Belle and Sebastian ready to make Hong Kong dance
Two decades on, the Scottish indie outfit have shed some of their wistfulness
There was a time when Glasgow indie outfit Belle and Sebastian could be pigeonholed under "twee pop", a genre they were instrumental in popularising with a trio of wry, wistful and articulate albums - (1996), (1996) and (1998). But since 2003's , the band have steadily pushed the musical envelope to take their dreamy, bittersweet sound in new and unexpected directions.
While the band may have dabbled with a more upbeat and expansive sound on their previous three albums, their ninth studio album, the recently released , sees them embrace it like never before. Produced by Ben H. Allen, who has worked with Bombay Bicycle Club, CeeLo Green and Animal Collective, the new record sees Belle and Sebastian setting foot in a previously unfamiliar space: the dancefloor.
On the album, the band dive headlong into disco, funk and even Europop in what is their most ambitious and surprising album yet. Over the phone from Glasgow, where all eight of the current line-up are still based, founding member and keyboard player Chris Geddes explains what inspired them to up the tempo - and why it's not as much of a departure as people think.
"We've maybe not gone quite so far in that direction before," says Geddes, better known as "Beans" due to his vegetarianism, "but we have kind of tried to do that before, stuff like on . So we're maybe going a bit further with it, but it's not completely uncharted territory. I think on previous things we have had all the synths and drum machines going, but there's always been more guitars and live stuff as well. Now we've stripped that away and left the programmed stuff a bit more exposed."
The first indication of the band's journey into the dancier side of pop came in the shape of , a disco-infused swirl of synths and effects that was released as a single late last year. Upping the tempo still further is , a kitschy slice of Europop that sounds more Pet Shop Boys than Belle and Sebastian.
Geddes says that the band knew from an early stage that they wanted these tracks to have a different, more danceable sound.
"Bob [Kildea], the guitar player who wrote the music for , knew he wanted it to be quite a dancey kind of record, then Ben Allen helped a lot and mixed it in that direction as well. [Lead singer] Stuart [Murdoch] knew from the get-go the style of production he wanted, and when we started working on it in the rehearsal room the first thing we did was to programme the sequence bassline. So it wasn't like we worked on them as conventional songs then decided to take a left turn."
As anyone familiar with Belle and Sebastian would know, Murdoch is not only the lead singer and chief songwriter, but also the band's dominant creative force. So it's interesting to learn that sound is partly a result of Murdoch reining in his contribution to the album's production, at least in an instrumental sense. "Stuart didn't play as much on this record as he usually does," says Geddes. "I think it was maybe a conscious decision on his part to not have too many songs that were based around him playing the piano or playing the guitar, as that does always put things in a certain rhythmic ballpark. We probably wouldn't have been able to do the disco-y stuff had his guitar playing been at the centre of it."
That's not to say Murdoch's influence has been diminished or diluted, and his distinctive vocals and bittersweet lyrics are still at the heart of the album - the difference is that, this time around, the lyrics are occasionally forced to play second fiddle to the production.
A big part of the reason we're all still together is a shared sense of humour
For Geddes, working with producing talents such as Allen and Tony Hoffer, who produced 2006's and 2010's , has been a real highlight and given the band a chance to expand their musical horizons. "I found [Allen and Hoffer] quite educational from the point of view of learning about creativity and learning about making records," says Geddes. "There are definitely techniques that we've learned that we're going to be able to keep using for a while."
Almost two decades after their debut, the band appear as creatively charged as they've ever been, and Geddes credits the easy rapport between the members as one of the factors behind their longevity. "A big part of the reason we're all still together is a shared sense of humour. While we're in the studio we spend a lot of time cracking bad jokes and that's probably what keeps us going."
Geddes says the band still get a huge kick out of touring, and they are looking forward to playing in Hong Kong for the first time. While fans here will hear the band's new sound firsthand, he insists that fans of the halcyon days of twee pop will not be disappointed. "We started playing the new songs live in October, and playing and was exciting, but the old songs still feel alive for us. It feels like there are still new things to be found every time we play them."
Despite the new album's fresh sound, there's no sense that this is a band trying to shed their past, as many of the album's best moments come in the shape of tracks that sound, well, exactly like Belle and Sebastian. and are both very much in keeping with the band's oeuvre; could be slipped seamlessly onto , while opening track is the album's standout, harnessing a trademark infectious melody to what may be Murdoch's most personal lyrics yet.
Regardless of how far they roam, it seems that Belle and Sebastian remain mindful of that most fundamental of maxims: never forget where you came from.
Belle and Sebastian, February 10, 8pm, AsiaWorld-Arena, Lantau, HK$760, HK Ticketing. Inquiries: 3128 8288
