Black Rivers Interview Part Two

I  recently had the opportunity to pose some questions to both  Andy & Jez about all things Black Rivers. I asked them both 10 questions each. This is part two of the interview. You can read part one here.

This part of the interview may make more sense once you have heard the album! Now you can as gigwise are streaming the album now. Go ahead and give it a listen.

Thanks again to both Andy & Jez for their time!

Five questions for Andy:

– Who writes the lyrics? If you both do, which tracks did you write the lyrics for?

We both write lyrics, something i always enjoyed doing in doves,
on this record from what i can remember my lyrics were the forest&the ship&Coral sea
Jez’s were Voyager 1,then all the other songs were both of us contributing together.

– Age Of Innocence is possibly as far away from Doves as you get on the record. Love the drumming, where does this song come from?

thanks.i like the energy in lots of those rockabilly records,guess its my attempt at that.

– Deep Rivers Run Quiet is probably one of the most beautiful tunes you guys have ever penned. How did that one come about?

well thank you, Deep rivers was interesting as jez had pretty much all the music already& the line ‘deep rivers run quite’ original verse lyrics were more of a love song,but we both felt the lyrics needed subverting a little bit, so we ended up deciding on trying to write a song about technology/surveillance paranoia!&how our phones,computers etc come to rule our lives which is a subject us&i suppose most other people can relate to at one time or another. Again it felt like something new (to us) to write about

– What was the toughest track on the album to nail down and why?

theres always one on every album!! both prob got different opinions on this
i’d prob say the wind that shakes the barley as lots going on in it,getting it to flow…is weird as live was one of the easiest to come together&one we always look forward to playing.

– Any old material/ideas that may have been previously worked on for a Doves album get recorded for Black Rivers?

think jez might have had music for voyager 1&a basic version of harbour lights from a few years back.

Five Questions for Jez:

– I hear a “Gimme Shelter”-esque intro guitar sound/pitch at the beginning of Diamond Days. Was that an influence at all? If not, describe how this track came about.

Interesting stones reference but no …for me it wasn’t …There was no direct writing influence on that song Apart from.. i liked the piano and guitar sound from my favourite beck album “odelay” a song called jack-ass …Which he in turn sampled from the brilliant “its all over now baby blue “by them

– Did you collaborate with anyone (Martin Rebelski perhaps?) on the record or is it entirely your own work?

Nope just me and andy ..

– How are you choosing which Doves tracks you are putting on the setlist?

I think that will change over time perhaps when we have a few more days of rehearsals ….we will chop and change to keep it fresh

– I love the sound on The Wind That Shakes The Barely. Tell us how you came up with that track, what was the starting point?

Thanks :) The initial idea came out of a cascading de-tuned guitar sample (which came from another song that didn’t make the album ) Andy had a lose top line chorus idea …that he’d written for an old chemical brothers demo track (which never saw the light of day ) we fused the 2 and then we were kind of “right were on our way to something a bit different here” in our heads we wanted a kind of beach boys vibe over an electronic sound …

– Coral Sea is probably my favourite track on the album, what is the inspiration (if any!) behind it?

Had the chord and top line sequence from ages ago Was just waiting for the right angle …At first it was a bit more electronic but clicked into place when we added a more acoustic feel …We wanted it to have that pure escapist Balearic feel to it

– What synths are used on the record? Are you still buying old gear to record with or are you using softsynths? Which synth did you have most fun with?

A mixture of the 2 ….I now have a lot of ..big old creaky synths from the 70s …But also use software synths for instance “the ship” Is a mixture of the 2 …I’m not a synth snob …if something works then it works …
My main 70s/80s synths are …
polyvox
Moog rouge
Kitten