‘Scattersparks’ by Nathan Hall and the Sinister Locals continues Nathan’s rich vein of creativity, ingenious lyrics tied to unpredictable shades of psychedelia. Jason Barnard speaks to Nathan about this gem of an album as well as his dazzling new single with The Soft Hearted Scientists, ‘Please Read Me’ b/w ‘Moths Mistook Us For The Moon’.
‘Scattersparks’ continues to highlight how prolific you are. How many tracks did you consider for this album? Did you have any criteria in choosing the material and their sequencing?
There are always a lot of songs on the go and I wanted to make an album about 45 minutes in length. I wanted full songs and little vignettes and interludes. One or two tracks got bumped, but they may appear on Sinister Locals 4. Ever since The Slow Cyclone I spend a lot of time on sequencing as I realised just how important that is. The sequencing of the middle of the False Lights album was flawed as I was so exhausted from recording and mixing and could not stand to listen to it any more. It has some brilliant stuff on it but its not the flawless album I’d hoped for (and has a couple of songs on it that I can’t stand) – I got lost in it. Sometimes it takes about 6 attempts although certain sequences suggest themselves even without playing the songs back. I’ll rough it out, burn it to CD and listen and take notes, then make adjustments. This album seems to get darker towards the end. Then it ends on a cheerful Ivor Cutler singalong called “Unicorn Horse”.
‘Rooms’ arguably has a Lennonesque opening. Who are your favourite songwriters and why?
Obviously I was a big fan of the Beatles when younger, but I don’t listen to them much nowadays. Perhaps because they are so monolithic and memorable. My influences are fairly obvious ones. Brian Wilson, Incredible String Band, Arthur Lee, The Byrds. I also thought the first 2 Super Furry Animals albums were the best albums perhaps since 1968. Shockingly good. Irreverently mashing up all styles and grafting on electronics and very interesting lyrics. They freed me up from the shackles of being in awe of the great artists. They did a smash and grab raid on all the glass cases of the museum. Just pick and mix whatever the hell you want and make it your own. I was recently floored by “Selling England By The Pound” by Genesis. I had an innate distrust of them due to their horrible 1980s hits and Phil Collins’s solo career. But that album has gatecrashed my top ten favourites. It might be the most ambitious rock music I have ever heard that actually works. I was actually a bit paralysed by it, but then took drastic action and played the first Ramones album to get some perspective back. Playing the same album in awe for weeks can get unhealthy and, as they say in Withnail and I, transport you to “the arena of the unwell”.
You reference royalty on ‘Gold, bones and evil thrones’ and ghostly ‘Roman soldiers (dead and bored)’. Do you have a particular interest in history and/or ghostly goings on?
I do, but sometimes the lyrics just deal with nasty historical matters in a very light Horrible Histories kind of way. I’m not exactly Mary Beard. Shitty monarchs, bastard emporers, and being hungover in Poundland on a Bank Holiday wondering what the point of life is, and feeling attuned to the poor bored soldiers guarding Hadrian’s Wall. Boredom through the ages.
What was the idea behind the Scattersparks moniker and artwork (the Scattersparks track being backwards)?
It can mean anything you want it to mean. Unfortunately its not an entirely original word, but I didn’t know that. Bollocks. But it could be about how life drains you, or friendships disintegrating or whatever. The cover image was from a free image website, and I liked the juxtaposition of the mannequins of a magical goddess stored in what looks like some really run down dilapidated lock up. I live in a very dreary part of Cardiff, and imagine glimpsing the uncanny in a drab environment. I don’t often see it so I often make it up.
How long did the writing and recording process take from inception to release?
Some songs were years old and unfinished, some months old, and some weeks old. I like songs to cover a wide time period rather than artificially writing one block of songs. That way I find there is more variety in subject matter and sounds. All the albums have been like that. “Mountain Delight” off Wandermoon was demoed in 2002 and released in its studio version in 2011. There can be huge gaps between writing and releasing. Whereas on Effigies, “The Sighing Song” was days old before it was recorded.
Who played on ‘Scattersparks’?
Its just me on guitars, keyboards, FX and vocals, but any bass guitar lines are played by Mike Bailey, and the drums on “Leprechaun Lattes” was played by Frank Naughton, who is our multi talented studio album producer since 2006.
You achieve a dateless sound on tracks like ‘I thought I was in Hawaii’ which have a great blend of piano, harpsichord and mellotron. What instruments/samples do you use?
A Fender acoustic guitar, Rickenbacker 330 electric guitar, Roland SH 2000 analogue synth, Nord Stage 185 for pianos and mellotrons and harpsichords, cheap Casio keyboards, and various effects pedals. And tables and chairs for percussion sometimes!
‘Stately Home’ was chosen as one of the lead tracks to promote the album. Can you tell me the inspiration it?
Its difficult to say. It could be about love of a woman, or of music. But its also about the dangers of obsessive creativity in that a song can seem more meaningful and easier to cope with and live inside than life itself, of which I am sometimes guilty. A few of my songs are about that. Ray Davies once said he wished he could live inside “Waterloo Sunset” as it would be simpler. Its sort of a terrifying thought. The next step would be to disappear and be heard quietly screaming for help in the run out groove of your own record like a Twilight Zone episode. I wouldn’t want to be trapped in my records. But I do like to inhabit them from time to time.
Your lyrics you seem to purposely juxtapose references from different time periods and places. Is that something you purposely aim for and what are your favourite examples of this in your songs?
I think I have to accept I have a butterfly mind and my lyrics jump about all over the place. They are not necessarily coherent and seamless. But as long as there are a few arresting images in there, even in a non sequitur Tourettes way, then its better than driving myself nuts trying to craft seamless lyrics and squeezing the life out of them. They are collages really. They do all mean something. They aren’t just stoned gibberish. Perhaps you could pick out a few you like?
You also have a Soft Hearted Scientists single out ‘Please Read Me’ /’Moths Mistook Us For The Moon’. Why did you choose ‘Please Read Me’ from all the brilliant tracks the Bee Gees recorded in the late 60s/early 70s?
A cover version is only something I will consider if I love the song and I think it will not be a pale imitation of the original. I bought the Bee Gees first album and that song nearly brought me to tears. But clearly it was a very sparse production and possibly knocked out in a single EMI 3 hour session due to budget constraints, and I could see that it could be augmented in terms of instrumental arrangements. I didn’t even try to compete with their telepathic vocals and harmonies. That would have been stupid. And I thought the original was too short. Therefore we gave it a deluxe makeover, and made the brilliant chorus twice as long and did a “God Only Knows” end section with brand new overlapping vocals. It deserved to be extended. There is also a 6 and half minute version coming out in 2020!
Do you approach recording a cover any differently to your own material?
Not at all. We went at Please Read Me as if we were the Byrds doing Mr Tambourine Man. I’m a master of delusions of grandeur or else what’s the fking point? Grafting original melodies on to their song as if it was ours. You can’t be too reverent and just replicate, or hold back and dial down the creativity “because its just a cover”. We wanted to make it our own. That meant original guitar lines, keyboard lines and Mike the bassist refusing to even listen to the original bass line.
‘Moths Mistook Us For The Moon’ deserves a place on a forthcoming SHS album – is that the plan?
I very much think so. Its far more than a B side to me with a lot of emotional resonance. The end section is about the band itself. It’s the beginning of, I hope, a brand new SHS studio album.
What should we look out for with the Sinister Locals and/or SHS over the next year?
I would imagine that there will be a 4th Sinister Locals home recorded album out in 2020, and hopefully a lovely SHS spangly hi fi studio album out in late 2020 or the beginning of 2021. Fingers crossed. There are about 50 new songs and between them I hope that will be enough for 2 great albums. But then I started off 2 new songs last Thursday night so now its possibly 52! Obsessive.
A second Fruits de Mer vinyl SHS compilation will be out in 2020. It could be a big and exotic beast with some surprises incorporated. I can’t say any more as I’m sworn to secrecy by the Fruits de Mer oath, taken at midnight in a woodland clearing surrounded by robed figures, chanting ominously. Before going down the pub.
Thank you very much for taking the time to speak to me. All the best for the Sinister Locals and Soft Hearted Scientists releases.
‘Scattersparks’ the third album by Nathan Hall and the Sinister Locals can be purchased on Bandcamp.
‘Please Read Me’ b/w ‘Moths Mistook Us For The Moon’ by Soft Hearted Scientists can be purchased on Fruits de Mer.
