Music

‘If I’d read some of the press we’ve had,’ says beanpole Guillemots frontman Fyfe Dangerfield, ‘I’d probably think that the band go into the studio and are like, “Brrrreeeeee!!! Whooo-whooo-whooo!!! What wacky things can we do today, guys? I know, let’s make songs out of a… bee!” ’

Unless you’re a diehard fan already, it’s either this picture of Guillemots as kerayzee, tartrazine-loaded presenters of ‘Itsa Bitsa’, or the one of them riding the bedwetting bandwagon that you’re most likely to conjure when their name crops up. In truth, neither is close and instead reveal the inherent prejudice critics have held about accomplished musicians ever since punk killed King Crimson: ‘It’s almost got to the point where if you’re musical and show you’re musical, you’re instantly uncool and a bit wanky,’ says Fyfe.
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Don’t get him wrong, Fyfe still loves Nirvana, and thinks that raw, visceral music can be the best kind. But as their new album ‘Red’ shows, with its R&B, hip hop and ’80s pop foundations, and a sprinkling of the expansive, melodic soundscaping of 2006 debut, ‘Through The Window Pane’, Guillemots have the kind of ambition that if frustrated would drive them to serial murder.

It has been for our own sake, then, that the four have continued tinkering with different musical forms and, during early gigs, made unlikely instruments out of pots, pans and typewriters – the main reason for those accusations of wackiness. But if there’s musical merit in playing such things, why not do so? London’s rising starlet Micachu uses a vacuum cleaner to effectively grime-up her sound and Tom Waits uses tree branches. Calling Waits wanky would get you lynched at Word.

‘It’s a lovely notion,’ says Fyfe, who learned his rattling chops from London’s free-jazz lords the Bohman Brothers. ‘People sitting on a desk, playing these ugly things, like springs and coils and bits of old machinery so you have this sound in the air that’s like insects. It’s something you can lose yourself in. The Bohmans are brilliant. I love the fact that they keep getting chucked out of the rooms they use and have to find somewhere else to play.’

Fyfe is in the middle of talking up his band’s brilliant second album, but his fizzing enthusiasm for music means that once on the subject of the Bohmans, he happily wanders off-topic to talk about his hard-on for free-jazz. A fan of London improv nights Boat-Ting and The Klinker, free-jazz ‘is one of the things I find most inspiring. When it’s done well, you feel like you’re being thrown through the air.’ He even has his own extra-curricular jazzband, which means the bop-averse among you can rest easy at Guillemots’ future gigs.

Named Gannets after yet another seabird – yes, Fyfe is a twitcher – they make a noise best described as ’30s trad jazz being bullied by ’70s electro-funk (‘It’s really abrasive but goes into these dum-dum-dum-dum, tea-dance bass lines,’ says Fyfe) and were a hit at the London Jazz Festival. But if you think this is all leading them down the path to disharmony (mainman does his own thing; band splits), think again.

Fyfe isn’t the only Guillemot to flex his muscles outside of the band. Drummer Greig Stewart is making beats and pops up in a two drummers grunge band with MC Lord Magrão, Guillemots’ guitarist and maker of art films. His latest is described approvingly by Fyfe as ‘pretty fucked up, actually’.

Giving us further insight into the mind of a band who, let’s not forget, have been called ‘Keaneplay’, one scene from Magrão’s recent film features a woman punching a baby (well, a baby doll). Another shows Greig dressed as Santa and getting all, um, sexual with himself. Bass player Aristazabal Hawkes whose Björk-ish ‘Last Kiss’ on ‘Red’ is a roiling standout, is the only member yet to step out on her own but apparently she has the material. With fingers in so many pies, the band can’t even comprehend the one question being asked most about ‘Red’. Says Fyfe: ‘I’ll get asked, “Every track on the album is different, is that deliberate?” Like, what?’

Answering the question anyway, Fyfe quotes Miles Davis: ‘Someone said to him, “Miles why don’t you play ballads anymore?” Miles said, "Cos I love playing ballads so much.” ’

Guillemots aren’t that hard on themselves but ‘Red’ is most definitely not ‘Through The Window Pane’ mk II. Like the storm after a calm, it’s a huge, bold, twister of a pop album that upturns all the band’s roots. Just ask the fan who texted Radio 1 with this message for the band: ‘I used to love Guillemots. Now they’re a sellout pop band.’ A job well done, then.

Guillemots’ ‘Red’ is released on March 24 on Universal.