We Cut Corners have followed their 2011 debut Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards with Think Nothing, a record which expands the palette from their dynamic two-piece rock, to include beautifully stark string arrangements. Totally Dublin sat down with John and Conall from We Cut Corners to discuss the quiet, the loud and the bits in between.
Is your new album called We Cut Corners Think Nothing?
John: No, it’s not to be taken as one whole sentence. With our first album, before we had even settled on song order or who would produce it, we had decided on a phrase which was Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards. For our second record we very much wanted something that wasn’t that unwieldy as a phrase. We wanted preferably a one-word album title. Then the songs we wrote in the intervening time ended up having themes of escapism and that was the phrase that summed it up in a way we found pleasing.
What kind of music were you listening to when you made the album?
Conall: The album was made over quite a protracted period and in different stages. So when we were demoing the album we were probably listening to Vampire Weekend, possibly. Then when we were tracking the album we were listening to Agnes Obel.
J: What unifies it is that there happens to be an amazing richness of brilliant female artists at the moment. We listened to a lot of Fiona Apple, Joanna Newsom. Later on we discovered Angel Olsen, and Sharon Van Etten as well. To go back to those demos that we made, a lot of them were very lo-fi, so you hear elements of Titus Andronicus [and] heavier bands as well. Certainly the way the songs mutated from the demos to the actual album versions, they became a lot cleaner, our tastes changed to be a little more polished.
Listening through the album I noticed that the quiet songs are immediately followed by very loud ones.
C: Even the first record would have been characterised by that as well. We have two types of songs they can be broadly categorised into: quiet and loud. We tried to punctuate this record [that way]: first, middle, and last are three quiet songs, interspersed with the louder stuff. That sense of drama and taking the listener from a very intimate, quiet place to kicking things off again interested us a lot. It’s something that we try and capitalise on in the live setting as well.
What is the importance of lyrics to We Cut Corners?
J: Particularly when you have these quiet songs where everything is exposed to such scrutiny, you want to be pretty happy with how you presented the lyrics and how they flow, as well as the musical arrangement.
C: One thing we did in the first recording session up in Donegal with Tommy McLaughlin, was John had printed out the lyrics and we sat down and went through it line by line asking were there elements that we wanted to tweak or edit out
J: That combination of having a story that takes place over the course of the song and it also has to be sonorous and be practicable in terms of phrase. You can write down reams of phrases, but if they don’t fit the way Conall or I sing them, they don’t make it.
Was the recording of the album particularly difficult?
C: It was quite different to the first record, which was a self-contained process: we’d started it in Asylum Studio with Jimmy Eadie. We did the whole thing with him and finished it there over a period of time. Whereas with this one, the demoing was a stage in itself, then we went to Donegal with Tommy McLaughlin, and we worked with him over quite a protracted period: five days here, a couple of months off, two days there. Then we mixed it with Ben Hillier months later, which was an entirely different part of the process.
J: This album was about trying to get people like Ben Hillier, who had just finished a Depeche Mode record; we were very much working to his schedule. Because we have full-time jobs, trying to coordinate that sort of stuff can be difficult when people are in huge demand. For example, Tommy McLaughlin plays in Villagers and he was just about to go on tour so we had to get finished by a certain time.
How were the string arrangements recorded?
C: We had strings for three of the songs on this record: first, middle and last. They were arranged by John Buckley, who is a contemporary classical composer. He’s a modernist composer so his works would be predominantly atonal and dissonant. John’s done loads of interesting stuff: a symphony, several concertos, over one hundred works I think, and performed all over the world. We happen to know him because he lectured us in college. John comes from a very different school than people who arrange strings for bands like us. John would have taken a much more academic approach. He was looking at the lead sheets that we had prepared, and was arranging on a blank score, not even listening to the songs, just looking at the lead sheets and composing around that.
J: We did a live show with the string quartet two weeks ago. The college that we went to, St Patrick’s in Drumcondra, have a series of spring lunch-time concerts and John Buckley asked us to play. We worked with the quartet that actually recorded on the album. We put together a set of our new and old songs; Conall arranged some of the older songs for the quartet. It’s really exciting, because you’re hearing your offbeat pop music being augmented by these technically brilliant players.
What are the live limitations of having just two band members?
C: I tend to sit for most of the gig but stand for those quiet songs because I’m behind the drum kit. We like the variety of the songs we play; it’s just nice to mix it up a bit, to play guitar as well, so there’s variance in the set.
J: It’s great, a brilliant limitation to have and forces us to be more creative. If I play a riff, I can’t really play a riff for it because if you take your typical garage band, someone plays a riff, and someone else comes behind it and it’s sort of built-up in that way. But we don’t have the luxury of that because we don’t use loops. That limitation forces us to have less waste, and make us cut off the fat a little bit from what we do. We don’t do a lot of jamming or rocking out; it’s just very song-based.
The music videos for “Pirate’s Life” and “Best Friends” were both by Kijek/Adamski.
J: It’s really exciting to work with a filmmaker or an animator or artist in some way that is going to add a further dimension. The video for “Pirate’s Life” was actually nominated for an UKMVA award, which certainly in Europe would be the highest plaudit. They are incredibly prolific, and they work in film, so they’re not just restricted to hand-drawn animations; they work in stop-motion as well.
C: I remember when the “Pirate’s Life” video was sent over to us, and I was at work, it was like half eight in the morning, I remember looking at it and just being totally spellbound and blown away. The more I think about that video, the more incredible it seems. It’s just an image of a head, and there’s something magical about it. Those guys are incredible; then the video they did for “Best Friends” as well, it’s so different, but great.
You are one of four bands on the Delphi Label; how are We Cut Corners treated?
C: They’re as nurturing as a label could be. We’d be chatting to Alexis Vokos every day multiple times. They’re hugely involved in the process, and incredibly understanding of everything that we do. The type of music that we write, they totally get it, and they’re totally willing to let us do whatever we want in that regard.
Are there plans to tour the new album?
J: The record Think Nothing is coming out on 25 April. Around that time we’re doing a seven-date tour of Ireland, which will take in Limerick, Galway, Cork, Dundalk, Belfast, Kilkenny, and Dublin. We’re extremely excited about it, because when we finished the first album cycle, we went straight into this one where the time allowed. It’s been all building up to getting your record out again. The more you do this, the more you realise what a precious thing this is, and how rarely you get to do it. As a music fan, which we were for years before we started making music, you think about a band on their third album, and it doesn’t really resonate with you, it just is a band who is that far along in their career. Then you start thinking, “Wow, we need to make a second record.” Then you’d do everything that’s associated with it, make the videos, get someone to produce the artwork. It’s like having children: the release is just a massive deal for us.
We Cut Corners second album Think Nothing is released on Delphi Records on Friday 25 April. To celebrate, the band will be playing several dates around the country including a gig in The Button Factory on Friday 9 May.
Words: Eoin Tierney
