A surge of creativity has resulted in 13 Rivers (released today), Thompson’s first self-produced record in over a decade and one to live with. He talked to us about recording the album simply, hanging onto analogue warmth and the dreaded ‘F’ word.
It hasn’t been very long since Richard Thompson last graced these pages, with the release of his second Acoustic Classics album. 13 Rivers is an altogether different set, this time of all original tunes, with each strand as strong as the last, performed dynamically by Richard and his regular band. “Yeah, this one is an all-electric album, which we actually recorded last October, so it’s been sitting for a while,” he begins. “I recorded it in Los Angeles with my trio [Michael Jerome, Taras Prodaniuk and Bobby Eichorn]. The songs came in a fairly tight time period of about six months; I always feel that if you write in that sort of time frame, the songs have some commonality between them or something that ties them together, as opposed to writing pieces over a period of years. I quite like the idea of songs having that kind of kinship.”
The arrangements of the tracks, performed in a quite traditional format, suits the straight-up way they were crafted, but it was a far simpler decision for Richard to make. “Well, I couldn’t afford the bells or the whistles, to be honest,” he laughs. “But yes, I’m always trying to be simple in the studio, which doesn’t always work out – sometimes there’s a song, and I might think it would sound great with some horns and strings on there, and you can quickly get carried away – but more often simple is the way. I also really like to record fast to get the energy and keep that simplicity. It’s pretty much guitar bass and drums here, with a couple more guitars happening at points and a few little keyboards, accordions, hurdy-gurdys and what have you over the top, but it’s still a straightforward record. It was basically recorded live too; what we tend to do is record live and then fix things if they need fixing. There might be the odd bass note or vocal that needs repairing, which we’ll then go and repair. But we are generally intending for it to be as live as possible.”
This makes sense when listening to 13 Rivers, which sounds like one of those albums with the energy of the early take fully intact, and it’s often to do with the speed of the recording process for Richard. “Well [the live energy] is the idea, yeah and I hope that we achieved that, at least some of the time,” he answers. “But I do think there is a type of skill in spending a long time in the studio and still making it sound fresh; someone like Brian Wilson can labour for a long time over a piece and still come up with something that sounds exciting.” He pauses a moment and chuckles. “But I can’t do that, so for me, quicker is always better and if we can get in and out quicker and I can keep it down to two or three takes per song, then generally that’s a good thing.”
As well as the up-tempo recording approach, Richard has long been a fan of the analogue recording process, using the same methods for the new album. “We always try to record analogue,” he states. “In fact, I think all of the band albums for the last twenty years have been recorded to analogue, which we then transfer to digital afterwards because if you’re making a CD, it’s eventually digital anyway. This one we recorded on twenty-four analogue, with all of the overdubs and anything else that went on there analogue as well. I love that approach; I think it’s great; you seem to get more warmth from analogue… It’s getting a bit closer these days, and you can’t really tell, but I’d still rather record that way. It’s a more expensive way to do it, but I like it.” And he’s not the only one; with vinyl sales currently still through the roof, labelling a record as analogue now has a certain gold standard. “I think it does, yes,” he considers. “It may be a generational thing; I do know people who just record digital, and to them that’s fine. I mean, all the dance and popular music that you hear is all digital, but I find it has this texture to it that’s quite narrow and brittle. For me, it’s the way my ears were trained, fifty years ago, but it’s whatever you’re happy with and for me, it’s more analogue.”
Going back to the album, thirteen tracks is more than average these days for a studio album, but this one rattles through undaunted. “I do think this is a strong record and a very up-tempo record,” Richards agrees, with a smile. “There are only two slow tracks on here to eleven fast, which is very unusual. I also tried to sequence what I thought were the slightly weird tracks at the front end, so the first half a dozen are a bit quirky before things get more like what you would expect to hear from what I’ve done before. There are really good songs all the way through though; I don’t think it’s front-loaded, just maybe quirk loaded.” Strong songs indeed, we agree, and a lean set without any filler… “Well I hope so yes,” he answers. “But filler is a terrible word! I see reviews of my records saying ‘if only he didn’t put those filler tracks in’ and I’m thinking I sweated blood over those tracks! I sometimes go back and listen and think I wish I hadn’t put this or that on there, and sometimes I will only like half of a record from ten years ago, or whenever and wonder what kind of state of mind I was in, I should have known better, blah blah blah…” He pauses again and laughs. “But at the time you’re excited about them. Otherwise, you wouldn’t include them, which is how I feel about this one. Will I change my mind in a couple of years? Well, I hope not.”
Order 13 Rivers via http://smarturl.it/rt-13rivers
Upcoming Richard Thompson Tour Dates
Thu, 11th October 2018 — Liverpool, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Sat, 13th October 2018 — Perth, Perth Concert Hall
Mon, 15th October 2018 — Canterbury, Marlowe Theatre
Tue, 16th October 2018 — London, Barbican Centre
Wed, 17th October 2018 — Bath, The Forum
Thu, 18th October 2018 — Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall
Sat, 20th October 2018 — Stoke On Trent, Victoria Hall
Sun, 21st October 2018 — Manchester, Manchester Opera House
Mon, 22nd October 2018 — York, Grand Opera House
Tue, 23rd October 2018 — Hull, City Hall
Wed, 24th October 2018 — Gateshead, The Sage Gateshead
Fri, 26th October 2018 — Birmingham, Birmingham Town Hall
Sat, 27th October 2018 — Southend, Cliffs Pavilion
Sun, 28th October 2018 — Oxford, Oxford New Theatre
Tue, 30th October 2018 — Cambridge, Cambridge Corn Exchange
Wed, 31st October 2018 — Salisbury, City Hall
Thu, 1st November 2018 — Bexhill, De La Warr Pavilion
Fri, 2nd November 2018 — High Wycombe, High Wycombe Swan
Sat, 3rd November 2018 — Woking, The New Victoria
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Photo credit: Tom Bejgrowicz