Following last years succesful Crocodiles/Heaven Up Here tour, Echo and The Bunnymen announced they would be playing a number of venues around the country playing their Ocean Rain album in full, accompanied by a string orchestra. Midlands Rocks caught up with the quiet man of the band and discover that Will Sergeant has plenty to say on the band, art and the state of the music industry.


Interview by Tony Gaskin

MR – Good morning Will and thanks for taking time out to talk to Midlands Rocks

WS – No probs

MR – So, the Ocean Rain tour, would it be fair to say that this is possibly the most ambitious thing you’ve undertaken since the original Ocean Rain release?

WS – In some respects I guess it is. When you’ve got the string players following lots of little dots on paper, it’s hard to stick to the script you know? You can’t deviate or improvise, so I guess it’s more hard than ambitious. We’ve already played a couple of one offs so we know its ok! I think last year’s tour doing Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here was more ambitious. We hadn’t played a lot of those songs for over twenty years and some had never been played live.

MR – When the album was first conceived and you were writing songs for it, was it always in yours and Ian’s minds to have orchestrated strings involved.

WS – It was definitely something we wanted to do. At the time we were greatly influenced by the likes of Scott Walker and felt we could take our music beyond the usual guitar and bass. Also Mac is into that Big Band sound and loves Frank Sinatra!

MR – I remember at the time reading about the bands influences, especially Leonard Cohen, a name that crops up regularly.

WS – In music there’s always going to be an influence on what you do. You could trace a line back through history to two cavemen banging sticks and follow that through to today!

MR- One thing, apart from the music, that’s always stood out for me, is your album artwork. Is that something you always make a conscious effort at producing.

WS – We’ve always had a good eye for great images, and we were very lucky to work with a great photographer, Brian Griffin. Most of the time we didn’t know before hand what was going on, we’d just turn up , Brian would set it all up and the results would be stunning!

MR – On the subject of art, you are an accomplished artist in your own right. What would you say gives you the most satisfaction, your music or your art?

WS – That’s a hard one. They’re two different things but come from the same place. It’s hard to beat the buzz you get from a live gig, but I get a similar feeling when I’ve finished a piece of artwork

MR – Your latest art project features your father.

WS – I had a photo of him as a young man in uniform and decided to use that as a basis for some screen printing. It was taken in 1939, he was just 18 and being sent off to war

MR – It almost sounds like a Monty Python sketch – Private Sergeant!!

WS – He was first sent to what was then Palestine and he had to drive an empty truck back and forth along the Golan Heights to fool German U-subs that were spying in the bay into thinking there were more British troops than there actually were, so yeah very Monty Python or Spike Milligan!!

MR – But seriously, it’s something that echo’s down the years and is relevant to today?

WS – Yeah, our young men are still getting sent off to war.

MR – Back to the music then! Are you and Ian writing at the moment, and can we expect a new Echo and The Bunnymen album anytime soon?

WS – We’re always writing! I’ve got a hard drive full of half written songs. We’re hoping to release something later this year, probably an EP, not sure if we’re gonna go down the full album route, honestly don’t think there’s a future for the album the way the industry is going.  If people aren’t downloading illegally then they just pick and choose individual tracks off the album. Nobody involved realised what the internet was going to do to the industry.

MR – What about the concept of fans paying what they like for an album?

WS – To be honest, that’s just a gimmick and I can’t see it becoming the norm. Record sales don’t amount to much of a bands income these days. It’s an expensive business running a band and it’s the tours and the merch sales that keep’ us going!

MR – Well, thanks once again for chatting to us, good luck with your art and I look forward to the tour in September.

Echo and The Bunnymen will be performing "Ocean Rain" in full with string accompaniment at the Birmingham Symphony Hall on September 25th

http://www.bunnymen.com

http://willsergeant.com/