CultureCritic interviews Fyfe Dangerfield of Guillemots...

Following a solo album Fly Yellow Moon in 2010, Fyfe Dangerfield is back fronting Mercury-nominated melodic indie-poppers Guillemots, who release their third record, Walk The River, this week. We spoke to Fyfe ahead of its release to discuss the ‘atmosphere' of their new record, diverse influences and the constraints of being a ‘band that plays songs'...

You've lost some of the big orchestration that featured on previous Guillemots records. What was it like to work with the ‘bare bones' of the band?

I wouldn't describe Walk the River as ‘bare bones', we still wanted to have all kinds of layers in there, but it is the first record we've done that hasn't used strings and brass and so on. It's just us four: that's definitely the defining thing about it.

Do you think people are likely to be surprised by the new record, or would you describe it as a departure for the band?

Our last record was probably more surprising, really flitting around as much as we could... but I don't know what people are expecting from us. I just wanted to make a good record that I felt was true and honest. It's not massively different from anything we've done, but I also don't think we've done a record quite like it. We had an atmosphere we wanted to capture, that's what we wanted to inform everything.

Can you tell us more about this ‘atmosphere'?

Just a feeling of being lost and wanting to be found. We thought a lot about space, and wanting it to be heard across the night sky, like someone coming out from Mars and looking at Earth.

Your videos have a psychedelic, almost surreal quality. Would you say there is anything visually that particularly influences you?

We see stuff visually when we're playing all the time. That's how we write: we see pictures. In terms of our videos, we just respond to the songs and how they make us feel. With ‘The Basket', the most manic song on the record, I had this idea about waking up in a tent in the woods, and it was perfect.  We wanted to shoot the video for ‘Walk The River' in a desolate landscape that summed up what the song and the album feel like to me - like this endless journey, being in search of a destination you can't really get to.

Was that filmed in Dungeness?

We found out after we'd done it that we didn't have a permit to film there so I'm a little scared about saying yes... but it was.

The band improvised to Eraserhead at 2008's Latitude festival. It is a fairly dark film, and perhaps not an obvious Guillemots match. Why did you choose to do it?

Probably for precisely for that reason. When we write and play and improvise together some of the stuff we come up with is quite dark, and this album reflects that darkness more than our previous work. Our conventional albums are always going to be based around songs, and I think in terms of singing I'll always write in kind of a melodic way... I have limits as a singer and as a songwriter. There's a lot musically that we want to do that we can do when we're not playing as a band doing songs.

It gives you a certain freedom?           

Yes, doing something like Eraserhead is wonderful. I stop being a singer and a band and its just four people playing and just getting lost in it.

You say that think visually when you're writing. Are there any films or filmmakers you particularly admire?

David Lynch is brilliant. I admire the Studio Ghibli movies, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflies - they're wonderfully inventive. Anything that designs it's own world in music, film, literature, I love - anything that feels it has its own world, and that you want to go inside and be in the middle of, rather than feeling you're being lectured at. Lynch does that wonderfully; he makes this world that feels uneasy all the time. That's what we tried to do, to make something to step into and that surrounds you.

How has your background in classic musical influenced your interest in pop?

The thing is, I don't really have a background in classical music, though I know that's what it says. I learned piano from a young age because I played it at home and my parents could see I was really into it, and in lessons you play classical music, but I stopped when I was about 16. It was only then that I started listening to classical music for pleasure. But since the age of four I've wanted to be in a pop band so I hated saying I've come from a classical background. Pop music was my first love.

Can you give us some examples of your early musical loves?

I will never idolize a band as much as the Beatles, they were the first band I ever listened to.

Is there's anything about growing up in Birmingham that's influenced you?

I think there's a sense of humour in Birmingham and a love of the surreal maybe, that comes through, but I may have just made that up.

What is behind the name ‘Dangerfield'?

It's my mum's maiden name. My full name is Fyfe Anthony Dangerfield Hutchins. Dangerfield is my middle name but I was like, ‘I'll have to use it if I'm in a band'. It would just be a waste not to.

Walk The River is out now, read the latest reviews here.