Music > Interviews

Echobelly

OPEN

20/04/17

 

King Of The Curb. Great Things. I Can’t Imagine The World Without Me. Dark Therapy. In the days of indie ruling the roost in the UK, and the likes of Sleeper, Lush, Elastica and Echobelly regularly gracing the charts and capturing the hearts of teens all over the country, these sing along classics were everywhere. But since those heady days of the early 90’s, Sonya Maden and her songwriting partner Glenn have continued to write, and their sixth album, their first in several years is just about to come out. A slice of Americana-tinged rock, this ain’t no Britpop. Regrouped, reinvigorated and returning to the live scene and the studio, Echobelly are coming to Open to play all their best stuff and a few new tracks. I spoke to Sonya about what female popstars wear these days, how Oasis took all their glory and how she’s feeling about Echobelly’s return.

 

Faces In The Mirror from the new album is about your dad’s opinion of your life. I know you grew up in quite a strict household. What did your parents think of you taking up a career in music when you started off, and to what extent do you think your choice of career was a reaction to your childhood?

I wouldn’t say it was a reaction to my childhood because I’ve always been fascinated by words. I didn’t plan to do this, I fell into it by accident, and it was a case of meeting the right people at the right time and thinking that I might enjoy it. There wasn’t great approval from my family! There still isn’t I’m afraid, ha ha! I think they’re still waiting for me to settle down!

 

Who were you into musically when Echobelly first started?

That’s a hard question for me – for most artists that’s a joy to answer because generally people really get into music and then want to go into that profession. But I wasn’t an avid music listener. It’s a bit of an anomaly – I didn’t have the normal upbringing of being saturated by really great music and then wanting to join that fellowship. I listened to a lot of pop music, whatever was in the charts at the time really, like a normal suburban child.

 

During your early Echobelly career you went through serious illness, legal disputes, and people leaving the band. What was the most difficult problem you had to negotiate?

I suppose there’s always going to be problems, that’s just part of rock no roll, but the biggest problem was that we didn’t get the backing we should have got. We came out at the same time and on the same label as Oasis. We were both on independent labels but they were actually both funded by Sony – it was a front. Sony put all their money behind Oasis and really pushed them and just ignored us. I remember in American there was a buzz for Oasis and a buzz for Echobelly, and in France when we toured together we got a better reaction than they did. I could just see that the label was ignoring us, and putting all their funds and energy into Oasis. I mean that’s great for them, and I’m really happy for them but it was incredibly frustrating to feel left behind, knowing you could achieve more if you have the right backing.

 

 

How have you found the music industry has changed since the early 90’s, particularly in terms of how it treats women?

I’m not sure if it’s something to do with getting older, but when I do watch music channels everything with regard to women seems to be almost soft porn in terms of what women themselves are promoting quite happily. I find it a little bit sick. Everyone has the right to do what they want but at the same time I feel a little sense of discomfort because it seems to have gone backwards and it’s almost like women are a willing part of that. Every video is what I would consider to be prostitute clothes and it’s almost like that’s the norm to be a woman on a pop video. Everybody has the right to wear what they like but at the same time..is that it?

 

You did a few acoustic shows in 2010 and release a couple EP’s under the name of Calm of Zero with Glenn…was this a case of dipping your toes back in the water?

It was because the music business has changed so much in terms of the structure in which you release records and what people are willing to sign. The support isn’t there – you will get dropped if your first album flops, whereas before you’d get a four or five album deal which is unheard of now. I think it was pointless for us to look for a record deal so we just thought let’s go out there and play some shows and write, because we always want to write, it’s never dried up. It was great fun just to be totally free and write what we wanted to. We didn’t have a band which is why it was acoustic. It was an interesting exploration in terms of writing style.

 

 

Echobelly came back in full two years ago with a show at the Scala. Why then, and how was that experience for you?

It was almost by accident. We made a lot of contacts during the years and there was a very stablished agent we knew, and we went to see him with just the idea of doing some Echobelly shows or just to see what we could do. He told us “get the band back together or start a new version of Echobelly and just do one show in London and see what happens. If no one comes then you know it’s over.” So we did that and it sold out! It was amazing, the audience was so receptive and celebratory and full of energy and love. So we were like, we’ve been told!

 

What’s next for the band at this point?

We’re just doing six shows in May and June plus a few festivals which we’re booking now. We’re not looking to do the big festivals because we’d just end up playing during the afternoon which is pointless. We’ve done Glastonbury, we’ve done Reading on really good slots so there’s no point in us now doing them at 2pm. It’s better to play some key smaller festivals. We’re not naïve, we’ve been away a long time and we haven’t really done the social media thing so we haven’t got a huge following but it’s starting to grow now.

 

When you started writing songs for this album what was the idea in your heads, or your plan for how you wanted to sound or what you wanted to achieve with these songs?

Well I’ve always known that Glenn and I are really good at writing songs and at the same time we’re much heavier than people think we are. I don’t apologise for my lyric writing and I don’t sing like a lickle girl, and he’s quite heavy on his playing and has some interesting esoteric musical taste from jazz to classical Indian music. We had the freedom to bring all of that in. It’s a very odd coupling in terms of songwriting because he’s from Sweden and I’m from India, yet we’ve got a real British energy mixed in with all the other influences and it gives a unique perspective to what we do. It’s not Britpop by any means - it never was. The record label pushed for the singles we released to be more Britpop but if you know the real Echobelly, you know we’re more like the songs you’d find on the B sides.

 

You’ve always broadcast an optimistic and positive message whilst still recognising that life is hard, and your new album Anarchy and Alchemy seems to still carry that theme about the human condition. Would you say that’s the case?

Yeah, I think people do gel with each other energy-wise, and if it’s all doom and gloom you’ll get doom and gloom bands who all want to sit and moan and slit their wrists together. That’s fine but you have to be honest with yourself – I do think there’s always hope at the end of any situation. I’d rather think that way than not!

 

 

The video for the single Anarchy and Alchemy is a kind of all world-encompassing comment on the beauty and destruction that happens on planet Earth in 2017.  How did it get put together?

We had very little money and so we asked someone we knew who was really good at putting things together to collect some images and try to capture the words. The way I wrote that song was a kind of wordplay – you choose a word like anarchy, and write down the first few words that come to mind, and then do the same for alchemy. It was done as an experimental way of writing which I’d never done before. I just thought what came out was really interesting, it was like a psychological technique, se we used the lyrics on the video too.

 

You spent some time at Abbey Road recently – what was it like?

We mastered the album there. The people who work there are so lovely and such characters – some of them have been there for 40 years. They’re opening a brand new studio called The Gate House which will be cheaper to hire and which will help bring the rock n roll energy back to Abbey Road. It’s smaller, but we got to use one of the microphones that John Lennon had used! It was just amazing. They gave us three days for free to do what we wanted. We really missed it after we left – every night everyone gathers in the bar and there’s such a nice family energy to it.

 

The album has some tinges of country as well as rock, and it’s a very mature and well thought out collection of songs – it’s definitely not Britpop. When you listen back to early tracks like I Can’t Imagine the World Without Me or Great Things, how do you feel?

I think they’re awesome, even just the song titles. I mean I Can’t Imagine The World Without Me is ironic, it’s not meant to be an arrogant statement. It’s more of a philosophical statement. Does the world exist when you’re not there? Of course journalists from that era wouldn’t have picked up on that. Same with Great Things – it’s so simple in terms of classic pop but it reflects what a lot of people feel when they’re young, that they want to do something with their lives.

 

 

My favourite on the album is Flesh n Bones – what’s the story behind that gentle and pensive song?

Oh I’m so glad you like it! I love that song. We nearly didn’t put it on because Glenn, being Swedish and cool, gets embarrassed about anything that’s too emotional! We wrote it a while ago and it’s never gone away – we didn’t want to leave it on the shelf. Lyrically I wrote it about friendship against all odds, people who are the most unlikely of friends but because they’ve gone through something together there’s a really deep bond there.

 

The second single that’s been released, Hey Hey Hey is the album opener. How come you decided to pick this particular track to reintroduce people to Echobelly?

It’s really difficult doing the song line up because you can change the whole vibe of the album. We decided it would be a single before we decided on the order of the songs on the album – we just thought starting with that machine gun sound – it’s such an unusual song with almost gothic elements to it although we were listening to a lot of early Americana at the time. We did very close harmonies together and it just merged into this other thing, this rebel song about rebelliousness and making a stand even though you know you’re going to fail. It’s not a typical single choice but sometimes you have to be brave.

 

Are you nervous about what the reaction will be to the album?

No, I think it will go down well. It’s more a case of the fact that if you don’t have the backing then people are reluctant to back you. The days of 90’s excess are gone, and sometimes great albums can be ignored because people are scared to put a tick next to them because everyone needs to make a living. There’s a sad reality there, but I still think long term this album’s going to be one of the fans’ favourites.

 

I see that on Facebook you’re asking for song suggestions for the tour, and what’s nice is there’s a whole range of suggestions! What’s the track you’re really looking forward to playing?

We don’t know yet, that’s why we’re asking really. We’ll only be playing a few of the new songs because the album won’t have been out for very long when we go on tour, and then on the next tour later this year we’ll play more of the new stuff. There have been some interesting choices, and some typical choices so far!

 

Echobelly play at Open’s Club Room on 21st May. Tickets available from ueatickets.ticketabc.com