An Hour with Woman’s Hour

By Louise Coles

Conceived in the same terrain as Wild Beasts and British Sea Power, new on the scene Kendal bred Woman’s Hour are an exciting new London based Art-Pop collective, quivering with electronic beats married to clean and uncomplicated guitar and bass lines. Similarly to their contemporaries, their soft then strong vocals coupled with their amassing melody teeters into calypso territory, flirting with a myriad of other genres, while never losing the core sound of the band. Here, Will Burgess, bassist and vocals, speaks exclusively to Muso’s Guide about new beginnings.

We know that you’re all from Kendal in Cumbria but came together as a band in London. Tell us about the early days of Woman’s Hour. Did your inception begin in the capital or was something brewing in your hometown?

It began when we were all together in London, that’s Fiona, Nick and me. It was mainly a reaction to being a little bit bored as far as Nick and I are concerned. With Fiona I think it was more the challenge of trying to sing that she was up for as she had never been in a band before. Her background is in theatre and performance so we thought it might work.

Woman’s Hour consists of Nicholas, Josh, and siblings Fiona and William. Talk us through the line up.

Nicolas and I schooled together, Fiona was at the same school but younger. This was in Kendal. It feels like quite a strange place to grow up the more I think about it: it’s very insular and felt a little like a backwater.

For those who haven’t heard of you, how would you describe your sound?

I think it’s developing at the moment, so it’s difficult to fit it into some succinct title. The way it is going is probably more along the dream-pop sound with bits of jangly African-sounding guitars.

The first thing that springs to mind with the name ‘Woman’s Hour’ is the BBC Radio 4 show. Why this choice?

To be quite honest when we first started the band and decided we were going to try and play in front of people we had to think of a name. A friend of ours helped us come up with the idea. We were talking about how it would be good to name ourselves after a radio 4 show. I’m not sure why we thought that would be good…

The track Human begins with a sense of timelessness. However, as the track moves on the beat and vocals ground the sound. Is this dichotomy between sparse landscapes and pop beats a conscious one?

Yes, very much. We’re really keen to write pop music, but without the obvious trappings. We really want to write strong melodies and hooks but put them in arrangements that you might not expect. For instance, we don’t very often write choruses, although I think that we write melodies that sound like they could be choruses. It’s about presenting things that are very familiar to people in ways that they might not expect. Hopefully that makes some sense.

Human by Woman’s Hour

You often seem to divulge in scarce terrain, slowing revealing evocative pop hooks. What’s the appeal of the meager soundscape as opposed to, say, a track that’s just funky pop?

I’m attracted to minimalism, but also dense sounds. The juxtaposition of the two, when done properly, can be very effective. It’s kind of like allowing the music itself to build the narrative instead of the words necessarily.

On the track Andrew, we have a male taking the vocal lead. Do you often mix up your roles in the band?

Not really, that was one of the first tracks we wrote, and it just felt like it would benefit from a male lead vocal. Fiona does the backing vocals on that track, although I think there is actually more backing vocals than lead vocals really, her voice is being used as a texture within the music adding depth that way.

Is it important to you that people pay attention to your lyrics? Do you listen to what other bands have to say, or is it just about the music? Do you find music is more powerful than lyrics?

I’m not really that fussed about how people perceive our words. I’d be much more enthused to hear someone say they enjoyed our music rather than our lyrics. I do like to listen to other bands lyrics sometimes, although I tend to listen out for lyrics that sound pleasing phonetically rather than those that try to provoke thought.

Do you have a favourite lyricist?

Personally, I love Leonard Cohen. I would also have to put Bruce Springsteen up there, no one tells a story like him.

Is your work interdisciplinary at all?

Currently it isn’t really. However, we are talking with some people to collaborate in different areas. For instance, we’re looking into the possibility of using contemporary dance in part of our performances. This is quite exciting, but we’re very much in the thought process of that at the moment.

Describe to us your writing process. Is there a member that takes the lead or do you just get together and jam?

Usually someone just brings a basic idea or demo to the group then we look at turning it into one of our songs. 9 times out of 10 nothing really comes from our ideas, but then, occasionally one will just stick and then grow fairly organically into one of our songs. I find it kind of strange actually, creating a song. It can be very difficult to pin-point where it came from, I suppose that’s a part of the thrill of creating something with other people. Working in a cohesive group is often more than the sum of its parts.

Your sound involves a lot of effects. Is that a sound you set out to craft or is it more accidental? Any favourite pedals or machines?

We really like to use electronics. Josh is particularly knowledgeable about synths and the such. I absolutely adore his MS-10 and JUNO. We do use the MS-10 live but are still working out how to use the JUNO as it’s a bit cumbersome and temperamental – we use it in the studio then sample it and trigger it off a laptop live. It’s a relatively stress-free way of doing it, although probably not as exciting.

At the moment we’re in the peak of the UK festival season. Are you guys going to be involved this year?

We’re playing a festival in Winchester called Good Weekend later this month, other than that we don’t have any festival plans. We’re still at the stage now where we’re working hard on improving our live performances and building a set that we’re entirely happy with. Which we’re not at the moment!

Your new single Our Love Has No Rhythm is going to be released in the next few weeks. Tell us about the track.

It’s had quite a few incarnations as a song: it initially started out as a drone track that I recorded using an MS-10, Lambda and vocals for fun. This recording is actually available to listen to on our blog I think. The track just sat around for a little while until eventually we kind of remembered it and decided to jam it out and build it into a pop track. Because of its drone-y beginnings I think it helps it fall quite nicely into the dreamy sound we’re interested in at the moment. It was produced by Jonathan Rosenberg late June and mixed by ourselves and Jonathan in early July. We’re really pleased with it, thankfully!

Any plans for a debut album?

Not really. We’re toying with a couple of ideas; I think we should be doing an EP sometime soon, but we’re nowhere near ready for a full album yet, and we don’t need the stress of it right away, we’re just enjoying forming our sound. I think we’re going to do a limited run of around 50 copies of the two songs we did with Richard Formby earlier this year. Our friend Tom Webber has done some incredible designs for us and we really want to do something, on a small scale, with it.

Any band tips for 2011?

I really like 2:54, they’re a good London band. We’ve also played some shows with La Shark who put on an incredible live show and they’re recording an album later this year so that should be awesome. My little brother is in a band in Kendal with two of his friends, they’re called Seductive Gaze. I’m really into what they’re doing; it’s incredibly well constructed for 17 year olds.

And finally, what’s next for Woman’s Hour?

Just a case of getting our heads down and working hard really!

Rasbee Nesbitt (Woman’s Hour Remix) by Woman’s Hour

Woman’s Hour are currently playing gigs around the capital. For full listings, check their webpage on www.myspace.com/womanshour

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