It is eight years between the Trashcan Sinatras' third and fourth albums and has proved to be worth the wait. Recorded in Glasgow and mastered at New York’s famed Hit Factory, ‘Weightlifting’ is a beautiful collection of haunting reflections, shards of glassy melodic perfection leading to something completely necessary, from the atmospheric percussion on ‘All the Dark Horses’ to the lyrical dexterity of ‘What Women do to Men’. So the 22nd best Scottish band ever (as voted in a recent poll) are back. But they’ve never really been away, as John Douglas, one fifth of the Scottish quintet explains to Siobhán Kane.
Hey John, how are you at the minute?
I’m good thanks. I’ve been up for a while; I’m getting up around 7.30am or so, as we have just got back from a tour of America and Japan.
How was that?
It was amazing, yeah. Japan is such an interesting country, so open to culture and new things, really fanatical about music. It seems really incongruous, the ancient and modern, but it works. They have some amazing record shops as well.
‘Weightlifting’ (released last year) was a labour of love and, for fans like me, it was relieving when it finally came about, albeit eight years on. How would best describe the past eight years for you?
It has been a bit up and down alright. You probably know about the troubles we had in terms of money stuff and the taxman and Go!Discs. (The label, who had put out their first three albums, folded and the band lost their deal and money). We just kind of took some time off and well, we were really down about everything for a while and couldn’t really function as a band, we were depressed, you know? Touring was nearly impossible, we did a few gigs in Glasgow but taking five of us on the road elsewhere would just have cost too much. Eventually we kind of came back and started working on our songs and, well, we continued to work on our music, just less visibly. We also kind of went back home and did simple things, living our lives, paying bills, finding out who was going out with who and stuff! We had been touring for nearly ten years back and forth before that, so in that way it was great, because we just reconnected and we were able to do that at a good time. We were just reconnecting to normality.
What kind of advice would you give other bands going through a rough patch?
Well just support each other, stick together, you know? We have learned a lot about the pitfalls of the music industry and really, just supporting each other is the thing. We had a lot of loyal fans who were emailing and supporting us as well that way. When we were having a bad day it was really nice to see that we had some e-mails or contact from fans wondering what we were getting up to and knowing that they were out there supporting us too.
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You’re over in Ireland soon; we’re delighted and you’ll be exhausted, what can we expect from the gigs?
Well, a few newer songs! We are kind of re-launching the ‘Weightlifting’ album here, because we weren’t happy with the distribution the last time around and we have since been given some really useful advice from various people, including Donal Dineen, who has been great. Because we have set up our own record label, that kind of advice is much appreciated!
‘A Happy Pocket’ (as well as being the title of your third album) is a good way to describe the band. Would you say that your music is created out of the close relationships you have with the other members of the band?
Ah yeah. The group is a treasure! We have that kind of shared experience, we have been through a lot together and there is a special relationship there. It’s all well and good with singer-songwriters and I mean some of them are just fantastic, but we really enjoy the collaborative feel of the band, we are all writers and all bring our own points of view and reference and as we grow older it gets more important I think and the special relationship kind of grows as well.
You have done everything from writing the music for Irvine Welsh’s stage version of ‘Marabou Stork Nightmares’ to contributing a cover on ‘The Smith’s is Dead’ album — you seem to enjoy collaborating on other projects.
Well, the great thing was, when we were working on this album and before setting up, we worked on Roddy Hart’s album (who supported them on their Japanese tour) as a band and also Peter Rose’s album and those experiences were very organic. They kind of came out of friendship, so it was natural — we all did it as a band as well, a kind of ‘Bad Seeds’ thing going on. We also discovered that we were a good working band as well!
Talking of collaboration, who did the stunning photography for the album?
That was Martin Grey.
And is that your washing there on the line?
(Laughs) 'Am afraid not, no!!
It would have made a handy metaphor to end the piece; instead — what music are you listening to at the minute?
Well I’m a big fan of Declan O’Rourke, actually. He has stayed a few times. I think that he has an amazing voice. I remember that he did a gig once, just unannounced one night in a pub here and then the next night, it was packed out. He just has great songs. I really like him.
Trashcan Sinatras play Whelan’s, on Dublin's Wexford Street, on Thursday 16th June at 9pm. Tickets €16, €10.
This article originally appeared in the Dublin Event Guide. |
