Artist: HALF COUSIN
Label:
Gronland
Label Mates: Fujiya & Miyagi, Pet, The Earlies, Psapp, Neu!, Lunz, My LuminariesHere's the deal. Here's the BiG DeaL. That
shitty four-piece you've been in with your mates since Year 8 eventually managed
to get some daft industry type to hand over a blank cheque and to tell you were
going to be famous. Very famous. You wouldn't have to talk to your former classmates
at school. You wouldn't have to get up early. They only thing they didn't tell
you was that music was more than just writing songs and shaking your balls on
stage. It was about being there on time. Releasing something on time. It was about
being famous on time. And sometimes it comes together with less than military precision, in an unkempt and dysphasic fashion through a combination of boredom, isolation and a fondness for the minutiae of eccentricities common to life on the Western Isles. Meeting at school in the Orkneys – a wild and desolate isle off the Northern most tip of Scotland and home to the curious puffin, guillemot and shag – founding members Kevin Cormack and Jimmy Hogarth used the obscure and Neolithic character of the island as a backdrop to their delirious, beguiling narratives. With a history dating back over 3000 years and inhabitants ranging from Picts and Gaels to Norsemen and Christian Missionaries you can pretty much understand why the UK’s NME was to declare their magical entrance as the “Dawn of Witchrock, windswept and euphoric”. An untidy mixture of ancient and modern, traditional and unorthodox, guttural and gorgeous, debut album The Function Room provided a seamless continuity between the rag and bone autism of Tom Waits, the skewed, impervious pop of the Beatles’ White Album and a procession of modern chimeras like Gravenhurst, King Cresote, Psapp and Tunng. Junkyard pop built with precision engineering, folk music built by machines, the summation of a desolate, dislocate life the modern day wilderness brought to life by a mixture of charms, hexes and pro-tools. And new album ‘Iodine’ maintains the spell.
Now based in London after landing a record deal (with Gronland – home of NEU!), the Half Cousin collective has grown in numbers and stature. With fellow Orcadian Jimmy Hogarth they recruited two members of the late great Joe Strummer’s band the Mescaleros the band follow-up their support of Hot Chip and The Earlies with a series of their own dates in October and November.
So where did it all go right? Half Cousin's Kevin Cormack has the details.
How did the band first come together?
I moved to London and hooked up with an old school
friend from Orkney, who was getting into production.
We decided to see if we could make an album together.
What were the first songs you started playing
together?
We didn't play any live gigs until we'd recorded the
album. Maybe not the best idea but it was only a
4-track home recorder at that time. The first songs we
tackled were Country Cassette and Tiles.
What do you remember about your first gig?
We supported Hot Chip at the Buffalo Bar in London. I
don't have much recollection of playing - only the
nerves beforehand and the relief after!
How did you get signed?
Jimmy knew a producer who knew Rene, who runs
Gronland Records. I played him my demos and he said he'd be
interested in releasing the album when we finished
making it!
How did you blow your advance?
I didn't! I tried to keep hold of it for as long as
possible to pay the rent, so I could make more music.
The first famous person you met and the circumstances
leading up to it?
Alex Ferguson, when I was about 6 years old! I was in
the Orkney branch of the Aberdeen Supporters Club. He
was their manager at the time and came up a visit and
opened a new petrol station by cutting a ribbon,
bizarrely enough.
Best thing about Gronland?
They let you do, creatively, whatever you want. I certainly wouldn't let my music be used by more unscrupulous, exploitative companies.
Daftest story you've ever been tempted to write about
yourself?
I'm really into the idea of inventing personas,
characters, stories etc.
But you can never tell the press which ones are made
up and which ones aren't...
Does your label support or discourage unruly rock n
roll behaviour?
Neither. They're just like myself- enjoy a good night
out now and then.
In fact, they're probably worse than me!
Where's the strangest place you've been asked to
play?
Nowhere too strange- but my friend Sarah was in a band
who played in a lighthouse in Orkney, which I thought
was pretty cool.
What's the closest you've been to rewriting a famous
song?
Not sure. I did record a bit of jazz piano off the
radio and use it as a sample on KDK-12, on The
Function Room album. I still have no idea what piece
of music it is or who played it, so I didn't register
it as my own composition. I hope Sting or Elton John
don't get the royalties by default!
What was the last major decision your label made that
you were reluctant to accept?
Not to tour Europe with Battles before the album came
out. I understood their reasons but I still would've
loved to have done it.
Who chose the producer and what did they bring to the
recording of the 'Iodine' album?
Jimmy Hogarth and I are a team. He's a great objective pair of
ears and we've known each other for so long that we
can be very honest with each other.
What words would you use to describe the
release?
I did actually end up writing most of the press
release! I'm not exactly comfortable with self-promotion but hopefully it gave a sense of what the music's about... Junkyard Folk Machine Pop, or
something!
If it were all to collapse tomorrow would you go back
to your old job?
My old job was pumping petrol at the edge of town in
Kirkwall, Orkney.
Not a job I'd want to return to, really, although the
folk I worked with were great.
HALF COUSIN -
'Iodine'' album out 29.10.07 on Gronland. Single 'Absentee' Out Now.
relevant
sites:
www.halfcousin.com
www.gronland.co.uk
Nosey Bastard for Crud Magazine 2006© |
