Where did the name Frantic Chant come from?
Col “Stazy was in a bookshop and saw a board full of magnetic words all jumbled up. In the centre was frantic and chant, he just thought they looked good together and suited the music we were making. I might have got this totally wrong, but that’s how I remember it.”
Your latest album is 21 songs and almost two hours long, what made you decide to put out a double album?
Nick “We had so many songs to get out our system. We had lots of time in the studio to muck about and de-fragment. And also TRUMPETS!”
Stazy “We’re not a band that says ‘Let’s leave that one for the next album’. If a song’s done or nearly done, get it finished and get it on. There’s not one note that’s gone to waste on this album. The running order wasn’t a problem as the songs go as a narrative.
Col “It wasn’t intentional to record so many songs but having an extremely patient producer in Elle Durnan meant we could experiment and record new ideas on the spot. A couple of the songs came while 2 or 3 of us were waiting in the studio for the others to arrive and we’d been playing another wee batch of songs live for a while too.”
What was the inspiration behind the video for ‘Fiberglass Spiderlegs’?
Col “We can’t claim any credit for the video, it was done by Hugo, who is also known as Psyche Coaster. He asked to use the song on a compilation album he was putting together for the Psychedelic Underground Generation blog/label and the next thing we knew he’d posted the amazing video on his YouTube channel.”
Where did the title Glass Factory come from?
Col “There is a sample we used on a song, Mushroom Jim & the Planet of the Funky Apes that was taken from an old UK kids TV program called Jackanory. The sample is from a story called The Glass Factory and the voice is the legendary British actor, Bernard Cribbins. The title just seemed to tie in with the loose concept the album had so we stole it.”
The album covers many musical styles, did you have any ideas on the musical direction if the album as you were writing it?
Stazy “The only style we never mentioned was Psychedelic, but that seems to be what a lot of listeners hear judging by the videos we’ve had made for the tunes and also by the genre of blogs, pages and playlists that support the cause. We’re always trying to move forward with new styles and methods for recording. Luckily we have the luxury of spending time in the studio to play around a lot. We’d get bored if all our songs sounded and felt the same as the next one.”
Darren “Not really, most of the tracks started off from riffs or chord patterns on acoustics, previously it’s all been jams in the practice room. There was an effort to be a bit more musically wanky (you might want to change the adjectives there) – less major chords, avoiding verse, chorus, verse. So we just picked up on things as the songs came together, nothing really thought about in advance. (There was also the mind blowing musical invention from the bass player which transcends all previous bassery, ever)
Col “The only pre planned direction was that we wanted a loose, laid back style on about 4 or 5 songs so the first instrument we recorded for those was an acoustic guitar. Once everything else was added they still seemed to keep the sitting round the campfire vibe we wanted. It was open season on all the other songs and all sorts of things influenced where they ended up. Nick and me travelled to the studio together most days and would listen to different music every time and little things would creep in from that. Stuff like guitar sounds from the likes of Dinosaur Jr and New Order songs that are not too obvious as they’re maybe only one of ten, or more, guitar tracks in the mix.
From: https://tomatrax.wordpress.com/2017/11/29/interview-with-frantic-chant/
