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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Noah And The Whale
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 26 August 2009
Formed in 2006, Noah And The Whale released their debut album, ‘Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down’, featuring the infuriatingly catchy single ‘5 Years Time’, in 2008. They return this week with, ‘Blue Skies’, the first single from their new album ‘The First Days Of Spring’. The album comes accompanied by a film directed by frontman Charlie Fink. The album is released on Monday, and you can watch a trailer for the film here. We spoke to Charlie to ask our Same Six Questions.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I’ve been making music and writing songs for as long as I can remember.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Many things.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
I don’t really have a process, it’s quite erratic. Although for this album I had the whole thing mapped out on a big document. Starting with a bare structure for how the story was going to go and then adding narrative ideas for the songs and then finally came the lyrics, the melody and the song itself.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Recently I’ve been listening almost exclusively to Neil Young, particularly the Crazy Horse records. I only recently realised what an amazing guitarist he is. I’d like to do a big rock record like ‘Ragged Glory’ at some point. When making the record though I was listening to a lot of people who like to experiment with sounds, like John Cage, Fred Frith and Jim O’Rourke. I was also listening to a lot of soundtrack stuff, like Richard Thompson’s ‘Grizzly Man’ soundtrack and Johnny Greenwood’s ‘There Will Be Blood’. For the film itself, I love Paul Thomas Anderson, David Lynch, Werner Herzog and the film ‘Into The Wild’.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I don’t know, but for someone who was about to watch our film for the first time, I’d ask that they let themselves be absorbed by it, and allow yourself to be drawn to whatever grabs your attention.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
The process of writing and creating this project took about a year, and during that time I’ve had to put a whole load of other ideas in a pile, and now that I’m finished I’m sorting through it and deciding what to do next. It includes more things I want to do with film, music and slightly more abstract things. For me almost all my ambitions are in the creative side of what I do and once the project is finished I am either satisfied or I am not. It is a true honour to make something that can really mean something to someone else, but I feel that by doing something totally for yourself you have more chance of it making a difference.
MORE>> www.noahandthewhale.com
