture. But I also consider them the best.” Tindersticks currently consists of its three founding members – Stuart A. Staples, guitarist Neil Fraser and pianist David Boulter – who grew up in Nottingham listening to the same music, with the same notions about what’s right and what’s wrong. “Maybe Tindersticks has become too large an animal – we have to constantly feed it ideas and money. But the hardest thing is not to fall into the stereotypes of all six people who were members. After all the changes, we’ve kept the same feelings, but we look at them from new angles. We’ve arrived at the real reason why we make music,” explained Staples.
Tindersticks was formed in 1991. From humble beginnings, in ten years they achieved everything from a performance at Royal Albert Hall to a duet with Isabella Rossellini. They probably never expected that their 1993 album (also called Tindersticks) would attract so much attention. It was named the album of the year by several publications. Staples’ baritone voice was compared to Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and Scott Walker. Songs like “City Sickness”, “Jism”, “Marbles” and “The Not Knowing” impressed listeners with their honesty and passion, which offered an alternative to the indie-pop at the time in vogue.
The second album in 1995, again somewhat perversely bearing the same name as the band, was built on the basis of the first, featuring songs like “Tiny Tears” and “No More Affairs”. One reviewer compared it to a “ghost train pulling into a phantom city”. In their third album, 1997’s Curtains, in “The Ballad Of Tindersticks” Stuart whispers: “When do you lose the ability to take a step back and see your own absurdity? They’re only songs… we’re artists, we’re sensitive and important, we bow our heads.” It was an indication of how unpleasant all the fame and media attention had become. “Everyone around us starting going crazy, it really surprised me,” said Stuart. “I’ve never fully estimated the earlier albums. They went somewhere higher earlier than we did. I still don’t know whether people understood what they’re about, or whether they just took what they wanted from them. I was happy with the music, but much less so with performing in front of people.” Nevertheless, their next album Simple Pleasure garnered an even bigger response and even greater effects. Soul and gospel started appearing in some songs. “This album was about demolishing old things and starting from scratch. We all felt soul inside ourselves,” added Stuart. Following 2001's Can Our Love, they continued to combine the most emotional aspects of various genres, such as pain (“Tricklin´”), as well as hope and solace (“Chilitetime”).
After Waiting For The Moon a number of changes took place. Stuart moved to France: “What I needed was space. I never dreamed about life in the French countryside, but my wife and I felt that in London we were in prison… on the streets and in the studio. Of course, you gain one thing and lose another. But my feeling of inner space really changed a lot. When I wrote 'Say Goodbye To The City' it was like I was saying it’s time to move on. Now I feel that it was a change for the best, instead of sticking to one way of making music, with the same relationships in the band, familiar places. Now nothing from the past exists; I’m not in a trap. Everything is fragile, but when you put it together, it’s really strong. The band used to be strong, fantastic; but after all those years it needs new sounds and approaches. You need to know where it’s going.”
In the end, though, the old gave birth to the new. After Tindersticks played an exceptional concert Don’t Look Back in 2006 in London’s Barbican Centre, which was heavily influenced by their second album, the band suddenly felt that a circle had been completed. “We had an outlet for nostalgia and this showed us the future. We had to turn things upside down and put them in a new place. That night was the real catalyst…. In my opinion, what the new album has and what I haven’t felt in a long time is freshness; everybody was involved in the creation, everybody wanted something, everybody was trying to do something. At the heart of this album is a heart that beats in rhythm,” said Stuart.
Tindersticks creates music for the film “35 Rhums” directed by Claire Denis
The British band Tindersticks wrote and recorded the music for the new French-German film 35 Rhums (English title: 35 Shots of Rum) directed by Claire Denis. The film was enthusiastically received at the Venice film festival in August and at a September screening in Toronto. The music was recorded by Tindersticks in their home studio “Le Chien Chanceux” in France by David Boulter, Stuart A. Staples, Neil Fraser, Dan McKinna, Thomas Belhom, Jo Fraser and Christine Ott. 35 Rhums presents a range of characters from the French working class, its plot revolving around the relationship between a father and daughter who experience the most varied changes of fortune. French director Claire Denis is known for giving equal weight to the atmosphere, colour and visual mood of her films. The renowned director’s films include Chocolat, Man No Run, S'en fout la mort, J'ai pas Sommer, Nénette et Boni, Beau travail, Trouble Every Day, Vendredi Soir and L'Intrus. You can listen to a preview (closing titles) of the music which Tindersticks wrote for the film on the band’s MySpace page: www.myspace.com/tindersticksofficial. In addition to the film’s soundtrack, Tindersticks began working on another film by Denis and created music for Louis Vuitton’s summer show in France. On September 27th they will also release a new single called “Boobar Come Back To Me” from the “Tout L´Amour” collection as a b-side.
Concert. No language barrier.
Links:
www.tindersticks.co.uk
www.myspace.com/tindersticksofficial
Video:
The Hungry Saw - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsHIYFqORds
Tickets at the Archa Theatre Box Office: CZK 740 / on the day of the concert CZK 790.
Tickets available from Ticketpro and Ticketportal outlets for CZK 790.
