News
Catching up with Erland's carnival days
29/01/2010 08:27:00
"I'm pretty overwhelmed by the support we've got, it's quite surprising, but I thought people would either get it or wouldn't," Erland told Orkney Today.
"I feel like we get a marmite reaction to our music; you're either
really going to get it and love it, or hate it. I like that, it's
better to provoke a reaction."
Erland and the Carnival have been described as a psych-folk trio and
that description is apt; their debut CD is full of whirling guitars and
carnivalesque keyboards, reminiscent of 60s greats such as The Doors,
Love and the 13th Floor Elevators.
A heavy sprinkling of folk throughout the album is also apparent, many
of the influences and lyrics contained on the album's 13 tracks are
adapted from traditional folk tunes and contemporary artists.
Erland's vocals are perfectly pitched to this mix of genres, smooth and
evocative, while Simon's distinctive guitar and David's tantalising
drums complete the blend. Keys/harmonium player Andy Bruce, vocalist
Georgia Sands and bassist Danny Wheeler also appear on the album.
Opening track Love Is A Killing Thing is a based on a traditional folk
song collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams but updated with a new bridge
and a chorus from a Seeger/MacColl song. The Derby Ram is another
traditional song that's been greatly overhauled from its original
subject matter. Originally about a giant fictional sheep, it now
details a true story about a recent suicide in which the jumper was
filmed on mobile phones by the crowd on the ground. Elsewhere, William
Blake (The Echoing Green) and Leonard Cohen (Disturbed In The Morning)
provide the words.
Erland and the Carnival have a busy schedule of gigs coming up, they
are doing their own tour in February to promote the album and will be
supporting Wild Beasts and Tunng in March. And of course, Erland is
hoping to get the band up to Orkney later in the year.
Erland, who describes himself as the wrong side of 25, is originally
from Stromness, where his parents Charlotte and Phillip Cooper still
live. His mother teaches at Stromness Academy and his father, who was
also teacher, is now retired.
He is from a large family, with four brothers and one sister, and says
as with most large families everyone in Orkney will probably know at
least one of them!
Erland left Stromness Academy in 1998 to go to Heriot-Watt University, where he studied International Business.
"That meant I could go travelling to other countries as part of my
degree," said Erland. "I got the opportunity to go to Budapest, then
came back and got my degree in 2002."
Afterwards he studied Spanish in Spain and also came home for a while
and worked in Argos in Stromness. It was after meeting a girl who lived
in England that Erland left Orkney for good. That was in 2004, but he
still visits as much as possible.
"I try and come up as much as I can," said Erland. "I am trying to get
the band to come up, not that it's hard to persuade them; we're trying
to get a bunch of dates together for a Scottish tour."
Soon after moving to England he was introduced to a number of musicians
and artists: "There was lots going on, so I thought I'd stay around."
Erland currently lives in little place called Arbinger in Box Hill,
Surrey, halfway between London and Brighton: "I left the island but I
live in a little village. It's great, a small and really nice
community, with a couple of pubs. It's quite a creative place, a lot of
artists live there. I look forward to leaving London and coming home
each night."
Erland has always been into music and says he was often the only one in
the music room at Stromness Academy at lunch time. It was around this
time that he started to experiment with different instruments and
recording equipment and started to write his own material.
"The facilities at school were always fantastic," he said. "You would
have the space, no other sounds around, no parents, I look back at that
and feel quite lucky that the music teacher let me in at lunch time.
And I was crap at football!"
He continued: "I learned the fiddle but I'm not very good at it, I
realised the guitar was a much better instrument for me. I also like
the trumpet and I'm trying to learn the piano, but I'm better at guitar
so I should probably stick to that.
"I'm a bit of a lazy musician, I play a few little bits and bobs on a
lot of instruments but am a master of none. But I suppose I've got a
few years yet to perfect my playing.
"The biggest thing for me is being exposed to people who are really
great. I wouldn't tell him this, but Simon is just fantastic, I could
sit and watch him play for hours, learning from him. He's a very good
guitar player."
He added that another two bands he really rates are Half Cousin, formed
by fellow Orcadians Kevin Cormack and Jimmy Hogarth, and Orkney folk
duo Saltfishforty.
Erland first met Simon in his What The Folk club night, which he used to run in Portobello Road in London.
Erland said: "It wasn't a conventional folk night, there were no
sweaters or men with big bushy beards, but was quite a raucous affair.
It was really enjoyable, swinging, with people having a really good
time and being really loud.
"They didn't quieten down when someone got up up to play, you had to be
good to make them listen. It was a very hard platform to get up and
play, but I liked that charge, that excitement.
"There was also a compere who completely berated all the acts before
they went up on stage, he was very eloquent and a good comic, who
looked like a rough Bob Dylan, but I went up thinking 'how am I going
to play now?' I was petrified, playing to an audience that wasn't
listening. I played something that I didn't think was very good but a
few folk got behind it.
"Now I think Simon put me up for that challenge, just to see what the reaction was."
Afterwards, they got talking and discovered they had similar musical
tastes. One artist they both rated was Jackson C Frank, whose song My
Name is Carnival became the inspiration for their band's name and is
the second track on their album.
"We decided to cover it there and then, and started the band. We met up
with David in some little studio, played a few songs, listened back to
what we'd recorded, nodded and decided to form the band."
Erland and the Carnival was recorded at Studio 13 (owned by Tong's The
Good, The Bad, and The Queen band mate Damon Albarn), overdubbed in
Simon's attic and Erland's shed and mixed at the garden studio owned by
renowned producer Youth.
when asked if he was surprised by the buzz already surrounding his
band's debut album, Erland said: "It's fantastic, really great. I am
surprised by some of the support we've got from some really great
writers out there, that I respect and read."
However, he added that he was more excited to see what was written about him in his paper from home!
Speaking about how the songs came about, Erland said: "It's a
three-headed monster. Although we are quite competitive and write
independently, we throw our ideas together to see what comes out the
other side. It's not until we're together that the final thing is done.
We come together in London several times a week."
He added: "I'm inspired by British music, our heritage; we have a great
back catalogue. Although we might annoy some purists, folk music was
always evolving. You don't always have to preserve a perfect version of
a particular song. These were songs that were sung in farmyard or pubs,
by the time they reached the next one it had changed. It's basically
storytelling, preserving what the song's about, if it's an interesting
story to tell.
"I really enjoyed playing at Simon's folk nights and wouldn't mind
doing another one. Folk music doesn't have to be a certain way, I'd
like to try and change that particular stigma."
Erland and the Carnival have already started on their second album,
although at the moment Erland still has a day job; he is operations
director of a small property group, Argyll Business Services
"I work with a really great guy who's really supportive of my music,"
he says. "It's quite a demanding job, but I've always worked hard
during the day then work hard at music during the night. I do feel like
I work flat out!"
As we said goodbye, he was heading off to a band meeting to discuss the
possible Scottish tour and promised to push the idea of coming to
Orkney.
So hopefully it might not be too long before the Carnival comes to town . . ..