Select February 1999 Issue



THE SEAHORSES
Producer: Dave Bottrill
Album title: 'Minus Blue' or 'Motorcade'
Track titles: 'Petroleum', 'Pi', 'Dolphins', 'Into The Light', 'Anamorphosis', 'Pacific Blue', 'Tomb Raid'
Estimated release date: Summer


John Squire: "We're doing it properly this time. With the first album there was a lot of pressure to get back out there after the Roses. Speed was of the essence. We'd only had the drummer two weeks. This time we've tried to get the band to gel on tour before going into the studio. We've played most of the new material live already. We've been working on the album for the whole of last year, whenever we had time to ourselves. At the moment we're doing demos, and we're going into the studio to record it all in January.

"What's the inspiration behind it? Money. As usual. We're not going in blind, all the songs are written and we know all the parts this time. It's more of a mind-bender. 'Do It Yourself' was pretty basic, just the live sound of the band with a few choice embellishments. This one's a lot more of a seperate entity.

"I think the attitude is much more relaxed this time. Stuart and Chris haven't got the nervous edge that they had for the first album. It feels much more like we're a band now and it sounds more confident. Chris' voice has changed, it's more authoritative. I'd say the ratio of songwriting is the same as before; Chris and I help each other out with songs, but we haven't done that many strict collaborations. It was this way for the first one, everyone having the freedom to suggest and create, the writer of the song having the final say as to whether it went to tape or not.

"I don't find inspiration in other records, I just have to write songs. It's part of my life.

"The sleeve art was the first thing I did. It's quite involved. There's body art, photography, screen-printing, computer jiggery-pokery... I don't really want to give away what the overall picture is yet, but it's one thing filtered through various processes.

"This album's definitely a progression. We brought an old song out of retirement when we did the Stones gig. I had to listen to the first album to re-learn it and I was shocked at how weedy it sounded. The new one possesses more testicles. It has a beard... and a hairy chest."







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