The voice of an angel
Hello Mary, welcome to DMC towers. A beautiful album ‘Dream Life’ you have delivered us that you tried to make magical and atmospheric. Were you happy with the end result, what has been the initial reactions…
“Hello! yes, I can say I’m really happy with it, it took a while and I wasn’t really sure what I was making until it was mixed. I think I’ve made something honest, and something that’s really me.”
It was inevitable that you would end up mixed up in music in some way, this path began with your father taking you to gypsy workshops. Was it a musical household you were brought up in, what are the records you can remember from back then?
“Not really a musical household in the way people might imagine, Mum and Dad both listened to music, but we didn’t have piano lessons or anything like that. I remember Dad listening to some great prog, and also Kate Bush, CSNY etc, and Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds. Some of those imaginative soundscapes must have seeped in somewhere!”
After a brief passion of your elder brother’s heavy metal albums, you found true love in 60s West Coast psychedelia – what artists captured your heart from that period, who have been your influences?
“Well, I’m really obsessed with the Beach Boys, to a quite ridiculous extent, but also love all the scuzzy Nuggets era stuff, Judy Henske and Jerry Yester, The Millennium, Sagittarius, there’s too much to mention. I love everything from the really primitive garage to very sunshine pop things like The Association. Doesn’t have to be west coast, or US either. Love early Bee Gees, the Blossom Toes etc too.”
What is your greatest weakness?
“An addiction to tea.”
You once said that “I’ll probably find about three ‘new’ records this year to fall in love with, and they will probably all have been released about 40 years ago. Is the music industry really cluttered with crap right now, surely there must be a few needles in all that hay?
“Haha! Not at all! I think I have a bit of an unspoken thing about keeping my blinkers on a bit while I’m making a record, so that i don’t feel worried about how I do or don’t fit in with what my peers are doing. Any time someone says “you are just like so and so” I start to buck against it, and I would rather not have to think about that. That said, I do think that the whole journey of pop between the 50s to the 70s was particularly fascinating, they were inventing pop as they went along. It was a flowering of youth culture. Now the record is done I have my ears open a bit more, and I’m finding myself interested in new things, well new to me anyway. I really fell in love with Fever Ray, Planningtorock and iamamiwhoami, so that’s got me thinking about doing something more electronic. Perhaps as a collaboration with someone. I have a few friends in mind that I’d like to work with, we’ll see what the next year brings.”
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
“That’s a dangerous game to start playing! How about, I’d like to be able to play drums really well. I had some lessons and I love it. Maybe by the time I’m 80 I’ll have it mastered.”
The long player took a few years to create due to ‘life and money getting in the way’, you had to go to some extreme measures to raise the money such as scouring e bay to buy bargains you would then sell on for profit, like the ultra rare auto harp you made a tidy £1500 on! Was there a point when you really gave up, what drove you on?
“Not wanting to sound negative or anything, but it was really quite hard just to keep the faith. We had some dark times, and It’s hard to trust that anyone will ever hear what you are making. I think there are very few people who are honest about how scary it is trying to do something like this as a career. I’m never sure if I’m just deluding myself about my own talents. *Touch wood* things are going ok now, but you know how life is, it’s a funny old journey sometimes.”
The track and remixes that has grabbed DMC is Black Doe and in particular the remix from Young Edits. Very balearic, very chilled, very Back To Mine. Who was responsible for choosing the remixers – what was your favourite mix?
“I love the spaced out vibe of the Young Edits mix, it’s kind of psych in a totally different way to what we do. Kevin McKay suggested him, and Slow Waves and Small Pyramids. I’ve wanted to do something with Jape for ages, we’ve just only got around to it. I love the way he’s almost made it into a new song, took it somewhere that’s the total opposite of the original. It’s light and dreamy where Doe is nightmarish.”
What is your history with clubbing, where might we have found you in the middle of the dancefloor over time?
“Haha! I’ve never been much of a clubber, I was straightedge for most of my teens/early 20s when all the rest of my mates were out dressing up and hitting the clubs, and I was being an indie kid, at gigs, with cropped turquoise hair and a nose-ring. I really love dancing though, need no excuse whatsoever. I’m often found after gigs busting out the bad Beyonce moves with my band member and friend Helene. All fine until you can’t walk upstairs the next day.”
No favourite DJs then?
“Pirate Wogan.”
Ahem. You claim you wanted every song on the album to have it’s own story. So talk us through the album for those who haven’t picked up a copy yet?
“Ok, so what I meant by that was that I didn’t want to do a “one size fits all” approach, so I wanted to let one song be empty, one be lush, chuck out the drums one one, add more drums on another, not be held in by rules. I do have stories, settings in my head for some of them, ‘Six Kisses’ and ‘Those Nights’ are both inspired by the Czech Republic, the landscape there is so magical to me. For ‘Trimmed Wing’ I had this image in my head of a soldier in the first world war, in the trenches, being haunted by a medeival army. ‘Black Doe’ is about the wild wood, and the things that live in it.”
What is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for you?
“Put his own music aside for years to make this record with me.”
How did you and Will Twynham meet in the first place?
“We lucked out, we’re the two biggest Beach Boys nerds in our little Hertfordshire market town, and we stumbled across each other. I walked into the pub he worked in as a barman, and demanded to know who was responsible for playing Captain Beefheart. He asked if I’d heard of Gene Clark, and I responded that I’d just bought a 7 cd box set. It was a mixtape courtship after that.”
Dead or alive, which five famous people would you invite round to dinner?
“Ramases, a guy from Sheffield who had a messianic conversion and realised he was the reincarnation of the egyptian god. He made two fantastic albums, and just seemed totally fascinating. Ken Campbell, an incredible actor who pioneered the idea of Melanesian Pidgin english as the ideal international language. He’s well worth a google, was quite a character. I always wanted to meet him but sadly he’s gone through the fourth wall. Jobriath, the world’s first out gay pop star. I’m a big fan. Mike Love of the Beach Boys. He’s like the ultimate villain, and I’d love to hear his side of the story. I bet he’d be hilarious company. Colin Blunstone from The Zombies. That way I can lobby him to let me sing with him, or maybe write him a song. His voice is wonderful, maybe even better now than it was in the 60s.”
The album was recorded in some bizarre locations. Snowed in, in a barn in Norfolk, above a brothel in Berlin and in the blazing sunshine of Los Angeles. What is your favourite story relating to the recording of ‘Dream Life’.
“Sadly the record got as far as LA (some of the mix was done there) and we didn’t. We made most of it either at home, or in this great studio in the middle of nowhere in Norfolk, where we had to use the outside shower and toilet despite freezing conditions. Then we leapfrogged over to Berlin for a few days to record the brass. I guess that not having much money, doing lots of things on favours means you have to think very creatively!”
You admit influences for the album come from art, film, history and nature. What is the last great film and book you have enjoyed?
“The last book that really captured my imagination was non-fiction, it’s called “The Last Forest” and it’s about a place near me, Hatfield Forest, it’s actually the place that inspired Black Doe. It’s the best preserved medieval hunting forest in the world, and I know it like the back of my hand. Reading the history of the place is fascinating to me, as you suddenly have a context for things you thought you knew all about. Hidden things and little secrets. Lovely place. The last film that I really enjoyed was “Dean Spanley”. It’s quite esoteric and eccentric, it’s about a guy who can remember his previous incarnation as a dog. It’s very charming and quite understated.”
What is the greatest album in your collection?
“I can’t answer that! I could probably break it down to a top 10 if i was forced to. Top favourites are Dennis Wilson’s ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’, Gene Clark’s ‘No Other’, ‘Present Tense’ by Sagittarius, etc etc etc…”
What have the next few months in store for you tour wise…
“Just confirming lots of dates now! Really looking forward to playing everywhere. I have a bit of a thing about trying to really experience a bit of the place you are playing, rather than just seeing the inside of the venue and a van. Ideally I’d like to eat the regional food, and then go to the nearest nature reserve. I’m easily pleased.
And finally, what did your brother Paul think of the finished album…
“I think he likes it, but you’d have to ask him. We’re not really in each other’s pockets when it comes to music.”
Thank you Mary. Appreciate your time x
“It’s a pleasure! Thanks for listening. x”
