After putting together Lost Indie Classics Vol. 2 my curiosity got the better of me. What is it like if you made great records during the indie hay days, and might be thinking about making another in today’s crowded music scene, where pop, R&B, hip hop and country rule the streaming bandwidth?
Best way to check in on someone these days is to give them a call, so I did. I had a lovely chat with Gemma who was residing in her country home in west Cork, where I was very pleased to discover she has been making good use of her music room. Then I called Ant Genn from The Hours. And one could never fail to be entertained by Ant…
Between the conversations with Ant and Gemma the connections came flowing...how making music happens by happenstance and is all about making a connection. Oh and, Patti Smith...who seems to have inspired musicians everywhere and forever.
Gemma Hayes
“I never planned to get into music as a career, but once I started writing songs I fell for it, dropped everything else and really dived into it. But after Night On My Side, I toured relentlessly for two years, and got to a point where I felt really burned out and exhausted. So I reset expectations from there - for myself, and for my label Source, who were great actually. Each time I made a record I kind of took my time and regrouped or changed the setting, as with The Roads Don't Love You which I made in LA. And then by the time Bones + Longing came - when was it, 2014? I’d come full circle and was back in Ireland but with my first child - I mixed the vocals in the studio with a newborn baby. But I couldn’t tour the album and realised I couldn’t make music and start a family at the same time.”
You know it’s been a long time when an artist can’t remember when they released an album! But Gemma kept her hand in, while building that family (her kids and now 6 and 4) with writing for others and collaborations, including EDM giants Above & Beyond (Counting Down The Days) and Paul Noonan’s Printer Clips. But, how wonderful to discover Gemma is on the way back...
“I feel more alive now and I’m excited about how I translate this feeling into my music. Having had the time out and getting my kids to the point where they can look after themselves a bit, I’ve been getting the players from Night On My Side back together and rehearsing new songs - we’ll go into the studio with (producer) David Odlum and record them. I’m really inspired by Patti Smith and want to bring that raw, freshness to everything, so the plan is to record the songs live. At 43 I feel more potent and free so I’m really excited to see what this new album might become.
And so...after six long years Gemma Hayes will be back soon. But to a very different industry now than in 2014 when Bones + Longing came out...
“I’ve only known one way to make a record, and that’s to labour over it. And then it’s been to tour it and work it (apart from with Bones + Longing which we didn’t tour). But I know things are different now. I’m excited about doing something more visual, filming in the studio, putting something out there first to see what the reaction is. But to me it’s the same thing, the album is like a painting - once it’s done it’s done, and I hope it represents the best of me at the time and that people will want to hear it”.
Funnily enough, the day we spoke, Gemma was releasing a track. As part of the celebrations for Van Morrison’s 75th birthday, she was one of 75 Irish artists invited to make music for the Hot Press project and was releasing a cover of Comfort You that very evening. We can only look forward to new material and hope that Gemma Hayes still can rightfully claim a place in today’s music landscape. Gemma, the roads do love you!
Ant Genn (The Hours)
I called Ant up for a chat while he was in his London studio, sitting for a bit at his Steinway model C grand piano.
“It started by accident in a way. Martin and I went to see Radiohead at Shepherds Bush Empire on the Hail To The Thief tour (that was 2003 and I was right there too) and we were blown away. We just loved the show and the fact that Radiohead were the only band at that time creating and operating on their own terms - and bringing their fans with them. Martin looked at me and said something like “if I’ve had one regret, it’s that I didn’t do something on my own like this”...so I looked at him and said “fuck it let’s do it”.
It was only three years later I saw The Hours headline their own sold out show at Shepherds Bush Empire...they’d only gone and fucking done it...
“We formed The Hours because of the music. The music led the way, not us. We had a bunch of songs we’d recorded that were okay, but then Jeanette Lee got behind us and Jeanette is simply one of the greatest people who ever lived. Then we went to see Patti Smith and realised we needed to make some music that had guts - something real. That’s when I came up with the opening lines of Ali In The Jungle. So we went back into the studio (Narcissus Road) and made the album. We just banged it out. Ali In The Jungle took an hour and a half, Martin played the drums (for the first time he learned drums for the record) on the toilet, because we didn’t have a drum stool!”.
Narcissus Road is a lost classic all to itself. But were The Hours set up for success?
“Everyone fucking loved it. Zane Lowe got behind us, Jo Whiley too. It looked and felt like it was really happening. But - the label didn’t want Ali In The Jungle as the first single, they wanted Back When You Were Good. And then Radio 1 decided we were too old and didn’t add us to the playlist. Back then, it was all about getting past the gatekeepers. The funny thing is, everyone thought it was gonna go big, but people come towards success but walk away from failure. When a few things didn’t go our way it changed things. There really wasn’t much of a campaign from the label (A&M) and the only person who took responsibility was David Joseph who apologised in the end. Still, it was great. Ali In The Jungle was used for FIFA 2008, the NBA, TV adverts (it was also the song that snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan entered to in all his matches at the 2010) and we did Shepherds Bush. So when we went on to See The Light, it was still set up for us”.
See The Light was made in that spirit of “creating and operating on our own terms” as inspired by Radiohead, with the band’s friend Damien Hirst at the helm of IsGood records and Flood brought in to produce. What could possibly go wrong?
“Like I said The Hours was created as a vehicle for the music and was probably never meant to be a band, in the traditional sense of making one record, then another etc. Really we just didn’t have the songs (even though the album kicks off with two belters, Big Black Hole and These Days). I personally rate ‘The Girl Who Had The World At Her Feet’ which was written for Amy Winehouse, and ‘Never See You Again’ which was for a dear friend we’d lost. And yeah See The Light (title track) was okay. We carried on for a bit - we supported Noel Gallagher on tour, had music in a Nike advert, but it just wasn’t happening and neither Martin or I dwell on it to be honest. The Hours was just a phase for us, one of the many projects we’ve worked on together before and since...that’s how we like it. We’ve done movies, a ballet, worked with top people, and we get to make hundreds of hours of music, not 15 minutes a year like Coldplay”.
But...as Ant sits by the piano and improvises an original/alternative version of My Way (which sounds like The Hours, fucking great!) he reveals that he and Martin are making new songs, in the vein of Talk Talk and A Winged Victory for the Sullen. That’s a thrilling thought. Is it possible that cometh the hour, cometh the musical power of Slattery & Genn (they’ll need a better name than that…) ;)
NOT a portrait of Ant Genn, The Hours - but a cool indie skull instead