Off the Record: Interview with Andy Richards from Uniform Motion

(Traduzione in italiano dopo il "jump") It's obvious to say there are millions of bands out there to follow, check out, listen to and become a fan of. As a dj and blogger I'm constantly looking for bands that offer something more than the rest. You might have noticed this through all these years of UP! shows and now articles and interviews. I started getting interested in this band after listening to their beautiful second album ("Life", released in 2010), now their third ("One Frame Per Second", also available in the vinyl format although the CD version looks awesome too) continues in the same vein: delicate, elegant, mellow, little nostalgic pictures.  But I can't hide the fact that their visual ideas add something to the whole project... There's a saying in Italian that can be translated as "You should also please the eye" (Anche l'occhio vuole la sua parte)... And this is what Uniform Motion like doing, gently please your ears and, at the same time, your eyes... If you want to know how they manage that, read what singer/songwriter/musician Andy Richards told me!

UKN: We've featured your band on our UP! show a couple of years ago, but can you talk about how you took your first steps and how you developed your original ideas, mixing visual art and music for the readers of our blog?

AR: Uniform Motion started off as a solo project when my previous project, Angle, got put on hold. Then I met Renaud, a talented illustrator with fine taste in music. I can't remember exactly where the idea came from, but Renaud had always dreamed of being in a Rock band, so we both agreed that the concept of him drawing illustrations during the songs would be a good idea. His definition of a rock band wasn't too limiting at the time! I was recording the songs for what would become Uniform Motion's first album at that time and somehow, we managed to get quite a few people involved. A young film maker, a recording studio, several musicians. We thought it would be a nice idea to release the album like a TV series, with an episode every 2 weeks including the studio version of the song, a live video and a comic strip containing the lyrics. Renaud came up with the idea for the interactive comic strip where people could listen to the song and flip though the comic book. It was a lot of fun! Then the project turned into a band and we released the content from our series as a CD/DVD/ comicbook in 2009. In 2010, we released a second album, which came with an illustration for each song and a interactive virtual concert we developed for our website. During our live shows, Renaud uses Photoshop, a video projector and video screen. He draws an illustration for each song. People love it! So the visuals follow us everywhere we go. It's an integral part of the project.

UKN: What's been going on after the release of "Life" and your new album "One Frame Per Second"? I read you added a drummer (Olivier Piotte) to the line up almost a year ago. How has this affected your music and writing process?

AR: At the end of 2010, we found a really cool drummer called Olivier, who can play the drums and the keyboards and sing at the same time!! I wasn't necessarily looking for a drummer at the time, but I came across an ad he put up and thought, this guy looks cool. So I called him up and we did a few rehearsals. 

It went really well so we started working on a bunch of new songs I had written. A couple of sound engineering students approached us and asked us if we would be interested in doing a 3 day recording session for their end of year project. We said yes, entered the studio on day one, and left on day three with 11 songs. The songwriting process was totally different this time round. The previous albums were written and recorded using a copy/paste method. I'd record an idea, play around with it, work on a song structure, remove things, add things, and so on until I got the song to a place I liked. Playing them live was a nightmare because I had to learn all the songs from scratch! With One Frame Per Second, I actually wrote the songs before I recorded them. I knew how to play them and had a song structure for them before we entered the studio. I also adapted my guitar playing style to the drumming style that Olivier was throwing at me. It was quirkier and faster than anything I would have come up with on my own.

It's been a great experience. Now we're releasing the album. We were lucky enough to receive some financial support from our fans to help us release the album on CD, Vinyl and on a Playbutton. 

Renaud created a video game and video clip for the release of the album!

UKN: It's really interesting how you play a 4-string guitar while you see other players constantly adding more strings, sometimes playing almost like an orchestra and less like a real guitar. Can you tell us about it?

AR: The 4-string guitar was a bit of an accident. I found the guitar like that, and then just tried to tune it in and play it. I actually used a six string guitar for One Frame Per Second by the way (which means I need two guitars for our live performances now!). I suppose having less strings pushed me to places that I wouldn't have discovered otherwise. It allowed me to find a playing style that sounded a little different an focus on the texture of the songs, building them in thin layers instead of one big one. I still use the 4-string!

UKN: You've released an interesting cover of "Such a Shame", the classic song by Talk Talk, definitely one of the most inventive bands of the 80s/early 90s, a band missed by many. Was it a tribute to their (and especially Mark Hollis') genius? Is there any other song by other artists you'd like to cover in the future?
AR: It was definitely a tribute to Mark Hollis and late Talk Talk! I liked the idea of taking one of their earlier synth pop songs and playing it a more restrained style. There's definitely something magical about Mark's voice.

And there's the myth as well. He just disappeared! I'm not sure whether it was the industry that made him stop releasing music or whether he just stopped making music all together but I can definitely relate to the feeling of pointlessness you can get sometimes when you look at your own achievements or lack thereof. I do hope he still plays music though and that there are some sheep in the middle of nowhere who are blessed with melodies floating over the fields from time to time as Mark jams on the Piano in his country retreat! As for new covers, we actually made a cover of an Erasure song for Christmas last year. It wasn't really a personal choice. We were given a list of songs to cover by a sync agency and decided to cover Erasure because it was a great song that I thought would still sound great without all the 80's bells and whistles. 

We do a pretty energetic cover of Catpower's 'Nude as the News' towards the end our our set when we play live. :) Aside from that, we don't have any plans for any other covers right now but we're open to suggestions!

For more information about the band go here

Off the Record: Interview to This Frontier Needs Heroes

(Traduzione italiana più sotto) 

Keep an eye on these siblings. European readers: go to their shows, they're touring the continent right now (but not Italy, shame on you, agencies and venues...) Their musical proposal is so simple, dramatic and bucolic at the same time you cannot believe they actually come from the Big Apple. It's a duo consisting of Brad & Jessica Lauretti and no, unlike the White Stripes they're actually brother & sister. They've just released their second album "The Future", which is available on vinyl, CD and mp3 download. We obviously suggest buying the vinyl, in their case there are some extra reasons to get that format... If you wanna know more... Read on!




UKN: As a brother and sister duo, did you both start playing music at an early age together? And if not, how did This Frontier Needs Heroes form?

JL: When we were kids Brad had his own TV show with his friends and I took Ballet. It wasn't until much later on when we were both living in NYC that we decided to play music together.  Brad had been playing around New York in some bands and I used to play tambourine for them.  Then one day when his last band broke up we just decided why not give it a try with just the two of us.  I learned how to play the drums and we started playing shows together.  After we recorded our first album we were invited by the End of the Road Festival in the UK to come and play and we've been touring ever since.

UKN: What musical influences did you guys grow up with and how has that propelled you into the indie-folk genre today?

JL: Our parents favorite bands were Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, The Allman Brothers, and The Eagles.  I remember being the only 6th grader in school who knew all the words to a Frank Sinatra song.  I think this background gave us a real appreciation of great "songs", melodrama, and southern rock!
BL: When I started playing guitar I was really into the Smiths, but it wasn't until I heard Woody Guthrie that I thought I could write songs.

 UKN: You were originally from Connecticut, what made you decide to pack up and head for "The Big Apple"?

JL: I remember this feeling throughout high school of wanting to get away from where I was.  I knew that there was so much out in the world to see and discover.  I moved to New York to go to art school and
study film.  I feel in love with the city and have stayed there since.

UKN: How has "The Future", (Your sophomore album), differed from your self-titled debut?

JL:  This album is I think even more lo-fi because we recorded it in a house in upstate New York as opposed to a studio.  I sing more on it and it has different instrumentation.
BL:  It's ten new songs, that we recorded very soon after they were written.  It feels more intimate, especially since we produced vinyl for this album, you can sit in your room and listen to the vinyl and
it feels like we are in the room with you.

UKN: Can you tell us what the writing process for TFNH is like?

BL:  I travel all the time in search of something, and when I have time to sit down, I write a song about something that is important to me, or something that is bothering me until I figure out how to reconcile
reality with my feelings.  If I'm away and Jessica is in NYC I will record a computer demo and send her the song.  The ones she likes or sees herself singing on, we do together live or record for the albums.
I have many other songs we don't do, or might do in the future.

UKN: Owning a physical copy of an album is on the decline these days due to iTunes, etc. Often we find musicians getting more creative with their cover art and making their albums more visually attractive.  I think this gives the musician another way to express the feel of the album. On that note, "The Future" comes with 3D art and glasses. How did you come up with the this idea? Do you notice that fans buy the CD and vinyl more than downloading it from iTunes and such because of this?

JL:  Well at first my idea for the album cover was just photos of our faces - I wanted it to be as stripped down as the record and convey the idea that this band is really just the two of us with not much else. The 3D I thought was just a fun and creative way for the audience to participate.  People love trying on the glasses and checking out.  It looks especially awesome in Vinyl!
BL:  I think some people are Nostalgic for CDs.  It just depends on how they organize their life, some people listen to music in their cars, and they might only have a CD player, other people have a really awesome stereo from the 90's they still use.  So we make our music as widely available as possible. Jessica even wanted to make tapes when our car stereo got stolen, and we had to revert to the old tape
player, then that broke too, so we listen to am radio in the car.

UKN: You're playing a lot in Europe right now. This isn't your first time touring here. How are the gigs going? How is the public reacting to your music verses your last tour?
JL:  This was our 3rd UK tour but besides a few one offs this is our first time playing in Continental Europe.  So far the gigs have been great.  A woman in Coventry, UK who saw us in 2009 said that she liked this set better than the last one.  I think our set this tour is a little more happier and upbeat and fun. People's reactions have been great!
BL:  The shows keep getting better every day!  Germany is great!

For more information and tour dates check here: thisfrontierneedsheroes.com