Interview with David from Chaffinch Records

Everyone knows there's no money in hit 7" singles...why would someone take it upon themselves to press a seven inch at all, especially when they don't have a personal stake in it, when it's not even their band? Because they love the music and the format....more than they do making money.
It pretty much doesn't happen anywhere else...sure in the direct arts, painting, playing music etc...but in manufacturing something almost selfishly like a 7"...I can't really think of another example of willing something into the world just because you appreciate the artist behind it. It is because you had some revelation putting the needle on the record when you were 15? That probably has something to do with it.

I talked to David from the Scottish label, Chaffinch Records this week for the podcast, which you can download here.

Tracks from Chaffinch Records included in the interview are Sancho - You're my Lemonade from the Close Your eyes split single and another artists on Chaffinch Burnt Island - Between the bars an Elliott Smith cover.

Close your eyes EP on Chaffinch Records

Another one from the batch from Chaffinch Records, another 4-way split from various artists with connections to this nontraditional folk/indie label.

'This Side' starts out with a track from the Stevenson Ranch Davidians; Let it all go. It's a folky psychedelic track, heavy on production, it takes a lot of isolated recording gear to catch the huge group of players here. They're adding various drone wavery touches and meandering solos to their huge clean sound. The vocals are a Stone Roses vision of California, heavy on effects and creating that mellow jam out in the rehearsal space with tapestries hanging on the wall and candles burning. A safe kind of freakout with friends, holding hands. It's going to be OK.

'Birds of St Marks' is next from James William Hindle and Calvin Halladay, taking on the Jackson Brown song about Nico, (I think). Layering their vocals over picked acoustic and organ, it's a semi intimate affair. A pretty faithful tribute of the original stripping it down further and giving it that S&G harmonization without the hating each other part (I think).

'That side' is 'Molly May' from Rich Amino who I think is also Richard Anderson who lists mistakes among his contributions to this track, but the massive production on this one sounds otherwise, they are buried under the layers of vocals and full band sound. Mostly crafted together as this one man project, it's big band sort of English Hayden with stream of consciousness, folk vocals involving bumble bees.

'Your my lemonade' from Sancho is a cut up, experimental DJ sounding piece, with shakers, staccato bell sounds, all kinds of percussion which give it a sort of demented parade carnival feel. A massive array of instrumentation all chopped together sparingly. Xylophone, and electronics piecing together sliced apart rhythms. As the song progresses it seems to get progressively organic to complete deconstruction. It all into a low backwards sample and disappears off the A-Side.

It's a sampler of various directions the label has taken over the years, they're letting you know they aren't so tied to a particular genre that you ever know exactly what the next track is going to sound like.

Get it from Chaffinch, who is going to have to ship these from thousands of miles away. No one said loving singles was going to be easy.

Doug (still single) gives it a review here.

The Whisper EP on Chaffinch Records

Chaffinch sent in a batch of singles and this one happens to be their very first release, a collection of Scottish experimental indie folk that I haven't seen covered too many places. Chaffinch is doing what Fort Lowell and hundreds before them; documenting an under represented scene in their own backyard. I can't say that I've encountered any of these artists before and this EP is a perfect introduction to the label's ideology and some of the contemporary talent out of Scotland. The lonely dog on the front sleeve painting with a cone collar finally has a home.
South Downs kicks it off with layers of harmonized vocals and acoustic guitar with a sunny background swell of la la's, it's an upbeat tune about heartbreak. Lucky Luke, who's also featured on this EP actually brought this home recorded project over to Chaffinch for inclusion on this single. It's firmly rooted in the classic songwriters of '60s folk pop, simple melodies and pop sentiment, but it's still modern enough to put it hesitantly into a neo-folk category.

Immigrant, aka Graeme McNab, reminds me of the intimate bedroom recordings of the Canadian 4 tracker, Hayden. Just breathy vocals against a lonesome organ, it's the simplest setup like that he uses to great effect. It's a brief moment of closeness that makes the lack of info on this artist even more mysterious. A standout minimal track that warrants further investigation if he hasn't given up the songwriting game all together.

Next up, is 'Please Bomb Slough' from Lucky Luke, this B-Side track takes a bossanova rhythm and applies a psyche folk feel with this eclectic 6 piece, though not a song to inspire bombing exactly...you might second guess the whole thing if you were listening to this mellow saxophone, flute and bouzouki (I wiki'd is sort of a Greek sitar) number. They somehow manage to tame this massive arrangement into catchy pop with guy/girl vocals from Simon Shaw and Morag Wilson. They actually recently released a full length on the prolific Mexican Summer label and I could see them getting along nicely with MV + EE.

King Creosote rounds out the EP with another track exclusive to this release with an acoustic/ electric slide guitar melody over a brushed snare rhythm...it's chugging right along as a sort of extended intro or chorus part with a repeated vocal melody that just slowly fades out on this slice of indie folk happening in Scotland.

Get it from Chaffinch Records. No US distro as far as I can tell, so you'll have to special order this import from somewhere local or contact them directly.
A shame really.

Haggis.

La Muenca de Sal & Anthony Reynolds -Blues for Bobby Solo- on Chaffinch records

Chaffinch records was kind enough to contact me a few weeks back and airmail this single over from from Anthony Reynolds and La Muenca de Sal from halfway across the world to 7Inches headquarters.
There's a long line of singer/songwriters who make their way through the changes and trends of the contemporary musical landscape and stick to their definitive style and vision with an endless streaming supply of material. Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits or Scott Walker, who Anthony admittedly shares his aesthetic went as far as to write a definitive biography of the enigmatic singer, they all have an idiosyncratic musical point of view and honestly don't seem like they have much use for a popular audiences approval. They have accolades enough from their peers and basically wrote their own way into the scene by sheer will power and this purely personal vision.
The AA Side 'It's a Wonderful Life' really provides a backdrop for Anthony's baritone machismo, sounding like Peter Murphy or recent era Bowie. It's a produced dark superstar vocal style...it's Bono in the desert wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses in front of a windmachine. It's songs about black coffee, getting drunk one night stands...in a mysterious foreign cafe. It's all a little unclear, at times it's bordering depressing, but done a pop style, maybe that's the point...that opposition of seemingly upbeat tempo's against the tragedy. Even a little claustrophobic at times, he's singing right on top of you, smothering the listeners, mixed way on top of the instrumentation which is barely there. Anthony's vocals are clearly the spotlight from his menacing whisper to belting out a chorus.
'Be my next ex-girlfriend' goes a little electronic with subtle piercing percussion clicks, against a classical piano...th subject is a typical failed romance, it starts out under the wrong circumstances and is helped along by alcohol and bad decisions...I don't know who's worse off, the narrator, or the girl who maybe doesn't see it coming. The fact they're both kind of OK with the arrangement is even more depressing. But you wouldn't know it from the groove. Anthony seems to be trying to get some kind of pleasure out of playing out the misfortune of all his characters.

Puzzlingly, the insert, which I thought were lyrics to one of the tracks here, is actually from a forthcoming book of poetry... he can't stop....whatever form his work is going to take...I'm always amazed at the crazy stories behind every lowly piece of 7" vinyl pressed out there.

Available from Chaffinch Records.