Tindersticks

Stuart Staples, Neil Fraser and David Boulter have played together approximately 20 years now in some form or another. From early days in a band called Asphalt Ribbons to the founding members of Tindersticks, the trio’s orchestral rock and soulful flair have established an impressive career longevity and niche that’s served them well over the years. Now with their latest, Falling Down A Mountain, the trio is back with another strong release.

Of course, Tindersticks was once a six-piece, yet as Boulter describes, shedding that skin a few years ago was one of the best moves he’s been a part of. Instead of allowing the band to die, Staples & Co. took advantage of a newfound freedom to keep the identity alive with The Hungry Saw and, now, Falling Down A Mountain. The excitement is still there, as Boulter explains to us, and it doesn’t appear to be heading anywhere anytime soon — even if they often talk about it.

SSv: After 17 or 18 years, it’s yet another new album out and I’m curious what the emotions are at this stage of the career when it comes to a new release?

David Boulter: As far as when an album is released, it’s not as exciting as it obviously was when you first make a record and you really anticipate that. But in terms of writing the songs and recording them and making an album, it’s still just as exciting. It’s something that, especially with the last two albums, we’ve started to get the feeling between us that makes things magic again.

When we put the album together and get the artwork and see an actual copy of it, then the actual release date and so on tend to become something we forget about. We think about it more in terms of, ‘Well, the record’s released, so hopefully we’ll go and play some shows then.’ Hopefully it becomes an ongoing thing and you get excited about going out to play the album live.

SSv: You mention the last two albums. I know The Hungry Saw was the first album after the changes in the line-up and paring down to the three of you. Did the recording sessions for Falling Down a Mountain feel like you’re really finding your footing in this new format?

David: In some ways. I think making The Hungry Saw, we played some shows and went out and over a year of doing shows and concerts for that album, this band kind of grew together. We started out with a different drummer on Hungry Saw, but he became ill and we had to find a different drummer. During the period of waiting to play shows before and after soundchecks and in dressing rooms, this idea of writing songs with the people we’re involved with kind of grew. So this album grew out of that.

In a way I think Hungry Saw was kind of a relief. We were very excited and wanted to make a record, but even though it was new members, it still felt like Tindersticks, whereas with this record, Falling Down a Mountain, it feels we’ve built something different again. It’s pushed us in a different direction, so it’s a lot more exciting than The Hungry Saw in some different ways because it’s pushed us.

SSv: Was that intentional on your part?

David: I think there was an intention to not repeat some things and to push ourselves in some new directions. That kind of thing is always a failure, so we didn’t make a plan to try to make a different record, but at the same time, it just felt some things we’re moving in a new direction, so we let it go where it wanted to go. There wasn’t any real effort, but at the same time, there was no way to put it back and say, ‘No, it shouldn’t do that.’ We just let it do what we wanted to do with some kind of encouragement basically.

SSv: What were you not wanting to repeat specifically from The Hungry Saw?

David: One of the big things we’ve tried to get away from is writing these ballads that are these string-led ballads, which is always something that we’ve tried to fight against since we’ve got that kind of label. I think that was the main thing. It’s trying to find some kind of energy in the music that’s a bit different, one that’s not relying on a certain kind of dimension that we had already. That’s the main thing.

It’s not that we’ve had this massive musical change in direction, but it’s just a different energy and a different way of achieving our musical ideas, rather than relying on a certain kind of dramatic approach or string thing.

SSv: When you’re used to doing things a certain way, how do you find a new energy source?

David: We’ve been meeting new people and that’s been a big boost. It’s always good to have someone new come in, even if it’s not a new member of the band, but just someone you work with or someone you meet, they bring a new energy that you can bounce off of. The problem is when you work with people for a long time or know them for a long time, you tend to settle in a certain way of doing things. Then you have this routine that’s hard to break out of. Having new people really helps to do things differently and change that approach.

SSv: Do you think there’d be a plateau then of sorts without those voices?

David: I think so in some ways. One of the reasons the three of us wanted to carry on with Tindersticks was when the old version of Tindersticks stopped, Stuart decided to make a solo record and it ended up being two solo records [Leaving Songs and Songs For The Young At Heart]. Myself and Neil [Fraser] both sort of helped him on that, even though we both wanted to step back a bit and wanted him to do it on his own. He wanted this safety blanket I think so me and Neil got involved.

In the period of making those records and playing some live shows, we felt that we had something else to do with Tindersticks. We wanted to make more music, but we needed to get out of a corner in some way. The only way we could find to do that was to sort of part ways with some of the people in the band. Three of us wanted to change things and three of us didn’t see that change possible, so it made it impossible for us to keep working. So when we decided to do that, it was very easy to move on to the next stage in some way.

SSv: Do you ever think about life outside of the band? You discussed having music to still make as a band, but do you discuss when that may not be the case anymore?

David: We talk about that a lot, I suppose. The longer you do this, we kind of plan a certain distance ahead. You can never really say that we’ll be doing this in five years time. You always wonder if this is the last record we’ll make together. But I think you just hope that by the end of making the music and playing shows or whatever happens, you hope there’s something you’ll still want to do together. Outside of music, we’ve known each other for over half our lives. It’s been 25 years since I met Stuart, so you just have a certain trust with each other that you can do this together and, if you don’t, that it will stop for the right reasons. That’s something that keeps you going anyway.

SSv: I know new people keep things fresh, but what have you learned about staying refreshed even with the three of you?

David: We’ve learned some things there. For myself and Stuart, we still trust each other that we can make music in a way that’s very simple or these grand ideas, whichever way things want to go and that the other person can just trust what you’re doing. I think that helps you to want to do things together. If we got bored with each other 10 years ago, we would have stopped making music together 10 years ago. It’s something that becomes second nature in a way and you have to make yourself surprise each other sometimes. It’s something that’s necessary even though it causes arguments, but you get through it.

SSv: Was that split the most difficult time for the band thus far?

David: I don’t think so. I think that was quite easy because we knew deep down that something was over, but we were also excited. The most difficult time was maybe more than 10 years ago was when we made our third album called Curtains. That was around 1996 or ‘97. Then we’d had a lot of success and we seemed to be rising all of the time. We had a lot of critical acclaim, but within the band, we all felt very insecure. It all felt that nobody really knew what to think about it. We all started to doubt each other.

Some people started to get that kind of success and use it in a way that they were basically one big party. Some people started to keep the success and momentum going. So we were a bit insecure, and maybe that’s when Tindersticks should have finished, but we carried on another five years after that to just make music that maybe, on reflection, had lost something. That’s why we decided in 2003 to stop, it felt like a relief in some ways. It was exciting then to think about the future.

SSv: When you do you stop feeling that pressure that you mention with Curtains?

David: It has to do with what’s within you. But I suppose that during that time, we were on a major record company. The way that they deal with you is not really like a commodity, but there is a certain sort of thing that you only live by your success, so everything has to be growing all the time. But in musical terms, growing doesn’t mean success necessarily. It’s about achieving the goals within you. It’s about your own personal goals, not selling more records than the last one.

That kind of thing was a lot of pressure. You try to take that away, and yet you still have to justify your existence. We’re still signed to a record company and, at the end of the day, we still have to sell records for them. At the same time, we probably believed that we were old enough and mature enough to do it on our own if the record company turns around and says they’re not interested.

*Photo by Richard Dumas

Related posts:

1. Tindersticks-Black Smoke
2. Tindersticks – Falling Down A Mountain

Tagged as: England, Nottingham, orchestral rock

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