So Tell Us…

So tell us about this new project then?

I started writing this about 20 odd years ago – I guess quite a lot was the standard teenage/early 20s angst type stuff – it was all based around leaving Cambridge and moving up to Leeds, growing up, working out my beliefs and so on.

And musically?

I’ve noticed there are two types of musicians. Those who vehemently argue that their music is original, never seen before and does not fit into any category, and those (particularly some niche Genres  – I’m talking to you synthwave – who make a massive show of category rules). Both seem a bit arrogant to me, but I think I am one of the former. At least with Requiem Ensanglanté, but maybe it’s my not quite knowing genres. I tend to describe it as Progressive Industrial Synth-Rock, though I know that sounds a bit wanky.

I guess it’s that famed question – what are your influences?

That’s easier, and may give some insight. Certainly in the formative stages, the biggest was Marillion (the original version) and so to a lesser extent Fish’s solo stuff. Obviously I was only dimly aware of them at the time, but when I first listened to “Fugazi” at sixth form I was blow away by the lyricism, the musician ship and the whole milieu the album(s) were set in. I made a couple of attempts to form bands and make this in a purely prog-rock kind of style, but they never got anywhere. Then I made techno for a while and forgot all about this stuff. I think the music that solidified this project for me was when I discovered Celldweller, particularly the End of an Empire album though I’s also list Brainchild’s Circle of Dust as an early influence that I found in a bargain bin at Greenbelt, just as I was properly discovering industrial music.  The angst of Nine Inch Nails comes into it all, and the earthy urban stories of New Model Army. Another band of note is a relatively obscure band called Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus, which is a rather odd mix of Eastern melodies, soundscapes and industrial noise.

You talk about a milieu in which an album could be set and it is certainly clear that what we have seen so far exists in a very specific world. It also hints at some characters – the Harlequin, Succubus, Fool and The Clown, as you sing in Hiraeth.

The stories are all true – some are composites, but broadly they all discuss incidents in my life and the settings are real. Inspired by the sleeve notes of Marillion’s Clutching at Straws they often come with a location attached. I guess another influence would have to be some of the works of Nick cave which clearly seem to exist in this strange dark bluestown type world. The characters are interesting. They came from various sources but they took on a bit of a life of their own – the Harlequin was initially from a piece of artwork I did, but became an archetype for hedonism and drugs. The Succubus is obviously sex or lust and so on. There’s a clear undertone of Karl Jung and some references to to Tarot in there, though actually a key inspiration was The Thing in Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast (a Jungian Archetype of sorts herself) – and indeed she appears in my world. Similarly places, took on their own life and there was a bit of a blurring of real and internal worlds…

So will some of your friends recognise themselves?

Possibly. Though a big theme is the loss of growing up and many that are referenced I am no longer in any contact with.

What’s the future of the project?

Well, I have lyrics for 2-3 full albums and most of the lyrical content for a further one at least. I say 2-3, because 1,000,000 Unsung Words was always written as one album, telling one chapter, but my girlfriend is insistent it will be musical suicide to release a 2 and a half hour, 20 track first album. We’ll see. This takes me to about the age of 23-24 so there are another 20 years of my life to go.  I am also working on remixes of the more electronic material (done under Suburban Acid Saturation – my key electronic project) and some B sides. There are a few odds and sods that are not so much true tales, or political stories which I am not sure will fit in – yet. And after a wet bank holiday and a lot of wine, we decided to draft out a synthrock version of Cam Ye O’er Frae France (the Steeleye Span version of which is a favourite drinking song in out house, not least as my Girlfriend is a Campbell and I have a streak of McBride; figure that one out for historical fun). This led to some ideas for some darker folk tunes and murder ballads getting the treatment – again the influence of Nick Cave creeping in. There’s a Christmas single planned along these lines…

Let’s talk tech for a minute. How do you go about crafting a Requiem Ensanglanté tune?

As I said many of them have lyrics written a while ago, and often a basic melodic idea and chord pattern. I’ll often start my putting together a pretty basic drum loop in the style I want to work with, and then roughing out the chords using a simple pad or synth parts. Then it’s guitars and bass and going from there. In that sense it is very much a musique concrète approach, of building the track from a number of recorded parts and loops – as much as anything because, for example, it normally takes me about 10 comped takes to track a full stem. I have been spending a lot of time looking at my music theory to get an understanding of what I hear in my head, but I am not the most practices guitarist.

So no live versions then?

I’d like to, one day. But I am a bit of a megalomaniac in terms of what I use, so I’d need the cash to pay a good band. Or carry on singing behind a laptop.

There is certainly a huge array of instruments in your arsenal. Any Favourites?

Er, yeh… My Girlfriend teases me somewhat about my tendencies to collect gear. And my mate is always bangin on about why I buy cheap guitars – but I love to fuck about with them, like an old Tanglewood Strat copy tuned down to B. For 20 odd years, it was synths. Now in the past 4-5 years I seem to have built the guitar and bass collection up to about 15. And the electric double bass, dulcimer, viola and most of a consort of recorders. Favourites? I love all of them, it’s hard to choose. I have my Hohner headless bass which has been with me since I was about 18. I am using a Gear for Music Louisiana (Jazz Bass Copy) a lot at the moment as it has a nice crunchy sound. Synth-wise, an old Casio CZ5000 is providing some good harsh digital sounds. And the dulcimer and the double bass as they are a bit different.

Any last thoughts?

For ages I shied away from doing this. Thinking I wasn’t good enough, or couldn’t play well and so on.  Then I kind of thought fuck this, I need to be doing something other than noodling to myself on all my guitars. Hiraeth, which was recorded first, took 3 months of swearing and hair-pulling (particularly at mix-down) before I got close to what I heard in my head, but even after that every time I listen to it it gives me goosebumps. Just get out and do it!