Last week Memorials, Brighton’s newest supergroup, made up of Verity Susman (from Electrelane) and Matthew Simms (from Wire, It Hugs Back, and Better Corners) released a double album called Music for Film. We caught up with them when they were on the road launching the album to ask them a few questions about the band and the record, and took along our camera to the show at their Prince Albert (with the photos underneath the interview below):
Memorials is a new band, but you’ve both been working together for a very long time – I see that Verity played saxophone on the first It Hugs Back album almost fifteen years ago. Is there time you could point at when “Memorials” was born? If I remember right, It’s In Our Hands came out as Susman & Simms before being later released as Memorials.
Verity: We can remember the point exactly – it was when we were offered a gig, and at that point it seemed fairly essential to start a band! We had released It’s In Our Hands a single with no intention of playing gigs, but one thing led to another, and we wanted to have a slightly snappier name than Susman & Simms, which sounds to us like a firm of provincial solicitors.
Matthew: We’ve worked together for 15 years on various projects, but this is the first time we’ve worked on something together where we’ve had a proper chance to focus on it. 8 years or so ago we played at Café Oto in London together, as a trio with Steve Beresford, completely improvised, with Verity on sax and me on modular synth, live processing/sampling, and some of this probably informed some of the things we’re exploring now, but combining this with our love of songwriting.
After It’s In Our Hands, which is a jangly pop song, there was There Are Other Worlds, which featured on a Duophonic cassette and is almost komische in it’s sound, then Tramps which goes in much harder. Did you want to get a wide range of styles out in the first few releases to show your breadth as a band, or were these some of the most obvious singles? Which of these is closest to the “Memorials” sound?
Verity: the Duophonic cassette track (There Are Other Worlds) was written specifically for that release, because we were going to play with Stereolab and they asked all the bands on that night to contribute a track to the tape. We decided we wanted to write something new for it, as we are huge Stereolab fans and wanted to do something special for it, and then that ended up coming out before the film-related albums and singles. The label chose the singles – it’s quite hard to stand outside your own and choose what might appeal most.
Matthew: There Are Other Worlds was the first thing we’d recorded outside of music for film, so in a way it probably hints more at what we’d get up to without any outside influence from film directors.
Verity: We’re part way through recording a new album – of non-film music – and it’s a bit of a mixture of everything we’ve released so far, but jumbled up and spewed out in one big vomit of new music. (Matthew says that’s gross).
The latest single Boudicaaa which came out a few weeks ago is a celebration of notable women throughout history, who may or may not have been lesbians, and was used as the closing music for the film Tramps, the soundtrack to which forms part of the album. The other part of the album is music from the film Women Against The Bomb, which is about the protests in the 80s at Greenham Common. Is celebrating women who have been misrepresented or understated throughout history a central part of the band? How important to you is it that you can use the platform that you have to share this message? Do you think that in the twenty first century, with the role of historians not being confined to old white men so much, that history books might better reflect what actually went on in the past?
Verity: all of those songs were written for the films they soundtracked, so their impetus came from the films. But at the same time, I’m a feminist and that influences me in all walks of life. I definitely think the women of Greenham Common and the movement they created there should be much better known, especially among younger generations who weren’t around at the time, because they were so innovative in their direct action and that is really inspiring for activist-minded young people. Films like Women Against The Bomb are great for bringing this women-centred history to new audiences.
The album “Music for Film: Tramps! & Women Against the Bomb” is out on double LP – is it one disc for each soundtrack or has the tracklist been ordered to make it work better as a whole album? Are all the tracks on the album from the film, or are there extra tracks that were written alongside the soundtracks?
Matthew: it is one disc for each soundtrack – they stand alone as separate albums, as do the films, which were made by different directors. Both albums were individually worked on and sequenced to make them the best listen that we could manage as an album from start to finish. To keep costs down, so we weren’t charging vinyl fans extortionate amounts in the shops, we packaged both together as a double LP.
We’re speaking to you on your first tour – what can people expect when they come and see you live? One of the highlights at your Lewes Psych Fest gig earlier this year was Verity managing to play two synths AND saxophone at the same time.
Verity: we played in Bristol last night, and someone wrote online after that we are like “Stereolab’s evil twin” – I’ll take that description!
Matthew: we play music from both released soundtrack albums, and new material from the album we’re working on at the moment. Between us both we play far too many instruments at once for a two piece!
The various parts of Music for Film are available in the shops, or through the band’s Bandcamp page (which also has a cassette of additional material for sale which won’t be in the shops)
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