Introducing... War Against Sleep

 

Gigwise caught up with the Mancunian maestro that heads up War Against Sleep, Duncan Flemming, on the eve of the launch of the bands second album for Frire Records, ‘Invitation to the Feast’.

 

 

I have the wonderful gift of wakefulness at night

 

 

We haven't literally waged war on the 8 hours a night variety, although sometimes that's been necessary.  More the all pervading nihilism and passive roboticism that passes for life.

 

Q: You say ‘We’, but War Against Sleep existed before it was a band. Do you now feel like you are part of a band or is WAS still very much your property?

 

War Against Sleep has evolved into a proper band. I write songs and together we breathe life into them. The others each have individual projects, which provide a conduit for their own warped ideas.

 

Q: Your songs are regularly described as 'torch' songs. Do pigeonholes and genres bother you?

 

Shorthand is to be expected in listings magazines and suchlike. I was very pleased by the press response to the first album 'Messages'; They got what I was doing. Basically I was bored with posturing guitar bands, which seemed to me about as rebellious in this day and age as wearing denim. So I took the vibe from forgotten charity-shop records and mixed in my own idea of rebellion. The result is sometimes a bit off-kilter but certainly more challenging than your latest new-wave band.

 

Q: Do you ever feel that as a piano playing frontman, promoters and listeners have trouble accessing your music and performance?

Not at all. It's a refreshing change most of the time. Some aspects of the indie scene are actually very conservative and, unless you're wearing post-rock influences on your sleeve, they need prompting with good press, etc, before they realize they're allowed to like you.

 

Q: You also play guitar, but are known as a pianist. Which instrument do you use to write?

I write about two thirds of my music on piano. The rest on guitar and over sampled loops etc. You can tell the piano songs a mile off because they've got about 900 chord changes, whereas the guitar songs etc. tend to be much more straightforward.

 

In the words of Lord Summerisle, "A heathen, conceivably but not, I hope, an unenlightened one."

 

Well, I guess the lyrics are pitched at people who'll get them rather than people who won't. In the same way that alchemical texts just sound like gobbledygook if you don't possess their symbolic keys. I guess some of the lyrical content of 'Invitation' just sounds ornamental or psychedelic when in fact it's quite deliberate.

 

Q: The album, like the last one, is coming out on Fire Records. How did they find out about you?

Nick Talbot of Gravenhurst thrust a CD of mine into the hand of their A&R Manager telling him I was a genius. He offered me a deal the next day. So basically Nick rules.

 

Q: He’s contributed to the album hasn’t he, along with Max from Bronnt Industries Kapital. Will you be returning the favour on their next releases?

Who knows what endless variations of mutual reach-around and Masonic style backslapping may ensue in the coming months. Although I can exclusively reveal to you that it has been my intention to infiltrate Bronnt Industries Kapital since I first saw them play in a frightening cellar a few years ago.

 

Q. Roísín Murphy has also contributed to the album. How did you hook up with Roísín Murphy and what's she up to these days?
Roísín sang backing vocals on Borderline Personality and May I Harm None. She was staying with me in Bristol and we thought it would be fun to try some recording.  We hadn't done any music together since our first band 'And Turquoise Car Crash The' (sic) when we were fourteen. Roísín is currently promoting her very wonderful new album 'Ruby Blue'.

 

Recording can be an enjoyable part of the Work.  I don't enjoy working in a studio unless it's completely on my own terms, which would require a bigger budget than we currently command.  Instead we record what we can at home or in our little practice space.  Between us we know what we're doing, although we tend to employ some extremely esoteric techniques.  I've always been totally deaf in one ear so I have no idea about stereo mixing. Bronnt Industries Kapital helped us mix the last album, which is why it sounds 'proper'. 

 

 

We'll be playing a few hot dates supporting Roísín. Then I guess we'll knuckle down on recording our 3rd album 'Pleasure Complex' - It's gonna be a smash!

 

‘Invitation to the Feast’ is out on April 30^th on Fire Records. War Against Sleep will be on tour in May