Artist: MALCOLM MIDDLETON
Label:
Full Time Hobby
Label Mates: Tunng, The Hold Steady, The Checks, AutoluxHere'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. 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 you save all your pocket money, buy a guitar, learn the damn thing only for everyone else to have moved on without you. Which is pretty much what happend to Falkirk's Malcolm Middleton - not that it really mattered as Middleton was to eventually meet up with Audan Moffat to form the sexually prodigious, Arab Strap before signing to the massively respected Glasgow label, Chemikal Underground in 1995. 10 years later they split up, but not before putting togther some of the frankest, bare-knuckle electro folk of the last thirty years. As one famous poet-laureate was to declare, Nick Drake seemed a cheerful brash ponce by comparison. Influenced by artists as leathery and unpretentious as Smog and Will Oldham, the 'Straps' - as they were never known incidentally - they just weren't that kind of band - smacked their respective monkeys until they had a tissueful of brooding though increasingly complex albums to their credit: Philophobia (1998), The Red Thread (2001), The Last Romance (2005).
But let’s play catch-up. ‘Sleight of Heart’ is the fourth studio album by Malcolm Middleton, and comprises grizzly assorted, bric-a-brac written during the recording of the Brighter Beat sessions in 2007 – in addition to a handful of cover versions that include a characteristically saturnine version of Madonna’s ‘Stay’ – a cross between a warm and cordial invite and a surly smack on the jaw – and King Creosote’s giddy and flailing, ‘Marguerita Red’. Naturally it’s a pared down, skeletal affair in comparison to Brighter Beat – but then it would be – being what it is, the sound of one man gritting his teeth and sharing his bile with an intimate number of friends between sessions. It’s the sound from the other side of the microscope: cranky, lethargic and resisting the urge to amuse – and for which it is indefatigably amusing. Initially conceived as an acoustic LP – and largely remaining so – the album was recorded at Chemikal Underground Studios in Glasgow. Malcolm’s recording band (featuring Mogwai’s Barry Burns on piano, ex-Delgados man Paul Savage on drums, touring bassist Stevie Jones and Jenny Reeve on backing vocals) joined in when he “got carried away”.
How did you first get started?
My friend was starting a band and needed a bass player so I started learning. By the time I’d bought a bass guitar they’d already replaced me. Needless to say I had the last laugh. What were the first songs you started to write? Any major changes in terms of direction?
I started writing when I was 14. Really bad teen-angst stuff like: why doesn’t she notice me? What’s the universe for? And why do I feel like shit all the time? I’ve come a long way….. What do you remember about your first gig?
My first band was called “Rabid Lettuce”, we were a 3-piece with drums, vocals and myself on bass guitar. Supported local cool boys “Spag Bog” at the Clairemont Inn in Polmont, Falkirk.. It was one of the most exciting and delusional days of my life. I also had my first ever kebab. How did you get signed?
I went off to work as a waiter on the Isle Of Mull for a few months. The plan was to save money to buy recording equipment. Meanwhile Aidan (Arab Strap) sent off a few cassette tapes to some indie labels, after which Chemikal Underground got back and said they wanted us to do an album for them. I returned home in a blaze of glory before having to work in the local Chinese take-away at nights and going into the studio during the days.  How did you blow your advance?
We didn’t actually get an advance until our 3rd album. Blew it on everything. Houses, bad management, playstations, lawyers, taxes, taxis. The usual.
The first famous person you met and the circumstances that led to it?
Noddy Holder outside a radio station in Manchester. Needless to say we all shouted “It’s Christmas!” at him. Sorry Noddy. Best thing about Full Time Hobby?
Nice guys with a lot of enthusiasm. What’s the single most extravagant thing you’ve ever requested of the label?
An up-to-date breakdown of my accounts. You should’ve seen the looks I got! An influence you are almost too embarrassed to talk about … and how you justify it to yourself.
None, I love all my music. Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Pat Benatar, Iron Maiden, Suicidal Tendencies, Celine Dion (the song about the boat where she makes her voice sound like pan-pipes) Ever indulged in any unruly rock n’ roll behaviour? What’s your worst offence?
I’m ashamed of a lot of the things that I did as young idiot in a nothing band. I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to everyone that knew me between 1996 and 2001. Sorry! Who will you be taking along on the upcoming dates?
Jenny will come and play violin and sing, she has a beautiful voice and sings on most of my albums. Stevie will play double bass. What’s the closest you’ve been to rewriting a famous song?
I’ve already re-written “Candle In The Wind” for when Elton goes. Who joined you in the recording of ‘Sleight of Heart and what was their impact? Any surprises?
The usual guys, Barry Burns on piano, Paul Savage on Drums, plus Jenny and Stevie on violin and double bass. They always surprise me. I tend to straighten things obsessively so it’s good to have people add random stuff that I wouldn’t think of. How does a typical Malcolm Middleton song come together?
I write a couple of lines, if they have a melody I pick up a guitar, mess about for five minutes then get bored. Repeatedly try to come back to it to finish it. Nothing happens. Feel rubbish. It’s rare for me to write a song all at once. Any further plans to work with Aidan Moffat?
We’ll probably sign-on together again someday. Here’s the deal: you’ve made an excellent record and some unscrupulous hack handling the press release is about to screw it all up with some grotesque misuse of our mother-tongue. What words would YOU use to describe the release?
They usually are my words as my press agent has the format of asking me questions about the album and then splicing all my comments together. And I pay him…. If it were all to collapse tomorrow would you go back to your old job? What was your old job?
Waiting? No. I’d probably just sell up and travel round the world on foot. Singing sad songs to desperados. Die in the desert somewhere with some press clippings in my wallet.
MALCOLM MIDDLETON -
'Sleight Of Heart'' album out 03.03.08 on Full Time Hobby.
Tour dates:
March 2008
22nd Belfast, Black Box
23rd Cardiff, Glee Club
24th Bristol, Thekla
25th Cambridge, Portland Arms
26th Oxford, Jericho Tavern
27th Leeds, Cockpit
29th Exeter, Phoenix
30th Leicester, Charlotte
31st Norwich, Arts Centre
April 2008
1st Birmingham, Glee Club
2nd London, Union Chapel
5th Nottingham, Bodega
6th Manchester, Night & Day
7th Newcastle, Cluny
relevant
sites:
www.malcolmmiddleton.co.uk
www.myspace.com/malcolmmiddleton
Nosey Bastard for Crud Magazine 2008©
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