"I'd never thought we'd last this long". I Am Kloot. A group romantically rough. Reflected in the words of Twist, "There's blood on your legs, I love you". Today they release their third album, Gods And Monsters which they define as their best. It is. A mysterious way which makes us reach the grace. Its Creators speak to us about it.
I Am Kloot is not a group, it is a universe. It is perhaps there that the secret of its longevity resides. A group who does'nt care about what's fashion or not in a country where a group per week is elected best group of the world.
John Bramwell, the singer: "in fact, we were all in a period of excitement, as at the time of the recording of our first album, our first gigs. This album I believe, is our best album. We have found our way of working. It is more sophisticated. For this album we have rejected
all that could resemble laid down pre rules. Moreover, when one bears a name like ours, I Am Kloot, one can do what one wants! We do nothing that's in. We're proud of that! There is a distance, a large gap between what the other groups do and us, full stop."
The bass player Peter Jobson adds" I don't care about what the others make. I do not judge their work. It makes us trustful not to be concerned with this kind of things "
John adds concerning the statute of the group" I think that we have our own world. When we play all disappears around us. The good groups manage to create this effect. If that does not
happens then I do not see the interest. "
The entry in studio
The third album of I Am Kloot is definitely less intimist than Natural History and I Am Kloot. John: "The first album is as when you join your friends to drink. This one is more expansive" Peter: "the producer is a friend, he gave us freedom in the studio, called Moolah Rouge. We knew this place by another artist of Manchester, Badly Drawn Boy. There was full of interesting instruments in this studio. We could experiment. I do not know large things in music, theorically. We could make kinds of happy mistakes "
John adds: "In the studio we did not feel intimidated at all. We did what we wanted. We did not say oh my god the world is looking at to us now! Sometimes this laxism can be risky. We did not
have a crisis of confidence but in the middle of the recording, we put ourselves in question ".
The drummer Andy Hargreaves: "In fact we did some rehearsals before going to the studio"
Gods and Monsters, a strange arrangement of colors
This album is rough. Its spontaneousness appears as if the group
were at its beginnings as John explained. The group has just to spend less time in studio.
Peter: "the comparison between the groups is not a good thing. But to compare ethics of work is interesting. Many groups recorded in Manchester at the same time as us. They spend a lot of time in the studio. We could during this time make at least... five albums! We recorded ours in one month, very quickly. Fortunately we quickly found the sound which we wanted. Groups can spend one year to record. It's incredible!"
John adds: "It is as if you spent six months to prepare your interviews! "
Gods And Monsters, in addition of being rough is crossed by different moods. Stripped arrangements, as if John were alone, in an empty bar, singing his despair. Then there are intermittencies with Hong-Kong Lullaby, an instrumental song. Lastly, I Believe and this
sentence, "I would never have thought that we would last this long".
John: "I say I in this song but the group thinks it too. Then I wonder how I could live this long! "
John has travelled a lot. He seems to have drawn from these travels the musical
inspiration. The drummer acknowledges being inspired by Spanish sonorities. But what counts before all is the melody.
About the color of the album, Peter expresses himself: "When you see a group which has very popular songs, that their album have ten of these songs and that they all sound similar, it is boring. The mood changes through the album, you feel various emotions. It is funny to do that and you have to do that if you are a little talented. If you can go from an extreme to the other, that is interesting "
Gods and Monsters
From one extreme to another. A contradiction which characterizes the group, its world and ours. John: "contradictions are human. It is part of everyday life. From the moment you believe in something. It can be something in which you believe, a doctrine, a philosophy, anything. From the momen you are completely absorbed by something, it is the moment when all fall into pieces. It is as when youfall in love with somebody, that will decline inevitably if you do not keep it alive! I Believe summarizes that. From the moment you believe in something, it begins to fall into pieces "
Peter:" You have to live with contradictions. You have to be aware of it. If you live without any
problem, that you are trustful, that you do not have any idea of the true nature of the world, and then something bad happens, you cannot face. These contradictions exist and that prepares you at what will happen afterwards "
It is a remarkable summary of the career of I Am Kloot. A group which accepts contradictions, even play about it. Charm, brutality, truth, illusion. Gods and monsters.
www.iamkloot.com
Pour la version française: www.surlering.com/article.php/id/4955
Photos taken at the Nouveau Casino, Paris, May 2005
