Why did you decide to record half the album in rural Ireland, and the rest at Hansa studio in Berlin?
Asked: by SP.com
Was Berlin the reason for the single, Take Back The City?
Asked: by SP.com
Sonically this is a very different album from your last two...
Asked: by SP.com
Did the enormous success of your last album, Eyes Open, affect the way you approached A Hundred Million Suns?
Asked: by SP.com
Did you feel that on this album you needed to come up with a hit to rival Chasing Cars?
Asked: by SP.com
Where did you write the songs for this album?
Asked: by SP.com
How do you feel about your lyrics on this record?
Asked: by SP.com
Why did you decide to record half the album in rural Ireland, and the rest at Hansa studio in Berlin?
We wanted a contrast between the rural environment of Grouse Lodge, which really is in the middle of nowhere, where we were sequestered for 7 weeks, and the headlong city life. It was a complete change of pace. After 6 weeks at Grouse Lodge, idyllic as it was, we were stagnating. Plus our producer Jacknife Lee had always wanted to work in Hansa, and we knew the history of the place, with Bowie and the Krautrock crowd from the 70's. It gave us a chance to kill a lot of birds with the same stone.
Did you find you made very different music in the two studios you used?
There was definitely a very different attitude and energy in Berlin. We've recorded in a city before. We did Final Straw in London but because we knew London so well that wasn't particularly energising. Whereas Berlin was a new adventure. It's an incredible place and it had a galvanising effect on the record. It was where most of the songs started to make sense to us.
Was Berlin the reason for the single, Take Back The City?
Well it was written in Grouse Lodge, would you believe, and it's a song inspired by Belfast! But the rawness of the song came from Hansa and Berlin.
Sonically this is a very different album from your last two...
Yeah definitely. We had three or four weeks in the two Hansa studios, Hanza Ton and Hanza Platz. 'Platz' is where all the great 70s recordings were done and 'Ton' is two floors down from there and is usually a dance/electro studio so it's the perfect place for Jacknife to let his imagination run wild. Hansa Platz still has a lot of the old equipment. There's a strong feeling that a lot of important musical history went down there. But it's a relaxing place to work, because it has lots of windows, a lot of natural light and a great energy.
Did the enormous success of your last album, Eyes Open, affect the way you approached A Hundred Million Suns?
I don't think it did really, other than as part of a process whereby as a band we've got better at being in the studio. We didn't used to like recording at all. This last experience was our happiest I think. We really made the record we intended to make. Jonny and Nathan and Tom really worked hard on their instruments to get where we needed to be. Pablo is already a very gifted musician on many instruments and I spent more time on my lyrics so between us this time i think we were a much stronger musical unit, and edited them more carefully than I used to. Jacknife had a ball. I think he'll be going back there with other bands.
Did you feel that on this album you needed to come up with a hit to rival Chasing Cars?
We love that song and the freedom it's given us, but what we tried to do this time was to use that freedom wisely rather than come up with another song like it. There's no point in retracing our steps. That would have been safe, but we wanted to make an album that would be more challenging to us and the listener than anything we've done before. Eyes Open couldn't have had a 16 minute track like The Lightning Strike. It was a positive reaction to Chasing Cars.
Where did you write the songs for this album?
I write all the time. We chose the 20 songs we wanted to record when we went to County Galway, and stayed in a house on the banks of Lough Corrib for 6 weeks. Then we moved to Grouse Lodge
How do you feel about your lyrics on this record?
This is the first time I've got this close to the release date and not wanted to change anything! I think they're the best I've written. I've tried to pick up more themes this time. Every other album was mostly about the break-down of relationships.
We wanted a contrast between the rural environment of Grouse Lodge, which really is in the middle of nowhere, where we were sequestered for 7 weeks, and the headlong city life. It was a complete change of pace. After 6 weeks at Grouse Lodge, idyllic as it was, we were stagnating. Plus our producer Jacknife Lee had always wanted to work in Hansa, and we knew the history of the place, with Bowie and the Krautrock crowd from the 70's. It gave us a chance to kill a lot of birds with the same stone.
Did you find you made very different music in the two studios you used?
There was definitely a very different attitude and energy in Berlin. We've recorded in a city before. We did Final Straw in London but because we knew London so well that wasn't particularly energising. Whereas Berlin was a new adventure. It's an incredible place and it had a galvanising effect on the record. It was where most of the songs started to make sense to us.
Was Berlin the reason for the single, Take Back The City?
Well it was written in Grouse Lodge, would you believe, and it's a song inspired by Belfast! But the rawness of the song came from Hansa and Berlin.
Sonically this is a very different album from your last two...
Yeah definitely. We had three or four weeks in the two Hansa studios, Hanza Ton and Hanza Platz. 'Platz' is where all the great 70s recordings were done and 'Ton' is two floors down from there and is usually a dance/electro studio so it's the perfect place for Jacknife to let his imagination run wild. Hansa Platz still has a lot of the old equipment. There's a strong feeling that a lot of important musical history went down there. But it's a relaxing place to work, because it has lots of windows, a lot of natural light and a great energy.
Did the enormous success of your last album, Eyes Open, affect the way you approached A Hundred Million Suns?
I don't think it did really, other than as part of a process whereby as a band we've got better at being in the studio. We didn't used to like recording at all. This last experience was our happiest I think. We really made the record we intended to make. Jonny and Nathan and Tom really worked hard on their instruments to get where we needed to be. Pablo is already a very gifted musician on many instruments and I spent more time on my lyrics so between us this time i think we were a much stronger musical unit, and edited them more carefully than I used to. Jacknife had a ball. I think he'll be going back there with other bands.
Did you feel that on this album you needed to come up with a hit to rival Chasing Cars?
We love that song and the freedom it's given us, but what we tried to do this time was to use that freedom wisely rather than come up with another song like it. There's no point in retracing our steps. That would have been safe, but we wanted to make an album that would be more challenging to us and the listener than anything we've done before. Eyes Open couldn't have had a 16 minute track like The Lightning Strike. It was a positive reaction to Chasing Cars.
Where did you write the songs for this album?
I write all the time. We chose the 20 songs we wanted to record when we went to County Galway, and stayed in a house on the banks of Lough Corrib for 6 weeks. Then we moved to Grouse Lodge
How do you feel about your lyrics on this record?
This is the first time I've got this close to the release date and not wanted to change anything! I think they're the best I've written. I've tried to pick up more themes this time. Every other album was mostly about the break-down of relationships.
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