Sonic Reverie

Any regular readers might well be getting tired of me going on about them by now but if you aren’t aware then Small Town Boredom are an aptly named duo from Paisley consisting of Fraser McGowan and Colin Morrison. Their debut album Autumn Might Have Hope, released through Trome Records in 2008, is a perfectly languid encapsulation of the frustrations of both small town life and small town mentality. There’s a sense of hopelessness which permeates the low key compositions, sculpted mainly out of acoustic instrumentation and the odd swell of subtle electronics and field recordings. The key ingredient though is the vocals, which exude the kind of lethargy of broken dreams. The songs are hushed and intimate, like whisperings of thoughts which you’d try not to dwell on for too long and never quite break to the front of your mind. The lyrics are delivered with such blunt honesty though that it’s impossible not to confront the issues dealt with, particulalrly given the relative sparsity of the production. They recently released their second album Notes From The Infirmary (review here) which whilst it maintained these core elements it also strikes out with a little bit more hope and positive energy. I got Fraser to answer me a few questions about the new album amongst other things.

Firstly then, how did Small Town Boredom start?

Originally I was looking for a drummer a band I was starting with my younger brother, he was in the same year as Colin at school. We got together for a few rehearsals late 1999 / early 2000. The only reason I remember the date is that Idlewild brought out 100 broken windows around the same time, Colin & I shared a love for them & for peeps into fairyland. It gave us a very strong common ground, the band I had started was short lived but Colin & I formed Small Town Boredom soon after. We recorded mostly improvised, instrumental stuff on 4 tracks in Colin’s garage for the first few years, just finding our feet. It was for fun more than anything; we never really had any big plans.

Had either of you been in bands before that?

I had played drums in a 80’s style punk band for a few years, It was horrible, we did one demo & played one gig, then I left. Colin had been involved with various projects through our school, he also taught guitar & drums.

How did you get involved with Trome Records?

I had met a crazy American called Patrick Porter online, he wanted one of our early self released ep’s, we became good friends & a few years later did a split 7” single together. He was having an Ep released by a London label called Evelyn Records & was coming to the UK to tour. I though it would be fun for him to play some shows up in Scotland. Patrick let Chris from Evelyn Records hear our stuff & he asked us down to play. So we went down to London to play & fetch Patrick. Chris liked our stuff & nagged me for years about doing a release. We had recorded Autumn Might Have Hope & had been let down by the label it was meant for. Chris had finished doing Evelyn Records & was talking about starting a new label. I came up with the name - The Remains Of My Estate or TROME as its more commonly known & he offered to put out 500 LP’s for us, we couldn’t say no.

How long had you been a band by that point?

We had been a band in various forms for around six or seven years by this point, we tend to work very slowly..

I understand that Notes From The Infirmary was recorded in a proper studio rather than at home like the first record, is that right? Why did you decide to change?

That’s not true I’m afraid, we went to a studio in Galashiels for around 8 months doing songs but it didn’t work out. I’m kind of an arsehole when it comes to getting things sounding how I like them. It was our own fault really, we went to the studio with half written songs, we wasted a lot of money, the pressure of time & money was getting to me, so we never went back.

Why the attempted change initially?

I had wanted to have a bigger sound, I wanted the new record to be brighter & stronger than the last one. My girlfriend was also about to give birth & I kind of felt like if I didn’t give it a go now I never would get a chance again, financially that is. But we were so out of our depth, it so bloody expensive….

Another reason was the old 8 track we recorded our first album on had seen better days. So finally after a lot of wasted money I got a copy of Cubase & couple of decent microphone’s & we recorded at home on an old computer, mostly on Saturday’s, it took us a year & a half to do the six songs

What would you say are the main differences between the two albums?

The new album is a hell of a lot lighter mood wise, I feel anyway, it’s still pretty dark, but there is a lot more hope in it. It directly leads on from Autumn Might Have Hope lyrically. Song for Mathew Leonard was written just after we finished the first album, when the relationship written about for most of ‘AMHH’ came to an end. Musically I think the new album is a lot more accessible & instant. There is less fucking about in general, I wanted to get straight to the point. I think you needed a lot of patience for AMHH. I had also learned a few recording techniques from our time spent in the studio, so I was more comfortable with what we were doing.

Where do you tend to draw lyrical inspiration from, real life events or does it tend to be more fictional or metaphorical?

My lyrics are completely from my own personal experience, no made up stuff, just day to day situations, sometimes a little cryptic, sometimes a little hidden, pretty basic really.

What do you class as your musical influences as well?

When I started STB I remember telling Colin, I wanted to start a band that sounded like a cross between Leonard Cohen & The Future Sound Of London. I think that says it all really.

The last record was on vinyl only wasn’t it, and this is on cd only. Was this part of a quest for chart domination? Do you think that it’s harder to build an audience when you’re releasing music in a format a lot of people see as being pretty dead?

Our first record on Trome cost Chris a small fortune & sold very poorly. But on Rapidshare & Torrent sites we were getting loads of downloads, our music was everywhere, but no one was buying the record. So yeah the cd was an experiment really & a way to make some money back. I think it’s already sold more than the vinyl ever has.

I think vinyl does limit you to a particular audience, people that want it (like me) tend to obsess over things released that way, but the majority of people don’t care.

You never really play live much, what’s the reasoning behind this?

Honestly, the main reason is that I absolutely hate it, it makes me ill. I have only ever played the few shows we have because I felt guilty about not promoting our records. Someone else has put a lot of time & money into getting a release out there for you, I kind of felt I had to. But before NFTI was manufactured I made it very clear to everyone involved I would not be touring anytime soon. Obviously it would be nice if more people knew about us, but I don’t really see the need to spread the word of our music by playing live.

You have a solo project as well now, how does that differ?

Yeah I do, its called Caught In The Wake Forever. The idea really came out of nowhere, I kind of got fed up writing actual songs with lyrics so I just started messing around with my classical guitar, some loops & field recordings. I never really planned for it to go any further but I should be getting an Ep released next year on Edinburgh label Mini 50 Records.

Will Small Town Boredom be taking a bit of a back-seat for the moment then?

I don’t know what’s happening with the band, I’ve not seen Colin in a while, to be honest I’m kind of struggling with writing lyrics recently, I don’t have much to moan about. I feel like I may have another Small Town Boredom album in me but not for a while anyway.

Since it’s that time of year, what have been your musical highlights of 2010?

Albums that I have got a great amount from this year, in no particular order are :

Somni 451 – Ruis
Tape & Bill Wells – Fugue
Wive – Pvll
Andrew Hargreaves – Defragment
Yellow 6 – In Time This Too Will Fade
PQ – You’ll Never Find Us Here
Chris Tenz – Forlorn Memories
Carrisa’s Weird – They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave
Mount Kimbie – Crooks & Lovers