Mat Davies recently reviewed Tim Bowness' solo album Abandoned Dancehall Dreams, describing it as "an album of pleasing ambition, creative richness and mature insight". Mat asked Tim a couple of questions to find out more about the album and if there will ever be another No-Man release.
(((o))): The new album Abandoned Dancehall Dreams seems to have garnered universally favourable reviews- well, we loved it anyway- how pleased are you with how it has turned out?
Tim: Really pleased as it was something I put a lot of myself into.
More than anything I’ve been involved in before, the album’s a reflection of my ideas about music and production. It also features more of my music writing than on any previous album.
Beyond the writing and recording, I spent an age listening to mixes and sequencing the songs, so it was a genuine relief when Abandoned Dancehall Dreams was finally released and well-received.
(((o))): Can you give us some insight into your creative process- has it been hard or do ideas come to you fairly easily?
Tim: Generally, I find it easy to come up with ideas. Turning those ideas into something useful and interesting is where it gets more difficult.
I use any method that works in terms of writing material. I compose at home on guitar, keyboard and with samples, and I co-write with other musicians either using the studio, or improvising/jamming in rehearsal rooms.
On this album all the above methods were used.
(((o))): What were the key inspirations for this record- do you have a familiar creative muse or does inspiration come from various and often unexpected places?
Tim: In some ways, the key to this album was my memories of abandoned dance halls. I used the abandoned dancehall as a linking theme, and an image that provided an atmosphere for the set of songs I was coming up with. That said, the songs themselves were inspired by many very different things
I like each album I make to have a quality that’s distinct from every other album I’ve made and having a specific starting point often helps. Jarrod Gosling’s evocative artwork really enhanced the mood I was working towards as well.
(((o))): There is a literary undercurrent prevalent in the new record- how much did fiction and literature influence the creative process?
Tim: It didn’t influence it directly. I’ve read a lot since being a child, so I think literary influences have always seeped into what I do.
I’m drawn to writers like Raymond Carver, Harold Pinter, Ian Hamilton, Samuel Beckett, Kurt Vonnegut, Jean Rhys and the 1960s Mersey Poets. All manage to express complex emotions and ideas with relatively simple language.
In some ways, several of the songs are like short stories set to music. The inspiration behind those stories is part experience, part the experiences/lives of people I know or have known, and part fiction and speculation.
(((o))): What’s your favourite personal memory from the dancehalls of your youth?
Tim: I don’t have any!
I hated the dancehalls of my youth, which consisted of loud, laser lit nightclubs, or fun pubs belting out the less inspiring end of Electro Pop or the burgeoning Stock, Aitken And Waterman PWL label releases.
I liked a lot of the derelict grand buildings near me when I was growing up. Partly because of their fascinating history and partly because they brought a sense of (albeit faded) glamour into a pretty grey and depressing place.
In the 1970s and 1980s, there were a number of dilapidated cinemas, theatres and dance halls in the neighbourhood. Ornate facades, even filthy ones, brought a contrast to less than elegant locations. One particularly impressive building used to be called The Palace Hippodrome Theatre. It’s been a nightclub for years and when you look at it even now, there’s a strange collision between the grand and the trashy. Another of my favourites was in Latchford. It was a 1920s built cinema plonked in the middle of a side street of terraces. In Thatcher-era Warrington, even though it had become a carpet warehouse, it still had a sense of the exotic about it!
(((o))): You already seem to have a dedicated fan base who assiduously follow your every move. However, how would you describe your music to someone coming to it for the first time?
Tim: At this stage, I’ve no idea. I write very instinctively and don’t think about what I’m doing in the moment or where it fits with what’s going around it. In earlier years, I might have offered something absurd or just wittered on in a way that tried to make sense of what I did. Increasingly, I find it difficult to describe music (mine or other people’s). I hope that I offer something distinctive, honest and emotional.
(((o))): Given you have several fingers in different pies, what’s the most frustrating aspect of working in today’s music industry given the paradigm seem to be ever changing?
Tim: Not being able to spend as much time making music as I’d like to is a frustration. The upside is that when I am involved in making, recording or playing music, it’s an even more immersive and cherished experience than used to be.
(((o))): The main question everyone wanted me to ask you was “When are we going to get some new No-Man material?” so: “when are we going to get some new No-Man material?”
Tim: It’s a question I ask myself as well!
I’m very attached to No-Man and felt that our last studio album (in 2008) and last tour (in 2012) suggested that there was still life in the band and that there were new areas we could investigate. Abandoned Dancehall Dreams has taken on board and developed some of those potential areas, I think.
The truth is that although I’m busy, Steven’s even busier. If he’s available to make a No-Man album, I’ll find the time to make it with him.
(((o))): What have been the records and artists that have inspired and excited you over the last year?
Tim: In terms of newer artists, I’ve liked albums by The War On Drugs, Matt Stevens and Warpaint. In terms of older artists who have made albums I’ve liked over the last year, I’ve enjoyed new releases by Eno/Hyde, Sun Kil Moon, Elbow, Elvis Costello & The Roots, Damon Albarn, The Flaming Lips, Jack Bruce and others.
I still actively listen to (and buy) a lot of wide-ranging music old and new.
(((o))): What are your plans for the rest of 2014?
Tim: Another live performance, plus lots of recording. Some towards a follow up to Abandoned Dancehall Dreams and some with Peter Chilvers and Andrew Keeling.
(((o))): It’s our round; what’re you having?
Tim: A pot of Lapsang Souchang, a glass of Ikea rhubarb juice and a packet of Marmite crisps, thank you very much.
