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 It’s been too long since we’ve heard from the post punk
popsters the Rapture. They released their debut full length album Echoes in
2003 to critical acclaim, then disappeared for three years touring and of
course recording new material. The New
York four-piece are now back on the scene with their
new record Pieces of The People We Love. Bassist Matt Safer talks us through it.
So, when did you get stuck in to the actual recording of the
album?
The actual recording started in February and we did about
five weeks in February and March, then we did another two at the end of March
and April and those ones were in Los
Angeles
Before that you had been gigging for about two years, what
was it like for the band once the touring stopped?
It had been a lot of work, in a row, I mean touring’s hard.
You spend a lot of time playing shows and being up at night, travelling, you
just lose touch with what reality is.
Even to be creative in any sort of way is interesting. In order for us to write any music, we all
had to stop being in the band for a little while and living that way on the
road. So what I did during that time was
I actually came to Europe for a lot of it because I felt like I’d spent a lot
of time here but not really seen what many of the cities were like for than a
day or two. So I came over and I did some Deejaying and did a little bit of
collaborating on music with like other people outside the band. Basically doing what I liked doing before
touring.
Did you have any ideas about what you wanted to achieve with
this album?
With this album, there were.. after two years of touring
everyone had taken some time off and being apart, everybody came in with a lot
of different ideas about what they wanted to do and what they wanted the music
that we were making to sound like. All of it was good, but all of it very much
all over, you know, all kinda different.
So this was really just us sitting and playing together and through
playing together really allowing everyone to do what they wanted at first.. It
became really fun to play together again and we sort of developed this sense of
camaraderie and responsibility. Like, for example I was singing a lot more and
was given a lot more space to try out sh*t on the microphone and that was
really fun and it brought something to the ideas of what I wanted to do with
that and what worked with what everyone else was already playing. It was a very
creative thing in that sense because everybody pushed themselves very hard but
also bringing backing to the things we thought we were good at doing. We were having a lot of fun and I think it
comes across. I think it’s kind of a party record, I like think that it pushes
things a little further, we’re taking a lot more chances. I think it’s got more
funk than the last record.
How did you hook up with Gorillaz producer and Gnarls
Barkley’s Danger Mouse?
Danger Mouse was an acquaintance from when we dejayed at
some events with him through the process of the last album, like at things
where he was dejaying and we were playing. I think through that we knew that he
was a good guy and we liked him, we got along and he had a good sense of
humour. We were in the middle of the writing process and we were starting to
figure out who we were going to work with in the studio, because we felt like
our ideas were strong a focused, but we wanted to bring in someone who would be
able to take a little bit of the outside perspective on it and maybe really
hone the focus more. With him we found
out he was doing the Gorillaz thing and we thought ‘that’s sort of
interesting’, then we heard a little bit of it and seemed good. We sent him
some music and he liked a few of the songs, like he felt like he wanted to be a
part of them. I think that was the main thing. He really wanted to work on some
of it and that level of enthusiasm just made it seem natural.
Did you pick your producers with a specific sound or idea in
mind?
When we picked the producers, both Paul and Ewan on the one
side and Danger Mouse on the other side, we were looking for people that we
felt like we had a common musical language with. At the starting point we didn’t want to have
to sit there trying to explain what we wanted, why things worked the way they
worked, why they sound the way they sounded, going through playing references
and things like that. We wanted it to be people who got it from the start.
Individually, everybody’s a little bit different but the understanding is
there. Beyond that, they’re easy people to get along with and they make good
music.
Was Paul Epworth an obvious choice given his indie-disco
vibe that he’s helmed for bands like the Futureheads, Bloc Party, etc.
I think if we didn’t know Paul beforehand, he was our
soundman before he was producing records very much. You know, I like the
Futurehead’s record and I think if we hadn’t known him personally we would have
definitely had to meet him. I think I might have been scared off a little bit
by that, the fact that he did work with these other groups that were
perceptionalised pretty close to use, but not necessarily what we’re looking
to. I like those records, I think he’s
done good on them, but I think also knowing him, knowing what he likes, and
having that musical background of sitting in vans and on trains with him and
talking about music. Paul was a very natural choice more because of our
friendship with him than because of his body of work, though the fact that he’s
been good sealed it.
Their new single Get Myself Into It is out on 21 August
followed by the album, Pieces of The People We Love, on 4 September
For more info: www.therapturemusic.com
Words: Helen Duong
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