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Artist Interviews
Q&A: A Sunny Day In Glasgow
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 1 October 2009
A Sunny Day In Glasgow’s second album ‘Ashes Grammar’, released this week by Mis Ojos Discos, is a shift away from their debut ‘Scribble Mural Comic Journal’. Partly because of the move to a more sophisticated recording environment than the one-mic, bedroom set-up used on the first album. And partly because, after a series of events left them a bassist and not one but two vocalists down, songwriter Ben Daniels and drummer Josh Meakim had to find some new bandmates. But with some new blood and that better studio they created a lush and beautiful album of dream-pop, which is slowly creeping into the consciousness of old and new fans. We spoke to Ben to find out more.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
My mom was a musician and music teacher and she plays every instrument there is pretty much. I grew up with piano lessons and violin lessons and trumpet lessons, but when I turned twelve, I think, I quit everything because I always hated it. A couple of years later though, I was really into Led Zepplin and ‘Over The Hills And Far Away’ came on the radio when I was driving somewhere with my mom. I just started talking about how much I loved the song, and the guitar part in the beginning, and she asked me if I wanted to start playing guitar. I said yes, so she got me a cheap guitar for Christmas and I started from there.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Musically, our tour last year in Europe inspired it. For some reason we took trains all over the place, and we were carrying around guitars and cases of pedals and stuff like that, it was horrible. Josh and I wanted to make an album with no guitars on it, so touring wouldn’t be so difficult. That didn’t exactly happen, but it was in the back of our minds while we were making it. Also, Alvin Lucier’s works were a bit of an inspiration. And, conceptually, the works of Erving Goffman (particularly ‘The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life”) and Emile Durkheim too.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
This record was more disciplined that the last one, and everything generally began with the rhythm tracks. Then we spent months putting noises and instruments on top of that, and eventually melodies came out. We recorded vocals at the very end.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
I think other people are better at answering this question for you. But I was listening to ‘Station To Station’ by David Bowie a lot at the beginning of the recording sessions, and then, while we were recording, we listened to a lot of The Misfits, The Knife, Michael Jackson, Faun Fables, and Desmond Dekker. By the end, when I was kind of going crazy trying to finish the record, I was listening almost exclusively to Ween’s ‘The Pod’.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
It’s just songs, you don’t have to try to ‘get it’. There isn’t necessarily anything to ‘get’.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Well, the latest album is done, so it is out of my hands at this point! Obviously I’d love for as many people as possible to hear it. In the immediate future I’d just like for us to tour as much as possible. But hopefully next year we can get more records done. I really love making records and songs.
MORE>> www.asunnydayinglasgow.com
