If Wings were “the band the Beatles could have been” then, in an admittedly different universe, The Unwinding Hours have a similar legacy to live up to and, as necessary, ignore, play down or obliterate.
From their beginning as stablemates to Biffy Clyro though the highs (er, is this music? issue 4 cover stars as well as rave reviews in the ‘rock’ press) and the lows (a general wearing-down by the constant industry gigging/recording/gigging life cycle), Aereogramme provided a legacy-and-a-half for its former members to live up to. Even after their demise in 2007, there was the ‘Barriers’ video, which soundtracked a TV job website campaign, and conceivably introduced the band to an audience larger than ever before.
But that’s in the past now. And in the past it must remain. Now frontman Craig B and guitarist Iain Cook are back as The Unwinding Hours. Answering the questions: Craig B…
Do you find it odd that there’s a fair amount of adulation for the new album which Aereogramme didn’t always seem to get?
Could it just be that this has come at the right time, or is it that the new stuff is that much more accessible?
Actually, Aereogramme did get a lot of great press. We were the type of smaller band that people wanted to champion so if we were going to get written about it was usually by a writer that was as frustrated with the music industry as we were and so wanted to write good things about us. The Unwinding Hours have had a great reaction here in Scotland (and Germany) and I think that has a lot to do with groundwork done by Aereogramme and yes, probably because it’s also more accessible.
I suppose the success of the ‘Barriers’ video can’t have hurt. Were there any thoughts of “oh, if we’d kept going 12 months or so more…”
Not at all. I don’t think anyone regrets splitting the band up because it had certainly run its course. We put everything we possibly could into (final album) My Heart Has A Wish… and it didn’t change our circumstances so by the end of that album cycle we had had enough of hitting our heads against the wall. If we had still been around when we got the advert, I don’t think it would have made a massive difference.
Did you personally feel that you might chuck music after Aereogramme, or did you always know that you’d carry on i.e. it was a planned hiatus?
There were no plans at all, not even for starting up The Unwinding Hours. I didn’t touch my guitar for over a year and then as things in my life changed I started to write. I knew I would start writing again, I just needed something to write about and then one month I just felt the need to write and it all came back.
I had written a lot of the demos for the last Aereogramme album around 2005 and I started writing properly again in 2008 so there was certainly a dry spell !
You’re working again with Iain of course – were you as likely to have worked solo, or could you have ended up doing stuff with Campbell or Martin if the planets had aligned differently?
It was always the four of us writing in Aereogramme. Everyone played their part. Martin had moved to London and Campbell was working with bands on tour all the time so it was just a case of them not being around when I started to record the demos with Iain. In fact Iain and I never intended to start up a band, he just slowly began to collaborate on the demos I was writing because it was something we always used to do. I don’t like working on my own anyway. I really enjoy collaborating and Iain has always been a good musical sparring partner.
So will you do solo shows, or shows with the 2 of you ‘stripped back’?
I might do the odd acoustic gig here and there but The Unwinding Hours live needs a full band and is much better that way. I can’t see any reason right now to do anything stripped back.
Were you consciously aware of trying to pursue some sort of new direction – on record there’s more space, even more of an acoustic feel in places – or was that inevitable given the lineup?
There are only two tracks on the album that use an acoustic guitar so I don’t think it has more of an acoustic feel but yes, I would agree there is maybe more space on certain songs. I can never get away from my love of dynamics and that has carried over into The Unwinding Hours. It may not be as extreme as Aereogramme was but certain songs on the UH album are very quiet but some are epic. In “There Are Worse Things Than Being Alone” you get both extremes!
It’s obvious that you still enjoy ‘noise’ as well as the more delicate aspects of song creation (especially from the live show). Did you imagine, when you were writing songs for the new album, that you’d eventually end up in a rock band again?
We really didn’t look ahead. We just wrote what we wanted and then we would work it out later. So once the album was finished and we were asked to do our first gig at Celtic Connections we knew we had to get a band together. We use some of Glasgow’s finest session musicians who are also good friends so it has worked out well.
And is there any danger that you could fall into the ‘traps’ that were the reasons for Aereogramme splitting?
I doubt it. Aereogramme toured constantly and said yes to every support slot we could get but we can’t do that and don’t really want to either. The way the music industry is right now, it would make no sense to try and go out on the road and play everywhere to somehow make the band a success. That would be a financial and personal disaster. I’m happy to take our time slowly writing and releasing music when the time is right. And playing where and when we can.
The Unwinding Hours’ debut album is out now on Chemikal Underground. The band play at Aberdeen’ Tunnels, supported by Katerwaul, on Friday 21st May (an Interesting Music promotion in conjunction with Tigerfest 2010)
www.theunwindinghours.co.uk