Fresh from playing the Vanguard in Sydney, we catch up with the UK’s Gemma Ray, who’s currently on a tour around the country, to talk about her forthcoming record Island Fire and more. You can catch Gemma at Peats Ridge Festival next week!
Let’s talk Island Fire, due for release in February – have you been giving Australian audiences a taste of the record on your shows in Australia?
I’ve been playing about half of the new album with my current trio.
What does Island Fire mean to you?
A fantastical place where these songs live.
You created “It’s A Shame About Gemma Ray” so quickly, but Island Fire was a much different experience. What was it like recording in Sydney?
The first time was a very happy accident as I was kindly offered Alberts Studio in Sydney to pass the time when I was stranded there by volcanic ash. So it was very off-the-cuff and the songs recorded on these sessions have retained that spirit from being picked when just ripe.
The second experience was incredibly focused. I worked much harder on the pre-production of these songs leading up to coming to Australia, threw many aside, and had a clear idea that I wanted to nail the bones of them live with double bass and drums. I hadn’t recorded an entire album like that before due to (welcomed) limitations and the conscious choice to explore other ways of creating rhythm and bottom end to the tracks. I came full circle in a way and wanted to capture the majority of these songs with the spirit of other humans playing alongside me. I work very quickly in the studio, but in terms of post -production I learnt a big lesson in the art of patience and benefits of breathing space. The brilliant Michael Szumouski mixed it from Sydney with my home speakers in Berlin hooked up to his studio live in real time via Nicecast which really worked out great.
I really did spend longer on that side of things than I ever have before and I think the combination of pacey tracking and timely mixing sessions worked out just right for this album.
And in Norway? How did you end up recording there?
I was asked to record at Ocean Sound in Giske (a tiny island) by festival organisers in exchange for a free live set. It was idyllic, spooky and inspiring, set literally on the edge of the North Sea with daylight 24/7. The uplifting but eerie light there made it’s way into Alight! Alive! and also a few odd tracks that didn’t make this album but will surface in the future.
What are the origins of the songs you wrote for the album? How far back do they go?
I wrote alot of them during 2010 on my trips to South Africa, Europe, LA, New York & Norway. I’m not a natural wanderer, but embraced it with the promise of free recording and had a crude studio I set up in each hotel/motel/hostel I stayed in ready to catch every idea. Even if I didn’t use it I needed it to validate my reason for staying in all these odd places.
I wrote a few in London but refined them on aeroplanes – being in the air seemed to be the only place I could get clarity of thought for some final arrangements and lyric jiggling. Rescue Me, for example, came into my head fully formed in the check out queue of a supermarket in London with that dumbstruck brilliantly disjointed feeling of returning home from a tour and not really feeling connected to anywhere or anything. Very odd. Alight Alive was written in the 10minutes of landing in Giske, and Flood and A Fire came out of nowhere later that night in the eerie bright light at 2am as sun flooded in the studio windows. It was magical.
You’ve spent a lot of time in Australia, what are some of the things you most look forward to enjoying when you’re in town?
The birds! Good soya milk, good people and studio time. And the crazy flowers.
You supported one of the last ever Grinderman shows – what was that experience like?
An honour and a pleasure – great crowds and great people.
What can we expect from the remainder of the performances on your Australian tour?
I’m playing as a trio, with the drummer and organist that played on my album so although the songs will obviously be stripped down they come across in a muscular but detailed way which I’m really enjoying right now.
Rory More will be played Hammond with Bass Pedals (yes a real one, no Nords in sight) and Andrew Zammit will be playing drums and operating my very complex analogue Roland 330 drum machine.
Do you get nervous still playing with your kitchen knife after famously accidently stabbing yourself with one last year?
Only in case I use it on someone in the heat of the moment.
If you could name any record that you would consider the soundtrack to your life, what record would it be?
Bo Diddley – Gunslinger
Questions by Rhiannon Harper.
Don’t miss Gemma Ray at Peats Ridge Festival!
http://www.peatsridgefestival.com.au/
