Clearlake - Britpop for Export

On the eve of the release of Clearlake's third album, Jason Pegg, the band's singer, finds a couple of minutes to quickly answer some of my questions, while we wait for our washing machines to finish.

Amber is a key character on your latest album: not only does she give it its title, but the song bearing her name has a completely different atmosphere from the other tracks. Who is Amber?

Amber is Life itself, Amber is the Light in a child's dark eyes, Amber is the smoke of all the black candles.

Word has it that this was a difficult record for you.

For the mind, the concept of "time" is painful to grasp, while for the spirit it's irrelevant.

…

…

After working with Simon Raymonde (former Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil), for this record you turned to Steve Osborne (already producer of U2 , Happy Mondays and KT Tunstall), Jim Abiss (already producer of Editors , Kasabian , DJ Shadow, David Gray ) and Phill Brown (who has already recorded albums by Talk Talk, Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix , yes: him!). How did you end up choosing such big names?

If you see everything in an artistic light… inviting anyone to swim in your own very personal energy is delicate and treacherous. Everyone we worked with was daunted by it, and each showed sensitivity in their own way.

…Did they want a lot of money?

As for money… what could ever compare to creativity?

Anyway, you personally co-produced "Neon" and "Dreamt That You Died". I imagine you're particularly attached to these two tracks.

"Neon" is the drunken night of a possible self-celebration… "Dreamt That You Died" is reality.

The album's opening track is titled "No Kind Of Life", a rather negative title. The last track, on the other hand, has a more positive title: "It's Getting Light Outside". Is that a coincidence, or does something actually happen while the record plays?

"No Kind Of Life" is actually an extremely positive title… any warning for any situation is reality!

Darkness is the light that's missing… light is the light that's present… the sun sets, the sun rises.

All of this is part of life.

In a recent interview I read that you're writing songs in a way that tries to "find a balance between chaos and order".

Chaos is the vulgar description of nature. Order is a mental concept. These distinctions were made by the mind. Mind versus nature. All words are something born of the mind.

Mh. Is that a way of saying you're already working on the next record?

Oh yeah!

Sometimes I get the impression that the songs you write are like little screenplays. Do you help yourself by thinking in images that you then "translate" into words? Do you have a Muse who sometimes comes to visit you?

Often... life is an ever-present muse.

With your second album, "Cedars", you became a cult band in the United States, an extremely difficult feat for an English band. How do you explain that to yourselves?

You know, I have no idea?

What do you expect from "Amber"?

"Amber" still hasn't been released in the United States. We'll see what happens.

In your little group everyone has their own role: you play guitar and sing, Sam plays guitar, Toby plays drums, and Woody plays bass and greeting cards... Greeting cards?!!

Woody is just so down to earth...

Best wishes to you too.

Coming from a small town like Howe, did that help you have a unique sound, or do you think coming from a bigger city would have helped in some other way?

Look, Howe is a huge city!

Anyway, who could ever say?

But I keep thinking about the greeting cards… I'd love to have one of their greeting cards… I'm curious…

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google