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Artist Interviews
Q&A: The Concretes
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 11 November 2010
Formed in 1995 by Victoria Bergsman, Maria Eriksson and Lisa Milberg, The Concretes released their eponymous debut in 2004, having by then grown to an eight-piece band. When Bergsman left the group after the release of their second album, ‘In Colour’, in 2006, Milberg took over her position as lead singer.
Their fourth album, ‘WYWH’, released this week, sees the band move away from their trademark indie-pop sound and take on disco. With a five date UK tour lined up for next month as well, we caught up with Milberg to ask the Same Six.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
Me and Maria wrote terrible songs on her mother’s piano when we were kids. And then one day, when I was maybe sixteen, I fell in love with the drums, sat down behind the drum kit and played it very, very, very quietly.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
The Bee Gees, Alessi Brothers, Frida from ABBA. The Rolling Stones, R Kelly, Womack & Womack. Marilyn Monroe’s bottle of sleeping pills, the desert, summer nights. Dennis Wilson and his t-shirt’s shade of blue. The sea, the punchy French snare drum, Bill Wither’s bass player. Love and loss and longing. A poem by Philip Larkin called ‘Love Songs In Age’.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
That depends on the track. Some I just find lying around in my mouth, others I have to lure out like you do with a cat; pretend you don’t care and wait for it to come to you and snuggle up against your legs. Others still I have to take serious action to finish. I find myself doing things in my life I probably wouldn’t have done if it wasn’t for the sake of the chorus.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Too many to mention. Usually in a fairly abstract sense though. I’ll write a song that I want Maria in Joan Didion’s book ‘Play It As It Lays’ to listen to. Or I will hear something and love it but if we tried to echo it I’d hate it. It’s usually just about a feeling or a pace or a word or something even harder to pin down.
Having said that, I think Jim James from My Morning Jacket is a genius. He sings like an angel and is constantly pushing himself in new musical directions. Sometimes too far (listen to ‘Highly Suspicious’ off their last album) but that’s the beauty of it. Our song ‘Good Evening’ is an ode to their song ‘Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Part Two’. Sexual frustration bottled up in disco. So that’s a pretty straightforward influence right there.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Nothing. Why would I talk during?
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Ambitions are always the same. Make the best record ever. Or at least get said what I want said in the way I want it said. And stay on the line that I’ve painted.
MORE>> theconcretes.tumblr.com
