Girls – We Never Asked For Gospel Singers…

One of the most striking textures on Father, Son, Holy Ghost is the gospel choir which makes its soulful presence felt on many of the tracks. How did the idea for something as bombastic as a gospel group come together? “There was some foresight into the gospel thing but not very much. It was really because Chris didn’t want to sing his own back-ups and we had a new band where our guitar player has an English accent, a very proper accent, the kind you don’t even hear any more! It just doesn’t balance right when they sing together, it sounds a little strange, it just didn’t mix. My back-ups aren’t that strong either, so we needed someone at least as strong or stronger than Chris. We were trying to figure out what to do and we knew we wanted to bring in female voices for some of it. We never asked for gospel singers but that’s kind of what we got. We went to LA to finish a couple of songs and our engineer put a call out and these three women turned up. They were full-on gospel, R’n’B singers and they were really bad-ass. As we started working, they completely blew our minds.”

Did the way the songs were written change for this new record? “No, I don’t think so but I think the way we work has changed,” White explains. “Some of the songs on this record were written around the same time as the first record. After the first record, I kind of wanted to stress the importance in the studio of the use of space, like getting the most out of one guitar part instead of putting two guitar parts down. If we can get a rhythm track down and get the same guitar to go into a lead without keeping the rhythm underneath. The Velvet Underground do that a lot, that kind of simplicity. It’s always like, how can we do more with less. There’s only so much room in between. It’s the thing I’ve always pushed for but I think Chris has definitely got on that wavelength. When we’re in the studio, there is a lot of planning and a good idea of what the songs are meant to sound like in our heads when we’re working but there are a lot of happy mistakes and things we realise are really cool. There’s a lot of freedom in the process.”

So is there a strict division of labour there still? “It’s sort of unclear. I mean Chris writes the songs and gives me a huge amount of room to do stuff with them. I try and do as much as I can until I see his eyebrows begin to raise! I try and get away with as much as I can. It’s weird having two people. There are definitely arguments, not heated arguments but more like disagreements where each of us have to decide what’s worth fighting for. Like, should I push for this on this song because I have some really crazy ideas for the next song? I think we both take stock on what each person is putting across or each is person is feeling and getting what they need out of each song. I think it takes a lot of work, it’s different ideas and the same goal, but I think we work pretty well considering.”

So how bad do the arguments get? “It’s like a stand-off! It’s more or less like other people in the room speak up, it’s not organised like everyone is going to take a vote but you definitely get a sense of who has got support and who doesn’t. It’s all very sensitive, it can get very tense and strange at times. It never breaks out into yelling or anything, it’s hard to say. I don’t know how we choose a winner!”

How does it work when there are other band members involved? Are there issues there with authority? “We always wanted a full band and want everyone to feel comfortable but there is a hierarchy. Chris and I have a say and it’s kind of whoever feels strongest about something. There’s not really a set way it works, it’s just kind of blurry and weird. All bands are like that I think. We’re definitely not a band that yell at each other and fight, it’s a lot more passive aggressive.”

Chris in particular has talked a lot about drug usage in the past, which sure couldn’t have helped tensions in the studio or on the road. Has that been an issue for you? “It’s not such a big part of it anymore. Before it just used to be the two of us getting high and fucking around, making music. Now there’s a little more professionalism, I think. We’re working with other people, on other people’s time, with people with people who don’t do drugs so you don’t want to drive everyone away! Also, Chris and I are thirty years old now and drugs just don’t have the same effect anymore unfortunately! It’s kind of a bummer but I don’t really enjoy being high as much as I used to. It definitely does accentuate the problems, people don’t communicate very well. Like if we were taking pills or something, there is a definite big lack of communication, there’s a lot of passive aggressive behaviour and evil eyes and stuff like that. Especially for other people in the band who aren’t involved in that, there would be a problem, a real detachment. There’s no way to create a relationship with someone who is not doing drugs if you are doing drugs you know?

So with the shiny new record in the bag, gospel choir and all, how do you approach trying to make the songs work on the road? “With the new record, putting all the backing singers and stuff we put on the record, it makes the process impossible! It’s like, how are we going to do this live? Before we used to not think about that, we’d just say fuck it, we wont think about that. We’ll just do it and make the record. Now we’re in a position where we’re rehearsing for a month and thinking, oh man I wish those girls were here right now! We’re trying to figure out a way to do it, we’re probably have them come to some shows, others not, because adding three or four more people to the band is pretty costly at this point and not really realistic. Which totally sucks, but we’ll see. Hopefully the record does well.”

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