With the release of their new album, Phantom Head (Check here for the review), we managed to catch up with Paul and Steve Morricone from Scaramanga Six to find out all about the new album, concepts and festivals.
You have an increasingly extensive back catalogue of EPs and albums and Phantom Head will be album #8. Do you find writing an album becomes a different process as time goes on or has it stayed generally the same?
P – We always try to do something different with each release. I guess it is a natural thing to look at the record you’ve just made and think ‘what can we do next?‘ and you are only as good as the last thing you made so it’s a constant development for us. Generally speaking, we tend to write the same way with one of us bringing a song to the band then the lot of us dissecting and reworking it. But what changes are the aspirations as to how it is going to sound and feel. We all agree a direction and then the set of songs sort of evolve to fit it. My only regret is that we haven’t done more in our time. All my favourite bands used to release an album a year.
S – When we first embarked on our rock voyage many years ago, we had a more jam-based diplomatic approach which produced fairly random results. Funnily enough we never got half as much done as in the current dual-dictatorship where there is a clear framework established, the album being the main artistic goal. Paul is a bit more prolific than me with songs, so I tend to consider the overall feel of an album and contribute material to fill gaps or add balance. Most of my tunes end up being 3 or 4 songs stuck together or played concurrently. There are decisions on subtle changes in atmosphere or arrangement that define what this particular set of songs is going end up like.
Where do you think Phantom Head lies compared to previous albums? Have you tried anything on the record that hasn’t been present in previous works?
P – For Phantom Head we wanted to write songs that had a lot more space in them than the very dense overproduction and layering on Cursed. We wanted the natural band sound and dynamics to be laid bare. We also swelled our ranks to a six piece with Stuffy on the second drum kit and James on Piano to give the sound a double dimension. It worked!
S – Sounds strange, but we’ve always found that with more players you can achieve greater subtlety and space in arrangement. This album is our barest and bleakest we think – exactly what we were aiming for. The other difference with this album is the recording approach – completely limited time and the attitude that we must not achieve anything less than the finished thing. This meant we were rehearsed to the point of playing these tunes in our sleep before laying them down live on tape (only vocals and piano are over-dubbed). Albini is the best in the world at recording a live band – no studio trickery or endless takes and digital revisions. There are one or two deft tape edits there, but most of the songs are first or second takes. It’s amazing what you can achieve if you limit yourself. Absolutely no pissing about – we’re not here to have fun after all.
Do you find you’re more influenced by other bands or theatrical works? Was the plan behind Scaramanga and the Scaramanga Six always to unite the two as you have done?
P – I don’t think we have ever been influenced by theatrical works or tried to be theatrical in any way. If we are it is definitely not intentional. I have always liked songs that have dynamics and tell a story so I suppose that is the root of a good piece of theatre or film – something with a beginning, middle and end, something with light and shade. In our case there’s a lot of shade. We never planned to sound like anything other than what we end up sounding like – that’s just the way it comes out despite our best efforts.
S – I prefer to think of our output as dramatic and I too fail to see any theatrical element to what we do. Perhaps this whole ‘theatrical’ thing comes from the fact that you can clearly hear what we are singing about (which is essential in a musical) and we like to tell stories, both fictional and personal (with a few blurred boundaries of course). I’d say we take more influence from music – great performers and writers who can transport you into their own worlds. I’ll leave it up to you to spot the influences. Having said all that, if anyone out there could be arsed, I reckon you could make up a decently lame and tenuous musical storyline around a selection of our songs in a ‘We Will Rock You’ way. Might be a bit too sinister and murdery for west end audiences though.
If you as a band could collaborate with anyone, in or out of the world of music, who would it be and why?
P – We have already collaborated with some of the people we wanted to in music. A really big thing for me was to record albums with Tim Smith and see how he interpreted what we were doing – that was a dream come true. We also thought we would like to record with Steve Albini because we liked the way he makes things sound – so we did. I wouldn’t say it was a collaboration though, more a work arrangement. Outside music I would love to collaborate with Terry Gilliam on a score for one of his films. Imagine a loud gnarly band trying to match the vivid creativity of that man. What a challenge that would be.
S – In this day and age you need to realise your own ambitions, especially if you are working in your own independent bubble. We have worked with some of our most admired heroes through our own efforts – something which makes me very proud and also grateful. Funnily enough, the opportunity to truly ‘collaborate’ rarely rears its head. I suppose we are pretty wrapped up in our own ridiculous flights of fancy. Perhaps that’s what we should do next? – we could do our own ‘Kurious Oranj’ with a dance troupe. I’ve always admired Gilbert & George’s approach to dedicating your life to your art – we could rock and they could drink gin and dance.
Have you considered doing a fully-fledged concept album in the past, and is this something we could see from the band further down the line?
P – Every album we have done has a concept. From the songs and the sounds right down to the design of the record sleeve. There are no happy coincidences – it is all planned. I once wrote an entire album of stuff all about how much I hated working in Keighley when I was 22 but we only ever ended up doing one song from that lot and that was ‘Pressure Cage‘. Me and Steve are in another band called Being 747 and that is all about concept albums – the last two being a musical history of the development of life on earth and the history of mankind’s understanding of the universe. They are true concept albums complete with war of the worlds style narration and noodling prog wig outs – and we play all that in schools to children!
S – I think you can make your own narrative up through all of our albums – take from them what you will. This latest one has a particularly schizophrenic concept, yet it seems to make perfect sense to us. It’s main theme is detachment. You could look at our entire output of this band as a consistent concept – we’ve made a concept career!
You’ve played a couple of festivals in the past, such as Leeds in 2007, but the band don’t tend to be a common feature on festival line-ups. Is there a reason for this, and are there any festivals you’re hoping to appear at in future?
P – We can’t seem to find any reason why we aren’t playing at any festivals. I think that may be a question best answered by festival organisers and agents although I expect the answer might be that they have bigger fish to fry.
S – We’d love to play more festivals – just give us a festival audience and we’ll turn their minds inside-out. It’s another consequence of being totally independent and creatively unique I suppose. Opportunities seem to be more based on what leverage you have or what aspect of the zeitgeist you pander to. We have no leverage and frankly, the zeitgeist can suck my cock.
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