In this increasingly superficial and consumer-driven world, it seems that more and more emphasis is being placed on quantity and quality. This is especially true in the music industry – the slightest whiff of a buzz around an act and marketing plans are devised and albums manufactured and rushed out almost before the band has had time to finish it.
It’s good for unit sales, but really, all it does is devalue and commodify the artist and their music, turning their art into units, their creativity into profit. The extent to which this happens obviously varies from label to label, band to band, but it’s common occurrence and one which places undue pressure on the band to force something that, perhaps, isn’t yet ready, or to change it to something that little bit more commercial and marketable.
This is an excerpt from an article that appears in the March issue of Clash Magazine. Pick it up in stores from February 4th. You can read the full issue online HERE and subscribe to Clash Magazine HERE.
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Imagine, then, if Texas quintet Midlake had have had to contend with that kind of mentality. It’s been over three and a half years since the release of their critically acclaimed sophomore album, ‘The Trials Of Van Occupanther’. They’ve spent the past two of those years in the studio, diligently and fastidiously working on its follow-up, ‘The Courage Of Others’ – writing, moulding, shaping, toning, trimming, developing, sculpting it until, finally, they got it just right.
Self-produced, as always, it’s a dark and sombre record, a muted warning about the effects of humanity and modernity on the natural world. It also marks a noticeable shift in the band’s sound and lyrical focus – whereas ‘Van Occupanther’ was centred around the lives of fictional characters, ‘The Courage Of Others’ is a deeply personal record, its lyrics more reflective of frontman Tim Smith than previous efforts. As a whole, ‘The Courage Of Others’, ironically enough, stands fast as a testament to their own courage and their decision to place artistic values above commercial success.
Guitarist Eric Pulido spoke to Clash about the story behind what is surely one of 2010’s most remarkable records.
You were in the studio for two years recording ‘The Courage Of Others’. Can you talk a little about that?
We toured ‘Van Occupanther’ right up until October of ’07, and we really didn’t waste any time getting started on the new album, as we knew it was going to be a difficult process. We’d gotten a new studio and new gear, so there was an excitement and a newness just getting back to recording, as we’d been touring for so long. We were starting to listen to different styles of music, which especially influenced Tim’s writing and it started to trickle down. I think, at the end of the day, it just took time for us to adapt.
Was there any pressure off the back of the success of ‘Van Occupanther’ to do it quickly and get it out there straight away?
The only pressure we really felt on any end was from ourselves. Ideally, we would have liked it to be and thought that it would have been a shorter process because we were a full-time band now and we had this neutral location studio where we could go in at any time and work on stuff. And we did go in and work on it a lot, and we started finding that some of the songs that were written during the touring of ‘Van Occupanther’, we were trying to record and realised it wasn’t working, that we were going to make the same album again. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but if that’s not where you’re at, you know… So, we wanted to push for something more and it just took time for us to get better as musicians and as a band, write better songs and all that.
How many rewrites did the songs go through? Were there some that went through many incarnations?
Oh yeah! The good thing about the process this time was that, with a song, we’d just set up mics and start playing the song together as a band in the room, knowing that we wanted to capture anything that was happening organically with the band and then go that direction if we needed or wanted to – like saying, ‘That’s a good thing you’re doing there, let’s keep doing that.’ So we would record these songs and then we’d start laying it down, over and over and over and then we’d come to the end and think, ‘You know, it’s not right, it’s in the wrong key’ or, ‘This chorus sucks’ or whatever. And there would be twenty to thirty versions of each song – maybe not completely different from one another, but each definitely had something glaringly wrong where we had to start over and go back to the drawing board.
How many songs were not used for the album in the end?
There were probably, of the songs that were written for the album from the beginning, maybe five or six that ended up getting away.
Would you ever consider using a producer in the future?
You know, it’s something that we’ve considered before, but as we’re so particular and know what we’re trying to get, it seems like there might be a clash. This was the first time we ever had someone else even mix the record, and that was because we knew we needed that, because it would sound better to have that knowledge and talent and to have someone else be a part of it and have some input.
It’s a strong statement, but what does the title of the new album signify for you as band?
That title was actually around while we were still doing ‘Van Occupanther’. It was going to be a B-side, but when we wrote the song we liked it too much and thought we should use it for the next album. So we waited on it. Tim really thought it was a strong title, not just in words but in the feeling of saying ‘The Courage Of Others’. It’s a sentiment we all relate to – that courage that you don’t have to be able to do the things you desire to do.
Words by Mischa Pearlman
