Photo: Shirlaine Forrest
"I mean, we're all fairly nerdy people, as a band we are. We're not kind of... I don't think any of us are showy people." Sam Forrest of Nine Black Alps may be hesitant, but it's probably more because he's stood outside in his garden in North Yorkshire in the freezing cold, rather than his reputation for being "long-winded and really insecure" in interviews, as he puts it.
Not that you would assume Forrest would be reticent, if the new album from Nine Black Alps is anything to go by. Produced by Dave Eringa, 'Locked Out From The Inside' is a much darker and heavier affair than 2007's 'Love/Hate', though at the same time it's not full of the melancholy self-pity you might expect from that album title and a band who've lost their label - as well as, shortly, their rehearsal room pictured on the record's sleeve. It's an angry, scrappy little beast that not only boasts some of their snottiest, fired-up work, such as 'Cold Star' and 'Buy Nothing', but in 'Bay Of Angels', one of their most beautiful, epic songs. But then since when have Nine Black Alps been ones to take the conventional path?
As they gear up for their October tour, the band may be without the company payroll or the support of rabid radio pluggers. Yet, as Forrest explains, in many ways he's much, much happier about the whole situation.
Gigwise: This will be your first album since leaving Island Records. Why did you end up leaving?
Sam Forrest: "We recorded the second album 'Love/Hate' with [Dave Sardy] this producer that they chose for us, and the whole recording process got drawn out forever, so by the time we got back from recording it, we felt like we'd lost a bit of momentum. The record company felt vaguely distanced from us - we'd play a show in London and one person from the record company'd turn up. The album got delayed lots and lots. By the time a single came out, they decided to make it not chart eligible, because they thought it wasn't going to reflect well on them if we had a single that just scraped the Top Forty... I think by about a week after the album came out, they decided that Island probably wasn't the best home for us.
"I was kind of relieved, in a way, 'cause I felt like I didn't want to be a failure on their terms, I'd rather be a success on my terms. I didn't want to feel like we'd let them down 'cause we hadn't sold a quarter of a million copies of an album. So it was fairly mutual."
G: What's it like not being on a major label any more?
SF: "The recording of the album I found a lot easier, it was only four of us with the producer we wanted, we recorded the whole thing in two weeks, did it really cheaply, and came out with an album that I much prefer personally to the other two.
"The things that are worse [are] obviously the money... We are all deeply skint. Say we got offered a support tour with a more successful band, then I'm not sure we could actually afford to do it. And we're having to do a lot more things ourselves, like organising tours, which half the time is good, 'cause it means that it's always something that represents us, and half the time is really annoying, because there is a hell of a lot to do to gain the same level of interest that we had on the previous two albums.
"I think the thing I'm most surprised about is the fact that we had two albums that were in all the shops, and on the radio and on the video channels and things. And now we can't get arrested anywhere! [half-laughing] It's bizarre! I mean, nobody from that sphere will touch us! I mean I would have expected a bit of a drop in interest... I suppose it's a London thing in a way. We've got lot of people in Manchester who do help us out, but the whole London sphere feels very, very far removed. I do feel a bit detached from it all."
G: On 'Love/Hate' you were very much focussed on the song-writing. What did you aim for this time out?
SF: "There's tonnes of things I wanted to do differently from the second album. That's usually how I work - if I do one album one way, then the next one I'll do working in the opposite direction. I wanted to be less conversational [lyrically], a lot less songwritery... I got bored of singing about myself and how unhappy I was... I'd had enough of it.
"I think we just wanted to make a prequel to the first album - like if a 14-year-old kid wrote an album. Something that was completely against everything, kind of angular and intellectual. I just wanted to write an album that'd be very anti-Sunday Times music supplement."
G: You recently wrote a very heated blog post in response to a 3/10 review of the new album in the NME...
SF: "James told me that we got 3/10 and I was trying to weigh up the options of what to do. There's nothing you can do, you can't make people like your music. They've got every right to say what they think about the album... but if someone's going to have a go that much, then I'll have a go back. It's not something I'm amazingly proud of doing. I like to think I was aloof and above being bothered about what people thought about what we did, but... I was probably just looking for an excuse to have a go at the NME! It was probably petty of me, but I'm not fussed."
G: You've been keeping busy working on your solo work, as well as your side-project The Sorry Kisses.
SF: "I've just recorded another solo album myself, it's a concept album about a village in medieval East Yorkshire. It's kind of ridiculous, but I've really enjoyed that, because it's further away from anything that you should be writing about now.
"I feel like if you're around now, you have to be tackling these social issues, and you have to be presenting yourself in a certain way. I find it really hard to listen to a lot of modern music, especially guitar bands in their twenties from either America or England now, just 'cause of that feeing of competition. I know it's self-imposed, but music's always meant to be freedom from those feelings.
"I've actually released four albums in the past two months - or will have done if I get this one I'm currently working on done... What was the other one I recorded earlier this year...?"
G: Having so many projects that you can't remember what's coming out when might be a sign you're working on too much, perhaps?
SF: No, no. It's all I can do. None of it pays, unfortunately. It's good, 'cause when we were touring Nine Black Alps for three years, I felt like there wasn't any time to record. Now I've got all the time in the world pretty much to just record nonsense.
G: So if a major label came along tomorrow and offered to sign you up, would you?
SF: [Pause] "I'd probably sign it, and then make sure they realised that I can't spend two years touring one album, because I can't. I dunno who can, probably Snow Patrol or somebody, but I can't. That would just drive me insane.
"It's just so fucking boring! It's playing the same music every night... constantly for two years. It's not musically engaging like writing and recording is. I think it's the waiting around that really drives me nuts. I've tried writing on tour, I've tried absolutely anything. You just can't concentrate because you're kept in a weird state of suspended animation. If you are a really successful touring band and you've got lots of money and time, it's probably a lot more enjoyable. But when you're doing it on a really tight budget, that's when it feels like you're spending more time shifting bass amplifiers out of the back of a minibus than actually playing music."
G: Over the past three albums you've experienced every aspect of music industry, from meeting heroes like Elliot Smith and working with Rob Schnapf, to being signed, being a buzz band, and struggling with doing it yourselves. What's left?
SF: "I was trying to think after this tour where do we go next, 'cause it's going to be very hard for us. We won't be able to keep going as a full time band, we can't afford to keep the practise room where we keep all our equipment, we can't afford to go on tour anymore. It'd be nice if a major label did come along, but I don't think that's going to happen.
"So I think all that we can do is just keep writing, that to be honest has always been my favourite thing. They can take touring away, and they can take photo shoots away, and interviews and things, but as long as I can still keep writing, that's all I've ever wanted."
Nine Black Alps are currently touring the UK.
