Astronauts / Autres Directions / Broken Face / Delusions of Adequacy / Dream Magazine / Hayfever / Planet of Sound / Rising Sun / Sadness Is In The Sky / Scapegrace / This Is Not A Fanzine / X-Ray

Astronauts reprinted from issue #2 with permission

Maybe it's just because I had to walk through the hills of Bel Air in drizzling rain at 7 am this morning, but I though today would be the best day to type out this interview for Sara at this here website. As our weather in South Australia is in full Autumn bloom, so Hood's music strikes me these days as possessing a particularly Autumnal grace. Like their compadres Movietone, Crescent, and so on, theirs is a music of refined splendour and small gesture. (Much like the Anne Briggs album currently warbling away in the background at Astronauts Central, actually.) This interview first appeared in Astronauts #2 about four years ago maybe - in my teen years! - and thus it is, as Richard Adams himself said, "quite dated". But an interesting read, I think, not the least for the fact that you can spot the title of Hood's fourth album nestling in one of Chris's responses. (Find it first and win yourself a warm inner glow!) I was so embarrassed by the fanzine this interview was pulled from that I erased all the files in a fit of pique. Now that my memory is not as angst ridden, I'm beginning to regret those small moments of teenage temper. Note to readers: the 'Planet album' became the Domino album Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys. And I've re-evaluated Cabled Linear Traction and think it's a damn fine record now. Always one to put my foot in my mouth prematurely. For now, though, let the credits roll ... -Jon

How did Hood meet up and decide to form etc.?
I can't really remember how and why the band began but myself and my brother Richard started hacking around with guitars in around 1991. We've had so many line-up changes since then it's not funny but we're sort of stable at the moment as a five piece, although people still come and go. I wouldn't say that for a lot of our existence we've functioned as a band, in fact it's only been recently that we've all worked together and that's kind of obvious when you compare the four track mayhem of the first couple of albums to the stuff which is about to come out. All the people who are in the band have been found by them getting in touch after liking what we'd put out - which is sort of weird I think.

What were the early days of Hood like - legend has it the band was very noisy to start with ...
Noisy and disastrous. I mean very noisy and disastrous in the sense that things tended to go on fire, master tapes got lost, people got their heads cracked open by flying guitars and basses. In hindsight I have no idea what we were trying to prove.

Fluff Records - how etc.
The guy who ran Fluff put out a seven inch by a band called Boyracer who lived down the road from us. Stewart from Boyracer kind of took me and Richard under his wing a little back then, probably to stop someone getting killed, and we kind of got in touch through him. No-one knows exactly what happened to David who ran Fluff. He got into jungle in a massive way, like years before it really broke over here and I think he might be out dj-ing somewhere. I guess our relationship with Fluff was a bit of a disaster too but he did manage to put out a couple of hundred of Cabled Linear Traction on those weird acetates and which leads me nicely to your next question...

How did you hook up with Slumberland Records?
Mike at Slumberland had got hold of the Fluff seven inches and also the LP and took it upon himself to elevate it from the evil group of the (un)lucky few who'd got the original pressings to an amount of copies sufficient to let people actually get hold of the thing.

How do you feel about that album? I think it's very patchy but there's some great moments in there ...I don't think I've played it for about a year but I do like it a lot.
I can imagine why you think it's patchy but I'll always fondly look upon it as it really reminds me of a certain time in my life. I mean every track is kind of there for a reason and I think it's got this really nice overall atmosphere that I haven't heard elsewhere.

The second album Silent '88 is an excellent record, how did it all come together?
Silent '88 was almost thwarted entirely by the ridiculously overambitious nature of it. We had enough tracks for at least a double LP and wanted to get them all put out primarily because it kind of marked the end of an era to our approach to recording. I don't really know how all the tracks came together, they were just really a product of experimenting with songs and particularly recording techniques over about a year. We were faced with attempting to use a digital hard disc editor to put all these tapes and DATs of songs and noises into something that resembled a record. It was quite a strange approach to putting a record together and it almost drove me and Richard mad deciding how to organise the songs to allow the mood to flow through the record. Of course we made a complete hash of the timing of the LP and that's why the vinyl version spreads out onto a seven inch. It's funny sometimes to think that although it's a defiantly lo-fi record in places it all "came together" on a computer screen.

That record was very varied, did you attempt to keep things varied or did it just turn out like that?
As I said in the last question it was so varied because pretty much every track was recorded at a different place with varying degrees of technology. We were worried that it sounded like a compilation LP or something but I think in the end it worked. Of course I'm making it sound like we had some big theory or plan before doing the record, whereas in reality we're completely disorganised so I guess in a way "it just turned out like that".

"Resonant 1942" is amazing are you very interested in drum'n'bass? What do you think of it as a musical form and who are your personal favourites?
That track has seemed to have really caused a stir with a lot of people. I'm particularly fond of drum'n'bass but I do feel a lot of it is getting a bit jaded and formulaic. As Matt from Third Eye Foundation said in this very magazine it is a breakthrough in music that shouldn't be taken lightly. People have been made receptive to these hyper-complex beats which really sound like nothing else and there's so much potential for amazing records to be made. As Matt said though people don't seem to be doing much with the technology and the ideas. I've certainly got a lot of respect for Squarepusher because I think he's really moved things on and really done something new. I guess that comes with a price though because when I saw him live his set was as disaster prone as any set we've done!

A lot of the material is four tracked, what appeals to you about four tracks and the home recording ethic?
Anything is possible. There are no rules. I mean we obviously religiously apply this ethic to music anyway but with home recording you can really experiment without some pony tailed engineer just going "no", then charging you loads of money.

You're working with Matt Eliot of Third Eye Foundation on your third album, how's it going, how does it sound? Are you happy with the results?
Well, I think it sounds great and it's a complete departure from anything we've done before. Silent '88 had like one hundred songs on it or something and the Planet LP has six. We really worked as a band and experimented in the studio and I'm certainly happy with it. Matt was very sympathetic to what we were trying to do and made invaluable contributions to the record. Hopefully it should be out by summer. We also got a seven inch from those sessions but I'm not sure when that will be out. It makes such a difference being recorded by someone who is in tune with what you're doing or even encourages you to go further, sort of like the final ingredient. We've also been working with Richard Formby who was in Spectrum - his enthusiasm for sounds and experimentation also seems to know no bounds and we've been using some wonderful old '70's dub effects on the drums and vocals with him which sound great.

How does the band approach songwriting?
This has really changed of late. So much of our early stuff (up to Silent '88) has been songs which have been presented in finished form to the band or just done alone on four track, but now we tend to try and improvise together. Fortunately we seem to kind of know what to do although it's difficult to get together and rock (as if we rock!) because we all live miles away from each other. I've been really hacking around with my sampler of late, I'm interested in putting down tracks and then sampling parts and laying them over the track or messing round with the sample and making it into a song. The possibilities are endless I suppose and I think it's pretty exciting to be in the position of being able to sample ourselves as we're putting songs together and building things up in new ways.

Your music sounds both very personal, and very resonant of its surroundings - there's a strong Englishness about Hood.
I don't think a lot of people are really in touch with their surroundings and I think that it's incredibly important to be aware of the beauty of nature without letting it pass you by. Maybe that's why there are constant references in our music to the cycling of the days and seasons and the weather and the countryside. I guess that must appear to be very "English" because that's where we're from, I dunno, we're all inspired by our surroundings I guess.

Can you tell me about the area Hood are centred in - Spofforth Hill etc.?
Not really much to say. Quiet, some nice places to go for walks. All is quiet on Spofforth Hill except for the sound of distant feedback!

Who do you think are 'fellow travellers' in your musical path? Kindred spirits? And who was an inspiration for Hood?
Well, there's the obvious people and some people who we have no reason to feel an affinity to but I think we're possibly working towards the same goal. The obvious people are This Kind of Punishment and Marie and the Atom (who both still find themselves on my wheels of steel after all this time), Movietone, Third Eye Foundation and all that Bristol lot, Labradford, This Heat, Crabstick, Sun City Girls, the list is endless. Fellow travellers would be people like Autechre, who I have a lot of time for, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and anyone trying to push drum'n'bass to another level, loads of free jazz people like Albert Ayler and improv people like Richard Youngs. Not sure who was an inspiration for Hood, I think the reason it continues is because of all the above people and also as a reaction against the complacent couldn't care less about anything attitude of so many people around us.

What was your earliest childhood memory of music?
Being absolutely terrified of "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell and "Ghost Town" by The Specials when I was really young (I'm probably giving away the fact that I'm not very old here!), also various experiments with Bontempi organs and broken snare drums in times of boredom.

How did you feel about the Third Eye Foundation remix on In Version?
We were very pleased to be asked to be involved. I had no idea what it would sound like and I like the way it is deconstructed to the point of being unrecognisable as being us. We were certainly very happy to be involved in something which was such a departure from a 'rock' record and represented something new and we were pleased with the results. We've just done a remix of a Cha Cha Cohen track which is out very soon and we took a similar approach of sampling probably three or four seconds of the band and just extending it right out into something completely different (it's got a good beat too!).

Write as much as possible about the complete and utter genius of Disco Inferno.
As I said before we've been working a lot with a sampler and trying to approach things differently but at least we've got people like Disco Inferno to set some sort of precedent. They had no-one sounding like tham and did something so genuinely innovative with their music that it drives me up the wall that they haven't received the attention they deserve. You're on dangerous ground saying "write as much as possible" about them because the 'zine just isn't big enough. Suffice it to say that I think that their name will be used as a reference for so many bands in reviews in the near future that you just won't be able to get away from them. I heard a rumour that Rough Trade continued to lose thousands of pounds on them because they are convinced that they'll be referred to as the Can of the 1990's. It's just like the way that people are picking up Silver Apples records now and just going "oh my God!" and falling over. Perhaps one of my biggest "rock disappointments" was when we were scheduled to play with them in London and they got all their equipment nicked (I swear, they were hexed!) so the gig fell through.
 
Chris Adams interviewed via snailmail by Jon Dale

 

Autres Directions

hood évolue, creuse, murmure, hurle. hood est un groupe rare dont les impertinences nous sont chères. formé par les frères adams, l'art de hood s'inspire profondément des paysages du yorshire dont il est originaire : il se montre sauvage, inhospitalier, revêche. à l'image des friches industrielles qui ont redessiné la figure de cette région, on ne peut départir leur musique de ses cicatrices, car elles en sont à la base. alors que le groupe a revêtu un nouveau visage grâce à cold house, l'un des chef-d'oeuvre de l'année passée, nous avons eu la chance de nous entretenir avec richard adams. une interview détournée : surprenante et passionnante.

D'abord lo-fi et bruitiste, votre musique s'est peu à peu assagie, privilégiant les ambiances ; elle est également plus mélancolique. Comment expliquez-vous ce parcours ? Comment le jugez-vous sur sa globalité ?
richard : Je n'ai pas réellement d'explication à ce sujet... Nous essayons simplement de faire des choses nouvelles à chaque disque afin de renouveler notre intérêt. Nous essayons également de composer chaque disque en réaction au précédent ; ainsi après la folie qui caractérisait Silent 88 il fut naturel pour nous de jouer quelque chose de plus tranquille voire de méditatif.

Hood a sorti une multitude de 45 tours sur des labels (fluff, rocket racer, tangled records, 555...). Qu'est-ce qui a permis à tous ces labels, selon vous, de se reconnaître en votre musique ?
Nous avions pris l'habitude d'essayer d'offrir quelque chose aux gens qui venaient à notre rencontre et qui semblaient honnêtes, enthousiastes à notre égard et qui avaient des idées. Mais c'est plus difficile pour nous aujourd'hui car nous sommes sous contrat ; cependant, occasionnellement, nous aimons bien essayer de faire un petit quelque chose en dehors de ce contrat.

Vous déclarez volontiers que l'un de vos groupes favoris est This Heat. Qu'est-ce qui vous attire dans leur musique ? Est-ce leur avant-gardisme ? Que pensez-vous de Shellac, comparé à This Heat ? Parlez-nous également de vos sentiments pour Ian Crause (Disco Inferno) et Bark Psychosis...
En ce qui concerne This Heat c'est surtout à Chris (Adams, frère de Richard, ndr) qu'il faudrait en parler car je ne sais personnellement que peu de choses à leur sujet. Je ne suis pas fan de Shellac mais je sais qu'un ou deux membres du groupe les apprécient. Quant à Disco Inferno, ils furent simplement et de loin le meilleur groupe des années 90 et je les découvris alors que justement la musique commençait à m'ennuyer. Il y avait dans leur musique tellement d'idées avant-gardistes qui sont aujourd'hui extrêmement courantes ; eux, plus que n'importe quel autre groupe ont essayé de faire avancer la musique et nous ont influencés jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Aujourd'hui j'écoute de moins en moins Bark Psychosis mais à l'époque je les adorais. J'aime la musique de Talk Talk à en crever et celle de Bark Psychosis n'en est que le prolongement.

Vous semblez également apprécier un certain rock néo-zélandais, des Dead C aux Cannanes... Ces groupes semblent avoir envisagé la musique différemment du fait de leur isolement géographique. Pensez-vous que votre attachement à de tels groupes puisse venir du fait que vous, de votre côté, semblez n'avoir jamais pu trouver votre place dans l'univers musical anglais ?
Je pense que la musique que nous apprécions est naïve -c'est une qualité à mes yeux- et qui occupe une place à part dans le panorama musical, c'est-à-dire qui vienne d'un endroit où elle n'appartienne à aucune scène locale et qui n'essaie pas d'être populaire. Et je pense que ce type de musique ne vient que de groupes qui sont isolés.

 

Broken Face - reprinted from issue 5 with permission

Even in their earliest days, Hood were pretty far from your typical indie-pop band. You could define them as low-fi if you had to, but you wouldn't be on the mark. In fact, bands like Sebadoh and Guided By Voices aren't really part of their musical vernacular. Go back further to the post punk of folks like Joy Division and Wire and you might be closer, but then I'm sure they own a few Television Personalities, Disco Inferno and Bark Psychosis albums as well. And there's the presence of rough pop masters from down under like This Kind of Punishment and the Go-Betweens to boot. All this adds up to an intoxicating blend of styles and sounds which is a million miles away from any of the more popular britpop of the 90's.

Their first remarkable album, "Cabled Linear Traction" (first released on Fluff then rereleased on Slumberland) was actually a collection of singles which worked amazingly well as a cohesive whole; hints of the more abstract work to come on future albums were nestled alongside catchy fuzz-pop songs, all merging into a compelling audio map of the introverted English psyche. The music was permeated thtoughout with the distinctive aloofness, lyrically and musically, of brothers Richard and Christopher Adams. Song titles read like text book chapters more often that not, but the music hardly adhered to the rules. The songs were rough, sometimes nothing more than screaming feedback rockers backed by ethereal fem vocals and desolate imagery inspired by the English ladscape (phycially and mentally). Since then, they've released two more albums: the "difficutl second album," "Silent '88" -which contunuted the trends introduced on the first album with even more stunning results -and the jaw-dropping "Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys", with which they virutally abandoned any notions of verse-chorus-verse structure for longer, more involved, repetitions workouts.

In anything, the latest album - incorporating violins, tape loops, the recording skills of the Third Eye Foundation's Matt Elliot, and other musical gadgetry - is more dynamic, more dense, more complicated than anything that's come before. So yeah, that means it's a different listen than what we're used to, but it's still very much a Hood album. For those fearing the end of pop songs in the Hood mold, no need to worry. They continue releasing single after single of brooding gems and darker sounds with nary a hint of slowing down in the future. So we're very happy to bring Richard Adam to you now in his own words with this interview that we were lucky enough to wrangle curtesy of the wonders of modern day electronic mail. Enjoy.
 
Do you recall when you first got interested in music?
My dad game me the Beatles "Sergeant Pepper" and the Zombies "Oddysey and Oracle" when I was three and I think they paved the way.

How did Hood get started, and while you're at it, why the name?
The name is a closely guarded secret! We got started when me and Chris bought an electric guitar for £70. He paid £50 and I paid £20. He got to have it strung left-handed.

I hear so many different influences in your music, from Nick Drake right up to the Wedding Present, Bark Psychosis, Disco Inferno and lots of in between....who are you heros in rock music today and yesterday?
Most of the above plus Mark Hollis, the Beach Boys, Swell, Elliot Smith, for me, Chris would probably say Amm, Autechre and Marie and the Atom.

If I got your history right you are originally from Leeds. Somehow you always tend to be placed among some of the finer Bristol bands, like Amp, Flying Saucer Attack, Movietone and Third Eye Foundation. What do you think of that?
We still live in Leeds. We grew up in Wetherby -an outlying district but me and Chris both live in Leeds now. I think the connection comes from the fact that we have played and worked with Movietone and Matt Elliot and share a certain outlook with those bands. The FSA think I've never understood.

Who's in the band now?
Whoever we can get, the core is me and Chris with Andrew Johnson and Craig Tattersall. We worked with John Clyde Evans for three albums but he has gone off to do his own thing now.

What was it like in the early days for Hood? I can hear, say on "Structured Disasters", how the band progressed, rather quicky I might add, from a really messy noise/pop band with more emotion than skill to something more cohesive and really quite beautiful.
Pretty bleak... but fun - we are learning all the time with music and experimenting with what we do. There's no real way to explain it. Anything you work on you will get more cohesive with. It's fine that music is cohesive but you have to retain and edge so that it doesn't become slick.

You obviously made a pretty big leap stylistically between "Silent '88" and "Rustic Houses...", though the newer album is still very distinctively a Hood LP, the short folkier numbers were pretty much dropped in favor of the longer and more layered, repetitive songs on "Rustic Houses...", how did this change come about? Was this a development that you saw in front of you when you started working with "Rustic..."?
"Silent '88" was a disjointed mess, songs were recorded quickly and on a hit and run basis. It wasn't really a band album. "Rustic Houses..." was recorded on location in Bristol with every band member contributing to the overall sound. It was practised and worked on and it somehow all came together when we recorded it.

Will you return to the shorter, folkier stuff and the jangly pop on future LPs? I love those numbers...
Well we've just released a 7" full of stuff like that - "The Weight" on 555. I really like those songs but we wanted to make the move to create a more fulfilling work with "Rustic Houses..." and "The Cycle of Days and Seasons" The songs may shorten down and become more off the wall as an antidote to the abstraction of the last two LPs.

What was it like working with Matt Elliot on "Silent '88" and "Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys"? Will you work with him in the future?
We worked with Matt initially of "Rustic Houses..." and have worked again with him on the new album wich was produced by Richard Formby (Dakota Suite/Spectrum). Matt generally has the same ideas as us and in fact encourages us to take those ideas further. He did a splendid job on "Rustic Houses..." which was recorded on a budget in four days.

Hood is one of a handful of bands I can think of today who openly embrace technology in their sound while maintaining a very earthy, emotional tone in the music. Where does this willingness to experiment come from? Was there ever an aversion towards sampling, etc? And how do you maintain that warm quality at the same time?
I guess it initially comes from the music we were listening to. Disco Inferno paved the way with samplers being used in guitar music. I think we are all struggling to catch up with what they were doing. I think the earthy, organic tone comes from the use of traditional instruments such as violin and clarinet.

You guys are stong proponents of the vinyl format...is there a reason? Is analogue better than digital technology in your eyes?
Well again I think it's necessary to give the music a lush, warm feel which only comes from analogue recording. The difference in the sound quality of "Rustic Houses..." between LP and CD versions is staggering. I do love the vinyl format, I think CDs should be used as a budget way of listening to music as they are so cheap to produce. But for actual sound quality I think vinyl wins every time.

Where does the inspiration for Hood's lyrics come from? I get the sense that it's a combination of things...life in Leeds perhaps, the landscape itself...care to elaborate?
Well personally I have always been a bit of a tormented soul so I guess lyrics could be seen as a form of release. We are also very interested in the landscape and the environment that surrounds us. That's basically what the new record is all about, there's pure beauty on your doorstep whether it is in the country or in the city but people seem at times totally oblivious to this as they are caught up in their daily lives.

I really love the recurring motifs in your artwork, blurry photos of grassy fields with maybe a glimpse of power lines or radio towers in the distance, which to me simply and brilliantly communicates Hood's sound by the way...whose idea was that originally? Will you keep this imagery on future releases?
We decided as soon as we formed the band that we wanted the music and the artwork to be as one. I think it is vital that the sleeves look great in the record racks in the shops. We have always been interested in grainy landscape photography and I think it is important that every album has a motif or an image of its own without us repeating ourselves.

I read in the Terrascope interview that Hood aren't really into playing live these days, has your opinion wavered at all since then? When can we expect the Hood world tour? I'm serious...or maybe at least a Swedish tour?
If it was up to me we would play a lot more than we do. It is geographically difficult for us to get together and that has always been a problem, but we do intend to see as much of the world as we can through music. We hope to come back to Europe in the spring.

Your music has a filmic quality at times, especially on the latest album. Are you big movie fans? Any particular favorite films/directors?
Its funny you should ask this as we were discussing the other day my lack of knowledge on films and filmmakers. My excuse was that I spend so much time on music that I don't have time for films, which is kind of true. We do have our own super 8 camera and projector and we make images to project when we play live.

Also, you've done some remix work for Mogwai and been remixed by Third Eye Foundation. Do you enjoy reshaping other people's music and vice versa? Would you like to release a Hood remix album or EP one day?
It was great to do the Mogwai remix and we would like to be asked to do more! We have a remix 12" coming out on Dropbeat early next year which features Third Eye Foundation, Horse Opera, Hardy Spymania and Twisted Science. I think there is a danger that music could be remixed to death and it is definitely true that some of the less hip bands are getting hip people in to remix their records to get credibility and extra sales. It is definitely in vogue at the moment but I do feel that our music is very remixable.

How do you see the future for Hood? I am especially interested in future musical direction and developement.
Don't know really. We will continue to push the music in which ever direction we see fit. I think that the album that is due to come out pushes it a long bit but I have always felt that we could move deeper into abstraction. I do however want to make a pop LP like Disco Inferno's "Technicolour"

Do you hope to be playing and recording music in lets say ten years?
Yes absolutely definitely. I see us in the future as these big old men with beards who live out in the counry alien from the music industry making interesting and challenging music well into middle age.

 

Delusions of Adequacy

Hood's Cold House was one of the best albums of 2001. A complex genre-bender of glitches, ambient atmospherics, post-rock trickery, and haunting vocals, it's seen the band finally getting the recognition it deserves. Geoff Parkes spoke to Richard Adams shortly before the commencement of their US tour.

Delusions of Adequacy: What type of processes are involved when constructing Hood's songs? Is there a driving force, a collaborative spirit or process, or is it more intuitive, free form?
Richard Adams: They are all done in different ways. Some are written by an individual and brought to the band to be fleshed out or reorganised, some are more organic where the band (I hate to use the word) jams, and some are almost finished by an individual with little input from anyone else. We use many and varied working methods.

DOA: Cold House has seen Hood receive a lot of critical acclaim, and it seems this album marks a moment where Hood's talents and ambitions have created something extraordinary. What was different this time around, in terms of recording/song-crafting/aims etc, compared to your previous works?
RA: Time. We spent about two years off and on with this record. We left songs for up to six months at a time before going back to them so that we could stand back from them and have a fresh opinion on them and see what was wrong/right about them. In contrast to this, our last album, Cycle of Days and Seasons, was recorded in two weeks, and the one before that, Rustic Houses, was recorded and mixed in one week. We said after the last LP that we'd never again put that kind of pressure on ourselves.
Also mixing. This time we took the LP to someone who had no involvement in the recording to mix it. Previously we've been far too involved to get a mix we were happy with. This time we used outside expertise to get what we wanted, which was the album reaching out of the speakers to grab the listener rather than just sounding nice in the background.

DOA: You're about to go on tour now in the US - any Spinal Tap moments? Any Almost Famous moments?
RA: Well we haven't set off yet. I'm sure there will be millions of such moments. There always is. I haven't seen Almost Famous yet so I can only comment on Spinal Tap. I tell you what, its incredible how realistic that film is and how many similar stuff has happened even on this kind of level of things.

DOA: Lots of descriptions have been thrown at your music - postglitch, ambient, melancholy etc - do any of these fit? Do Hood have a stylistic or generic framework that you take on as a starting point?
RA: No, we don't rule anything out. We usually start with some ridiculous completely unworkable idea that over the passage of time gets less extreme until it fits somewhere within the framework of what we do. Descriptions don't bother us too much. We try not to think about them.

DOA: How did the collaboration with (hip-hop collective) Anticon come about, and are there any plans for further work together?
RA: It started when they sent us a pile of their records over and we liked them. We've always wanted to use other voices on the records other than Chris's, which can become over used. But you should hear the rest of us sing. Well I wouldn't wish it on anyone. The Clouddead folk have got interesting voices that were completely different to the voices normally heard on our records, but they had a kind of sound to them that we thought would fit in. So we tricked them into putting vocals onto a few tracks that we were losing our way with. They did exactly what we hoped they would do. It really was a superb job by them. I don't know whether we'll work together again. We want to do a record where we do the music and they do the voices, but we're hoping that it will be a commercial-ish album that would put Puff Daddy in his place. We'll send a tape off to Death Row to see if they are interested.

 

Dream Magazine - issue 2

Hood make very simple music that has a profound effect, or maybe it's very profound music that has a simple effect; it's immediately emotionally accesible. Your mind takes awhile to catch up. The work of brothers Chris and Richard Adams of Wetherby, and later Leeds, UK. Taking some broken pieces of dub, electronica, drone, melancholia, indie pop, and post industrial desolation, and rolling them into a beguiling and alternately dreamy or abrasive area of the soul. Comforting and disturbing. Their latest; Cold House (Aesthetics) is a further refinement of their organic/electronic, warm/cool sound, and certainly amongst their finest works.

You started home-recording as Hood with your brother Chris, when, and what inspried you to do so? Who contributes what to make Hood?
Well 1990 and I seem to have said this a million times - small town boredom. There was really nothing else to do in Wetherby so we got a guitar and attempted to write songs with it. Its pretty difficult to say who does what. I'm totally incapable of doing stuff on my own but Chris is totally adept at it. So I guess he does more but he always likes my input. As long as me and Chris are involved then it will always be Hood.

Often Hood's music feels as much like a visit to a place, as much, or more than it does a conventional song, do you think your physical geological location and climate are reflected in your music?
I think they have to be. Maybe you don't agree but I think Cycles is a much more urban record than what went before as we now all live in cities so you tend to write about the environment that surrounds you. When you're out in Wetherby although it is a town, my parents house is situated in a fairly rural environment. So you're bound to notice the chaging of seasons, the way the fields alter and changing weather patterns.

How important is the element of chance?
Totally, totally, totally important. The best things we have done have been totally accidental. This is the thing we can't get across to people like record companies who think you have to demo a song then go in with a "name" producer and attempt to do it again. The aim of Cycles really was to go into the studio with only bare sketches of songs and just see what comes out. Obviously what came out sounded nothing like what we had in our heads but I still think it was a worthwhile and interesting approach. We are now recording solely at home and the music is starting to sound exactly as we want it. If you were a producer you would probably say we were doing everything wrong but it sounds good to us so that's the main thing. The music has to have the stamp of the individuals who make it. A good example of the wrong way for me is the last couple of Elliott Smith records where his personal songs have been trod on and ruined by big budget arrangements and producers. I want less and less people to play on Hood records and no-one else to be involved in it apart from the close circle of friends who understand what we are getting at.

Isn't it about time for an anthology of Hood singles and compilation tracks? So much stuff is unavailable.
Well there has been one - Structured Disasters on Happy Go Lucky which covered the first 6 years of our existence. We are planning another one (the tracklisting has even been decided!) - I'm sure Domino won't be into the idea so we'll have to wait until we get dropped.

I don't want to strain an already strained relationship, but how are things with Domino?
Well, yeah there are a few problems. It mainly centers around their reluctance to license The Cycle of Days and Seasons in America but I don't want to do on too much about this, save to say we've always been a very independently minded band and when things start getting take out of your control then it can get a little difficult.

How important are dreams, dreaming or daydreaming to your life or your work?
I seem to be happier when I'm in a daydreaming kind of state. I think it happens less and less these days. My dreams are generally scary and not worth thinking about.

The interaction of organic/acoustic and synthetic elements is a very attractive combination, is this something you feel you'll continue to explore?
Oh yes. We're obsessed about the combination of recording using Pro Tools, Cool Edit Pro, etc., like the electronica kids do but using guitars, especially acoustic guitars, so folk music that stretches back years and years is married with forward thinking recording techniques. Recording acoustic guitar and then cutting it into weird and wonderful shapes - also writing staring ahead pop songs then cutting them to shreds so that something totally alien comes out... and always utilizing the human voice which is often left out of some of the music of our peers and creates much needed emotion within the music.

You mentioned how important the human voice was to Hood's sound. How important is the tangible emotional aspect of your music to you?
Very important - in fact of prime importance. I seriously think there is a lack of music out there that has that emotional attachment. A lot of electronica/post rock is nice but doesn't move you the way that words and the human voice can.
It seems to me that often if there's an obstacle or hinderance to the creative process, it adds to the work, rather than detracting from it.

Have you ever found this to be the case?
Possibly. I guess if you hit a problem you go the other way and this in itself can bring something you weren't expecting.

Can you tell me some of your favorite bands/artists, old or new?
Well too many to mention. We are influenced by all kinds of people musical and non-musical. Some prime influences in the existence of Hood are as follows: Disco Inferno, Talk Talk, REM, Beach Boys, Marie & the Atom, Crabstick, This Heat, the list can go on and on...

Now that you've relocated yourself to an urban environment, what do you miss about "the country"?
Fresh air, being able to see the stars at night, walking in the countryside, trees, the cycles of nature.

What's great about living in the city? What city by the way?
Well I haven't yet found a better city than Leeds. The housing is cheap, it has a good atmosphere, there's plenty of jobs and the countryside isn't too far away. There's also a great music scene and some good, good people.

Is memory a blessing or a curse?
Erm I guess a blessing. My memory is shot to pieces so I wouldn't really know. there again a lot of things are better in hindsight so you can romanticize a part of your life that maybe wasn't that good at the time. So, erm the jury's out.

What are some of the key differences between Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys and The Cycle of Days and Seasons for you? And how do you feel about them, now that you've got some distance from them?
Well, Rustic was a nice album and Cycle is a lot harsher. The difference between the two albums is that on Rustic the whole band was a collaborative effort and everyone wrote their own parts whilst on Cycle no-one was really into it so they had to get told what to play. I have fond, fond memories of the Rustic era but shudder a the thought of Cycle. I still think its a good album though and will defend it to the hilt.

Have Hood ever done a video?
Yes we did one for Sirens ourselves then someone helped us do one for I've Forgotten How to Live and then someone did one for Useless that got shown on MTV. It's great fun to do stuff like that. We have all these grand plans that never happen. I really want to do one for the next single. Maybe we'll lip sync this time.

What's your favorite drink?
Well, I do like beer but I don't drink it all the time (honestly) so if it's a soft drink, I guess I never get sick of pure orange juice.

Is Hood more at home in the studio or onstage?
In the studio I think. We didn't really do too much live until a year or two ago. We're getting better at it, I think - I enjoy playing live but hate all the hassles that surround it. Chris is a studio whizz and could record all the stuff himself if he wanted. I'd like to get us to the stage where we cound have our own studio set up so that we could do loads of recording but money/time is causing problems at the moment.

Can you tell me an early experience with a film, TV show, or other artform that had a memorable impact on you?
Well when I was about five there was an advertisement on TV warning people of the dangers of flying kites near electricity pylons. It showed a girls kite getting snared in the overhead lines and her falling to her death. It was truly horrific.

What's the most rewarding aspect of the collaborative process?
Well I suppose getting something completed - especially when it turns out better than you'd expect.

Any songs you'd like to cover?
No, none at all. People have written some pretty good songs in the past and I'm sure the last thing they want to hear is us making a mess of them. Anyway we're too bothered about annoying people with our own original compositions.

Your music is very "visual", can you imagine doing soundtrack work for films, or have you already done so?
No we'd love to, but no-one has ever contacted us. We've also thought about doing some short films ourselves but there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Is there a core ethic or ideal to Hood?
Erm, well we are very idealistic in that we have stayed true to our aims when we first started. We've never had to do anything that we haven't wanted to do. We don't want to play the game, we're not desperate to be famous but we also have ambition beyond that of many bands of our ilk.

When you say "we have ambition beyond that of many bands of our ilk" what do you mean?
Bands are not trying hard enough.

Do you feel a part of any "scene"?
No not really. I genuinely don't think we fit in anywhere, we're totally out on some stupid long limb that no-one really bothers with unless they're very intrepid.

Who are some of the best live band or bands you've seen recently (or ever)?
Ah now you're asking - I enjoyed Sophia recently and there's some good bands in Leeds that can always put on a show. There's no bands out there that really excite me the way Disco Inferno excited me in the early-mid nineties. I guess a lot of bands are playing it safe as its getting increasingly difficult to get your music heard in Britain. No-one will review it unless its the next big thing, radio stations won't play it and its difficult to get shows. I thinks its a lot easier if you are in a band that sounds exactly like another band then journalists don't have any work to do.

Tell me a bit more about the band Sophia.
London based ex-God Machine though in a completely different style. One of the few UK bands (including Dakota Suite & Milford Sound) doing the American Music Club/Red House Painters thing well.

Can you name some of your favorite authors and the books by them you like?
No, I'm a terrible reader. I have times when I try and read stuff but I never get very far. It's regrettable that it's just something in my life that I don't have time for.

Describe Wetherby and West Yorkshire.
Rural in parts built up in others. Leeds in quickly becoming a miniature London which is good in some ways not so in others. Wetherby is a picturesque market town about 10 miles from Leeds. It is pretty much a commuter town these days but strangely is fairly cut off. No train link and terrible bus routes to Leeds and York. Therefore there is still sort of a village mentality to it where the only thing you can do after the pubs shut on a Friday or Saturday night is either to go home or fight. Here's the soundbite - Wetherby - nice to visit not nice to live there.

Do you have "rules" for when you're out walking (patterns, paths, etc.)?
Well, I presume so. You must always adhere to the country code. There's public footpaths and bridleways to follow. Though not as many around here (Leeds).

Can you describe a turning point in your life, a moment which changed everything?
No, not really. There's been no big incident that has made me change in anyway. I'm pretty much the same as I was when I was three (though obviously slightly more mature).

Seen any good movies lately?
No.

Have you toured much outside of the UK?
A bit in France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium.

Could you see Hood becoming a recording-only band, that never plays live?
Yes I can. I think we'd just be happer churning out studio stuff. Playing live can be great fun and you get to escape out of your own city and meet people, etc, but as far as the artistic thing goes it is terrible as you tend to promote songs that get the best audience reaction which is a dangerous game to play. It also makes you very lazy and the songs tend to become more obvious.

Do you work with some kind of a light show when you play live?
We use films and projections using grainy super 8 films that usually we have shot ourselves. Mainly to take the focus off ourselves and that I think the images suit the music pretty well.

Are Hood psychedelic?
Well people have said in the past that we were. But what is psychedelic? How do you define it? Is it music made from taking psychedelic drugs, acid, LSD? If so, then no, not at all. Music that I would term as psychedelic is certainly stuff that doesn't sound at all like us. We have, however take infuence from bands who you could term psychedelic... at the end of the day it doesn't really matter does it?

Would you give me a response to what you think of the following bands or artists: Mogwai?
Fantastic tunes, stadium rock, good attitude.

Joy Division?
Possibly have become overrated in the ensuing myth making following Ian Curtis's death. Worryingly close to goth rock. Nice bass.

Arab Strap?
Very samey. Nice Marr like guitar playing. Haven't heard too much to be honest.

High Llamas?
Career made from repeated re-writes of the Beach Boys Cabinessence. Needless to say I love them to death especially Hawaii. Come in for a lot of unjust criticism at the hands of Britain's useless music press. Stereolab deserve it much more.

Disco Inferno?
the Can of the 90's. You will all be clamouring after their records in 20 years time. The whole of (for want of a better word) post rock is still light years behind their breathtaking vision.

Roy Montgomery?
Vini Reilly did it best.

The Beatles?
Rock gods. Cannot be underestimated.

Do you think you'll always make music?
No I don't think so. Personally, I think I'm very slowly going off it.

What made you think you could write music?
Just a foolhardy belief in our own ability.

How pop could/can Hood become?
As pop as WE want. Anything is possible.

What inspires a song or piece of music?
All different things. Other music, personal emotions/frustrations etc etc etc.

What's the best holiday, and why?
My best holiday or the best holiday it's possible to imagine? It it's the former it may well be my trip to the Northumbria coast a couple of years back. If it's the latter well I could go on forever couldn't I?

Is Home Is Where It Hurts the end of something or the beginning of something?
I would say definitely the beginning of something. It's the beginning of us playing music again after not doing so for awhile after the Cycle of Days and Seasons sessions, there's good new people in the group and it's the first record we have released on Aesthetics. We wanted to do something fairly quickly and spontaneously to show people we are still around. Also we know that we would take ages with the full length.

Is there a possibility of playing the West Coast of the US?
Well, there's a possibility of us playing anywhere! But it must be on our terms. We're not the type of band who can just set off and tour around endlessly. There's too much tempramental equipment involved for that but we are told that once the US tour is set up then it will be a national tour not just a one coast tour. The latest date that has been set is Spring 2002 so we'll see.

How is Hood right now?
Very well actually. We've finished our album, we're enjoying the English summertime and we're looking forward to having a nice leisurely couple of months before starting more touring and recording in the fall.

 

Hayfever - translated by Katharina Hinderer. reprinted with permission

have you ever been in a village in the snow?
cut off from the rest of the world
sometimes that's how I feel
("A Harbour of Thoughts")

Normally you would approach a band from a sort of respectful distance, to be able to write about them in a more or less objective way. But how do you approach a band that has accompanied you over the past three years through all disasters, large and small, of your life? A band you’ve listened to day and night? A band, whose lyrics you would wear as a tattoo? A band that starts a song called “Love Is Dead But Never Buried” with the line “Oh, I was so drunk”? Whenever I listen to Hood I’m reminded of: the feeling of frustration on the bus to school in wintertime, failing relationships (especially the female kind); too many cigarettes and not enough food; looking out of the window far too long, even though there’s nothing to see, and so on. Is it reasonable to expect something like an objective statement from me?
I’ll give it a try, anyways.

Hood are from England. Their music reaches out into several different directions. They fuse guitar rock with ambient, noise with breakbeats and lo-fi miniatures with orchestral arrangements. Most of the time they combine all of the above elements, creating a fresh mixture, that is also an unmistakable part of their own brand of music. On their records, songs and sound-collages are arranged side by side. That's something that takes a little time to get used to. I think to fully understand Hood, you have to find the song in the ambient. Hood are sad and kind of unsatisfied. But they don’t get stuck in an everlasting state of self-pity. They try to break out and change something, only to be beaten down by fate again. This uprising, represented by sudden changes in the songs (mainly outbursts of noise and wild screaming), is like an escape from the otherwise deeply melancholic mood. But it always feels like the last bitter outcry of an individual driven into a corner. It is not a rebellion driven by free will, but by agony. The fanzine “Terrascope” called it a healthy “counterbalance” between “pre-suicidal lyrics” and strong melodies. That’s pretty much to the point. Hood hide pop in their songs and if you find it, you can be assured to have come across something very precious. All the songs that appear very rough on the outside, have a very warm, melodic core. This can be mainly attributed to the soft, vulnerable voice of singer Chris Adams. The effect of this voice and what it sings is such, that you wouldn’t hesitate to move in with it. The lyrics Hood add to their songs are absolutely to the point. The melodies and the scattered descriptions of nature create a dark and melancholic, and therefore characteristically British, atmosphere.

The first two albums ‘Cabled Linear Traction” and ‘Silent ‘88’ were recorded as a three-piece by Chris Adams, Richard Adams and Andrew Johnson. These albums and the singles released around that time all still have the old rough-edged rock feel. The change in their sound was introduced on ‘Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys’. In terms of concept and sound, this was their first album deserving to be called an album. The result achieved by taking on board John Clyde Evans (also a good solo-artist) and Craig Tattersall (whose side-project Famous Boyfriend with Andrew features fantastic 80’s electro-pop gear) puzzled a lot of fans. With its unexpected clarity and sophisticated instrumentation the album presents Hood as a grown-up band that has risen above the sound-exploration phase of their early days. But the atmosphere of the album is much tighter and more depressive than anything they have released before. In a way the album remotely reminds me of minimalists like Steve Reich, because each instrument only plays three or four different notes, which are then layered with the other instruments’ notes. But Hood’s references are varied and difficult and upon explicit request they won’t be treated here at length. The new 7” on 555 Recordings shows that this change doesn’t necessarily have to last, since it has a tendency towards Lo-Fi miniatures again and features wonderful break-beats.

But let’s hear what Chris Adams (sort of the mastermind of Hood) has to say:

How, when and why was the band Hood formed?
I think the band was formed in a situation many people have gone through. We were young and very involved with music, just like you. We liked all that strange underground stuff. I bought a guitar with the intention of making as much noise with it as I possibly could and I think I managed to do that. My brother Richard and I formed the initial core, which, apart from a few additions, does still exist. We didn’t have the intention of forming a band or something, we just started to make music. It just came naturally, which I think is a good thing. More and more people joined us over the years. It doesn’t bother me that everything takes so long, our pace is very slow, you see.

What happened after you formed the band: Did you play a lot of gigs in order to get people’s attention?
We made music and knew people who were interested in doing the same thing. Especially Stewart from Boyracer, who Richard and I grew up and went to school with. We sent some tapes around, which weren’t terribly interesting. But that way a few people could hear our music, we were offered to make a 7” and we accepted. This was followed by a kind of avalanche. I mean, if you make a record people like, they suddenly start to get in touch with you and everything just took off from there. We never played a lot of gigs, it’s always a little difficult for us, living scattered all over the country like that. When we are together, which doesn’t happen a lot, we prefer to do the things that have priority, like recording. We like to play gigs, but since we can’t really rehearse, it’s always a bit dangerous. Because of the changing line-up, a really clear linear development wasn’t possible. But for two years we’ve been playing with a line-up of five steady members, sometimes expanded to seven.

A few words about the recording-process: I’ve noticed, that your sounds don’t develop from one stage to the next. The album ‘Silent ‘88’, for example, in several parts sounds more like a studio-recording, while the following Earworm 7” uses home-recording. Could it be that you separate songs that you record on your own from band-songs that are recorded in a studio?
The reason is probably that Hood wasn’t really a band for quite a long time. We were more like a group of friends, who would meet and record from time to time. There is a lot of variation in our output. Some songs are very lo-fi and recorded at home on 4-track or even on a dictaphone. Others are recorded in a studio. We like things that are rough and real, that don’t fit into the conventional style, and those are mostly home-recorded. But there are times, when we feel a song should rather be recorded in a studio, because at home we just can’t do it the way we want it. This can be due to equipment, but also to lack of time. We would also take a song into the studio, because we think that it would be in our interest to have it recorded that way, that’s why the releases differ. Some of it is solo stuff, while other material represents seven musicians. I don’t mind. I think it’s ok to combine both aspects on our records.

Let’s talk about your lyrics. They have a strong effect on me and usually impress me a lot. Are the things you sing about always based on reality or do you try to create an atmosphere that is shared by most people to allow for identification before a fictional background? In how far is the extensive use of description of nature important? The English landscape has always fascinated me and it really suits the melancholic mood of your songs.
Most people feel strongly about our lyrics. I think that’s because it’s my aim to write as honestly as possible about the world we live in. It’s about what happens around you and how you feel about it, living your life. It wouldn’t make sense to create a picture of something that wasn’t really there. That wouldn’t be honest. Creativity to me means to express what you think and how you feel and then evoke these feelings in your audience. We try to do that. It’s all real and comes straight from the heart. I guess, that’s why people become so attached to us.

A fairly new element in the sound of Hood is the incorporation of electronic sounds. Is the general tendency to use electronic sounds in guitar music responsible for that or did you start experimenting with it earlier? I think it enhances the songs. In how far are Craig and Andrew part of this? Did Famous Boyfriend already exist when they joined Hood and what exactly is your Downpour project?
There are lots of reasons why we decided to use more electronic equipment. A changing taste in music might actually be a part of it. But our urge to try out new things also plays a role. When you’re young and start making music, you usually aren’t as open and you don’t really want to experiment. We experimented anyway. That’s our way to keep music fresh and interesting for ourselves. The best thing is to keep trying out new things, like for example electronic equipment. We try to use everything as an instrument. The biggest problems about it are the money and the time you need for this. There are a hundred instruments I’d like to have. Some are electronic, most aren’t. Another important reason is, that prices for samplers have dropped a lot. We couldn’t afford them before, but now we can buy some of that technology. Even if most of that stuff doesn’t make it on to our records, it’s really interesting to work with new instruments, like samplers or synthesizers. You can learn a lot from it, even if it doesn’t work out at all, it’s worth trying. Of course you can hear a lot of electronic influence in independent music. Unfortunately not all of it is really interesting. I think, in the end it’s still the songwriting that counts. I’m sure our songs would still sound good on an acoustic guitar. We don’t try to use electronic sounds to distract from the fact that our music isn’t that great.

Craig and Andrew have been involved with electronic music for a while and they use samplers and such things. They were both in Famous Boyfriend before they joined Hood. They knew each other and recorded together. Strange enough they met through an advert seeking musicians. They got to know each other and became friends. Andrew and Craig are quite an odd pair. You just can’t get them to release their material. They have lots of great songs on dusty old tapes and just don’t take the last step to name them and release them. They’re not exactly responsible for the electronic part in Hood, but they were an inspiration.

Downpour is my own project. We had bought new equipment and I used it. So I had material lying around, that didn’t quite fit in with Hood. Mike from Dropbeat listened to it and wanted to release it under a different name. I agreed and so the 12’’ came about. At the moment Hood and Downpour sound much alike, so I’m not sure if I’ll do more with Downpour in the future. I have a few songs ready and if I’m pushed enough I might release them. We’ll see.

The new album differs stylistically a great deal from everything Hood have released so far. At first, I was surprised, having expected more of a rock album. Has it something to do with going to Domino?
The album has puzzled a few people, who didn’t expect us to make a record like this at all. They expected something like ‘Silent ‘88’ part two. But that wouldn’t have been as interesting for us or for the listeners. Besides, it would have been too conventional to repeat ourselves. Our demo material included lots of stuff sounding like ‘Silent ‘88’ or ‘Cabled Linear Traction’, but we decided to try something different. The main idea was to leave the path of sporadic home- and studio-recordings and to book a studio for an entire week. We are very satisfied with the result and it really is different from everything we’ve done before. It didn’t have anything to do with Domino. We recorded the album two years ago for Planet Records from Bristol. Domino eventually signed us on account of the quality of the album. When we recorded it, we weren’t even sure whether Planet would release it at all. We recorded it for ourselves, really. The album was a labour of our love, so to speak.

What happens at your concerts? How important is playing live for you?
It’s usually a bit of a disaster and very chaotic. First of all, we never really have time to rehearse. Then we often arrive late, because we don’t find the venue and get lost. Our car even went up in flames once. One incident had a profound effect on us: During a concert I jumped into the air and turned around. I hit Richard hard on his head with my bass. Everything was covered in blood. I guess that was punk rock, but also very painful for Richard.

What do you do apart from playing in Hood and what are your plans for the future?
Luckily all of us have jobs, so financial considerations don’t have to concern the band. We don’t have to sell a certain amount of records to survive. That’s why we’re free to make the kind of music we want, without having to make any concessions on commercial grounds. We are working people. We’ll see how that develops in the future. We try not to be too content with what happens around us, so things will remain interesting and we won’t get bored. We just want to enjoy what we’re doing, even if that sounds a bit corny.

P.S.: If anyone who reads this, has a copy of the ‘I’ve Forgotten How To Live’ 7” that they don’t need anymore, please contact Hayfever and tell us the price. (Same applies to the first two 7”es on Fluff)

 

Planet of Sound

L’histoire de Hood est faite de rencontres (Matt Elliott, J.Clyde Evans...) et d’errances (des disques sur Slumberland, Orgasm, Dropbeat, Domino…) Elle aboutit aujourd’hui à la naissance définitive d’une entité inévitable de la musique moderne, tiraillée, comme il se doit, entre mélodie et mise en danger des divers supports et sources sonores. Hood vient de sortir, avec l’homogène et caractériel « Cycle Of Days & Seasons », son premier grand disque. Le « groupe » de Leeds (ou plutôt son noyau dur, les frères Adams) loin d’opérer une transfiguration de son « concept » , a tout simplement dépassé le stade le plus convaincant d’une impressionnante évolution débutée avec le fondateur single Sirens (1992) et « Cabled Linear Traction » (premier LP de 1995). Petit Blind Test hétéroclite avec les frères Adams, intarissables et complémentaires, histoire de parler un peu de musique.

Low, The Plan (The Curtain Hits The Cast)
Richard Adams : (immédiatement) Oh, Low... Un groupe génial. On les suit depuis leur tout premier disque.
Chris Adams : On a même joué avec eux quelques fois... Mais ils sont très sérieux, très religieux, on avait presque honte de traîner avec eux...
Richard Adams : En concert, ils jouent très calmement, avec un faible volume sonore... Ce qui fait qu’on entend tout ce qui se passe dans la salle, voire même à l’extérieur...

Ils sont américains, et pourtant on sent un lien assez fort entre leur manière de faire la musique et la votre... et puis il y a le mélange entre une voix féminine et une voix masculine, qui est assez rare en musique, et qui est un autre aspect particulier de Hood..
Richard Adams : Faire chanter Kate (ndlr : de Movietone) c’est très spontané. C’est une amie, et elle a accompagné notre évolution vers une écriture plus...
Chris Adams :...personnelle.

Quels liens avez-vous en réalité avec la scène underground de Bristol, toute cette mafia de musiciens qui jouent ensemble dans Crescent, Amp, Flying Saucer Attack, Faust... ?
Richard Adams : Ce sont pour la plupart des amis, avec qui on a joué plusieurs fois, et on a enregistré Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys là bas, mais la connexion s’arrête là.
Chris Adams : Et bien sûr il y a des similarités dans nos idées et nos envies... Et puis Matt (ndlr : Elliott producteur du nouvel album de Hood et membre unique de Third Eye Foundation) et Kate jouent sur le nouveau... Mais nous sommes de Leeds, c’est même écrit sur tous nos disques !

Third Eye Foundation, There’s No End In Sight, A Remix of K.S. Collective
Chris Adams : Matt, Third Eye...
Richard Adams : Mais je ne connais pas ce morceau.

C’est un remix d’un groupe inconnu, sorti sur Fat Cat l’année dernière.
Chris Adams : Oui, il y a cette guitare bizarre à la fin... C’est un morceau fabuleux !

Il a produit en partie « The Cycle Of Days & Seasons » ?
Richard Adams : En fait, il nous a plutôt donné un coup de main, pour jouer certains instruments et les enregistrer... Mais c’est Richard Formby qui a surtout produit.
Chris Adams : Il a eu une vraie influence sur notre façon d’utiliser le sampler et l’électronique. Il vient du même genre de background noisy que nous, ce qui explique pourquoi on peut ressentir une telle ressemblance entre sa musique et la notre.

Vous avez fait un remix pour lui, sur « In Versions »...
Richard Adams : On a même réutilisé des sons de ce remix sur un morceau du nouvel album, le sixième, qui n’a pas de titre.

Tony Conrad, Early Minimalism, June 1965
Richard Adams : (immédiatement) Tony Conrad. C’est Slapping Pythagoras ?

Non, c’est l’une des parties de son coffret « Early Minimalism ». En fait, je n’étais pas sûr que vos connaissiez, et je voulais vérifier si l’utilisation des violons sur le dernier album ressemblait à ça par coïncidence.
Richard Adams : Oui et non... Je ne pensais pas que les gens allaient reconnaître... J’apprécie beaucoup, même si j’ai mis énormément de temps à le découvrir. Formby est fan, surtout de l’album avec Faust, « Outside The Dream Syndicate ». Quand nous avons joué avec David Grubbs, il nous a expliqué à quel point Tony est une personne adorable et ouverte d’esprit, alors que je pensais qu’il était un grand artiste, mais quelqu’un avec qui il était impossible de travailler. Il paraît qu’il aime tester les gens avec qui il joue en les soumettant à un cérémonial très précis qui consiste, en définitive, à jouer avec lui pendant des heures... Mais il s’est inventé un vrai langage.

Vous vous sentez des points communs avec le minimalisme américain ?
Richard Adams : Je connais surtout Conrad et LaMonte Young... Mais le minimalisme en tant que concept ne me passionne pas tant que ça. Ce que j’aime surtout chez Conrad, c’est les sons qu’il obtient avec son violon, les stridences et les fréquences, et les effets qu’il obtient sur l’auditeur en allongeant ses performances pendant des heures... Hood n’est pas vraiment minimaliste...
Chris Adams : Plutôt intimiste dans les ambiances, et dans les sons.
Richard Adams : En plus il y a des jours où je peux écouter Conrad et trouver ça génial, mais il y en a d’autres où je ne supporte pas vraiment... C’est une bataille permanente entre les deux... (rires)

Vous avez quand même des liens avec l’expérimental pur et dur ?
Richard Adams : J’expérimente à la maison, mais je n’ai jamais réussi à aboutir à quelque chose de satisfaisant. Je m’intéresse plus à l’objet définitif, et je n’ai pas réussi à arriver à ça avec ce genre de musique.

GAS Heller, (In Memoriam G.D Compilation)
Chris Adams : C’est beau, c’est très doux...
Richard Adams : Et très original. J’aime beaucoup la façon dont les samples sont traités. C’est très aérien, très lointain. Et très présent aussi. Mais je ne vois pas qui c’est. Est ce qu’il y a un beat après ça ou est ce que ça reste comme ça tout le temps ? Est ce qu’il y a un breakbeat drum&bass qui va arriver ?
Chris Adams : Je ne sais pas pourquoi mais ça me fait penser à un truc allemand.

Vous y êtes presque. Wolfgang Voigt est allemand. Il est surtout connu sous le nom de Mike Ink. Gas est son projet le plus conceptuel, puisqu’il est supposé être inspiré par la campagne et les forêts allemandes. « The Cycle Of Days & Seasons » a été composé à la campagne, et le précédent s’appelait « Rustic Houses »...On vous compare souvent avec Dave Pearce de Flying Saucer Attack, pour l’aspect très pastoral de votre musique.
Richard Adams : C’est une influence très naturelle, bien qu’on soit anglais et qu’on vienne de Leeds. La nature c’est... notre maison. Le point de départ de l’essence de nos chansons. On entend le bois craquer sur nos chansons. Et les paysages extérieurs du lieu où l’on enregistre nos albums sont essentiels. Ils déterminent en grande partie les paysages intérieurs des chansons. La période d’enregistrement est la plus importante, c’est là que se décide l’ambiance et la personnalité du disque, ce qui est plus important encore que les chansons, qui sont de toute façon en mutation permanente jusqu'à ce qu’on les capture sur disque. Les lieux et les dates d’enregistrement sont la base de nos disques, ils en font des works in progress datés. Comme pour une collection de photos.

Vous retrouvez ces atmosphères lorsque vous réécoutez vos anciens disques ? On a l’impression qu’ils ont tous été enregistrés en hiver, ou en automne...
Richard Adams : Bien sûr. Pour nous, nos anciens disques font partie du passé. Les redécouvrir est forcément un geste nostalgique. Mais « The Cycle Of Days And Seasons » a été enregistré en été. C’est toi qui a l’hiver dans la tête... Thelonious Monk / John Coltrane, Epistrophy
Chris Adams : C’est Miles Davis, non ? Ou peut être Mingus ?

C’est « Epistrophy », de Thelonious Monk. Une version avec John Coltrane. Vous écoutez beaucoup de jazz ?
Chris Adams : Pas tant que ça. Ce n’est pas vraiment notre culture.
Richard Adams : On est certainement pas à fond dedans, c’est un truc de mélomane, très particulier. J’aime Albert Ayler ou Miles Davis. Ce que faisait Coltrane à une certaine époque était vraiment passionnant, vraiment nouveau. Mais c’est un peu distant comme intérêt. Je ne me sens pas assez de lien direct, je l’écoute comme un étranger curieux.

On retrouve un esprit jazz sur le disque. Peut être à cause de l’influence de Kate de Movietone ?
Chris Adams : Oui, peut être. Formby est également un grand fan de jazz. Il a une culture gigantesque. Mais j’ai personnellement du mal à écouter des gens qui sont tellement concernés, presque obsédés par leur instrument. Comme si c’était le prolongement d’un de leurs organes. Je préfère une approche plus distante, plus abstraite. Un solo de guitare c’est tellement... bizarre, comme pratique. Qu’est ce que les gens recherchent avec ça ?
Richard Adams : J’aime Ayler per exemple, mais il va plus loin, ce qui l’intéresse ce n’est pas l’instrument, c’est l’expression pure.

Palace Brothers « No More Workhouse Blues »
Chris Adams : Oui, bien sûr. Je connais. C’est Songs Ohia, non ?

C’est plus évident que ça.
Chris Adams : Palace, alors.
Richard Adams : Oldham est vraiment le meilleur, en acoustique surtout. J’aime beaucoup ses premiers albums.
Chris Adams : Mais c’est un écorché vif. Il est presque trop investi dans sa musique. Il la rend complètement... aliénée. Il a une voix magnifique, pauvre, mais vraiment belle.

Richard chante un peu avec le genre de même voix. Quand il chante vraiment, comme sur Houses Tilting Towards The Sea.

Richard Adams : L’unique raison pour laquelle Hood n’est pas un groupe instrumental est précisément que j’ai besoin de chanter. Ou de parler. Ce n’est pas un plan de carrière théorique pour que le groupe passe à la postérité pop.
Chris Adams : J’aime beaucoup la voix de mon frère. Je l’ai toujours poussé à l’utiliser.
Richard Adams : Mais de manière détournée. On la sample, on la passe à l’envers, on la mixe en arrière, on en rajoute deux...

Vous avez surtout utilisé un sampler ou un magnéto à bandes magnétiques sur le dernier ?
Richard Adams : On expérimente un peu avec tout. Pour ne pas être piégé par la technologie. Certains sons des bandes magnétiques ne peuvent pas être recréés à partir de matériel plus moderne. C’est impossible. La plupart des gens sont esclaves de leur matériel, du son qu’il les oblige à utiliser. On essaie d’être sélectifs pour être plus imaginatifs. On a expérimenté sur beaucoup de vieux effets, comme le delay et les méthodes d’enregistrement un peu archaïques. Puis on a tout mélangé. Toutes les techniques ont à la fois leurs qualités propres et leurs limitations.

Au tout début du disque, juste avant l’arrivée de la batterie, il y a un son incroyable, qui semble sortir d’un autre monde. Comme une bande que vous démarrez et que vous arrêtez brusquement...
Richard Adams : C’est juste une imprimante d’ordinateur, qu’on a enregistré puis accéléré ! Mais le son a l’air tellement abstrait, on ne l’a pas fait exprès.

Luc Ferrari « Place Des Abbesses »
Chris Adams : On reconnaît que ce sont des boucles de bandes. C’est les mecs de Crescent qui nous appris à les reconnaître. C’est de la musique concrète, ou est ce que c’est plus récent ?

C’est Luc Ferrari, et cette pièce peut être considérée comme une de ses œuvres les plus "typiquement " concrètes.
Richard Adams : Bien sûr. C’est un des pionniers. Un génie.
Chris Adams : Mais on est un peu incultes en musique contemporaine. Peu d’œuvre de ce genre ont autant d’énergie et d’inventivité que celle là. Souvent, l’énergie manque vraiment.
Richard Adams : Comme souvent en rock ou en pop. Alors on prend ce qui nous intéresse. Et puis on enregistre. Et puis on rajoute en route. On préfère les choses e mouvement, qui bouillonnent.

Votre musique est pourtant assez homogène, avec une personnalité très marquée.
Richard Adams : Parce qu’on a plein de défauts et de tics...
Chris Adams : Ou peut être parce qu’on est géniaux.... (rires)

Propos recueillis par Olivier Lamm

 

Rising Sun
by Andy N

How are you doing and whats going on at the moment?
Well, we're all fine thank you. Theres not a tremenous amount going on at the moment. We've finally just seen the release of our 4th LP ' Rustic Houses , Forlorn Valleys ' after quite a wait. We're also going to embark on a small UK our in February and March and will probabily be going to Europe in April. We're also attempting to get ourselves organised to start working on our next LP/ Single for Domino. Actually that sounds like quite a lot , but no, things are quiet here at the moment.

For those who don't know, can you tell us the current line up of Hood and what instruments everybody plays?
Well, we actually prefer to keep it a little ambigious as to who does what and whos who. Suffice to say however that we range from a four piece to a seven piece depeding on who is available and we are pretty much take it from there. The line up has changed pretty dramatically over the years but found stability over about the last 2 - 3 years.

Can you tell us a little about the history of Hood ? I know you're been together for a couple of years but nothing else really ? And have any of you been involued in any other groups / other projects?
As i said before, the line up has dramatically changed over the years. We started putting stuff out literally for a joke / something to do and it just kind of gradually enolved over the years. Early Hood recordings can actually be traced back as far as 1990, although I'd only recommand that to the most interpid explorer.

We've all been / are involved in other projects: John does some superb sort of acoustic drone stuff under his name. Andrew and Craig are / were The Famous Boyfriend. Richard has recorded with Micheal Nichols ( ex Crabstick member ) on a couple of seven inches (Micheal Nicholas and his excellency) and I've recently fled my experimental drum and bass mess " Downpour " like a rat fleeing a sinking ship.

What stuff have you also released to date? (I wasn't planning on asking you this question but I've lost your sheet with what stuff you have released)?
Please see enclosed discography (Andrews note - this will be typed up a later date, but as it is dead long, it may take a while, anyone with any queries, please e mail me)

What are your influences (music wise) and what favourite tunes are you listening to at the moment?
Its diffcult for me to speak for the band as a whole but I'll have a go : The sort of stuff we listen to is stuff like Disco Inferno, Bark Pscyhois, LA Monte Young. John Cage, Richard Youngs, Faust, The Dead C, Australian pop like the Crabsticks and the Go Betweens, lots of experimental stuff from New Zealand - too much stuff to list really.

How do you feel about playing live and recording? Do you prefer one over the other?
It depends really. Both can be great - both can be disasterous. And a total waste of time. I'd say I personally prefer the studio environment as it allows you to experiment and be creative whereas there isn't a tremendous scope for that live without getting too self indulgent. However, if we play really well and get a good reponse its great fun. If I had to get rid of one element out of the two though, I'd give up playing live and just concerate on recording.

How do you develop your songs - fitting the words around the music OR the music around the words?
Don't like to give it much thought really.

The reviews I've read about you all have been varied. I've read reviews comparing you (on your album alone) to a mixture between My Bloodly Valentine and Jesus and Mary Chain in terms of their experimental nature and Joy Divison in their lyrical content . While I personally have my doubts about that, how would you say you sound like if anybody at all?
Journalists on a whole are pretty lazy when it comes to critically assessing a band / work out what they're coming from. I'd say there are certainly some elements of what we listen to in our music and I certainly wouldn't say those 3 bands figured highly in our consciousness at the moment. I don't think journalists give people enough credit and assume that the bands maybe coming from an angle that they're unaware off. I mean I can't really see us getting a review in NME and them saying " Hmm... remminscent of Alistair Galbraith. " So, no, its hmm... Noisy sounds like My Bloodly Valentine or " Hm... bleak sounds like Joy Divison. "

Just out of curiously, how did you come up with the name Hood? Some bands you can work out pretty quickly where they got the name from, but with yours, all I keep getting is a blank idea.
Can't honestly remember. I'm sure we could think of a much better name if we really thought about it but the word just becomes abstract after a while and you don't think about its meaning. I don't think a name has any importance and it seems pretty weird to have a band name. I do however like the fact the word has a number of meanings / uses - ie/ Hood of a car, Hood of a coat, Hood as in gangster, Brotherhood, Sisterhood etc in other words you can't derive one single definate meaning from it. At the end of the day, though it really means nothing.

In what direction can you see the band heading and what plans do you have for the future (recording/touring)?
I guess we'll just continue writing and recording stuff without any major plans or theories or anything, I think that sort of free attitude is pretty healthy really. As I said earlier, we're going on a small UK tour soon and also going to remix Mogwai pretty soon. Yeah, I think that Earworm 7" should be out about March, apparently they're in really nice hand painted sleeves so look out for them.

I remember in your last newsletter, you mentioned about the singles comp been still available on CD through you if anybody still wants it. Is it still available and do you have any other stuff available on mail order?
Yes, we have some of those left on CD and hopefully we'll have some copies of the new LP to sell too. I mean in an ideal world we wouldn't have to sell anything mail order because they'd be available in the shops at a reasonable price - but it doesn't really work like that does it ? So Yes, if anyone is desperate for anything and they can't find it in the shops, we usually try and let them off us if we have spare copies.

What happened with the Enraptured album diaster? I hadn't heard about that until you mentioned it. A pity as well cause I was tempted to order it until I heard what happened.
I don't really want to labour the point about all that. But basicilly what happened was that our track ran too fast which was pretty annoying. Also the other side of the LP was mis pressed. If the label had sent us a test pressing then we could have ironed the problem out but they didn't so our track was ruined. If anyone has a copy they should slow down our track down a bit so I don't sound like a demented 12 year old.

A lot of the lyrics on your albums always seem to be very personal based. Without getting too deep (I always tend to think lyrics should keep a air of mystery about them so the listener can make their own mind up about what they mean), are the lyrics really that itense and personal?
Yes

What has been your favourite songs wrote so far?
Oh, that would have to be " Shes a semi - nomadic pastoralist " from our legendary unreleased rural musical, as it contains the immortal lines " Her Love cuts me like a scathe, her limbs they are so lithe, come me let stroke you're golden locks for you I'd sell my familys ox " It moves me just thinking about it.

On your current album, Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys. A lot more of the album seems to be a lot more spaced out than your previous albums I have (Cabled Linear Traction) and almost like in places it could be the Third Eye Foundation who is doing it. Is this a field you would like to develop into more and more?
Not necessarily. We just do whatever we feel like really doing without consciously doing a particular thing. I mean, I wouldn't mind doing that sort of thing but I still have an interest in doing poppier and faster stuff. You know, theres a little too much of this space rock about at the moment.

Is their any plans to issue Cabled Linear Traction on CD ? (At this point it had been an LP only release - AEN) I would love to own it on CD . I think its a really interesting album, for completely different reasons to Rustic Houses .....
Maybe one day/ I'm sure Sumberland would love to put it out but to be honest, we're extremely fond of vinyl and refused to allow it to be put out on CD. Due to reasons pretty much out of control our stuff does now come out on CD but vinyl is certainly the format our music should be listened to...

 

Sadness Is In The Sky - issue #16
free cd included. with a previously unreleased hood track 'finger in his ear'

hood are one of those special bands whose inspiration stems from their beginnings in the early to mid nineties and has now flourished into the new century, the leeds quartet growing into one of the most touching of outfits. their last album 'the cycle of days and seasons' was very well received in their native england, and album which unites the warmth and wisdom of mogwai with the space of ride and tones and drones of matt elliott's third eye foundation with the rhythmic lulls and instrumental builds of godspeed you black emperor! all in all hood stand to be the best discovery you'll make in a while, should you accept these observations of mine.

i was fortunate enough to be in contact with richard adams, he of hood, and the fellow who has been there since their early days, and remains with hood in their moments of perfection.

hood have been playing music for a long while now, is it a case of persisting and constantly evolving or have you always known that hood would have longevity as a band?
it was always our intention to have longevity as a band. we've always been fans of bands who have consistently produced good music over a period of time and have progressed and evolved throughout their lifespan. i think there is a type of band that continually improves and a type of band that because of whatever reasons has a short lifespan. i think other than this it is through sheer bloody mindedness, i.e. we are going to prove our worth even though it might take a few years.

can you tell me who member-wise forms hood these days and what part they play in the 'scheme' of hood?
it's always been pretty difficult as there are quite a few people who reside on the fringe of the band, but at the moment the core is the long term stalwarts myself and my brother chris alongside gareth brown and stephen royle. gareth does all sampler and keyboard duties whilst steve plays cello and the drum kit.

you're soon i believe, to release a new album, can you tell me a few things about it?
if we ever get it finished that is! it's currently on the back burner a bit but hopefully it will appear in the autumn some time. it's a winter album this time and has vocals, guitars - it's upbeat and downbeat, and has modern instruments (electronic/hip-hop type things) and traditional orchestral type instruments. i think the songs are tuneful and diverse.

how do you think this new hood record is going to stand up next to the last few wonderful hood records?
well i'd hope that it would be better than all of them and put the others to shame!

as a prelude to their forthcoming album, hood have unveiled 'home is where it hurts', a five track single/ep which is absolutely fabulous. for newcomers to hood's beautiful winter tones, this is the perfect introduction, especially if you have a taste for melody and rhythm, as well as a healthy delight for wall-of-sound exhibitionism and sweet indie rock nuance as i do.

this single, or 5 track ep, is beautiful, and immediately i need to ask, "if this is 'just' a single with 'b-sides', how incredible is the album"? i'm incredibly excited by the sounds you've allowed us to receive!
i hope the album won't be a disappointment! people not in the band say that the album is better than the single and i should hope so too as it was recorded after the single. we just need to get it sounding on tape the way it sounds in our heads.

you know, i've been getting into a lot of third eye foundation of tape, especially the excellent 'final' lp 'little lost soul'. is it interesting that you guys have a similar intensity and musical density to that which matt exudes on recent work?
yeah, matt works alone whereas we work as a band and that's the main difference i think. with him it's all splurging out of the one tormented soul whereas we spread it throughout a few different people. so as a result his stuff can be incredibly intense. i like all of matt's stuff but kind of think that over the last couple of lp's has hit a formula (albeit one that wins time after time) and so the most interesting thing would see him try something else. i seriously think he could produce absolutely brilliant stuff given time and a bigger budget.

you were of course involved last year in the 'hood vs duo 14' ep of remixes, can you explain what that was all about?
some people we know did some remixes of the 'cycle of days and seasons' album, they sounded interesting so we tweaked around with them a bit and thought they were good enough to come out. hopefully some of duo fourteens other stuff will be re-issued some day as it's completely amazing.

will hood be playing some shows in the near future?
yeah, we're playing a few dates in the uk and then going to italy. we're trying to get prepared right now. i've bought a 'teach yourself italian' book.

is playing live an experience enjoyed by the members of hood generally speaking?
it's stress all the way but if it's a good show and the audience is responsive and we are on our game it can be completely exhilarating. we're not fond of playing too many live shows because i think you can then start playing to what an audience wants to hear rather than trusting your own judgment but having said this we certainly plan playing live a bit more this year.

if the aforementioned 'single' 'home is where it hurts' is a taste of things to come, daren't we leave our local sources for news of the new hood album being on the horizon. encompassing all that is wonderful and brittle with soulful sounds and sonic indices, hood's brand new and previous handful of releases are available via domino recording co.

 

Scapegrace

With their west Yorkshire roots, Hood bring a melancholic, pastoral element to the post-rock landscape. Their sound is hard to describe, but try to imagine an arm wrestling contest between Nick Drake and the Aphex Twin on a rickety table in the middle of a windswept moor; imagine that Mogwai are the adjudicators, showing their excitement and approval by sticking red hot pokers up the contestants' arses. This would sound nothing like Hood, but it's a compelling image isn't it? Here's my interview with the charming and ginger Richard from Hood. Once you get past my chronic rambling it makes for some entertaining, and really quite moving reading.

Ben Scapegrace: First of all, something of a personal question. Your song 'The Weight' is one of my favourites. Ever. Is there any way to get hold of this elusive creature? I have the song on a compilation tape made by an ex-girlfriend but I cannot listen to the tape because it reminds me of her. Also I cannot ask her where she got it because whenever our paths cross, we pretend to ignore each other. You know how it is. I tried the 555 website, they're out of stock. Any ideas?
Richard Hood: Oh dear, what a nightmare scenario. Well the The Weight EP is completely sold out, as far as I'm aware but if you just want the song then it is available on 'knowing we was right from da start' a compilation CD out on 555 on Monday. Try www.normanrecords.com

With song titles like 'At last! Riots on Spofforth Hill' and 'Documenting Crop Rotations', you seem to be very influenced by your immediate environment. Is this true to say? What is it about the area that inspires you?
I think it's difficult not to be influenced by your surrounding environment. Too many people walk around staring at the floor. You need to have a look around to see what's happening. We used to live in a small rural community surrounded by fields but we now live in da big bad city, hence all the references to smack, uzi's and drive by's on our new LP.

I was wondering what your views were concerning free music exchange on the web. Napster has pretty much died a death but there are others still out there (Audio Galaxy etc.). I have to confess that I have tried to get some Hood stuff via this means, but all I could find was Boyz 'n' the Hood, which wasn't quite what I wanted. Personally, I have such a vociferous conscience that even when I do download stuff I like I end up buying it anyway, just to stop the accursed guilt. But maybe not everyone is as morally chaste as I. Is it unfair to deprive artists of earnings? Do you think a way should be developed of ensuring that the artist gets royalties from tracks being downloaded?
I'm perfectly happy with people getting our songs off Napster or whatever. It can only be a positive thing for bands of our size who don't get too much radio play. I think people tend to go out and buy the CD anyway because unless you have outrageously expensive equipment then the sound quality is nowhere near that of a CD. If people heard a Hood song on Peelie would they just tape it and not go out and get the record? Napster just works in this way, I'm convinced of it. The only thing is that we get royalties for being played on Peel, but none for people getting stuff on the net, but oh fuck it, in my eyes it's still doing us a favour. I think the only people who would suffer are massive artists like Radiohead and Elton John who earn squillions anyway, and the record companies who take the majority of profits of sales. The record industry has just got itself in a tizzy as it realises the huge profits it makes might be knocked slightly.

As this is largely a literary magazine, could you share with us your favourite writers/novels? Do you have any? You do seem more literate than most bands; the titles of your songs are more like titles of poems. Are there any writers who directly influence your music?
I never get chance to read books - I'm not exactly well read - you'll have to ask the others as they might be better, but one influence is 'Remains of Elmet' by Ted Hughes. I love a lot of his stuff but this is so close to home as it was written about the hills towards Hebden Bridge (about 30 mins from Leeds), I'd also count the names of Bronte, Plath, Hornby and that Russian bloke with things I've read recently that aren't football related.

How about letting us know about any damn fine underrated bands you know of.
OK - I tried to do an A-Z but some letters had more than one: appendix out, clouddead, crescent, court and spark, disco inferno, evax, bill fox, havergal, insides, joyzipper, l'altra, mdk, 09, prefuse 73, remote viewer, spokane, very seceratary, richard youngs. These are all bands/people that are worthy of much more than the meager exposure they get.

How was the European tour? I'm interested to know how your music (which to my mind, has quite a distinct northern British sound) went down on the continent. I think the best thing about Rome (aside from the thousands of years of accumulated culture, art and music,) is the ice cream and the tight trousers, did you get a chance to sample either of these things?
It seems that it went down OK- it was weird seeing pictures of my street all over the place (that was the picture on the posters). Hmm... didn't get a chance to sample much in Rome, especially not the tight trousers. Lots of normal regulated standard trousers on show. I had the most delicious ice cream in Rovereto. At the time I branded it 'the nicest thing I've ever eaten' and I see no reason to change my mind.

'The Edge of Workaday Mortality' is an awesome song, which I take to be about the casual cruelty man indulges in- often out of sheer boredom. Is this accurate? What would you say it was about?
Yeah, kind of I guess that's right ....I think some of it was about work and how people will very quickly shit on other people in order to get one over on them. I think it's saying that this animal-like behaviour is not really needed as we should be more advanced than that. People do terrible things to each other and hurt each other. Why? We don't need to -most of us have food & stuff to survive.

To continue the human cruelty theme...do you have any favourite childhood taunts? Were you called anything in school that was psychologically damaging? I saw a girl on the Jenny Jones show who was so pale in school that they called her 'Casper, the other ghost'. I'm sorry to say that I found this hilarious. I guess I'm a small man. Perhaps you are too?
Oh dear. I can't really remember. I was a very sensitive child but, as the old adage goes, names have never hurt me. I guess I'm lucky in that I was never really bullied or anything. The only person I remember really bullying me was a teacher called Mrs. Yellow (this is her real name). She called me all kinds of things and was very nasty to me. The rumour goes that her husband had ginger hair and she didn't like him too much so it all got taken out on me. I was often sent to sit in the wendy house for reasons that I can't recall. For someone who had ginger hair, freckles, and didn't like sport until the age of 11 I think I got away with it pretty well.

I'm currently taking part in medical research tests in order to get some money. It's horrible but I'm pretty desperate. Perhaps you could cheer me, and my fellow mcjobbing pals by telling us the grimmest jobs you have done to finance yourself and the band.
I remember a very pale man in Leeds who one of my friends knew and I said - that guy's face is a bit weird and they said it was to do with medical research tests he did when he was a student. As far as I know he's still alive so I guess you've not got too much to worry about. I've done lots of different jobs but the worst one was at an office near Wetherby. It was full of horrible racist small town folk and I was an accounts assistant. There was not one person in the entire building there who I could relate to in any way whatsoever. My boss was a small mustachioed bald man somewhere in his 40's. He didn't allow anyone to speak unless they were on the phone to a customer or discussing work. One day he decided to give me a pep talk and said 'If you stay here and work hard you could be in my position in 15 years time'. Needless to say I left immediately.

Would you kick Heather Graham or (insert name of favourite sexy person here) out of bed for farting? Or burping? What about burping, but without odour?
Well until recently I thought women didn't burp or fart but it turns out this isn't true. I personally feel that they should be barred from indulging in any of these activities. Burping without odour? What about burping with odour but it being a nice odour such as freshly mown grass.

Are there any films or TV shows that have inspired you. (Isn't 'Trust Me I'm Stomach' a line from The Day to Day? Are you a Chris Morris fan?)
Yeah you've caught us with that one. Chris Morris is certainly an idol. I could talk about him all week if necessary but will refrain from doing so. Comedy is probably my favourite TV medium, if you discount football, which if it isn't a TV medium as such, it certainly is comedy a lot of the time. I like loads of comedy, as well as Chris Morris: Steve Coogan, John Shuttleworth, Larry Sanders, Dad's Army, Ever Decreasing Circles, the Simpsons, Police Squad, Cheers, Taxi, the Ripping Yarns/Python/Fawlty Towers axis and Open All Hours are amongst the shows/people that make me laugh like a drain.

Tell us about your favourite instrument, or favourite sound.
I don't think you can beat the guitar for the sheer breadth of sound and textures you can wring out of it. But apart from that I guess that I like a lot of them. It might be easier to say which ones I don't like, here goes: saxophone (evil -the same noise as Tina Turner's voice), oboe (too twee), kazoo (too stupid) , penny whistle (too fiddle diddley dee), recorder (the sound of childhood horrors, will squeal if blown with more than a light breeze). They're all rubbish. We've started trying to invent our own instruments. Movietone have their guicello, a cross between the guitar and cello. We have the flumpet (flute and trumpet) and bag-piano (bagpipes and piano).

Is death ever funny?
Well you shouldn't laugh at death but sometimes you can't help yourself. I read once on teletext that this guy fell to his death off the top of a crane. His name - (something like) Nick Crane. I just couldn't believe that his surname mirrored how he died. The death of Rod Hull was funny on so many levels. What was he doing on the bloody roof? You can imagine that bird getting in the way up to its usual mischief when it all went tragically wrong. I heard that a man died from smelling his own farts. Apparently he must have called 999 and when they arrived several ambulance-men were hospitalised after inhaling the fumes.

A question about your (gasp) music: what is the process of your writing a song? Do you all just jam ideas out? Or does someone develop the backbone first and then the others join in?
Usually someone develops the backbone and we all add ideas. Sometimes we jam but Chris doesn't like it. He's so un-rock and roll. Sometimes Chris gets the backbone then finishes t'job himself and usually it sounds better that way. Sometimes that happens then we add parts that completely mess up the song so we go back to how it was. There's approximately 10000000 different permutations.

I don't think I've asked you yet who your major musical influences are. Care to divulge?
I think Talk Talk, Disco Inferno, Rem, early 90's New Zealand bands are our primary influences but it tends to change year by year depending what we are listening to. Chris buys tonnes of hip hop these days. We like the Clouddead stuff and Wu Tang Clan and that kind of thing. We all went through an electronica stage but it's all getting a bit samey. We all like Boards of Canada - they are often the topic of discussion.

Favourite drink (if any)?
Pure orange juice.

Favourite drug (if any)?
None.

Favourite gun (if any)?
Erm .....not really thought about this one!

What is next for Hood?
To get this bloody album finished and have a bit of a break before starting again. We hope to have the album out by the end of the year and do a smidgen of touring. Hopefully me and Chris will get our novelty hip hop act off the ground and we're all planning solo albums. Chris's is called 'Adams if you do Adams if you don't'.

 

This Is Not A Fanzine

häufig ist es ja so, je mehr man sich auf eine platte freut, desto eher wird man bitter enttäuscht. deshalb bin ich auch mit gemischten gefühlen an dieses langerwartete hood-album herangegangen. schliesslich waren die beiden vorgänger grandiose platten voller kurzer lo-fi-pop-songperlen. 27 songs hatte alleine das '96er meisterwerk "silent '88". doch "rustic houses, forlorn valleys", die erstehood-veröffentlichung auf dem inzwischen wohlbekannten domino-label, hält alles, was sie verspricht.

"im moment steht die band auf sehr soliden füssen", freut sich chris adams, die treibende kraft hinter dem kollektiv. "die ersten jahren waren doch teilweise sehr chaotisch. wir haben zum beispiel all unsere platten auf labels veröffentlicht, die von ihren machern nur als hobby betrieben wurden. das ist bei domino jetzt anders. sie können uns ausserdem auch ohne aggressive werbestrategie etwas bekannter machen." domino ist immerhin inzwischen eines der populärsten englischen indiepop-labels, mit so tollen veröffentlichungen wie smog, pastels, flying saucer attack oder gastr del sol alleine in diesem jahr. eine name, der eben für qualität bürgt. wie kam es zu dem kontakt? "eigentlich wollten wir die platte bei einem anderen label veröffentlichen, aber das klappt dann nicht und wir befürchteten schon, dass sie nie mehr erscheinen würde. schliesslich haben wir "rustic houses..." schon im sommer 1996 (!) aufgenommen. ein freund von uns, der bei domino arbeitet, hat ein tape davon im büro gespielt und alle waren sofort begeistert." vorbei also die zeiten von super-limitierten 7"-only veröffentlichungen auf obskuren labels wie fluff. heute zahlen echte fans schon echte sammlerpreise für diese platten. "ja, das ist echt ein schock. anfangs konnten wir die dinger nämlich nicht loswerden. wir hatten hunderte übrig!

jetzt fragen uns nach unseren konzerten immer wieder leute: 'hast du nicht doch noch eine?'. nein, ich habe nicht, aber wir können sie den leuten ja auch tapes aufnehmen wenn sie wollen! ausserdem gibt es ja die 'structured disasters' compilation." auch der sound der inzwischen zum sextett erweiterten band ist inzwischen fokussierter. die songs klingen getragen, aber nicht übermässig traurig, langsam, aber nie zäh, innovativ, verleugnet aber ihre herkunft nicht. waren bisher für die engländer bands à la pavement der passendste vergleich, so nähern sie sich jetzt post-rock-kultbands wie third eye foundation an. kein wunder, hat doch tef-mastermind matt dieses album auch produziert. schrammelige gitarren und zaghaftes feedback treffen auf verhaltene lo-fi-breakbeats, doch im mittelpunkt steh

en immer die songs. wie kam es dazu, dass statt 27 songs beim vorgänger jetzt nur sechs - wenngleich sehr lange - songs auf der lp sind?
"'silent '88' haben wir über jahre hinweg aufgenommen, diesmal haben wir einfach eine woche im studio verbracht und geschaut, wie sich uns die songs präsentieren. es war auch eine art unterbewusste innere rebellion, weil die letzte platte einfach zu lang war. wir haben damals ewig lange damit verbracht, wie zu kürzen, weil wir hunderte von songs hatten." erzählt chris und ist in gedanken schon beim nächsten album. "wir sind jetzt viel mehr an technik interessiert, allerdings nicht im traditionellen sinne. das heisst nicht, dass wir jetzt einen drumcomputer haben, aber wir arbeiten viel mit samplern. die technologie darf das songwriting nicht verdrängen!". wir dagegen erfreuen uns erst einmal an diesem neuerlichen hood-meisterwerk, zu dem in kürze auch eine remix 12" erscheinen soll. es wäre gar nicht einmal überraschend, wenn sie damit ganz gross rauskommen würden.

interview (c) by carsten wohlfeld, 1997

 

X-Ray - autumn 2001

Up in Leeds, summat's stirring so zip up and head north with us to meet...

...Hood, who first started releasing material on the US indie Slumberland about ten years ago, while thier music was drawn from the legacy of mid-80s New Zealand and Australian independent music of strong, quirky guitar songwriting and a lo-fi drone.

"Yeah, we were into all that sort of stuff," says Chris Adams, who forms the crux of Hood with his brother Richard. "The Cannanes, The Dead C, Alastair Galbraith. Do you know Crabstick? [early 90s Melbourne phenomenon] They're one of my favourite bands ever! It's a bit weird because I was into Expressway and Flying Nun, that was the first wave of independent music I listened to and then I got into the American scene, but I think now I feel it's happening again with hip-hop labels like Anti-Con and Mush and YNR," he reckons, rather perceptively. "I feel it's like the scene in the early 90s is coming back again with mix-tapes and obscure lo-fi stuff by kids who've grown up with hip-hop. I think the DIY aspect is alive and well but the music's shifted... MP3 and stuff has just opened up a world of lo-fi music."

Interestingly enough, for their new album, Cold House, Chris has finally dispensed with his long running obsession with using analogue tape. "I think I had a mental disorder," he rues, "but everything was completely analogue from beginning to end." Cold House has a digital austerity, that wintry feel where your nerve ends are alert, but concurrently, beautiful guitar and violin playing and fragile, flawed vocals give it a gentle, handmade touch.

"There were so many elements we were trying to draw in from past releases and future ideas to make a shift in the band," Chris says. "It has that whole feel of isolation and being in the cold."

"The temptation with digital," he adds, "is that you can clean it up forever and people who do digitally based work just can't resist going back and correcting every tiny flaw. You've got to overcome it a little bit, it's easy to sound like everyone else when you're using that equipment. You have to push yourself to personalize it, and we have kept a lot of the human feel to it."

The album is being released on the US label Aesthetics, which is a nice full circle for Hood, who still, modestly, "don't really classify ourselves as musicians," Chris laughs. "Me and my brother just started off hacking around as kids really, but we've bizarrely managed to keep getting our stuff released and just keep going. No one's tried to spot us!" Let's hope they never do.

-Loren Zoric