Photo: Press
This week sees the release of the tenth studio album from Eels, Wonderful, Glorious, with the band arriving in the UK to tour in March.
We caught up with the band's frontman E to chat about recording the new record, the state of the music industry since the dawn of the digital age and, well, just how great The Beatles were...
For anyone who hasn't heard the album yet - what can they expect?
Well basically it sounds like Abbey Road by The Beatles mixed with Bitches Brew by Miles Davies mixed with Blonde On Blonde by Bob Dylan, it's destined to be a classic!
How does it sound different from your previous records?
Well, one of the main difference is all of the other records were made in a tiny basement where we kind of had to usually do things one at a time and build it up. In this case, if we wanted to, we could all set up and play live in the same room, which we did utilise for some of the songs for this record. So that's a nice change, because you get a different energy.
The new studio space you used is called The Compound, why is that?
It's called The Compound because it's connected to another place that's top secret that I can't speak of. It's a highly explosive property that's connected to it.
Do you think the space an artist records in has a big impact on the sound of the record?
To me I don't think it has a massive impact - here's why I think that: because I see bands go around the world in search of a sound and they end up making the same record over and over agian. A band from New York will say, 'Let's make our next record in Barbados', and they come back with something that sounds just like the last record. Because really it's much more about your imagination, look at The Beatles, they made all these wildly different records in the same white-walled room year after year, it didn't matter where they were, it's about what you've got inside you.
That said we did have a certain amount of excitment from being somewhere different becasue we'd been in the same place for so long, and the luxury of being able to do things we couldn't do before. I will say the place has a great vibe. If that helped the sound of the record at all, I don't know.
Watch the video for the first track taken from Wonderful, Glorious - Peach Blossom
This record was written with contributions from your whole band, which is new for you. How was that?
I've always been open to collaborations and have collaborated a lot, but not with this particular group of guys, with the exception of Kool G Murder, the bass player - we've written a lot of songs together in the past - but the rest of them I've never written anything with before. That was a great experience, it's a lot more fun when it's a collaboration. Writing by yourself is obviously lonely, it's just a lot more fun to have other people involved. The hardest way to collaborate is if it's just two people and a guitar and you're sitting there nose to nose, becuase you have to shoot down each others ideas until you get to the right one. That can be awkward.
In this case there was just a big group of us, and the only rule I had was that I wasn't going to shoot down any ideas so it was particularly fun and easier in that respect. Because of my openness to any idea, a lot of things happened that wouldn't have happened other wise.
You've always had a rotating line up for your band, do you ever long for the security of a constant group of musicians?
I've always liked that idea and the reason I haven't done it in the past is that, again looking at other bands, bands that are married to each other from the beginning, a lot of them tend to keep making the same record over and over because they're limited by their imaginations. Again, looking at The Beatles, those four guys met their match with each other because they all had such boundless imaginations - but that's why they're The Beatles and nobody else is. I've found a group of guys now and this will be our third tour together which is unusual in my history. It's because I found guys with big imagination and there's no reason for me to mix it up right now because we're all so busy mixing it up among ourselves.
Q Magazine has previously called you "one of themost prolific, adevntirous and moving songwriters of the past decade." How does that make you feel?
(Laughs). Read me that quote again... I don't think abut that stuff, it's nice and I'm always grateful. But I don't soak any of the press up, you can't soak up the good stuff if you're not going to soak up the bad stuff. For me it's just keep your nose to the grindstone and you make what you're going to make and then you're forced to let go of it. You have no control over what happens to it after that, so people are going to think what they're going to think and for me I'm usually too busy on to the next thing to pay too much attention to it.
Watch the video for new single 'New Alphabet'
You've had fairly long career, but are their any shows that stand out as particular highlights?
There's so many, and honestly more often than not they're great experiences, for me at any rate, and it would be easier to single out the bad ones for me, than to pick a particularly good one.
Do you want to pick out any particularly bad ones for us then?
Usually just technical stuff, or just a lame audience, because what the lame audience doesn't understand is that it is a collective process, you gotta give something back to get our best. That's what's fun about a rock show, we're all part of it together. But it's rare for us to have an audience that we would call lame.
Do you find that those bad shows always happen in the same parts of the world? Or the same towns?
There's few of those, but it's a rule that get's broken constantly because there's always the place you're dreading going back to and then it goes great the next time, and vice versa. That's what's fun, it's all really happening at that moment and you just don't know what's going to happen until it happens.
How have you seen the music industry change over the course of your career?
Well I'm really lucky that I was around when I was and that I've been around as long as I've been around. But it's also been a rocky time because every six months everythings changed so drastically and you're constantly trying to catch up with all the changes. I'm one of those poeple that's kind of hesitant to go along with the new trends, but then eventually you get forced to so I'm always playing catch up. But I'm just very fortunate that I've somehow managed to keep going through it all.
And is the music industry in a sorrier state now than when you started?
Definitely. When I started the music industry was a big deal, there were quite a lot of people making really good livings out of it, so it's changed drastically. Really what happened to the music industry happened before it happened to the rest of the world, the music industry went in the toilet before everything else went in the toilet. So really I'm a veteran at being in the toilet. Everyone else is freaking out because they just got stuck in the toilet but I got flushed down long ago.
Do you think that's becuase of the digital revolution?
It's definitely to do with the digital revolution, no doubt about it. There's good things and bad things about it but it's definitely not great that music is considered so disposable and free and all of that. I'm not complaining about it though becasue I make a good living and everything's ok for me. I do think it's harder to get started though. I would probably not have said what I just said if I was in a new band. I can imagine that it must be really difficult.
Wonderful, Glorious has seen E collaborating with the rest of his band
Some have said that 2012 wasn't a good year for music, do you think there's anything to that suggestion?
Yeah, well because I haven't put anything out! I had a feeling 2012 would be a bad year so i waited (laughs). I actually don't know what's going on in music, I've been so busy making music, what did I miss? Sounds like not a lot. And that's a bad thing for me because it means 2013's going to be a big year for me to compete in, a lot of competition. I like Alt-J, that's one of the few new things I've actually heard. I remember the name because I heard it on the radio and I remember thinking 'oh wow this is interesting'. Michael Kiwanuka, as well. I like him a lot, but they might be the only two things that I've heard that I like.
You've colaborated with a wide range of musicians, is there anyone left that you're desperate to work with?
Bob Dylan...big shock, I'd better hurry up if I want him though. There's a lot of dead people I'd want to work with, but I'm too late. I'm going to jam in heaven and it will be a fantastic band. I've sung with Ringo, that happened a few tours ago, so I've knocked that one off. Haven't done Paul yet, I would be totally up for having him on the next EELS record. He's one of my favourite bass players in the world, if not my favourite.
I feel like I've been doing an awful lot of Beatles promotion, I think it's important because people need to know about them, people haven't been exposed (laughs).
Eels new album Wonderful, Glorious is out now. Click here to read our review.
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