Cardiff psych rockers No Thee No Ess releases their first brand new single from anticipated new ‘Dimmer Switch’ album out 11th September 2021 via Surk Recordings.
No Thee No Ess is a collaboration between Paul Battenbough (The Cosmic Array, King of Despair) and Andy Fung (Derrero, Cymbient). The two musical and visual artists first met whilst working in the kitchen of a Cardiff arts centre and bonded through a shared love of The Beach Boys, Neil Young, and West Coast psychedelia.
The partnership creates spontaneously, conceiving songs and ideas in the studio and then recording straight away to preserve their freshness and immediacy. The eighth No Thee No Ess album, ‘Dimmer Switch’ was recorded with musician/producer Frank Naughton at his legendary Cardiff studio, ‘Ty Drwg.’
Naughton contributes additional instrumentation, bringing new lysergic colours to songs like ‘Kaleidoscopic’ and ‘Chorus’. The result is among No Thee No Ess’ most adventurous works to date, rich with experimental energy while retaining their characteristic blissed out vision. ‘Dimmer Switch’ will be released by Surk Recordings on vinyl, CD, streaming, and digital download in August 2021.
We have had the pleasure of speaking with them, and this has been the result.
Can you tell us a little about your experience? Where are you from/ how did you get into music? Was it all internet based?
I’m from Swansea and really started playing in the new wave era of the 80’s and now find myself here after travelling a convoluted path. Basically I’m a music fan who wanted to emulate his heroes. Andy is from Trinidad who moved to England and then Wales. No I’d hardly call us internet based. The internet just came along and we jumped on board. We’re a proper band that plays live and makes albums. We’ve just adapted to the digital revolution like everyone else out there . The new album ‘Dimmer switch’ will also be available on vinyl in a few months, to reflect the analogue in us. So no the internet is a small aspect of what we do. We put up videos from time to time. But really we’re about creating in a studio or any space. We’re close allies with a mutual liking for making music and we go wherever it takes us.
Who have been your main inspirations both musical and in life. and how have they affected your sound.
Well Andy and I have common music tastes and when we first met we talked about doing some recording together. We agreed on Neil Young, The Beach Boys and Pavement as our starting point. But it just shifted, evolved and became it’s own self referencing thing. We listen to a wide range of music. I like books, so writers influence me on the lyrical side of things. I got into David Berman of the Silver Jews and my writer mentors are Richard Brautigan, Henry Miller, Knut Hamsun and Philip K Dick. they’re also my life coaches.
How has your sound evolved so far?
Difficult to answer what is our definitive sound because we don’t really have one. I think we just have a blending of voices and styles and whatever happens on the day, is us. Our live sound is much different from our recorded one. The records are painstakingly put together, a result of jamming a little then laying down a track and building it up. eventually a song emerges. We have a light side and a darker one. We love harmonies and acoustic and electric instruments. We really let our imagination loose and see what it turns into, so we’re pretty free with our choices. The live band we have to have a big band to get close to the original sound but I’m sure it’s quite different a much more raw experience, because on the records the instrumentation might change completely from track to track.
It’s a musical collage of sorts with lots of spontaneity and fun. the fun part is really important. But we’re pretty focussed and economical in the studio. we don’t hang about. There are no preconceived idea of where we’re heading. We don’t mull over anything. After 7 albums we’ve developed a way of working that’s not laboured over and is enjoyable.
We’re a positive band I think. Marching on regardless!
What can you tell us about each song that makes up your latest work, what is hidden behind?
We recorded this album with Frank Naughton, he’s a multi instrumentalist, producer inventor. an endlessly talented man. So we worked closely with Frank and he had a big influence on the genesis of the project. He played some bass and handled most of the keys, except for Matt Wigley on his Korg and some bits from both Andy and me. We just recorded stuff as we jammed, then sculpted a bit and overlaid the whole thing then cut back in.
1. Kaleidoscopic – Matt on swirling synth and Andy on phased vibrato vocal. me on trem guitar. Andy on drums and slightly goofy bass. totally abstract lyrics, with moments of clarity. it is what it is. Frank came up with that end part on the organ, we went with it!
2. Chorus – began with some synth part Mat played and I played a massive distorted guitar to Andy’s drums. one simple riff begets another. It’s like a trifle being thrown at a wall and watching it drip down it in slow motion. Frank was the main lead voice on this. they aren’t words he’s singing. He calls it ‘vowelling’. Andy and I did some trappist monk BV’s.
3. Dimmer Switch – this one had a bit of trail over synth and guitar feedback from the end of ‘Chorus’ so I added an acoustic guitar. Worked out a four chord pattern and tacked that on. I remember Andy saying something about the song reminded him of folk music or sounded archaic, so he went for the Olde English dictionary in his lyrical part – forbade, erstwhile glade. To give it that Shakespearian feel. My sung part is about a dream I had about the most beautiful pool you’ve ever seen. Overall I think of it as a soundtrack to a lost reel of a French cinema classic filmed on old kodak colour stock. Not much Bo diddley, but a little bit of Bo Peep.
4. The very best thing about summer
Lazy August nights when it’s cooled down and the lights are just taking over the illumination duties. Days spent with friends, countryside walks…that sort of pastoral thing with a bit of help from the Star Trek Choir
5. Broken silence – is sort of heavenly. I played a pump organ part which started it all off.
We actually stripped this track right back especially the parts I sang. Another prayer to nature song. We like nature in this band and it needs stating emphatically. Frank did some wonders on this one to create the atmosphere.
6. Jazz Hands- is like a skit written by Bertold Brecht about Mephistopheles that takes place in a bar in Vienna, and brought to life by Fritz Lang. It’s also the bitter antidote to ‘Broken silence’
7. Cascading eclair – I was singing in zero gravity on this one with little regard for the sanctimony of melody. Andy sings the falsetto ‘Cascading eclair’ bit. Two words that don’t follow each other very often but they do on this song. And now they feel like they belong together.
8. Consumption – Well who doesn’t become prey to it at some time in their lives?. The romantic killer of poets and also the worst modern aspect of our culture. A lot of fun to give it a surf setting and we just knocked this off as a bit of a larf to tell the truth. I think I stole the acoustic guitar riff off a kids TV programme, snatched it from the ether. Maybe it was Grange Hill.
9. Broken Wheel Symphony – society is withering, collapsing under it’s own weight. If we’re thriving, it’s like a bed of bugs.
They lied to us and now it’s come to this. Oh, but wait, maybe there’s a glimmer of light over the horizon. Really we’re squeaking along like a ragtag bunch of grubby peasants marching over the cliff and that glimmer of light was just a false dawn. Still it was nice while it lasted.
10. Sunshine – Disney firework displays, dancing in fountains. A paen to hope for the future and enjoying it all as it hits you. Whether it be shit or candy. then a bit about our very own nuclear reactor, the sun
11. Tailing the Ship – We turn our attention to the sea now.
12. Wild Prairie – the bookend to the album. Van Der Valk takes on another case that leads him on a cross country dash. A copter ride over rough terrain. The ominous machine.
A man could lose himself in this wild country or set-up a cult. But can he really escape his past?
How has covid affected you is there hope for the underground scene
We’ve all had to adapt. Of course everything feels like it has changed, but it hasn’t hampered the music too much, only pushed it into other areas. We’d recorded the album before lockdown so we were pretty lucky. Had we still been working on it, we’d have done it by mail. music always thrives in adversity, like art in general. There’s plenty to kick back against. The planet may be fucked but the Titanic orchestra will continue to play even under water. We are in some respects irrepressible.
