MUSIC

Tiffany Daniels talks to Guillemots lead singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter Fyfe Dangerfield about Brazil, their upcoming tour and getting out of the ‘album cycle’.

Branded by some as a workaholic, Fyfe Dangerfield’s music has been performed by choirs across the UK. His stripped-back rendition of ‘She’s Always a Woman’ is currently being used on an advert for John Lewis and some of the country’s biggest pop stars have his number on speed dial. Arguably Dangerfield can be included in that line-up himself. Despite all of the above, he remains an enigmatic character, adamant that he’s yet to make his mark on the music industry and increasingly determined to better himself and his career.

Following the release of their debut ‘Through the Windowpane’ in 2006, Fyfe’s band Guillemots have gone from strength the strength, earning the four-piece an enviable fan base. Momentarily put on hold when Dangerfield released his debut album ‘Fly Yellow Moon’ last year, Guillemots returned in April, triumphantly clutching their new album ‘Walk The River’. This November the band are reconfirming their musical integrity with a UK tour.

“We’re starting our tour on Sunday,” a typically excitable Fyfe explains. “I never make any attempt to describe our live shows, [but] I think I’m generally more confident now. I definitely used to [play] some gigs where I ended up talking absolute nonsense! I’ve got better at not saying anything if I haven’t got anything to say. I don’t think I could ever do that thing where I have a script of what I’m going to say.”

Although his scattergun approach to answering questions reflects his kind of creative ADHD, there’s no fear that Guillemots’ live shows are shambolic and unplanned. When quizzed about what Trinity Centre attendees can expect on 4 November, Fyfe is alarmingly diplomatic: “It’s always a balance between not wanting to upset the people who are coming to see you play, and playing what you feel is right. You owe it to [your audience] to have some sort of discipline. Considering the kind of band that we are, even though we love improvising and so on, people know what songs they want to hear.”

Guillemots’ undying wish to entertain their fans is something that went down very well on a recent trip to Brazil, somewhere that the band has “wanted to tour for ages, but for whatever reason it hadn’t happened. We had our own headline show in Sao Paulo and people were singing along to everything; not just singles, but some of the album tracks from the new record which wasn’t even released in Brazil properly at that point. It shows that music does spread.”

South America is not the only country Fyfe has on his agenda; he name checks Japan, America and Europe as places he’d like to revisit, admitting “from the moment we got this record deal we’ve always said – ironically – that we want to be an international band. We don’t really care about being big in one specific country; we just want to play all over the world. It hasn’t really ended up happening. We haven’t toured the world nearly as much as we’d like to.”

Despite this burning desire to spread his wings, Fyfe’s impatient to break what he repeatedly refers to as the ‘touring cycle’: “So often these days you can’t go on tour unless there’s a reason for [it]. We just want to play some shows... We want to get out of this album cycle that everyone seems to get stuck in. It seems a bit stupid: you spend a long time recording a record, then you wait six months before you can put it out, then you tour, and then you record another album. It just seems daft when the internet is such an amazing way of getting stuff out there.”

It’s also a medium that Guillemots have increasingly exercised. From social media to revealing the coordinates of a secret gig last Christmas, Fyfe is keen to embrace the digital world. “I think we all want to do things that are more online based. It’s often about finding the right people to work with and so on... There are so many ways to release music, I think we’re going to try out a lot of things and experiment more.”

And what can Guillemots fans specifically expect in terms of new material? Fyfe remains elusive, though he admits: “The thing that I enjoy the most is recording. Being in the studio, you’re completely in your own little bubble. We’ve got loads of stuff to record! We have been recording some new stuff already and we’re really excited about it. We’re not really sure what we’re going to do next. All we’re focusing on at the moment is getting a few tracks recorded and ready. Anything’s possible.”

GUILLEMOTS PLAYED THE TRINITY CENTRE, BRISTOL ON FRI 4 NOV. FFI: WWW.GUILLEMOTS.COM/#LIVE

Copyright Tiffany Daniels 2011