David Gedge - A busy year by Revista The 13th

The13th AÑO: 3

NÚMERO 34

UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA

JOEL GION

3 [ Interview with David Gedge from The Wedding Present by Diego Centurión ]

A BUSY YEAR On December 2, 2016 the legendary Leeds band, The Wedding Present, has released a new album called "Going Going" and we agreed to speak with David Gedge who besides being the singer and songwriter is the one who has remained as leader the band from its beginnings in the decade of the eighty. Before we begin, I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. No problem, Diego! 1985. The year that everything was born. What do you remember from those early days of the band? What were some of your biggest challenges back then compared to now? It was an exhilarating time. Nobody knew about The Wedding Present and we had no money... but we had a bunch of songs that we were excited about playing and recording and an abundance of enthusiasm! I guess the biggest challenge was surviving financially until we’d attracted enough interest and support to achieve what we’d set out to do. We’d kind of thrown ourselves wholeheartedly into the band so none of us really had the time, or, frankly, the inclination, to earn any money from other sources. So... sacrifices had to be made! Although your discography is quite extensive, last year was the twentieth anniversary of Saturnalia. What do you remember about that album? And how do you see it today, twenty years after its release? I’ve genuinely always thought that Saturnalia was one of our most interesting albums. It’s actually one of the lesser-known releases but I think it’s stood the test of time quite well. At that point we’d just had a couple of line-up changes and the new members,

Simon Cleave [guitar] and Jayne Lockey [bass], were both from a more experimental background. And I think you can hear, in the arrangements and recordings, the sound of a band trying out some great new ideas. Also, Jayne was the first full time female member of the band so we had a lot of fun experimenting with male/female vocal exchanges. It was the first entirely ‘self-produced’ album, really... We cannot overlook the fact that Cinerama came later on as well, and that this project co-exists with The Wedding Present. Do you combine both bands at the time of composing or is Cinerama still an escape valve, so to speak? It’s still a separate project but the boundaries aren’t as strict as they used to be, I suppose. I think Cinerama now often influences The Wedding Present as much as The Wedding Present influenced, for example, Cinerama’s third album, Torino. That being said, the most recent Cinerama release was a re-imagining of The Wedding Present’s Valentina album... and the Cinerama version sounds absolutely nothing like the original! Skipping ahead to the present, the current Wedding Present album Going, Going... just released on Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records. How do you feel about these recordings? Is it a more personal affair for you than your previous recordings? Definitely. I think it’s one of the three most personal albums... along with George Best and Take Fountain. It’s kind of based on a road trip that I took across the United States a couple of years ago... driving through twenty states from Maine to California... and so that alone makes it feel more real to me, before I even think about the lyrics.

Asking you to go into this record track by track would be too much, but which songs do you like best from this album? I think ‘Rachel’ is a great pop song – if I say so myself! – but it’s not really indicative of the album, so I’m not sure if I’d say it’s the song I like the best. The idea behind Going, Going... was to spring little surprises throughout the ‘journey’ so to speak – sometimes they’re nods to the past and sometimes they bear no relation to anything we’ve done before. So, if it doesn’t sound too pretentious!, I almost feel like it should be regarded as a suite of music rather than a collection of songs. How long did it take you to write these songs? A very long time! It was an extensive project and I wanted to make sure everything did what it was supposed to do... the lyrics, the melody, the arrangements, the recordings, the mix, the videos... even the formats and the packaging. I worked harder on this release than on any other! How would you describe the sound of this album? I think the strength of Going, Going... is partly how varied it sounds and partly how many ideas are actually on it. Some of the heaviest sounds the band has ever recorded nestle up to lighter – almost quasi-cinematic - arrangements, but I don’t think any of it sounds particularly out of place. It’s also, hopefully, a record that repays several listens. The more familiar you become with the recording the more you notice. Well, that’s the idea, anyway! What are your expectations for this release? How will that fit into the coming tours you’ve announced for 2017? I never have any expectations for our releases. I gave that up many years ago, ha, ha. I have been delighted with the reception it’s received, though, I must say. On our 2017 tours we’re obviously planning a set that digs into Going, Going... but we’re obviously not going to ignore the back catalogue, of course! The “Marc Riley Sessions Volume 1” release has been edited. What can you tell us about this? The Wedding Present have always had a good rela-

tionship with the BBC and, in particular, the celebrated presenter, John Peel, who, sadly, passed away in 2004. We recorded numerous sessions for his programme over the years. Basically... you turn up at a BBC studio and belt out four or five tracks which are recorded live and mixed there and then. With recordings like that you can definitely hear an ‘urgency’ in the track. During the last decade Marc Riley has, I suppose, taken up the baton from Peel and so we’ve now recorded several sessions for his show, too. This is the first volume in a series of releases of those sessions. What lies ahead for you in 2017? Well, we are touring North America in April, supported by Colleen Green – I’m really looking forward to that. And then we’re also planning to return to Australia and New Zealand in July. And we have some festivals to play in Europe. 2017 also sees the thirtieth anniversary of the release of George Best and so we’ve arranged concerts where we’ll be playing that album live... for the last time ever! We’re also literally in the middle of recording a new EP for a label called El Segell Del Primavera – it’s associated with the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona – and they’ve asked us to play at the launch of that, too. I also have my own festival, At The Edge Of The Sea, in August as usual... and I’m continuing work on my autobiographical comic book series Tales From The Wedding Present. So I’d say it’s going to be a busy year... but then they always are!

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