Enchanted by the world weary charm and lush, pastoral pop exuding from their recent debut mini-LP "Cuban Green", W&H were quick off the blocks when given the opportunity of a chat with CLAYHILL double bassist ALI FRIEND during the band's current UK tour in support of Kathryn Williams. Read on to find out about how to create perfect pop while delivering pizzas, write songs about gardeners cutting lawns with scissors and how to be mistaken for footballer Dennis Wise in one easy lesson. Not to mention get locked out of the evening's venue while chatting to W&H...
Ali is immediately likeable, affable and chatty. You may remember him from promising Warp label pop/ trip-hop culties Red Snapper, but these days he's teamed up with guitarist Ted Barnes and ex-Sunhouse vocalist Gavin Clark to form the nucleus of Clayhill. It's sounding more like a shrewd move with every day, but Ali, how did you guys initially all fall in together?
"Well, Gavin had impressed me in Sunhouse, while Ted was originally recording what was gonna be a solo album and he was interested in getting in vocalists for that," reveals Ali, who's talking to me on his manager's mobile and - successfully - managing to get locked out of London's Bush Hall in the process.
"Me and Ted loved Gavin's voice from his work with Sunhouse and we'd (Ted and Ali) been getting together to work on soundtrack-y stuff," Ali continues, despite his predicament.
"I loved Sunhouse, but it was Ted's idea originally to get Gavin, which was a new situation for me, actually coming to someone cold. I've never previously got involved with a project where I didn't personally know people before, but it's paid off. Clayhill is really working well."
That's heartening to know, but tell me more about Gavin's pre-Clayhill situation. Did he really work as a pizza delivery guy before the band started and did he actually let food go cold when he stopped to write songs in lay-byes on route to delivery?
"Yeah, pretty much,"laughs Ali.
"Basically, Gav's situation was living in Stoke and writing songs on his own. He'd contributed two songs to an eight-minute short film made by director Shane Meadows (of "24-7" fame) and he was basically writing at home and working delivering pizzas to keep himself going."
"Actually," he continues, "Gav was still working with the pizzas for the first year in Clayhill and he did ride around the place coming up with melodies and lyric ideas. But there again, I imagine you probably do meet interesting people at 1.30 in the morning doing something like that."
He pauses for a few seconds and continues with the same line of thought.
"More and more I seem to meet people who do other jobs as well as music, like The Webb Brothers and Lambchop, a number of the US musicians we've worked with..."
Yeah, I believe Kurt Wagner (Lambchop supremo) used to be a master at sanding floors...
"Right," says Ali. "Yeah, I think those guys like to go home and get back to that grounding of jobs when they're not on the road."
You couldn't do that?
"Mmm, not sure....no, I really don't think I could," replies Ali, mulling the question over seriously.
"No, mate, it's definitely the total rock'n'roll lifestyle for me at all times!" he finally replies, laughing heartily.
To get away from Funghis, Margheritas and Prosciuttos for a while, though, tell me more about the band's situation these days. Is Clayhill now everyone's top priority?
"Yeah, it is, very much so," replies Ali, very definitely.
"We love it in a big way. I suppose the logistics can be a bit weird at times geographically because at present Gav's still in Stoke, Ted's living in Whitstable (Kent, for the geographically-challenged out there) and I'm in London. We do like doing other bits too, mind."
Such as?
"Well, I recently played with David Axelrod at the Royal Festival Hall, that was truly amazing," he says, still in awe.
"Also, I'll probably be doing some stuff on the next Beth Orton album, but Clayhill's different, it's something that we're all emotionally involved in. It means enough for us all to get uptght about," he finishes, with just a thread of darkness attached.
One thing I find intriguing is your label situation. You're with Eat Sleep, who - previously at least - seemed to concentrate primarily with just Emo/ punk bands from either the States or Australia. How do Clayhill fit into their equation?
"I think they saw us purely as raw, naked talent," deadpans Ali, before shrieking with laughter.
"No, seriously, they came to see us live and Gav's voice just blew 'em away. I know what you mean in that they hardly seem an obvious home for us, but then when I was with Red Snapper we were with Warp which was hardly expected either."
But presumably both labels are/ were open-minded enough to embrace what you were doing...
"Yeah, exactly," seconds Ali.
"Warp were huge music fans of all sorts of genres other than strictly electronica and so are Eat Sleep. They're diverse in their enjoyment of music and the people who work there have worked previously with labels like Mushroom and Infectious, so they've got track records...like us. I mean, none of us are spring chickens. We've been around the block but we'd like to go round again, y'know?"
Yup, reckon I do, and with "Cuban Green" you've made a record that should assure Clayhill will be around a good while. It's a fine mini-album: lush, pastoral, thoughtful. It's recognisably pop but in the way Talk Talk or the better bits of Van Morrison's career were. Also, there's elements of trip-hop and acoustic folk in there. How did the sound emerge?
"I think it was the way we were set up at first," replies Ali.
"There weren't any constraints because it was all based on new ideas, with Ted and I sending stuff to Gav and embellishing song ideas, plus it helped that we're all fans of each other's stuff too. I mean Gav's very important with bringing in the melodies and all three of us constantly want to find new twists."
"I hear what you're saying about Talk Talk as an influence," he continues, "though what you'll make of our debut album proper (complete for about two months now - Ed) I really dunno, mate."
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I'll wait to be amazed, I think. Besides, if there are elements as intriguing as the songs on "Cuban Green" it'll be some record. There are some great surprises on songs like "Figure Of Eight". I love the Eastern-sounding strings on there. The way the sweep in reminds me of Echo & The Bunnymen's "The Cutter."
"Really? Thank you very much," responds Ali, genuinely touched by this comparison.
"It was quite spontaneous with that actually," he says. "The string players on there were mates of ours who had previously worked with Beth Orton and it was just a question of humming something and they translating it. It really was fantastic the way they came up with that on "Figure Of Eight" and totally spontaneous too."
The album's 'almost' title track "Grass Cutter" (which mentions "Cuban Green") really intrigues me. It's apparently written in tribute to a Cuban gardener who Ali espied cutting his lawn with a pair of scissors while on holiday on the island. Come on Ali, this is wind-up, right?
"No, it's entirely true," says Ali and while I can't actually see him putting his hand on his heart, he's clearly sincere.
"It was quite bizarre, though. I was staying in this place at a very high altitude in Cuba, staying at this rickety little hotel and one day I go for a walk and see this guy who's got this unbelievably prisitine lawn and he's down on his knees...cutting it with a pair of scissors!"
Whaat???
"Yeah, told you it was bizarre, especially because of the insistent clicking sound it made and it was heightened by the sound of this festival down in the valley behind him. There was Peruvian brass and these joyous sounds and it was a really surreal scene to behold. I told Gav about it and he loved the idea and turned it into "Grass Cutter."
"I'd like to stress, though," says Ali as an afterthought, "that I'm not some travelling twat like Sting who went to try and save the rainforests in South America. That's not on my agenda at all!"
Right you are Ali, though the thought really wouldn't have crossed our minds anyway. But back to reality and the fact Clayhill are again about to earn their spurs as a live band supporting Kathryn Williams tonight. How do you put across the album's layered sound live?
"Well, it's the stripped-down three-piece of just Gav, Ted and me at present," reveals Ali.
"Because Kathryn's show is acoustic, we've been doing a similar thing. With the bigger shows, though, we do have a full set up with the musicians on the album, with drums, brass and strings. The great thing is the songs suit both the full set-up and stripping back to play acoustically. We enjoy both approaches."
How have Kathryn's audience taken to you? Any particularly memorable moments so far?
"Yeah, it's all been really good actually," says Ali, brightly.
"We've been playing some strange towns like Burnley. The countryside's lovely up there, but I'm a bit worried by the fact it's a very strong BNP stronghold. Exeter was something else again and the vibe was brilliant at that one."
"But Tunbridge Wells was the most surreal..."
How do you mean, Ali?
"Well the show was ace because it was a converted church and we did a good set. It was after the show....this old lady, at least 65, with grey hair...she comes up and asks me if I'm Dennis Wise..."
You mean, like Chelsea's Dennis Wise?
"Yeah, right...fortunately I'm a Chelsea fan. It was hilarious, though. She goes "Well, I thought you just might not be Dennis Wise because you play the double bass and I didn't think he (Wise) was a musician."
What did you say to that?
"What could I say?" he laughs. "I mean, have you seen me and Dennis Wise...I'm like twice his height, never mind in terms of looks. It was well surreal. I think perhaps people in Tunbridge Wells should get out a bit more."
Maybe so, but listen Ali, before you go off for your support slot tell us more about your collaboraton with film director Shane Meadows. What's it about and when will it be available to see?
"It's all done, mate" replies Ali.
"Shane's actually made a feature film for us. It was a 10 minute short with 2 of our tunes, but now it's 26 minutes long with 4 or our songs. He did it cheaply, and it's great. It'll premiere in a few weeks at Nottingham's Raindance Festival. Shane's great, he's got a wonderfully gritty approach, a bit like Mike Leigh and the film is about a wrestler."
It's a drama then?
"Yeah, but it's hilarious as well as wrought and touching, if you know what I mean," says Ali.
"The guy who stars in it is a guy called Toby and he gets obliterated in the ring for the sake of his art...."
A bit like Clayhill when necessary?
"Yeah, though hopefully not tonight!" says Ali, laughing uproariously.
"I think it'll be a good one tonight -if they ever let me back into the venue that is!"
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