Download - The Word Magazine

Hi there, where are you right now?
I am in Kingston, London, meeting up
with Lee Mangan, who’s our video director,
and we’re trying to sort out the cover for the
album, which is basically going to be stills from
our videos.
Have you guys started doing a lot of promos
and performing live shows for the new album?
Yeah we basically started doing gigs about
May last year for it, mainly around Hoxton in
London and in 93 Feet East. Its been really
great actually because its given me an opportunity
to play some places that I’ve always wanted
to play you know, and it’s nice having something
which you feel will make some statement
of some kind, make more of an impact than just
some kind of apathetic band that can’t even be
bothered to make an effort. There are quite a
few of them around.
When and where was the album recorded?
We recorded it from about 2008 to 2010
in Ben’s studio, in his house in London.
What was the vibe during the recording
sessions?
It was cool. The way it started was with one
song really, Charmless State. I’d been playing
music for a while and knew of Ben because I’d
met him through friends. I recorded an acoustic
demo of the song and Ben heard it and, you know,
liked it and so I came in to his studio and I just put
down my acoustic version just using guitar, then
I sung over it, and then he just built it up. He had
a very strong vision which was that he wanted it
to be dark and industrial. For me it involved a lot
of trust in a way because I was always quite suspicious
of things that were too programmed but he
played it back to me and I was blown away and it
kind of went from there basically.
When did you actually start calling yourself
White Russia?
Well at that point we never actually said
‘OK we’re in a band, this is what it is’, it was
more of an intrigue about this song, and then
it was quite a natural process. There was one
point when we probably had three songs and
we were like ‘OK, what it this?’ Then we sat
down early 2009 and called it White Russia
and decided to do a whole album.
Why White Russia?
I was looking at a really old, beautiful map
and was scanning the east European section and
saw ’White Russia’ written on the map and I was
so surprised that I’d never seen it before. It just
seemed to go with the music really, that was it.
A lot of your songs and lyrics, and even your
track names, are quite powerful. They could
Music
sometimes be seen as a call to arms to a generation
of jilted people.
Yeah, I know what you mean. And I don’t
want it to be coming across as a patronising
preacher going around saying ‘oh you all got it
wrong,’ but for me, music is the most powerful
platform in the sense that it is the only form of
art that is completely intangible, its not physical,
people receive it in the air, yet it has such a physical
force on you that for me that’s a responsibility.
People need to be shaken out of the normality
that is being forced upon us, that actually to
me is very unnatural. I think we do live in quite
dark times, there’s a kind of menacing element to
society, the fabrication of society that we need to
challenge, and question, and at least look into.
Menace. That’s the word I was looking for.
There’s a sense of intense menace in your
music. One of the things I couldn’t help think
of was that your music would be perfect as a
backdrop to the recent London riots…
The riots were quite invigorating.
Everyone was scared shitless. It was hitting
places nobody thought possible. Ealing is the
leafiest, wealthiest suburb and buses were on
fire there, you know? People’s houses were
getting broken into too. It was a sudden shock
to the system…And to be honest, I think that
can be a healthy thing in the sense that it makes
people debate, question and wonder what this
was about. I think the truth of those riots is that
it shows you that the society we’ve structured
doesn’t really fulfil human happiness at all.
One of the words that was used to describe
your sound was hazy. You don’t sound
hazy to me…
That’s probably more of Ben’s influence.
He probably wants to raise more questions
that answers. Ben likes the idea of something
really quick and extreme that then disappears.
Something that sounds like the beginning of
something epic but then it doesn’t come. He
likes to create this sense of ambiguity that
makes you feel quite unsure because you don’t
know what to expect. It kind of puts you on
edge which in a way makes you more alive.
In terms of style, and maybe this is more a
question for Ben, the music kind of touches
upon everything. There’s hip hop, there’s
dub step, a little bit of electronica, there’s
folk, chill wave. How would you describe
your music if you had to pigeonhole it?
Yeah, it can be quite hard actually.
I suppose alternative electronic is what we’ve
been calling it. But obviously there are other
elements in it and I know that Ben’s definitely
coming from quite a few different strands. He’s
got this really amazing way of drawing all these
things together in a way that makes sense.
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What music scenes or tribes did you belong
to growing up?
Oh very strong tribes. In weird ways Ben
and I are complete opposites, we have completely
different backgrounds. For me, my
baptism as far as music began with one close
best friend when I was 13-14. We started listening
to Led Zepellin, The Doors, Guns N’ Roses
and we were obsessed with them, we wanted to
be them. I wanted to be Axl Rose, like a man
you know. We disowned our femininity and we
started playing music together and it was brilliant
because it gave us an identity. It gave us the
confidence to fucking rebel I guess. People used
to take a piss out of us, saying, ‘Oh you listen
to grandpa music’ but for me it was amazing
because it was the beginning of me playing
music. Then slowly but surely I opened my
mind to newer things. The 60s, the 70s, the 80s.
The Cure, The Smiths, obviously amazing. The
90s, Nirvana, Faith No More. It was mainly
alternative and rock for me. Then I went into
Depeche Mode, weirder stuff. Bonnie Prince
Billy and just more mind-wrapping stuff, that
was less literal, less of an image-based thing
and more about ideas. And then Ben’s obviously
introduced me to things like Yazoo, a lot
of more electronic stuff.
Do you guys have any side projects or is
White Russia your main thing?
Actually I’m working on something new
with one of my friends whose playing bass
and I’m playing guitar. It’s called The Russian
Orthodox Wedding. That’s the working title
so far. We recorded our song on a reel-to-reel
analogue recorder all in one day. I can’t play
guitar very well, she had just learned the bass,
so there’s a complete naivety to it. It reeks of all
the mistakes. It’s the bare bones but I’m quite
excited about it. And Ben’s always working
on different stuff. He produces stuff for a
band called Steranko who are a punk bank in
London who Lee Mangan, the video director,
is the lead singer of. They’re a fucking amazing
band, truly amazing live. Very very rare band.
This is maybe a classic one, but what are you
listening to at the moment?
You know the band Girls?
Yeah we’re interviewing them for this same
edition…
Oh cool. Their second album is fucking
amazing. It’s so fucking profound. It’s like old
school music again. You know an organ, and
the song is allowed to develop. I love it.
White Russia’s debut album O Jerusalem is out on L’Agenda
Records on 28th November.
myspace.com/whiterussiamusic