STACK New Zealand October Issue 67

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Q1/ Unlike your previous albums, Bays was
written mainly in the studio. How did you find that
experience?
It was luxurious, you know, to plan these
sessions and jam for hours. Obviously you have
to go back and comb though it but Fat Freddy’s
have been together now for so long, we’ve got our
own kind of culture, which makes the songwriting
process really enjoyable.
Q2/ Talk us through the process. Does someone
bring a horn part or a bass line to the group and
then you build it from there?
The studio process was very different; it was
a lot more coming from the ground up. It does all
start with the simplest thing, a discussion about
a certain type or vibe of a tune. Take for example
Cortina Motors, which is kind of more extended
dub techno kind of thing. That came about because
a mate of ours came up to the studio and started
playing the bass guitar there, and the tune grew
from that. They all came about from us tinkering
around with ideas we have talked about over the
years that we wanted to realise; having time in the
studio, we could do that.
Q3/ It also seems a bit more percussive than
previous records?
Like I said, we had a lot more time to zero in on
the basics of the track. I think sound quality is
something we are all particularly interested in
just because we have now had the experience of
playing on some big stages.
Q4/ You spend quite a bit of time in Europe these
days – why do you think audiences there have
embraced the band so much?
We’re so grateful to the reception that we have
received over the years. The reason it goes well
is that it’s a huge and sophisticated music market
in Europe; they have a broad range of tastes and
are very open-minded. At the same time, all the
different sub-genres and sub-cultures are strong
and well represented, and a band like Fat Freddy’s
can go there and do some good gigs and get the
name out there.
Q5/ Fat Freddy’s Drop have followed a distinctly
independent path; it seems that your success has
come up on your own terms?
We never kind of expected the band to be an
international touring act, and that kind of grew
organically. We always had an idea of what we
wanted to do: to make records and put things on
vinyl, but we were not really interested in radio. In
a way, that idea hasn’t changed – the cool thing is
that it has worked.
Peter Gabriel’s studio looks a bit like the
isolated, wood-bound mansion from Ex
Machina, and its insides might be even
more magical.
“It’s unusual for a studio, isn’t it,” Boy
& Bear’s Jon Hart tells us. “It has a lot of
vibe but it’s also got a lot of natural light.
[Gabriel] has a ridiculous collection of
instruments, but Ethan
[Johns, producer] has
a collection that would
rival Peter’s. It was a
mix of his gear and
Gabriel’s gear... a drum
kit from the 1960s
he’d played on a lot of
Ryan Adams and Ray
LaMontagne records, a
really niceWurlitzer, an old B3 organ, heaps
of guitars, and a grand piano. The only thing
I contributed was a Roland Juno from the
‘80s; it’s an amazing analogue synth.”
In recording new album Limit Of Love,
Johns and engineer Dom Monks managed
to produced an extremely clean sound
despite the fact there was no separate
control room or partitions between players.
The whole thing was taped in real time.
“[Normally we’d] build the song in
layers as opposed to capturing it live,” Hart
explains, “and we realised there was a bit of
a disconnect between [live shows] and what
was getting recorded. Ethan was just sitting
there listening to us play, he wasn’t listening
back on speakers. It was just him being a
listener in the room and being able to tell
whether or not we had a take. And that was
really exciting.”
It’s clear that Jon and his bandmates
are fanboys of the revered producer, but
apparently their
nerves cleared within
a day or two.
“I mean, he has
rock and roll stories
that go back like you
wouldn’t believe,
because his dad
worked withThe
Rolling Stones and
TheWho andThe Beatles,” Hart says.
“So when we had a down moment we’d
talk Ryan Adams stories or Kings of Leon
stories... it just went on.”
The result of that snug rapport is a
beautiful record which moves through
several eddies of style: Hart’s own grace
note-inflected piano on Where’dYou Go,
the gorgeous arrhythmia in Man Alone, the
spectre of Nick Drake on Fox Hole, Hart’s
delayed and reverbed Juno on the wonderful
Ghost 11 and the stand-out Just Dumb.
Limit of Love by Boy & Bear is out October 9.
Toby Laing
Fat Freddy’s Drop
Bays by Fat Freddy’s Drop is
out on October 23.
Jon Hart fromAussie folk popsters Boy & Bear talk working at Peter
Gabriel’s studio with iconic producer Ethan Johns. By Zoë Radas.
UNLIMITED CHOICE
He has rock and roll
stories that go back like you
wouldn’t believe, because his
dad worked with The Rolling
Stones and The Beatles
12 OCTOBER 2015
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