The Beat Surrender

Having recently reviewed My Sad Captains debut single Bad Decisions and being very impressed by their off kilter guitar pop, it seemed only right that we should grab the band for a quick interview to find out what plans they had for the rest of the year.

Congratulations on getting the debut single out, it must be nice to have something out there after being together for three years or so?

Yeah it is. we had played lots of gigs and recorded many demos but shot ourselves in the foot by never recording anything properly. When we finally got round to it, luckily fortuna POP! were on hand to break our duck.

The band name is from a poem by Thom Gunn, can you tell us a bit more about that and why it was something that stuck with you?

There was no especial significance to it – i hate trying to think of band names and i came across that poem on my sisters bookshelf. Having said that, we didn’t want to join the ‘the’ band hoards, and those three words together did seem to capture something of the music we have been trying to make – i like their possessiveness, melancholy and
defiance respectively.

How does the song-writing process work in the group?

Normally it starts with a sketch of the basic song on a cd which is then circulated to everyone in the band and then everyone gives some thought to parts/arrangment ideas. it seems to work best chipping away at parts separately or in small groups before everyone comes together in the rehearsal room annd see if it all comes together. We are not that big on ‘jamming’.

Bad Decisions…is their a story behind the song and is it personal to one band member or a more general song?

Not a specific story as such, but it does have a vague narrative tied around it. I guess its finding a scapegoat for things and comfort for general disillusionment. Something to offset what is essentially a chirpy pop song.

No disrespect but the lead vocals have that sort of slightly off key greatness to them that people like Stephen Malkamus and David Gedge also have, is that a fair comment would you say and do you see it as a plus point like I do?

Erm, i try to make them in tune! Probably a fair comment though…we are not all that bothered about things being especially perfect, so long as it sounds ok to us. As David Berman sings (a bit out of tune) ‘all my favourite singers couldn’t sing.’

I’ve not caught you live yet, are you venturing to Leeds at any point and if I do get to see you live what can I expect from you onstage?

We are trying to play more and more out of London, so hopefully Leeds will be on the radar soon – maybe towards the end of the year when we should have another single out. We hope you’ll get some good songs played in an engaging way. We tend to experiment with linking songs together to cut down on awkward silences! There are 5 of us and we use quite a lot of different instruments to augment the standard rock fare.

Obviously it’s still early days on the release front for you having just got the single out, but are you working on an album at the moment and do you have a vision of what it will be like if not?

We’re not specifically working on an album as yet. We are going to record more in August for another single and then see how things go from there. We will get round to an album soon.

Continue