Just before the launch of ‘Navigator”, Her Name Is Calla’s latest release, I met with Sophie and Adam on a rainy evening at St Pancras Old Church. At first, it did not look promising at all - I found myself soaking wet, waiting in front of a closed church. In the end, I took a stroll in the surrounding graveyard, whilst the sound check was feeding through the thick walls. On returning to the church and knocking profusely, I was eventually greeted by Sophie Green, Adam Weikert and Gavin Miller. Gavin is the bands' floating bassist, borrowed from Ghosting Season. He was also opening the night with his superb solo set. For lack of a better space, we just stood in the church’s kitchen, with pictures of various popes watching over us whilst we feasted on crisps sandwiches.
(((o))): It’s been a while since ‘The Quiet Lamb’– what happened in between and why did it take you so long to come up with new material?
Adam: We were never in a particular hurry to get things out. I think a lot happened between then and now. Two of the founding members left the band, me and Tom had solo releases out – we were just concentrating on other things, like sorting our lives out a bit. But we always had those little songs kicking around.
Sophie: We had “Ragman Roll’, the 7”, about half way through.
Adam: And more before that as well! So we were still putting stuff out – it’s our first album in four years, but we’ve been putting things out to let people know we’re still alive.
(((o))): It does seem like a lot has been happening. For instance, you did the documentary about the hardship of being DIY musicians. Has anything changed since then or is the documentary still as valid as it was?
Adam: Just as valid.
Sophie: We’ve just come back from being away and it was almost scene for scene the same. With all the good bits - but with some of the rubbish bits as well. We didn’t break down this time at least.
Adam: Yeah! Well, the van didn’t break down.
Sophie: We all broke down silently inside ourselves.
(((o))): Any highlights from the tour?
Sophie: Brno in Czech Republic was good fun. It was a very small room, it was really crammed and sweaty and everyone was singing along so that was really fun.
Adam: My highlight was that someone noticed that I was in the band, people don’t normally do that! So I was really chuffed with that.
Sophie: We didn’t put that in the diary. We should put that in the diary!! [everyone chuckles]
(((o))): And you did the crowd funding campaign. How did it affect the band? What made you do it and what did it change?
Sophie: I think at the time it paid off a lot of debt. The van had broken down on tour so that needed paying off. Old label money, from when they pressed records and we obviously had to pay our share back. Just loads of debt that piled up!
Adam: Because we never really… If we come back with no money - that’s a good tour. We pretty much always come back with just a lot of debt that accrues over time. So the reason we did it was either that or we’d fail and die, just accept we can’t do it anymore [laughs].
Sophie: Even after all our best plans, a promoter might not pay the whole fee or… something might go wrong or…
Adam: Cause that was right after we had four of five days in Poland where it was meant to get us like a grand or something, and it all got cancelled.
Sophie: There was a tweet or an email, someone just said ‘sorry, the promotion company has gone under’ so five gigs got cancelled. We had no way of getting anywhere.
Adam: But then at times like that – and that was just before the fundraiser – people just rushed in and saved us then. Fans just put us up, we played random house gigs.
Sophie: They were probably the best thing!
(((o))): It was sounding pretty serious: like if that doesn’t work, there won’t be a band anymore. Was that actually the case, or was it just a bit dramatic?
Adam: No, no, that makes it almost an ultimatum! We just wanted to solve a lot of financial issues. We always wanted to put out new music and it seemed like a good way of doing that. It was also a good motivator to kind of draw us all back together, to get us writing and get on track again. I think that’s what made us realise how much people are interested and gave us the push to do the album, ‘cause before we were just drifting around. We all live in different cities so it’s hard to find motivation because we all live very separate lives. The only place we kind of converge is on the Internet.
Sophie: And we love hanging out, we love making the music. It’s just that everyone is working full time jobs, having families… finding that one weekend off when everyone is free can be really, really difficult. It’s really rewarding in the end.
(((o))): And obviously the line up of the band has changed. Who’s who in the band right now?
Adam: Well, Sophie is Sophie, that hasn’t changed [we all laugh]. I still do all the bits that I do.
Sophie: You do what?!
Adam: I still do all the bits that I did.
Sophie: I thought you said you saw my wallet! [laughs all around]
Adam: [puts on a cheeky voice] I saw your wallet!
Sophie: You saw my ID! You’re the new Sophie! [we all laugh] I think in terms of roles it’s become more collaborative.
Adam: Yeah, and having Nicole join – she’s very musically verbose so she can say ‘oh, I’ve learned this piano part’ so she doesn’t have to only play the cello. I think it’s important for the band to be adaptable. [to Sophie] Like, you started singing a lot more as well.
Sophie: We’ve all started to play more instruments live. We’ve broken out of a lot of comfort zones over the past four years. [to Adam] You’ve been singing a lot more as well.
Adam: The band is pretty solid. It’s me, Sophie, Tom, Nicole and floating bass players.
(((o))): About that - I saw John [Helps of Maybeshewill] played with you a lot before, but he wasn’t signed on your recent newsletter. Is he a permanent part of the band?
Adam: He kind of was for a bit, but he’s got so many commitments, because he runs the band tour thing…
Sophie: Maybeshewill is almost on tour all the time, all over the time.
Adam: They’re much bigger than us, we can’t really become the second choice.
Sophie: We’re still close friends, but we couldn’t force him to…
Adam: You can’t commit to too many things.
Sophie: He’s a really busy man! I don’t even know how he finds any time to sleep!
(((o))): It seems like a lot of you have a lot of side projects going on as well. How do they affect the band? Do they enhance your sound or do they distract you?
Adam: I don’t know, it’s weird. I find that whenever I write a song, I know whether it’ll be a Weikie song or a Calla song. So when I was writing ‘Ragman Roll’, I knew this must be sung by Tom – this is very much a Calla song. Whereas the folkier stuff just wouldn’t work in the almanac of what we already released, it actually makes no sense. I guess it has been distracting a bit – when me and Tom were writing our solo albums, we didn’t write much for Calla at that point. But I think it enhances what we’re doing because it means we’re getting rid of what we need to do over there. Like I can do my upset Tracy Chapman sound with banjo and get it out of my system and come back and have a bit more composure. I don’t think this has been detrimental to Calla – if anything it enriched, brought more to the floor.
(((o))): In terms of ‘Navigator’ – with everything that’s changed in the band, did that affect the sound of the album at all?
Sophie: It’s funny, because we have got some tracks on there that we wrote way back when… like “Burial’. And in my mind, I can remember where we were. So it feels different to me. But I think it fits in with the whole sound overall. And ‘Ragman’ is a bit older.
Adam: And the sound’s been quite consistent, because on some of the recordings it’s me playing the bass, just because it was easier when we had floating bass players. So on ‘Nightingale’ it’s me playing the bass. So it’s more about the songs than the players, and you do what you do to get the right sound.
(((o))): And what were your main inspirations while writing it? Where there any main motives? Is there a ‘message’?
Sophie: I think it’s just life on this one!
Adam: I’m just really sad, basically, [we all laugh] and that just goes into all the music. I think it’s a good place to offload. I don’t like to talk to people about… emotions and stuff, but I like to have them written down. So it feels like they’ve existed and I can understand them a bit more. Lyrically, I think that’s the same with Tom as well. I think he finds it very therapeutic to have this outlet. So that is the main inspiration and idea. That and togetherness, bringing each other together. Because if it’s just me and Tom sitting by ourselves, it will sound like me and Tom sitting by ourselves. But if we bring Sophie and Nicole in, it will change completely how the song will pan out. But yeah, the main inspiration is just… sadness. [We all burst out laughing] Just melancholic kind of stuff.
Sophie: That’s just life!
Adam: I think it’s also because I don’t like happy songs – I think they sound very patronising. I hate when they sing about how great everything is and you’re like ‘fuck you!’, whereas it’s more empathetic because everyone has felt some sadness at some point. Taking a very lonely feeling and making it into a communal project. That’s what makes me want to write music. That and riffs, just gotta get those riffs out!
Sophie: Yeah… Cathartic riff…
(((o))): Obviously you have toured already. Is this the last night of the tour?
Sophie: Yeah…well, today feels like the last night. But we have got a little, smaller section of gigs in about two weeks. But the last night of the big burst that we’ve had.
Adam: Yeah, and you can hear we’re all… pretty ill. [laughs and fakes a cough] All that sleeping in hostels just makes you ill.
Sophie: And that one sweaty gig that we talked about. Which also reminded that the smoking ban is pretty crude over there so it was very, very smokey. We all came away sounding as if we were smoking all night!
(((o))): As a band, what are your immediate plans now? What can we expect from you from the foreseeable future?
Sophie: Tour, promote ‘Navigator’, get to write some things when we get together.
(((o))): And can we all get a little bit excited about ArcTanGent for a moment?
Sophie and Adam: Yes!
Sophie: This is gonna be fun.
Adam: I’ve never been before.
Sophie: I’ve never been! Have you been?
(((o))): Yes!
Sophie: Was it good?
(((o))): Yes!!
Sophie: Everyone keeps saying how much fun it was. I think we’re going to a wedding right after that. We play a wedding, it’s a lovely friend of the band, and he’s having this really cool wedding with lots of fun stuff to do…
Adam: Everyone is going to be too happy. So we’re just gonna go in there and bring it down a bit. ‘Sure you’re in love! But will it last…?’ It’s gonna be awesome.
A full gallery of Magda's pictures from the night can be found here.
