#parachutes era

[abrandnewshadow]

upset 10/2017

"WHEN I WAS 13, THAT WAS MY PLAN GOING TO MAKE A RECORD WITH STEVE ALBINI"

FRANK IERO'S NEW EP SEES HIM TEAM UP WITH STEVE ALBINI, AND AN UNEXPECTED 4 GUEST - HIS FIVE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, LILY. WORDS: HEATHER MCDAID.

FRANK IERO & THE PATIENCE

KEEP THE COFFINS COMING EP

'Keep The Coffins Coming' is a glimpse at the time between 'stomachaches' and 'Parachutes',

where Frank lero and the cellabration- x-Patience worked out where they were going next. As the band now approach the post-Parachutes crossroads of 'Where next?, it feels the fitting time to release this snapshot. 'I'm A Mess' is rougher and raw around the edges, a fledgeling version of the song that would be streamlined for the upcoming album. It's got the Steve Albini touch of capturing the vibe of a room - like the basement jam version, the live version. 'Best Friends Forever' came to life years ago with Frank's kids in tow, helping with the writing and dare we say stealing the show in

the video, and here it evolves into the full band version. 'No Fun Club' leaps off with some of the 'Danger Days' swagger and Frank yells and shifts gears into the punk revelry he excels in. 'You Are My Sunshine' is sickeningly chirpy at the best of times, but put the lero twist on it, and it becomes a mellow, stripped back version of itself to close proceedings.

The EP saw Frank and co. pondering their future; it was never about perfection, but capturing a snapshot in the band's lives and a rare opportunity to work with their idols. Rarely do you see the middle step between albums, you just see the endgame transformation. But here it is - the unapologetic, raw and eclectic bridge of Frank lero's solo work, the bones of what the band moved on to be.

Heather McDaid

Frank lero knows one or two things about ticking items off the ol' bucket list. In his time with My Chemical Romance, he played a sold out Madison Square Gardens, appeared on Saturday Night Live, and headlined Reading & Leeds. He has more plaques than he knows what to do with, and that's just for starters.

"I've been extremely fortunate in the things that I've gotten to do and the bands I've gotten to play with," says Frank. "We crossed off quite a few of those bucket list opportunities with My Chem and now to be able to do that too with my solo career is unbelievable."

This latest item to be scored off the list is to work with the iconic producer Steve Albini, who produced Nirvana's final album 'In Utero, on his EP 'Keep The Coffins Coming: The obvious place to start is, how exactly do you react when you get a call saying that you're off to work with someone like Steve? "It's weird, man" laughs Frank. "I was in the middle of writing and trying to figure out the next record. My manager Paul asked for bucket list stuff, people I'd always wanted to work with. Steve was always at the top of that list."

"When I got the call that he wanted to work with us and we were booked it was like-" he bursts out laughing "-I don't think I was able to wipe the smile off my face. I'd been wanting to work with him from, jeez, like '94. When I was 13, that was my plan, I'm going to make a record with Steve Albini, I don't care how it happens, but that was the dream record to make.

"His records sound so visceral. Never before did I put on a record where I felt like I was in the room. He really is hands off in that he wants to capture the band's sound. It's a special thing, like visiting a museum and getting to be in a room with some of your favourite bands and listening to some of your favourite records. Take 'In Utero' for example, those sounds and performances are straight up what was played in that room, there's no bells and whistles or crazy magic behind the scenes. It's all about the way he likes it and the way he records it."

That was the magic Frank was excited to capture. "I kept thinking on the trip out to Chicago as I'm driving, 'Oh, man, I'm going to get the call any moment that this was a hoax and it's not going to happen!"

But it did happen, and at an interesting

FRANK IERO & THE PATIENCE

time too. Sitting between albums, Steve captured the time in Frank's career between his first solo record and the second, when he was still unsure what it was going to become. video features their vocals and adorable balaclava-clad appearances, and now it's a full-band song produced by the legendary Albini.

"They are adorable," he laughs. "Lily is the one that actually wrote the chorus to that song. Whenever she and any of the other kids would fight, she would passive aggressively stick this thing in their face, this best friends forever song and it really started with 'Best friends forever but not now. She was just like screaming at them to let them know that she was very, very upset with them." The EP is made up of four songs, one of which made the cut for the subsequent album. "I had written a couple of songs that I knew I wanted to be on the album, but I didn't know exactly what 'Parachutes' was just yet," he explains. "One of the songs was 'I'm A Mess. It might have ended up just being a standalone track, but I wanted to bring that in regardless. I knew I wanted to bring in a whole band version of the song 'Best Friends Forever' and also 'No Fun Club. I had been toying with that, and I really needed to get it out of my head. When that started to take shape, I knew that it could work as a standalone release.

"I DIDN'T KNOW IF THESE SONGS WERE EVER GOING TO SEE

THE LIGHT OF DAY." FRANK IERO

"My way of dealing with that was to take this song and make it into something. We all sat down in a circle with my guitar one day and figured out what the chording would be, wrote the rest of the song and recorded it in my basement.

I thought it would be really fun to release it and whatever profits came in can go into their college funds. I started to really listen to the structure of the song and realised, man, I can play this live, and they would get a kick out of it whenever they saw I played the song and kids sang along. I put together a full band version and thought it'd be cool to have the original version - like I did with 'Mess' - with the kids on it, and now you have this full band Steve Albini version.

That's the other thing too, a bucket list: I'm going to go in the studio with Steve Albini, someone I've wanted to record with ever since I was a young kid getting into music and punk rock and playing in bands. That mirrors my kids being young, writing songs. How cool is that? She released her first single and video at five, and I took that song and recorded it with a legendary engineer and producer. That's crazy. I knew that song needed to be done that day.

Basically what you're hearing is a stop gap where the band transforms from where we were at the end of touring 'stomachaches' and right before we really fully realised the 'Parachutes' record. That time for me is almost like this lost in translation moment. There was definitely this bridging gap between those two records - this is that hidden step. It's interesting because as a listener, you never see that step. You hear album one. wait while your favourite bands are in the studio, then hear the final step in the evolution to album two.

Exactly! Here's the thing, when we went in the studio, I didn't know I was going to record an EP. I just wanted to record these songs, whether it was just for me or not I'd be happy with it. I didn't know if these were ever going to see the light of day, it was something I needed to do."

'Keep The Coffins Coming' is a snapshot in time. It captures an opportunity beyond

Frank's wildest dreams, a crossroads where he pondered the next step, and a gift to his kids in various forms. Right now, he sits between album two and three. The question is, where next? Whether or not there'll be the chance to see the next stop gap for this particular era, we sure are excited about the upcoming ride.

An interesting side-effect of the process was double-recording songs. Frank wrestled for a while comparing the two versions of 'I'm A Mess' but ultimately grew to see they fit perfectly in their own respective worlds as two different versions. Seeing that evolution in songs is something he was also able to gift his children by including their collaborative song 'Best Friends Forever.

Frank lero And The Patience's EP 'Keep The Coffins Coming' is out 22nd September.

[cherrylng]

Chris Martin interview - Coldplay [ROCKIN'ON (September 2000)]

“The mission of our generation of guitar bands is…… I guess it's to write new inspirations that only our generation can write.”

A sane gaze quietly penetrating the madness of the times, and melodies of sadness. Coldplay, the rising star of UK guitar bands, shining blue and strong.

Interview: Yoichiro Yamazaki / Interpreter: Yukiko Kojima / Photography: Tom Sheehan

A band that can only be described as a very British British guitar band, no matter where you take them. In other words, are they a band who can only cater to their fans…… Despite harbouring reservations, I still think that this is a good thing! Coldplay's singles warm the heart, and they've made a commitment to push things with their producer in-charge when it comes to their album. Their debut album, Parachutes, was completed, and we were convinced that this band was good! After completing the interview (which wasn't very exciting……), and were about to come to Summer Sonic, they easily won first place in the UK. Until then, core listeners had been asking "Are they followers of Radiohead and Jeff Buckley?", but suddenly they were labelled by everyone as "Post-Travis!". Well, it's a bit of a mixed feeling. I understand that Travis is really royalty in the UK today, but it's sad that Coldplay are only mentioned in that vein.

You could say they are the same in terms of melancholic melodies and introspective lyrics, presented in a clean, flowing guitar-rock style. However, Coldplay delivers to the listener the rough coldness of their sound, the shimmer of their voice, and the resonance of each note of their instruments, and you get the sense that they are artists who bet everything on the communication that they create. It's not unlike the current Travis mode, which is all about writing good songs and having that pop feel. Anyway, it's hard to believe that this is a debut album, it's so deep and beautiful.

● It's so deep and rich that it's hard to believe it's a debut album. Are you happy with how it turned out? 「It's not really the right day to answer that question.」

● (laughs) Huh? What happened from the start? 「I'm in a terrible dilemma. I'm alternating between days when I'm extremely confident and days when I'm extremely anxious. And today is the latter (shrugs uncomfortably and chuckles). It's our first international press day.」

● However, your songs are full of the ‘naïve melancholy’ that is often associated with British bands, but I get the impression that they are very powerful and liberating to listen to. Why is this? 「…… (after some thought) Maybe it's because our melancholia itself is ultimately about being liberated from it? Most of the bands we like tend to express themselves through that kind of seemingly melancholic mechanism of overcoming melancholia by singing about it. I think we are definitely that type of expressionist.」

● What bands/artists influence you? 「Personally, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Björk, Blur, Stone Roses, Tom Waits, Nick Drake, Ennio Morricone, Eminem… the list goes on and on.」

● I feel that the feeling of alienation, “You don't see me”, and the passion, “I still think about you so much”, coexist in your music and lyrics at the edge of the tension. 「Yes…… I would say that my emotional ups and downs are pretty intense. As I said before, even this debut album, which we spent months making with our whole heart and soul, has a totally different evaluation depending on the day…… But when it comes to our music, we really want people to feel the sincerity and passion in our songs, rather than the ambiguous toggling between certainty and uncertainty. For example, the sincerity that is juxtaposed with a quiet passion, as REM does in “Automatic for the People,” and the passion that comes through in most of the Flaming Lips' songs because of that sincerity…… To translate that kind of passion into sound is our goal right now.」

● So, you've seen the history of British pop music, which has produced many great guitar bands and many boring guitar bands. What do you think is the significance of your new step into the history of pop music? 「Hmmm…… (after thinking for a while with a serious face) I think the mission of our generation of guitar bands is to write songs that only our generation can write, songs based on new inspirations that previous generations have not written, and to contribute as many of those songs as possible. We know that we are not doing anything new in terms of sound. That's why I think it's important to preserve as many songs as possible that can only be written by this generation.」

● Despite your efforts, people are already talking about you being “Radiohead followers” and “the second coming of Jeff Buckley,” how do you respond to that? 「I have very mixed feelings about being called that, to be honest. We like and respect Radiohead and Jeff Buckley a lot, so we feel proud to be compared to them, but at the same time, we suddenly start to wonder if the similarity means that our uniqueness has not yet emerged. I suddenly start worrying about it. On days when I'm in a bad mood, it really pisses me off.」

● …….Anyway, I think the band will continue to be misunderstood and unfairly evaluated in many ways, but I hope that your unparalleled songwriting and exquisite band ensemble will soon be accepted straight away by everyone. 「Thank you. What we would like is for the public to pay more attention to the band's musicianship first.」

Translator's Note: This was a very short interview that only had 8 questions and barely covered a whole page. But at the same time, it took a lot more effort than usual to get it translated via machine translation because of the way the article was written.

On that note, I've finally decided to set up my Ko-fi account for you guys to give me tips for the effort taken to get these translated articles for you all to read.

Do support me on my Ko-fi!

[agentdatsunford]

Coldplay in Bigger Stronger/Spies

[dlstmxkakwldrlarchive]

240824 Waterbomb Suwon 2024

— No Parachute (Short Ver.)

[omg-hellgirl]

After all their fights and reconciliations, Anita blamed herself for not being the one to catch Brian when he fell, the one to pull out his inhaler, the one to turn him on his side to keep from choking in his sleep. Survivors’ guilt hit her hard.

Elizabeth Winder, Parachute Women: The Women Behind the Rolling Stones.

[delicateheartache]

[realspaceships]

Russia's Other Space Shuttle: VTOL MTKVA

[theworldatwar]

A British Army, 4th Parachute Regiment 3 inch mortar crew swings in to action - Venafro Commune, Italy, May 1944

[aq2003]

this is what the twelve tierlist is looking like rn

[dykehaus]

not to make a polarizing statement but this

reminds me so much of this

and it's been bugging me for weeks trying to figure out what song i was thinking of.

[abrandnewshadow]

2016-2018 parachutes era flyers

x x x x x x x x x x

[cherrylng]

Upcoming Victories UK ‘00 - Coldplay Interview [BUZZ (November 2000)]

“I'm like, why do I have to answer that? People say it's boring and too sincere, but we're just a band that wants to sing and play songs!”

Chris finally explodes. The huge sales in the blink of an eye, the pressure and frustration of "Best New Band in the UK" falling like a torrential downpour, and why we in the press, more than anyone else, are tinkering with Coldplay, the most unconscious miracle harmony of anyone.

Photograph by Shoko Ishikawa Text by Shino Kokawa Interpretation by Erica Yamashita

"It's getting to the point where it's out of our control…… The least we can do is just keep writing good songs and playing them as well as we can. I really don't know what else is going on." In an interview in the September issue, Chris expressed his bewilderment at the situation surrounding them. Coldplay's debut album "Parachutes" debuted at number one in the UK and they were reverently awarded the title of "Best New Band in the UK". They were thrust into a huge number of microphones. Immediately, the "New Sensitive Rock" scene was launched and made its banner.

Two months have passed since then. "Chris won't be doing interviews for a while. He is on the verge of declining all interviews." It was the night before the interview that the record company informed us of this. The next day, the three members excluding Chris regrouped for the interview and interpreter Yamashita went to their live venue. When she visited the designated dressing room before the show, Chris was waiting for her with the three members. He said it was okay to talk, after all.

The result was an interview in which Chris' honest feelings exploded in a big way, as shown below. However, this mode of thinking was not born out of a distrust of the press or post-break nihilism, but rather a more fundamental frustration: "Why can't I get my message across through music alone?" In the UK guitar scene, which continues to be in a stupor, everyone is struggling in different phases, from bands that try to differentiate themselves with intelligent presentations to those that run amok with a negative or positive attitude. Amongst these bands, Coldplay are the only ones who have so much faith in the sound that spills out of their guitars.

After the release of your debut album "Parachutes", you went to Glastonbury, Summer Sonic in Japan, and V2000. How was your first festival summer? Guy (Bass, G): 「It was good.」 Jonny (Guitar, J): 「Yeah, it was mostly good.」 Will (Drums, W): 「Except for Portugal (laughs). The venue at the Portugal festival was horrible, first of all, and the audience were all people who were listening to heavy rock.」 Chris (Vocal, C): 「I mean, there were more interviews than gigs.」

How do you feel about that? C: 「It was the worst.」

……The worst, huh. C: 「Yeah. But I'm fine now, because the tour starts on Monday.」 J: 「Well, especially recently, because we've been doing nothing but talking instead of playing.」 W: 「Yeah, we haven't been able to play any shows for a while because of Jonny's throat, so it's been a bit stressful.」

Do you feel like you've been put in an environment where you can't genuinely enjoy your band activities and music? C: 「There are too many things that don't matter. Think about it, nobody cares what Beethoven looks like or anything like that. All people know is his music. That's our ideal situation, but it doesn't work like that. We live in a multimedia age and it's all about the pictures and how they look. It's not easy. But basically we're only as good as our music, so I think there's still a part of us that can be left to the music.」

"Parachutes" became a huge hit album that still sits in the top 10 of the national charts, but what do you think it was about you that attracted audiences? W: 「I guess it was our simplicity, or purity of it. We weren't competing for fashion in this day and age, or for badmouthing other bands, but just for the quality of our music.」

Amongst the many guitar bands that write good, melancholic melodies, I think you guys stand out because melancholy is not a ‘dead end’ feeling. W: 「Yes, that's exactly the kind of thing we want to put forward. We didn't want it to be just a melancholic album. We were very careful not to make it sound like that. And the key to that was what kind of songs to choose, and what kind of song order to make the songs flow. The promo CD we made before the release had all the songs in a random order, and when France heard it, they said, "This is a really sentimental record". But when we told them the order was like this, they said, "Oh, I see."」

There's strength in the delicacy of it. C: 「We believe in what we're doing. We get excited by our songs and we really, really like it. In the end, it's the reason we get up every morning. There has to be some positivity, because it's something I feel positive about. I don't want to make music that doesn't give me a sense of hope.」

When you were deciding on the direction Coldplay should take, how did you come to this mid-tempo and melody-oriented approach? C: 「The way we write songs is that sometimes I'll come up with an idea and take it to Jonny or someone else in the band, and then we all get together and shape it. It's something that we like in our own way. And that's the type of stuff we like so far. We don't discuss making them mid-tempo or anything like that, if we find a new song that we like that is mid-tempo, we just build it up as we go along. It's not like we decide on the tempo first. It's just that we get excited about songs that sound like that.」

What does it feel like to be excited? C: 「Well, I don't know. I just like it…… Obviously we're not a thrash metal band. We don't plan it that way anyway. We just let things come out. I can't even point to myself and say, "This is what I want to do".」

Hmmm. Has the meaning of music itself changed? C: 「No, I don't think so. I still feel great when I play and do really well, and depressed when I don't do well today.」

What's the percentage? C: 「…….6 to 4, I guess.」

That's pretty harsh…… Incidentally, this issue of BUZZ is a special issue on guitar rock. And we'd like to feature you guys as newcomers of the year 2000. By the way, the others were Muse (everyone nods in agreement), Doves (everyone nods in agreement), and JJ72 (Jonny frowns while everyone nods in agreement). What are your opinions about the other bands? W: 「We've met all three of those bands before, and they all seem to be making music for the same reasons as us.」 C: 「I like all the bands, especially Doves. I love them. But, you know, it's not about sympathy or anything like that. Everyone wants to create a scene, but there's just so many different bands out there.」

I think some people want to see it as a scene, hoping for a revival of UK guitar rock (laughs). C: 「Yeah, I get it. I'm honoured to be included with the bands you've just mentioned, because I like them all very much. It's just that none of us have put our heads together and tried to make a scene.」

I understand, don't worry (laughs). Now for the next question, which might be a bit rude. For example, what is it that drives you guys to make music, far from the desperate awareness of reality that British lad musicians have, that "we have no way to shine other than through music," and the ego-maniacal claims of bands that are fueled by that? C: 「But we don't think like that, we don't think like that. We're born and raised where we are, and we're very proud of that. Whether we have money or not doesn't make us good or bad. I wonder why we have to answer that question every time we are asked to do what we want to do. We just want to sing and play the songs we want to play. When we say that, people say it's boring or too sincere, but why else would you be in a band? That's our reason, there's no other reason. If you want to make loads of money, you'd be better off becoming a big businessman. The only attraction is the music itself.」

It's a problem that doesn't really make sense to me living in a homogenous society like Japan, but what do you think about the British tradition, but what do you think about the British tradition of saying, "You guys have no right to play rock!", just because you're from a middle-class background, starting from the days of Joe Strummer of The Clash to Blur and Radiohead? J: 「That’s really true of our country, isn’t it?」 W: 「But it also has something to do with social change. For example, in the 60s, most of the musicians were from the working class, and the laughing stock of TV comedies was middle-class university students, but now the whole country is middle-class, so workers are a good source of material. There's a tendency for everyone to wish for something they don't have.」 C: 「In the UK, there seems to be a sense of who is and isn't allowed to do what. But we don't really care. It's not like it's holding us back at the moment. You know what I mean? If you think it's a problem, it becomes a problem, you know? They try to hide it, they try to say they're not middle class.」

Is that one of the most depressing things you feel at the moment? You're just trying to deliver good music, and they just pick on things that have nothing to do with it. C: 「Yeah, absolutely. But I do the same thing with my favourite musicians. I can't help it, these things happen. For example, I think a lot about Bob Dylan, like, what kind of person is he? I guess it just means people are interested.」

I can really feel that you get very uncomfortable and that it's hard for you not to genuinely enjoy the music anymore. Do you still think the only way to overcome this is to keep playing? C: 「Yeah. Yes. In fact, we've just set out the terms of negotiation for next year. If we do two weeks of promotion, then we can spend the other two weeks doing whatever we want. We need to get that sort of thing settled.」

By the way, I've been reading your diary on your website, and the other day you wrote about the Radiohead show. C: 「It was amazing! They didn't seem to be having a lot of fun, but maybe they just weren't into it that night.」 W: 「I thought so too, but maybe the band couldn't get on. I think it was a very busy day with a lot of invited guests, and the whole atmosphere was a bit weird. I met Ed later and he said, "We didn't enjoy it at all." But I was impressed. My friends who went on the other night said the atmosphere wasn't too bad at all.」

Thom Yorke also said that "Rock is boring, it's rubbish music." C: 「That's ridiculous.」

Uhh..…. I think they are a band who have proved that conclusion to themselves, one by one, over the course of four albums. What do you think of their current phase? C: 「I just think they are trying to do something interesting. Maybe using guitars is boring…… But you know, it's what you play, not what you play with.」

You guys are now creating a sound that follows an orthodox guitar format. Is that going to change in the future? C: 「No, I can't say anything about that. The two new songs, one of them is a guitar…… I mean, we're not doing it with that kind of idea in mind…… No, we're just doing it with the idea of creating something interesting and new. I'm tired of explaining the songs, I just want to say they're songs, isn't that enough? That's the great thing about Bob Dylan. It's just him and the guitar. But no one says it's boring just because he always uses the guitar. It's just about how good the songs are played.」

By the way, I was firmly told by the record company that Chris wouldn't take this interview. I'm really happy that you accepted, but…… I wonder if you're really stressed out. That is, that you have to be involved in things other than music. C: 「Yeah, that's true. But I'm happy to do it on the days when we have gigs. But, to be honest, we were all a bit stressed out over the summer. Seriously. We didn't get a chance to play any music at all, and instead we just talked about our music. I think that took a toll on the band. The reason we're all so happy today is because we get to play shows again.」

That's good. C: 「Really.」

Translator’s Note: I enjoyed translating this interview for how much information I've gleamed out of it, especially seeing this side of Chris that I’ve rarely encountered before even with how few Coldplay interviews that I’ve translated so far. Like, being paraded around from one interview to the next, being asked so many questions that eventually became dull to them, with barely any actual gigs to play at? I can’t blame them for feeling the subsequent frustrations, especially when they were only 22-23 years old back in 2000.

Do support me on my Ko-fi! ☕

[petalsfordany]

hyper fixating on an actress with still just a handful of credits and only a couple of those being a substantial role is a special type of hell

[dlstmxkakwldrlarchive]

240824 Waterbomb Suwon 2024

— No Parachute

[recursive360]

🇺🇸 | Real American Heroines

Stars & Stripes Forever!

[sunlightontheseaa]

Thinking about the eras tour and white dress and how all the way back in 2011, will said about taylor "she sheds her skin, but it never comes off" and how right he was