Over the past decade, Public Service Broadcasting have been one of the most intriguing acts in the UK, using a mixture of archival recordings and recorded texts to tell some of the most fascinating stories of innovation, exploration and endeavour from throughout history. Led by J. Willgoose Esq, they create powerfully emotive, cinematic Synth-Rock to soundtrack these stories, inviting you inside these historical landscapes to feel the stories of the people involved. Previous albums have covered epic historical events such as the introduction of colour TV, the first summit of Everest and the 1960's space race.
Their most recent album ‘The Last Flight’ tells the story of pioneering pilot Amelia Earhart, culminating in her mysterious disappearance over the Pacific Ocean. The record takes you on a soaring sonic journey, transporting you into Amelia’s world and exploring the highs and lows of her famous last flight as well as the multifaceted depth of her character. The vocal features from Andreya Casablanca, This Is The Kit and EERA bring a vibrancy to the album, helping make it be the band’s most varied and layered album to date. It’s a beautifully complex record, both in sound and thematic content and by the end, you truly feel as though as you have undertaken a transcendental flight of your own.
Ahead of their UK tour, including a performance at Liverpool Olympia on March 23rd, we spoke with bassist JF Abraham about how a Public Service Broadcasting comes to be, why they fell in love with Amelia Earhart’s story, and what we can expect from their live shows!
Q. Because of the conceptual nature of your albums, presumably you don’t tease new music at live shows? So how is it embarking on tour to play all those new songs for the first time having had no insight into how they’ll go down?
A. “Yeah, we haven't ever teased new music at live shows yet. The nature of our process means that we tend to get the album done and come to playing it after the fact. This time round we did a run of in-store/out-store shows which were invaluable. It meant we had played everything on ‘The Last Flight’ at least once before we got to tour. You can learn and rehearse the songs but playing live gets the songs stuck under your fingers in a new way that nothing can replicate that feeling of playing live where you're just, especially with our band as well when we're, you know, we're kind of dipping in and out of different instruments and doing those shifts and changes, like checking where your feet are and where your hands are. We're lucky to be in a position where we are playing to larger audiences but it means we can't always meet people and talk to them which is something we always value as a band as you learn a lot about what parts of the live show go down best”.
Q. Do you provide much historical context to the crowd about the recent album during the performances and how will you bring the Amelia Earhart story to life at Liverpool Olympia?
A. “In terms of speaking to the crowd, that's always been a minimum for us. For a long time, Jay didn't speak at all and then now he'll choose a moment or two to talk. That is mostly just because we’re trying to get in as much music as we can. Obviously the focus for this tour is The Last Flight’ and we play 70/80% percent of the record but we're also combining songs from our previous records too so we’ve got those stories to get across too. In terms of wider context and communicating to the audience, we've got Mr. B who does the visual elements which are a huge help when it comes to translating the stories. They can almost be a meditative element of a show where you can become transfixed, especially with certain songs on this new album like Arabian flight which is just a really meditative, calm, repeating riff that unfolds over like four or five minutes. The visuals for that are quite serene with a plane just traveling through the sky.
Set design was important to us for this show as well because the screens are built into the cockpit that resembles Amelia Earhart's plane. It’s really great and something that we can only really do when playing shows at venues like the Olympia. So, we’re communicating the stories through a range of ways, both sonically and visually. It's about making people feel like they’re inside that world and hopefully that'll translate at the Olympia”.
Q. Your albums are so carefully curated in their track listing, taking listeners on a cohesive journey throughout. How do you manage to blend together tracks from all your albums in your setlist without disrupting the natural flow?
A. “Yeah, it's an interesting one. We put a lot of thought into our setlists but I suppose you would only really know if thats translating by being in the audience. On any given tour we want to highlight and focus on the new work so we tend to keep things in sections. We’ve learned 37 or 38 songs that we have ready to play live to keep it interesting and because we know some people will see us twice on the same tour and we want those different points of interest. But the focus is ‘The Last Flight’. We'll try and group together three or four songs at once from that record but I think there's a certain inevitability with having five records, four of which were concept records, that there's going to be a little bit of a compromise there. You just hope that if people are coming, they'll remember their favourite bits”.
Q. On the flip side, did the track listing for your album almost write itself because there's a natural chronology to the story you are telling?
A. “I think there were some nice natural touch points. Obviously ‘South Atlantic’ is when Amelia was over the South Atlantic and ‘Arabian flight’ is when she was over the desert and then ‘Howland’ was Amelia’s intended final destination so these songs give that linear trajectory to it. However, there was still a little room to divert from that linear story and explore other parts of Amelia’s story along the way”.
Q. As soon as J. Willgoose reveals the theme of the new record, do you go away and immerse yourself in that history?
A. “Yeah 100%. When J came to us and said he wanted to do an album about Amelia Earhart, that ignited the interest in the rest of us. We started reading and listening to podcasts and watching as much as we could. It makes it mean more to me if I can have that idea of context and relate to it in that way, especially with a story like this where it's so fascinating. She's such a fascinating pioneering character in history but there’s also that element of mystery around her final flight and how things all ended so it's got that strong pull being a human interest story”.
Q. Was it harder finding archival recordings for this record as the historical recordings are focused on male-stories?
A. “Yeah definitely, the archive world is so male dominated so you're relying on the written word mainly to make sure her story has real integrity. Obviously women have played a vital role in making and inspiring our records, but it was with this record where we were able to kind of tip the balance in terms of contributors to the record. It's something we've been aware of and been trying to find ways of rebalancing and addressing. With EERA, Kate Stables (This Is The Kit) and Andreya Casablanca being on the record means you can hear the female voice in the sound of the record as well as in our live shows as EERA joins us on stage. This means it doesn't feel jarring in the way that it might do if it was just three or four men on stage telling the story of a pioneering woman. You can see the effect as well because our audiences are diversifying as a result and that can only be a good thing, it just feels like a more inclusive space”.
Q. You mention the different vocalists that feature on the album, what do you feel they brought to the project?
A. “I think it brings a texture that we can't do by ourselves and that was really exciting for us. If you kind of suspend your creative control over something and entrust it to someone else then the result is something that you can almost feel more proud of because there's that objectivity of knowing how great their performances are. Andreya Casablanca, EERA and Kate Stables all provided totally different but equally brilliant performances. I think you can hear in their performances that they're capturing different elements of Amelia's character and her story. I think, by using multiple female voices, you're highlighting different areas of that character”.
Q. Talking of the different sides to Amelia’s character, were you determined to portray a range of emotions throughout the record rather than the tragic feelings of her last flight?
A. “Absolutely! I think the sense of hope, optimism and endeavor is something that we always strive for in our music. We don’t want to just focus on the tragic elements of the story because we don't want her character just to be reduced to this unfortunate end. I think it's important that we highlighted that she was this amazing pioneering woman; a person who was trailblazing, not just for women, but for aviation on the whole. The things she was doing were groundbreaking. So, we wanted that almost superhero like status that she has but then also explore her personal relationships and the human interest side of things. She was impossible to pin down as a character and a free spirit in every sense of the word so it was important to us to cover that across the nine songs”.
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