Tag Archives: 1993

Mancunian outfit is sporting a new sound and dress.

James is a band that just won’t lay down and die. After surviving almost 15 years in the business and constant line-up changes, the Mancunian collective known as James have come into their own.

Though 1992’s Seven provided them with a stadium-sized hit in Sit Down, guitarist/violinist Saul Davies explains his group’s latest work, Laid, “is a backlash against the way we recorded Seven – which was very precise.

“I would say, in a sense, Laid is a return to a more spontaneous way of recording and demonstrates the ‘fuck it’ attitude from us, really.”

On Laid, James have captured the element of spontaneity that Davies says he feels eluded them on Seven.

“All of the tracks on Laid are first or second takes they’re played live in the studio. There’s virtually no overdubs.”

The new approach to recording can in part be attributed to heavyweight producer Brian Eno (U2, Daniel Lanois), who was approached to produce the first James album in the mid-80’s.

“He made us really hyper-aware of the need for space in our music. He showed us hot not to be precious,” says Davies. “He helped us realize what the center of a song was, quickly – get to it quickly, record it quickly, do it quickly without getting too frantic and too tense about the whole process.”

As enthusiastic as James were about having Eno produce the album, Davies says they were still wary of handing control over to someone outside the band.

“It’s very difficult when you ask someone to get involved with your work to give them entirely free reign. You have a vision of what you want the music to sound like. If you’re afraid of that that person will take your music away from that, then you tend to clam up and try and deny them the possibility of doing what they really want to do.

“I think we all feel that we’ve never gotten the best out of our producers because of that feeling,” he says.

“But you can’t fuck Brian Eno around. He just has such a wonderful way of communication that you’re very happy to give him as much space as he wants. He makes himself very clear and he’s very logical minded. So he makes everything seem attractive to you and it would almost seem like folly not to follow his guidance.”

The open and brisk atmosphere they encountered with Eno resulted in a double album’s worth of improvised jam sessions that will be released in the new year.

The free-spiritedness of their work with Eno appears to have affected more than their music. Instead of using impenetrable album art or a picture that obscures the band from view, the cover of Laid features a shot of the band modeling women’s fashion.

“We were in Marseille doing a photo session. We just had this idea ‘Why don’t we take our girlfriends and wives dresses and try them on and see what happens. The Gendarmes were standing around watching us wondering whether they should arrest us.

“The bananas came in because it was an attempt to stop us from laughing – give us something to do with our mouths and we might get away with the shot.”

Though Freudians might attempt a psycho-sexual analysis of a photo that features six men wearing dresses and chomping on bananas, Davies insists the band was merely trying to have a little fun.

“I think we’ve appeared to po-faced for too many years – too serious. I think that shot shows a different side to us,” he says. “People have tried to read a serious message into it, but there isn’t one.”