Written exclusively for the Indie label, these two tracks offer an intriguing glimpse into the artist’s brain. Entirely different from one another- vacillating between wicked guitar riffs and haunting melodies backed by almost poetic lyrics—I was captivated from first listen. Not long after, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a 2013 Video EP (The First Take Cover Sessions) featuring covers of well-known songs including none other than The Dead Weather!
When he's not fielding collector inquiries (ok, mine) regarding recently discovered hand-written lyrics sheets available in singles originally sold from his web-site (and hopefully to be sold at future live shows!), Richards has been preparing for a busier 2014 than his introspective, song-writing year of 2013 entailed. Selected as one of several artists to be featured on a recent Grimtale Records project via the label's first (and only?) cassette release, he is in the process of finding a label to release his already recorded full-length LP. In advance of the varied and excited things to come, Oliver Richard has kindly agreed to participate in the following Q&A…
So, as a relatively new solo artist in the eyes of North America, please be so kind as to tell our readers a bit about yourself… Born? Raised? Background?
I
was born and raised in Scotland, by the North Sea. Music has always been with
me in some way or another. I see it like a marriage or a faith: there are the
years of plenty and then there are the years where you are starving. I went to
school, then university, studied Neuroscience, graduated in 2011, then
sacrificed that on the altar of music. I played my first show in 2009,
acoustically, got a lot of love and gig offers, and started to play live in Aberdeen
weekly. In 2010 I went electric, promptly lost most of my local fan-base and
the gigs dried up. I was too loud and sonically unpredictable for the city’s
ersatz Americana scene, and too difficult to define for the rock band circuits.
2011 was a year of writing and roadtesting
new material live. 2012 saw me record what was now an album’s-worth of work,
but due to a grave technical error, I lost it all that winter. I then swore off
live shows for 2013 until I had re-recorded the album, which turned out to be a
blessing in disguise as the songs took on a new life that year. Somewhere
during this enforced exile, Grimtale
Records offered me the chance to do a 7” which I grabbed with both hands.
What
set you on your musical path? How did your solo work evolve?
I
received piano and cello tuition from an early age. I would get up early to
practice those instruments, and then go to school. Music was purely an
intellectual exercise back then (although I was too young to know it) and just
another aspect of education. It was a bit like learning the alphabet or times
tables or something– you just got on with it. However, that changed when I was
about eleven. I turned on ‘Top of the Pops’ to see this man with red hair
singing and playing a keyboard. Then out of nowhere he ripped into this
electric guitar, and an avalanche of sound piled in. It was Muse playing
‘Newborn’ from their new album, Origin of Symmetry. At that moment the stars
aligned, and my heart and guts caught up with my brain, so to speak.
Who have
been primary influences in your songwriting style?
I
find it difficult to pinpoint influences in my own work when it comes to other
artists. Perhaps it’s because if I ever consciously hear or feel an idea
entering another musician’s sphere, I try to steer things away from that
direction. I want to create material that feels unique and representative of
me, as far as possible, without sacrificing any authenticity or becoming
contrived. In a way, the music I love exerts a push rather than a pull when I’m
writing, like a repulsive influence... I’m not saying that I am working in some
genius vacuum where I cannot be influenced by other music, but rather that I’m
blind to it by and large, and possibly the worst person to ask...
I’ve
really enjoyed your Grimtale single
‘Triggerfish’, especially the b-side ‘Far From the Day’. Can you expand a bit
on the song-writing process for those songs? What was the inspiration behind
either song? Did you have preconceived ideas about what they should be or did they just evolve in the process?
-Triggerfish has odd roots. The guitar came
together whilst watching “Blue Valentine”. I was playing along to the film with
a baritone guitar, and out of that came the majority of Triggerfish (albeit about ten times slower than the final cut).
The lyrics started with an article I was reading by Billy Connelly’s wife. She
was talking about snorkeling and
mentioned triggerfish - a species I had
never heard of before. I wrote the word in my notebook, thinking they’d been
given their name due to hair-trigger temperaments, which was wrong. It’s
apparently because they have a trigger-like mechanism on their back which
allows the fish to ‘lock’ themselves into holes when threatened. I saw a parallel
here with human behaviour which led to the lyrics as you hear them now.
-Far From The Day was a song I finished in 2012 after concluding the writing for my
debut album (which is not released as of yet, but has been recorded).
Ultimately, it was a song without a home when I was offered the 7” opportunity,
so I was glad to get it out there. I began writing it around five years ago,
and it took a long time to complete, with the lyrics becoming the main sticking
point, as they so often are for me. I can labour over a single line for
literally months, which was very much the case for Far From The Day. There was
a lot of crafting and shedding of dead wood with that song.
As you
may know I absolutely love The Dead Weather so I am curious as to what in particular
inspired you to cover their ‘Rolling in on a Burning Tire’?
I
decided to do a stripped down video EP
whilst writing my album, to give people something to watch/listen to whilst I
was preparing my songs. From my then weekly live shows, I had accumulated a
large collection of covers, and elected to choose five of these for the video EP which I would upload to Youtube. I called it “The First Take Cover
Sessions” on account of fact that I performed each one only once, whilst
filming and recording it. I wanted the videos to shed light on different facets
of my musical output and tastes, and as Jack White is a source of inspiration
for me, I chose to represent him during the sessions. Of the few songs of his I
had covered live, I felt I had done the most interesting stuff with “Rolling in on a Burning Tyre”, by reducing a four piece, hard rock band’s extremely
textural song to its bare bones. I liked the feeling of playing the riff, and
how it almost tumbled into Dick Dale territory. Moreover, I thought it would be
an interesting choice seeing as “Rolling...” is a non-album Dead Weather track.
As a
solo artist in today’s musical climate, how important has social media been to
promoting yourself and getting your music out there?
I
have a troubled relationship with social media. I enjoy the easy dissemination
of information (especially for gigs and live shows) but I’m a reluctant user,
by and large. I normally subscribe to the ‘less is more’ attitude when it comes
to artists and their online presence. I think too much activity can become a
wall of white noise which will undermine your intentions of promotion. On top
of that, it is so easy to get caught up in the meretricious things, like how
many hits/likes/views you have. I never want to become the man who spends more
time managing and promoting his online profiles than working on the music.
However, I recognise there is a balance to be struck. I tried the zero
tolerance approach to social networking when I was starting out, and all that
did was unnecessarily tie one hand behind my back. With social media now
entrenched as an everyday way of life for the vast majority of people, it is
too valuable to be ignored as a way of promoting one’s music. I think the real
trick is achieving a balance between presence and absence.
How has
it been to watch your first tangible single unfold in, primarily, an avid
collectors market?
I found it very
exciting... Releasing music has become incredibly easy, riskless and virtually costless in the last few years. If you
have a recording, that can be uploaded to the internet
in minutes, and often for free. Whilst this initially would seem thrilling for
the aspiring musician, I would argue that more often than not, this process
devalues the music itself, regardless of quality. It comes back to the idea of
white noise - everyone’s doing it and you just become part of that expanding
miasma of uploads, free downloads, likes, shares and obscure streaming sites.
Therefore, releasing my music on 7” has been really enjoyable as I have been
part of something that is slightly different and stands apart from the crowd.
I’ve still made the tracks available on Youtube and Soundcloud, etc, as it is vital for
me that these songs are available to everyone, and not just squirreled away by
collectors, but to have them officially, physically released is wonderful. It’s
the best of both worlds: the convenience and accessibility of digital,
alongside the comparative permanence and value of the collectible, tangible
vinyl. Working with a label that does physical releases also indicates to folk
that there’s someone out there with enough faith in your music to take an actual
risk and stick their flag in the sand. That can prove contagious.
It is
my understanding you have a few things (including a possible full-length LP in
the works)… anything you care to share regarding these projects?
I finished recording my debut album at the end of 2013. It’s
ten original tracks, and features an expansion of the sound displayed on my
debut 7” with Grimtale Records. It will get mixed some time this year, but
right now I am concentrating on my next single with the label. It features two
new original songs, neither of which are album tracks. I wrote them in
February, and am really happy with the way they are shaping up. Once these
songs are headed to the pressing plant, I'll start looking into a label release
for the LP. I also recently contributed two tracks to Grimtale Record’s first ever
compilation album. One of the songs was the audio file from my “First Take
Cover” video of Grinderman’s ‘Star Charmer’ (available on Youtube). The other
was an original arrangement of the traditional song “Darling Cory” which I
recorded in the studio last year. I’m particularly proud of that track as it
displays the general direction in which my music has more recently being
moving: loops, samples and textures woven around the spine of guitar and
vocals.
Again, so much thanks to Mr. Oliver Richard for taking the time to participate in this post. Also- be sure to check out this co-shared post over on the WaxOHolics page where Oliver will answer our Top Five WaxO's Gotta Know Questions!
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