Malcolm Middleton
December really is party season for Malcolm Middleton, what with his single challenging for Christmas number one, celebrating what will be his thirty third birthday on New Year’s Eve, and the whole birth of our Lord and saviour Jesus H. Christ n’all. It’s the highest his profile’s been in a good while, but it’s not recently that Malcolm began making great music, his songs first coming to public attention in 1995 when he formed the post-folk indie duo Arab Strap with Aidan Moffat.
The pair, both from Falkirk in Scotland, shared a love for the work of the likes of Smog and Will Oldham, and the seedier, more despondent side of human behaviour. Though the ingredients hardly pointed down a joyous path, they managed to make some incredible music out of the endless possibilities they presented, starting with the LP The Weekend Never Starts Round Here in 1996 and culminating in their fifth record, The Last Romance, released in 2005.
A sardonically titled best of compilation - Ten Years Of Tears - mocked their constant press association with being miserablists, and drew a line under that period of Malcolm Middleton’s life. Whilst Moffat went solo under the tilte Lucky Pierre, Malcolm saw nothing wrong with his birth name, and set about authoring his own records. He had in fact been doing so since 2002, when Arab Strap were still a going concern, releasing his debut solo full length 5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine. It was the first record on which he had sung or written any of the lyrics. He describes listening to the record now as being like “hearing an old friend who was severely depressed, desperate and unhappy”.
The demise of his band and worsening personal situation informed the bleaker still Into The Woods, his second LP, released in 2005 and featuring guest spots from the likes of Mogwai, the Delgados and, interestingly enough, Aidan Moffat. Recorded during a period where Malcolm “didn\'t leave the house for six months”, it was the first of his records to have any singles released from it, and garnered huge praise from the likes of John Peel, Mojo and the Observer.
“A pop album for people who hate pop music… or “love songs for depressed people who find it hard leaving the house sometimes and worry too much about dying and the consequences of their daily actions and thoughts to be able to enjoy life fully”, his third solo album A Brighter Beat hit the shelves with an almightier thwack than any of his previous discs in February of 2007. The title is misleading – though the melodies might indeed be brighter than ever and singles abound, it continues Middleton’s exploration of human depression, but this time with choruses.
Great choruses, in fact – none more so than that of the mantra like repetition of ‘You’re gonna die, you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die alone’ that makes up the chorus of his stab at the 2007 Christmas number one slot ‘We’re All Going To Die’. “It’s not exactly a newsflash but you\'d be surprised at how many people need reminding of this”, says Malcolm. And there’s surely no better way.
Below follows an interview conducted by Charlie Potter with Malcolm Middleton from Spring this year, around the initial release of the A Brighter Beat album.
Malcolm Middleton, and \'A Brighter Beat\' in particular, is important to me. And so, I spent the day prior to this interview nervously scribbling down notes, phoning people and asking for reassurance... thus by the time I shake Malcolm\'s hand, mine are particularly clammy (a condition I\'m well known for), and I\'m so nervous my heart starts pounding. I decide to warn him of my nerves, and that this is in fact my first ever interview, and immediately afterwards I think that this was a really stupid idea. Yet in retrospect, I actually think it gave the whole affair quite a special atmosphere. Well, you be the judge of that...
Rockfeedback: The first thing I\'d like to speak about is how the music\'s written - a lot of the stuff on \'A Brighter Beat\' is quite structurally diverse, some songs are quite guitar based, others rely heavily on the piano... I know there are also some quite well known guest musicians on the album too...
Malcolm Middleton: "Well, where do I start... most of the songs on the album are written on an acoustic guitar. That\'s where it starts, and then before I go into the studio I\'ll think about how I want it to sound when it\'s finished production wise, and then I\'ll play as much as I can until it starts to sound full. I know people like Barry Burns and Mac Cook... Barry does piano, Cook does brass and stuff, so when I\'m struggling I\'ll get them in. I like Barry Burns\' input because he always does something against the grain from what I\'m doing. I work from a certain era, then he does different hooks and melodies and stuff like that, that I wouldn\'t be able to do myself."
RFB: There seems to be quite a diversity to the production and the way that things are layered up, it\'s hard to put your finger on but it\'s one of those albums I like to think of as being like a sonic bowl of fruit.
MM: "It\'s good you say that because I don\'t think it\'s as diverse as my last album! This one sounds to me like it was made in the same room at the same time."
RFB: One of my favourite songs on the album, although it\'s quite hard to choose because sometimes one song will be my favourite and the next day another, but the one I keep coming back to most is the last track \'Superhero Songwriters\'... there\'s a line that\'s probably one of my favourites on the LP, \'Superhero songwriter, super cliché chorus finder\' - one of the many things I find interesting about that particular line is that it seems to reflect the fact that there are a lot of friendly, familiar sounds on the album I general. Is that something you see in the record yourself?
MM: "I know what you mean. That line in that song is about embracing the cliché as well, and not being scared to do that. I think that that line is a bit ambiguous because it touches on the self loathing aspect of writing something and then thinking that it\'s shite because it sounds like something else, but also I know myself and when I\'m working on a guitar part or a lyric or something, it\'s the familiarity that draws me to it not the originality. I can never quite say what it reminds me of but it\'s the sort of thing that you feel like you\'ve heard it before, I suppose I think that good pop music is a cliché. You\'re not going to get an original pop chorus anymore. In fact, it\'s not a line for me that stands out as being one of the best."
RFB: How far are you hoping to take this? You yourself refer to it as pop music quite a lot, do you want it to be seen as a real pop album?
MM: "No, I\'d probably end up hating myself and I\'d hate the album if that happened. When I say pop I mean old fashioned pop, like a good chorus and not lo-fi recordings and well produced hooks that stick in your head. The reason I said that stupid quote about \'pop music for people that hate pop music\' in the biog is that I love pop music but I hate the shit that goes with it. I don\'t like the manufacturedness of it, I like a good hook that sticks in my head. I don\'t want to get anywhere, I just want to make another album that I\'m pleased with."
RFB: So you have no idea what the next album is going to be like?
MM: "Not yet. I mean, I\'ve written some songs since doing this one but I don\'t know how I\'m going to produce it. I wouldn\'t want to make it any bigger production wise, and keep making bigger orchestras - I\'m kind of sick of that already, because \'Superhero Songwriters\' does that."
RFB: How do you deal with some of the bigger orchestrated things live, is there a full band?
MM: "Yeah, there\'s a full band, but I don\'t have the luxury of having an orchestra so stuff like \'Superhero Songwriters\', the start of it is a bit more gentle, but then it\'s all live guitars."
RFB: With the variation of styles on the album, something that it allows you to make a lot out of but also presents a problem is what order you put the tracks in, is that a big deal to you or is it just something quite intuitive?
MM: "It\'s a big deal. It\'s a big deal coming up with an album title and it\'s a big deal coming up with a running order, just because there\'s one order that will work, and for this album I knew that it would start with \'We\'re All Going to Die\' and \'Superhero Songwriters\' is the obvious one to be last. It was just a case of filling in the middle. I don\'t regret it, but in the middle it slows down quite a lot after the first four or five songs, but it kind of works because there\'s that line in \'Sit Tight\' that goes "I can feel depression coming", and it slows down from there on."
RFB: I hadn\'t noticed that.
MM: "I didn\'t either until some German journalist mentioned it, so now I try and pretend it was deliberate."
RFB: Do you see that structuring as quite a mathematical thing?
MM: "I wouldn\'t say it was mathematical, I\'d probably say it was more manic in my personality or something, it kind of starts up beat and goes down and then comes up a little bit."
RFB: One comparison that comes up quite a lot with your music is to Leonard Cohen, but that doesn\'t really work for me - his songs are so narrative based whereas yours aren\'t like that at all, they just seem to be what you\'re thinking at the time.
MM: "No I don\'t think there\'s one song that I\'ve written that has a story in it, each line is kind of about a different thing that doesn\'t make sense. Well, it makes sense, but I\'m sure that people don\'t know what I\'m talking about a hundred percent."
RFB: No I don\'t think people ever can, but I do think there is something with your lyrics, they\'re not metaphorical or analogous...
MM: "No, there\'s none of that. They\'re sort of straight forward, but also there are a lot of things that you can pick that have lots of meaning, just in one line, sometimes it will be just random like I\'m writing off the top of my head and other times I\'ll have to think about it a bit more and put the words together that actually make up multiple meanings."
RFB: That\'s interesting, because I wondered with a lot of these direct points that you\'re making if you ever worry about the tangibility of what you\'re saying?
MM: "No, I don\'t worry about it because, from my first two albums, it happens all the time - people don\'t understand what you\'re talking about. When I\'ve finished the song in my house it\'s finished and I put a wall up and I don\'t care what anyone else thinks or how they interpret it, I mean I think that\'s the beauty of me not explaining what I\'m writing. It does get annoying when something\'s quite drastically off the mark but it\'s also quite funny."
RB: The album often gets summed up as being depressing lyrics put to happy music, how far would you go with that?
MM: "It\'s something that I started doing on my last album, and kind of got on some of the songs on this one, but I wouldn\'t take it any further. I mean, it\'s something that I like because for me it\'s like wearing a mask - I can say what I want and it\'s disguised behind a fast stupid poppy punk song or something like \'We\'re All Going to Die\', so there\'s not much more I can do with that. I think that that little game has finished, but at the same time I wouldn\'t want to go and have completely depressing music and have completely depressing lyrics, because it makes whatever I\'m saying more palatable."
RFB: What you were listening to when you wrote these songs? I suppose that was probably quite a while ago...
MM: "Stuff like John Cale, um the album \'Slow Dazzle\', and David Graham, folk, blues and beyond, Jackson 5, Sophie... that\'s probably the direct influences, and stuff like Spiritualized is quite a big influence on me. Lately I\'ve been listening to the new Bat For Lashes album."
RFB: Well thank you very much Malcolm Middleton.
MM: "Well, good luck Charlie. I\'m glad I was your first interview."
MALCOLMMIDDLETON.CO.UK: Blur, Deerhoof and now Malcolm Middleton – you’ve got to admit, that David Shrigley’s got taste. His charming scribbles litter Malcolm’s official site.
MYSPACE.COM/MALCOLMMIDDLETON: Some remixes of the current single and a genuinely amusing, personal blog – the most recent entry in which details how “Leon won the X Factor last night. So come on, this should be a push-over!”
MALCOLM MIDDLETON ON CHEMIKAL UNDERGROUND: The acclaimed Scottish indie label’s site provides in depth looks at the first two Middleton solo LPs, and all that came with them.
WEREALLGOINGTODIE.CO.UK: This is where you can buy that single. Do it. Now. Stop reading this.
WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE FOR XMAS #1?: How we reported Malcolm’s attempt at the festive top spot – at the time, William Hill were giving him odds of 1000/1 – as we go to press today, he’s fourth favourite with odds of 12/1! Makes it worth a purchase, and a punt, too?
A BRIGHTER BEAT (SINGLE): The single, and centrepiece, and title track, from M.M.’s new LP reviewed.
LIVE IN LONDON, MARCH ‘07: Around the time of the release of A Brighter Beat, Malcolm played this intimate Kings College show to a rapturous room.
A BRIGHER BEAT (LP): Rockfeedback was delighted to award its first five outta five review of the year to Malcolm Middleton’s third LP.
ARAB STRAP TO SPLIT: How we reported the demise of Malcolm’s wonderful previous band.
LIVE @ CAMDEN CRAWL ‘07: Malcolm’s set at the NW1 bar was how Rockfeedback rounded off another year at the Camden Crawl – we’ll be back next year, putting on our own stage.