The Room in the Wood - Give The Room in the Wood a listen. You won’t regret it

AÑO: 5 | NÚMERO 47

THE 13th UN A R E V IS TA IM A GINA RIA

THE ROOM IN THE WOOD LIVERPOOL'S THE ROOM IN THE WOOD DEFIES TIME AND GENRE

[ Interview with Dave Jackson from The Room in The Wood by Diego Centuriรณn.

Photographs: Sarah Ryan. ]

LIVERPOOL'S THE ROOM IN THE WOOD DEFIES TIME AND GENRE

The Liverpool-based postpunk band The Room existed from the end of the 70's until the mid-80's. That band became one of the favorites of the great John Peel. And thirty years after the release of his Peel Sessions, two of the band’s members have come together again to do what he likes best – writing songs.

Paul Cavanagh and Dave Jackson have joined forces again for the first time since The Room split in 1985. This new project that we present today comes to us under the moniker The Room in the Wood.

Hello Dave! Thank you for chatting This year marks the 30th anniverwith me today. sary of the edition of The Room's "Peel Sessions". What do you reTo begin with, it seems to me that, member about that session and judging by the name of your new about John Peel? project, you are still not ready to I did four Peel Sessions with The leave aside your common past in Room, and Paul was on the last of them The Room, while I recognize that which was later released on Strange you have moved in the direction of Fruit after being picked as one of the a more folk side, darker, like a mys- sessions of the year in 1985. We recortery locked in a forest. Is there a ded it with Becky Stringer (bass), Alan connection between your new mu- Wills (drums) and Peter Baker (organ) sical approach and your new band with Dale Griffin (formerly Buffin of name?

Mott the Hoople) producing. I rememThe name originally came about as a ber that Dale was always reputed to be fusion of the original band name, The a bit hard on drummers but that he and Room, with the title of Paul’s solo ins- Alan got on okay. The session consistrumental project Cabin in the Woods. ted of four new songs that were never We wanted to acknowledge our joint recorded or released in any other form history while indicating that we were because the band split later that year. going to be performing new material Our first session came about in 1980 and not repeating the past. after Becky and I sent Peel a copy of There is also an element to the name, our first single Motion/Waiting Room as you say, that has a mysterious edge & our cassette album Bitter Reaction. and fits in with the darker folky strains He phoned up and asked if he could and lyrics to songs like Raven Girl, play four tracks off the cassette as a Baba Yaga, Dragonfly and Grey Wolf session, promising to invite us down to Lullaby. T H White’s Once and Future Maida Vale later to record one in the King Cycle has a book titled The Witch studio. We did two more with that liin the Wood. Also it has a resonance neup of the band before Alan, Paul and of the civilised world being reclaimed Peter replaced Robyn Odlum and Cliby nature. ve Thomas.

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I remember Peel fondly as a friendly and encouraging character who managed to promote new music without making his vast knowledge and varied tastes an ego trip. I met him once at a venue called the Warehouse in Liverpool after he’s been doing his road show elsewhere and he showed me the pocket in which he put written requests for music. It had a big hole in it.

Later, my band Benny Profane played on of his road shows at Liverpool University and he was genuinely enthusiastic about our stuff.

What sonorous differences do you find between both bands?

There are theobvious similarities in that it’s Paul on guitar and me on vocals, a big part of the late Room sound and we’ve both always had a range of influences, ranging from the Velvets, Television, Hank Williams, Psychede-

lia, Bert Jansch to Krautrock. However, we’ve probably picked up a whole bunch of new musical tics over the years and trust in the combination of our individual Musical ‘voices’ to create something distinctly our own.

How did The Room in the Wood come about?

About 3 years ago, when I was having a break from working with the Cathedral Mountaineers, Paul contacted me to see if I wanted to have a go at playing some covers for ‘a laugh’. We did a couple of gigs, just as guitar and vocals, doing a mixture of Bowie, Dylan, Velvets and old country songs. We also did a couple of mine and an old Room song, Crying Red. Sometime later I suggested we have a go at writing new stuff, and for about 18 months we knocked ideas about between us. Paul is pretty damn prolific, so I had to up my lyric writing game. Mostly he texts or

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emails a guitar part, sometimes with a handling your social media challensuggested vocal melody, sometimes ges? not, and I work out a lyrical response Shauna McLarnon at Shameless Prothat hopefully suits the tune. motion PR has been handling the bulk of our social media stuff, as well as our I read that, over the last year, you press and radio outreach, and doing a have written 30 songs. Have that great job of getting us a presence. But many ideas come forth since you we also regularly post videos, songs reunited? and updates on The Room in the Wood Yes. The 30 odd songs have all come site as well as our personal pages. I about since we started working toge- also repeat posts on The Room, Benny ther in the way I mention above. We Profane, Dave Jackson & The Cathewrote Magical Thinking and Snowblind dral Mountaineers and Violet City paafter we thought we’d finished the al- ges. I’ve also just become the last kid bum and had to change the running or- on the block to get into tweeting. der to include them.

Let's talk a little about the debut alYou released the 3-song "Magi- bum. How long did it take them to recal Thinking" EP in April, followed cord it? by your self-titled full-length album We recorded the album over a 9-mon– both through A Turntable Friend th period, in a series of two or three day Records (thanks to Shameless Pro- sessions at Steve Powell’s Ark Studio. motion PR for sharing that with us). There were big gaps between sesWhat has the response been so far sions due to work commitments, studio to these two releases? availability and drummer Colin GeorSo far, we’ve had nothing but favou- ge Lamont’s availability. Paul played all rable responses. And our recent live guitars and basses and we brought in gig in Liverpool accompanied by drum- Andy Wilson to do keys on a few tracks, mer George Hitchmough, Bassist Joel as well as a cellist, Alistair Ligertwood, Goldberg, and Steve Powell on rhythm to play on Grey Wolf Lullaby. Natalie guitar went down a storm. Natalie Ja- James and Mary McCombs came in mes and Mary McCombs joined us on to do backing vocals on Greedy Stars, backing vocals for three songs. It was Snowblind & Sky Pool. But Paul and the first time we’ve played live with a full I had previously demoed many of the band and it worked really well I think. songs at Dave ‘Yorkie’ Palmer’s houAt different points in the set we had be- se studio, so we worked quickly. Colin tween seven and two members of the was a quick study and got most of his band on stage. drum tracks down in a couple of days.

What do Internet and Social Networks mean to you as a band. Something that in other times was not like that. Today people can write to you from anywhere in the world with just one click. How have you been

You have released two videos – one for the song that your first EP is named for and the latest is "Greedy Stars". Do you plan to release more videos this year? Who was involved in making them?

The Magical Thinking video was shot and edited by Jacob Epstein Bell of ace Liverpool band Phaedra. We based it around a legendary pyramid-shaped tomb on Rodney Street that is rumoured to have a gambler interred in it sitting at a card table with a Royal Flushin his hand, and the back room of 81 Renshaw, the ace local venue where we played, and interspersed it with shots of Jehovah’s Witness signs and biblical and folkloric references.

Greedy Stars feature footage of me and Paul shot by Yvonne Marsden in our flat against a Japanese Screen.

We sent this to Helen Stringer (sister of The Room’s Becky) and she produced the finished video, treating the raw footage and editing in silent movie footage and other atmospheric shots. Helen reckoned that the song reminded her of FW Murnau’s Sunrise. And it’s a favourite film of mine, along with Louise Brooks’ performance in GW Pabst’s Pandora’s Box.

I’ve also posted a couple of still shot montage videos of Dragonfly and Baba Yaga but we do plan to shoot a few more videos for tracks soon.

Thank you for the opportunity to be able to ask these questions. To wrap up, what plans do you have for this year?

We shall be recording more songs soon and also concentrating on finding gigs further afield to promote the album, which we’re both really proud of and thankful to Ulrich Hoffmann at A Turntable Friend for allowing us the opportunity to reach a wider audience, and to Shauna at Shameless for helping us promotion and media wise.

Is there something else you’d like to share with our readers?

Give The Room in the Wood a listen.

You won’t regret it.

Thank you Dave!

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The13th U NA R EVISTA IMA GINA RIA