The Phantom Band were kind enough to take time out (in-between loading the tour van and catching their breath), after their barnstorming set at Fat Sam’s supporting Frightened Rabbit, to speak to me about their relationship with Chemikal Underground, the groups dynamic, their inspirations and enlighten us on the illusive origin regarding the title of their outstanding debut ‘Checkmate Savage’.
The album continues to garner wonderful reception and accolades – since going on to renowned Scottish blogger Peenko’s curated inaugural Scottish Blogger and Music Site Award 2009 AKA The ‘BAMS’ – an amalgamated vote by 30 or so Scottish music writers and bloggers (including Jockrock). The vote was open to albums from the world over, but united the Scottish press enough to leave the Phantom Band top of the pile, lording it over likes of the Animal Collective and The XX.
Craig Harkness – We’re here outside Fat Sam’s after a glorious gig for The Phantom Band, and a sold out gig…
The Phantom Band – For Frightened Rabbit (self-deprecating tone)…we’re maybe about 11.5% of the ticket sales.
CH – Can you tell me how you ended up on this tour with Frightened Rabbit, did you know them before this, do you respect them?
TPB – No We never knew them before, we’d obviously heard their music…them, ‘Tune Up’ and PCL were putting together a tour and apparently they personally asked for us, they’re really good guys, hopefully we’ll do stuff with them again…
CH – You’ve been quite modest, saying everyone’s here to see Frightened Rabbit, what’s the reception been like across the board…?
TPB – It’s been a fairly good response, we’ve had some good feedback, particularly the Stirling one and the Inverness one to an extent, not a split crowd but the crowd were there for both of us…I think tonight it was pretty much Frightened Rabbit’s crowd.
CH – they seemed very respectful, and it was a very positive response.
TPB – I think people who are into Frightened Rabbit are going to be open to other kinds of music, and respectful to a band who are playing and are doing their best…
CH – When you say a certain kind of music, I’d say you bridge a gap between really quite esoteric, avant-garde influences and indie-rock pop elements, which is distilled in your debut album Checkmate Savage – what’s your background: how did you all meet and forge this sound…?
TPB – We kind of know each other through various sort of random connections, we just got together playing music in Glasgow, it’s just ’cause we all like a lot of different kinds of music and we’re all quite stubborn – we really want to put across our own ideas of what we want music to be, and because we’ve all got slightly different ideas of how that is, we have to make compromises along the way to each other and it ends up being this thing that we pop out…
CH- Your sound really is quite a hard things to categorise – which is no bad thing, the closest reference points seems to be southern American blues, psychedelic electronica in there and all sorts and I think it comes across in a really neat package…
So who was it recorded with… (Is the name an aside to the producer), or is the name as suggested online related to sociological overtones…)
TPB – It’s not named after Paul Savage, it’s to do with the human animal…the impending doom extermination of the human being (checkmate for the human animal); it actually reflects our love for the game of chess (it’s also a voicemail message we left for producer Paul Savage…that I don’t won’t to go into), there’s a variety of rich and humorous reasons why it’s called ‘Checkmate Savage’…
CH – Is there a jam-band element to your music with all your various sounds converging?
TPB – We are a jam band, it’s pretty much what we are, that’s what’s fun.
CH – What about in an artistic and literary sense, (I know a few of you are artists) how much do exterior elements come into play, out with the music in terms of an influence on what you produce?
TPB – I don’t know whether like, the fact that you’re an artist necessarily… I guess it implies that you’re a creative person so that means ideas aren’t hard to come by when your in a band, but I think the main thing of how we come up with ideas is the fact that, yeah there’s artists; but there’s also like layers and social workers…I don’t think Greg for instance defines himself as a social worker…(comical consternations regarding definition of character relating to vocation ensues…)
CH – You’re obviously signed to Chemikal Underground, one of the most prestigious and fervent supporters of Scottish underground talent, they have some amazing artists on their roster…how did this come about, how did they end up signing you…what’s your relationship like with them?
TB – (after some jesting surrounding their penchant for stalking Stewart Henderson…) – They’re all good people, and we recorded a few demos with Paul Savage at Chem19; I think he liked us, and they came along to the launch of our single ‘Throwing Bones’ initially released through a small London based label called Trial and Error, pretty much off the back of attending the single launch they asked us to come and make a record with them…we really like them because they really like music more than making money, I think we’re like that too (cue Rick Anthony proclaiming his money grabbing capitalist tendencies in opposition to Andy’s aforementioned notion, to much hilarity including some novel if violent merchandising marketing ideas arising).
CH – (As the first chords of ‘The Modern Leper’ kick in…the interview is hastened somewhat…) The Phantom Band I’m assuming came from the fact that in your early incarnations, you almost gave the promoters carte blanche to name you…
TPB – I think we did once or twice…they weren’t allowed to use the f-word or the c-word…there was maybe two gigs were we did that, the rest we just sort of made them up usually on the way there, it wasn’t as clever as you’d imagine, at the time we weren’t thinking lets be really kooky and zany and be like really cool… it came from a combination of boredom and disorganisation…the name sort of described what we’d been doing I suppose, before that.
CH- It seem apt due to the fact that you eschew identifiable musical boundaries…
TPB – A Happy Accident… what’s in a name? (Rick Anthony)…You earn it that’s what I think (Andy Wake)
As the interview descends into madness, interlinking tales of their secret hermaphrodite tendencies and the parallels between Weimar-Germany and the demise of Woolworths, I bid farewell to these most entertaining and hospitable characters to catch Frightened Rabbit’s stellar set back in the venue, safe in the knowledge (straight from the horses mouth) that the new records is shaping-up nicely and due to take a bhangra-dubstep-funk direction mixed with mainstream pop taking its cue from the UK grime scene along the way…let’s hope they can live up to their promise and deliver an even more eclectic if confounding opus.