Interviews
Joel Cadbury talks to Britsound
Interview with Joel Cadbury from South, March 12th, 2007.
ROB QUICKE: Well Joel, first of all, thanks for joining us at Britsound. How's life?
JOEL CADBURY: Very well thanks. Just in the studio doing some demoing and recording at the moment. So things are good. Just got back from India - on some travels. Wonderful, and now back to rainy British winter.
RQ: So what were you doing in India: was it a holiday?
JC: It was indeed: I was actually on honeymoon.
RQ: Really?
JC: So I had to take two months off at the beginning of this year. We started out on New Year’s Eve and just got back really - just trying to get back involved. We are trying to get the fourth record written and demoed.
RQ: Let me ask you: what was the reaction to Adventures in the Underground Journey to the Stars in the UK?
JC: It is quite underground here really. As the title says, it has not set the world on fire back here. It has been written about warmly and people have enjoyed it. I think the live shows have really helped a lot because we are able to put on a good live show for the album. It has all been good but it has not been the million seller that we were hoping for.
RQ: What about its reaction in America? Has that been a different story?
JC: I think so. I think we have managed to get under the skin a bit more in the States and although it is a bigger place, there seems to be a good audience for us and we managed to tour with The Strokes last year and we did a tour with Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, an Indianapolis band, and Something for Rockets. We have been getting over there and I think Young American put together a DVD. There has just been a bit more life about it, I think.
RQ: Do you enjoy playing America because I know you have toured over here before? Is it a place that you enjoy coming to and playing in?
JC: Yeah, definitely. I think there are good venues and good crowds and I have really enjoyed our experiences in America. I think we all have. It has been a hard slog but it has been rewarding as well though.
RQ: Why was there a three year gap between With the Tides and then obviously your latest album?
JC: I think, God, what did I do in those three years? I am just trying to recall. I think really after the Mo’Wax thing with Here On In: there was still a big gap between With the Tides and Here On In and we wanted that to be lessened. Mo’Wax went under but then Kinetic picked up from Here On In and the next record, which was With the Tides and we were able to go straight from one label to another and although there was still a couple of years gap I think - or a year and a half or something - between the records, at least we were able to turn it around and get it out. With this record, Kinetic - the label that signed us - went totally bust and then we had to find a new home. Also, the way we were thinking of recording the record was going to be different because we wanted to set up a studio. So Young American came along at the right time but because we built the studio - it took us quite a long time really to actually record the record. I think it was a like a year from us getting into the studio and learning what we were doing; getting the equipment together and the microphones. It was a steep learning curve and it took a little while to really get learning and once we got running it started to come a bit quicker. Now the studio is running, we are actually able to work relatively quickly.
RQ: So is that one of the great benefits of having your own studio: that you can work on your own schedule and, secondly, it give you more freedom to create the music that you want to create?
JC: I think so and I think Adventures... was about that really. It wasn’t tainted by label that wanted to comment on the actual music. They just trusted us to do what we wanted to do. We are a band now that has done enough to warrant doing a record on our own terms and hopefully that is what we have been able to do. There are other artists coming to our studio which is really good. It breaks the recording process and writing process up a bit but, it'is brilliant. We are producing for different people and doing records here as well so it's a real good place to be and the best thing we could have, I think.
RQ: Let me talk to you about Adventures in the Underground Journey to the Stars. The whole album seems to be very rich and diverse. Was that your intention; to create something that was quite different from song to song?
JC: I think so. I think we have always done that. Maybe With the Tides was a bit more like one piece. I think with Here On In and this one, they are kind of all over the map really. That's the way we go about making music: it's quite sporadic. I don’t know how structured it is but once we begin something we tend to follow it through and see where we go with it. Often what motivates us is changing our approach to recording and writing.
RQ: Now you said that this album didn’t sell a million copies in the UK.Iis that the intention - the game plan - to have a number one album? Is that what you really want?
JC: I don’t really know if that's what I want or what we really want. Obviously we would like to have more success in order to facilitate our lavish lifestyles (laughs) - but that's not really the case! I think it's just the fact that we have built a studio now and we can think about touring again. It would just be nice to be in a place where the budgets are slightly better, where you are able to do your videos and all the things that we want to do and all of that. When you are pushing a lot of that through yourself, you don’t do as much as you would like to do but in terms of recording and everything, it's great.
RQ: There is something to be said for having a career - for having a few underground releases before you build up and have that commercial breakthrough don’t you think?
JC: Definitely. I think the bands that have done that have lasted longer and generally made more creative records because of it. I think the thing with buzz bands - and it's the same with the dance culture and the grunge culture - they are a reaction to what's been going on. But eventually what happens is that everything becomes that and in itself, it becomes what it was trying to fight against. I think that's where we are at with a lot of bands now. There are overnight Number Ones but it's all in danger - the whole Libertines thing - of becoming the mainstream and therefore we are now moving to a different thing which might be New Rave or whatever you want to call it. That's just the way that music works but I think that we have never really fitted any kind of pattern. The worst thing and the best thing could happen at any point, the minute you hit the right path. You have got this knowledge and you have got this experience and you know that you are not going to get broken by the first pitfall or the first peak. It definitely serves you well. You want to carry on and you want to make records without compromising sound. If you want a string arrangement, you don’t want to have to be haggling with your record company over the money to make the song as good as it can be but unfortunately record labels are not really in a position to be able to give big budgets these days.
RQ: You have done four albums now - and who knows whether the Arctic Monkeys will last for four albums - but you have done four albums and presumably you are working on a fifth?
JC: I suppose you could call it four but the first ones were really the demos so I would count this as our fourth all in even though we did do enough material to be another album before we released Here On In. I think this is our fourth proper release that we are working on now.
RQ: So when do you think it is going to come out? Is there a release date in mind?
JC: Well, I would like to come out by the autumn - the fall - of this year but depending on how quickly we can turn it around, it might be the beginning of next year. We would like to be out and on the road again before the year is through. We are working on it.
RQ: So does that mean - going on the road - would you come back to America?
JC: Oh yeah, definitely.
RQ: And would you come to Chicago?
JC: Ah, for sure man. We would love to come back to The Double Door.
RQ: It's a great venue: an interesting venue.
JC: It's one of the best cities: it is always brilliant for us so we are really looking forward to coming back to Chicago.
RQ: Presumably you get a lot of questions about this but I am going to have to ask you, obviously. It says that you were originally mentored by ex-Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown. What was the extent of your relationship with him?
JC: We have got two children together. No that is not true! (laughs). The extent of our relationship? Again, it was a Mo’Wax connection and James had been working with him on various things and I think we did a remix for him really early on and he really liked it and from that we just met up. It was through James Lavelle initially. He really liked what we did: he loved our first record and everything. Then we went on tour with him and worked on various cool things that Ian was involved in. He came to gigs and the rest of it but I have not seen him for little a while. I think he has taken a bit of time away. The same with Mani when we first started meeting these people: finding they were really supportive is brilliant.
RQ: In terms of your next album, is there a direction you have taken or have you done what you have done on all your other albums, saying: “Well look, we are just going to see how this goes and we are going to take it in whatever direction it takes us?”
JC: I think there is a bit more of an economy of sound thing going on. I think we are stripping back a bit in terms of all of our records are very layered and complex. I think there will be elements of that but I think overall we are trying to get back to the roots and not over complicate or layer things up too much. Saying that, we could end up coming out with the most multi-layered record yet! I just think, at the moment, we have got this ethos of making a little go a long way in terms of making all the parts really count and not necessarily layer it up as much as we might on other records.
RQ: And obviously in the songwriting process, from what I gather, all of you take part in playing various instruments - guitars, bass, keyboards. When you actually comedown to writing songs for the album, how do you start writing? Do you sort of say: “Let us start jamming and see where that goes.” How does it go?
JC: There are different threads to it. There would be that element where you get in a room and there would be a cool progression or a drum part or a bass part that we would all work on together and then the words would follow or there will be tangents, where someone has worked on a little keyboard line or a guitar line. Or it could be that you come with a melody first and start building the music around that. There is still no one way that we work but we would also sit down with acoustic guitars and just play out and just come out with little complementing two parts of guitar things and vocal things and see how we can fit that in. We rearrange songs quite a lot and take bits from other ones. The process is quite a fluid thing and it can take a little while to find which bits are going best with which bits; which bits make a song, which bits you decide to leave out. I think the process is always quite different but I guess that is why our records are the way they are.
RQ: When you finish a record, are you happy with it? Do you ever feel: “Yeah, we have nailed that: it's in the can. We are happy with that.” For example, do you listen to Adventures in the Underground Journey and think: “We couldn’t have done any better?”
JC: Yeah, I think so. I don’t listen to it but if I did I think I would think that. I think if you are not happy with a record, you shouldn’t put it out. The minute you do decide to make it public in whatever way - whether that be putting it on MySpace or getting your record in the shops - whatever it is, once you give it to the audience then that's it - there are no regrets.
RQ: Final question then. In 12 months’ time, where would you hope South to be?
JC: Definitely with this fourth record wrapped up, released and selling a bit better than we did on Adventures..., although we know we have got a lot of work in front of us and to go out on the road again takes a lot of mental and physical strength to do. I think also I would like to see some releases of what we have been recording for other artists through the studio and making this the best place it can be for what we do. So yeah: next record, out on the road, selling well!
RQ: Excellent. Joel, thanks very much mate.
JC: Nice one man. Nice to speak to you Rob!
Links:
http://www.south.uk.net/
http://www.myspace.com/southofficial
