It’s a win-win situation. Artist releases record, lazy journalist gets them to describe ‘in their own words’ each tune – a ‘track-by-track’ guide, if you like. Artist beavers away busily, journalist puts up feet and waits for his work to be done for him.
So imagine my disappointment when RM Hubbert informed me that he had agreed to do a track-by-track for some other publication. Ach well. Lazy sods anyway.
Hubby, as he’s known, was formerly a member of El Hombre Trajeado, one of Glasgow’s top post-rock acts of the early noughties, but after something of a hiatus, he’s re-emerged and reinvented himself – still a guitarist, but rather than the jagged hooks of El Hombre, he’s now solo, acoustic, and playing what one itm? scribe aptly described as ‘post flamenco’. However, as that tag implies, it’s far from acoustic in the traditional sense, with the tattooed axe wrangler (cheers) having developed what seems like a unique percussive style which augments the delicate and complex melodies.
Indeed, it almost seems like he’s filling in for the ‘missing’ bass and drums. Perhaps he’s subconsciously missing his band, and the fact that his second solo effort, Thirteen Lost and Found includes collaborations with a remarkable range of artists backs this up.
“It’s more like eight different bands!” he laughs. “I did miss collaborating with others, particularly Stevie (Jones, El Hombre’s bassist).
“I approached this album in a very similar way to how I approach being in a band,” he continues, “namely that everything was written collaboratively. I wanted to avoid having it as ‘RM Hubbert plus guests’. That would have been a huge waste of everyone’s talents.”
Debut First & Last is a well-documented ‘coping mechanism’ following some dark personal times. Flying very much solo, it seems like this new, sophomore effort, is a way of welcoming a new, more outgoing Hubby back into the indie fold.
“The idea behind Thirteen Lost & Found was actually an extension of what I tried to do with First & Last,” he says. “I thought that it would be easier to reconnect with some old friends by writing music with them rather than having an awkward ‘so what have you been up to for the last 10 years?’ meeting. After the first few, I figured that it might work as a way of getting to know some of my newer friends better as well.”
Unlike his debut, Thirteen Lost and Found is only partly instrumental, the tunes perhaps governed by the collaborator – ‘Switches Part 2’ a solo guitar piece not dissimilar to those on the first release, but ‘Car Song’, and ‘The False Bride’, given that they are joint efforts with Aidan Moffat and Alasdair Roberts, contain lyrics of the personal, confessional variety you might expect.
“The album as a whole is about relationships,” he confirms. “That was the only guidance I gave to any of the others. I was very keen to try and capture the rekindling of our relationships in the music. To that end, I didn’t prepare any music in advance of our first meetings. Each of the collaborative pieces on the album are basically as they were at the end of those first days.”
There’s a mini-tour kicking off with two launch shows which feature a fair few of the thirteen-strong team appearing – but unsurprisingly, “logistics” mean no live band tour.
“There are 13 collaborators on the album so touring it with all of them is financially difficult. Add in the fact that they are all separately touring musicians as well and it becomes impossible. It’s taken three months to coordinate one show!”
And aside from reuniting these old friendships it’s been a cathartic experience: “Writing with these people has been a great experience, it definitely had a positive effect on my psyche,” he says. “To be honest, that is my primary reason for writing music these days. I’m just not that driven to create music for the sake of it anymore.”
But create he has, with an effort that even so early in the year will figure on a few best of lists come December 2012. And in doing so, Hubby has continued the process that his debut kicked off.
“First & Last really helped me communicate better and Thirteen Lost & Found has helped me reconnect with and make some great friends. I’m looking forward to the day when I don’t need to rely on music to do these things. I don’t think that will happen too soon though.”
And so, we come to the ‘list’ element of the piece – a collaborator-by-collaborator run-through of the crew who helped Hubby put together Thirteen Lost and Found.
Alex Kapranos
I want to include Alex in this as his contribution as producer was massively important. Alex and I have been friends for the last 20 years but as with everyone else involved, I had lost touch with him. We met up again last year and immediately picked up the friendship. Putting such an eclectic record together was a daunting task for me so having Alex’s support and guidance was invaluable. Also, that man can cook!
Luke Sutherland (‘We Radioed’)
I was a huge fan of Luke’s band, Long Fin Killie, in the nineties. We met through some mutual friends and got on really well but hadn’t written any music together until this. We actually wrote and recorded a different piece to We Radioed for the album but it wasn’t sitting correctly with the rest of the record. We Radioed was a mostly improvised piece that we did in the studio.
Aidan Moffat & Alex Kapranos (‘Car Song’)
Aidan and I met in the mid nineties. I was a big fan of Arab Strap and had put shows on for them around that time. I honestly think that Aidan is one of the finest lyricists of our generation and a genuinely lovely guy as well. Alex added the melodica near the end of the song.
Marion Kenny & Hanna Tuulikki (‘Sunbeam Melts the Hour’)
I’ve only known Marion and Hanna for a couple of years.
I first met Marion at an improvised music event that we were both participating in. We immediately clicked, both musically and personally. I think I asked her if she wanted to collaborate there and then.
Hanna and I knew each other through Alasdair Roberts. I really like her band Two Wings and thought that her voice would work really well with the piece that Marion and I had been writing.
Stevie Jones & Paul Savage (‘Sandwalks’)
Stevie and I were in El Hombre Trajeado for 10 years but hadn’t really done much since. I missed writing with him, simple as that!
I’ve known Paul for a long time but we had never worked together. He was recording the album so I used the opportunity to bully him into playing the percussive parts as well.
Emma Pollock & Rafe Fitzpatrick (‘Half Light’)
Emma is another old friend that I had never had the chance to write with. I loved The Delgados and both of her solo albums so it was a no brainer. I met Rafe through Howie and Shane from Tattie Toes. He’s one of the few people I know that I can talk to about both programming and obscure music! Plus, he’s an incredible violinist.
Shane Connolly, Alex Kapranos & Michael John McCarthy (‘Hungarian Notation’)
Shane and I have been friends since the early nineties when our early bands would do shows together. He has an incredible sense of rhythm and dynamics. A real pleasure to play with.
I met Michael John via his band, Zoey Van Goey. One of the genuinely lovely people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. His understated accordion on this piece is beautiful.
Alex added some vibraphone whilst we were recording. I’ve always loved Alex’s ability to pick up any random instrument and produce something mesmerising. A little jealous too, maybe.
Alasdair Roberts (‘The False Bride’)
Ali and I were actually neighbours for many years but were both too intimidated by each other to say hello! We became great friends after my marriage ended and Ali very kindly let me stay at his place. Ali had actually recorded this song previously but had recently found the hand written lyrics that his father had given him with an extra verse. I wrote some new music for it in the studio.
John Ferguson (‘Gus Am Bris An Latha’)
John played drums, banjo and various other things in the brilliant Foxface. I really liked the way that he would play banjo in a very non banjoey way. We met properly a few years ago at one of my first ever Will Play For Food shows and hit it off. Lovely man.
Thirteen Lost and Found is launched on Friday 27th January at Glasgow’s Stereo. Guests include Aidan Moffat, Alasdair Roberts, Emma Pollock, John Ferguson, Marion Kenny, Hanna Tuulikki, Shane Connolly, Rafe Fitzpatrick and Michael John McCarthy, and there’s a London launch at King’s Place the following week with a smaller subset of the thirteen in attandence.
More at www.chemikal.co.uk or www.rmhubbert.com
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