Music

Arthur Walker launch debut album Animal Nights (interview)

15th October 2009

One of the city’s most exciting altenative rock bands, Arthur Walker, are about to unleash their eagerly anticipated debut album on October 19.

Animal Nights is the culmination of a year’s hard graft at Plymouth’s Deep Blue studio, showcasing their brilliant, life-affirming experimental rock punk.

That the album oozes musicality and exudes such wonderfully off-kilter rock riffage with impossibly intricate rhythms is no surprise when you discover that main songwriter Steven Stones studied contemporary composition at Bath Spa.

“I was going to major in trumpet performance as that was my instrument,” explains Steven.

“I thought composition was just about writing for orchestras. But when I found that the course was so free thinking and encouraged you to be off-beat and experimental in writing for smaller ensembles, I changed courses.”

He took up guitar on leaving college and turned his compositional talents to songwriting: “I knew the sort of stuff I was writing wouldn’t work with guitar and voice but it took a while to find a band.”

For starters he joined covers band Corenza playing contemporary rock which was a great way of honing his vocal skills and stage craft.

After a couple of years he and Corenza guitarist Jonathan Derwent left to form their own band along with Drew Ellison on drums and a bass player who has since been replaced by Dan Bergman.

“We called ourselves after a song by Cable, this amazing band who split up in 2000.

“Just this week we had an email from Pete the bass player with Cable, asking whether we had, in fact, called the band after their song.”

As Arthur Walker, they recorded their first EP at Deep Blue Sound in 2006 and the Deep Blue boys were so impressed that by 2007 the band had signed an album deal with the Plymouth label.
They recorded over a twelve month period under the guidance of DBS producer Matt Bernard.

The album encompasses material from their three years as an item, including tracks from their debut EP I Am A Skull And I Am Evil, to new songs.

“I realised that I was sometimes trying to be too experimental,” confesses Steve, “so we’ve tried to simplify the newer songs and we’re always on the look out for that perfect pop song.”

The closest they come to pop perfection and certainly the most accessible and melodic track on the album is undoubtedly track two, Angles And Lines, an incredibly infectious kind of punchy mathematical love song.

“Johnny from the Van Daniels heard us playing it at the Volks Fest and said it really needed brass – he didn’t even know I played trumpet.

“We added that, multi-tracked it and added loads of vocal layers and it’s now certainly our fullest song and probably the one I’m most proud of.”

Another song to make use of vocal layers in choruses of sweeping harmonies which complement the spiky punk vibe, is Hello Medicine.

An older track with fabulously funky bassline, it records a brief flirtation with prescription drugs.

“Nearly all the lyrics are written from personal experience,” says Steve, “though if anyone in the band doesn’t like them I modify them.”

And of course all the individual personalities in the band are involved in the creative process by supplying their own parts.

“There’s one song, This Machine, which is an imaginary scenario. We had this 5/8 riff with a weird steady 4/4 beat underneath which was really difficult to sing over. So I had to come up with a succession of words that bounced off the time signature!”

Opening the album is Episode #1, an amazing piece of precision playing, again with skewed rhythms underpinning exciting riffs and a warm melodic line, soft layered harmonies and even what sounds like clinking glass effect.

It’s an excellent intro to what is at times a challenging, but always deeply rewarding, listen that will surely elevate this Plymouth quartet to national consciousness.

To promote the album they will be embarking on a short UK tour, of mainly northern towns and cities, hooking up at the Marrs Bar in Worcester, on October 17, with the other two city bands currently on tour nationwide – Crazy Arm and Less Than Me.

Definitely one to catch, then if you’re feeling like a trip up the motorway.

If not you can see Arthur Walker closer to home at The Hippo at their official album launch on October 30.

Animal Nights will be available to download on iTunes from October 19 and you can hear some of the tracks by visiting www.myspace.com/arthurwalker

CLARE ROBINSON

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