Black Rivers to support Noel Gallagher on UK tour
| Posted: November 20, 2014
Gig double: Black Rivers
The reaction to the single, The Ship, was really strong. How important is that?
We were very nervous beforehand. Because we were in a bubble of writing and recording for two years, and what we think resonates with us might not necessarily get the same when you put it out into the world. Things can be polarising. We wouldn't put something out unless we were 100 per cent happy with it, so it wasn't about being unconfident, but we do want other people to like what we do too.
But your music only becomes real when other people hear it?
Exactly. It's surreal before that, just a few people listening to it and no one else is aware of it at all. You're there getting your sound together, and all that time the musical landscape is changing, so it'd be a distraction to think about anything else. We're also still thinking in terms of albums, however old-fashioned that is, but it made it seem more real to us.
Is it finished?
Yes, it's done. We finished it at the end of May, in New York, and then we did a couple of gigs in July and August, just to remind ourselves what it was like to be on stage, and to get used to our new roles. I'm singing a lot more now than I did in Doves.
Can you describe the rest of the album?
We wanted to show how we'd grown, without trying to make it sound mature and reaching for the acoustic guitars, which I think some people associate with sounding mature. It's full of life and energetic, and we were conscious that we wanted to keep things electronic and maintain an element of freedom with how we arranged the songs.
It sounds like Doves without just being another Doves album
Yes, I think that's always going to happen. It's not Doves because Jimi's not there, but we're two thirds of Doves, so it's always going to have something in common, but if we're just going to try to make another Doves album there's no point. The flipside is that if we forced it to sound different, it'd just sound contrived. There's a very fine line to walk, but the main thing is we're excited.
What did you do after Doves played their last gig in 2010?
I wanted to get into a different sort of music, so I delved really into electronic music and started DJing and doing different things. Andy joined a 70s prog band for a bit, but then we gravitated towards each other again. He built a new studio at his house, so we started playing together, and we're twins, so we've been together a while, it's difficult to do anything separately. And with Doves, we just needed a break from it. We were in Sub Sub before that, then went straight into Doves, so it was a long time. We needed a break, like with a family. A dysfunctional family.
Black Rivers join Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds at the Capital FM Arena on March 6. Tickets are £39.20, £61.60 and £78.40 from the venue, call 0843 373 3000 or go to capitalfmarena.com. They also play The Bodega on Tuesday, February 10. Tickets are £10 and are on sale from the venue, 0845 413 4444 or alt-tickets.co.uk.
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