4.52am Issue: 044 26th July 2017 The Katie Von Schleicher Issue

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Welcome
Welcome to Issue 044
Anybody that went to see Aldous Harding
earlier in the year, won’t need me to tell
them just how good Katie Von Schleicher
was, not least because it very much felt
like a co-headline tour. Her new album
stakes her place amongst the A-List with
some of the most beautifully constructed
and sanguine songs we have heard in
many a long time. We were rather pleased
to catch-up with Katie.
From there we take a second look at
Fidelity Guitars and then take a quicksmart
look at a bumper launch of 2017
models from the nice people at Jackson.
From there it is all music, Cabbage, Billy
Bragg, Fanpage, Mermaidens and The By
Gods with La Contessa finishing things off
nicely with a shufty at the Specials.
Have a fine week
All at 4.52am

Contents
KATIE VON SCHLEICHER
FIDELITY GUITARS
THIS YEAR’S JACKSONS
CABBAGE
MERMAIDENS
THE BY GODS
TAPED: BILLY BRAGG ‘LIFE’S A RIOT WITH SPY VS SPY’
LA CONTESSA PRESENTS… THE SPECIALS

FEATURES

KATIE VON SCHLEICHER
Shitty Hits
Earlier this year, Katie Von Schleicher
introduced hereself to a lot of us in the
UK when she toured with Aldous Harding,
demonstrating that both as a songwriter
and as a performer there was something
special about what she does.
With the imminent launch of her second
album (first ‘real’ album) ‘Shitty Hits’, we
took the chance to ask a few questions
and to get Katie to talk us through the
songs. Here is what she had to say,
When did you realise that you
wanted to be a musician/singer?
“At first I just wanted to be a singer, and
I did it all the time as a kid, naturally. My
mom recalls laughing at my kindergarten
teacher when she suggested I was good.
It was just a thing I loved to do and it
was simple. I began writing as a kid as
well, though very much in private, and
eventually started piano lessons in early
high school where my teacher told me
what I was doing, what chords I was
playing, what a chord even was. For
some reason, there weren't any bands in
my high school, so I feel like a late
bloomer still, I didn't experience being in
a band until college. I got into everything
after age 18: The Beatles, The Rolling
Stones, anything classic. But I was lucky
to have a history teacher in tenth grade
who recommended Wilco to me. I went
to Best Buy and picked up Yankee Hotel
Foxtrot. I drove home listening to it and
it sounded like noise, but something
made me play it multiple times a day. I
just remember how, slowly, I could
begin to decipher that there were
songs. It's hard to imagine now, that'd
I'd never heard any sort of dissonance
before. It became my favorite thing,
which I think is beautiful, considering
no one I knew listened to it, I had no
context for it. When I got to college I
was so innocent, I was just looking for
friends who also liked Yankee Hotel
Foxtrot because that was all I knew to
be beautiful.”
Can you give us a little
background about you?
“I'm from Pasadena, Maryland, it's on a
small peninsula. I grew up with my
grandparents as much as my parents,
who lived five houses apart. If I'm an
artist, it's because of my grandfather,
who wrote stories with me, let me play
librarian in his study, taught me to
paint, garden and build things. I
recorded my last record with the help
of my grandmother's piano. I was
always very shy, school was hard
socially, I liked to grade papers for
teachers to avoid having to go outside
at recess. I went to music school, I was
a bartender for a long time after that,
now I work at a record label.”
In terms of influences, who did
you admire when you were
starting out and what do you think

they added to your own work in
terms of their influence?
“I mentioned Wilco, who were the first
band to change my life. In college, it was
all happening at once, the influences and
the starting out. I could barely keep up
with all the albums I was hearing,
spending hours on All Music following
threads in different directions, trying to
contextualize. But Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,
if we stick with that, taught me what was
beyond a song, turned me on to the
notion that there are two processes by
which something becomes. First writing,
then production and arrangement, which
are equally as vital. Sometimes one is
more heavily leaned upon than the
other. It taught me that a beautiful song
cloaked in mystery seemed more
privately transcendent than anything
else, that how you wade through the veil
of dissonance or atmosphere to arrive at
the song is personal to you. That album
also shaped lyricism for me, pushed me
toward Henry Miller, Dostoevsky, Dylan
Thomas, William Carlos Williams,
Borges, then to more avant garde
literature; I obsess on books like I do
albums.”
Thinking about songwriting, how
did you learn to write songs?
“By ear, on the piano. I just naturally
emulated song form, I think I wrote
them so I could sing them. In retrospect,
it's such a blur, you know? When I was
little I assumed all musicians wrote their
own songs, so I figured the only way to
do it was to write it.”
What do you know now that you
wish you'd known sooner?
“The value of self-possession and hard
work. I was taught to be a young lady, I
went to cotillion for christ's sake. The
lesson of being raised that way is: make
yourself attractive, demure, likable. If
you succeed, other people will let you
know that you're worth something. That's
what the thankfully more and more
arcane message of "be a lady" imbues.
Essentially, I didn't see that I had to forge
my own path. Patsy Cline called herself
"The Cline" and drank men under the
table. I could have used that anecdote a
little earlier.”
What was the first song you wrote?
Do you still like it?
“I remember it, though the title is just
awful. It has a good melody, it's simple
and catchy and in the key of C. I guess I
do.”
Can you describe your sound?
“My sound is heavily melodic, with chords
just barely unplaceable enough to keep it
from being pure 'pop.' I draw a century
of songwriting, so sometimes the songs
by themselves have a 'classic' feel. It's
produced to be warm, fuzzy, visceral and
a bit unplaceable. I'm thinking: what if
your favorite songs from the 1970's were
produced more dangerously, more hard
to make out, and openly discussed the
narrator's shame? My voice certainly

gives it another quality, likely an
emotional one.”
Can you describe your fans?
“I don't presume to have too many of
those just yet, but I'm happy to report I
like them all so far. Quite a few have
mentioned the music being helpful as
they went through a very dark time,
which makes sense.”
When did you start gigging - what
was your first gig like?
“The first talent show I did stressed me
out so much I had a migraine afterward.
It was the first time I had to sing in
public. The first band gig was in college,
and I was surprised to find it was one of
the top five best feelings on earth.”
Tell us about the big gigs you’ve
played and how did you enjoy
them?
“Haven't played too many huge gigs yet,
but I will say: playing for 25 friends is
harrowing, playing for 300 strangers is a
breeze. My first show in London was at
Omeara with Aldous Harding, sold out.
That was right at the top, the sound was
perfect and the crowd was generous.”
Your first album, 'Bleaksploitation,'
you have talked about it being an
unorthodox process - how did the
recording come about?
“Bleaksploitation was not planned, I
think that's what's unorthodox. I bought
this tape machine, took it to my practice
space, and in one day made the song
'Ronny,' one of my favourites. I realized
I could produce, record, play all of the
instruments myself, and get closer to the
sound I'd been chasing for quite a while.
I realized that day I'd make an album,
and the rest of the process was carefree.”
What was the recording set-up?
“I was in a small, windowless practice
space. I had a drum set, electric piano,
synthesizer, bass, guitar, amp, lots of
pedals. I put everything through pedals
into the tape machine, and built the
arrangement as I went, slowly bouncing
the tracks together as it was a 4-track
setup. Then I'd sit on the floor, write out
the lyrics, and do the lead vocal. Each
choice was a commitment.”
Moving on to 'Shitty Hts' - how did
the recording differ this time
around?
“This time I involved more people. We did
a basics session with my drummer,
Julian, engineering most of it to an 8-
track cassette machine. Then we
transferred to digital and I added 20-30
additional tracks to each song by myself.
It was like last time, except I could edit
things and keep recording ad infinitum.
In the end I mixed the album with Eli
Crews at Figure 8. He's an absolute
wizard and advocate of weird choices,
and by that point in the album I was so
happy to have him take the reins.”
Where, when, with whom was it
recorded?
“First in Maryland, in my parents' house.
Then in my bedroom in Brooklyn, NY.

Then mixed at Figure 8, also in Brooklyn,
NY.”
Do you feel you have progressed as
a writer since the first album?
“Yes. But I've progressed even more
clearly as an arranger and producer.”
Would you to talk us thru the
tracks on the new albumto describe
how they came about, what you
were thinking lyrically etc?
“The Image:
This chorus was a melody I sang as a
joke, in my head it was an annoying car
commercial jingle, but more of a used
car lot type car commercial. After the
melody refused to leave me alone, I
thought I would make it into something
better, and did so with the harmony
underneath it. That song created the
concept of the Shitty Hit, and that was
its working title for quite a while. In the
end, I named it after this book by Daniel
Boorstein, The Image: A Guide to
Pseudoevents in America. The lyrics are
firmly in the personal, but they relate
also to the book's themes.
Midsummer:
This song had some magic in the 'studio.'
We were confused on how to arrange it,
so we left room for a guitar solo to
happen straight out of the first chorus.
When I got back to NY, I played a solo
but it didn't feel like it took off, so when
doing a vocal take I just sang something
over top of it, a new melody, new lyrics.
That made it, because now it's something
else, that section. And those vocals are all
fuzzed out, just really spring on you. This
song is named after a poem of the same
title by William Bronk.
Paranoia:
My first creation for the album and a rare
case of a song the band played before we
recorded. This was influenced by Brian
Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy.
Soon:
One that really stumped us in the studio,
but turned out to be a favourite. Adam,
my guitar player, thought it might not be
finished, that I should write a new part.
We couldn't get the drums right, and I
ended up playing just a snare and ride
cymbal for the most prominent part. I am
a novice at drums and sometime's that
what it needs. I have no idea how the
song became arranged in Maryland, we
left all this empty space in the end...
maybe I planned to repeat the verses and
chorus again. But in NY I sang what
would be the saxophone part over the
second half of the song. The last melodic
bit of that reminds me of Burt Bacharach,
who I could stand to emulate more.

Nothing:
This song started as an almost classical
piece on piano, I thought it might be
instrumental. But when I began to
envision it for the album, the whole thing
came. To me it's the best example of
creating exactly what I heard in my
head. It's produced and arranged
specifically to create a feeling in your
chest. I love how it turned out.
Mary:
The last song I wrote for the album, this
one Adam and I did by ourselves in his
apartment just before mixing. I wrote
this song lyrics and all one night on the
piano, and Adam helped me see that it
was worth something.
Life's A Lie:
This began with chords. I felt like it
channelled a Todd Rundgren feel. This is
the song I was most reticent to put on
the record, as for whatever reason I'm
always afraid of releasing the most
catchy and upbeat material I have.
Other people like it best, which proves I
am not the finest judge.
Isolator:
I like this song very much, I learned a lot
about editing song form in making it.
With this record I tried to whittle things
down to essentials, and Isolator is that,
it's almost linear, it takes off somewhere
halfway through and you don't know
where you are till you're dropped in the
end. It's about my mother and me.
Hold:
This recording was made on my iPhone,
haha. It's a demo that I didn't want to
change. I wrote it, sang these lyrics over
it, and that was all. One take on each
part. I really love this song and I certainly
owe a debt to Randy Newman.
Going Down:
I was going through quite a few changes
last year and made this.
Sell It Back:
Another early song I wrote for the record.
It's lyrically self-explanatory, definitely
fits with the idea of this record being
about the emotional process of making a
record at times.”

How do you feel about
collaborations?
“Sometimes I'm lucky to sing on other
albums, backup vocals mostly. I'd like to
collaborate more. There are tons of folks
I'd love to sing with: Twain, Cut Worms,
Claire Cronin, none of those are quite
household names yet.”
How was touring with Aldous
Harding?
“It was fantastic and much more lavish
than I'm used to. I spent three months
straight touring and living out of a van
once, crashing on floors every night. Just
the fact that there was food and a green
room blew my mind, but we also had a
tour manager. Artistically, it's a
challenge opening for someone so good
at commanding an audience, but I enjoy
a challenge.”
How does it compare, playing in the
UK to back in the U.S?
“It wasn't too different, but it felt
different because I'd travelled all this
way to be there. We did major cities,
which means I still have a lot more UK
to see. I also had this opportunity to
present myself for the first time as the
musician I've become, and here in New
York I've been working it out for a few
years. What's striking about the US is the
distance between cities, how desolate
and depressed some parts of America
feel, and how widely the terrain varies.”
What happens next and when can
we see you again in the UK?
“I'm going to move forward to hopefully
tour quite a bit, writing and creating
along the way. I should be back around
October, can't wait.”
‘Shitty Hits’ is released on Friday 28 th July,
and you can find out more HERE
.

FIDELITY GUITARS
Last week we took a first look at a few of
the beautiful guitars Matt from Fidelity
Guitars is creating, and as I promised you
that we’d look at a few more this time –
well, here we are.
To recap a wee bit, Matt has avoided the
usual Telecaster/Strat/Sideboard
dilemma that most luthiers seem to
struggle with, and has gone his own
route, taking the best of his favourite
guitars and merging them into something
new, yet familiar, but definitely unique.
Last week we showed you one of his
custom guitars, one of his production
models and then one of his prototypes,
and it was a really good idea, so what
the hell, we’ll do the same again this
week.
You can find out more about Matt’s
stunning guitars HERE

Fidelity Guitars Custom Build:
Burnt Burst Double Custom
Model: Double Custom
Type: Double-cutaway chambered electric
Body: Swamp Ash with Olivewood top
Neck: Maple with Zebrawood skunk stripe & rosewood fretboard, black custom inlays. Medium "C" profile, bolted-in
(brass inserts)
Scale Length: 25.5"
Nut / Width: Bone / 42mm
Fingerboard: Rosewood, compound 10" to 14" radius
Frets: 21, Medium / Jumbo
Hardware: Mastery M1 bridge, Mastery MV vibrato, Gotoh SD-91 tuners
String Spacing, Bridge: 52mm
Electrics: Mojo Pickups Jazzmaster (58-64) set, 3-way pickup selector, master volume with treble bleed & no-load
tone controls, Electrosocket jack
Weight (kg / lb): tbc
Finish: Body: "Yakisugi" style burnt burst finish with Tru-Oil. Neck: Tru-Oil over Vintage Tint nitrocellulose
Included Extras: Spider Cases aluminium shaped hardcase, Heistercamp leather / cotton webbing strap

Fidelity Guitars Production Build:
Oxblood with Mojotron & Gold Foil pickups
Model: Double Standard
Type: Double-cutaway chambered electric
Body: Swamp Ash with Brazilian Walnut (Imbuia) top
Neck: Wenge with Zebrawood skunk stripe & off-white custom inlays. Medium "C" profile, bolted-in (brass inserts)
Scale Length: 25.5"
Nut / Width: Bone / 41.6mm
Fingerboard: Wenge, compound 10" to 16" radius
Frets: 21, Medium / Tall
Hardware: Fidelity Guitars bridge plate, Fidelity Guitars brass ferrule block, Gotoh SD-91 "Magnum Lock" tuners
String Spacing, Bridge: 52mm
Electrics: Mojo Pickups Firebird-Sized Gold Foil (neck) & Humbucker-Sized Mojotron Blade (bridge), 4-way rotary
pickup selector, master volume with treble bleed & master tone, Electrosocket jack
Weight (kg / lb): 3.06 / 6.75
Finish: Body: Oxblood over Tobacco Brown nitrocellulose, medium ageing. Neck: Tru-Oil
Included Extras: Spider Cases aluminium shaped hardcase, Heistercamp leather / cotton webbing strap

Fidelity Guitars Prototype #12:
Specifications:
Model: Prototype #12
Type: Double-cutaway chambered electric
Body: Swamp Ash with Maple top
Neck: Allparts Maple TMO-FAT. Chunky "U" profile, bolted-in (brass inserts)
Scale Length: 25.5"
Nut / Width: Bone / 40.9mm
Fingerboard: Maple, 9.5" radius
Frets: 21, Medium / Tall
Hardware: Mastery 7.1 bridge with chromed saddles, aluminium ferrule block, Kluson vintage-style tuners
String Spacing, Bridge: 53mm
Electrics: Mojo Pickups Blacktop Humbucker-Sized P90 (neck & bridge), 4-way rotary pickup selector, master volume
& tone, Electrosocket jack
Weight (kg / lb): 2.88 / 6.34
Finish: Body: Aged Copper paint finish. Neck: Tru-Oil over Vintage Tint nitrocellulose
Included Extras: Spider Cases aluminium shaped hardcase, Heistercamp leather / cotton webbing strap

JACKSON GUITARS
The 2017 Models
I mentioned my quest for a big bodied
Gretsch the other week, but fast
approaching my half century, I am also
struggling with what I hope will be a midlife
crisis, and have quite the yen for
something pointy, sharp and not a little
colourful. Not that I was particularly into
‘widdly widdly’ music back in the ‘80s,
and haven’t really been too keen on such
things since (there was a dalliance with a
dusty pink Charvel for a short while, but
I don’t like to talk about it.)
Anyway, this week of course the uber
pointy chaps at Jackson released all
manner of cool looking guitars, and I
thought I’d share a few of the prettier
ones here.
And I have to say the choice they offer is
stunning, I’d list the models but haven’t
got room to get into the specifications –
I’m sure you will find all you need at the
Jackson site HERE – but other than that,
enjoy the view.
As for my own quest, well, I’m thinking
something Rhodes or maybe Dinky, but if
you are going to go for it, you should
really do it large, so I think it will have to
be fluro-shocking in the colour
department, and hot rodded in the
hardware. From there, I’ll just have to
learn to play a bit faster.

CABBAGE
The Extended Play Of Cruelty E.P
The rather brilliant Cabbage are out and
about over the coming months in support
of their new E.P, ‘The Extended Play of
Cruelty’, which was released digitally this
week (although vinyl, CD & cassette
versions come out on the 25 th August.)
Talking about the E.P the band had this
to say,
“The Extended Play Of Cruelty is our
revisited conquest to our pop
psychological platitudes, the deceit of
man tests all in a moment of clarity and
we deliver our position in a long search
for Utopia. Our blend of fervent distain is
focused on local frustrations, whilst
celebrating those who shall rise through
the ashes.”
Talking specifically about the lead track,
‘Celebration of a Disease – which you can
hear HERE – the band explain that it is
based upon an essay about pornography
written by Throbbing Gristle’s Cosey
Fanni Tutti,
“Cosey talked about porn in the 70s,”
explains Cabbage’s Lee Broadbent.
“You’d expect it to have been a nasty
business then, but she said there was
something artistic about it at that time.
But she says it’s now pure capitalism,
where everyone – especially the
women – is treated badly, that there’s
no artistic platform in it. Pornography
now and lad culture put massive
expectations on the relationship
between men and women. It creates
barriers between men and women, and
sends out the message to men that it’s
OK to be chauvinistic. It’s the
celebration of a disease.”
CABBAGE, HEADLINE DATES:
Sept 27 - Holmfirth, Picturedrome
Sept 28 - Preston, 53 Degrees
Sept 29 - Stockton, Ku Bar
Sept 30 - Leeds, Live Art Bistro
Oct 6 - Peterborough, The Met Lounge
Oct 11 - Dundee, Church
Oct 12 - Dunfermline, PJ Molloys
Oct 13 - Darlington, Inside Out
Oct 14 - Barrow, The Drawing Room
Oct 17 - Norwich, Norwich Arts Centre
Oct 18 - Bedford, Bedford Esquires
Oct 19 - Stowmarket, John Peel Centre
Oct 20 - Wolverhampton, Slade Rooms
Oct 21 - Buckley, The Tivoli

MERMAIDENS
Sunstone
One of the coolest albums we have been
playing around here over the last couple
of weeks, is the new offering from New
Zealand band Mermaidens, which is
crammed with lazy cool guitars, hypnotic
vocals and a genuine old school lo-fi
psychedelia, that leaves you smiling
vapidly.
The album has such a variety of
approaches you never quite know what is
going to happen next, apart from that it
will get into your head and do a tainted
kind of damage.
The band's Gussie Larkin explains,
"Sunstone is made up of three
contrasting sections, gradually becoming
more and more brutal as the song
progresses. I didn't want the song to
have a 'hook' that it returns to - instead I
wanted to create an unpredictable
journey: full of time signature changes,
evolving guitar textures and imposing
vocals. It's a not a song you can just put
on in the background! The lyrics explore
a few different zones of my mind - from
the desire to reassure an anxious friend
to the dynamics and complexities of a
relationship. For the 'chorus' I settled on
the words "100 floating beings come
down!" simply because I needed
something fun to yell - and I also love
the imagery of that. 'Floating Beings' is
also a nod to our first album cover,
which is an illustration of a vibrating
floating body. Sunstone finishes up
with a mantra-like chant that is still an
earworm for me: "Wish I could
loosen/Wish I could lose/Wish I could
loosen under my skin."
This is genuinely something both
beautiful and unusual, special in the
truest sense. This is seriously an album
you need to check out.
Find out more HERE

THE BY GODS
Rat In My House
October sees the launch of The By Gods’
new album, ‘Move On’, which is likely to
be pretty impressive if the new single
called ‘Rat in My House’ is anything to go
by.
Singer, George Pauley explains,
"Living in a small town growing up, my
friends and I always wanted to get out.
Most of us made it, but we still have to
go back several times each year to see
parents, attend funerals, parties, etc. It’s
like a Black Hole, the draw it has and how
it pulls people back after they move
away. ‘Rat In My House’ is mainly about
being stuck in a small town death trap.
It’s like a maze you can’t find your way
out of. It's the same of all small towns,
once you're entrenched, you can't see
past the bubble and the small town
becomes the centre of your universe.
Some people prefer that I suppose."
Born from a potent blend of musings on
small town religion, depression, terrorist
attacks, celebrity deaths, global politics
and the subsequent social media
backlash of all those events, Move On is
the sound of a band trying to come to
terms with their own ever-changing and
strange reality, pushing themselves out
of their comfort zone to finally sculpt their
own hard-won identity.
“I grew up Pentecostal in a small paper
mill town where all that mattered was
high school football and church. It was,
and it still is, a God fearing town”
explains George Pauley “It’s not the
90s anymore though and I don’t think
Trent Reznor screaming ‘GOD IS
DEAD!’ would resonate quite the same
as it did then when, say, the West
Memphis Three trials were happening
or when the 'Satanic Panic' of the 80s
was still alive and well, in the South at
least.”
Find out more - Facebook Twitter Web
Site Bandcamp

TAPED: BILLY BRAGG
Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy
Some albums just have to be heard in
their original form, on cassette, and Billy
Bragg’s first release, ‘Life’s A Riot With
Spy Vs Spy’ is a perfect example.
Recorded in a spare moment at his record
company’s rehearsal rooms, and then
released with ‘a little bit of money they
had left over’, songs such as ‘The
Milkman of Human Kindness’ and ‘A New
England’ introduced him to a much wider
audience, even if the B side of the tape
was left blank.
As Billy explained when we were talking
to him for the Guitar Quarterly
interview,
“If you only have 17 minutes of music
recorded, you have to get creative, so
I decided to say that people could use
the other side of the tape to bootleg my
gigs.”
Sometimes it is as simple as that.
You can find out more about Billy, not
least his new book HERE

THE SPECIALS
Rat Race
This week La Contessa takes us back to a
time when the cold winds were blowing
through the streets of our cities, and only
music seemed to be able to reflect what
was going on.
Sounds kind of familiar somehow.
Hailing from Coventry, and has any place
ever been more forsaken? - The Specials
mixed the mournful vocals of Terry Hall
with the brilliant songs of Jerry Dammers
and twisted it all with their Rude Boy,
Ska, Skinhead vibe into some of the most
evocative and important music of the
time.
If Madness were the smiling pop face
of the times, The Specials were the real
deal, ‘shockingly’ mixing black and
white and never quite letting you know
what was going on behind their eyes.
You never felt that they believed they
had to entertain, they were talking a
deeper truth, it was as simple as that.