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Field Music: Must Try Harder

This interview's been on a bumpy road. It started off back in February...

This interview's been on a bumpy road. It started off back in February - just before the band released their third full-length studio album, 'Measure' - when we were still anticipating what was yet to come, the record we've now become rather familiar with after four months of repeat listens.

We sent the band a few questions about what they were up to, which David Brewis answered and sent back responses to... except they didn't leave. They sat in his drafts folder, only to be discovered a few weeks ago - after which they ended up in our spam. Email, eh?

Anyway; here he is, four months ago (just pretend you have a Tardis or something), telling us about the band's no-longer-forthcoming new album, 'Field Music (Measure)'.

The geography of a band no doubt has an impact on their music. I've been to Sunderland a few times. Interesting place, but being a Londoner, anything beyond the M25 in England briefly is, albeit a little beige after a while. How has the landscape of Sunderland influenced your sound?
The landscape probably hasn't influenced our sound all that much - maybe the proximity to the sea and the odd mix of industrial, post-industrial and rural. The politics of the area has probably affected us a lot more and the relative isolation from the more prosperous parts of the country - London can feel a long way away.

Often (not always), new albums signal a change in direction of sorts. Where can we expect you to take us with the new album?
It's a little bit more guitar-oriented and a little bit looser. The hints to other realms of music - jazz, musique concrete etc - are probably a little bit more obvious on this album as compared to previous ones.

With what many have described as a heavier, rockier sound, alluding to old fashioned rock n roll, who were your main influences on Measure?
I was listening to a lot of David Bowie, Prince and The Fiery Furnaces and even had a period of a couple of months where I didn't really want to listen to anything other than The Black Crowes (2nd, 3rd and 4th albums, to be precise). Peter's been having an Eric Clapton renaissance and was/is listening to a lot of Richard Thompson. Certain things - Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, The Beatles, The Band - are always there.

With the Brewis brothers at the core, how important has the fluidity in your lineup been in the progression and evolving of your music and how have the latest changes impacted on Measure?
I've never really felt that we did have a fluid line-up - we did have a thought a while back that we could have a core band and then a pool of other musicians who would come in as and when they could but it never worked out like that - touring is not that flexible. The difference with this album is that Andy Moore wasn't around so there's a lot less piano and a bit less rehearsal, seeing as only two of us had to learn the songs.

What it a conscious decision to make a double album and if so, what was the thinking behind it?
We wanted to do something which made it quite explicit that Field Music can be quite a wide-ranging thing - we figured the best way to do that was to do a long album with no rules about what could or couldn't be included, other than it had to be good, of course.

Field Music still manage to capture that vast, epic sound that has Field Music written all over it. Sure signs of musical talent and not simply regurgitating past efforts or indeed, music from days of yore. Are there any tips for budding musicians/bands out there, looking to find their own niche and not to simply become the next [insert latest NME endorsed band/artist]...?
Make the best music you possibly can and try to be honest about how well it stands up to your very favourite records. Try to make the music you would want to listen to. One of the things which keeps us going is that we compare our records to, say The White Album or "Heroes", and that makes us realise we're still amateurs who need to try harder.

To say that you were taking a haitus did not signal the end of the band as you (the Brewis brothers) have been keeping busy. How does working together and collaborating differ from Field Music when working on your solo projects such as School of Language?
In lots of ways, it's not very different at all - the collaborative aspects of Field Music are quite nebulous - for me, Peter saying, "I like that bit" or even saying, "I'm going to work on something else next door" can be more useful to me than him playing a guitar part. Or him playing me a bit of a new song of his which gives me a kick up the arse. In that sense, the School of Language record (which Peter doesn't play on) was just at one extreme of that collaborative process.

Like with The Week That Was etc, can we look forward to any other offshoot projects in the future from Field Music Productions?
At some point we'll definitely make some music which isn't a Field Music pop record - what we call it or how we promote it is up for conjecture.

With the aforementioned side project(s) of Field Music Productions, David and Peter - was there much sibling rivalry at play? And if so, any punches thrown or was this just healthy competition?
There's always a bit of rivalry but mostly in the sense that we're inspired by each other. And also, we do compete a little to be the most productive - Peter writes a lot more songs than I do though, so I have an uphill battle.

Are there any particular places you are looking forward to playing? And what are the most diva-esque demands made by Field Music on the road (if any)?
Everywhere's different - there are some places where we have a decent idea of what to expect and there are some places where we have no idea - sometimes an appreciative audience of 10 is better than 500 people texting. Our most diva-esque demands on this tour have been to have a bottle of red wine on our rider - we generally don't get boozed up when we're playing but it's nice to settle down in our travelodge after a gig and have a glass of wine. We also ask to have somewhere available before we play where we can do vocal warm-ups - we put a lot of effort into the singing and the harmonies so it's worthwhile being physically prepared, especially when we're doing long-ish sets night after night.

Before we leave you, one final question - what are Field Music listening to right now? Musically, of course. For all we know, someone may be drilling next door...
Bad by Michael Jackson. We're trying to think of a way of appropriating the bass line from the chorus of Speed Demon into a Field Music song.