From: Rosario (rosario@hawknet.com.au)


Published in Drum Media, 2nd December,1997  Sydney,Australia.

SONGS FROM WESTERN AMERICA
Interview by Michael Dwyer.

Norman Blake doesn't have a clue. Sure he's heard the Radiohead album a few
dozen times -chiefly because Teenage Fanclub have just opened for them
coast to coast across America- but beyond that, his knowledge of current
chart fodder is less than complete. What kind of fanclub is this?

"I cannae listen to the radio anymore 'cause my daughter's two and whenever
we're driving she freaks out if she can't listen to Madeline's Greatest
Hits!" he explains in his colourful Glasgow lilt. " You know the Madeline
cartoon with Christopher Plummer doing the narration? I could sing you
every line from that, but I couldn't tell you what the new Kylie and Manic
Street Preachers single sounds like"

Maybe it's just as well. Teenage Fanclub have always pursued Some Other
Kind of Bliss entirely,a lond way from the concerns which envelop the most
fashionable ends of the British music scene in any given month. Even at the
height of 1995's Battle of Britpop, Blake, Raymond McGinley, Gerard Love,
and Paul Quinn managed to stay well clear of the beat up and backlash media
circus- despite dropping Grand Prix, one of the greater British records of
the past decade, in the middle of the warzone.

" I think we have been fortunate in that we've never been affiliated to any
movement or style of music," Blake says. "We've tended to be friendly with
bands like Sonic Youth and Nirvana, although we've never made their kind of
music. American punk-affiliated music. We've always been on the periphery
of several different scenes.

"If you keep doing your own thing your time will come eventually, that's
the way I look at it. You develop your craft,you hone what you do. At the
very least, people see that you're honest in what you're doing and I think
they respond to that."

Songs From Northern Britain is the Fannie's fifth long-playing exercise in
classic songcraft. As usual,it divides it's tuneful pleasures between three
equally gifted writers- Blake, McGinley and Love- which tends to ensure
mutual inspiration,stiff competition and hence lofty standards.

"We enjoyed this one a bit more (than Grand Prix) in the sense that we got
to really embellish the songs. I'm really pleased with the result. We spent
a lot on vocals on this record. It's something we like doing,building up
harmonies,making them a bit more intricate. We thought 'Lets just go the
whole hog on this. Let's see how far we can take it'."

The answer comes in spades from the opening verse of Start Again. The depth
of the vocal harmony is the album's most striking feature, a layered choral
approach which blows out to 14 voices on it's most elaborate track, Aint
That Enough. The overall feel is enough to make you wonder whether Songs
from Western America might not have been a more appropriate title.

" The bands that you tend to associate wit big harmonies are The Byrds and
The Beach Boys, that west coast sound," Blake agrees. "And thats definitely
influential, we do listen to those people, but hopefully we've developed a
sound which is our own as well. I think we have."

"If anything's got a great melody it doesn't matter much where it comes
from or how you arrange it. I think a lot of people now forget about the
melody and think more about crap details like what drum machine to use- but
there was a lot of real rubbish in the 60's as well, don't forget. There
always has been, and there's always been a lot of great stuff"

The bottom line appears to be that whatever your inspiration, it only as
good as the perspiration that follows: " A good song is always a magical 
moment of inspiration, it's just that it tends to come after sitting for
four hours with a guitar. You have to put a lot of work into it"

"I've just read the Paul McCartney book and I found that really inspiring.
People don't realise the amount of hard work those two did! He and John
Lennon got together and tried to write songs every day. You have to do that
if you want to be good.
It's all about getting better at what you do, honing your craft. You strive
to simplify what you're trying to say, to make it all fit and sound great.
It's always challenging. I don't I'll ever stop enjoying it."