This time of the year is ripe for the proverbial buzzing of bands, the pulsating, omnipresent hum radiates from the colossal dung pile. 2011 tips come and go, and then we have SXSW coming up in which the trends and fads for the year are as good as dictated to us - no doubt accompanied by a largely irrelevant, moronic tag or genre name. It’s all very incestuous and stiflingly insidious, so as a means to add a little sand in the Vaseline we have turned our attention to a band that stubbornly and valiantly stand clear from the pile and subsequently their shoes remain shit free.
Releasing two EPs within a year, Grass House are spanners in the industry framework; in a year dominated by Animal Collective rip-off merchants, rich kids with tonnes of equipment making ‘lo-fi’ bedroom music and lackadaisical meanderings being passed off as subtle pop-music, Grass House were not following any suit and thus became very difficult to pinpoint - hence why you haven’t heard so much of them. Cave, Waits and Beefheart have all been used as comparisons, and while there are elements to warrant such similarities, they are knee-jerk, throwaway reactions that under analysis and scrutiny hold neither strong or true; sadly though, these are often taken as gold in a time when some bands rarely even get a second listen. Fortunately, however, this band don’t so much require your attention as they do mandate it.
Musically they are like feathers covered in tar - a grim, deathly and perhaps even hostile exterior that can warn off casual intruders, but lurking beneath the surface is something richer. It’s the gaping room for exploration and requisite for repeated listens that makes them a band so enthralling at such an early stage. The EPs are both experimental without being estranging, inciting without being suffocating, and lyrically they explore a depth and air a degree of sophistication that warrants individual study alone. So our pick, if you will, for 2011 is Grass House. I caught up with founding member Liam Palmer (vocals, guitar, noises).
Did you have a conscious and concise objective of how you wanted to sound as a band before you started or did the sound happen organically?
We had an idea of what we wanted to do but the sound evolved, and is still evolving, on its own. As with any band it’s really hard to be individual early on; we’re still at a stage where our influences are quite obvious. I don’t consider that to be a bad thing, as you work your way into a niche or sound over time. The hope is that every record we put out will help us pull away from obvious comparisons, we’re in no rush to get there and it’s quite nice enjoying the process of seeing what works what doesn’t and just experimenting with as much as we can. In all honesty though, true originality in music is pretty rare.
What’s the most important aspect to a song for you and why? If there is one...
For each of us it’s different, the first thing I listen for in a song is the lyrics - if I find them awkward, predictable or trite, it really ruins the whole thing for me. The flip side is that every genre of music has an appeal. However, we are a band and the music is paramount to the lyrics; we want the music to envelope the words and set the scene. They need to work, both with the vocal melody and without it.
The growth of the first EP (‘Plough More Sky’) into the second (‘Ant Giant Ant’) seemed to evolve into a lot of textures, soundscapes and atmospheres being incorporated, was this intentional? The textured soundscapes were something we really wanted to include in the songs as a way of reflecting the lyrical sentiment in a natural undercurrent, whether this is obvious or not doesn’t matter as the point is that it hits you somewhere in the subconscious. As it was all fairly new to us we got a little overexcited and, in my opinion, went overboard in places with the sampling and soundscapes. I think the overall effect is wonderful, but for a second record maybe we should have simplified it a bit and made it more accessible.
In an age of single songs and downloadable tracks, to me, you seem to have created coherent and complete bodies of work when creating your EPs. The focus being on complete finished pieces that work when collectively put together. Again, was this intentional? If so, why is it important to you to approach music in this manner?
They are definitely complete volumes of work, to be listened to as a whole. Unfortunately we’re living in a fast-paced world and people don’t seem to have the attention span for this kind of thing any more, which is a shame. We like to have strong themes running through each collection of songs we write, almost conceptual, for example the soundscapes from ‘Ant Giant Ant’ developed from industrial to organic which I guess is kind of the opposite to what’s going on at the moment. It’s a good way to pen down a certain belief or chapter.
Tell us about ‘Ant Giant Ant’...
The new EP like we said is quite conceptual, lyrically it kind of progresses from the last EP but moving more towards being more introspective of the individual. It marked the first release on our label Holiday Club, and we got it pressed on vinyl which is really nice for us, it makes it all worthwhile when you have a physical copy that will hopefully be around long after we are.
Lyrically there are references to a smorgasbord of topics and arts, does this reflect they way you construct sounds too? Are you influenced by elements outside of music when creating sounds?
We obviously take a lot of influence from art, film and literature and try where possible to adapt these things into our music. Lyrically it’s quite easy to incorporate them but musically it’s not so. It’s more the attitude and approach of the artist that works it’s way into the way we construct the sound, I don’t mean getting shit-faced on absinthe or hypnotising ourselves, but something simpler than that, like what they wanted to achieve, why they did certain things etc.
What’s next musically for the band? And where would you like to see yourselves in five years?
In five years we’d like to have more green than a leprechaun in a grass house, or just a healthy back catalogue and enough ideas to keep going.
They are not a band made for these current, flippant times, but thankfully that is not going to stop them - the speed and level of progression this band has already displayed can only continue to flower into a strange and beautiful monster from the seeds that have already been sown - and we urge you to witness the metamorphosis.