Recently, we had the absolute pleasure of chatting to Andy Burrows, the Drummer from Razorlight, about their new album, the band's curios history and what brought them back together.
Andy was forthcoming with his answers regarding the inner workings of the album and also some of the troubles the band has faced in the past, which gave a real insight and context into why this album, the first from the full original lineup in over a decade, is such an achievement.
Photo Credit: Charles Henri Belleville
The return of the original Razorlight line up has been a huge landmark for the Indie scene but Andy explained how this return was instigated by another creative medium. He commented that filmmaker Ben Lowe had actually started making a film about them and his goal was to try and bring the original lineup back together to start talking again. Andy expressed his like for the film and that it was sad it was never actually released, but the outcome of that was that it got them back together talking again. In Andy’s own words: "It was towards the middle of COVID, and he managed to engineer this scenario where he got me and his film crew to go and see Johnny and you know, we had a chat and the next thing we knew we were sort of talking on the phone and writing songs. So it was quite bizarre after all that time… so despite the fact, that is was nudged by somebody else, it ultimately ended up being quite organic".
Sonically, this album maintains their signature sound but more of a soulful and 60’s RnB sentiment. This slight change in sound was something that came naturally during the new album writing process as Andy explained that they weren’t striving to try and recreate their old songs: "I think the focus was more on just creating something that we all felt strongly about and sort of enjoyed creating together… rather than to recreate exactly what had been successful previously or what people knew and loved in the past".
He continued by saying "I think the impetus was on keeping the band alive, you know, the four of us, and making sure that creatively it felt inspiring". Andy went on to discuss the reason they have a signature sound which permeates all of their records together: "I think when the four of us play together we have a sound that comes naturally anyway. I think it will always sound like us".
It seems like there were no issues with getting back into the swing of things either as Andy stated: "We got back together about three and half years ago… we’ve had quite a long time to get over any kind of awkwardness. Although I have to say there wasn’t very much of that. So, by the time we were recording the album we were in our flow… it was quite exciting.’
This does make a lot of sense for a band which has been around for as long as Razorlight and been through so much together. Furthermore, Andy commented that the gigs they had done when we had all come out of lockdown were very special and helped getting them back on their way to getting back to a place they needed to be at to write together: "We’ve done a lot. When we first got back together we did a summer of festivals and we finished off headlining the big top at the Isle of Wight… then we didn’t do anything for a while, and then last year we did a big tour, like a proper grown up tour. It was wicked. It was amazing, you know, after all these years to be playing in front of thousands of our fans felt very, very special indeed… really just quite incredible".
We then delved into deeper insights on the new album. Talking on his favourite track on the album, Andy said: "There’s a track called Dirty Luck… that song for me made this record … when I first got in the room with Johnny (Johnny Borell) and we started to jam it a little bit, that was the moment at which I got thought something was really there. I was really excited about us getting back in the studio and that song still remains my favourite, I can’t wait for them to see the light of day".
This track reminds us of 60’s Soul like Otis Redding, with a kind of Steve Cropper, Hendrix-esque guitar work to which Andy seemed to agree: "Yeah 100%! That means you’ve got very good ears and good taste, that’s exactly what it did for me too for sure".
When running through some of the stylistic influences on the album, Andy said: "There’s always been an eclectic, broad range of influences for all four of us, so I don’t think there was a collective thought of what style we were going for. We we’re playing a lot of old records in the studio every night; a lot of soul records, a lot of rap records… there’s nothing that a good dose of De La Soul at night won’t do. But at the same time a lot of old rock’n’roll as well".
It makes sense when listening to the album as the drum beats resemble those old 80’s and early 90’s Hip-Hop, Soul and Jazz inspired break beats. Even if they weren’t trying to go for a sound collectively, inspiration strikes from the unconscious whether you realise or not.
Next, we explored the technical side of the recoding process to satisfy the cravings of all you production wizards. Andy explained that it was a much more loose and collaborative writing and recording process that came together organically rather than any laborious, dissecting of tones or the quick-fire albums such as Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ or The Stone Roses self titled debut where every song was one or two takes. Andy said that it was a case of getting in the studio and everyone coming together, being relaxed and just jamming it out, nothing complicated just raw music and passion coming together. Reminiscing on the studio time, Andy told us that "the most special thing I remember about it was just Johnny doing his vocal and I just really had a little moment of feeling like we were back. You know I don’t like doing the kind of nostalgia, looking back thing too much, but when he was doing his vocal and I was watching from the control room, it felt like the magic old days".
OCTOBER RECORD STORE TOUR
25th - London, Rough Trade East (7pm - SOLD OUT)
26th - Leamington Spa, Head Records (1pm - SOLD OUT)
26th - Birmingham, hmv Vault (5pm)
27th - Bristol, Rough Trade (7pm - SOLD OUT)
29th - Bury, Wax and Beans (1pm - SOLD OUT)
29th - Manchester, hmv (5pm)
30th - Liverpool, Jacaranda (7pm - SOLD OUT)
31st - Newcastle, Beyond Vinyl (7pm)
%20(1).jpg)
Comments