MUSIC

Gospelling country soulsters Phantom Limb launch their second studio album this month. Leah Pritchard goes behind ‘The Pines’.

Surrounded by Long Beach on all sides, Signal Hill is a small city in Los Angeles County most famous for its oil production in the early 1920s when, as part of the Long Beach oil field, it was supplying a fifth of America’s oil. Nowadays, supplies have depleted somewhat, though nodding donkey pumps are still scattered across the city and it is not rare to be disturbed by the sound of explosives as workers attempt to reach more oil reserves. These were the sounds Phantom Limb mistook for an earthquake in 2010 whilst visiting the city to record their second album – the follow-up to 2008's eponymous debut. Staying in a motel which allows patrons to pay by the hour hardly seems like the most relaxing environment in which to make a record, but if there was one theme for the writing and recording process for 'The Pines', it would definitely be something along the lines of learning when the hell to let go.

“Here's my baby, could you not slap it about?” is singer Yolanda Quartey's metaphor for working with producer Marc Ford rather than self-producing this time around. “It's a tender handing over. If you trust the babysitter, you're good. We're lucky to have that core of trust. It at least fights against your knee-jerk reaction to be a control freak.” Although the prevailing description of their time in California is that it was “All high fives and tequila! Don Julio as far as the eye could see!”, it did take three days for the knee jerks to stop and for Ford to stop getting on guitarist Stew Jackson's tits (“He knew it! He really knew it”). What was so hard for Jackson to swallow was the idea that the first record was over-baked, that Ford could only listen to a few songs at a time, but he admits now that it was easy to get indulgent and lack objectivity when handling production duties himself.

Handing the reins over to someone else and creating an album in just nine days, Jackson says, “doesn't allow you to look at things too deeply or out of context. There wasn't time to build a web of lies. There wasn't enough time to be anything but honest.” Which is what he was when Ford suggested they bring his father-in-law into the studio to add string parts (“It didn't feel right”). In those nine days, a spontaneous gospel choir had been formed, accordion and harmonica players had dropped in and out and Greg Leisz (whose playing has appeared on records by everyone from Bob Dylan to Beck) had stopped by in-between recording with Lucinda Williams at Capitol Studios. They’d been open to musicians dropping by at Ford’s suggestion and the musicians’ leisure but, as Yolanda explains, it was easy to get carried away once the tough first three days had passed. “Everyone just landed in the same place, so hard, that we all just ran off into the distance, extremely over-enthused. The result could be that we ran away with the ball too easily.”

They've been a band for almost eight years now (the length of time between albums the result of a combination of factors, they say – a significant one being the “pituitary retards” they encountered when they got involved with major labels) but, over-enthusiastic overdubs notwithstanding, this album is the first time the band have really sounded comfortable. As Quartey says, they've grown into their influences. What seemed most important was that the band also learned to grow into their roles in the music industry outside the band (Quartey, for instance, has sung backing vocals for Massive Attack and Adele): “You've got to choose which particular demon to pursue at any one time. If you're smart with it, it'll hurt a lot less. There are horrible stereotypes that people would love to crowbar you into. All of them are a violation of everything that I find to be comfortable and conducive to me being happy or creative. You’ve got to cut all that stuff out and actually do something for yourself for five minutes.”

It’s not all bad news, Jackson says: “We've all chosen a route which means we don't have to get up early in the morning or go to an office or constantly wish we were doing something else. The best reason to be in a band? You can wear your own clothes.”

PHANTOM LIMB PLAYED THE FLEECE, BRISTOL ON THUR 16 FEB. ‘THE PINES’ WAS RELEASED ON MON 13 FEB. SEE REVIEW HERE.

Copyright Leah Pritchard 2012