Issue 73 / Dec 2016/Jan 2017

on my own. It’s not very easy or feasible to get people up here
to come and give me a hand, so I just ended up doing it myself.
I like doing it myself – maybe it’s a bit of an only child thing;
I’ve grown up making my own fun and I think that’s part of it.”
Creating music on his own clearly wasn’t an impediment
to Shaw’s output, with a staggering 57-album back catalogue
according to his label’s biog. “Yeah, that’s
true, of that time anyway,” Shaw affirms,
indicating that the figure has risen
since then. “I’ve done a ton of stuff;
I don’t think I could put a figure
on it, but I think it’s probably
in the thousands. It doesn’t
necessarily mean it’s all
good; I think that’s the
problem when people
say ‘prolific’, it doesn’t
mean you’re carrying it
all that well. This year
I’ve tried to cut down
and hold it back, so
I’m just putting out
stuff that I really
think is up to
scratch.”
Turning to Felted
Fruit, the wellspring
of the two-dozen
plus tracks is one
of the album’s
highlights. “That
was the first one I
did, actually,” Shaw says
of downbeat psych-pop
lament Lizards Will
Be. “ That
really
got the ball rolling with the record.” Following an intuitive
process, his songwriting swerves away from having a set
pattern. “Usually in the week I’d be writing lyrics and I’d go home
and build it up. It changes every time, though – sometimes you’d
have a drum line that sounds really good and I’d build on top
of that, and other times I’ve sat down and
written a full song on acoustic guitar.
I don’t think I’d be interested if
it was a specific formula; I
like the way that it’s a
law unto itself and
I just see where it
goes, y’know?”
Album
standouts
Sarcophagus
Song and
What Went
Down A t
Tiahuanaco
– the latter
inspired by the
archaeological
site in Bolivia –
point up a recently
discovered influence.
“A lot of the album was
inspired by a book by
Graham Hancock which is
all about Egypt and other
cultures as well, in terms
of a lost civilisation and
things were disrupted by a
big cataclysm. I was really
interested in the mysteries
of Egypt. I don’t
normally
let
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
11
literary things creep in but that definitely did. There’s also stuff
about the current political climate throughout as well; I think
that had a knock-on effect, the idea of history repeating itself in
a way.” Elsewhere, Oh Mnemosyne! is named after the Goddess
of Memory in the Greek pantheon. “I think she’s one of the Seven
Muses. The idea of memory comes into that cos that’s such an
important part of writing.”
Contrasting with his earlier material (previous album Not
A Dry Eye In The House, containing Cannibal Girl, was issued
in June of this year), Felted Fruit stands out via its deliberately
frayed production and sonorous vocals. “All the vocals have
been pitched down; it was a way of disguising my voice,” Shaw
explains. “I wanted to make this such an obscure and weird
album that I kinda wanted it to sound like it wasn’t necessarily
me who made it, like it almost could’ve been something from
a bygone era. The other idea was that it had been recorded off
the radio and no-one knew when it was from and no-one could
turn the dial to the right frequency again.”
“I like the idea that it almost sounded like it had been melded
together,” Shaw continues, straying into the territory behind
the LP’s description. “All the songs were different entities
themselves and they’d all been chopped up into each other – I
like that aesthetic to it. I was trying to make stuff short and
snappy. When you look at a double album, the ones that fall
down have got songs that go on for too long, so maybe this is
easier to digest.”
Citing Tim Presley’s White Fence as an inspiration, Shaw
notes that the collective’s collaborations with Cate Le Bon and
Ty Segall have had a notable impact, especially the latter. “A lot
of people used to say I kind of sounded like him [Segall] and
I didn’t know who he was,” Shaw says of the restless Laguna
Beach musician. “When I discovered him I didn’t think I did, but
I really liked him anyway! I think I took a lot from that. I’ve also
always been into bands like Love and psychedelic garage rock
bands on the [legendary 60s/70s underground compilation]
Pebbles Trash box set.”
While The Coral are cited as a vital catalyst – Shaw supported
their former lead guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones in Dublin this January
– Merseyside itself is an inspiration to Shaw. “Because I moved
when I was 10 and I was taken out of where I called home,
Merseyside has become a bit mythologised in my head,” he
muses. “I came over here and didn’t fit in immediately, so that
was a place I felt like I belonged. It’s changed now, and as you
get older that goes away. I think that does still influence me
in some way though, cos over here I still feel a little bit like a
fish out of water.” Continuing the links to these parts, Chesterbased
label Sunstone Records are handling the vinyl release
of Felted Fruit.
“There’s a lot of bands and I’ve got my own little band together
who help me out when I play live,” Shaw says of the Cork gig
circuit. Introducing the group to the material, Shaw sounds far
from a taskmaster or pedantically insisting on studio-replica
performances. “I write out the chords and lyrics so they can get
a basic grip on it and I’ll give them the recordings. I like it when
they bring their own feel to it,” Shaw states. “Sometimes you
get people who have bands who are playing their stuff and they
need it exactly like the record, but I like it to be freer and for
them to bring their own personalities to it. I’m not necessarily
a bassist – I can play the bass, but I like it when people bring
their own style.”
And with the highly promising information that Shaw is
heading over to these shores for his live debut in 2017, our
time is concluded. Given the restless pace this one-man
songwriting factory works at, however, don’t be surprised
if another album hasn’t landed between now and Shaw
arriving in Liverpool in January.
Felted Fruit is released on 27th November via Sunstone
Records.
soundcloud.com/laurie-shaw
bidolito.co.uk