...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - London, UK - Spring 2007
By: Tim Dellow
Autopilot relationships. You wake up uninspired. Cuddles replaced by nods. Sex replaced by arguments. Freedom by children. Comfort gives way to complacency, which gives way to divorce. And then a fresh start.
Or, like most of our grandparents' generation, you just keep going.
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead have been stuck in a groove before. Thankfully, it was a groove that saw them continually refine across three albums the experimental guitar dirges of Sonic Youth with the emotive goth tendencies of The Cure. The supremely crafted trilogy that began with that self titled album on Trance Syndicate, peaked with 'Madonna' on Domino and then broadened it's horizons with the brighter 'Source Tags & Codes', their first for Interscope. These were such intense, essential records, a wonder-years groove.
And then the first twist, an EP that showed five potential directions, five jump off points, five possibilities for redesign. Unfortunately one of these, the one chosen, was to restructure the band, cultivate hardcore addictions, and create a sprawling monstrosity that all but the band's most devoted followers slated.
Tellingly, it's Conrad Keely's (the now front man in a previous leaderless band) favourite. And when the reviews hit, they hit hard.
"I don't really want to talk about that time... it was a dark time" He mumbles in the rundown dressing room of the not-quite-full-to-bursting Koko, barely containing the frustration of a misunderstood artist who worked so hard over a concept, only to have it critically mauled.
What it did do was to free things up, create a fresh start without pressure. The band's latest album 'So Divided', was just that: a collection of songs influenced by more direct American pop icons: the Beach Boys, Springsteen, and shockingly for the band, their first non-concept album.
"We just did what we wanted this time. No worries. No plan. Just write a song, record it, sequence it. It was the end of a dark time, as I mentioned".
And it seems like a cathartic, freeing process, from the band's past, and more personal demons. The revision of older song 'Witches Web', perhaps an album highlight, typifies a putting to bed of the past and cleaning the slate - 'Learning how to run is half the fun...' he wails; but where it originally sounded like an exploration of the self, it's now imbued with the bitterness of age and time and friendships lost.
'So Divided' laments the break down of a familiar relationship, and perhaps in this invocation points towards the future, creating new inspiration from this dead ground:
"The next album will be orientated around the concept of the family. I'd like to go back to Hawaii where Jason and I are from".
It seems that this is a moot point... Conrad sounds desperate to be a part of a family, or community. I stress to him that one of the initial attractions for the band on their appearance was the fact that they were completely different and had no contemporaries:
"For me that's always frustrated" he pushes "I've always found my inspiration from communities in the past: San Francisco, the Dada movement... I've always wanted to be a part of that kind of thing".
It seems that the shaping of a community is key to him, and key to the reasons that in an age of instant gratification, his personal messages to the world may be getting lost.
"Now, the whole image of the self is built from advertising, Freud's nephew worked with ad agencies to prove this."
I suggest that advertising can form communities too - reminders about Black History Month on the streets re-enforce histories, adverts promoting and pressuring people into recycling lead to a community responsibility - joining neighbours with common aims.
"Adverts have always done that too, man" concurs our front man "I mean, the pyramids were just adverts for the pharaohs.... the problem is that people always want things instantly, there's no patience any more"
The suggestion of the creative possibilities of using new media forms artistically fails to inspire however,
"Whatever they might be, they're far outweighed by the lack of patience and apathy of the consumer" he says slowly, looking out the window.
After an uncomfortable silence I leave. My parting shot is optimistic - "Just remember you've got the best job in the world" I say.
"Yeah, right" he replies; not a question, not a statement, a resignation and an expression of the responsibility this individual feels.
Photograph by Tom Hannan, taken at All Tomorrow's Parties