midlake says...

Texan band Midlake are due to release their newest album, The Courage of Others, very shortly. Kluster’s Samantha Hartmann was lucky enough to not only hear an advance copy of this British-folk inspired album, but to also speak with band member Paul Alexander about their newest creation. The band has gone in a new direction, giving them the opportunity to explore different ways to create their music. Fans of Midlake will still recognise the haunting, rich sounds but the inspiration for this latest release was quite different to that of their previous works. This album was longer in the making due to this, but, as Paul explains, the band is happy with the evolution and are looking forward to taking it on the road.

Covered: crazy jazz, B-sides, U2 and British folk.

Samantha Hartmann: What makes this album different from your previous two?

Paul Alexander: It took a lot longer! This one took us about a year longer than the others but it was necessary to get the sound we wanted. We tried to focus more on arranging as a band rather than over-dubbing. For our previous albums we dubbed things together. This time we wanted to record more at once. This took us a while because we had not recorded in this way before. We had to grow as musicians.

SH: Are you happy with the outcome and your growth?

PA: Yes! It’s a good change musically for us. We think it is the beginning of something; we have not arrived at the end of this development. We have just started.

SH: Where do you want to go?

PA: We want to take it on the road first and see how it goes live. There is still so much more for us to say. It’s important that it took us so long; we had to start the development of our new sound.

SH: Have you had a chance to play your new stuff live much yet?

PA: We played eight shows last week so we used them as warm-up shows for our new album. It was definitely more fun live than our other stuff.

SH: Why?

PA: We used to just recreate our albums on stage which got a bit boring after a while because we were just playing the same stuff over again. This album provides more development of the live stage. It is fresh and different; every time we play it is different. That’s exciting for us and hopefully for our audiences too.

SH: You have added two members to your live shows. What does this bring?

PA: We are capable of more sound. There are more options and combinations when we play our stuff. We can have three to seven combinations at once which means there is more variation. It makes it more fun for us to explore this and they are good musicians who bring their own personalities to the stage.

SH: Does your jazz background still influence what you do?

PA: Indirectly but not in a real way. Improvisation and being in the moment is definitely related to jazz. We do improvise but we don’t get as crazy as jazz can. It’s important to keep some structure to our music as well. In the end we want to play the music we have created while still having freedom to explore with our instruments.

SH: So what has been the inspiration for this album?

PA: We surrounded ourselves with 60s and 70s British folk; Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention. We like the textures of this music. We wanted to record to sound that way, but not necessarily arrange it in the same way. We still wanted to have our sound but we wanted to take it somewhere new. Musically, British folk was very influential to us. It put us in a different mindset.

SH: How did you come across British folk?

PA: Tim found it. He started searching websites and came across Fairport Convention and liked the way they sounded so he kept searching. Also, we supported Espers in Belgium and we thought they were really cool so we became curious about their influences. We did some more searching and things snowballed from there. It became a mountain of music!

SH: Do you think you will do more research for your next work?

PA: I guess so. We are always discovering our music. The older you get the deeper you have to go. Luckily there is always something to find. There is a lifetime of music to find.

SH: Why did you choose The Courage of Others as your album title?

PA: Time wrote the song as a B-side initially, but we decided it was too good to be a B-side. He liked the phrase from the song so it stuck.

SH: Do you have any plans to tour Australia again soon?

PA: We definitely hope to. We are looking into it and we want to tour soon. We are thinking we might come in June but then that would be your winter so maybe if not June then December. You have a lot of festivals in December don’t you?

SH: Yes summer is our festival season. Do you prefer to play festivals?

PA: I like intimate shows; I think they suit our music more. Of course I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to play at a festival but I feel a bit disconnected from the audience. I think we suit shows that are anywhere from 200 to 2000 people. I think when you play indoors you are closer to the crowd; it’s really different to the open air. So maybe we should go for the big indoor arenas!

SH: Shoot big?

PA: From a manager’s perspective, the band needs to grow. For us the main focus has always been to make the best and most beautiful music we can. We won’t ever be U2 or anything like that but we are happy where we are. The next album will be what we want to make it. It’s a real luxury to be able to do what we want to be doing, and are happy doing, as our job. We could just work on a cruise ship or as a waiter but we get to do what we are passionate about and that’s amazing.

midlake