Adrian Flanagan - The Moonlandingz
Recently I had the pleasure of conversing with Adrian Flanagan founding member and co song-writer of semi-fictional psychedelic synth pop group The Moonlandingz and non-fictional synth pop group The Eccentronic Research Council, we spoke about everything from his original music to brand new projects, from how he got Yoko Ono to feature on a song to his favourite movie soundtrack.
WALLFLAG. : "So the band originally started as a fictional project in the storyline of a song released by another project of yours, how deep did this storyline go before it was decided to pursue it properly and create a real band? What was the thinking behind it? Who did the final decision come from?"
Adrian: "I wrote a narrative based on a true story about a woman stalking the lead singer of a 'local band' in a fictional ex-mining town in South Yorkshire called, Valhalla Dale... I called the fictional band The Moonlandingz... Once I had honed and tweaked my story I sent it to my close friend, the actress Maxine Peake, who loved it, who then came to our studio and we recorded her reading the story (Maxine is a long-time collaborator of our other project Eccentric Research Council). Dean Honer (Moonlandingz & E.R.C co-writer/producer) and I then sound tracked the narrative from beginning to end...Then for fun, I thought it would be good to write a couple of songs for the fictional band The Moonlandingz and give an EP of said bands songs away with the album about a woman stalking them. So Dean and I got the basic electronic parts, bass, beats, synths, organs and some guitars together for the tracks 'Sweet Saturn Mine', 'psych ersatz' & a song and lyric of mine called 'Lay yer head down on the road'. When we had something resembling a few songs I asked Lias & Saul from the Fat Whites if they wanted to collaborate and add some vocals and additional guitar to some of these tracks - and of course, they couldn't wait to jump on something so incredibly cultural and meta (ha).. They both came up to Sheffield for a couple of days, Lias and I worked on lyrics and vocals at my flat, whilst Saul worked on a couple of riff ideas, we then went to the pub and got smashed. The next day we went to Dean's studio and recorded all the vocals and additional guitars with them. We then had a little jam and that jam was cut up and almost remixed beyond recognition by Dean & I and that became the song 'Man in Me Lyfe' ... we did 4 ace songs in less than 24hours and it was a really enjoyable process, just really easy, we clicked really well! They went back to touring fat whites and they'd invite me along to DJ at some of their shows and we became pretty good buddy's...Before the E.R.C stalker/Johnny rocket album came out we sent 'sweet Saturn mine' the song by the fictional band to BBC 6 music , next thing it’s on the a-list radio playlist and a daily staple on BBC 6 music for around 2 months, the fictional band then started getting real fans and people all over the world asking us to do gigs. Lias and I then talked and it seemed like a no brainier, let's write some more songs, put a live band around it and see what happens... next thing we do a few mini tours and they all sell out, we then signed a record deal, recorded our debut album partly in Sheffield and partly in Sean Lennon’s studio in New York. Released a few more singles then dropped the album last year which was a huge success, we played about 50 shows last year across Europe and everywhere we went was pretty mad. In less than a year we'd gone from headlining to 150 people to headlining shows to 1300 people. It was a nice way to wind down 2 years of touring and plugging away at the project, knowing how a daft little idea I had 3 years previous went from that pathetic brain cell to filling these big grand venues. It is quite remarkable really."
W. : "Having released a full album just over a year ago it seems to have a very impressive spread of names featuring on it, was it already decided whom was going to be on the record or did names pop up along the way? Did people ask to be on it or did you and the band ask them?"
A : “Not really, I think as we went along writing and recording, almost jokingly we'd go - "so and so would be cool singing on this track" then we'd just ask them and everyone said yes...!”...
W. : "Towards the end of last year it was hinted at that after a succession of popular tour dates the band would be dissolving so you and the other members could focus on your other projects but having released an extended version of your album recently could this mean we'll be seeing more of The Moonlandingz still? In the studio or on stage, has anything been discussed?"
A : "It was simply that we all had to go back to the day jobs of our own bands and projects, Lias had another fat whites album to write and record and that takes up a lot of emotional energy and focus as they are a dysfunctional bunch of buggers, plus it wouldn't really be possible to have both bands on the road as frankly it would probably kill Lias (ha) , that kid gives everything onstage, he's one of the best frontmen in the world but it would be too hard for him to do a few month on the road with fat whites to then go straight in to touring the Moonlandingz… it made sense to take one band off the road , whilst the other band tours and whilst one band is on the road, the other band is writing and recording in the studio and that's basically what we will be doing when fat whites are touring their next record. We've not really decided what direction we are going to take it, but it'll happen, when you need us not when you want us!"
W. : "Now also going from possibly returning to your regular bands, you and Dean created another new project called International Teachers Of Pop early this year, how was supporting Jarvis Cocker so early in the project? When can we be expecting a debut album from this?"
A : "International Teachers of Pop is Dean & I with this great singer from Manchester called Leonore Wheatley (sometime singer in bands The Soundcarriers and Whyte Horses), it's like really nerdy disco party songs about Trains, space, communist work ethics and the death of technology, it's really fun stuff and I think will blow a lot of people away.. We are going to get a single out over the summer and make a few appearances at some festivals, the debut Teachers album will come out next year, it's all recorded, just tweaking some mixes then we'll start doing the artwork, it's gonna be great. The Jarvis shows where amazing, they were our first ever live shows, it was an honour to get a message off Jarvis saying he'd like us to open for him at his comeback shows in a Cave for two nights, in Derbyshire. I've a lot of time JC. "
W. : "Currently being in a number of groups what do you feel it is you enjoy about starting fresh? Is there a reason to be in multiple bands and not release different music under the same name? Do you have a favourite project you're in?"
A : "I don't know, most musicians just do their one band and it gets stagnant and they start hating each other and they never really progress, and then they split up, they are what i call weekend musicians. Personally, I'm writing all the time, songs drop off me like water from a tap so I've always got a bunch of songs and ideas, I'm just getting good at placing them somewhere now, you know - this one is a Moonlandingz tune, this disco dancey thing is the Teachers of pop, this weird experimental electronic thing is Eccentronic Research Council and I've always got back up tracks for new projects with different people.. I love collaboration and I love all my projects!"
W. : "Finally to finish on something totally random and unrelated, what's your all-time favourite movie music and why?"
A : "My favourite film soundtrack is La Planete Sauvage by Alain Goraguer; a beautiful French animated film from 1973, the music is just so brooding and moving!"
WALLFLAG. : "So the band originally started as a fictional project in the storyline of a song released by another project of yours, how deep did this storyline go before it was decided to pursue it properly and create a real band? What was the thinking behind it? Who did the final decision come from?"
Adrian: "I wrote a narrative based on a true story about a woman stalking the lead singer of a 'local band' in a fictional ex-mining town in South Yorkshire called, Valhalla Dale... I called the fictional band The Moonlandingz... Once I had honed and tweaked my story I sent it to my close friend, the actress Maxine Peake, who loved it, who then came to our studio and we recorded her reading the story (Maxine is a long-time collaborator of our other project Eccentric Research Council). Dean Honer (Moonlandingz & E.R.C co-writer/producer) and I then sound tracked the narrative from beginning to end...Then for fun, I thought it would be good to write a couple of songs for the fictional band The Moonlandingz and give an EP of said bands songs away with the album about a woman stalking them. So Dean and I got the basic electronic parts, bass, beats, synths, organs and some guitars together for the tracks 'Sweet Saturn Mine', 'psych ersatz' & a song and lyric of mine called 'Lay yer head down on the road'. When we had something resembling a few songs I asked Lias & Saul from the Fat Whites if they wanted to collaborate and add some vocals and additional guitar to some of these tracks - and of course, they couldn't wait to jump on something so incredibly cultural and meta (ha).. They both came up to Sheffield for a couple of days, Lias and I worked on lyrics and vocals at my flat, whilst Saul worked on a couple of riff ideas, we then went to the pub and got smashed. The next day we went to Dean's studio and recorded all the vocals and additional guitars with them. We then had a little jam and that jam was cut up and almost remixed beyond recognition by Dean & I and that became the song 'Man in Me Lyfe' ... we did 4 ace songs in less than 24hours and it was a really enjoyable process, just really easy, we clicked really well! They went back to touring fat whites and they'd invite me along to DJ at some of their shows and we became pretty good buddy's...Before the E.R.C stalker/Johnny rocket album came out we sent 'sweet Saturn mine' the song by the fictional band to BBC 6 music , next thing it’s on the a-list radio playlist and a daily staple on BBC 6 music for around 2 months, the fictional band then started getting real fans and people all over the world asking us to do gigs. Lias and I then talked and it seemed like a no brainier, let's write some more songs, put a live band around it and see what happens... next thing we do a few mini tours and they all sell out, we then signed a record deal, recorded our debut album partly in Sheffield and partly in Sean Lennon’s studio in New York. Released a few more singles then dropped the album last year which was a huge success, we played about 50 shows last year across Europe and everywhere we went was pretty mad. In less than a year we'd gone from headlining to 150 people to headlining shows to 1300 people. It was a nice way to wind down 2 years of touring and plugging away at the project, knowing how a daft little idea I had 3 years previous went from that pathetic brain cell to filling these big grand venues. It is quite remarkable really."
W. : "Having released a full album just over a year ago it seems to have a very impressive spread of names featuring on it, was it already decided whom was going to be on the record or did names pop up along the way? Did people ask to be on it or did you and the band ask them?"
A : “Not really, I think as we went along writing and recording, almost jokingly we'd go - "so and so would be cool singing on this track" then we'd just ask them and everyone said yes...!”...
W. : "Towards the end of last year it was hinted at that after a succession of popular tour dates the band would be dissolving so you and the other members could focus on your other projects but having released an extended version of your album recently could this mean we'll be seeing more of The Moonlandingz still? In the studio or on stage, has anything been discussed?"
A : "It was simply that we all had to go back to the day jobs of our own bands and projects, Lias had another fat whites album to write and record and that takes up a lot of emotional energy and focus as they are a dysfunctional bunch of buggers, plus it wouldn't really be possible to have both bands on the road as frankly it would probably kill Lias (ha) , that kid gives everything onstage, he's one of the best frontmen in the world but it would be too hard for him to do a few month on the road with fat whites to then go straight in to touring the Moonlandingz… it made sense to take one band off the road , whilst the other band tours and whilst one band is on the road, the other band is writing and recording in the studio and that's basically what we will be doing when fat whites are touring their next record. We've not really decided what direction we are going to take it, but it'll happen, when you need us not when you want us!"
W. : "Now also going from possibly returning to your regular bands, you and Dean created another new project called International Teachers Of Pop early this year, how was supporting Jarvis Cocker so early in the project? When can we be expecting a debut album from this?"
A : "International Teachers of Pop is Dean & I with this great singer from Manchester called Leonore Wheatley (sometime singer in bands The Soundcarriers and Whyte Horses), it's like really nerdy disco party songs about Trains, space, communist work ethics and the death of technology, it's really fun stuff and I think will blow a lot of people away.. We are going to get a single out over the summer and make a few appearances at some festivals, the debut Teachers album will come out next year, it's all recorded, just tweaking some mixes then we'll start doing the artwork, it's gonna be great. The Jarvis shows where amazing, they were our first ever live shows, it was an honour to get a message off Jarvis saying he'd like us to open for him at his comeback shows in a Cave for two nights, in Derbyshire. I've a lot of time JC. "
W. : "Currently being in a number of groups what do you feel it is you enjoy about starting fresh? Is there a reason to be in multiple bands and not release different music under the same name? Do you have a favourite project you're in?"
A : "I don't know, most musicians just do their one band and it gets stagnant and they start hating each other and they never really progress, and then they split up, they are what i call weekend musicians. Personally, I'm writing all the time, songs drop off me like water from a tap so I've always got a bunch of songs and ideas, I'm just getting good at placing them somewhere now, you know - this one is a Moonlandingz tune, this disco dancey thing is the Teachers of pop, this weird experimental electronic thing is Eccentronic Research Council and I've always got back up tracks for new projects with different people.. I love collaboration and I love all my projects!"
W. : "Finally to finish on something totally random and unrelated, what's your all-time favourite movie music and why?"
A : "My favourite film soundtrack is La Planete Sauvage by Alain Goraguer; a beautiful French animated film from 1973, the music is just so brooding and moving!"
Comments
Post a Comment