Belle and Sebastian Interview

07/12/2004

Claire Foss spoke to Chris Geddes from Belle and Sebastian before his DJ set at the Bomb this Thursday

They might have released six albums, but Belle and Sebastian are still one of the quietest bands in music. They've toured intensely for years now but unlike many other bands on the scene, you'll have acquired no osmotic knowledge of who they're dating or the parties they've been to.

A good thing too, because after a few staff changes and a Brit award they are still all about the music. They can also come to Nottingham, do a bit of DJ-ing and stroll around the city buying records without being harassed by mad fans and photographers. Amazing! LeftLion caught up with shy Scots keyboardist Chris Geddes for a chat about the band and his upcoming DJ set vs the Beta Band and Speakers Push the Air at the Bomb.

What have you been up to recently..?
"Lately, the band's just got a new rehearsal room together in Glasgow which is something we've been working towards for quite a long time, having somewhere permanent to rehearse. So we've finally got that set up. So we've just been spending a lot of time there, working on some new music."
"We've been working on a couple of retrospective things as well. We're putting together a compilation of the singles that came out on Jeepster and a compilation of the radio sessions we did while we were on Jeepster. So just working on new stuff and old stuff really."

When will the retrospectives be out?
"Hmm. I don't know. I think the singles compilation will be out quite early in the new year. It's been mastered and stuff but the artwork's not done yet. But I think that'll be quite early. And then maybe the radio sessions thing a few months after that. And then, by that time hopefully we won't be too far off having the new album out."

Have you done any of the new album tracks yet?
"Well we've got stuff written but we've not started recording anything yet. I think we`re quite a way off actually starting recording. I think we've kind of been looking forward to having our own place to work for a while so I think we're quite keen to make the most of it now we've got it and not to be rushed into the next lot of recording."
"We want to make sure that we've done as much work as we can before because I think we've learned over the past few years that the more work we do beforehand then the smoother things go when it actually comes to recording."

Have you played any of your new stuff yet?
"We haven't played any of the new stuff at gigs but we were touring from when the new album came out (just over a year ago, last October) until sort of August, we were touring for most of the time. We covered quite a lot of ground. We went to America twice, went to Europe two or three times, went to Australia, Japan as well. So we covered quite a lot of ground between August of last year and August this year. Off the top of my head it's probably about 100 shows in all."

No wonder you're having a break now.
"Well yeah, for us that's quite a lot. There are obviously quite a lot of bands around who work a lot harder than that and do a lot more than that. But for us that's quite a lot."

So have you done much DJ-ing before?
"Myself and Richard have done a couple of nights in Nottingham before, but we've not done a night where we've all been playing tunes together. It's myself and Richard, who plays drums; we're the two who always take tunes with us when we go on tour, kind of try and do parties and stuff. Although Stuart (who sings in the band) he used to DJ years ago, before the band started, and I think he's done a couple of nights himself, so I think he's maybe getting back into it a wee bit. But we've not done anything like this altogether."

How different is it to be playing someone else's music for the night?
"Well I was just talking about this with the last guy - it's definitely a different vibe to playing with the band but I really enjoy it. Partly because I think it's a lot easier to get off on someone else's music than it is on your own to an extent. Also, when we tour, it's quite a big production and there's an awful lot going into it. There are a lot of us in the band and a lot of crew and when you've done all that, there's something refreshingly simple about just worrying about two turntables and a mixer, when as long as it goes through the sound system okay, then everyone's going to have a party."
"You're not worrying about whether people can hear themselves in the monitors, stuff like that. It's nice; it's just easier, more straightforward. The way people react to it is more straightforward as well. If people are having a good time then they'll dance. And if you can keep people dancing then you can be fairly sure that people will go home having had a good night."

I imagine it's more emotionally draining to play live.
"I suppose you just have so much more responsibility for what's happening as well, whereas when you're DJ-ing, you have those few seconds maybe when there's two records going at once and it can be good or it can be total chaos if you mess it up. But apart from that, you're not as kind of connected to things, to what people are hearing as when you're actually playing the music, for sure."

Have you thought about what your first song is going to be at Speakers Push the Air?
"It's going to depend on the last song by whoever's playing before me. I'm incapable of leaving the house for a gig without taking far, far too many records with me and trying to make sure that I've got every style of music that I may want to hear covered. So I'm not going to think about that until whoever's on before me sticks on their last record and I'll try and figure out what I've got that might sound good after it."

So it'll be eclectic?
"Yeah, I think so. Hopefully not in a way that draws attention to it, because I think when I'm playing tunes, all I think is, "what would sound good after this". I do like to play a load of different sorts of music but I always like things to flow together."

Have you been to Nottingham before?
"Yeah myself and Richard been down a few times. We came down with the band years ago and did a gig and me Richard have done a couple of nights at the Social before but it'll be my first time at the Bomb. When we have been down it's been a matter of getting down in time, going for a bite to eat, doing the club and then going round a few record shops in the morning before heading back up the road but we've always enjoyed it. There are better record shops there than there are in Glasgow, definitely. For finding stuff like old 45s, reggae 45s and stuff it's better than Glasgow."

I'm sure you must have been asked this a thousand times, as it was six years ago now, but how was it winning the Brit awards over Steps?
"Well it was funny. It was funny seeing Mick and Richard on the telly up getting it; seeing how ill-prepared they were to win. I'm not sure. It was funny; it was just a funny situation to be in. We were just in the studio when it happened, but couple of days afterwards it was a good laugh, we had the local news crew coming down the studio. Just being in the media, being a news story for a few days was just kind of entertaining. A couple of days afterwards we were on the front page of the Scottish edition of the Sun and it was like `Scots band in Brit fix shock' and I think at that point we wished the whole thing had never happened."
"It was funny that it was for that that we ended up in the public consciousness for rather than the music. For years afterwards, and still now, if we're in a taxi, talking with the taxi driver and they're going, "what do you do?" if you decide to tell them you're in a band and they end up asking what you're called and stuff, if they have heard of the band then more likely than not it's for cheating at the Brits rather than for the music."

You're not a band that really seeks that sort of publicity. Was it a conscious decision to deliberately avoid all that?
"I don't think we've had to deliberately avoid it. I think apart from that one incident then the media and stuff has never been sufficiently interested in us for us to have to go out of our way to avoid it. I suppose the fact that we've always stayed in Glasgow kind of helps because as far as a lot of people are concerned then if you're not in London then you might as well not really exist."
"It has suited us to be able to work away on music and we have just been fortunate that whenever we've put a record out there have been enough people around the world that have wanted to hear it that we've always got to make another one so far. We haven't ever really had to go out of our way to keep ourselves off the front pages because we've never gone looking for it really."

You have a degree in physics. What was your original life plan?
"I didn't have on really. I was quite science-y at school and I found maths and science subjects quite easy. I did philosophy as well at university and the band had started by the time I was in my third year and I kind of knew by my last couple of years that I wasn't finding it as easy, well, obviously, it wasn't as easy as school, but I could tell that even compared to other people in my class that I wasn't as clever at it as a lot of other people and I probably wasn't going to change the world by discovering the theory of everything that they're looking for at the moment. I didn't really know what I was going to end up doing if I didn't end up in the band. I don't know if many people do at that age and I'm just kind of lucky that I'm doing something that I really enjoy."