Gravenhurst
In an almost ungrateful way, the word
"brilliant" doesn't fully appy to "Flashlight sessions". It
is a word used for works that waste their superfluos things,
while the appeal of Nick Talbot's (aka Gravenhurst) sophomore
album is in the maturity, in the painstaking smoothness- in
the fascinating and sinister deepness of harmonizations merged
with cinematic images suspendeded in the fog of one's awareness.
An extraordinary record indeed, and in the most banal meaning
of the term, brilliant. After our end-of-year 2003 playlists
showed that there were different opinions here at indiepop.it
about his album, and just prior to a welcome Warp Records
reissue, we talked a while with Nick.
Nick, this year I got to interview the three persons responsible
for my three favourite records of 2003 (the other two being
The Clientele and Roger Quigley). A good year I'd say, if
you know where to look. What do you listen to nowadays?
I've been going through a period of listening to Bert Jansch
and Neil Young a lot, also Crescent (the Bristol band -not
'The Crescent'); their latest album 'By the Roads and the
Fields' is unique. I'm also a big Guided By Voices fanatic,
though you probably wouldn't know that from listening to Gravenhurst!
I've also been listening to Pearls before Swine, who my friends
Jeffrey and Miriam from Black Forest/Black Sea introduced
to me. Their two latest albums have influeneced me a lot;
they got me into more 'psychedelic' folk music than I was
listening to before. There are also a lot of great bands coming
out of Bristol right now. War Against Sleep and SJ Esau are
two of my favourite Bristol bands, as well as Crescent and
Movietone, who have been around for some time. Flying Saucer
Attack, who came from the same scene, is also a big influence
on me, and I continue to listen to his records. I've also
got really into Nico, and recently, Fairport Convention.
All the stuff i've been listening to is listed on the Jukebox
page on my site at www.silentagerecords.co.uk/gravenhurst
Amongst the artists you most often listen to, are there
any that have influenced your way of composing music?
I suppose up until recently the influences on the way I compose
songs has always been more pop artists, like Simon and Garfunkel
and the Smiths, writing songs on the guitar. But the way I
actually arrange it has been progressively more influenced
by artists like Low and Red House Painters. This is changing
though. I have a three piece band now, and the new material
has more psychedelic elements, with lots of sonic droning
passages, as well as touches of Slint and My Bloody Valentine.
What do you think about critic's way of comparing every
decent fingerpicker to Nick Drake?
It's lazy journalism. Nick Drake was an amazing guitarist,
but there are historically far more important fingerpickers
such as Bert Jansch, Davey Graham and Jackson C. Frank who
influenced Nick Drake, and people forget that. Just because
the journalists have only heard Nick Dake, doesn't mean that
the fingerpickers haven't cast their nets much wider! I often
think I might be one of the few people who criticises Nick
Drake's work. 'Pink Moon' is a very strong album, and parts
of 'Five Leaves Left' are good too, but 'Bryter later' is
marred by very dated and unsympathetic arrangements. Anyway,
I only discovered Nick Dake after Gravenhurst had started;
the original influences on the guitars and vocals in Gravenhurst
were Simon and Garfunkel and The Smiths.
One of the things that delight me the most on your record
is the delicacy with which you insert little "electronic"
sounds on your acoustic webs. They underline some simple passages
with an indescrivable strenght. How are you songs born?
I write the songs on acoustic guitar mainly, then arrange
them with various instruments.
 "Internal
Travels" is a nice record, but "Flashlight Seasons" seems
to have a stronger melodic edge in the song's structure. Can
you spot any differencies between the two works?
There are enormous differences. I think Internal Travels is
quite weak. I hadn't thought of harmonising the vocals at
that point, and if I could do it again i'd change it all.
That makes a big difference. The songs just aren't as good.
It's funny, but The Diver, Bluebeard, Tunnels and Hopechapel
Hill actually date back to way before Internal Travels, but
I knew they were much better songs so I decided to leave them
until later when I could do them justice. For the first album
I just chose songs I could record simply, as it was my first
venture into recording. My friend Simon Grant did a great
job engineering it though; considering what equipment we had
we couldn't have made a better recording.
I'm still proud of the High Seas, and especially Meet the
Family; i'm really happy with the way we arranged it so fully,
and made it a grand finale to the album. I wish the whole
album was that good! Also lyrically, IT is a bit weak and
one dimensional.
"Flashlight Seasons" is a masterpiece of obscure melancholy.
it gets silently into your emotions and then it wrecks every
reassuring thought. What is your imaginary? What do you feed
it with?
That's a hard question to answer. I really like the idea of
having lyrics that are a mysterious, whilst the emotions theuy
convey are extremely direct. I think Low are the masters in
that respect. I don't like it when I fully know what is going
on; that bursts the bubble and all is lost. Dreams are a big
inspiration and are mainly interesting because they are hard
to understand, yet have a deep, magical resonance. Two of
my favourite writers are M.R. James. the Victorian writer
of ghost stories, and Alan Moore, the comic book writer. Both
hint at hidden structures and meanings without fully revealing
everything. This leaves things open to interpretation and
makes you come back for more. For this same reason we can
become obsessed with unsolved mysteries like the Whitechapel
Murders; if we knew the answers we would lose interest. But
paradoxically, it is precisely these answers which we are
seeking.
Another thing that strikes me is the distance between the
gentleness of the guitar parts and the uncertainty of the
images they evoke. Something that makes me think avout a David
Lynch's movie. Is this contrast deliberate?
I suppose I was initially into the idea of shocking people
by delivering challenging lyrics in a pastoral setting. But
now the musical arrangements have slowly become more progressive
anyway; I'd like to think that Tunnels, The Diver, and ...Forest
Floor, for instance, are musically as well as lyrically ominous.
The new stuff is even more so. But I still try to write pop
songs, just arrange them in a more expansive way.
These should be good times for a music so elegant and dense.
How was the record received by the press and the public?
Well so far it isn't well known because it is on very good
but very small labels. Only a few people have reviewed it
and they have mainly been in the USA. So far the reviews have
ranged from crap to very high praise. A lot of them don't
seem to notice the lyrics or the arrangements much; they just
talk about how pretty the music is, which is frustrating.
We'll just have to wait and see how it gets reviewed when
it is reissued.
We heard that Warp will reissue Flashlight Seasons: what
are you expectations about it?
Hopefully it will sell well! And hopefully it will be critically
well received. It's hard to say how it will do. The music
industry -not to mention the world- is a very uncertain place
now. People aren't buying records, and the records that do
sell are mainly total shit. Fortunately people who like good
music are also the kind that actually care about the product;
a lot of them still want a nice fat piece of vinyl in quality
packaging!We hope to get the next album out soon after; I
think it will be a more expansive album.
Do you like performing live? What kind of people comes
to your shows?
I do like performing live. It has progressed from solo shows
to a more steady three piece now, with Dave Collingwood who
plays in Immense, on drums, and Paul Nash who plays bass and
guitars and harmonises with me. We've mainly played in Bristol
and London though, so most of the people who come to our gigs
know us personally. In the USA I toured solo with Black Forest/Black
Sea, and we played with Bardo Pond, Fursaxa, Landing and others.
It was awesome to play to complete strangers.
Although it's a great record from start to finish, let
me ask you what are your favourite song (songs) in FS and
why (mine are "tunnels" and "hopechapel hill")
Tunnels is my favourite. It's the most expansive. We can't
play it live yet as it's too complicated. We would need three
guitarists, two organ players, a clarinet player and a drummer.
What will you do in the future? Are you working on something?
I'm working on a new album. Then after that i imagine i'll
work on another.
The book, the record, the movie and the woman you would
bring with you on a desert island.
That's a hard one! When I get asked these kind of questions
I can't remember anything i've ever watched or read. I suppose
i'd have to bring a really long book, so i'd probably bring
Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time', which I have no
hope of reading unless I am stranded on a desert island. As
for the film, maybe Donnie Darko because I stil don't understand
it after three viewings, but it's still the best film i've
seen in a long while. As for the woman, that would have to
be my wife Erin.
Alessandro
Links:
Gravenhurst Website: www.silentagerecords.co.uk/gravenhurst
Gravenhurst@indiepop.it: bands/gravenhurst.htm
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