"Maybe as things get better we'll lighten up and become Talking Heads....." - Tom
Here's an offer you probably don't get every day; 17 Minutes in a hotel room in Amsterdam with Mr Smith and Mr Urbanowicz. Sounds delightfully sleazy, but it is in fact a chance to hear an interview from from the early stages of the promotional campaign surrounding The Back Room. It was recorded in June of 2005 and it's a really interesting listen. It covers how they all met, and just what they were studying at University, moving on to the formation of the band and beyond. There's questions about the sound of the early recordings, and the techniques that were used to record them. It's funny listening to Tom discuss his vocal limitations, considering this accolade that he picked up later on.
The subject of which record they'd really like to have on vinyl comes up, offering a teasing indication of where Mr Urbanowicz and Mr Smith were in terms of their musical head spaces. Tom chose Murmur by R.E.M. and Chris picked Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. It could be argued that Tom's choice reflects a love of classic songwriting while Chris' is more about boundaries being pushed and askew recording techniques. He did write a 12000 word essay on this very subject, as he mentions here. I've said before that I believe the artistic friction between Mr Smith and Mr Urbanowicz was one of the things that made the recordings from the era of the first three records so vital. This idea that you had two possibly conflicting approaches colliding head on, having to be somehow be shaped into something cohesive resulted in some amazing music. Of course something was always going to break because, historically in terms of music, that way of working has a short lifespan but while it held together.......wow.
