Public Service Broadcasting - The idea of History to invent stories

Fresh from the American tour that saw them take the stage at SXSW in Austin, TX, Public Service Broadcasting spoke to us in this interview for OndaRock, just before their landing in Italy for a run of five dates, from March 18th to 22nd. Mr Willgoose, Esq. walked us through his view of things, touching on the concepts of "Information", "Education" and "Entertain", on how listening to lots of different music is the foundation for creating new, quality music, on how PSB came into contact with the Elfstedentocht, the longest ice skating race in the world, on the importance of History – with a few hints about the new album – and on their "Italian" listening habits, from Yuppie Flu to Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, via Lush Rimbaud.

We're in Georgia in our (rented) van, heading from Atlanta to Savannah where we have a gig tonight. It's actually pretty comfortable, though not as much as the one we had on the West Coast; and we're doing well, although Wrigglesworth is complaining about a cold that's probably on its way.

So, let's start by talking about you rather than your music.. Who are you? What can you tell me about your "EDUCATION"?

Who are we? I thought it was obvious: we're J. Willgoose, Esq. (guitar, banjo, electronics) and Wrigglesworth (drums, electronics). We're a lone, relatively mysterious pair: that's how we like to be. Wrigglesworth's education is "insignificant" – he barely knows the smallest thing – while I hold several diplomas, degrees and PhDs. All of this is obviously true (ironic, ed.).

I wanted to talk about education because I think it's important to understand who you are; you seem like a kind of "professors of music", with you – Willgoose – playing an endless array of instruments and Wrigglesworth on drums. How did it all start? What can you tell me about the BBC, its programmes and the concept of "INFORMATION"? Let me guess, you don't watch much TV, do you? 

(Laughs) No, I do watch it, I do! A lot of people think I'm stuck in the past, but I'm really not: I watch loads of new stuff. There are some really great shows around at the moment, and I'm a huge fan of Storyville, the BBC4 documentary series.

As for being professors, well, I'd say we try to resemble the staff of the Open University, but I really couldn't call us professors of music! Maybe professors of the ridiculous..

As for songwriting, there's no fixed method. Usually there's some idea – generally a broad idea about a specific subject, which I start researching, or a small musical spark that I can build on with something else; whether the footage comes before or after is really down to chance: it's the idea underneath that comes first and normally precedes everything else. Then I make a demo and play it with Wrigglesworth, who fixes up my terrible drumming, and then we work on it just enough at home until I'm happy with the result. And as for the BBC, obviously we're huge fans, but these days most of our footage actually comes from the BFI (British Film Institute): they're a great outfit, they've helped and supported us a lot.

Making music with a strong visual impact is something that in the past has been used by bands like Pink Floyd and Talking Heads, just to name a couple. These days I'm reading "How Music Works", the book by David Byrne, which in some ways talks about a 360-degree vision of art, bringing together music, visual arts, theatre, poetry. What do you think of this concept? Do you think it could fit into your idea of music and performance? And how would you describe the "ENTERTAIN" part?

I think it's related in some way, though only by chance. I never really set out to do the things I do now, I just started using the "little films" because it seemed like a fun thing to do. And it is, and it was, but the live show gradually evolved over a period of several years before reaching the state it's in right now. I suppose there are elements of theatre and poetry in the samples we use, combined with the power of the audio and the visual elements, and that might be a bit much for people who come to one of our shows for the first time, like a feeling of overload or something like that!

When we listened to your first work, "Inform – Educate – Entertain", it wasn't just BBC elements and samples, it felt like we were listening to a stream of time. Why describe History through music? How important is culture to you? Are you thinking of a series of LPs offering glimpses of History? For example, "Inform – Educate – Entertain" referenced programmes from the Thirties — will there be something about the Second World War, or the Moon landing, or the explosion of the internet?

Using historical context to guide an EP or an album, so as to provide a narrative, is particularly important to me. It worked well with "The War Room EP", and then with the album ("Inform – Educate – Entertain", ed.) we spread out and broadened things a bit in terms of subjects and styles. I think the next release, which we're working on when we're not on tour, will be closer to "The War Room" in how it handles historical material and how that material can help guide the story. I think that if we were a purely instrumental band we'd have to work a bit harder to connect with the crowd and the audience. So I believe using the material we work with to inject a bit of history, a touch of humour and some showmanship is a very important tool for us.

In your music I first heard the influence of Mike Oldfield, and I know it would be reductive to mention only him: what kind of music did you listen to yesterday? And last week? And over the past year?

Well, right now in the van we're listening to Lcd Soundsystem, great for me for several reasons, especially their live shows, and they're actually a band I always forget to mention. This morning I was listening to an African artist, Amadou Balake, and b-sides of all kinds. Luke Abbott, Little Dragon, Metronomy, London Is The Place For Me, Jahtari Dubbers, David Bowie, Byron Lee & The Dragonaires, Doc Watson.. all of these and more in just this past week! And we're big fans of varied music in general: the more good and different music you put into your ears, the better and more varied it'll be when you try to put it back out yourself, I think.

I read that you sold 15,000 copies in the first week the record was released in the UK, incredible for these times. How do you see the future of music, and obviously what do you think about physical vs digital in this "Cloudify" world?

That's not quite true, unfortunately: we sold around 5,000 copies in the first week, which is still an incredible thing! We still sell a lot of music in physical format, probably more than most, and part of that is down to our audience, which skews a bit older and so prefers to have a physical product to keep at home; another reason, I hope, is that we put a lot of ideas and effort into the design and packaging, so that people want it, want to own it and look at it rather than just keep it in digital form. I've never cared how people listen to music, what matters to me is that they keep supporting it. Music will never go away as long as man walks this Earth, so it's just a matter of finding a model that works for listeners and bands and, to be honest, for the companies that fund the bands' releases.

I've listened to – and watched – your tribute to the Elfstedentocht, the Dutch event famous for being the longest ice skating race in the world. Where did that idea come from? Do you ever play any of those tracks live?

Yes, we sometimes play one or both of the pieces live for the occasion – it's always nice to have new material to bring to the set, and they're fun to play too. It all started when we were approached by the organisers of a Dutch festival called "Explore The North In Leeuwarden". It coincides with the arrival of the Elfstedentocht race, and the whole thing is a real event in Holland. They had some footage they wanted us to use and then perform live at their festival: it seemed like such a crazy idea that of course we said yes, of course we'll do it!

After the US you'll be coming to Italy on tour: it'll be a nice taste of our country. What do you think of Italy? Do you know anything about Italian music, especially contemporary music?

I admit I don't know much contemporary Italian music. We're good friends with Lush Rimbaud, who live in Ancona, and I think they're great. I also used to like a band called Yuppie Flu, a long time ago, but of course Italy's musical heritage is second to none in the world, especially in opera and classical music. My favourite piece of music is Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana – it's simply the most beautiful, moving, sad yet uplifting piece of music I've ever heard: I want it played at my funeral! And in general we can't wait to come to Italy. We love the food and the people, and we were pleasantly struck by the warmth we received when we played there. We hope to see a good crowd and have a great time – with a bit of pizza.

Ride the wave of great music

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