Divine Comedy - The Revenge of the Dandy

With "Foreverland" this year marked the return, after a six-year hiatus, of Neil Hannon's flagship project, the Divine Comedy. Once again the melodies and stories of this Northern Irish troubadour proved capable, aided by the use of retro instruments, of whisking the listener away elsewhere, to bygone eras, to live under the banner of the noblest of feelings.

We took the opportunity for a delightful phone call with Neil, during which we talked a lot and laughed even more. A call that showed us, besides the refined musician we all know, a warm and likeable man, full of anecdotes and thoughts to share.

Good afternoon Neil, how are you? Where are you right now?

I'm doing very well, thanks. Right now I'm relaxing in a room at a Hilton in Kent.

What are you doing there? Are you playing nearby tonight?

Yes, I'm here to record an episode of "Later... with Jools Holland".

Great, I'll definitely look for your performance on YouTube. Right Neil, just so it's clear, you're talking to me, but you have so many fans among our writers that I couldn't help borrowing a few of their questions.

Oh, thank you so much, hearing things like this is always a pleasure.

Let's start with a general question about your music. Reading the titles and lyrics of your songs, listening to their orchestrations, it feels like being in front of compositions capable of transporting the listener out of their own time, taking them to other eras, around the seventeenth or nineteenth century I'd say. Where does this bond of yours with these old eras come from?

Well, I'd say that rather than trying to take you to another time, I try to get you to use a different lens, to distance you a little from yourself. I also use characters from other eras to make everything more interesting and evocative. I could easily use more usual, more contemporary characters, but it would bore me. Yes, I could easily write more normal songs, three or four chords and more ordinary lyrics, but there'd be no pleasure in it.

Of course, in fact I find your ability to write absolutely pop songs extraordinary, while adorning them, for instance, with instruments from the past — I'm thinking of your use of the harpsichord.

I don't want to be sarcastic, but it would be impossible to use instruments that come from the future! Anyway, I understand what you mean, I could use more modern instruments, I could resort to the electronics of today's pop music. But I don't, not because I don't like it — and in fact I don't — but because I'm so in love with the music I like to listen to that I can't help but draw on it. Because I have mastery of it and because I adore it.

Let's talk a bit about your new album. "Desperate Man" is an extremely cinematic song, it could be the soundtrack to an adventure film. How did it come about?

I wrote "Desperate Man" roughly a year and a half, two years ago, which for me is quite a short time... I work on theological timescales. At first it was just a riff of Latin origins that I liked playing on piano, I started playing it with different instruments until I began associating images with it. Those of a man in danger, a fugitive, a bit like Harrison Ford.

Exactly, that's precisely the kind of setting I meant.

Yes, but it's also a romantic song, about a man who wants to go back to his woman, not geographically, emotionally. But I couldn't write a song about a man telling his woman 'hey baby, let's get back together, emotionally', you know? So I built the whole adventure around it. The story of this man who can't miss the last ship.

Another extraordinary song is 'My Happy Place', which on one hand can take you to a safe place, a happy one indeed, but on the other hides something melancholic.

Well yes, there's a big paradox behind this song. You know when you're sad because of someone, and that very person is your happy place?

Sure, I think I know the feeling.

You see, this whole latest album is about my last six or seven years, and so, inevitably, about me and my better half. It's about how much we like and love each other, but also about how complicated a relationship can turn out to be.

That's a great assist, because the next question is precisely about love, the feeling that seems to be at the center of every one of your albums. Do you really believe it's the thing that makes the world go round?

Sure, maybe love isn't at the center of everything, but it plays a huge part. For me it's a fundamental theme, and I don't always talk about it from a personal perspective, I like inventing love stories. I even wrote a song about it, 'Songs Of Love' from Casanova, which is precisely about writing love songs, something I have great experience with. That's what I did for a large part of my life, writing love songs without knowing what I was talking about. Today something has changed instead, now I have a better understanding of what love is, and I've put it into my latest songs.

The love that moves the world is a concept we also find in the Divine Comedy, a work you've surely read - what's your favourite part of Dante's masterpiece?

I feel a bit ashamed to admit it, but despite having taken the name of that work for my band, I've never managed to get past three or four circles of hell. Maybe it's a bit too steeped in the Italian medieval mood for me.

Sorry for putting you on the spot a little, but as an Italian I tend to assume everyone must have read the Comedy, you know, that's where our modern language comes from, so we read it in school and so on.

Sure, I get it, a bit like Shakespeare for us. Or maybe not, no, I think it's more like Geoffrey Chaucer, the Anglo-Saxon poet who's considered the father of our language.

Ah, that name escapes me, now I'm the embarrassed one, but thanks for the tip. Anyway, the quote I was referring to is the one that closes Dante's Paradiso, in English it would sound roughly like this: 'the love which moves the sun and all the other stars'.

Well, that really is a beautiful quote. Speaking of which, I'm a bit embarrassed to say this, but about ten years ago, if you googled 'The Divine Comedy' we used to come up before Dante's Comedy, at least in the UK. I humbly apologise for that.

I forgive you on behalf of the entire Italian people, but let's get back to your music. For 2001's 'Regeneration' you worked with Nigel Godrich, a rather hyped producer by your standards. Why did you make that choice?

Well, it came about quite naturally. He'd produced some huge records that I love, Radiohead's 'Ok Computer', the Travis albums, and he in turn liked my earlier records, though not how they were produced, so we met up and got on really well. And then, you know how it is... it also happened because the opportunity was there - we'd just signed with EMI Parlophone, which Nigel worked for, so there was also the chance to spend a lot of money at a major label like that. It was a really fun record to make and it's a very good record, but I don't feel much emotional attachment to it. I'd say it's the record that feels least like mine, and I don't play many of its songs anymore.

Listening to your 'At The Indie Disco' I can't help but dance - is there a song that has that effect on you?

I'm not much of a dancer myself, but let me think about it for a second. Mmm, 'Brown Sugar' by the Stones, definitely.

Great choice. Let's turn for a moment to another project of yours that I love a lot, 'The Duckworth Lewis Method'. Can we expect a third record under that name, or is it too soon?

No, I can guarantee you there won't be a third DLM record. You know, there shouldn't even have been a second one. One album about cricket was already too much, but then I just couldn't not record a second one - but no, there won't be a third cricket record. Or someone will kill me, come on, a third cricket album would be insane. What I would like to do is take the project on tour, and I'm hoping to do that soon.

Well, that sounds like a great idea. Have you been listening to any new music lately? Is there anything you'd like to recommend to our readers?

Let's see. Well, I love Arcade Fire. Last year I also loved Benjamin Clementine's record and the Django Django album.

I happened to see them live, at Rough Trade, and that was definitely a hard place not to dance.

Exactly, but they're also very skilled and sophisticated with vocal harmonies, it's a really interesting project.

Next February you'll be playing in Brescia, in a beautiful theatre. Do you enjoy playing in Italy?

Well, I love playing in Italy, if nothing else because it means I get to visit Italy, which is the best place in the world. You have spectacular scenery, fantastic food, extraordinary wine and even better women, you're really lucky.

And to think my girlfriend and I live in London.

You don't want to live in London, trust me, London is a shithole.

Actually we're seriously considering moving. Do you have any memories of playing live around here?

I have so many great memories of our shows in Italy. There's one in particular I want to share though. I'm not sure if I'd call it a fond memory, but it's funny, it's about my first time in Italy. It was 1994 and I was the support act for Tori Amos. At the Rome date I was on stage alone with an acoustic guitar. The audience ignored me for forty minutes, but then, when I held the last high note of 'Lucy', everyone turned towards me shouting 'bravoooo' and whistling. I got scared and, intimidated, took a few steps back, tripping over one of Tori's monitor wedges. Everything came crashing down on me.

Well, Neil, that's all. Thank you so much for your time, let me just say it's been an honour to share this chat with you. See you soon.

The honour and pleasure are mine, see you soon.

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