This time in 2013, producer Dan Carey had very recently assembled a brand new record label, and attached to it a raucous and rapid ethos. Constructing a fully recorded song in only 24 hours (with no lunch break) does sound daunting yet brilliant, as the work of Speedy Wunderground manages to capture that raw edginess in songs that haven’t been excessively polished. I was lucky enough to ask Speedy Wunderground founder, Dan Carey, a handful of questions, in which he, fittingly, responded with impressive speed.
The initial inspiration behind the creation of Speedy Wunderground is ultimately due to the inconvenience of “waiting around for stuff to get released”. Dan Carey says, “I get tired of labouring over things for ages and going back and forth on tracks, trying to finish them off. I find that tweaking things doesn’t generally make them much better.” He states that Speedy Wunderground was formed to eliminate the nuisance of waiting and tweaking, and to “just keep the fun bits of making a record, i.e recording it and hearing it on the radio five days later.”
Speedy Wunderground have so far released 10 singles through this recording procedure, and all completed in Carey’s very own studio. “It makes for a consistent sound, and it helps with the speedy aspect. I am very familiar with this room”. Equipment such as lasers and smoke machines are frequently used during recordings, but not in a pretentious, Beach Boys-esque fashion; they’re merely to keep this speedy recording process fun. In these 10 singles, you’ll discover that Speedy Wunderground have recorded with the likes of TOY, Childhood, Kate Tempest, and most recently, Telegram; all of which work stunningly with this intense yet raw sound in their music. I asked Dan Carey whether he chooses the artists he wishes to work with predominately on the basis of their music suiting his edgy, unprocessed sound, in which he responded, “It’s more of a personality thing, really. I think as long as everyone involved is able to relax, and not worry too much about the idea that the record isn’t going to be all that ‘polished’ sounding, then it works. I think it’s quite liberating for musicians who are used to doing lots and lots of takes, to be forced to use their first or second. Several people have told me they want to do all future recordings in this way.” Artists usually only bring along a “skeleton for a song”, which Carey prefers “because it’s all a bit more on-edge.”
Seeing as it’s only February, I tried to nab some information regarding who we can expect brilliant new singles from via Speedy Wunderground, but Carey says “We only tend to plan them a couple of days before.” – which really just highlights that naturally rough ethos they stand by. However, he reveals, “I want to do ones with Kelly Stoltz, and maybe Bunnybrains? Palma Violets would be great too, they’re friends of ours. Julian Cope is the dream!”
With the speed they’re working at, I shouldn’t been surprised if they manage to collaborate with the likes of whoever they fancy. What a fantastic insight into a somewhat intense, yet charmingly rough and organic recording process.
With 2015 already in full swing and swarming with anticipating release dates for new and exciting records, I was lucky enough to chat to Ellis, the mastermind behind Bristol’s shamble of charm, Trust Fund. Ellis kindly shares some of his interesting insights on the creation of Trust Fund’s forthcoming album (No One’s Coming For Us out Feb 9th), the British DIY music scene and his top few bands to look out for in 2015.
Firstly, I can’t help but notice that Trust Fund is made up from lots of people here and there, so could you explain who form Trust Fund ?
It was initially a name I gave to stuff that I recorded on my own when I was in another band. Then when I started playing live it was on my own, maybe 3 years ago. Then it naturally evolved into a band. I think in total 10 or so people have played in/as Trust Fund live and on record. People who have done loads of Trust Fund shows/recordings are Roxy Brennan (Grubs, Two White Cranes), Grace Denton (Expensive, The Middle Ones), Rosie Smith (Totem Terrors, Oh Peas!), Stefano Belli (Pigthe), and Daniel Howard (Squeakeasy, Sundae Kups).
I believe that some of the musicians that play with you, and in fact you yourself, play in other bands as well as Trust Fund. Did this affect the writing / recording process ?
Yeah they play in tons of bands (see above). I don’t think that that aspect affects the writing too much, cos everyone is a few bands, I think. Sometimes I guess I write a little bit with an idea of who might play what live, or on record. But usually that stuff is worked out later.
I think it’s great that Trust Fund, and other brilliant bands you’re associated with such as Joanna Gruesome and Grubs, are part of the British DIY music scene. Do you feel that the DIY music scene is underrated? And from your own experience, what is the best thing about going the DIY route ?
I don’t think we can call ourselves a DIY band cos we’ve signed with Turnstile to put out this album. But…. DIY for me means taking control of the way in which you make, share, and listen to music. It has to mean something different to ‘indie’ or ‘unsigned’, because otherwise it’s just a bunch of bands waiting to get famous. It means rethinking ideas of success, and maybe rethinking what your goals are when making music, like whether you want it to be inclusive, community orientated, etc. I’m not saying we’re good at that, or that I am, because I dont think I am. But I think that’s what DIY is about. It’s complicated.
That’s interesting. So do you think that the future of DIY music will become a collaborative process between artists and small record labels? Do you consider your relationship with Turnstile a collaborative one?
Honestly I have no idea what the future of anything is. So far working with Turnstile has been great, and it’s made things a lot easier for me. But you could also say it has taken some of what you might call ‘political’ meaning out of me making music, like the idea of DIY as a resistant or oppositional culture. I can’t claim any right to that now, really. I think I am skeptical of certain elements of that though, and that’s partly why I feel ok about signing with a label. I’m also doing a PHD on this kind of stuff at Leeds Uni, so maybe in 3 years when I’ve finished studying I’ll have a better answer.
Do you think growing up in as lively city for music as Bristol influences your music, or even helped when starting Trust Fund ?
I don’t know how much it influences songwriting, but it definitely was amazing at about 18 or 19 to realise that there were loads of cool people in bands that I just had no idea about, because they weren’t super famous or anything, but I really liked their music and they seemed just so on top of what they wanted to do. Bands like I Know I Have No Collar, The Balky Mule, Headfall, The Jelas, Arctic Circle, Ratface, Shut Up Sonya, Team Brick (aka mxlx / fairhorns). Some of those are still playing.
There have been scares of closures of many independent music venues, such as The Fleece in Bristol. How do you think independent venues helped you as a band? And how do you feel about the future of independent venues ?
We’ve used venues like Cafe Kino, Roll For The Soul, and Cube Cinema, which all have community, co-operative, or non-profit elements in their set-up. Those venues have always been pretty easy to book, and nice to deal with, and they care about making their venues a nice place to be in. The Fleece I do not care about, and obviously more venues is better than fewer venues, but really it’s always seemed pretty shoddy and money-grabbing, and as far as I know they’re still doing pay-to-play gigs which is ridiculous. Sorry if I’m wrong on that (I hope I am).
Could you expand on what you mean by “pay-to-play” gigs? And because of this attitude, do you think that new bands are going to become more reliant on publicly funded venues and art centres ?
Pay-to-play means that venues get bands to buy tickets from them as a condition of playing, and then the bands have to sell those tickets in order to make any money from the gig, and if they don’t sell them then they’ve lost money. It’s a way for venues (and promoters) to get bands to do all their promoting for them, and they have no risk of losing money, whereas the band do. It is, I think, a lot less common than it used to be. Obviously bands often want to take all the shows they can get and that’s cool, so I’m not trying to shame bands who play them or anything like that. We’re lucky that we know people in DIY scenes and that’s a privilege. I think sadly there is very little chance of publicly funded venues becoming a more viable option, because of the government’s consistent and ideologically driven cuts to the arts budget, which is why it is great that Bristol has a few co-operatives (Hydra is one I didn’t mention earlier), because that’s a really important thing in-between state funding and profit-hungry venues.
You’ve recently been on tour with Los Campesinos, whom I can see hints of in your music. How did you come about supporting them? And how was the tour ?
Umm I asked Gareth if we could, and he said yes. We had already met a couple of times. The tour was fun and a new thing for us cos we hadn’t played places that big before, and places where there’s a kind of pressure to be more professional. But playing felt basically the same. The ‘tour’ part of it, like the driving around and sleeping in different cities, all of that felt as fun as always.
Who are your top handful of bands to look out for in 2015?
Grubs have recorded their debut album. King of Cats has recorded another album. Two White Cranes is recording an album. Roxy is on all three of those albums, and they will all be great. Spook School as well.
Apart from the highly anticipated debut album hitting the shelves next month, have Trust Fund got anything else in store for us in 2015 ?
Yes. But I don’t want to say what, in case it doesn’t happen.
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