The bimonthly christian mag Relevant Magazine has a two page spread featuring Doves in their latest issue. They recently spoke to Jez about Doves career upto now and the upcoming hiatus. You wont learn a great deal new, but a different change of pace from the usual music press.
Norwich based Outline recently spoke to Jez about the upcoming Thetford Forest show. As well as talking about the Thetford gig, the interviewer asked some interesting questions for a change. There may be a hint as to what to expect in the future outside of Doves..
You recently announced a two year break from touring and recording and I wondered what your thinking was behind that?
The main reason is to get off the carousel of tour, studio, tour, studio, tour, studio which just got a bit boring. We’re gonna do some individual projects and then hopefully come back and do the Doves fifth album with something to bring to the table. I think we all need to do individual things for our own sanity really. We’ll come back revitalised ‘cause we’ll have been to different musical territories than we would with Doves so it’s gonna be a good thing.
Are you going to be doing individual music projects or will it be other stuff?
Well we’ll be doing music separately but I can’t tell you anything about it yet.
You were Sub Sub before you were Doves. Have you ever been tempted to release a dance track under an alter ego?
Well that might be part of one of our projects outside Doves, so you might see that, yeah.
There’s been a rumour floating around for a while that you’re going to be doing something with Guy Garvey. Is that still on the cards or has it gone on the back burner?
Yeah that could still be on the cards, absolutely. We’re good mates with Elbow so that could well be a reality.
To read the full interview, click here.
US based Under the Radar Magazine recently caught up with Jez, some interesting questions…
Hays Davis: You three knew each other back when you were playing with other bands in high school. What kind of music were you playing at that time?
Jez Williams: I suppose we just learned our instruments, really. I was in a band with Andy. Jimi was in his own band, so we were really in separate bands. I suppose Jimi was doing sort of mod covers, like The Kinks, and Quadrophenia, The Who. We were sort of doing our own stuff but the occasional cover crept in there, like Blondie, “Hanging on the Telephone.” You remember that one? And Bruce Springsteen, “Born to Run.” [Laughs] We were, like, 14, 15 at this stage, just messing around, just finding our feet, really. It was really cool: You’re in a band, you’re at school. It’s pretty good, man. Good times.
To read the full interview, click here.
Some good news today! Its been confirmed Cherry Ghost will be supporting doves on the UK tour in April/May. Cherry Ghost who have a new album in the pipeline due sometime in the summer are fantastic live, this is welcomed news as far I’m concerned. Well worth checking out if you are seeing a show.
Find the doves connection in the photo above found at timesonline.co.uk of looters raiding a supermarket in Concepción Chile..
Frank Bough Sound III
I don’t recall flagging up this really cool article last year from Sound On Sound, who interviewed Jez & Dan Austin about producing Kingdom Of Rust. A great insight into the recording process.
Williams admits that it wasn’t just this democratic approach, along with an obsessive attention to detail, that created such a long gap between Doves albums. There was a bit of writer’s block involved too, which the guitarist tackled by employing the radical Immersion Music Method, invented in 2001 by a pair of songwriters from Oakland, California.“I was finding myself getting into bad habits,” he says. “Like music avoidance — instead of knuckling down and getting on with songwriting, you might find an excuse to get your emails or pop out and see your mates. So I read this amazing book [The Frustrated Songwriter’s Handbook, by Karl Coryat and Nicholas Dobson]. I’m simplifying it here, but basically what it boils down to is you have to write a song every half an hour for 12 hours. It’s incredible. I had my Logic all set up as a template, everything plugged in ready to go. Then quite a few songs started to come out of these sessions.”In the tradition of their previous facilities, their latest studio is — bizarrely — named after former breakfast TV host Frank Bough. “It’s Andy’s perverse sense of humour,” his brother explains. Not that Frank Bough Sound III is likely to last much longer than its predecessors, since Doves are already becoming keen to move on.“We’re getting a little bit tired of it now, ‘cause it was such an intense, long period to record this fourth album,” Jez laughs. “There’s only so much cowshit you can take.”
Also some good 6 Music news from Baldilocks at doves board. Doves will soon be doing a live session on the Lauren Laverne show. Will flag up more info when I get it.
A DJ set has been announced for Greenock Scotland, all the info in the blurb below.
Word UP will be playing host to Manchester music men DOVES in an exclusive night next month.
The Brit award nominees are all set to launch the venue’s new look Friday night on Friday 19th March.
Fans will hear the a two-hour DJ set filled with classics, ‘old skool’ tunes and Manchester dance anthems.Guitarist an vocalist Jez Williams said “We are looking forward to getting up to Greenock and giving you guys some classic rock n’ roll, some dance floor soul and everything in between.”
The band, who are currently working in the studio on some new material, are looking forward to their Word UP appearance and will get a warm up for some summer concerts.
They have also agreed to sign some memorabilia that will be raffled off on the night, with all proceeds going to Sport Relief 2010.A Word UP spokesperson added: “This is a great coup for Inverclyde. It will be a special one off night, We’ve gone to great lengths to secure this event and we’re putting ot on to make Fridays a little bit different from the norm.
It will give the people of Inverclyde a great reason to come out and enjoy themselves. It promises to be a sensational night in Inverclyde’s 2010 calendar”.Advance discounted tickets for Inverclyde regulars are �6 and now available by calling 01475 806038.
Tickets will also be available from the Word UP Backroom DJ’s From Thursday throught to Sunday and at a special pre-sale event on Wednesday 24th February in Text from 7pm until 10pm.
NME aired a interview they conducted with Jez before the Leeds Cockpit show last week. Liz was able to scribble down what was said. Some nice info, with regards to plans for next year:
He sounded in good spirits but speaking quite fast and despite my ninja notetaking skillz I can only paraphrase the thing.There was nothing really new, just a few snippets about next year.
The interviewer was asking when was the last time they had played the cockpit and Jez said in was in 2000 and he seemed quite surprised it was nearly 10 years ago, he also mentioned that they like playing in small places where you can see the ‘whites of eyes and the sweat drips off the ceiling’!He was asked about his highlight of 2009 and he said headlining the John Peel tent at Glastonbury,
The interviewer then asked about the making of KOR …and it was the usual about how long it had taken, and the different sounds …Sub Sub was mentioned, and how they’d enjoyed picking up keyboards again.
Also how they wanted it to sound like a good dj-ing set I think ..ie making sure all the tracks fitted together despite all sounding quite different and that it had taken them nearly 3 weeks to decide the order of the album.The last song to go on was Greatest Denier ….there was something here about writing a song specifically to fit in with the others that were already on the album , but I didn’t quite catch it.There was something about Norman Cook and masks, but again I didn’t quite catch that!
They talked about plans for next year and Jez said they were already pencilled in for some festivals in the summer but he wasn’t allowed to say which ones yet, and the compilation album, out in April, which will contain some ‘rarities’ and 3 brand new songs that they will be going into the studio to record in January.Finally, he asked whether, as they’d been together so long,whether Doves had any Christmas traditions and Jez said they always used to have a Christmas curry, but they hadn’t been for about 3 years, so he might have to ‘reinstate it’.
That’s about all I can remember/made notes about …hopefully it’ll be up on their site at some point as it’s a good listen and they played House of Mirrors in the middle of it
Thanks allot Liz! Some nice info there. Here’s hoping the best of is spread over two discs. Disc one with all the favourites and the second featuring all the new stuff/rarities. Though probably wishful thinking?
Here’s one I missed first time around. Jez gave music radar a wee tour of his live rig, pretty cool if your into that sorta stuff.
More from Jez, this time a cutting from music monthlty October 2001.
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