Bio: No ordinary side project, Magnetic Morning represents one of the more inspired collaborations in recent memory. The new duo are an uncanny hand-in-glove pairing of two alternarock heavyweights: Swervedriver (and ... (more)
Bio: No ordinary side project, Magnetic Morning represents one of the more inspired collaborations in recent memory. The new duo are an uncanny hand-in-glove pairing of two alternarock heavyweights: Swervedriver (and Toshack Highway) singer/guitarist/songwriter Adam Franklin and Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino. And beyond the sum of such impressive parts, their debut self-titled, five-song EP for DH Records is as mesmerizing as it is a different tack from their previous bodies of work.
Introduced over dinner at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village by longtime New York rock writer Jack Rabid of Big Takeover Magazine, the two hit it off in an immediate mutual admiration society that was bound to spill over into creative endeavor. Indeed, it had already been “love at first hear” for each other’s bands. Recalls Franklin, “When I first moved to New York [from Oxford, England, a decade ago] Interpol were one of the bands that everyone was talking about. I heard ‘NYC’ round someone's house in Jersey City and thought it was beautiful, psychedelic, and resigned — which is totally up my street! — and the latest in a long line of classic songs about the city.” Six years previously, Fogarino had had an equal epiphany: “Swervedriver blew me away at first listen! An old girlfriend had picked up a copy of [1991’s] Raise, and lent it to me. The moment when ‘I got it,’ I was in a car doing 75 MPH on the Florida turnpike! They were a melodic sonic blast, pure rock 'n’ roll, but not 'rawk' at all. They bypassed the crotch-grabbing, macho, simplicity more associated with big FM rock radio. At their base was an affinity for the Stooges, but with a respect for atmosphere. Now, to get the chance to write with Adam... is beyond mind-blowing."
After their momentous meeting, the two immediately began exchanging emails, and a collaboration swiftly formed. Song ideas and recordings whizzed back and forth, also via email, and recording became a certainty. For Fogarino, whose drumming goes back to feisty early ‘90s Miami post-punk greats Holy Terrors, it was a unique chance to step out as a writer. As he notes, “For the both of us, working together is the opposite of our norms. Adam is usually the main songwriter for whatever he's involved with. And I don't contribute all that much to the melodic side of Interpol, only in the ways it's colored, treated, and effected. But in the Magnetic Morning, I'm usually the one to bring forth a chord progression, or a melody that Adam will add to, musically, lyrically, and vocally." “That is very liberating for me,” admits Franklin. “Some of his chord sequences are out of this world! I then work on arrangement, words, and melodies and other sounds, and give it back to him and he'll add a few more twists.”
Oddly, after all that emailing, the two didn’t work together in person outside of demoing some tape loops and melodies at Interpol’s practice space, until they installed themselves in New York’s famed, Jimi Hendrix-built Electric Ladyland studios to record their finished tracks for the EP — with Claudius Mittendorfer, who engineered Interpol's latest LP, Our Love to Admire. “The tracking of guitar and drums for ‘The Way Love Used to Be’ was the first time Adam and I actually played 'live' together — and it was being recorded!” reveals Fogarino, still amazed. “It just simply blew me away. All that we could do was smile, it was so good.”
Indeed, the overall results are akin to the more laconic but beautiful moments of both musicians’ terrific catalogs, brought more to the fore. Like Franklin’s recent solo LP Bolts of Melody and older Swervedriver songs such as “She Weaves a Tender Trap” and “Cars Converge on Paris,” there is no rush in the lovingly laid back, piano-prettied “Yesterday’s Flowers” (which utilizes a similar metaphor as The Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers”) or the glistening music box-like riff that forms the basis for “Cold War Kids” (with its lyrical reference to David Bowie’s “Heroes”: “And we laughed as though nothing would fall”) as well as that song’s sonorous instrumental corollary — the light trip hop of “Cold War Kids (Get Claudius).” Meanwhile, “Don’t Go to Dream State” doesn’t take the advice of its title, recalling the halcyon early ‘90s dreampop wellspring that Swervedriver sprung from, with ghostly hovering glassine guitars and a neo-spaghetti western tint. Finally, the one up-tempo number is a smashing cover of The Kinks’ aforementioned “The Way Love Used to Be,” one of Ray Davies’s immortal yearning pop songs, from 1971’s underrated Percy. This is a truly modern update, in Swervedriver/Interpol mode.
Explains Franklin, “When we first worked together we had no real idea of what things would sound like or what direction it would take, but very quickly an overall sound and style aesthetic developed which I can't quite specify; but there's a kind of melancholic, reflective, walking-off-into-the-sunset side to it. I would say it takes in “Krautrock,” [1971 British Michael Caine crime film] “Get Carter,” [U.K. early ‘80s TV series] “Hammer House of Horror,” Christiane F, and The Kinks, of course.”
“I don’t mind/I’m leaving it all behind” sings Franklin on “Yesterday’s Flowers,” an apt feeling to describe this wonderful EP — one that builds on older ideas to provide a journey into soft and hazy psychedelia and involved, modern independent rock. And according to Fogarino, their future is assured, even with Swervedriver reforming for the first time since their 1998 demise —at last! — for a 2008 tour, and Interpol’s grueling world touring and recording schedule. “I want it to grow and morph while still remaining a safe place for Adam and I to retreat to," exclaims Fogarino.
It’s bound to leave its mark on all who hear it, both old fans and newly curious.
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