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An Interview With Blue States
Confounding expectations yet again, Andy Dragazis and his band Blue States are back - but this time with a dark, moody album. This is no rural nostalgia-ridden string-filled idyll. Oh it's still laced with gorgeous melodies and laden with familiar rich harmonies. But forthcoming album 'The Soundings' was conceived and recorded in the depths of inner-city Hackney and features songs about Scandinavian alien abductions and fights. Susanna Glaser sounded Andy Dragazis out on his new direction...Susanna: What have you been up to since the last album?
Andy: ″At the end of 2002 we'd finished with the album and stopped playing live. I moved to London - which was a big wrench for me - and set up a studio which took a bit of time. And we did a lot of re-evaluation of what we were going to do. There was a lot of sitting around, thinking about where we were going with Blue States. But by mid-2003 we were back on it recording.″
S: When XL licensed 'Man Mountain' you were thrown into the big time - what was your favourite adventure during that time?
A: ″Probably when we went to Serbia. We were playing at a festival called Exit and there were some 25,000 Serbians going nuts even though no one knew who we were. I'm sure they'd have done the same had we come on playing ukeleles. They were just mad about live music. It was a beautiful place as well.″
S: This seems a much more song-based album and less 'sweeping' and cinematic - was this a conscious effort?
A: ″'Man Mountain' was something I needed to get out of my system. I was a slightly frustrated bedroom musician. 'Nothing Changes Under The Sun' was classic bedroom sampling stuff. And it was always a bit more than that. So I wanted to push myself and see how far I could go.
″For 'The Soundings' I needed to find a more personal sound while still keeping the big sound and the epic feel. And keep it a bit simple. And make it a bit darker. My stuff often ends up being a bit 'nice'. I wanted something with a bit more edge.
″I'm very much ready for people to be divided by it. The Big Chill probably more so. I hope that people will. People who go to The Big Chill have very varied tastes in music. Some will like it, some won't. I could have made another 'Nothing Changes...' but I wouldn't have been happy. It's a difficult balance. I have to make music for myself. Hopefully people will see it's a progression.″
S: Your last album featured strings and the female voice. Did you feel a kind of backlash in yourself coming on for the next one?
A: ″Even though our press release says so, we're not sticking two fingers up at the first album. I didn't plan for it to sound like it does. You can have the best laid plans about an album but that doesn't mean it'll end up as you thought it would. I just knew I wanted to make it a bit darker.″
S: As you say, people make a big song and dance about you changing direction with each album. Do you feel this is a fair of them to do?
A: ″I think it's fair for people to say what they like. I can buy music and slag it off too. I do the same thing. Take the Beta Band - the 3 EPs, great! But after that... It's their right as a consumer to make the choice. What is slightly frustrating is when people just dismiss it because they really liked the first album. I got this email the other day. And it angered me. He was saying, 'this is not Blue States'. But it's my thing and it's Blue States! I've made an album that I think is a progression and I hope other people will think that too.″
S: Some people have put your new sound down to your change of location - London... What's changed for you since moving to London?
A: ″Well, we had to dirty the sound a bit anyway as a massive block of flats was going up next door! There was quite a lot of noise going on - steel girders were being mashed into the ground and so on - while we were recording. But unconsciously I'm sure the sound has been influenced by the surroundings. But I already knew before I moved from Brighton that I wanted to do something darker. I always wanted it to be a bit edgier. But I'm sure London has slowly seeped into the album.″
S: What things did you experience in the making of this album which was new to you?
A: ″Mainly using different people. for the last 4 years Chris has been playing with me live. I've known him for 10 years. And John has been playing with us for 3 years. When we stopped playing live, I said to Chris and John, let's do the album together. And Chris started coming up with some of the better stuff. So that was the main big change.″
S: Tell us about some of the songs - 'Sad Song' for instance?
A: ″This was the easiest one to do. We'd got to the stage where we were hitting our heads against a brick wall, holed up in the studio. We knew there was one kind of song missing from the album. We wanted something quite personal and euphoric sounding. And Chris started singing out of the window. We kind of liked it, It was euphorically happy with these really depressing lyrics. After that it came pretty easily. And it was an important part of recording the album. We'd been frustrated with our lack of output. This gave us a bit of a boost.″
S: And 'The Last Blast'...
A: ″I had the idea of doing a two chord song. Blue States don't do two chord songs. I think on 'Man Mountain' there was a song with 15 chords in it! So I wanted to see if we could do it, but still keep it fresh all the way through. It worked really well. It's good to have an immediate track on the album.″
S: Apparently one of them 'Final Flight' is about an alien abduction in Scandinavia...?
A: ″It touches on the them of death for me. It's about people being taken when they're asleep. The lyrics came straight out of Chris's warped mind. 'Only the pretty ones die young...' That was a difficult song to write. It took months of changes. We altered it so much. It's one of my favourites in terms of having the strong line and chorus and good atmosphere.″
S: What's your opinion of the Chill Out scene?
A: ″I think Chill Out doesn't exist in the way that people in the media think it does. I wouldn't class The Big Chill as exclusively a chill out scene. The music is of a certain ilk, but you can have anyting from downtempo stuff like Bonobo to house music DJs on the bill. At the same time, it's a strange thing. It shouldn't be a dirty word. We shouldn't shy away from it. And we've done really well out of being tagged as 'Chill'. I'ts just that it's quite difficult to break free of the label too.″
S: If you're chilling out, who would you listen to?
A: ″The Beach Boys. Wu Tang Clan. I love a bit of Lambchop.″
S: Ah, you once said you'd love to work with Kurt Wagner from Lambchop - have you got any closer to realising this wish?
″I'd still love to. But they've probably never heard of Blue States. And I'm sure Kurt would need a lot of persuading.″
S: Being (famously) half Greek - are you looking forward to the Olympics?
A: ″Actually, I am! A lot of people have been giving me a hard time about it - you know - the Greeks don't have a great reputation for organisation. They eat, they drink, they sleep and then they work. In that order. So, the stadium, last time I went to Greece, wasn't getting on too well. But it's such a big deal for them.″
S: The Big Chill gave you a great launchpad by placing a gamble on you in the main slot back in 2001 at the Enchanted Garden. You hadn't even released your first album then! Can you remember that night?
A: ″We turned up without a clue. It was the first time we'd played live. And I'd just got back from holiday. I think Pete had asked Ollie from Memphis Industries if we played live. And even though we never had, he said yes. And we had six weeks to get it all together. And two of those weeks I was in Greece. So I roped in three friends including Chris. And we had two or three rehearsals. And then we set off with a carful of amps and guitars. I remember we were backstage trying to tune up by ear. Ollie couldn't believe we didn't have a tuner. We went on stage and played horribly out of tune and we were really badly rehearsed. But the sun was just setting and it'd been a while since a live band had been playing. People left but others stayed. It was really good fun, a great first gig. It's something I'll not forget in a long time.″
S: Are you playing The Big Chill this year?
A: ″We really want to play it. It'd be really good if we could sort it out. It's always such a good laugh.″
S: Tent or B'n'B?
A: ″Tent. Although, last time we played in 2002 it rained and we didn't have a groundsheet. And I only had a damp towel as a duvet. My friend put it up for me. He had this £150 igloo thing and was jumping around in it, while I had this argos £10 job that was slapping around in the wind. On second thoughts, I think a B'n'B might be a good idea!″
S: Cider or Cheese?
A: ″It's got to be cheese, really. Ilove a pint of cider. But I can live without cider, I cant' live without cheese.″
S: That would be Feta I take it?
A: ″A bit of feta, yes. Or Kaseiri - when I have a day off from Feta.″
The Soundings is out 14 June on Memphis Industries
Blue States
Memphis Industries
Written: 4th Jun, 04
Read: 2513 times
