(AU magazine, April 2009)
Reading quintet The Race recently released their second album In My Head It Works on classic indie label Shifty Disco, and they’ve used some pretty nifty ideas to spread the word. They’ve physically handed a sampler CD to strangers and asked them to pass it on, as well as selling shares in the record, so that if it does well, the fans profit. Lovely. Vocalist Dan Buchanan chatted to us about these issues, their huge sound and why they feel out of step with what else is going on.
Interview by Kirstie McCrum
You’ve got a nice line in Arcade Fire-style elegiac, as on ‘I Get It Wrong’ and ‘Moorwood’. How much do you think this is a result of what you hear from other contemporary artists and how much has always been in your vision?
I’m sure you get influenced subconsciously by what you hear around you when you’re writing an album. We don’t all necessarily have the same taste in music but we do aspire to make music that moves you on the inside and is full of passion. I guess big swirling music often does that for us. We do have a great respect for bands for bands like Broken Social Scene and the whole Arts and Crafts collective of musicians who just get on and make music and don’t seem as concerned about making money and conquering the world. That’s the kind of band we want to be, although it would be nice to have a little cash to spend on essentials.
On the first record, Be Your Alibi, you seem more idealistic, more hyper, and playing with Supergrass and The View really slotted you into that ‘indie’ bracket. With In My Head It Works, do you feel that you made a conscious step forward?
We were really lucky with the first album that we were given free rein to use Courtyard Management’s studio [Radiohead/Supergrass]. We were over the moon and had 12 days to get it down - they were keen for us just to capture where we were at that time quickly and not to think about it too much. It was fun. As for those gigs, we were just grateful to be playing and didn’t think too much about it. With this new album, we had a lot more time to think about how we wanted the album to sound and chose Dave Eringa specifically as he had such a good track record with bands we like. It feels like a more complete album, where Be Your Alibi was perhaps more of a collection of our best songs since we’d started two years earlier.
The Pass It On experiment for In My Head It Works - how did that come together? And are you happy with the result? Did your label not offer a substantial enough marketing budget?!
My friend Rich made a book and used Pass It On to spread it amongst his friends and their friends. I got the idea off him. It worked beautifully as a CD package and ended up all over the world with some very interesting people. Some of whom have given us good help at various times since. It was nothing to do with the label really, we had just got out of the studio and were desperate for people to hear the results having spent the previous year pretty quiet writing. We were given permission by our label and publishers to do it as long as we placed some timely interruptions in some of the tracks. We thought our little overdubs were really funny. I’m not sure what everyone else thought. We have no idea where they are now and that feels good. In these times of everything being a little up in the air we were grateful that our label Shifty Disco gave us the flexibility to be a little creative. Experiments are fun.
And what about the uptake of stakes in the record - is it bucking the economic trend?
There are still 100 stakes available and the great thing is that people can jump on the bandwagon at any point. We’ve had some pretty nice messages recently along the lines of us being the best investment people have made all year etc. I think at £25 a stake it’s all very sensible and affordable and thought out, so people seem to want to be involved. We had one person buy 60 stakes in one go, that was pretty nuts.
Is the title In My Head It Works a cop out, in case it was a flop? Or do you think that people will hear different things depending on how they listen to the record?
The last couple of years have found me testing and questioning a lot of the stuff I was brought up to believe. I’ve also come to appreciate that everyone is different and for so many different reasons-and its not right for me to impose my beliefs on others. More listening, less talking! The title refers specifically to that and is not some kind of desperate hope that people will like the album. It’s certainly not an apology, although I can understand that is how people could interpret it.
Where do you think you got your musical influences from growing up? Do you think you’re staying true to that?
Good question, there aren’t that many key bands that we can say we all enjoyed when we were younger, we met when we were all attending the same church and probably weren’t so much into hearing new music as we are now. I can remember us all enjoying Radiohead though.
Was working with Dave Eringa beneficial to the chemistry between the band members themselves? Do you feel that he got the best out of you?
Dave Eringa is a very special man both in terms of the production work he does and also his generosity of spirit. The month he spent with us recording and mixing the album was all the more enjoyable for his presence. We felt like we could trust him completely, he had no agenda at all and ended up giving us the fleshed out sound we had hoped for without it all sounding too slick.
What sort of movie do you think that The Race would be best disposed to soundtrack?
A big one, so that we can pay back so many of the kind people who have helped us along the way.
What do you make of the music scene in the UK just now? You’re bucking the prevalent trend for electronica…
I’m not sure that we are all that down with what is going on musically in the UK at the moment so we’re probably not the best people to comment. It was great to see Elbow do so well last year, they are blatantly making music for the right reasons and not just for a bit of hype and an ego trip.
What’s the plan for the future? Do you feel like you have found a niche sound for The Race?
We’re actually just starting to write some new songs hopefully in a different direction. Finding a niche sound gets boring pretty quickly. We’d love to tour this album as far and wide as people want to hear us, we’re hoping to get out to Japan and America this year and of course over to Northern Ireland for the first time too.
IN MY HEAD IT WORKS IS OUT NOW ON SHIFTY DISCO
WWW.THERACEUK.COM
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