Daniel Land - Love Reactivated Creativity (Number 32) by Revista The 13th

The13th AÑO: 3

NÚMERO 32

UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA

DANIEL LAND

[ Interview with Daniel Land by Diego Centuriรณn ]

LOVE REACTIVATED CREATIVITY

3 A long time ago I know the music of Daniel Land, it took me a little time to discover his past in Engineers and if you read the interview that I did to Mike Peters I asked about the departure of Daniel from the band, and he gave me to understand that everything The subject has an open end. The truth is that with his new band The New Painters has published brilliant works, but had long known nothing of his music until a few weeks ago.

tween him and the friends I've made I feel like I've put down roots there now. A lot of the last four years has been spent working on the record, it probably would have been released two years ago had I not encountered some health issues during the making of the album. Nothing too serious, but for a while I did seriously consider whether to keep making music or not. I really had the confidence knocked out of me for a while.

Hi Daniel, before asking you some questions, I’d like to thank you for taking the time out to chat with us. You're welcome! Thanks for asking me.

I was wondering what happened to The Modern Painters? Has the band dissolved? The band is on hiatus. We never officially split up, and we're all still friends. We don't all live in the same city any more but I'm vaguely hopeful that we might do something again together in the future, maybe in a few years or something. The Modern Painters was more of a live band than a studio band, which was really my fault - it would be nice to make a record that reflected the more raucous live sound of the band.

Is ‘In Love With a Ghost’ a solo album? Did any other musicians participate in the recording? It's released under my own name, so yes I suppose that it is a solo album. However I would say that the process of making it was the same as making the Daniel Land & The Modern Painters records. With the Painters records what tended to happen was that I would play most of the instruments myself in my studio and then get my friends Graeme Meikle and Oisin Scarlett in to throw down some additional colours. It was the same process with this record, but with an expanded cast of musicians. There was a sizeable gap in time between ‘The Space Between Us’ and 'In Love With A Ghost'. What was happening during that period? 'The Space Between Us' was released in 2012 and pretty soon after that a lot of things changed in my life - I got made redundant from my day job, had to move out of the place where I was living. Then Graeme from The Modern Painters was having a baby, and Jason wanted to go travelling - it all seemed to come at once and it seemed like a good time to put the band on hold and try something new. So I left Manchester and moved to London, where I started studying a course in music - now, four years later, I'm still in London, and studying a postgraduate degree in Record Production. Pretty soon after I arrived in London I met my partner Elijah, be-

If I remember correctly, your last solo album was ‘My Sad Captains’. While it was a more ambient album, I wanted to compare both release. What would you say are the main differences between these two albums? That album was mainly piano pieces, whereas my new solo album "In Love With A Ghost" is a continuation of what I started with the Daniel Land & The Modern Painters albums "Love Songs For The Chemical Generation" and "The Space Between Us", and I see it as the follow-up to those albums it's song-based, and songs are the centre of my work. If I could do it over again I would have released "My Sad Captains" as a riverrun record - riverrun is my ambient side-project and the pieces on "My Sad Captains" are much closer to that style, it would have been more appropriate to use that name in retrospect. The benefit of hindsight! But "My Sad Captains" was really just a small-scale, private release - maybe I'll re-release it under a more appropriate name in the future!

Can you tell us a little about each track from ‘In Love With a Ghost’? “You & Me Against The Sky” This is a statement of intent, a song about picking yourself up, of not listening to negative voices, about therapy and healing. It's a grown up love song. “Holes On The Dancefloor” When I studied American literature at university I became very interested in literary responses to the AIDS crisis, particularly the generation of gay writers and artists that came to prominence in New York in the late 70s and early 80s. This song is kind of a reflection of that. “Everyone's Got A Guy Garvey Story” This is a love song to Manchester, my old adopted hometown - to the Painters and our friends on the Manchester music scene. The line "One guitar and a violin" refers to the great Mancunian band Air Cav. “The Sweetest Lover” A witty deconstruction of Susan Sontag's "Against Interpretation"... Actually, no. It's a straightforward love song to my partner, Elijah, written after we met in 2013 - complete with smutty Biblical double entendres and a couple of Zelda references. “New York Boogie-Woogie” Another love song to a city, but this time to New York, where Elijah and I spent some time in 2014 and 2015. My vision of New York is dark and romantic, and the video that we shot there, for the single, is a good reflection of this. This is the emotional and thematic centrepiece of the album, for me. “Little City Symphony” A short instrumental piece that features the wonderful saxophone playing of Igor Delgado Martin, who is on three tracks on the album. Brin and I simply improvised some chords around his lovely playing.

“Saints With His Mercy” I wanted the album title to have several meanings. One of the meanings of "In Love With A Ghost" was this idea of falling for a figment, or a person who isn't what they first appear. This song draws on a couple of experiences, one of which was witnessing violence as a child, the other was the murder of my friend Lisa Collings by her abusive partner ten years ago. “Whistling Gypsy” Versions of this song have been kicking around for years, I wrote it in 2003 and performed it live with the Painters as early as 2008. It was going to be on "The Space Between Us", but it never really fit that album when I put the running order together. I nearly abandoned it forever but a friend was begging me to put it on an album - and after I'd put some real drums on it and a couple of other things, it fit really well. I really like the sort of guest-appearance by riverrun that segues out of the track too. “In Love With A Ghost” Probably one of the more "live" sounding tracks on the record - this was written, recorded and mixed in one day for the BFW Recordings Album In A Day project, and I played every instrument on this track. It uses a trick I first used on "Within The Boundaries" - the track is four or five minutes long, but the vocal is only it for one short chorus. “The Beautiful Room Is Empty” The last two tracks flow into each other without a stop, which sounds totally natural on the album but this song was actually recorded a year before. Here again, this was written, recorded and mixed in one day for the BFW Recordings Album In A Day project, in 2013, and I played all the instruments. This one seems to be a lot of people's favourite track on the album, maybe it's got something to do with all the big guitars at the end.

Will you be presenting this album with a band? Whose is in your live lineup?

done, I'm going to turn some serious attention to my next album of songs, which is already about half-finished.

Yes, there is an album launch gig at the Sebright Arms in London, on Sunday 27 November. After that, hopefully there

I finished "In Love With A Ghost" in 2015, and since that time

will be some shows in the UK and Europe next year - even be-

I've been working on newer material. The new album doesn't

yond, if there are offers! Anyone interested can get in touch.

have a title yet but it's going to be a return to straightforward

I'm really happy with my new band, which has some really

guitar-based shoegaze, a la my earlier album "Love Songs For

talented people in it. Adam Gummer plays drums, we've also

The Chemical Generation", and featuring my new bandmates.

got Rob Sykes on bass, he used to be in the Club AC30 band Sleepless. I sing, play guitar, and sometimes piano. On guitar

I should also mention that I'm producing the debut album by

we also have Gary Bruce, who collaborates with Siobhan De

Swoone, and a couple of tracks for an up and coming London

Mare under the name Swoone. And we also have Brin Coleman,

band called Komodo, so hopefully there should be news on all of

aka the prolific ambient legend Bing Satellites, on keyboards.

that soon. There's also a new riverrun record which I'll be officially announcing soon!

What are your plans for the remainder of 2016 and 2017? Well as I write this I'm on a flight to New York to see friends

It's a pleasure to be able to talk to you, I appreciate your music.

and do some album interviews that should be really fun. After

The pleasure was all mine - thank you, and thanks to anyone

I'm back, and after the release of "In Love With A Ghost" is

who's read this!

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