Pack up the car, double check your tent pegs, stock up on crisps and don’t forget to bring your dancing shoes – Electric Fields is here. Among a plethora of other great bands that will be rocking our socks off this weekend at Drumlanrig castle, The Go! Team are back in full force with their trademark brand of unpigeonholeable noise pop and more volatile energy than you can fit inside a bajillion bottles of Buckfast. In the build-up to the event, Jonny Sweet caught up with founding member Ian Parton to get his take on the festival, song name selection and album gestation periods.
JS: I understand that the latest release The Scene Between was the first album since your debut which was compiled solely by yourself, Ian, due to the familial commitments and whatnot of other band members. How was that? Did you find it difficult since you’d become accustomed to collaborating with others, or was it refreshing / liberating to be given free reign again?
IP: Well I’ve always been the one that writes the music and finds the samples right from the beginning, so it wasn’t really a massive departure. It was kind of a return to the Thunder Lightning Strike days. I wanted the album to pick up on the melodic, songwritey side of The Go! Team – songs like Buy Nothing Day and Ready to Go Steady, which I always thought got overlooked amid all the talk of cop chases and double Dutch.
What does the name The Scene Between refer to? Is it to do with individual age, identity, etc? Or is it more a reference to how the band refuse to be put in a pigeonholed musical category?
Good question – I didn’t think of it literally referring to the band’s position in music, but for some reason it seemed to fit the sound of the last record – more of a haziness; the idea of being between something; less brash, I guess. For some reason I was imagining wobbly VHS, a kind of cable-access feel to the album.
Regarding the familial commitments mentioned in the first question, will we be the seeing the whole gang at Electric Fields or a rejigged lineup? Will the live show be as energetic and blow-your-head-off as ones in the past or have you guys mellowed with age (say it ain’t so!)?
Oh no, we still thrash and swap instruments and teeter on chaos. That’s a big part of it and I wouldn’t do it if we didn’t. I’ve always loved the way everyone goes for it in different ways: Ninja’s energy is a big part of it, me and Sam and Maki bring more of a noise element to the show and Simone is a really kicking drummer. I still think we’re a really unusual band, even in 2016.
Another band at Electric Fields, Public Service Broadcasting , use samples prominently in their work, albeit in a very different way to you guys. Are you familiar with their music and if so, what do you think of it?
Not massively [familiar with their work], only what I’ve heard on the radio. From what I’ve heard, they sample a lot of spoken word, which I don’t normally lean towards. I guess there’s an overlap in that in the early days I would try and track down double Dutch documentaries and trashy cheerleader B-movies to sample, so we both have an archive-y, lost sounds dimension going on.
Is there anyone else at Electric Fields you’re especially looking forward to seeing?
I should say our label mates, Field Music – nice fellas.
Where was your favourite gig ever and why?
If you mean a Go! Team gig, there have been too many – we played with Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth once in Detroit and that was pretty cool. We had a bunch of neighbourhood inner-city kids join us on stage once at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago; we’ve played China twice and Japan lots of times – which is always my favourite place to play.
If you could collaborate with one artist or band (living or dead), who would it be? (I’m aware you worked with Chuck D of Public Enemy in the past – was that the dream ticket? Is it all downhill from here?)
Yeah Chuck is a hard act to follow. I’ve always fancied working with Kevin Shields, Cornelius would be nice too. If it was a dead artist, I’d work with The Shangri-Las.
Although some of the titles of your songs have a direct correlation with the subject matter (Her Last Wave is the one in particular which springs to mind), I’d say for the majority of them the link is less obvious. Where do you get the song names from?
Yeah that’s true, the song titles are normally pretty abstract and non-literal. I keep books full of slogans and phrases, some of them dating back to the 90s, so when it comes to naming songs I normally raid them.
It seems four years is the normal gestation period for a Go! Team album… can we expect a new record before the next General Election rolls around?
Yeah I’m working on album number five as we speak – there’s no way it’s gonna be another four years until the next one!
If you can’t wait until the fifth album is cooked to get your next fix of The Go! Team, shoot along to Electric Fields festival this weekend. Tickets are still available here but they’re selling like hotcakes, so save Buy Nothing Day until tomorrow and get your gribber-grabbers on them right this minute! You shan’t regret it.