By Derek Howie
Fads and trends come and go from the limelight, but what these fleeting fashions leave behind eventually become veterans. Soundwire are a psychedelic/alternative band based in South Wales/Bristol, area of the UK, who have their roots firmly entrenched in the formative late-80s/early-90s of the British independent music scene; anyone remember The Sweetest Ache on Sarah Records?
Well, Soundwire were started by their vocalist Simon Court and guitarist Peter Moore. With those decades of experience in the indie circuit and even more generations for inspiration, citing the scuzzy riffs of 60s US garage-punk, driving power and the synth/guitar fusion of 70s krautrock and the shoegazing noisemakers of the 80s and 90s like The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, and Spacemen 3, this 5-piece return with Collider, the heavy anticipated follow up to their self-titled debut album. Like their critical acclaimed debut record, it had Thighpaulsandra, of Spiritualized, Coil, and Hawkwind fame, at the controls of producing and mixing, while mastered was done by Death In Vegas’ Ian Button.
Collider explodes into life with Connexions, a pulsating opening number filled the hallmark driving sound of Soundwire. Pinned by the bassist Adam Freeman and drummer of Richy Lee, heavily laced with the guitar and keyboards of Pete Moore and the breathy, treated vocals of Simon Court, whose persona changes almost on every track. Like the baggy, swaggering monster that is Heretic, with its menacing message, which incidentally is my favourite song on the LP, which comes on luscious red vinyl with a mild black marbling.
The subtle whirls on the wax are echoed on Kill The Lights. A dreamy popsicle of a track, with mesmeric synth and sweet jangle that adds a depth over its thawing five and a half minutes. Although this is the new album, several of these songs have around for a while if you’ve been paying particular attention. Such as Another Sun, which featured on a pair of uber-limited (only 50-copies) and interesting lathe cut 7”s for Ireland’s physical-release advocates Fuzzed-Up & Astromoon Records. As I’m talking about vinyl, the A-side ends with the laidback concoction Hollow Temple, starting out with its lo-fi hissy hi-hats, reverbed piano and thin post-punk guitar, then filling out by fusing the meatier psychedelic wah-wah and scuzzy garage rock sounds.
Shake The Fever rolls out the heavyweight carpet to welcome you to the B-side. This is the full-length version of the most recent of the three singles released ahead of Collider and is yet another example of powerful nature of these well-honed musicians. Combining many more elements making this five-piece sound considerably bigger. One Day Too was one of those tracks I had previously heard via those super rare 7”s. With its throbbing garage rock riff and awesome organ, it’s certain to be a live favourite. As is the serious grower that is Degrees Of Separation, with layer upon layer of inspiration from 70s psychedelia, 80s alt. rock through to a heavy dose of 90s shoegaze, and a tad of lo-fi indie from the mid-00s that peaks to a climax. Then it’s on to a pulsing, distorted intro that leads to the stratospheric twisting and turning belter of a track called Satellite. Another of those earlier previewed songs that I loved, before the heady closer Everything ls Real wraps up proceedings with a whimsically tune, full of vibes of those sunny summer days spent lazing around in a festival field! A poignant finale to what is an extremely exciting album!
Collider is release on March 14th through Sister9 Recordings in the UK (click here to order) and Little Cloud Records in the US (click here to order)
You can also keep up to date with the latest Soundwire news on the main social platforms, like their Facebook and Instagram pages.
Interview with Soundwire’s founding members
Simon Court and Pete Moore
By Derek Howie
Derek Howie - Firstly Simon and Pete, thank you for joining us at The Vinyl Hole to chat about your new album Collider. How do you feel about its impending release; proud, relieved, anxious?
Simon Court - There's definitely a sense of pride. I think it's very strong record, and a big leap forward from our first LP. We're really happy with it. That said, we want people to hear it & like it, so it wouldn't be right if there wasn't a little anxiety thrown in there to.
Pete Moore - I definitely feel excited about Collider being released. I think it’s a really strong album with a great mixture of songs, and I’m looking forward to people hearing it. It’s also nice that it’s being released in both the UK and USA this time.
DH - I fully understand and agree with both your sentiments; Collider is a major step forward. As is the release in the US, as we’re based in New Jersey and New York. How did that come about and what are the pitfalls of working with 2 labels at the same time?
SC - We'd sent the album out to a bunch of labels which we felt were a good fit for us and got a few offers. One happened to be Little Cloud, a US company. We were debating which of two UK labels we were keen on and asked them about distribution in The States, it just happens that Sister9 Distribute in partnership with Little Cloud. They were already on board, so it was a bit of a no brainer, really.
DH - Can you talk about us about the process. When did you start writing songs and recording tracks for Collider?
SC - It's been a long process. Work started before the first album had been released, in 2019 . We had a few hurdles, some personal ones (for me), a few line-up changes and, of course, a pandemic to get through. The gestation was drawn out, which in some instances meant some of the tracks we'd been working on at the start didn't make the cut. As we were developing the whole time and writing stronger stuff, we scrapped a few. Also, we had a much stronger band than the one we started with. When Adam (bass) and Richy (drums) joined us, the difference was tangible. The bulk of the songs on the album were completed between '22 and '24.
PM - Songs tend to begin with me coming up with a guitar riff at home, which I record on my phone. Then I play that back and record another guitar part over that. It’s all very rough and sketchy at this stage, but once I’ve got an initial idea, I record a fairly basic intro, verse, chorus instrumental into Cubase, adding in a rough bass idea and a few synth parts. Once this gets the OK from the others, I start working on the structure and getting all the guitars and synths written. Then I send the others their parts, and once they’ve nailed them, their bits are re-recorded in their own style. After this is all done, Simon and I work on lyrics and vocal melodies, which is always a really productive and creative time, and they get recorded over the course of a weekend at my house in my small studio room. bassist Adam has sent me a few bass lines which have then been worked up into songs more recently, one of which, Shake The Fever, appears on the new album.
DH - Ah Pete, we’re going down memory lane here! Talk of Cubase takes me back decades to when it was a just MIDI sequencer program for the Atari ST. Just like Cubase was in the 1990s, are there any hardware or software innovations you would not be without today?
PM - I started recording many moons ago on a hooky copied version of a production software called ‘Cakewalk’. It was pretty basic, and I didn’t really know what I was doing back then, to be honest, but Simon and I still managed to produce some half decent demos on it for our first band, ‘Shooter’. These days, I record everything other than the drums on Cubase, which is also great for sequencing synths. It comes with some great synth plug-ins, and I’ve also downloaded loads more compatible synths and effects. I spend an unhealthy amount of time twiddling about and tweaking these in order to produce unusual and unique sounds, and by the time I’m done, my head is completely fried by hours of bleeps, swirls, and buzzes. Along with Simon’s vocals, it’s the combination of guitars, bass and drums coupled with these synth experiments that are intrinsic to our sound.
DH - You’ve been in the music scene for decades now, I guess a lot has changed. How does releasing a record nowadays differ from all those years ago?
SC - It's so much tougher now. The entire industry has changed beyond recognition. When I was in The Sweetest Ache in the early 90's, the independent music scene was thriving, 100s of labels. Kids were still buying singles, and the horrors of streaming couldn't be imagined. We recorded home demos onto cassette, popped them in the post and hoped for the best. We were picked up by Bristol’s Sarah Records, a tiny label with a very loyal cult following. They paid for the recording and production. Labels don't really do that for small bands anymore. They don't have the money to take a risk. More often than not you provide the finished product and hope to find a label who'll release it and take care of distribution.
DH - That is certainly a massive change. Although, as Pete said about recording guitar-parts to his phone, technology has made it easier to make music on one side, but it also widened your potential audience to the virtually the entire planet on the other. Do you think it’s for the better?
SC - I actually think it's a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it opens things up to artists that don't have the big budget required to hire studio time, on the other, that freedom greatly expands the number of bands trying to get their work heard. This inevitably creates an overly saturated marketplace, so it's becoming increasingly difficult to get to your target audience.
DH - Now I thoroughly enjoyed Collider, are we going to be able to see it live anytime soon?
SC - We have recently had a trial run at The Strongroom, in Shoreditch. That went really well. We've got two launch gigs, at Thunderbolt in Bristol on June 6th and at The Bunkhouse in Swansea on the 20th. We'll be adding more soon.
PM - We won’t be playing the album in its entirety live, but about two-thirds of our set is currently made up of material from the new album.
DH - Sorry Pete, I didn’t mean about playing Collider in its entirety live, just about future gigs in general. Incidentally, how do you guys feel about that current concert trend to mark an album’s anniversary by just playing album and nothing else? I kind of feel short-changed by the concept.
SC - I've been to one or two of those. I saw The Jesus And Mary Chain do Psychocandy some years back . They did the full album, then another half hour or so of other stuff. It worked for me, I enjoyed it, and I've had a great time at others I've been to. I don’t recall any where it’s been the album, then nothing, that could potentially leave me wanting , somewhat.
DH - Obviously, this feature is all about you and your group, but which bands are Soundwire listening to?
SC - I've got my perennials, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, The Beatles, Velvet Underground, Spacemen 3 , etc, but I do have a weakness for 80s synthpop. You'll often hear me playing OMD, Human League, Soft Cell and particularly Depeche Mode. I'll throw a bit of Kraftwerk in there for cool points. I have been a big fan of Fontaines D.C. since they emerged.
PM - I’m into lots of stuff, from classical to punk. Krautrock bands like Neu!, Cluster, Faust, etc. have been a big influence on this album, as have bands like Spacemen 3 and Death In Vegas - I really like the interplay between guitars and synths. I’ve also been listening to bands like Toy, Josefin Öhrn and the Liberation, Daiistar, Andy Bell, David Holmes, and many more.
DH – Yeah, we all seem to have tastes from where rock and electronic music collide, is that why you chose to name your new album Collider?
SC - I came up with Collider. It wasn't quite as profound as that. I just kept getting drawn to this idea of the cosmos, with the notion of all these particles zooming through space, smashing into each other, and eventually creating a new astral body. That reminded of the large Hadron collider, and there we are.
DH - Thanks again for your time, it’s been a great insight. One final question, what’s next for Soundwire?
SC - Pete's not letting the grass grow. He's already working on the next one. I've already laid the vocals down for one track. Onwards and upwards!
PM - Yeah, there’s been no real break between the completion of Collider and the batch of songs I’m currently working on. We just keep on keeping on.
DH - Nice one guys, thanks again for talking to me and I look forward to catching you live. In the near future, come to Aberdeen or New Jersey!
SC - Thanks for having us. Catch you soon.
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