Heaven or Las Vegas - The Fridge Interview

The Band members of Fridge have put aside studies, Four Tet and Adem to put together quite simply one of the most interesting albums of 2007. Here Sam Jeffers puts the record straight on how to describe Fridge, as well as answering some of our questions about the new album.

HOLV: First off, how are you all?

SJ: Very well indeed thank you. We just had a nice curry together to plan the rehearsal schedule for the summer and see Kieran off for a fortnight in Canada.

HOLV: Congratulations on The Sun, it's a great album, how difficult was putting it together when you all have so many other commitments and projects?

SJ: Congratulations very welcome.

It was quite challenging at times to get it all together. We were at Adem's the other night, looking through the master tapes and quite a few were dated early in 2004. That's not really to say that those tracks made it onto the record unmodified, but it really showed us how long we'd been thinking about making this record. In the end though, it took us all getting together for a good while last summer to get the tracks laid down as we wanted them and the record finished. Sometimes it seems hard work, for example, putting together artwork just as my college exams were coming to the fore, or Kieran and Adem both having to think about solo festival dates and recording in the weeks immediately following the release of the record, but I don't think we'd have it any other way. The variety of projects we participate in just keep our lives feeling full and interesting. At times this leads to certain compromises but the tradeoffs are insignificant compared to what we get out of it all.

HOLV: For me the standout tracks of Sun are ' Drums Of Life' and 'Eyelids',
the latter being one of the best tracks I've heard this year. Do you ever listen to your music and form favourites?

SJ: Sure we do. Maybe we forget the older stuff, but Aphelion from Eph is a favourite, as is Cutup Piano and Long Singing on Happiness. On this record, we pretty much consider The Sun and Clocks to be as good a duo of songs as we've ever written and recorded.

HOLV: Fridge are often described an electronica group. But it wouldn't be fair to describe the music on the new album as purely electronica would it? 'Organic' musical instruments also play a big a part in the music of Sun. Do you think the group slots into any one particular genre?

SJ: I'd certainly say that electronica would be an almost entirely misleading label, at least in a comparative sense. Once you get into these more esoteric genres and labels, it seems to be increasingly hard to work out what's appropriate or even if being part of a genre is at all necessary.

I'm going to stick my head above the parapet (at the risk of having it kicked off by the other two) and suggest that we should be filed under 'prog', with all of the nasty connotations that entails. In the end, we're a fairly standard rock band (guitar, bass, drums) who don't always like to be held back by the constraints of that and so occasionally look for other things to do and other ways of doing it. I don't think that's particularly different to what anyone's been doing for the last 40 years since they first got 'bored' of traditional rock'n'roll in the 60s. I think the approach is the right one, people are tempted to repeat the musical past for commercial reasons and in terms of being in a fun and long-lived band, it's definitely something I'd recommend.

HOLV: The guys from Mouse on Mars have just collaborated with Mark E Smith of The Fall to create Von Sudenfed. Is there anyone a bit out of the ordinary you would like to see Fridge work with?

JF: I'd like to make a record with Dan Snaith (Caribou) in the band. He's not big or clever (Maths PHD apart), but he's a good friend and has as many good ideas as anyone out there. Andorra is totally brilliant.

HOLV: Lastly, you have a few upcoming shows this year . . . but none in
Scotland! I'm disappointed. Do you think there will be an opportunity for the band to play the likes of Aberdeen or Edinburgh in 2008?

JF: Yeah, this one has proved tough. We'd really love to tour, but I live in the States these days and the expense of getting together when I'm over there is just too great to get me home again. I'm back for a month at Christmas though, so maybe we can crack some heads together and sort it out. Scotland here we come! (Maybe!)

the sun

The Sun out now!

Interviewed By Hammond