Interview – Last Days
Emotive, escapism, empathetic. Just three of the words that can be used to describe the sound created by Graham Richardson, who over the last half decade has carved a niche as the premier in melancholic, wistful soundscaping as Last Days.
His latest effort for n5MD, ‘Safety of the North’ is his most ambitious yet, drawing on the strength and influence of the hope in our lives to complete his most fully realised work to date. Intended as a ‘score’ of sorts, it’s easy to bandy around terms such as ‘cinematic’, yet such tagging remains fully warranted where Richardson is concerned.
He recently sat down with [Sic] Mag to reveal all about his new record, his latest side-project St Kilda and the difficulty in expressing such powerful emotions using predominantly wordless music.
Sic Mag: Hello Graham, You’ve got a new album due out through n5MD entitled ‘Safety of the North’. Apparently, it is a script-based record and you’ve embraced cinematic tendencies. Please tell us more?
, “Sea”, for example, featured an ambiguous, faceless character?</b> </p>
<p> <b>Graham Richardson:</b> ‘Sea’ was more about the emotional state of the character and apart from ‘Arriving at Jan Mayen’ there wasn’t many situations identified, it was more like a soundtrack to being lost at sea and the overall mood. I didn’t think it was necessary to get any more specific than i did. With the new record i could have gone down the same route but i thought I’d try and challenge myself and write music for a more detailed narrative. So I started by outlining a very basic story, the time frame and locations, main events etc. Initially I had not planned on naming the girl but the name popped into my head (i like that name!) and it stuck and seemed appropriate to include in one of the track titles.<br />
This album is very specifically about loss and for the listener to have any empathy for the main character I thought it useful to bring them a little closer with a name, photographs and a voice.</p>
<p> <b>Sic Mag: The album title, ‘Safety of the North’, is the part autobiographical given your roots in Newcastle, perhaps a continuation of the ‘revisiting the past’ theme of your previous record.</b> </p>
<p> <b>Graham Richardson:</b> Not really, I have a fascination with the north but this album isn’t autobiographical at all.</p>
<p><img fetchpriority=)
Sic Mag: The press notes for ‘Safety….’ allude to the fact that hope is the only certainty in life. It’s a notion I believe is threaded through each of your records, would you agree with that statement?
Graham Richardson: Yes, definitely. I really don’t think i have it in me to make an entirely dark record. I’d feel dishonest if i didn’t reflect reality. I’m happy to explore dark themes but I also want reflect that everything works out OK in life because I sincerely believe it does, no matter how long it takes or what you have to go through to get there.
Sic Mag: The album took a little longer to record than previous efforts, as a musician how does the 2005 version of Graham Richardson compare to the 2009 version. During frequent updates you alluded to the fact that the recording process was difficult?
Graham Richardson: Perhaps not so much difficult as time consuming, getting the sound and mood right took time. Compared to the other two records I feel that this one is more rounded and complete, it took more effort and I’m pleased i occasionally took time out to step back and look at what I’d done. A few weeks ago I listened to ‘Sea’ for the first time in about a year and was surprised to hear how basic it sounded, which is no bad thing but musically I think there’s more to involve the listener on the new record. Since 2005 I think I’ve developed a bit more confidence in what I’m doing.
Sic Mag: It’s safe to say this is an ambitious record, has it been a problem to convey the correct emotions on each ‘scene’ you were looking for, after all asides from a few spoken word excerpts, only 1 track has a vocals?
Graham Richardson: At times it was a problem. On paper the story is split into 15 parts which I felt was just enough convey the main details of the story. It was sometimes difficult having a specific scenario or event in mind and writing a track that both sounded good and was relevant. I had about 5 attempts at writing what became ‘May Your Days Be Gold’, and there’s 3 versions of ‘The City Failed’. The versions that didn’t make the album sounded good but didn’t express what I felt they should have. There were a few times when I just stopped working on a particular tracks for a couple of months and came back to them later with fresh ears.
Sic Mag: Also during these updates, you predicted a shift towards a more ‘pop’ direction. Assuming you’re not about to go head to head with Simon Cowell, how does this direction manifest on the record?
Graham Richardson: From my point of view I feel there’s more tunes on here, more melodies and less ambient or abstract pieces. It’s a more conventional record. I think that trend might continue in the future but I really have no plans. I still like the sound of ‘Sea’ but I’ll probably use St Kilda as an outlet for that kind of thing.
Sic Mag: Last time we spoke about your 2nd album (‘These Place Are Now Ruins’), you talked of some unconventional recording practices, involving kicking timber across a room, anything of a similar nature on this record?
Graham Richardson: I walked through a few fields and sat by a couple of rivers with a microphone but there’s nothing too unconventional on the record this time. The ‘bleep’ on ‘Life Support’ is the minimising and maximising of a window on my computer. This was played through a guitar amp at full volume, I’m not even sure if it’s supposed to have a sound but if it’s turned up enough it does.
 ‘Nothing stays the same’ refers to change, loss and how we have no control over events or what happens to people. ‘Nothing ever ends’ are the memories of all these things, people or the mark they left on the world. It just means that the present can change at any moment but history can’t.</p>
<p><img decoding= "Album review")
Safety of the North review
[Sic] Mag would like to thank Graham Richardson and n5MD for the interview
Photography: Richard Brocken