Music > Interviews
Interview with The Staves
03/04/13
Somewhere along the journey of the PR juggernaut that ascended three girls from Watford to headline touring status, something seems to have been forgotten. Bewitched by the alchemy that their three harmonised voices procure, those in charge of The Staves lost sight of the fact that the girls – whilst worthy of support slots with Bon Iver, and Tom Jones, were not heaven-sent nymphs, or celestial bursts of sound – these are real girls, with their own sisterly humour, genuine and entertaining. Although as soon as you press play on the album again, you see how hard that was to convey, can it be true that such a sound comes out of… Watford?
How are you today Emily? Jolly good thanks, jolly good. A bit cold…
Yes, it’s vile, isn’t it? We very much appreciate your time today, especially as you must be right in the middle of packing for SXSW. I have just gone and bought lots of miniature deodorants and shampoos and all those things, which is the most fun part of packing to go anywhere, I think. Just having miniatures, it’s the best feeling!
I know what you mean; I never even wear nail varnish but I feel the need to buy nail varnish remover if I see a mini one, just for that very reason. [LAUGHS] Completely! I’m completely the same; all this stuff I don’t need. Oh dear…
Are you quite a clinical packer now, because you’ve done your fair share of touring, haven’t you? Yeah, there were a couple of times last year where I literally didn’t unpack between tours because we were only home for about five days, then we were off on the next one, so I was like, ‘Oh sod it, I’ll just leave it all’, then it comes to picking it back up again, I stick my toothbrush in it and leave.
You’ve been to SXSW before Emily – is it as amazing as it always sounds? It is, but it’s bloody hard work, I have to say. It’s really like, chaos; the whole city is full of people and everyone’s carrying guitars and trying to shift gear around, so it can be really intense, but it’s really good fun as well. There’s great beer, great BBQ, Mexican food and music everywhere, everyone’s in party mode; you can’t move for music, there’s just music everywhere.
I was wondering whether some of your songs feel at home in the States, because you’ve definitely got a sympathy towards US musical heritage, in terms of music. Do the songs settle in well to the environment over there? Yeah, I mean, we’ve had a really good reaction each time we’ve played in the States, which is lovely. I guess because we grew up listening to so much American music, you know - as most people do, because so much amazing music has come out of there - so obviously it’s influenced our writing. So I guess yeah, some of it might come across as an easy fit for America. Especially with harmonies, people tend to associate that very strongly with country music, or Americana at least, thinking from the 60s and 70s at least, with the Eagles and that kind of stuff. But I wouldn’t say there’s a huge difference in reaction between there and the UK, but it’s definitely not an alien sound to them, so it’s cool.
You must settle in nicely, but you are obviously British girls – however, your songs don’t seem to fit the imagined landscape of urban Watford, or am I completely wrong there? Have I got the completely wrong impression of Watford? [LAUGHS] Well actually I’m in Watford town centre at the moment and it’s beautiful… no, no, it’s definitely not beautiful! I don’t know, it’s a strange thing - where you come from – we’re just normal people; we didn’t grow up on a farm, singing on the porch or anything like that! But there is actually quite a creative scene here, I mean, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Daughter? We went to school with her, and Kyla La Grange, we went to school with her and Young Husband – they’re all over Radio 1 at the moment and we know those boys, so there’s quite a lot of music going on, and theatre and things like that as well, although you wouldn’t know it to walk through Watford ‘cause there’s just like, Yates and Lloyds Bars and Wetherspoons everywhere, McDonalds and all of that stuff. But there’s an undercurrent of real creativity, I think, going on in Watford and we were lucky enough to be part of that when we were growing up.
That’s good then, that’s all you need – an undercurrent is strong enough... Yeah it is, although I don’t think there are enough venues here where you can play, in fact I think there’s one, so maybe the council need to sit up and take notice and give people more of a platform in Watford. But no, it’s a good place.
We’re very proud of the venue you’re coming to in Norwich this April, the Norwich Arts Centre, which you’ve played at before, I think – - Yeah, I was just trying to remember who we were there with - I think it was Joshua Radin – - That’s right, yeah. That was our first ever tour and I remember the venue; it was beautiful – we had a really good show there. The acoustics are amazing; I remember we barely used the mics at all, we backed way off and for the room, it’s lovely.
Do you remember much of that show, or that tour? I imagine it seems like a distant memory nowadays. God, it really does, yeah. I guess I remember snippets of it, but last year was such a haze of touring; I think we did 6 or 7 maybe. But I think the first one, we’ll always remember it. We were just sort of shoved into our mate’s car [laughs]… with nothing and we really didn’t know what we were doing, but it was great fun.
So those early tours, are they learning curves or is touring something that comes instinctively to a musician? Well, I think that you definitely learn as you go. You learn that you can’t get hammered every night if you want to be at your best on the last show as well as you were on your first show, so you definitely learn to pace yourself – that’s definitely something that we learnt, although I wouldn’t say that we’re masters at it quite yet.
Yeah, none of us ever really learn that, do we? We’re intelligent creatures, but we never really evolve beyond that. [Laughs] No! Know your limits! But er, I don’t know, it’s a wonderful thing; some bands feel very at home on the road and then some bands are more about being in the studio and I think we’re trying to find a healthy balance really. We’ve always lived for playing live; you finish a song and the first thing you want to do is take it out on the road and play it in front of an audience and see how it works with the other songs in the set and that kind of stuff. We absolutely love travelling around and I think even travelling in itself is a very inspiring thing to do… I dunno, just eating up the miles and travelling hours and hours in the van and changing landscapes, even if it’s the most dreary landscape you can possibly imagine, you still get into this sort of trance and start thinking about things. And the band that you’re with, you end up having these crazy relationships where you’re in each other’s pockets for three weeks, then never see each other again… All of these things are kind of our life now and it’s wonderful; I wouldn’t have it any other way now.
You have a real sensory overload when you go somewhere you’ve never been before as well – all your senses are heightened… Yeah, exactly!
You’ve put in your time as support acts, and you’re so deserving of the headline tours now, but there’s been a couple of invaluable support slots you’ve had along the way. To me, as a Welsh girl, Tom Jones is a god – what did the silver fox teach you, do you think, about being on the road, or the industry? Well, our Mum’s Welsh, so we’re happy to share that connection with him too, I have to say. He’s wonderful; his energy is incredible for anyone, let alone someone of his age, so I’d have to say that the joy of singing surrounds him. I think sometimes you can forget the joy of what you do when it all gets a bit business-y and you have to do accounting and all that crap, but he’s like a shining light, saying ‘it’s all about the music.’ Yeah, that’s what keeps him going, I mean, I’ve seen him do 13-hour straight singing, pretty much. I guess that’s what he’s taught us – just to enjoy it and enjoy it while you’re on stage and everything about it with the whole weight of your being behind it. Find the truth in what you’re singing. It was fantastic to see that his musical integrity was still in tact, coming out with the ‘Praise and Blame’ album. It was a joy to see him come out with something of that quality… Yeah, to still find something fresh, to still be excited about it after having sung for so many years, it’s inspiring, I think.
Your mum must have been beside herself with excitement… She was, yeah [laughs]! We took her to this little showcase that we were doing with him and he said, ‘Oh, I’d love to meet your mother,’ so we introduced them afterwards and she was like, ‘oh my God!’, which was cool!
Now much is spoken of your voices, obviously, and how well they intertwine with each other, but I’ve had the album a while now and what I’ve been trying to do is pick apart your voices because I think it’s interesting that where you can, each of your voices has its own character. That’s something that you must recognise in yourselves, and how do you use that? Yeah, that’s a really strange one because when we sing together, they’re so similar, like when we’re recording I find it difficult to tell who’s singing what – like the other day, we were recording for this demo or something and I was like, ‘oh no, I’m singing the wrong note there’, so went back and re-recorded it and it still sounded wrong, then I was like, ‘oh, that’s not me!’ I was listening to it so convinced that it was, then I was like, ‘ah, Milly, you were wrong!’ So that’s really weird; when we do sing on our own, like you say, I do think we have really different voices. We tend to sit in the same place, like Milly and Jess tend to do the higher harmonies and I do the lowest - that’s where our ranges are at - but then when we swap that around, like on ‘Gone Tomorrow’ I sing the highest harmony, I dunno… it seems to bring a different quality to it, somehow. We did try it with Milly singing the highest one and it just sounded different, I mean, neither one is better, but I think it’s really interesting to play around with that and play with where we wouldn’t naturally go to, to create something interesting. The vocal arrangements are something that we’re always working on, and we try not to go for the easiest, trying to push ourselves to do something interesting and I think the important thing is trying to ration the harmonies; you don’t want them to be overkill. You want those moments where they come together to be special, to highlight something particular, like a lyrical moment in the song, or… We try and just use them as instruments. I think when we started out, just doing covers, we’d break them down to either just a capella, or with very minimal guitar, so we’d have to sing the guitar section, or string section and we’ve always seen our voices as instruments. It’s just another kind of arrangement to go in with everything else.
I’m sure you girls have got a real back catalogue of covers that you’ve done over the years that your family say, ‘oh, do that one for us – - Yeah!
Are there old favourites that you like to revisit with the family? Oh yeah; our parents used to sing with some of their friends, and they used to sing ‘Helplessly Hoping’ by Crosby, Stills and Nash and we all sing that and the guitar comes out if we’re at home together. And Joni Mitchell, what did we sing of hers? ‘Carey’ and ‘Case of You’, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ and all of that stuff; Dylan’s ‘Lay Lady Lay’ and oh, Neil Young’s ‘After the Gold Rush’, but the trio version that Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt used to do, on the piano. Oh God, loads!
I bet it’s quite indulgent, singing those songs after you’ve been singing your own for some time – - It’s great, great fun, yeah.
Now I do mean this in the nicest possible way: I’ve had trouble sleeping recently, and your album has become the album I put on to get myself into a sleep-like state, very quickly – - You phrased that very well, thank you!
I do mean it as a compliment though, I really do!! It’s a silencer, it silences the brain and draws you in to the narrative. Did you ever imagine the album being listened to in different environments, and was there a particular place that it would resonate best? Well, good question; I don’t know if I did think about that really but I suppose that everyone’s a music fan, and listens to music in different ways. Most music I listen to is through my headphones, quite a personal experience of music, but not always, obviously. I don’t know; I think it’s quite a driving album somehow, particularly songs like ‘Eagle Song’ and ‘In the Long Run’ remind me of being on the road and things like that. But quite a few people say they listen to it to kind of – I don’t know – relax them, and at first it’s like ‘Oh, our album sends you to sleep – fine!’ but then I think it’s really nice, there’s something very primal about being read to as a child, or lullabies, being sung to, is a deeply comforting experience and I think you can get that from an album. There are certain albums that I love, like getting ready for bed, that – I dunno, transport you somewhere, to a safe place and put you to rest from the cares of the day, so I am glad…!
Oh good! I think it’s because if you take a song like, ‘Facing West’, it’s taking you somewhere else, away from your day. There’s a good sense of travelling to it, but I can do the travelling from my own bed. Exactly, travel in your mind!
I better not drive with it on now, because it might have become a sonic indicator for bedtime, like a sleep trigger! [Laughs] Yeah, I don’t want to be responsible for any crashes!
Now we’re very much looking forward to having you in Norwich. You’ve become famous for your almost deathly silent audiences, but actually what makes the perfect audience for you? What can we bring to the party? Oh blimey, well we’ve been so lucky with the audiences who’ve come to see us and they’ve generally been a goof balance between vocal, and up for having a bit of a laugh, then very respectful and quiet when we’re performing… Oh, what would I wish for? More of the same! Although, we played in a church once and that can be, I don’t know… people are so quiet that it’s kind of unnerving, you know. So I hope people enjoy it, and do whatever they need to do to enjoy music. I go to gigs on my own whenever I can, because I hate being with people; I think it’s such a personal experience, to watch live music, so even if I’m with people, I just sort of move away! So whatever people need to do to enjoy it, they are free to do.
It’s a very reverent building, being a former church, but I read that you sometimes put little curiosities of your own around the space… something to do with Jesus riding a T-Rex? I hope that makes its way to Norwich. Yeah, erm, yeah… we have quite a childish sense of humour and when you’re on tour it becomes this weird school trip vibe and you pick up these jokes that you think are hilarious; you pick up oddities and you kind of create your own living room on stage every night, so by the end of the tour, you’ve got lamps and telephones and all sorts of things on stage with you. We just try and inject a bit of fun into it for ourselves.
Good, I like that! Maybe we could bring some curiosities of our own to the gig, see what we’ve got lying around Norwich… Oh! That would be more than welcome! Anything weird would be great. Get Steve Coogan along.
Emma Garwood
The Staves come to the Norwich Arts Centre on April 20th. For tickets, go to www.norwichartscentre.co.uk