Electrelane

I first saw Electrelane in 2007, I had never heard of them before. I was a poor student and my housemate had a spare +1, coercing me to go to this show. I really couldn’t be bothered to go out in the shitty weather, take public transport etc. but eventually I caved and went along. To this day it still remains one of the best shows I have ever seen. I rushed out and bought No Shouts, No Calls and Rock It To The Moon on vinyl the very next day - they had me. Only months (or maybe even weeks) after that show they announced an indefinite hiatus. Just when my journey of discovery had begun, it was all over. I was frustrated and disappointed. Then, after four years away, they announced they were coming back. They have played a series of successful dates throughout Europe this summer, and after a failed attempt to meet in person in Manchester earlier this year, I finally caught up with founding member and drummer Emma Gaze…

Firstly, it's great to have you back again. What ultimately made you decide to stop in the first place, and what was the catalyst that made you start playing again?

We were all quite tired, really. We had been on the Write a Record, Record a Record, Tour a Record cycle for ten years, and although there are obviously elements of that are super fun and exciting, it's also really exhausting and can be a bit disheartening when you’re only making just enough money to do all that again. I think as we all got older we all wanted a life with a bit more stability. It seemed fitting that we would stop at that point, as we weren’t going to be working with Too Pure anymore, Mia and I wanted to move to America to be with our partners, and Verity and Ros wanted to go back to university. It just felt right. When we stopped, I really didn’t think we would play again, I don’t think any of us did. It came up because I think enough time had passed and we all got to do whatever we couldn’t do when we were in the band, and we all missed each other. We were having a discussion about playing and asked our live agent what he thought and he came back with a list of things and was so enthusiastic that we just did it.

What have you all been up to in the break?

I moved to Los Angeles and have been training to be a scenic painter. Mia moved to Chicago and is at university. Verity and Ros have been studying to get their PhDs. They all play in other bands, also. Verity is in Vera November, Mia in Follows, Ros in Trash Kit.

How have the shows been for you as a band thus far? You seemed genuinely content and somewhat humbled last night.
The whole tour has been super fun. We all had such a great time; I didn’t think I had missed it that much, but I think I had! We've been really awed by the audiences and people have been so supportive and energetic at the shows, it’s been amazing. I think we all play better now as well, so its possible to have more fun on stage, be more relaxed.

Are you glad to be back on the road? Has it changed at all?

There are elements of tour that are really funny, but it can also be really exhausting when you have consecutive shows in different countries - that means a string of very late nights, very early mornings, dealing with airports with loads of musical equipment, and lots of waiting around at venues because of soundcheck curfews and stuff... oh, and very bad food if you are vegetarian. It's not at all glamorous at our level! But having said that, we all really enjoy be able to go to so many different places and everything that comes with that. For the closer European shows we use a splitter van and Ros brought along the Planet of the Apes TV show on DVD... it's ace. It made the time pass much more quickly. I definitely love/hate touring - love playing the shows, don’t really care for the traveling!

Have you been rehearsing a lot in preparation, or are you keeping some elements a little looser?

We rehearsed every day for two weeks before the first show, 12 'til 5. I think all of us feel very strongly about being on good form when we play. I don’t think anyone coming to the shows would have been too excited if we had come back to play and hadn’t bothered to rehearse. It would have been really, really slow for one thing! It was good though, after about two or three days we were right back to being non-rusty...

What's it been like going over old material again? Have you found yourselves wanting to dip into anything you didn't play when you were active?

Yes, well, we played 'Gone Under Sea' for a few shows, which we hadn’t played for a really, really long time, even pre-hiatus. We had all picked songs that we wanted to play on the tour, we thought it would be best to do a mix of all the albums and play the songs that are the most fun for the audience.

How's it been watching the industry change from an outsider's perspective? Or have you kept a safe distance from all things music and industry in the break?

The others are all in bands, but I haven’t been doing anything musical. I definitely kept a safe distance from the music industry. I suppose it’s different depending the level that you are at. When we were at Too Pure, that was a really small label that had a huge company behind it, so it was kind of fake small, really. Most large record companies behave in the exact same way, whether they are independent or not. I’m not really a fan of record companies and I love that its now possible to put out records so easily on your own and get them distributed and it doesn’t break you. With the internet, there are so many more possibilities.

Have there been any bands, movements or genres that have come to prominence since you've been away that you've found particularly interesting or inspiring?

Er, no... I mean, of course there are bands that I like, but I don’t think any brand new genres have been invented. I’m happy that things are sounding more shoegazey again... haha.
To me, you've always been a band that's managed to balance the loud and quiet and the fast and slow perfectly. With four people all having different ideas about where to take things, has this been a difficult balance to attain as a band?

Thanks! I think we are lucky in that we pretty much all really like what each other comes up with when we write. It’s all very easy, really. We write by improvising together, so there are no boundaries being set, everyone can do what they like. Sometimes people follow you, sometimes they don’t. I couldn’t work any other way.

Likewise, you seem to have struck a real balance between pop sensibility and experimentation in your music. Have there been times you've wanted to go really off the deep end one way or another?

Well, there is a certain "song" on our third album, Axes, that is an example of that... We like to muck around, yes. Sometimes I think about people walking past the rehearsal room when we're writing and what they must think. Sometimes it might sound like a full on rave and at other times like the saddest funeral music in the world...

You are notorious for your live shows and their consistent quality; do you spend a long time working out the setlists and interludes? Almost planning them as you maybe would a record? Or is it more spontaneous than that?

They are sometimes spontaneous, but we would work on certain songs joining each other, for example, so there aren’t long gaps. We aren’t the most talkative band on stage, so we have to keep the songs tight!. We do spend time on the setlist, making it work, as of course some songs are better next to each other than others.

What are your recollections of working with Steve Albini? Presumably good ones with you doing it twice, but was it a challenging experience?

Steve is awesome to work with. He is the ultimate professional, really. He has a beautiful studio and it was a pleasure to work there and with him. It wasn’t him that was ever challenging, as he never gets involved with any aspect other than recording the band (he doesn’t tell you what to do, he just presses "record"), but you end up challenging yourselves to be better, tighter as the recordings are so good you can hear everything beautifully, including mistakes...

If you had decided to make a record after No Shouts, No Calls, what direction do you think it would have taken?
I can't imagine. We were so done after that record. It might have been really sad or angry, as I think that’s pretty much how we all felt. I’m glad we didn’t have to do that, as I don’t think we would be doing this now and having so much fun...

Are you going to record new material? If so, when etc.

We are talking about it, yes. We would all like to do it, but it would depend on time and money, as, logistically, things are more difficult now.

Sadly, you are still somewhat of a rarity in being an all-female band, do you have any thoughts on why so few females seem to pick up the guitar/drums/bass especially in an electric sense?

I don’t know, there seem to be quite a lot of them around this summer.... Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, Warpaint, Trash Kit, Electrelane... I think it probably stems from rock music not really being seen by parents/society as something for girls/women to do, therefore not really an option unless the person is really, really proactive in pursuing it.

You've now been in a band for over a decade, how have attitudes changed - if at all - towards women in the music industry? Do you consider it to be a sexist place?

I don’t know. But I would say my attitude has changed, as in, when you are more confident yourself, it really doesn’t matter what some guy might utter under his breath, or the smirks on his face or whatever. It doesn’t matter because the fact is you are doing what you are doing and no one can take that away from you. On this tour I haven’t actually encountered any overt sexism towards us, everyone we have worked with have been super pro.

Do you think there will ever be a time when a "female guitar player" will just be called a "guitar player"?

Maybe my great grand daughter might have that luxury. I hope so.

I really enjoyed the covers last night. Are there any other covers you have up your sleeve, or would love to do?

If we do make another album, we have been talking about doing a covers album alongside it - that would be really fun...

Ten plus years as a band, what have been the high point and low point?
I think the low point was probably around 2005 when we toured Australia and we really weren’t getting along, at all. There have been some low points, for sure. Probably dealing with our old label, too - it's not nice to feel like you’ve been scammed, and it's frustrating that they won't press records or distribute records, so you can't sell them, so you can't pay them back, things like that. But high points are much more fun. I feel like this last tour has been a real high point; when we played shows it felt as it was always supposed to feel (or how I imagined it was supposed to feel): super fun and super funny. I feel like we are really lucky to be able to do what we do and now we are enjoying it, finally. Walking on stage at this year's La Route Du Rock was a definite high point.

Where will Electrelane be in five years time?

I don’t know. Hopefully in a studio somewhere, writing a sixth album.