the book of ships
Ships set sail
After relocating his music project, The Book Of Ships, to Melbourne, ex-Mousemoon member Calf has emerged with a new band and an astoundingly accomplished record called Dark Continent, Cold Century. Nick Milligan catches up with Calf to discuss The Book Of Ships voyage.
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How did you find the transition of moving to Melbourne from Newcastle, and finding a new band? In some ways it was quite tough, in other ways things sort of fell into my lap. I had joined two other bands within a month of moving down and tried to get my feelers out, but just as there are so many more players down here they’re all in just as many bands as folks anywhere. It took quite a while to get the line-up solidified and we did more than six months of rehearsal before playing our first shows in August. Now everything’s tight and we have a studio in the city where we’ll do most of the next record. Funnily enough, all of us but Murray (bass) had moved to Melbourne quite recently. Joe (kit) is from New York City, Ross (guitar) is from Cape Town via Perth and it looks as though we’ll be adding a new member in the new year from New Zealand. We’re looking at tours to those regions in the future. Did you find the change of city inspiring musically? Have you been writing much new material since moving there? In a way I did find it inspiring. Mainly in that a bigger town affords more possibilities in terms of how you can define yourself as a valid artist, if that makes sense. It is easier to find a niche for yourself somewhere in the spectrum. Truth be told though, I don’t go see as many shows as I should and I tend to get more inspired by great records, which could as well be made by some geezer based in Dunedoo or something. The album is diverse, with noticeable shifts in direction and genre — what do you see as being the sonic threads that tie everything together? Sonically, I think the record can be broken into two halves — those more up-tempo
songs with layers and layers of guitars (and sometimes keys) where a bunch of guitars work in concert to produce a big rolling instrument. Then there’s the slower tracks which are more rarefied, epic perhaps and ’verbed-out. Then there’s one track that’s really of neither ilk and that probably should have been a B-side or something. Why did you choose Dark Continent, Cold Century as the title of the album? I seemed to be having this recurring theme in thoughts about enlightenment ideals of human society, perfectibility, all that stuff and how they had broken, and ideas about how those ideals, especially rationality, had possibly led to the carnage of the twentieth century and at the same time the monumental developments in the arts, in social mores, etc. “The Dark Continent” part comes from a book about the bloody and tempestuous nature of twentieth century Europe, though the expression, together with “Cold Century”, could refer to any continent in the twentieth century. For illustration, see the movie Wake in Fright or any of Cormac McCarthy’s work. Some of these songs have been around for a long time — had they evolved a lot from the point of writing them to the point of recording them? Most of them structurally and lyrically stayed the same from day one. I don’t usually persevere long on structures or re-write lyrics over and over. If it’s not working early on in the piece the song falls by the wayside. The evolution came in the form of the instrumentation and in having unlimited time in the studio and layering and layering, cutting a bit away and repeating the process. Lots was written in the studio. Lyrically, do you feel there are any
recurring themes on the record? How would you describe your approach to writing lyrics? The lyrics mostly revolve around thoughts of having neglected things and people, of loss, of hope in the face of loss, of questioning whether you have chosen the right option, of mutual exclusivity. Weaving through all this is the thought that we live in an age that is bunkum, that the enlightenment has failed. Therein lies the link to the album’s artwork and title. How has your time in Mousemoon informed the musical direction of your Book Of Ships project? I’m really not sure. I don’t feel it has in any obvious ways. Except that perhaps I initially reacted quite strongly against what Mousemoon came to be. We all arrived at that entity from quite different musical backgrounds and have gone on to similarly different new projects. I definitely learnt certain skills from the other guys who were much, much better singers and songwriters than me. I feel though that the main lessons were, firstly a business one — Mousemoon was like a great music-business apprenticeship, and, secondly, the invaluable nature of friendship and camaraderie within a band that makes it a family. What are your goals for The Book Of Ships for 2011? We’re going to take time out after January, write, work on the next record, lie low, possibly launch a side-project (or two), and hopefully tour the east coast early in the second half of 2011. The Book Of Ships perform at the New Beginnings festival at Morisset, January 15-16, and at the Lass O’Gowrie Hotel, Newcastle on Friday, January 14,
reverb magazine issue #054 — January 2011 29