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nicoscheer · 1 year ago

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The Last Shadow Puppets play Tough Choices with Dutch magazine OOR

THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS: Tough Choices

Cackling comes our way, over the Herengracht: Alex Turner and Miles Kane, together The Last Shadow Puppets, are smoking a cigarette in front of the door of their hotel after three-quarters of their press day are over. Heatedly, they’re whispering and smoking they work their way towards another fit of laughter, and though no one understands their inside jokes, they’re having the greatest fun together. Their second album together, Everything You’ve Come To Expect is every reason: eight years after The Age Of The Understatement this record was also recorded with James Ford (producer, drums) and Owen Pallet (stringarrangements), this time in their hometown Los Angeles. Their show in Paradiso sold out within a minute, earlier that day, and Lowlands is also in their planning. With half an hour on the clock, OOR announces their prescence to the duo, who giggle and gawk at Dutch tabloids. With the segment ‘Tough Choices’ in mind, we open (an old OOR magazine) at the page of October 20, 2008, back to the back terrace of Paradiso, where they did OOR’s Listening Test.

Boys or men?

Alex, who’s flipping through an old OOR-article with wide eyes: Look at these boys! Aah…

Miles: Yes, they’re boys, aren’t they? I mean: we. That’s us, just, in a previous life.

That’s 8 years ago, now. You’ve changed a lot from the looks of it.

Miles: A lot has happened in those 8 years

Alex: So much so that we didn’t have time to make another record.

What has changed and what stayed the same?

Alex: We’re still making music together, and since we began, that goes like this: We sit down. Miles has a musical idea. That releases a lyric in me, or a melody. It also works the other way around. That’s how we ping-pong along. What’s changed now is that we experimented with the sound itself. The harmonies, for example, we didn’t do that that much before.

Miles: Yes, out voices are now really our voices. We found that in the time between the two records and dare to use it more.

Alex: We have a very different view of ourselves, and that changes your writing. We’re more aware of what we’re capabale of. Look at that photo, look at Miles and me. We’re no longer boys…

Miles: No more moptops, but…

Both, at the same time: Real men!

Alex: These photos, were they made especially for this?

Yes, outside of Paradiso, the afternoon before your concert.

Alex: Do I remember that? Maybe I remember that…

Miles: I don’t. While this shows I was definitely there.

Miles was looking for a shoemaker that afternoon, Alex would rather visit the record shop across the street.

Alex: Yes, I bought LP’s there, of old Dutch acts [The article catches his eye] Shocking Blue, man! And something with… [searches in the article] 1850! Wow, I still have those somewhere. The store was called Record Parade, or something like that. It’s probably gone by now.

On the contrary, it’s called Record Palace and it’s still there, across from Paradiso.

Alex: That’s great for that record store! I think that if you survived the whole downfall, you’ll continue to make it through.

Miles: What kind of piece is this, actually? What were we doing? It isn’t our playlist, there’s names there I don’t recognize. The Beach Boys’ In My Room? I would never choose anything from Coldplay.

Alex: We had to recognize songs and give them commentary. I also see The Walker Brothers there. Didn’t quite make it yet with his first record, Scott Walker.

The Walker Brothers or Burt Bacharach?

Alex: The first one. We got all kinds of frameworks thrown our way, but Scott Walker really was the artist who brought Miles and me together musically, who we really bonded over.

Miles: Everyone talked to us about that, and we ran with that most of the time. Of course there was a lot more to our music then that, but it was easy for us to keep saying: “Yeah, Scott Walker, that’s it, you heard that correctly.” Then were done getting asked about it, haha!

Alex: We now know that our first record became the Scott Walker-record because of that – something that isn’t entirely untrue. I like the fact that people associate this album with all kinds of different influences, because we had all kinds of influences. They came little by little. You can’t put your finger on it, which is nice. So now we leave it at that: Everything you hear in it is correct. There isn’t one influence that dominates this album.

Miles: We hear all kinds of different suggestions these days, from old soul boys to The Style Council to psychedelic. All correct!

Which record connects you these days?

Miles: At the moment we can really appreciate To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar.

Alex: About the influence on this record, people who say ‘Isaac Hayes’ aren’t far off. Black Moses by Isaac Hayes is probably the last album I listened to from start to finish. And we go crazy over Inner City Blues by Marvin Gaye.

Beatles or Beach Boys?

Miles: Beatles, right?

Alex: For me as well. Nothing can compare to that, both in terms of impact and on a substantive level. Though we also got into The Beach Boys, a little. They weren’t as good on their first record. I keep doubting if they’re a direct influence.

If you compare this record and the things they recorded in the period surrounding Pet Sounds to each other you’ll hear diverse and detailed music with strings and bells and whistles in both cases.

Alex: Can’t deny that. Though with them everything started big, in Brian Wilson’s head. We still begin with melodies and a guitar and build from that. The Beach Boys were guys from LA, where we live and work as well. Maybe the comparison is more due to the surrounding than due to a musical link.

Miles: In the title track you hear a reference to The Beach Boys. There’s a lot of references in that song, also to The Beatles.

You name Honey Pie – in one breath with Piggy In The Middle, a classic by The Rutles.

Alex: That… Is a coincidence.

Miles: Unintentional

Alex: Didn’t even think of it, really. See, there’s more to it then you think. From now on it’s a Rutles-reference, haha.

LA or UK?

Alex: I’d actually like to add something to what I said before, those similarities with The Beach Boys. I mean more possibilities of the city, not like: “Wow, the sun, the beach, the waves, there we go, inspiration.” This isn’t an outspoken LA record.

Miles: You have everything you need and know to make a nice album. Studios, personnel, and we were able to work with James and Owen in one room, in Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studio’s. Sounds like it’s quite something, but it was normal there.

Alex: A really nice work environment. Also a nice environment to live, we both live in LA now and we feel great there. I wouldn’t want to lose what I have there.

How important is England to you at the moment?

Alex: As important as always. Me saying that I think America is beautiful doesn’t take away from the place where I grew up. We were there for a whole a few months ago, around the holidays. That’s also wonderful. Go to the pub and score a pint and some chips.

Is that the first thing you do when you’re back in England?

Alex: The first thing I do, and I’ve been doing that for doing for years, is: put the kettle on, put Sky Sports on and lie down on the couch and do nothing.

Miles: You do miss little things. Meet up with friends and family. I choose LA over UK as well, in the knowledge that that doesn’t make your roots disappear. And I can still watch soccer. At least… I could…. I have the best subscription and I’ve only seen one match. And I couldn’t even finish watching it.

Van Gaal of Hiddink?

Alex: Ah, the Dutchmen… for how long will they be around?

Miles: They aren’t with Liverpool, are they? That’s my club. Outside of that, I don’t know much about it.

Alex: Van Gaal has been under fire at Manchester United for months. And Hiddink has to save Chelsea after the Mourinho debacle. What to say… I’m a Sheffield Wednesday supporter. I have a pretty good idea of who Van Gaal is. I don’t know enough about Hiddink.

Palm trees or snow?

Miles: Palm trees

Alex: Yeah, the palm trees…

In The Dream Synopsis the palm trees are in Sheffield and the snow is in LA.

Alex: Yes, haha… Wonder what that means!

Miles: That in a dream world things can take each other’s place?

Alex: Why snow in LA? Stating that palm trees grow in Los Angeles isn’t interesting enough to write a melody to.

Would it have been interesting enough ten years ago, snow on the streets in Sheffield?

Alex: Maybe if there was a story to it… I was a lot more realistic about what I wrote, then, I assume that’s what you mean? I lived in Sheffield, and I wrote about what I saw there, sometimes with a twist, but it came from real things. After the first Arctic Monkeys album, that well dried up and slowly I became a bit more cryptic and less precise. It was a conscious decision. Maybe I noticed the same things but wrote them down differently. That gave me a lot of freedom and I found something new to fuel my song writing. And then the world around me changed and got bigger and bigger. Not only the way I wrote changed, but the things around me changed as well.

And so you went from living in Sheffield to dreaming about Sheffield?

Alex: The first Shadow Puppets album was also an important piece in that change. Only then did I get the idea I could let go of reality completely. With Arctic Monkeys there was already a sort of blueprint of our music, even though I tried to start over for myself. The Last Shadow Puppets was completely new, I could start fresh. That was very liberating, and it’s very liberating again, this time.

Ike or Tina?

Alex: Tina, of course.

Miles: She’s the dancing woman on our album cover. Alex found the photo somewhere and thought it would make a good album cover.

Alex: I saw it years ago, way before we started making this record and I knew it would make a beautiful cover. It’s an old photo from the ‘60s. We also had a vintage modelling photo as the cover of our first album. So, this represents Volume Two. The image spoke to me for that reason, outside of the fact that it’s Tina Turner. We didn’t want to give it away, but the genie was out of the bottle pretty quickly. Personally, I don’t think the photo is very well known.

So a Turner on the cover, but no Kane…

Miles: Exactly! We’ll Photoshop a cane in before the album comes out.

Alex: Even though you spell that differently…

Miles: Still, we could do it, just put a cane in? Sounds like fun!

French or Spanish?

Miles: I’m not good at both. There’s a lot of Spanish in Los Angeles, but I can’t make sense of it. [Starts to speak in a posh English accent] French, then, only because we made an album there.

Alex, equally as posh: The French countryside is just beautiful. They’re usually very good to us, when we cross it with our respective rock & roll-spectacles.

Miles: Gainsbourg is well-known in the studio. You’ve been reading Gainsbourg again, haven’t you?

Alex: Absolutely. Old Bourg-interviews, it doesn’t get better than that.

Miles: I can’t leave you alone for five minutes or you’re back on the internet, searching for Bourg–interviews. What is to become of you, young man?

So: French.

Alex, normal again: Yeah, of course it isn’t all about Gainsbourg, but it remains a fascinating figure. But now I’m a little better at French than I was when we recorded the first album. A little.

There are even a few French sentences in the lyrics of this album

Alex: Well hidden.

Miles: And to up the reference count you can add Gainsbourg to my list.

Do you know the sentence that earned Gainsbourg worldwide fame and a place in pop culture?

Alex: Oh, yeah. With Whitney Houston. What did he say again?

He said: I want to fuck her.

Miles: What?

Alex: Gainsbourg, an old man, was on some kind of talkshow with Whitney Houston and he was a little, eh, bold. For decades the man wrote the most beautiful things and among a lot of people who don’t know him well that one sentence was what he was known for.

Miles: I’m shocked. And Whitney, was she upset?

Alex: Quite. I can look up the video sometime.

Miles, posh again: And there you go again, looking for Bourg-interviews on the internet!

Ziggy Stardust or The Thin White Duke?

Miles: The Thin White Duke was a period we studied a lot. We also listened to Young Americans a lot, something that just falls within that period, I think. Right is a great song. Wasn’t he in LA as well, then? It’s all coming together quite nice this way.

Alex: Bowie has always been present within The Last Shadow Puppets. Ziggy Stardust is definitely there in spirit on the first record, and now for a longer time, with Young Americans. Another record we both liked around the same time.

Do a lot of people ask about Bowie these days?

Alex: Yes. We once recorded a song of his [In The Heat Of The Morning as a b-side for the single The Age Of The Understatement] There’s references to him in Everything You’ve Come To Expect as well.

Besides the diamond dog, there’s also a Bowie-reference in Aviation, right? Sectoral heterochromia?

Alex: Hehe, that’s what people say now, though Bowie is the most famous person to have two eye-colours. That reference was only half-conscious.

Miles: But wasn’t it different with Bowie? They didn’t prove he was born with heterochromia. It’s also said it was an accident, or even another disease?

Alex: Maybe it was on purpose. Or fake. If someone would come up with something like that and execute it, it would be him.

Star Wars or Spectre?

Miles: Spectre! Great movie, man. Bond. I love Bond. Although I must admit I haven’t seen Star Wars yet.

Alex: I’m probably the only person on the planet but… I pick Star Wars. The idea that George Lucas had already planned this in the ‘70s, a triple trilogy, spread out over several years, really speaks to me.

Is it true that the Last Shadow Puppets’ releases will also be a trilogy?

Alex: Absolutely, and this is the second episode. No idea when we’ll release the third one, though. Maybe we’ve already written it, maybe we’ll start all over. It could take years, but that wasn’t bad for Star Wars either, right?

X-Men or Avengers?

Miles: X-Men, absolutely. I’ve been a fan of X-Men since I was young.

With which superheroes would you compare each other?

Alex: Miles is, without a doubt, Wolverine. Wolverine is a style icon to him. I see similarities. Miles always follows his instinct. And he’s capable of fixing things that are broken, whether it’s material or emotional damage, in no time.

Miles: Alex often reminds me of Gambit. He can change something insignificant into something explosive. He’s very aware of everything that happens around him, something that balances him out. And he can read my mind.

Alex: But you can read mine, too.

Miles: I knew you were gonna say that.

Alex: And I knew you were gonna say that.

Miles: Even if we aren’t writing half a word is enough. We can finish each other’s sentences sometimes and if we focus on it, we can take it to a much deeper level. That’s pretty unique. My thinking process is pretty abstract and a lot of people don’t know what to do with that. Alex understands me like no other.

Alex: I decipher his thoughts and organize them. When Miles bursts, the ideas come flying. Someone who knows him well might be able to filter out the good ideas. But usually, he only has good ideas and it’s up to me to catch everything. That’s my job within this duo. That process releases all kinds of stuff within me, causing me to go into certain directions I would never take on my own.

Miles: We understand each other like no other and keep each other going. We both have strange ideas and we need the presence of the other to make sense of them.

Studio or stage?

Alex: With the first record eight years ago, it was mostly a studio project. We made songs, made them into something fantastic and once bother to take into consideration how we were going to play them live. Eventually, that didn’t happen, but thinking of how to do that wasn’t easy. We wanted a band, and an orchestra of twenty people, but what would we be left with? The artistic element won and we took the whole thing on tour. The result was amazing – and a hassle. I can’t really tell you how we’re gonna do it this time but… tour is booked…

Paradiso sold out within a minute this morning!

Alex: I heard. And now I still think: “Wow! That’s quite something!” On the other side it does put more pressure on us. This album was made with the same mind-set as the last one: Write songs, make them into something fantastic and record them as well as possible. This time we knew we’d go on the road, although we never once let that lead us. It’s all about the record. I wouldn’t label The Last Shadow Puppets as a side project. It’s, above anything, a collaboration between two mates. We have it good, together. And we’ll see where we end up

I feel like, as a fandom, we collectively forget about this moment, and I’m here to remind everyone it exists and it happened.

Miles: I LOVE IT

Alex: YOU got old and wrinkled…

Miles: Shavambacuuuuu (🥺)

Alex: *giggles* … I stayed seventeen

Miles: Just youuuuu

Alex: You lusted after so many… *moves right in front of Miles* I stayed here with Wolverine (🥺)

Both: *stare longingly at each other*

Like???

#Milex #Alex little chuckle after that heartfelt Shavambacu #his wolverine?? his gambit?? that one interview?? shavambacu???#Alex turner #miles kane #tlsp #miles only saw one football match and couldn’t even finish (wonder what little minx decided to have enough of just lying on the couch with #sky sport)#miles enthusiastic about adding a cane to the album cover and Alex reminding him that that’s another word and not Kane #me googling tlsp interviews and videos the way Alex googles Gainsborough #adore how Miles knows that Alex is obsessed with Gainsborough but himself has no clue about anything from him so sweet #also my phone just corrected Miles to smiles 🥹#adore how miles hasn’t seen Star Wars #love how he calls their songs fantastic #he wouldn’t label tlsp just as a side project 🫂#interview #what if Alex told Miles je t’aime beaucoup back in France 2008 so when miles sings it came to him in a dream he’s saying that those weeks #in the rural French countryside with Alex were a dream #x-men #gambit& Wolverine

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