ScottishNews.com

As the band prepare to tour their 13th album, Norman Blake spoke to Scottish News about the landscape that shaped the new record, the DIY spirit behind their beginnings and the enduring thrill of turning a collection of songs into an album.

Do you think the weather and the landscape influence Scottish songwriting?

I think the environment definitely influences the music that you make. With this new album, we recorded it on Great Bernera in Lewis. It was my first time there – it is that classic thing where you never visit places in your own country. It was amazing.

The studio is quite remote, near the Callanish Stones and more than an hour’s drive from Stornoway. It is in the middle of nowhere, beside a little pier, in what had historically been a fish-processing place. The weather was great when we were there, but the landscape is quite bleak and barren. I’m sure it influenced the tone or mood of the record. Wherever you go will influence the mood, and we always try to go somewhere different because that can be inspiring.

Do you arrive with a clear idea of how the album should sound, or does it emerge when the band gets together?

Historically, when it was myself, Raymond and Gerry, whoever had written the song would tend to be the director. You would go into the studio or rehearsal space and explain the verse, the chorus and the structure, then describe what you wanted the drums or other parts to do.

We don’t do that at all now. Either Raymond or I will play through a song, everyone listens, picks up their instrument and starts working out a part. There is no direction because they are all great musicians. Dave, Francis and Euros bring really good ideas, even down to the structure. Someone might suggest a double chorus or trying it slightly faster, and we work through it as a collective.

When we record, we all set up in the same room. There is very little separation and quite a lot of spill. We keep doing takes until we have one we are all happy with, and that will be pretty much the song completed apart from the vocals, a guitar break or some percussion.

When Teenage Fanclub started, were you ambitious about where the band might go?

We wanted to make an album. That was the main goal and ambition at the outset, and it kind of still is. It is still a thrill when a test pressing arrives in the post and you pull out this piece of vinyl with your songs on it. That is as thrilling now as it was when we got the first one through all those years ago.

There were loads of bands in Glasgow making demos and sending them to labels. The label would say, ‘We like it, but could you record a couple of other things?’ We had seen loads of people doing that and thought: let’s just put something out. As soon as you release something, you have to write more songs, so you push yourself forward. If you spend a year demoing and rearranging the same things, you are not really making progress.

We made our first album before we had played any live shows. That was our ambition. We have been lucky – this is album 13 and we are still doing it. I feel we have been successful in the sense that we can still make albums and tour.

After 37 years, does Teenage Fanclub feel like a reassuring presence in your life?

It does. The band started in 1989, which is crazy. I was about 22, so it has been pretty much all of my adult life. It is our job, and it is a great job because it is something we like doing.

There have been peaks and troughs, as there are with bands that have been around for a long time. Sometimes you are more popular than at other times. Some albums are well received and others less so. Audience numbers go up and down. We have been lucky to establish a fan base and hang on. Nobody really sells records any more, but we can still release them.

Do you understand why younger listeners are rediscovering vinyl and other tangible formats?

If you look at the streaming platforms, the information you get from buying an album just isn’t there. With an album, you have the inner sleeve, all the lyrics, where it was recorded, the photographs and everything else. On Spotify, you don’t know any of that unless you go looking for it.

We have all had that experience of putting on an album and poring over the lyrics and information. When we were kids, we would stack our records against the wall and make sure the one at the front was a cool one. When you buy something, you own it. You can hold it in your hand and take it home.

A lot of people probably go to shows and buy the vinyl without even having a turntable because they want to support the band. Merchandise and live performance are everything now. We sell vinyl on tour, which we didn’t do historically. It is a bit of a pain because you have to carry it around, but our merchandise guy has a trolley.

Do you still get a thrill from standing in front of a crowd and playing songs you and your friends made?

We really enjoy playing live as a band, and this is quite a big tour. We will be away for two months, before going to the US at some point and hopefully Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

We have a big body of work to choose from. Gerry is no longer in the band and we don’t really play his songs because it would feel wrong when he isn’t there. We wouldn’t want anybody else to sing them. But Raymond and I have a lot of songs between us, and we try to mix the set up. We are always keen to play songs from the latest record too.

The new songs are created entirely in the studio and haven’t been played live before. We often haven’t finished the lyrics when we record the backing tracks, so taking them out and playing them live is a different experience. You are in the moment. As long as it sounds good on stage, it is very enjoyable.

Was it astonishing the way Teenage Fanclub’s music travelled from Bellshill and Glasgow to America and beyond at the start?

We recorded the first record at Pet Sounds in Maryhill, Wet Wet Wet’s studio, then did another set of recordings after Brendan had joined the band at Suite 16, Peter Hook’s studio in Rochdale, where Joy Division had recorded.

I handed a cassette to Stephen Pastel. He passed it to Dave Barker in London, who was starting a label called Paperhouse and wanted to release it in the UK and Europe. Stephen also sent it to Gerard Cosloy, who was setting up Matador. Our album was the third Matador album and we played at the label’s launch night at CBGB.

Our first trip as a band was to New York. We slept on the office floor near Broadway and Houston Street because we didn’t have a hotel. The UK press heard that we were playing in New York, so in a strange way there was interest in us there first. It was almost as if we were an American band to the NME, Sounds and Melody Maker.

Opening for Nirvana on the European leg of the Nevermind tour helped establish us in places including Spain and Scandinavia. We still do well in Spain. Music has taken us to amazing places. A couple of years ago we played a festival on the Mongolian steppe with Thee Oh Sees. Yo La Tengo had played it and told us it was absolutely mental but that we would love it. They were right – it was an amazing experience. I can say I played in Outer Mongolia.

How important is it that young Scottish people, particularly those from working-class communities, still see music as something open to them?

It is getting harder and harder for young people because it is difficult to make money from record sales, although one positive is that most people have access to some kind of computer. There is free software, and audio interfaces and microphones can be bought relatively inexpensively.

The problem is touring. In our day we sold enough records to do the band full-time, which meant everyone was available. Gerry, Brendan, Raymond and I could get in the back of a van and go. Young people now probably have to keep a job while being in a band, then coordinate everyone’s time off.

There are more community studios now, and spaces that young people can access, which is really good. Making music is a worthwhile thing to do even if you are not a touring musician. Pick up a cheap guitar or make beats on a computer. It is an escape.

It may be harder to make money from music, but that should never be your motivation anyway. The creative aspect should be the most important thing. If you are lucky, you might make a wee bit of wedge out of it.

Do you hear a lot of Scotland in Teenage Fanclub’s music?

I think so. When you start a band, you are the sum of your influences because nobody arrives fully formed. We were listening to Sonic Youth, Love and Exile on Main St. by the Rolling Stones, and we took elements from all of those things.

When I listen to my voice on the first record, I think: who is that guy? I had adopted a way of singing because I was listening to Dinosaur Jr. and J Mascis, who has that loose style. Eventually, you work out what you are good at and find your own voice.

There is no question that our sound is influenced by our environment and by the way the people in the band interact. There is a melancholy in a lot of Scottish music that I think we have as well. We all listen to Scottish folk music. John McCusker is a really good friend of the band and has played on lots of our records. We have friends in the traditional music world, and that music has definitely influenced us.

Where did you spend time when the band was beginning and Glasgow’s music scene was taking shape?

It was when Splash One was happening. Douglas from BMX Bandits, Sean Dickson and I would come into the city every weekend. We would see Bobby Gillespie and Karen Parker around, and there was a group of people and bands who gravitated around the Splash One happenings.

The Griffin was a big part of it too. Loads of people drank there. Then there were gigs at the Queen Margaret Union or Glasgow Tech. I saw The Smiths at the QM the week The Queen Is Dead came out. It was incredible and is still one of the best gigs I have ever seen.

Did seeing major bands in Glasgow make an international music career feel possible?

I was a big Clash fan and saw them three or four times, including a couple of times at the Apollo. They were amazing. You looked at them and thought: they are doing it. They are a punk band and they are regular people.

That was when the DIY movement started and indie labels really were independent, with no connection to major labels – places such as Step-Forward and Rough Trade. Records started appearing and you realised you could put out your own.

Television Personalities released the Where’s Bill Grundy Now? EP with all the information on the back about how the record was made and what it cost. It was a template: if you want to do this, here is what you need to do. Anybody could make records. That was thrilling and inspiring.

Teenage Fanclub will release their new album, Dare Not to Dream, on 9 October.