Andy Williams (Doves): “I love the darkness and atmosphere to this song. An inspired pairing of them & Geoff Barrow on production. I love the arpeggio synths, echoes of Joy Division and New Order. A really brave record.”
There’s more Doves content at Q The Music.com, where Doves are guest editors all this week.
Today, Andy recounts the making of 2005’s Some Cities album.
Jez Williams (Doves): “I also remember a writing session before recording in this really knackered old farmhouse near Snowdon where, guess what, we wrote Snowden (was a working title that stuck). The place had no heating or carpets and the bed sheets looked like they hadn’t been changed in 12 months, old pubes all over the place. It was like something out of Withnail And I!!”
The irreverent online sports fanzine, TalkSports Magazine, has a rather humourous video interview with Andy & Jimi; discussing their love of Manchester City football club, Rick Wakeman and escaping from rival teams’ supporters…
Here’s an interesting interview with Andy from the Dublin Evening Herald; which reveals (amongst other things) that ‘House Of Mirrors’ was partly composed by accident!
“House Of Mirrors nearly didn’t make it on to the album because we couldn’t end it. Fortunately, Dan [Austin] was messing around with Pro Tools in the studio, and accidentally put the verse vocals over the chorus music.
“We all heard it and said ‘That’s it! How did we not think of that?’ That’s where technology can really help you out.”
Doves’ guest editorship of Q The Music.com this week, continues apace. Today’s Doves feature is Andy’s recollections of creating the Lost Souls album.
…By this time the studio fire had happened in our first studio in Ancoats, Manchester and as we were signed to Rob Gretton’s label he suggested renting New Order’s Cheetham Hill studio off them. This was where the bulk of the album was recorded. We really did lock ourselves away for 3 to 4 years until we discovered how we wanted to sound, it was a pretty oppressive place with no windows and thieves trying to break in!
NME.com has today posted a new interview video with Jimi and Andy.
Doves have revealed that the making of their new album was almost like “therapy”.
The group, who release their fourth album ‘Kingdom Of Rust’ today (April 6), said it helped them get through some dark times.
Speaking exclusively to NME.COM lead singer Jimi Goodwin said: “Going to work was helpful and therapy sometimes to get through some not so good times in some of our lives.”
The band also admitted writing tracks for the record wasn’t always easy.
Goodwin admitted: “This one [album] just took a bit longer to understand what we were trying to achieve after being in a band together for 18, 19 years.”
He continued: “I mean none of us have fallen out, we still get on really well it’s just we just had to make sure the chemistry was still there between us, and it was, but it just took a bit of prising out and wrestling with a bit more this time.”
Incidentally, NME TV’s Weekly Agenda feature advises its viewers to purchase the album – and the hosts state that they will have live footage of Doves on NME.com soon. You can view the video by visiting this link.