An Interview with Exit Calm's Nicky Smith

First Single from the new album is released on 18^th February; when is the album due for release and how did you choose ‘The Rapture’ to be the lead single?

The Album will be out in the summer. We don't have an exact date yet, but it has been two years in the making so an extra couple of months won’t do any harm. We can still be quietly confident for the time being. 

The Rapture was an obvious choice because it is a powerful tune and we needed to come back with a BANG. Fundamentalist Christians have been banging on about our comeback single for hundreds of years as well, so we couldn't let them down. 

Was there a different approach to recording the second album and were there any surprises during the recording this time around?

The tunes that appear more 'song based' have had a bit of fat chopped off before even getting to the studio, where as with the debut the fat was left on. I imagined this record to have more contrast. I hoped that if a song was going to be about hooks and choruses, then it is straight in and ending within four minutes. Like if a song seemed like a single then let it be one.

Then on the other side - if a tune is more sound based, about layers and it’s own journey. Then let that go on for however long it wants to. I visualised an album with tunes on for ten minutes and some on for three. But if I am honest it hasn't happened. It only has in theory, rather than length of each tune. 

How do you go about creating your music, what is the writing process and are there any particular stories behind the songs on the new record, that you would like to share?

If I told you that the song 'open your sky' is about a man who was betrayed by a witch. So he goes out into the unknown, takes the oath of the abyss and then learns as much magick as he can, in order to defeat her at her own game with a musical Sigil. Wouldn’t that spoil it for you? I think it would.

I think sometimes I am not even sure what my lyrics are about because I have spoken to fans who have a completely different understanding of them. No matter how concrete an idea it is in my head while singing them and writing them. So on that basis I don’t think I will ever ruin it for the listener.

What do you hope people hear in the new album and where do you hope the album takes you as a band?

I hope people still hear whatever they loved in the debut. I don’t think it is that far removed, but I think the reactions will be a mixed bag of
old fans being divided by the way it is produced. But we have already made the first record and that sounded a particular way. This is the
second.  It is as simple as that. I would hope it takes us to a wider audience. Literally - I hope it takes us to America!  

Do you ever swap instruments?

I watched Simon attempt a Doves song on Scott’s kit the other week. He is a bit like Steve White, but crap. Better than me though! Rob cant
play either.. So no drum swapping. No one is allowed to go near Rob's guitars or amps or his face goes red and he starts swearing in Geordie. Anyway we are far too serious a band. Too busy channelling our angst, no time for instrument swapping!

What was the record that blew you away in your schooldays that you still play today?

In 1996 I heard Endtroducing. That was the first time I had heard drums used as a lead instrument. I think that was revolutionary at the time but since then so many things copied DJ shdow, that now even though it’s still a pretty good record. It doesn’t carry the same weight as it did then. So I would have to say the obvious.. The La's, The Stone Roses, A Northern Soul and Definitely Maybe. They were my 'school/college' albums. Actually scrap that I don’t listen to them at all anymore. ‘Revolver’. 

If you could tour with any other band, who would it be and why?

The Roses, Verve or Oasis. For me, that would just be a dream seen as it was those bands that started this whole journey for me.. But I can’t speak for them three. They will probably come up with some obscure act from America that no ones heard of. Seven percent solution!

What is it it like making a music video, just like being in Hollywood?

Never been to Hollywood. The only thing I don’t like about doing a video is the Director says all this bull shit to you when you are doing it and then turns it into a project he’s being dying to make for ages... I like lo-fi videos. Super 8 and mad footage edited together. That’s my thing. But I’m not a Music Video Director. The worst one was Higher Learning! He told us it was going to be a live video, then we got there and he said build a fire and stand in the rain. So we are all pissing ourselves on every shot reluctantly doing it because wed drove all the way to Glasgow and loads of people had turned up to help. We threatened to remove our music from it but it still ended up going on You tube... There isn't a lot you can do these days. Once something is out there, then it is out there.  

Who controls the CD player in the tour van and what are the popular
tunes?

CD Player? One of those tape to mp3 cables comes in handy. I destroyed our old van accidentally and along with it all my Dylan albums that I was hammering at the time. God knows what else.. Generally were all into the same stuff anyway. So there aren’t any fights over which Unkle album to have on. Now a days people listen to their own ipods. I have been listening to Blue Angel Lounge, Tamaryn, Temples, Allah Las, Hookworms and DIIV. Scott  - Jake Bugg, Charlatans and Soulsavers.  Simon - Ren Harvieu, Echoboy, Acid house hacienda 3. Rob - Jagwar ma, Magazine, Killing Joke and PIL..

Who designed the Artwork for the Single and Album to come?

Jamie Briggs. He did the cover for Hearts and Minds and Don't look down from our debut. The ideas come from different places though. I have always liked playing with type, I made the lyric block in the first album sleeve and like that Happy Mondays logo Peter Saville designed, where the letters are in different colours. Simon got into an artist called Alighiero Boetti and found some big tapestries that he had done. So we were er.. 'Influenced' by those ideas. Generally Simon has been the art director though, and then Jamie Briggs works his magic.ps. nothing to do with this! 

Any festival dates planned for the summer after the UK dates and, is there any place that you would most like to play, that you haven't got to yet?

Festival dates are in the pipeline. Think the only one confirmed this early is Mosborough festival in Sheffield..I would absolutely love to play America. To tour it for a month would be a dream. Austin Psych Festival - The Black Angels one. That would be a great start!!

Is it music 24/7 or is there downtime and if so, how do you spend it?

Simon likes to play golf pissed up, Scott and I can relax over a few frames of Snooker and Rob goes fishing on his own while sniffing glue. But we always listen to music while were in R & R.

 The Rapture is available HERE in limited edition coloured vinyl and UK Tour dates are HERE