In the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown and the colossal impact it’s had on the music industry at all levels, a number of artists still managing to produce work have become beacons of light…symbolic of our hope for some return to normality.
Many artists had projects in mid-flight at the point the lockdown started. By way of example, I chatted recently with Cole and Joe from India Electric Co. over Skype. We discussed the decision to go ahead with the release of their new album ‘The Gap’, mid-lockdown:
“It was always due to be out in May” Cole explains. “We were asking ourselves, do people really want a new album at the moment? There are other things going on. It felt a bit strange, but we’ve gone with it. Despite all the cuts and everything for the last few years, it feels like suddenly the arts are a massive part of people’s day to day lives; the RSA are streaming live, radio audiences across the board are up 20%…it’s an interesting time artistically.”
When Folk Radio last spoke to India Electric Co. in 2018, the duo were mid-way through a trilogy of EP releases, a project designed to create the sound for the second album.
“It was a great learning curve for us” Cole reflects. “It was way of exploring after the first album, developing our own song-writing, exploring different ideas. We did the second one, Seven Sisters, with the English Folk Dance and Song Society. I think that broadened our horizons quite a lot with traditional music.”
“For the third EP” Joe continues “we went to study different world music, like the way Swedish use totally different meters in folk tunes to anything I’ve seen before. It was a really focused time of attempting to write and attempting to get new stuff in our work.”
The aftermath of releasing the trilogy, combined with extensively touring the material, left Cole and Joe in the position where they were ready to start work on the album.
“We locked ourselves away after the last tour in Devon” Cole explains. “It was about a year from conception of ideas to completion of the album, although the recording process was quite condensed. All in the same place, all at the same time. It allowed us to have that continuity and focus in on the sound, certainly the production, so it hopefully sounds like an album…which we were keen to get rather than just a collection of random songs recorded at different times. It feels like a focused piece of work. It was really exciting to do that.”
The result of their creative process is ‘The Gap’, a glorious and innovative second album that encapsulates everything that India Electric Co. have assimilated in the years leading up to its creation. On first listen, the album is a cohesive sounding body of work, yet as Cole acknowledges, there are references in many directions:
“I think as usual with we have references for every track that we wrote. We probably wrote around seventeen tracks for the album; they each probably had a specific reference or theme behind them…anything from the traditional Irish music that Joe was researching, because he was looking at where his family roots were in Ireland. Even just looking at tunes from there was quite fascinating as opposed to just looking generally at traditional folk music from Ireland.”
“At the time” Cole continues, “we were listening much more in-depth in terms of rhythms. We were aware that we were going to try and use Russell Field (from Midge Ure’s band) for a couple of tracks. That allowed us to explore rhythm to a slightly higher standard. Then from a lyrics point of view, there were lots of different references. We used Sarojini Naidu’s work from the 19th Century, Emma Tatham, who’s this forgotten Victorian poet, Alfred Williams, a really old collected tune from Gloucestershire. We were trying as we always do to find that balance between traditional and contemporary.”
“Also, at the time when we started writing the album, we were still on the road playing with Midge Ure’s band. There are a few little references to that; there’s a bit more synth in there…a Moog, some 808’s…it’s quite fun to put those bits in around our work.”
While ‘The Gap’ is an entirely fresh approach to the India Electric Co. sound, Joe confirms that it contains some references to their previous work:
“I think there were definitely tracks from the three EP’s that we really liked, where we thought that if we could capture that but in a different song. ‘Only waiting’ we really enjoyed from the last EP. I think there’s something about writing in 7/8 that we fell in love with. It’s such a fun rhythm. On ‘Only Waiting’ we only subdivided it one way, so we were thinking of it as a 4 and a 3, whereas on this album…on the second track ‘Five Senses’…it was more an exploration of how many different ways we could think about that rhythm. In the verse we were thinking about it in 3 and 4, the chorus then goes to 4 and 3, then there’s a middle eight where it’s more like 3 ½ and 3 ½. We took those things that we liked and went a bit further.”
Joe goes on to explain another idea explored throughout the album; the repetition of phrases:
“On Statues, there’s just one Pentatonic phrase that underlines the whole song. It was then just a stretch to see how far we could push the chords over the top, to see if we could take the song places just by having this thing happening the whole time. There are a lot of abstract things like that we wanted to try.”
In contrast with the extended period leading up to the album’s creation, the recording process itself was relatively condensed. The duo had worked on demos for nearly every song which gave them more direction when it came to capturing the tracks that would eventually become the album.
“Recording’s always really fun for us” Joe smiles. “This time it was in my parent’s house, I sent them away! It’s just a really nice room. We just have all the instruments around us. I guess we had quite firm ideas of what we wanted this time which is good. Often, we can just plough a load of stuff down and then end up having to edit to create all the arrangements. With this, we really tried to work out the arrangements first and then just record it.”
I ask to what extent the duo recognise artistic progression since their first album:
Cole pauses to reflect before responding: “Yeah, I think so. It’s hard to place where it fits because it’s such a natural progression. You try not to over-analyse it too much. You live with these songs from conception; you go through the process with them…go on the journey …and then it’s done, you move on. We tend not to look back too much, other than to try and learn from it for the next stage. But I think naturally things have progressed. I think with the production, we tried different techniques, certainly on the record and that was really fun; we’re really happy with how the record sounds. I think in five years we’ve explored and researched and learned hopefully quite a lot. I guess other people will have their opinion whether it’s moved on or not but it’s certainly a record we’re happy with. I think that’s important.”
Joe nods in agreement; “I think the thing about the EP’s is that we snuck a few synths on, put distortion on the accordion and tried to make it sound different…and we realised that people didn’t really care. It wasn’t like the folkies were going ‘We don’t like this.’ So I think there was definitely a lack of fear for recording this album where we felt like we could do more. What we’ve realised is that people just like music. It’s a liberating thing; we feel like we can go in any direction and people will listen and judge a song as a song.”
Cole agrees; “Yeah, not having that fear is a big change from 2015. Running with your ideas and having the conviction to do it…and that it’s ok. It’s exciting to do that.”
Having a lockdown-enforced pause before the duo can go and present the album live feels strange to them, particularly as live performance is such an essential aspect of their work.
“It’s a totally different thing to recording” Cole explains. “Obviously there’s only two of us live at the moment, so it’s a case of adapting those arrangements. That’s a whole other process in itself. But doing so many shows, especially as a support and then being part of the main act, you can pick up on what’s working for an audience and what’s not. Sometimes we sit backstage and say we need a song that has this or that effect, that song really worked, that song didn’t…it’s a really interesting part of the journey. People who come to a lot of the shows, you just have to listen to what they’re saying. Generally speaking, they’ve got a pretty good idea about what they like and what they don’t like. I think if you just listen to that, it’s probably a better indicator that we ourselves feel. Listening to them is a good place for us to start.”
I ask Cole and Joe about their hopes and aspirations for the album’s release:
“We always enjoy seeing how much of a range of play it gets on radio” Joe explains. “It’s always a good test of where the album is pitched. It’d be really nice if 6 music played it a lot! I don’t what my hopes are for it really; I just hope people like it. There’s a need for uplifting songs at the moment, and I think our album is uplifting on the whole. So we’ll see how it goes down. ‘Statues’ (first single from the album) seems to be going down quite well. It’s a slightly different track for us in terms of having the drums. I think it’s something we’ve always looked at live, potentially having drums and bass and it would free us up to have slightly more sparse arrangements. It depends what our budget is, but if it goes well, we’ll definitely look at expanding our sound live.”
Cole agrees: “It’s a strange old time for music as well, so it’ll be interesting seeing what role that plays. We’re influenced by so many different things…Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6…we listen to all those, and they’re an influence on us, so to see the record getting played across those would be really rewarding. September is the current plan for the album launch tour, we’ll monitor that, and hopefully, we’ll get to play the songs live then. All being well, we’ll then be off into Europe with Midge on a support tour. We’re trying to combine doing a support tour with our own tours. I think that’s the best balance, playing to new people is just as important as playing to people who know the songs. Getting these songs out live will be really fun.”
The Gap is released on 1 May 2020
Pre-order: https://smarturl.it/9nnj7i
Listen to another track from their album on our latest Folk Show Episode 76 here – https://klofmag.com/2020/04/folk-show-episode-76/