Interview with Lawrence Arabia

++INTERVIEW++

Interview with Lawrence Arabia

Dave Taylor caught up with Lawrence Arabia's James Milne to talk about drunken bass players, experimental recording techniques and being an ex-pat New Zealander in London. Since the interview, James has landed a gig galavanting around Europe supporting Feist. So if you want to see him you'll have to go to the Albert Hall on 21st May. Or the Barfly on April 29th. Take your pick!

PLANNED DRINKING

AR: I saw The Reduction Agents at Camp A Low Hum. I got very excited about this new band with excellent indie pop songs and genuine guileless charisma. Then I found out they'd split up a while ago, and I was watching a reunion show. Is it all over for the Reduction Agents?

"They view us a band thankfully. The singer/songwriter tag is just this well of despair really."

JM: Yes, it's basically defunct. By virtue of the fact that Ben our guitarist and keyboard player has two children, Ryan is the Ruby Suns and Jol is really busy.
AR: Busy drinking presumably? That (one and only) time I saw The Reduction Agents play, Jol keeled over half way through the set (see review here). It was four in the afternoon.
JM: He vowed he'd be totally sober for the show, because he was going to get up in the morning and start drinking hard then. He'd be passed out by midday, then fine for the show at four o'clock. When we arrived for the gig, we found he had actually passed out, so he'd kept that part of his promise. But he kept drinking.
AR: That's where his plan went wrong.
JM: Yes.
LIVING IN LONDON
AR: So your current band, Lawrence Arabia, is based in London?
JM: Yes, but it's just me now. I had a band of New Zealanders, but everyone's visas ran out. We're exploring different visa options at the moment. I have a British passport so I can stay on, but it's difficult as the band has to keep changing every two years.
Chris Garland from Betchadupa and Lawrence Arabia was also at the interview, and talked about his frustration at having to leave a country he was just getting used to. New Zealanders can live and work in the UK for two years - as part of what's commonly known as their 'overseas experience'. Whilst it's great to be able to do this, it's also a double edged sword. Two years is just enough time to get over home sickness and start making friends in your new country. Then you have to leave. Chris found it a culture shock returning to his native New Zealand after two years in London and wasn't really ready to come back. We talked about running a competition to win Chris's hand in marriage (ladies, form an orderly queue, he's a handsome chap) but thought the Immigration Service, slow witted though they may be, might view a competition-prize marriage as a bit of a sham.
AR: How's it working out?
JM: I'm very much enjoying being based in London. But it's pretty hard going, when you don't have any particular kind of hype or don't get anything happening quickly. But I have a booking agent now so things are getting better.
AR: With a name like Lawrence Arabia, are promoters viewing you as a band, or do you suffer from a 'singer/songwriter' sort of tag?
JM: They view us a band thankfully. The singer/songwriter tag is just this well of despair really.
AR: It's an obvious point to make, but there's much more competition in London than somewhere like Auckland.
JM: Yeah. And all the music industry types are really only interested in things that will make them heaps of money. Which can be quite demoralising. The fringes of the music scene are really great though. I've started putting on my own club at Melange on Kingsland Rd. I saw a bunch of London bands playing sort of twee pop that would fit the bill, so started putting on my own shows.
AR: So you scouted around for bands you liked?
JM: More a case of bands I could get [laughs]. Everything seems ghetto-ized in London - you've got your freak folk and twee pop and they're on separate bills. I've tried to make the club more diverse. So we've had Max Tundra. We've had School of Language, featuring David from Field Music. We've had a guy from America called Hush Arbors.
EXPERIMENTAL RECORDING TECHNIQUES
AR: So what are your plans for the next few months?
JM: I'm recording the next Lawrence Arabia album at the moment, hoping to finish at the end of April. I'm doing some recording at home, and some in Stockholm. Matt who used to play drums in Lawrence Arabia band has joined a band called Das Pop - and they've let us use their Stockholm studio for free.
AR: What's it sounding like?
JM: It's sounding a lot nicer than the last album.
AR: Nicer? What do you mean by nicer?
JM: The last album was recorded straight into protools on an sm57 microphone. This one is using proper mics. It's still experimental recording techniques by virtue of the fact I don't know what I'm doing. I'm learning on the job - it's sounding better definitely. It's more Reduction Agents pop, mixed with the noodly obscure bits of the solo record. I'm happy with how it's going.
AR: Have you any plans to tour it? I suppose that's tricky without a band...
JM: My interim plan is to form a band with The Sneaks, who are an Auckland band. They usually play quite a different style of music, but they're adept musicians. We're looking to do shows around the UK, and I'm in touch with promoters in Europe so will do some tours there too.
You can hear Lawrence Arabia on their myspace page.
You can buy Lawrence Arabia and Reduction Agents albums on the excellent Li'l Chief records label.