Words With: Tunng

Tunng sit at the vanguard of the British folk scene's clash with electronica, simultaneously weaving us through subtle, solemn acoustica and rumbling minimalistic beats. This month they release their latest full length effort, the truly brilliant 'Comments of the Inner Chorus', an album that looks to cement their place a the head of the critics 'folktonica' queue.

Gigwise recently wagged the chin with the bands Mike Lindsay and Phil prior to their appearance at Edinburgh's Triptych Festival Show, answering questions on matters relating to the silver and blue screen, that old 'folktronica' tag line, samples, artwork and compilation albums... 

So, 'The Wicker Man' obsession. What is it, the Britt Eckland scene or something?.

Mike : "Well that definitely helps. No, it's not really an obsession, it just I really like the film, and it's a while ago now. I did a cover version - 'The Maypole Song' from that film, and that got released as a 100 limited edition vinyl see-through thing on 'Static Caravan' and it became sort of collectable"

Which one is that, the maypole one?

Mike - "It's the really ridiculous one where they're all dancing about - '...and on that tree there was a linn(!?)/ and on that linn there was a branch...' but I did it with about 10 vocoders. So, great film, great music".

Can you still buy it then?

Mike - "£150 on eBay. 3 of them have gone for that."

Are you gonna press it again?

Mike - "No. It's on that 'Strange Folk' compilation [alas, not their trusty version but the original from the movie]. It's not that strange, but our track probably is".

Moving on to matters of the airy waves and general exposure - Did John Peel ever play you then?

Mike - "He did yeah. We were in his 'Festive 50' for 'Tale From Black' which was an honour. Another nice thing was the last monthly choice play list he did we were number 1 on that [garners whistles] for 'The Maypole Song' but the flip side which was 'Surprise Me 44', so He picked that".

Sampledelica - So, somebody's pouring over lots of samples. A musical 'Jackanory' kind of thing, with fable-like songs. The samples - "Jenny So Shy", "Pigeons and puppies, he can touch them, he can take them wherever he pleases..."

Mike - "Well, they all came from one record actually. I like finding really English-sounding voices and random sort of things and creating an atmosphere in people's heads [a collage]. This record's an educational-poetry record from the 70's called 'Mam' - so, dipped into that a few times."

Where does the songwriting come from - Is there a lineage of sorts?

Mike - "As in influence? I used to be into heavy-metal for ages, so that was one. Dodgy early Metallica tracks. And from the folk side of things Bert Jansch's guitar style and Pentangle stuff - and they fused experimental music with new-era folk music in the 60's. Sam wrote a lot, like 'Jenny again' - and he comes from a real singer-songwriter background".

Phil - "Sam's a storyteller. So, it's definitely part of a lineage, in that people tell stories to each other".

Mike - "And they're kind of twisted stories, not just everyday stories. 'Jenny again' basically is written from a dead guy's point of view, about this guy that kills his brother to get it on with his brother's bird, but written from the dead brother's point of view as a forgiveness tune, and Sam comes up with great stuff like that."