Camera Obscura - Are you ready to get your heart broken?

From the delicate, Sixties-scented sound of their early days, to the orchestral pop of "My Maudlin Career". From a homespun label all the way to "seminal" 4AD. From Glasgow to sold-out shows in the United States. This is the trajectory of Camera Obscura, the Scottish band beloved by the likes of John Peel and Stuart Murdoch.

Ahead of their only Italian date, at Casa 139 in Milan, we met up with them and they revealed a few things about themselves and their career, which turns out to be not quite so "sappy" after all.

"My Maudlin Career" is your first record with 4AD. I didn't think you had any issues with Elephant. What happened?

Kenny: Elephant is a fantastic label, one of the best labels out there, but they're based in Madrid and we live in Glasgow. It was hard to keep in touch.

We stayed with Elephant for several years and, even though things always went well, once the contract expired we realised it was time to look for another label.

We're still on great terms with them though, we keep in touch and recently we played at one of their festivals.

You've changed record labels, but you still managed to work with Jari Haapalainen, your favourite producer.

Kenny: Jari is part of the Camera Obscura sound by now.

Don't you think that always working with the same producer somehow limits the band's natural growth?

Gavin: Working with Jari has been a great opportunity for us, one that's given us a lot of inspiration. Whenever we had a new record to make, we knew that he, more than anyone, wouldn't be happy just doing the same thing again as on the previous record — we knew he'd push us to make a different album.

It wasn't something we took for granted, working with him again, but we knew we wanted to make the best record we could, and if there was one person who could help us grow, it was him.

Speaking of growth, your arrangements keep getting more meticulous: you started out with a kind of 60s folk sound and have ended up somewhere closer to orchestral pop.

Kenny: We never really think about making a record that has a particular sound or that harks back to a particular era, especially because we absolutely want our records to sound contemporary.

I can tell you that within the band we all have different tastes, but there's a shared sense of growth and a single shared interest: writing a great pop record.

Your line up is constantly changing. I imagine there's a tyrant within the group. Who is it?

Kenny: (sighs, thinks for a long time, then we burst out laughing) The truth is there are five tyrants in this band! There have been some changes in the line-up, and some of them have been quite significant. Nigel, the trumpet player, became a father and chose to stay home to look after his baby. Those are personal choices.

So if there isn't a despot within the band, does that mean you all take part equally when it comes to writing the songs?

Gavin: Tracyanne brings in the sketch of a song and everyone adds their own touch as a member of the group. There's a lot of democracy, and we're always very free to express the ideas we have...

Kenny: ...then we bring it all to the producer, who tells us: "This stuff is rubbish! Do it all again!" (we laugh)

Tracyanne brings us the core of the song and we add whatever sounds seem right.

There's something I think I've noticed: on this record, Tracyanne's voice seems to be filtered through some kind of effect.

Kenny: There's a bit of reverb and a bit of echo. In the room where we recorded the album, there are panels fixed to the walls that the sound bounces off. It's a very classic way of recording a track.

Is that an effect you were going for, or did it just happen because the panels were already there?

Kenny: I think getting the right sound is part of making a record, but it definitely wasn't a conscious decision — we weren't thinking, "We want this kind of sound." Jari, our producer, used everything he had available to create a tight, cohesive sound, and that includes running Tracyanne's voice through echo effects.

So this effect also shows up on other instruments, like the trumpet and the percussion.

Kenny: Absolutely, yes.

You wrote “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken” in response to Lloyd Cole’s “(Are You) Ready To Be Heartbroken?”. Should we consider it a tribute?

Kenny: I don't think so, no. I think it was a very loose connection, just a passing nod. “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken” is a song that draws on Tracyanne's life and experiences. There's definitely a reference to that song, because Tracyanne is a huge Lloyd Cole fan.

Has Lloyd Cole ever called you up?

Kenny: We had the chance to meet him and he said he was really pleased. He even sent flowers to Tracyanne, and he came over from the United States with his whole family to see us play. He was genuinely very kind.

I have another question about one of your songs, “I Love My Jean”, where you set a Robert Burns poem to music. How did you work on that track? Did you take a different approach compared to the songs you usually write?

Gavin: We were asked to take part in a session for John Peel's show, and they wanted us to prepare four or five tracks setting as many Robert Burns poems to music. We spent two or three weeks choosing which poems to set to music and working on them. We were really pleased with how all five tracks turned out, it was an interesting experience and I'm glad we did it.

Kenny: Tracyanne adapted a melodic line she'd already come up with, and we did the same with the music. We then released “I Love My Jean” when John Peel passed away, because we wanted to pay tribute to him.

So essentially we can say this was a commissioned piece of work.

Gavin: Yes.

Did you choose which poems to set to music, or did Peel choose them?

Kenny: We had to choose them ourselves, but they had to be by Robert Burns.

Did you feel any kind of responsibility while working on these songs?

Gavin: You know, Robert Burns is regarded as a national hero in Scotland, and our aim was to be as sympathetic as possible in order to get the best possible result out of ourselves, both as Scots and as a band. We were very careful about what we were doing.

Let's keep talking about John Peel. This is the same question I asked Uzeda, another band who received a lot of support from Peel. Objectively speaking, how much does the support of a well-known figure help a band achieve recognition?

Kenny: Today, with the internet, there are lots of opportunities to get your music heard: people upload their music to various social networks and spread it around that way, essentially doing their own promotion. Obviously it doesn't have the same impact as a good word from John Peel or one or two other DJs.

It has to be said that UK radio has changed a lot in recent years: there's a broader range of music on offer, more attention paid to what's happening in music, and a few more DJs who follow and support the independent music scene.

It's definitely still important, but I think the internet has "widened the field".

Do you think that now that everyone can make music thanks to computers, and everyone can put their music out on the internet, the overall quality level of the music out there has dropped?

Kenny: I think good things always find a way to be "found", to "emerge"... Oh God, what a cheap answer!

Gavin: I find it a bit sad that, with this kind of shift, people are starting to forget the influence that people like John Peel had: for years he was the only broadcaster on national radio playing music that no one else would have aired, and he did it as a public employee, providing a service to the public.

I remember a promo photo of yours where you were holding up a sign that read: "I don't want to be part of your scene".

Gavin: Right.

Kenny: Yes. It's a line from one of our songs, "Keep It Clear", from our second record, and the only reason we used it is that it's a really catchy line.

So there's nothing polemical about it.

Kenny: It was a time when we really didn't want to fit into any kind of cliché.

Gavin: Come on, nobody wants to fit into any kind of "pigeonhole".

(Milan, 14/10/2009)

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