December 2007 Archives

The Scaremongers – If You Ever Leave Me

Personnel:
Vocals: Armitage, Sue Roberts
Bass: Matt Brook
Keyboards: Nick Watts
The Rest: Smith
Engineer: Jason Salisbury
Mixed and Mastered: Steve Whitfield

Recorded at HD1 in Huddersfield, 17th-18th November 2007
Mixed: Chairworks, Castleford, 18th December 2007

Smith says:

I can't think of a full song that I've written since I put together the basics of If You Ever Leave Me, so as things stand this is the last song I ever wrote. As that was back in 2002, it doesn't bode well for The Scaremongers long-term welfare, not if it relies on me to instigate the songs.

It is perhaps the simplest to put write, even though I've tried to record it before on my own and failed. Armitage used the framework of my original lyric and ran with it, adding an extra chorus and a half, and writing the female vocal line. Recording was done in parallel with Less Is More at HD1 with Jason Salisbury and finished with Steve Whitfield at Chairworks. The arrangement I'd put together was a little bit too fussy, and some guitar lines needed stripping out. I need to remember to keep things simple. Matt Brook played simple, straight-forward bass, Nick Watts played simple, straight-forward organ, the vocals are simple and straight-forward, and there's nothing in the least bit complex about the drums. The only flourishes were guitar lines from the original demo I did at home, which weren't meant to stay but because we were running out of time and they did the job, we left them in rather than getting out my guitar and amp and re-recording them. Needs must, as they say.

Lyrics

If You Ever Leave Me

(She)
You're watching heaven can wait
I'm slipping out through the garden gate

(He)
If you ever leave me, you'll be sorry
In the movie in my head, you're traumatised
A door slams and it brings down all the scenery
Niagra comes cascading from your eyes

It'll be a lonely, lonely dawn that you awake to
The only, only person in a cold and stony time
With the tea leaves in the sink
you'll write a poem from the brink
But that won't break this bitter heart of mine

(She)
You're telling everyone everything's great
I'm halfway down the fire escape

(He)
If you ever leave me, you'll be sorry
You're weeping in the cafe where we met
Feeding at the trough of melancholy
Choking on the fishbones of regret

It'll be a lonely, lonely dawn that you awake to
The only, only person in a cold and stony time
With letters on the fridge
you'll write a poem from the edge
But that won't break this bitter heart of mine

It'll be a lonely, lonely dawn that you awake to
The only, only person in a cold and stony time
With anthacite and litter
write a letter from the landfill site
But that won't break this bitter heart of mine

With the airbag in your teeth
You'll give a sorry sounding speech
But that won't break this bitter heart of mine

The Scaremongers – Less is More

Personnel:
Vocals: Armitage, Sue Roberts
Guitar: Matt Brook
Keyboards: Nick Watts
The Rest: Smith
Engineer: Jason Salisbury
Mixed and Mastered: Steve Whitfield

Recorded at HD1 in Huddersfield, 17th-18th November 2007
Mixed: Chairworks, Castleford, 18th December 2007

Smith says:

I wrote the melody and chords for Less Is More in a room I was renting in Arthog Road, Didsbury, back when I was a student at Manchester Poly between 1986/7. One of my pals had mentioned that Easterhouse were the up and coming band in Manchester, and stopping in one night I wrote a song I was convinced was Easterhouse-esque, even though I hadn't even heard them at that juncture. (As it turned out, I went on to play in a band with a couple of ex-members of Easterhouse when I drummed for Lloyd Almighty, ten years later). The song sat in my back catalogue of unfinished clutter for 20 years, with a provisional title of I've Got a Promise On, till I thought it might be suitable for The Scaremongers.

I sent Armitage a rough draft of the tune with some deliberately crap lyrics. It has always had crap lyrics, even when I tried hard - often shamefully bad, occasionally magnificently bad, but the words I sent up to Yorkshire were bad by choice. The hook Less Is More was there, but I didn't expect it to stay. I was sure nothing would remain of my draft lyrics, but when Armitage sent it back, he'd picked the punchline 'less is more' and chucked the rest. He has a lovely way of tweaking the tune to really make it his own: the whole bit from 'Does nature make us what we are' to 'But then I see those clothes' was his invention, and the song is a lot better for it, in my opinion.

I drafted in a couple of pals for the recording. My guitar playing has improved a bit, but I needed someone else to fill in where I was struggling, so Matt Brook was kind enough to make one in. When The Scaremongers went into the studio for You Can Do Nothing Wrong and Nodding Dog, I hadn't had chance to sit down beforehand with Glen and Geoff, bass player and guitarist respectively, in order to teach them the songs. The poor boys were thrown in the deep end, having to learn the songs and their parts almost in the same moment as recording them. It's no way to record - it puts real pressure on the players, and though they coped admirably, we knew we couldn't do it that way again. So it really helped that Matt lives local to me in Streatham as we could rehearse before we went in. He played some of the lead lines toward the end of the song, as well as bass on If You Ever Leave Me.

The keyboards on You Can Do Nothing Wrong and Nodding Dog were all programmed, and while they didn't come out too bad, I wanted the real thing this time. There was only one choice: Nick Watts is the best musician I have played with, (and I've played with some beauties!) and he can switch between any number of styles - jazz, soul, classical, pop - at the drop of a hat. He can improvise, is happy to sit back if that's what the song requires, or can really let rip if needed. I played with him for several years in the Dez Lawrence Soul Explosion and when he plays organ, you'd think Booker T Jones was running through his blood. I hadn't seen Nick for a few years, so it was a great chance to reunite with him and catch up.

We recorded Less Is More along with If You Ever Leave Me at HD1 in Huddersfield with Jason Salisbury. As was the case with You Can Do Nothing Wrong and Nodding Dog, we weren't quite sure what we were after, and Jason did a stirling job trying help us discover it, but we only had two days, and by the time our time was up we hadn't quite found the mix we were after. We knew we'd need another day, so we thought we'd give a different studio and engineer a try. This is no criticism of Jason, who worked really hard for us and got us a long way down the road, but we're on a steep learning curve, and we're still looking for our ideal way of working.

We resumed at the Chairworks in Castleford with the freelance engineer Steve Whitfield. Chairworks is a new studio complex just off the M62, and I think it's going to prove to be an excellent facility when it's finished: it's very good as it is. And we really enjoyed working with Steve, too: there were a couple of parts we needed to add that our first session lacked - tambourine, a vocal line from the middle section - but otherwise it was a case of sitting back and letting him work, and seeing if we liked the results when he'd finished. And we did.

All we can do each time we record is make the recordings incrementally better than last time - we don't have unlimited sums to spend on unlimited time in a studio, so we have to be quick and bold, and learn from our mistakes - and I believe this time is overall better than our first time, sonically, just like the next things we record will sound better than these.

Lyrics

Less Is More

Go on, go out, I'll hit the couch
With Chateaux Neuf de Pape and Monster Munch

And while you're changing
My imagination kangeroos from hunch to hunch

In love, together and alone
I'd never claim possession of you, goodness knows
But you're the only decent thing I own
I hear those shoes and then I see those clothes

Less is more
Less is more
So what's the score?
Less is more
Less is more
So what's the score?

It's getting dark, it's getting late
When I consider how my light is spent
And killing me to sit here waiting
Contemplating what that outfit meant

In love, together and alone
I'd never claim possession of you, goodness knows
But you're the only decent thing I own
I hear those shoes and then I see those clothes

Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
And now you're heading for the door in a back-less dress
Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
You're one part leopard print and five parts flesh


I'm not a greedy man
I'm just a simple also-ran
So I'm familiar defeat
But in my heart I still believe

Does nature make us what we are?
And is there life beyond the stars?

It's coming dawn and in my brain
Your naked shoulders are as cold as meat

The vultures circle, homing in
Down at the sorry end of Stag Night Street

Does nature make us what we are?
No one knows
And is there life beyond the stars?
No one knows
And who're you cooing with, my dove?
No one knows
And do I trust you with our love?
I suppose
But then I see those clothes

Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
And now you're heading for the door in a back-less dress
Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
You're one part leopard print and five parts flesh
Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
Get back upstairs, put on a polo neck
Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
So what's the score?