Interview: Yan of British Sea Power

ARTICLE BY CHERYL CHENG
PHOTOS BY LESLIE KALOHI

It has been four years since British Sea Power last performed in Los Angeles—“We’re like the Olympics!” quipped guitarist Noble—and since that time, the Brighton lads have released a third album, entitled Do You Like Rock Music?, as well as a five-song EP, Krankenhaus. To make up for the long delay, BSP scheduled two shows in Los Angeles: one at the Echo (“A problematic show,” according to singer Yan, where there was “a massive mechanical, electrical breakdown involving a large amount of liquid and electricity”) and the other at Spaceland. And despite his hectic schedule, Yan graciously took some time to chat with The Scenestar in between the two shows and recovering from jetlag.

SS: I’m so excited that British Sea Power has returned to the States! I noticed that this time around, the tour is pretty extensive, going for about three months in the U.S.
Yan: It’s about twice as long as we’ve ever done before. It is quite daunting in some ways. Rather than just playing the main cities, doing the East Coast, West Coast, and go home again, we’re going to some of the places where we normally wouldn’t go to play shows, just to sort of give the record a good chance really.

SS: Definitely. I’m a big fan of this third album, which I noticed was recorded in both Montreal and the U.K.
Yan: It was originally to be entirely recorded in Montreal. All that went pretty well, but we didn’t quite end up with all the elements we needed to finish the album, so we came home and did a lot of experimental recording ourselves, a lot of the big atmospheric sounds and stranger things. We did all the band stuff in Montreal and came back to England and went to some funny buildings and worked on the stranger aspects of the songs. It kind of came together there. Two separate elements and mixed that all together in the end.

SS: Why did the band decide to record outside the U.K.? And why Montreal?
Yan: We’ve been to Montreal briefly a couple of times. It seemed like a good place. It was as much to get away from sort of familiar surroundings and have a bit more of a memorable adventure recording the album. We thought if we had more fun and more of an interesting experience, it would somehow get through onto the CD and make it a better album. And obviously we like Godspeed You Black Emperor and Mt. Zion. And I guess they’re sort of more like artists and musicians rather than producers really. We really got on well and it wasn’t really pressurized or formal. [The album was produced by BSP and Graham Sutton (Jarvis Cocker, Bark Psychosis), and recorded by Howard Bilerman (Hotel2Tango studio) with help from Efrim Menuck (Godspeed You Black Emperor).]

SS: Before Do You Like Rock Music? was released, the band put out the EP Krankenhaus, which hadn’t been done for the first two albums [The Decline of British Sea Power and Open Season]. Why was this?
Yan: ’Cause we spent a bit longer on the record and we kind of went about it in a way that we ended up with more songs than we needed really. We had some good songs. We chose the songs that ended up on the album because they went together to create what we thought was a whole piece, which worked in one entire listen, instead of just choosing your favorite songs or the best songs or whatever. It was the songs that seemed to make sense together. We ended up with six, or seven, or eight maybe spare ones, seemed a bit of a waste, so we thought we’d use them as a kind of taste of the album.

SS: That’s an interesting point, because I do feel that each album is very thematically tied together. Like for Decline, it’s all about nature and even the overall look of it, with the leaves and color palette, whereas Rock looks and feels maybe more industrial, darker. How does the band figure out the theme for each album?
Yan: It kind of develops. We don’t have a fully finished idea or concept. We kind of develop it as we go through it really. I think going to new places, Montreal, and having longer on it, and the different places we went to, allows that to develop a lot better. I think there are a few themes on [Rock]. It has a lot more current topics involved, like modern-day events, things you might read in the paper and end up talking about down in the pub with your mates. It was meant to come from this time, and to sound like it comes from a particular place.

SS: Lyrically the band does touch upon a greater range of topics than maybe some other bands might discuss. One of my favorite bands is R.E.M., and Michael Stipe once said something along the lines of “Music and politics don’t mix, but I’m going to try.” Do you think bands should have a message? And if so, what is Rock trying to say?
Yan: It spilled up from layers of stories really, which caught my attention during the time the songs were made. Things that were happening around the country, whether it’s strange weather phenomenons, or migration of people, or new viruses, like Bird Flu, or economic migration. A lot of the themes are what’s happening at the moment, which I think is interesting. I don’t really want to write a lot of personal songs about romance or break-ups or discos. I think that’s been done well enough really. I find it more interesting when you take a subject that isn’t normally associated with pop or rock music and still make it work that way.

SS: Yeah, it must be difficult to make something that has been discussed over and over, like relationships and love, interesting or original when it has been done so many times.
Yan: What’s worthwhile is not your usual subjects. I just find [when] listening to science programs or something on the radio like a documentary, you find much more interesting words and structures of sentences than you do in most music. More beautiful imagery and that kind of thing… I don’t see why that shouldn’t be combined with music. It seems like they should go together.

SS: BSP’s music has been described as esoteric and obscure. Do you think that’s a fair description?
Yan: Well, when you say it there, it sounds pretty good to me. [Laughs] I wouldn’t complain about being called esoteric. We never wanted to be a straight-down-the-middle kind of band. We wanted to do something new, or something with a bit of dissent, which is more interesting.

SS: I wanted to talk a little bit about the band’s recent U.K. tour, which had a few notable injuries. Has the band tamed the live show because of it?
Yan: Some of us have; some of us haven’t. [Laughs] I guess the most recent major injury was Phil Sumner wandering home after a nasty incident on the last tour in England. It was quite gruesome to be honest. He had quite a fall and was knocked unconscious basically. He had to have a lot of stitches. There were a few gruesome photos going around.

SS: Yeah, I read all about it in the NME.
Yan: Strange how much attention that sort of thing attracts. You do something like that and you have a relatively famous chin in England. Everyone has a camera nowadays. Everything gets documented.

SS: Is the band still decorating the stage? When I first saw BSP, I remember there were leaves and branches everywhere.
Yan: We made these tall arches out of nautical signal flags at the moment. They have particular meanings or letters, but they’re also very bold, lovely colors and shapes so it kind of cheers the place up a bit. We try to take the crowd’s attention a bit away from the normal environment of a dingy little pub.

SS: And it goes quite well with “Waving Flags.”
Yan: Yeah, it goes with that, and on the surface, I suppose people could have a quick glance and think they were like national flags or something, but they’re not. They’re completely different in meaning to that, but they still have the same visual beauty. We’ve always had several sea themes going along. Some of [the flags] have quite funny meanings, like “My engine’s broken. I need a tug.” [Laughs] Funny things like that. Or you could spell out words.

SS: So there are flags but no Ursine Ultra? [Ursine is the stuffed bear BSP sometimes performs with.]
Yan: No, we couldn’t get him a visa. [Laughs]

SS: Those can be hard to get! [Laughs] So, my favorite BSP show was in 2005 in Cornwall at the Carnglaze Caverns, which was a pretty unusual venue, to say the least. And the band has been known for performing at unusual places. Which has been your most memorable?
Yan: Probably the Tan Hill Inn in the Yorkshire Dales in England, which is the highest altitude pub in England. It’s basically on top of a hill in a range of hills, and in terms of America, it’s not that far from a city, but it’s far enough that it’s out of the way. And it kind of feels like its own world. I think it was just incredibly friendly. These people and this pub in the middle of nowhere, and like, we’re going to keep the bar open until no one can drink and everyone’s welcome to sleep on the sofa and the floor by the fire. And they didn’t throw anyone out at the end of the night, which is lucky as it was freezing cold. There was like a hundred people who had come to the gig and crashed out all over this pub, and it wasn’t a problem. And they just accepted it and thought it was great. It was good fun. A good concert and a good laugh as well.

SS: That sounds amazing. BSP fans would definitely travel to an out of the way place. I remember at the Cornwall show, a fan was recognized for attending 100 shows, which was incredible because this was when Open Season was just released. How would you describe the typical British Sea Power fan? Devoted comes to mind…
Yan: There is quite a wide variety of fans, but there is a more dedicated fan. [Laughs] I used to wonder why someone would want to come so often, and I was talking to one of them about it, and they explained that it was similar to following a football team or something like that. They have a chance to meet up with other like-minded people, have some fun and support us. It’s as much about them going to new places and meeting up, forming gangs, having fun. I think it’s 50 percent that and 50 percent us. Like how a football match is a bit different but still the same team. I think they enjoy the differences and new things that happen at the gigs.

SS: They’re like the British Sea Power hooligans!
Yan: [Laughs] I wouldn’t call them hooligans. They’re fairly friendly, well-behaved people. They get out of hand now and again but they’re pretty nice people.

SS: OK. Maybe without the violence… For the band name itself, is it associated with a strong national identity?
Yan: One of the first, slightly naïve ideas when we started was the idea of recycling old ideas of things from the past. Some of the things that have often been done, and using them to create something artistic, something better, whether it was a name like British Sea Power or old uniforms that you could use for a better purpose. I suppose the other idea was just that it seemed like the most ridiculous name a pop band could have. To sound way more important than anything you could possibly achieve, but you could try to...

SS: What do you feel is BSP’s place in the British music scene?
Yan: I think we’re a part of it. Well, we exist alongside it, and there’s some interaction. [Laughs] But it’s limited. In a lot of ways we’re quite well accepted in terms of press. People come to shows. We’ve never really been trendy. We’ve never really been hyped. You kind of wish that would happen when you start a band, to be the new massive thing, but in the longer term, it’s probably not a good thing for you. We’re more long-distance runners than sprinters.

SS: I think that bands can really get caught up with all the hype. There was a really funny Valentine’s Day card about the NME that read, “I love you like the NME: For about a month.”
Yan: [Laughs] Exactly.

SS: So how did the alternative names come about? For this interview, I wasn’t sure if I should call you Yan or Scott.
Yan: Originally we thought it would be easier for some reason to have one name. And we were going to use our surnames, but my brother’s in the band, so there’d be two Wilkinsons. Wilkinson, Wilkinson, Noble and Wood, and we’d sound like chartered accountants or salesmen of some kind. [Laughs] So seeing as me and my brother both have these names that we’ve never used before in our lives—we have two names, a spare one—so we thought we’d use them. It’s a simple thing that seems to have got more complicated than it really was, so now we use both our names, which makes it even more complicated. [Laughs] It used to be good because I’d be out touring or whatever, and if someone shouted my name and they shouted, “Scott,” I’d know it was a personal friend from somewhere. And if someone shouted, “Yan,” I knew it was someone who didn’t properly know me the normal way. So it was kind of useful, but now it doesn’t work anymore.

SS: I kind of thought they were like stage names, since the band is so theatrical live.
Yan: Yeah, we didn’t really want to feel like our normal selves I guess. Spider-Man had his name. It helps you take on some new attributes. [Laughs]

British Sea Power enjoyed a problem-free set that night at Spaceland, performing songs from all three of their albums, but focusing heavily on Rock. Though tamer than their past Los Angeles performances, Noble did manage to climb atop a girl’s shoulders during a song and also rock out with the audience on the floor. With the new album, BSP is attempting to redefine what people typically classify as rock music, and upon seeing them perform, you are likely to decide that you do, in fact, like rock music quite a bit.

For more photos of the Spaceland show, see The Scenestar’s British Sea Power photo gallery.

Comments

[mychelle]

Nice interview. Yan seems like a smart thoughtful guy who actually thought about his answers. I love that!

[cheryl]

yes, he's quite lovely!

[mychelle]

Really looking forward to their Chicago show soon!

[The Real Cheryl]

He's dreamy! <3 <3 <3

[paulag]

ok cheryl doesnt use <3,
but i know who does, and im throwing my shoe at you next time i see you.

[Rusholme Ruffian]

What a good interview. I feel I understand the band a lot more now.

[darren]

what an awesome interview. i learned so much. you did a great job cheryl!