An Email Interview with Teenage Fanclub
by Monte Holman
Dear Teenage Fanclub:
Please forgive the sterility of the medium. Were we in the UK , we would do this in person. It's been a while since your last solo effort. 2000 brought us Howdy!, and you released the collaboration with Jad Fair, Words of Wisdom, in 2003, which was great—don't get us wrong. But it's been a quiet half-decade for new Teenage Fanclub material. Since you're one of our very favorites and have been for quite some time, we were worried.
So you can imagine our excitement after hearing your latest, Man-Made. And on top of that, you collaborated with John McEntire on this one. Twin powers unite—form of wonderful addition to already stunning discography!
Anyway, thanks for answering our questions. So nice to hear from you again.
(Teenage Fanclub is Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley, Gerard Love, and Francis Macdonald. Norman Blake wrote us back.)
****************************
Norman Blake
This is the first album in five years – why the wait?
We released a compilation in 2003 to fulfil a contractual obligation that we had with Sony, after they inherited the remainder of our Creation contract. That precluded us from releasing a new album.
Why'd you choose John McEntire as a producer, and how did he affect the songs on this album?
Gerry had worked with John on an album that the Pastels had recorded for the soundtrack of a Scottish independent movie called the last great wilderness. When it came time to think about who we would like to work with, Gerry suggested John. We all liked the work that John had done with Stereolab, so he seemed like a good choice. John saw his role as primarily an engineering one (which he did very well). Leaving the song arrangements to us, however; he did some pretty creative stuff when we were mixing.
How do you feel about how Man-Made has been received? Lots of reviews note the album's pop-ness—is that a compliment?
Good reviews are helpful of course in terms of sales, but we tend to take anything that's written about us, with a pinch of salt.
In your sixteen year history, which tour was your favorite?
Difficult to say really. I bumped in to Ken Stringfellow in Glasgow the other week, after an REM show, and we were reminiscing about a European tour that we did together in the 90's. We've had lots of good touring experiences and been lucky enough to play with some great bands.
As I'm typing this, "Teenage Wasteland" is playing on the jukebox in this bar I'm in. Just wanted to point that out.
Pete Townsend has written some great tunes!
You focused on recording and sending demos to labels before playing live shows back in '89. And there was Geffen. And now you've released your latest record on Merge over here and your own PeMa over there. Has there been a philosophical change in the way you view commercial success/accessibility/labels over the last decade and a half? (sidenote: the first Teenage Fanclub song I ever heard was "Balloon" from a compilation CD I got for free for buying a t-shirt at a retail chain, American Eagle. I immediately back-logged and was lucky enough to have a friend who really digs you, but I'm appreciative of your commercially available stuff because it would've been longer before I heard your songs had I not bought that over-priced t-shirt.)
We've travelled a long and circuitous path since our first record was released. I have to say that we're pretty happy where we are now. We're in control of every aspect of what we do as a band. We can do what we want, when we want. Our band life is much simpler now. Philosophically, I would have to say that we think pretty much in the same way now as we did then. We have never had a master plan.
You seem to have a complicated history and a somewhat rotating, semi-full-circle cast of band members. Plus you have more than one singer-songwriter type. How have these things affected your sound?
That's very difficult for me to answer. I suppose that we've settled down to having three songwriters, contributing four songs each, as our modus operandi for the last few albums.
What was the first concert you ever went to?
I like this question,and I'm going to make some people envious here, although I can't remember much about it myself. I saw the Kinks in 1966! I was born in October 65, and was on my first family holiday. We were in Blackpool. My parents took me to the show.
You're about to come over here for a US tour. What comes after that? Do you see yourselves ever tiring of all this?
We're very much looking forward to the US tour. The last time we were over was August 2001. I love making music. It's the best job I can think of.
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