Whilst our fourth album Television's People is being mixed, I thought I'd try and explain the thinking behind it. Making albums is a constant learning process. When we made our first, The Solar Hi-Fi System, I hadn't a clue what you were supposed to do! So I just threw the kitchen sink at it. Our second, The Black Hole, was intentionally the polar opposite. Stripped down and played live. By Funny Times, we started to get our heads around what we wanted to do. Make a 'proper' album and then spiral off in different musical directions. We have always been in the middle of two mindsets. On the one hand, we want to make music that is accessible to everyone. Songs that people can sing and dance to. And on the other, we want to experiment with as many different genres of music as we can. As an obsessive record collector, I just want to hear something I haven't heard before. A constant search! And that doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be modern. For hidden in the cracks of the last musical century are incredible records that sound completely futuristic. For instance, Raymond Scott's electronic music, Moondog's rhythms, Harry Partch's home made microtonal instruments. And there are masses of less well known albums that truly sound like nothing else.
A couple of years ago, I got into Library Music. For those unaware of it's existance, it is music that is composed purely for the purpose of being used in movies, adverts, tv programmes etc. Library music isn't composed for a particular movie or tv programme, but is composed with a style or mood in mind. Composers would be commissioned by music libraries to compose, perform and record these pieces of music. The composer would then sell the music to the music library who, in turn, would licence the music out to film and TV producers. There's a lot of it, and some of it is quite strange! My favourite library music composer is called Roger Roger (his real name!). Though born in 1911, he was still making amazing music in his sixties. Amazing beats, melodies and electronics.
This new obsession heavily influenced Television's People. And because the concept of the album is about being unable to leave the house and being completely taken over by the television, it all seemed to fit together. The songs are more beat driven and we've even tried out the occasional odd time signature. But not in a muso way!
Promise!
Anyway, we can't wait for you to hear it. Our hope is that in time, we might start to make some sense! If you'd like to hear some library music, there's a good mp3 blog www.vintagelibraryemporium.blogspot.com
End of lecture,
Grandmaster Gareth