Camera Obscura Interview
While in today's music scene it is often easy to pick apart songs and determine influences, without ever having studied anything except the FM dial, the most interesting music still tends to be that which wears it influences on it's sleeve, but tends to mismatch the socks. Take for instance Camera Obscura, the Glasgow-based six piece currently on tour promoting their latest album Let's Get Out of This Country. While the band is sick to death of being compared to fellow countrymen Belle and Sebastian, they're never upset when people hear the Motown or French lounge influences in their music. Made up of six members with extremely vast tastes in music, including everything from The Pastels, Yo La Tengo and Stereolab, the output of the band ends up being much more varied and interesting than that of their contemporaries who still think OK Computer is cutting edge.
Currently the indie darlings of the summer, Camera Obscura's new album is being described as "enchanting," "a gorgeously produced, beautifully romantic and ultimately uplifting record, which simultaneously manages to tug on your heartstrings while also causing a giant stupid grin to break out all over your face," and "a disc of romantic bliss and delicious heartache, dressed up in silver-spangled melodies, roller-rink keyboards, and zesty brass and string accents." Not bad for a band regulated to the bargain bin of "twee" for the past decade.
If the word "emo" has warped from a term that described the late 80's D.C music scene to a designation describing high male vocals that dwell excessively on the singer's feelings, especially melancholy remembrances of past relationships and mistakes in life, then the female equivalent is probably "twee." Often described as affectedly quaint, sentimental or mawkish, sometimes coupled with words like nauseating, it's a expression that many bands flat out reject, and Camera Obscura's new album is their musical rejection of this designation. Filled with harmonies and handclaps and resting somewhere between introspective and boogie, the new sound owes a lot to a change in the way they recorded it. Instead of writing a record as a side project while they juggled jobs and relationships, they immersed themselves in the writing of the record, far from the overcast skies of Glasgow.
"Instead of recording a little bit over the weekends, we decided to get a producer and really focus just in recording for once" explains bassist Gavin Dunbar, one of the original founding members. "We went to Sweden and worked with Jari Haapalainen (the Swedish producer known for his work with The Concretes) who really pushed us musically in a way that we couldn't have done ourselves."
Camera Obscura started over a decade ago when singer/guitarist and lyricist Tracyanne Campbell and percussionist John Henderson began working on music in the record store Dunbar worked. After adding David Skirving on guitar, they made their first record without a drummer and released it in March 1998. By the second single, Richard Colburn from Belle and Sebastian had joined them on drums. He played with them for a few years until they hired Lee Thomson. By the time they started working on the next album in 2000, Skirving had left and they added Kenny McKeeve on guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and vocals. Lindsay Boyd from their label began playing keyboards and they added Nigel Baillie on trumpet and percussion. Eventually, they replaced Boyd with Carey Lander, and their final change took place when Henderson left the band in 2004, leaving full frontal duties to Campbell.
"We all like lots of different bands and music, and that really keeps things interesting" explains Dunbar calling from the back of his tour bus. "The process of making this record, with so many different influences being injected, it's made us a much stronger band."
While the reception has been analogous to the weather in much of the U.K., dreary and spiteful, the states have embraced the group wholeheartedly, with positive reviews for both the album and their live shows, which makes perfect sense, if you think about it. What better way to enjoy the luminous orchestral pop of Camera Obscura than under a brilliant ray of sun?
By Rachel Hurley - originally published in Image Magazine
http://scenestars.net/2006/05/camera-obscura-hey-lloyd-im-ready-to.php
Currently the indie darlings of the summer, Camera Obscura's new album is being described as "enchanting," "a gorgeously produced, beautifully romantic and ultimately uplifting record, which simultaneously manages to tug on your heartstrings while also causing a giant stupid grin to break out all over your face," and "a disc of romantic bliss and delicious heartache, dressed up in silver-spangled melodies, roller-rink keyboards, and zesty brass and string accents." Not bad for a band regulated to the bargain bin of "twee" for the past decade.
If the word "emo" has warped from a term that described the late 80's D.C music scene to a designation describing high male vocals that dwell excessively on the singer's feelings, especially melancholy remembrances of past relationships and mistakes in life, then the female equivalent is probably "twee." Often described as affectedly quaint, sentimental or mawkish, sometimes coupled with words like nauseating, it's a expression that many bands flat out reject, and Camera Obscura's new album is their musical rejection of this designation. Filled with harmonies and handclaps and resting somewhere between introspective and boogie, the new sound owes a lot to a change in the way they recorded it. Instead of writing a record as a side project while they juggled jobs and relationships, they immersed themselves in the writing of the record, far from the overcast skies of Glasgow.
"Instead of recording a little bit over the weekends, we decided to get a producer and really focus just in recording for once" explains bassist Gavin Dunbar, one of the original founding members. "We went to Sweden and worked with Jari Haapalainen (the Swedish producer known for his work with The Concretes) who really pushed us musically in a way that we couldn't have done ourselves."
Camera Obscura started over a decade ago when singer/guitarist and lyricist Tracyanne Campbell and percussionist John Henderson began working on music in the record store Dunbar worked. After adding David Skirving on guitar, they made their first record without a drummer and released it in March 1998. By the second single, Richard Colburn from Belle and Sebastian had joined them on drums. He played with them for a few years until they hired Lee Thomson. By the time they started working on the next album in 2000, Skirving had left and they added Kenny McKeeve on guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and vocals. Lindsay Boyd from their label began playing keyboards and they added Nigel Baillie on trumpet and percussion. Eventually, they replaced Boyd with Carey Lander, and their final change took place when Henderson left the band in 2004, leaving full frontal duties to Campbell.
"We all like lots of different bands and music, and that really keeps things interesting" explains Dunbar calling from the back of his tour bus. "The process of making this record, with so many different influences being injected, it's made us a much stronger band."
While the reception has been analogous to the weather in much of the U.K., dreary and spiteful, the states have embraced the group wholeheartedly, with positive reviews for both the album and their live shows, which makes perfect sense, if you think about it. What better way to enjoy the luminous orchestral pop of Camera Obscura than under a brilliant ray of sun?
By Rachel Hurley - originally published in Image Magazine
http://scenestars.net/2006/05/camera-obscura-hey-lloyd-im-ready-to.php
