In part one of W&H's exclusive ONE MORE GRAIN interview, we met up with the band's frontman Daniel Patrick Quinn and discussed the vagaries of being brilliant, left-field weirdos wielding sonic crowbars on the fringes of wider acceptance.
For part two, the Grain's magnificent trumpeter and sound treatment specialist extraordinaire ANDREW BLICK very kindly accepted W&H Editor TIM PEACOCK'S call and more than confirmed the fact that OMG are among the most intelligent, free-thinking characters operating out there right now.
If you've been logging on to W&H with any regularity, the chances are you may well be familiar with Daniel Patrick Quinn's pre-Grain activities, ploughing a frequently inspired, but lonely furrow as head honcho with the now defunct Suilven Recordings label. However, Andrew Blick is also a man with a fascinating past and someone who has crossed swords with the late, great John Peel on numerous occasions in the past.
More of that in a little while, but firstly a little background on Andrew's teaming up with Mr. Quinn and the troops. Did you have any idea of Dan's previous solo output, Andrew?
"No, actually I'm afraid it was pretty much the old-fashioned method of answering an advert Dan had placed," replies the affable Andrew, who's the very epitome of warm and convivial.
"It all happened very quickly really. I'd been doing a lot of sessions for a while and was hoping to take a back seat from that for a while...to listen to the things I wanted to rather than just taking the sessioneer's path. I was looking for something that would really develop a life of its' own."
I'd be fascinated to know what Dan's advert said, actually...
"Yeah, well it said something along the lines of 'trumpets through FX...Brian Eno, Happy Mondays'...all sorts of disparate stuff," chuckles Andrew.
"It intrigued me immediately, I must admit. But as I said, I wasn't really aware of the things he'd done at all. It impressed me that he already had some stuff ready and had a good idea what he wanted."
As I hinted earlier, Blick has worked with a number of left-field staples in recent years, with names such as Solex and Octopus springing to mind. Are there any especially memorable recordings that stand out with hindsight?
"Yeah, I worked on a great record called 'Low Kick & Hard Bop' by Solex," Andrew recalls fondly.
Before we go any further, we should point out that Solex were (and I think remain) the brainchild of Amsterdam native Elizabeth Esselink. But tell us more, Andrew...
"I was doing a gig with a band called Broken Dog and she (Elizabeth) was DJ-ing," he reveals.
"She got in touch a little later and discussed the idea of us doing some stuff together. I did a Peel session with them, a gig, then the 'Low Kick..' recording. After that I worked with her on another project, a remix album featuring stuff by (renowned continentals) Malaria and I played some trumpet on that. I recorded my parts in London and posted it to Amsterdam. She's great is Elizabeth, very creative and a lovely person too."
You mentioned doing a Peel session with Solex. It's by no means the only one you've done is it? In fact, I seem to remember reading something about Peel himself saying you should be removed by BBC security because you'd been featured on too many sessions...
"Yeah, yeah," Andrew guffaws. "He really did say something along those lines, and it's especially funny because as a rule he hardly EVER actually attended the recording of his sessions while they were going on."
It's true the sessions were usually laid down several days or whatever before they went out live, weren't they?
"Yeah, that's right," Andrew confirms. "Maida Vale's great, but the artists would come in and do their own thing and then leave usually. I mean, his relationship with The Fall's the stuff of legend, but apparently he never actually met Mark. E. Smith in person until about 10 sessions in."
That's amazing. I wasn't aware of that previously, even though I have that enormous Fall Peel Sessions Box Set.
"Yeah, so it's funny that I kept bumping into Peel," Andrew continues.
"He did this Christmas carol thing, where he recreated a 1970 Marc Bolan special and I met him at that, then I met him when I went along to record with David Gedge and Cinerama and then again with Broken Dog. It was really funny...for a while it was like I was there every time he came to the building - and yes, he really was exactly the same in real life (laughs)."
Wonderful. And deliciously uncanny too. But back to the present and One More Grain. I know with Dan that spontaneity and improvisation are always watchwords, but there's always steely discipline in there too. Do you have a specific way of working as a unit?
"I'll personally do something very quickly and then maybe write harmonies over the top," Andrew replies.
"The way we work is partly out of necessity really. The first album ('Pigeon English') was done really quickly and a lot of 'Isle Of Grain' was actually done on the run, on my laptop, out of financial necessity," he says disarmingly.
Maybe that's why energy and urgency are important components in the OMG sound?
"Maybe," Andrew concedes, "although my own parts have got a bit more complex - within reason. I mean, I like harmonies and I also do treatments, but sometimes it's right to leave something as it is. I don't want to see us going down the Tears For Fears, 500 takes route or whatever, that would be shocking."
|
Absolutely, but as you say you're credited with 'sound treatments' and also 'laptop' on the new album, but how do you see your role? Is it your baby to edit down lengthy jams the way Holger Czukay used to do with Can?
"No, although that's an interesting point, we actually work in a different way," Andrew says, I confess surprising me a little.
"With Can, they did loads of jamming, but we don't actually," he laughs. "Nowadays it's too easy to go the editing route, you can be too precise trying to do that. With us, it's more a question of layering stuff over drones rather than precise chord changes, though I know Dan's keen to change and move on, so that approach may change with the next one."
"It sometimes poses a challenge when we do it live," he continues, "because we've been creating a song out of individual bits, I have to pick out trumpet parts I can use and re-create. It keeps me on my toes, I can tell you!"
I can imagine. But in terms of your playing, writers such as myself have been known to compare your playing to, er, "woolly mammoths engaging in a suicide pact off Beachy Head" rathar than comparing you specifically with other trumpet players. How do such descriptions sit with you?
"It's an analogy I'm very happy with!" Andrew enthuses, much to my relief.
"I really enjoy stuff like that. I tell you what, I'm a terrible name dropper and I once did a session with Steve Albini (legendary producer of Nirvana, Pixies, Sonic Youth and more than most of us have had hot dinners) with a band called Quint ( featuring Sally Young from UT - ed) and he told mae that I contrasted noise and melodic sound very well and I really took that on board. Since then, I've tried to juxtapose the two and end up with something that I hope sounds natural, even with treated sounds."
Well, judging by the startling results on both 'Pigeon English' and 'Isle Of Grain', this is a tightrope Andrew and his cohorts have been walking with considerable skill and panache. Have OMG recorded any especially 'key' tracks for Andrew though? Anything he feels particularly proud of?
"I'm really glad to say that - so far - we've not recorded anything that makes me wince," he says, justifiably proudly.
"I really like 'A Town Is What You Make It' and 'Confession Time' from the new album. 'Confession Time' has a really African feel and I'm really pleased with that. I also like the fact there's a lot of humour in our stuff and Dan't lyrics. It's all too easy to be dead po-faced about left-field music, but I feel there are lots of ups and downs in our music and the fact we have plenty of moods keeps us all interested."
With this in mind - and with time sadly running out - I ask Andrew about One More Grain's future direction, something I'd previously discussed with Dan. I had specifically mentioned 'Under Night Streets' from the new album and its' open-ended, free-form approach. Are we likely to hear more in this vein from the third Grain album then Andrew?
"Who knows?" he replies quickly. "One of the great things about One More Grain is that none of us really knows what's happening next. For example, both Dan and I are working on solo recordings and my solo album, 'The Gyratory System' is pretty much ready to go. Tentatively, I'd say it's more in the electronica vein, and Dan, my Dad Robin (who features on 'Isle Of Grain') and Merek and Laurie all feature too."
"But as to the future...well, both Dan and I enjoy Bowie's Berlin period, so maybe that will influence us, but ultimately I wouldn't like to predict. For now, we're just taken aback by all the press we've been getting and have been concentrating on recording tracks for the new EP. After that, we'll see. That's part of the attraction."
Indeed it is and with the future unwritten there's always a new map to sketch out and complete. And the way One More Grain are going right now, their days grubbing around in the margins and byways will soon be consigned to history. Mark my words with a big X right now.
(www.myspace.com/onemoregrain )
(www.myspace.com/gyratorysystem )
|
