Steve Adey - The space between the notes

Time, in Steve Adey's music, seems to melt like one of Dalí's clocks: a slow dilation in which the echo of a whisper is enough to fill the space of silence. Adey belongs to the same school as Mark Kozelek, Low, and Dakota Suite: for him, notes are the secret rhythm of the heartbeat. The songwriter from Edinburgh, who made a name for himself in 2006 with the solemn, captivating “All Things Real”, introduces us to a world of winter landscapes, organ pipes and ancient naves, unveiling the first previews of his second album, expected this year.

In an age dominated by speed, where every new release is consumed in the time it takes to download it, your music seems to belong to a world where time moves in slow motion: the dilations that characterize your songs, the pace of your releases... What does the idea of slowness mean to you?

The slower the musical pace, the more room you have to play within it. The space between the notes is a very important part of music. I hate speeding things up in the best moments, sometimes I wish they were even slower. Yes, of course, I like music that unfolds slowly. My favorite records are usually like that.

Your debut album featured two rather “imposing” covers, “Shelter From The Storm” by Bob Dylan and “I See A Darkness” by Bonnie “Prince” Billy, on which you showed great interpretive originality. More recently you made an equally effective cover of “Everything In Its Right Place” by Radiohead. What do you think is the key to making someone else's song your own?

The key is first of all not being afraid to take risks and, probably even more important, having a good reason. On “Shelter From The Storm” I headed toward a big shift in tempo and dynamics – a dramatic change – but I also kept a subdued tone. “Everything In Its Right Place” was mostly an idea of my guitarist Doug MacDonald's. He played a series of acoustic tracks – I think around 10 – and I picked out different parts and blended them together. I played an organ, creating a single-note reverb in the bridge, and I put together the vocal part quickly. It was an unusual approach, because normally I start from the piano.

There isn't a songwriter out there who hasn't at some point tackled a Bob Dylan song: do you think that's down to his fame alone, or does it have something to do with the essence of Dylan's songwriting?

It has more to do with the songwriting, certainly. With Dylan, the lyrics are always an important factor, and the challenge is to convey them in the best way possible – to carry the words across without ruining them. There's always a great sense of fluidity in his writing – pure genius. It's best not to overthink it when performing his songs: better to make a diagnosis after the fact. I recorded an album (never released) of Dylan songs before it was fashionable to do so, and I learned a lot from that experience.

Your compositions often have a cinematic perspective, and the videos accompanying “Find The Way”, “Mississippi” and the new “Burning Fields” have very evocative atmospheres. What's the relationship between music and image for you?

I'm almost exclusively concerned with the music while I'm making it – but it's very interesting to use a film to take it somewhere else. We've done some interesting things so far, but I'd like to go deeper. You know, really dig in with other people involved. It's about collaboration.

“Death To All Things Real” is the title of the opening track on your first album, which also inspired the album's title: is the death you're referring to a contradiction of life, or is it rather a sign of a mysterious essence of “all things real”?

Both, really. Yes, I love reality, of course, and the title is more ironic, a way of taking myself down a peg.

Another track from All Things Real, “Mississippi”, was inspired by the death of Jeff Buckley, an artist for whom the power of interpretation often mattered more than the songwriting itself. Do you feel any affinity with his approach?

He had an immense voice – both technically and emotionally – a remarkable ability. He could take someone else's song to a different level. That said, his own writing was also very important. Grace is finely balanced between well-chosen covers and Buckley's original songs. I like that idea of writing most of the music yourself, but including two or three covers.

Many of your songs have been recorded inside old churches. What draws you to that kind of space, and what connection does it have with your music?

Acoustics are important to me, even more so with the new record, where most of the band's performances were recorded in a large room – the nave of a church. On top of that, there's a sense of communion in a church – there's usually a better atmosphere and a more unified spirit to the creative process. These old churches were built through a huge collective human effort, and it feels perfectly natural to make music that way. I like recording like this far more than going into some generic studio.

We take some minimal gear – microphones, preamps – set it up, and get to work. Probably 80% of the new record was recorded this way.

All Things Real was recorded in Longformacus, in the Scottish Borders – miles from anywhere. We followed the same approach. We set everything up and brought in an expensive piano, but it turned out to be pretty tricky. It was the dead of winter, the instruments didn't like the extreme cold, and we couldn't feel our fingers most of the time, so we ended up recording most of the record in a rented cottage a bit further down the road.

Your songwriting sounds more American than European: what's your relationship with your musical roots?

American music is a major influence, of course. I've also lived in the United States, and I'd say that's been one of the biggest influences on me.

What was it about Mary Margaret O'Hara's artistic personality that struck you enough to dedicate a song to her?

I was a huge fan of “Miss America”. The songwriting on that record was really interesting to me, but the voice was something else entirely. I'd honestly never heard anything like it before – magnetic and stunning – but also truly unique.

Some artists made remixes of your song “Mississippi”. How did that project come about, and what do you think of the practice of remixing?

I knew Kramer, initially, through his work with Low and the Shimmy label. I'd been talking for a while with Tim (of Sweet Billy Pilgrim) about working on something together. The same with Peter Chilvers (of A Marble Calm). I thought “Mississippi” was an unusual choice for a remix. It's an anti-single – the opposite of the typical idea of a single. It was quite unusual because I only gave them the main vocal track and the piano track. Normally for a remix a sound engineer would have at least 24 tracks to work with, but in this case there were only two. So they had a very skeletal framework to work from.

I'm open to songs being reinterpreted – whether that's a new recording or a remix of the original track.

How has your past experience as a sound engineer influenced your music?

The best thing is that I can bring ideas to life in a hands-on way. For example, if I want a specific sound, I've got a pretty precise idea of how to achieve it without having to explain it to an engineer. I've got a small collection of microphones and minimal gear that I use. For the new record, the process is very structured and disciplined. I'm producing it myself, but it sounds more like a band – more so on this album than on the first one.

What does a song need in order to reach you on a deep level?

I appreciate honesty, and anything that manages to move me. I couldn't really explain it...

The record that changed your life.

The record I keep coming back to is “Master And Everyone” by Bonnie "Prince" Billy. It works on so many different levels. Gorgeous melodies and arrangements, and the singing is natural, with every accompanying note carefully thought out, so there's nothing that doesn't work. I love everything about that record.

What should we expect from the new record planned for this year?

A good record, I hope! Also something a bit different. I'm completely absorbed in the songs, but I find myself pushing back against the whole singer-songwriter movement. I've got nothing against the people involved in it, but it's not for me.

In the early recordings the direction we took was that of a band playing live in a room, then we recorded the strings and I started tracking. It's a big sound with an interesting production, but then some parts came together quickly and stayed pretty much untouched. The voice and the lyrics are more upfront this time. I'm waiting for the final mix and then the master: that's when the record is fully realized – an exciting moment.

(09/06/2008)

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