Void Pleasantries On the Making Of ‘When in Rome’
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your album 'When in Rome' and the story it tells?
I think that if this record tells a story, then it's the story of us growing up together. The lineup that recorded the earliest tracks on When in Rome consisted of myself, my brother, our childhood best friend and a guy I went to high school with, so these were people who had been such a part of the fabric of each others' lives, you know? I think that what inspired this work most is the shared experience that we grew up together with. Ross and I grew up with a single mother in... basically poverty, and I think that when you listen to the songs carefully enough you do get a sense of the anxieties and feeling of just being a bit lost that came with that.
Could you discuss the lyrical themes or messages conveyed in 'When in Rome'?
Some of the earlier songs on the record - 'Tedious Lie' and 'Be the Hunted' in particular - were written in around ten minutes each at rehearsal and the lyrics are just the first thing that came to mind that sort of rhymed. They don't really "mean" anything or have any sort of message to them. One of the songs, 'Emerald,' is a song I wrote about the first crush I had in high school. At the time it was the only reference point I really had for writing anything that resembled a love song, and I wanted to practice writing lyrics a bit more conventionally that week, I guess. I normally don't really like to write autobiographically when I write lyrics, preferring to keep things simple but a bit cryptic. I like people to be able to listen to my lyrics in songs and tell themselves their own stories from there. Another way of putting it would be that I don't write stories, I write prompts. 'From Afar' is the most straightforward I ever got with a song. Or that's what I thought, but my friend Kristofer once told me he loved that song because "it could be about literally anything". It's literally me recounting going to a performance of the play Twelfth Night in Edinburgh with a couple of friends. It was a good show. Intense. It was a production by theatre students. The songs Ross wrote are much more concise than mine and get to the point in a way that's more easily comprehendible. He's a more skilled songwriter and knows what he wants a song to say to people. Whereas I struggle to get to the point and I like it that way. One other point on the themes of the lyrics would be that we tend to put focus on the microcosmic in our songs. We aren't a bigger picture band. We don't sing about politics or social issues, generally. We'd rather people have a personal experience with our music that's a bit different. That's the case with me anyway.
How did you work with the producer or engineers to bring your vision for this album to life?
That is a virtually impossible question to answer satisfactorily in the case of this record because it was recorded by so many people in so many ways and at so many different times. Some of these songs were written in 2007 and recording took place between 2008 and 2015 on all but one - 'The Meddler' - which was recorded live in 2019. This record is basically composed of two EPs from over a decade ago, the best of which was re-sequenced and added onto with a couple of songs we didn't release before. This album is an attempt to present that earlier music in its best form ahead of what's to come in the future, which is eventually to release more stuff we didn't record yet. It's both like a sort of reboot and also as I mentioned earlier an attempt to tell the story of us growing up together. I guess that the variety helps in that sense. It's probably notable that Ross and I have very different ideas when it comes to production and especially "production value". I very much prefer a low-cost, lo-fi approach, sort of record it, put it out and move on. Ross would listen to half the stuff I listen to and be like "you can barely fucking hear this or that!" or simply "that sounds shite man". He studied music and is really good at it, very technical, whereas I'm a borderline recluse that likes philosophy and can't play or programme a single note. My brain is absolute carnage at times. So, quite different approaches. I know he finds me hard to work with sometimes.
How do you translate the essence and energy of this ablum in a live performance?
We have always had a pretty straightforward and basic live show. We show up, bung everything up to 11 and play our songs as loud as possible. As it stands just now, we haven't played a show since 2019 and we don't have a full lineup at present. If that changes at some point then I guess we might play live again. It was never really our main interest in the band. I think we preferred being in a room together rehearsing and having a laugh, or recording. Performing live was something we'd do because it's what bands do. Not because we loved doing it. Don't get me wrong, it's fun, but I don't think it's the most fun part for us as a band. That's definitely the case for me personally. I can take it or leave it.
Are there any specific venues or festivals that you dream of performing at?
I guess it would be pretty sweet to play abroad. We never played outside Scotland before so it would be cool to play in Europe - Italy or France or somewhere. Best festival I ever went to was Primavera Sound in Barcelona, to see Guided By Voices, so that would be cool to play at I suppose. I mean, the album is called When in Rome and the cover art is a picture of the stairs at Circus Maximus so fuck it, Circus Maximus in Rome would be a dream venue!
