Stuart A. Staples - Abandonment and its Songs

We meet Stuart Ashton Staples the day after the release of his second solo album, "Leaving Songs"…

I got a rather bleak impression reading the press release for "Leaving Songs". It almost seems like you didn't have much fun working on this record.

…Actually, I did enjoy it… I probably expected a "simpler" record than the one that eventually came out. At the start, the songs were all much sparer, and I wanted "more" from them. When I started working on them, everything became… not "more complicated"… I just started asking more of each song, and I added a lot of arrangements.

So, from something "very simple", I unexpectedly found myself with something "very complicated".

Is that why you started working on it in Nashville and then went back to London?

Yes. I started working on the songs with some musicians I really like while I was in Nashville, and I thought I'd record there because I felt an urgency to cut these songs with these musicians, and I thought it would turn into an immediate record. But when I got back to London, I realised that what I'd recorded – the vocals, the guitars, the drums – were just the foundations of the record, and I felt that each of the songs needed to give more, so I set to work trying to figure out what shape the record should take.

Why did you want to record this album in Nashville and not in your own studio in England? That would have been more "convenient".

I spent at least a year in the studio on some of the "Lucky Dog Recordings", and I needed to get away, to travel a bit, and Mark Nevers (who recorded the vocals on the album) had always encouraged me to go there. I'd been promising myself I'd do it for years, and I realised this was the right occasion.

For "Leaving Songs" you worked with a huge number of musicians. How did you end up wanting so many people working alongside you?

The truth is I tend to work with a group of musicians I know, whom I like, whom I know how to talk to, from whom I know what to expect, who I know will have a lot of patience with me and will help me reach the goals I've set for myself.

When I see so many musicians' names listed on a record, I always think of them as friends dropping by the studio for a quick hello who then end up with an instrument in their hands.

In a way, that's exactly what happened. I think that… getting older and living in different parts of Europe, I tend to run into everyone I know even when I'm working, so it's also a way of making music and having fun with friends.

Leaving Songs. What or who are you leaving behind?

I didn't title the album "Leaving Songs" until it was finished: before that there was no title.

I wrote the songs quickly, and that was something I hadn't done in a long time. I needed to communicate and to understand certain things, and in the end I realized I was in the middle of a change. Sometimes you reach a point in life where you can glimpse the future and accept it and move forward along that path, or try to make other decisions and change what's waiting for you.

Well, all the songs are shaped by that outlook — it was about figuring out how brave I was in making certain decisions.

Right now, I'm not sure what I'm heading towards; time will tell.

I hope you don't mind if I ask you some questions about Tindersticks.

Absolutely! Go ahead.

In the English musical tradition there has always been a strong orchestral element. It seems to me that, with Tindersticks, this was reworked in the spirit of the '90s, while what was mostly in vogue at the time were very different sounds, like grunge or Britpop.

Was going against the grain a deliberate choice?

No. We focused on being who we were. We never worried about how we were supposed to sound: we moved forward in small steps. For the first album we'd listen to the songs and tell ourselves: "Okay, let's put a ton of violins on this"; for the second album: "Okay, we need an orchestra," and by the time we got to "Curtains" the idea of making a record that was more than just orchestrated had become second nature. I remember well that recording "Curtains" felt a bit like living a dream.

It's not about choices, it's about growth.

Lately a lot of English bands have been coming out, and a great many of them achieve success that, in my opinion, is a bit unwarranted. Have you ever felt any regret? There were plenty of Tindersticks songs that combined experimentation and catchiness, and that had every quality needed to become hugely popular.

No! (he smiles) You get what you wish for!

No, I don't feel any regret: we never tried to be hugely popular. The mainstream isn't for us.

I know several people who achieved considerable success and... it's like lighting a match: at first it burns bright and powerful, but then it burns through everything and goes out.

You always have to keep in focus what you need to watch out for, otherwise you reach a point where you no longer know what you're supposed to do.

Personally, I'm much more interested in reaching an ever more mature sound.

Tindersticks have worked several times with French director Claire Denis. Do you think working on her films has influenced your musical path in any way?

Absolutely, yes!

The first time we worked together, it completely changed my approach to how you work on a record, and it did so in a way that only this kind of collaboration could. You know, it's no longer about an abstract story, but about a kind of story that has a beginning, an end and a set path, where each step leads to another. It's never a “sequence of songs”.

How did you work on the various soundtracks?

You start to get a “feel” for what you need to do the moment you receive the script, and it's an immediate sensation you experience, but one that doesn't fully emerge until the melodies have been completely written.

I imagine that working on the soundtrack for a “raw” film like “Trouble Every Day” must have been very different from working on the soundtrack for a “light” film like “Nenette et Boni”.

I worked on three of Claire's films, and each of the three had a totally different idea and approach behind it.

With “Nenette et Boni” we focused on a very “blended” kind of music, to give the score a sense of joy.

“Trouble Every Day” was much deeper, much more intimate: there's this character in the film (a fantastic Vincent Gallo, ed.) who calls for very orchestral arrangements. We recorded the whole soundtrack in a single day - we spent a month working on the arrangements, then recorded with the orchestra in just one day. They were very intense experiences.

The last of Claire's films I worked on as a soloist, “The Intruder”, was a different film again, because it didn't suggest any sense of melody... so the very idea of melody had to be completely abandoned, and instead we used series of loops and off-beat rhythms.

Definitely three very different experiences from one another.

I get the impression you enjoyed working on soundtracks, which makes me think you'll be doing it again soon.

I happened to work on a few soundtracks over the past couple of years together with Dick, so at the moment I don't feel especially driven in that direction: right now I'm much more driven by my own ideas. You know, working with Claire pushes you to emphasise ideas and the spirit of collaboration, and right now I feel very free - free to make decisions and be part of a process. Given how a soundtrack works, I'm not really interested in composing a new one at the moment. If some offer came my way right now, I might consider it if I found it truly interesting, but off the top of my head, I feel like having my own ideas and working on them, without interference. I'm not interested in working on a new film right now.

How did you instead work on “4:48 Psychosis”? (A track inspired by the play of the same name by English author Sarah Kane)

Actually, it was the first time I'd produced something and didn't like it: there was a lot of theatricality.

When I first read the play, it struck me deeply and I wanted the record ((Waiting For The Moon by Tindersticks) to give the listener the same emotions, the same sense of oblivion.

I'm convinced the whole record was influenced by “4:48 Psychosis”.

I wasn't aware of it at the time, but thinking about it now, I can sense it very clearly. Maybe I'm being a bit hard on myself now, maybe I should have been a bit more... selfish and written something a bit more true, more complete.

“Songs for the Young at Heart” is coming out soon? Can you tell me about the project?

Actually it's a project set up by David (Boulter of Tindersticks) that I got involved in.

It's a collection of songs going back to our childhood. It's a record centred on the loss of childhood.

There are several singers involved, artists we chose and asked to sing particular songs. There's Jarvis Cocker, Kurt Wagner, Cerys Matthews, Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian … They've all sung songs that relate to our own personal loss of childhood.

Did you enjoy it?

I really enjoyed taking part in this project, working on this record and singing on it. It was a very important experience for me.

Ok, here we go, time for the nasty question. (Stuart smiles, amused)

I feel very motivated to ask this because a couple of days ago I was at a Hugo Race concert and last week I interviewed Barry Adamson, and I find it absurd that even though they left the Bad Seeds between 1985 and 1986, they're still being introduced as “former Bad Seeds members”…

Do you think that in a few years' time someone will still be introducing you as “the former Tindersticks singer”?

(while I was asking the question we spent a few minutes talking about Barry Adamson in Magazine and Visage, but I don't think it's relevant to report our thoughts on that here for this interview)

…I think it helps describe how your work came about and where it comes from…

You know, you also have to consider that there's always the chance a Tindersticks record could come out next year…

My eyes are so wide open and my expression so surprised that Stuart feels the need to clarify the point.

I said it might be possible: the possibility is there, but it's remote. It all depends on how a lot of things play out.

Actually, the need I felt to produce something outside the band came precisely from the fact that, with Tindersticks, I felt I couldn't give my best. But that could change too.

At this point the goodbyes begin. Fortunately, switching off the recorder is always the last thing I do…

You know, I remember very well the first time I heard a Tindersticks song: I saw you play live on TV… (Stuart smiles again, more and more amused)… I had just moved to London…

Ah, you were in London. I thought you'd seen that crazy thing in Milan…

You played live on TV in Milan? Really?

Yes, it was a TV appearance… They took us to this studio, then we went to the dressing rooms and we were completely convinced it was going to be some kind of MTV-style thing, you know, going on stage and playing a couple of our songs, but when we went on stage… there were… we found out it was actually a children's programme: there were about a hundred kids sitting on steps and on the floor, all around the stage, and we had to sit right in the middle of them to play our song. It was such a surreal experience!

(Milan, November 26, 2006)

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