Would you care to introduce yourself?
Hi, I'm Graham Wann, singer and guitarist with the band POST.
How would you describe the music you make?
Our current press release describes it as a 'sultry, darksweet and wholly petulant brand of Garage-Pop.' I think that's pretty much on the button. And someone recently tweeted that some of our new stuff sounded 'like an acidic mushroom-head lolling about in a bed of tulips' - a sign of things to come, perhaps…
How did you start out making music?
I've always had a mind that's compulsively drawn to patterns in various ways, so I think that laid the foundations for my interest in making music. I never really got into playing an instrument till I picked up the guitar in my early teens - attempts at learning piano as a kid were kind of wasted; my brother was much more the musical one at that age, picking up piano and cello at home and at school, but he left all that behind and became a man of science. I much preferred daydreaming, playing Super Mario games, reading Asterix and drawing pictures at that point. Something cool happened at our school though, when I was about 9 or 10, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra came around looking to get kids involved in playing with them at a show at our local theatre. They wrote a kind of Charleston*** piece and got all the musical kids to help arrange parts. Me and a bunch of others who didn't play anything but were up for getting in on it, were given dustbins and other everyday items to use as percussion during this big noisy breakdown in the middle of it all - it was really experimental and fun. I reckon this instilled in me the knowledge that you can make music out of anything, be a non-musician like Eno says, and just muck in - kick the musical hierarchy out the door.
What process goes into the way you write songs?
Well, usually we start with a good, simple Pop song - the chord structure, main melodies and lyrics written by one person, then take it into the studio where me, Craig, Adam and Chris arrange parts, give the song the textures it needs and so on, generally roughing it up a bit. We have often had the lessons of folk like Neu!, Can, the Fall and Sonic Youth in our heads while we go through this process. It's very natural though, not really premeditated at all - usually it happens very quickly. A few of our numbers though, have developed from having a bit of free time in the recording studio, and getting experimental, taking say, a bassline that someone's got lying around and just laying that down, coming back to it at a later date with lyrics, melodies and whatever else. Our time at the Green Door studio in Glasgow threw out a few examples of this, given greater structural definition via the use of the mixing console to dip parts in and out. We have been very influenced by Bowie's Berlin stuff, Talking Heads and Lee Scratch Perry etc when working in this way. It's good to get out of the comfort zone of starting with a 'solid' song sometimes.
What can people expect from your live shows?
I dunno really… I suppose something that we like to do to keep things fresh is to never have entirely figured-out and set-in-stone parts. The outlines are there, and we sort of move freely within these, making each live show a little different. That, and a lot of noise and some alright tunes as well.
What are you listening to at the moment?
As I write this I'm currently making my way up in a coach to Glasgow from my home in Manchester to play a gig with POST, so I'm listening to the familiar purr of the engine as we cross the Pennines. Some people prefer to take the train, but I think the scenery's unbeatable doing it this way, and it gives you time to read and think. The static hum within the coach always accompanies the anticipation of arriving at another city and working with the band. It's a good sound. Now I'm listening to a wee kid who's started singing Jingle Bells. It's the first of February.
What can we expect to see/hear from you in the future?
We have the following shows coming up:
21st Feb - live in session on 6Music's Marc Riley show
24th Feb - Broadcast, Glasgow, with Girls Names
7th March - Symptomatic at the Bull & Gate, London
29th March - Our album launch, Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow
6th April - Idle Fret at the Social, London.
2nd May - Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle.
Our album Cavalcade is out officially on March 25th, but CD copies will be on sale at the gigs mentioned above, and you can download it (name your price) from Bandcamp.
Bandcamp
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