Band of Skulls: on top of the mountain

Band of Skulls have refined their mixture of dynamic instrumental structure with melodic, over-the-top vocals into something that sounds well-crafted yet natural. As “Himalayan” became their word for something big, bold, and epic-sounding, it was definitely the right choice for the title of their third album.

The trio from Southampton used to be known as Fleeing New York, but they changed their band name when they started writing songs of their own. “It sounds like an easy thing to do, but for months we were trying to think of a good name,” says singer and guitarist Russell Marsden. “By then, the album was being recorded. That gave it an all-new atmosphere and allowed us to make any kind of music we wanted to. It was a fresh start.”

The first album had lots of solo and extended parts; the second was a bit more minimal, bare bones. What was the spirit for the third?
EMMA Richardson: We wanted to make a faster-paced record: just work on what we think we are good at as a band and push those elements. We also tried to make almost every song a strong song that could be released individually. We really worked at them until they were almost all singles, which changed a little bit in the studio with our producer, Nick Launay. He helped us give some songs a bit more depth. There is a song called “Heaven’s Key”, which we had in three minutes with a nice beat on it and we were like “Yeah, it rocks”, but he said “There is something else in there”, so we exploited that and it sounds better. And it makes a better record experience, I think.

Why did you pick “Asleep at the Wheel” as the first single and the opening track?
Richardson: It felt like the first time, as a new team, we’d achieved something good together. It was the first song we finished with Nick. Also, it’s a little bit of a stepping stone in the sound from the Sweet Sour album and those elements of the new songs are there as well. So hopefully it gives people a bit of a clue.

What’s the “Hoochie Coochie” referring to?
Russell Marsden: Oh my God… [Laughs] Well it’s everyone, isn’t it?
Richardson: In Southampton we went to a lot of night clubs and pubs to find places where we could gig. Every evening there was this loud party animal – everybody knows someone like that. It might be you.

The artwork of your records seems to follow the same evolution as the music.
Richardson: For the first one we used some of my work, and for Sweet Sour we turned to Cédric Ginart and Karina Guevin, who made a glass sculpture inspired by one of my paintings. This time we used a bit of technology to make some sort of a computer-generated 3D image of a sound wave, which also feels like what we are doing now. By using the mirror structure and psychedelic look time and again, people immediately know it’s us.

Your shows are very intense. How do you switch from the record to the stage?
Marsden: You don’t want to restrict yourself when you write. It’s hard enough putting songs together. You make the song, record it, get it exactly as you want it to be, and then you find out how the hell you’re going to do it later. But that’s the fun part! And the good thing is that it doesn’t have to sound like the record. Live should always be something more, something different.
Richardson: And we like to make it really hard for ourselves. It’s playing music without a safety net.

Band of Skulls • 2/4, 19.30, SOLD OUT!, botanique, Koningsstraat 236 rue Royale, Sint-Joost-ten-Node/Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, 02-218.37.32, www.botanique.be