NOISE ANNOYS
Dynamic archive film sampling musical duo Public Service Broadcasting are back with new album The Race For Space. As the group prepare to touch down in Belfast, Noise Annoys quizzed head astronaut J Willgoose Esq about drawing inspiration from the US and Russia's historic competition in the cosmos
HI J, are you looking forward to the upcoming tour? Has the live Public Service Broadcasting show expanded to reflect the bigger, broader sound of the new album? Yes indeed, it's been a long time since we did our own headlining tour - November 2013, I think. Mr B (PSB visual co-ordinator) has excelled himself for this run. He's built us a rather special bigger than scale Sputnik actually, which has to be seen to be believed. That will be great, provided it all works - it is all getting a little bit Spinal Tap. Thankfully we're not actually coming out of it or anything. We've also got JF Abraham who has joined us as a touring member. He'll be playing some keys and a bit of brass.
Your recent album launch shows at the National Space Centre in Leicester were featured on Channel 4 News, was that a surreal experience?
I still can't bear to watch things like that so I haven't actually seen it. I remember Wriggles didn't say much during the interview but I believe they made it seem like he actually said even less, which he'll be pleased to hear - he likes to remain as enigmatic as possible.
I think that was one of the virtues of doing something a bit different for the album launch, in that it gives people a bit of an 'angle'.
I might actually have to use a bit of Jon Snow for our live intro video on the tour.
Were you tempted to stage an entire tour at space-related venues?
We did look into doing a week of dates across the country at various museums, observatories and planetariums and all that kind of stuff, but unfortunately many of them proved unrealistic in a number of ways, not least budgetary.
Luckily the National Space Centre realised from the word go that it would be a mutually beneficial arrangement. They were great actually, really fantastic. And the two gigs themselves were good too - it was the longest show we've ever done actually, about an hour and a half.
You were on tour in America recently - did you get to visit Kennedy Space Centre or the National Air And Space Museum?
Unfortunately not, but we did get to meet Nasa controller Gene Kranz's daughter, Jean, who gave us a signed photo of her dad (whose voice is sampled on The Race For Space) holding the record and looking very happy, which was great.
Apparently he discovered it off his own bat and is a big fan.
We also met Gene Cernan (Apollo 17 astronaut and last man on the moon, also sampled on the LP), probably one of the most nerve-wracking moments of my life, I think. He's spent the last 40 years hammering on about how important it is that we keep driving ahead with the human exploration of space. Sadly, not much else has happened.
Was the 'stalled' human mission one of your inspirations for making The Race For Space? I think part of it was a celebration of what was achieved then and the slightly melancholy fact that we've never been back to the moon.
There's also definitely a prevailing cynicism among the younger generation - and I include myself in that, although I am getting on a bit - with regard to space, all the conspiracy theories about how we never actually went to the moon. It was definitely a push-back against all that dispiriting nonsense, which I hate. It's so lazy and cynical.
Although it opens with JFK's famous speech, the album also celebrates the Russian side of the 'space race' with tracks like Sputnik, Gagarin and Valentina. Was that important to you?
Definitely, America became the self-declared 'winners' because they got to the moon first - which I think they worked out was the only thing they could actually beat the Russians at. The Russians won pretty much everything else, even though they get kind of a bum deal in the western version of history. What we wanted to capture in the song Gagarin was just how much of a superhero and a talismanic figure he became instantly - and still is - to the Russian people and many others around the world.
The sound of the new album is much more cinematic in scope than the debut, Inform-
Educate-Entertain. Were you nervous about alienating fans?
I think the bands I really like always keep moving, they don't keep doing the same thing over and over again. Perhaps more commercial success awaits if you do, but clearly our band has never been about that. It's about keeping ourselves interested, really, and setting ourselves new challenges - one of which was to try and write funk song, which is where Gagarin came from.
We definitely wanted to branch out by using a range of different instruments and sounds. And, no pun intended, there is actually more 'space' on this record as well in terms of there being more room for things to breathe. That's the great thing about second albums, you've got a bit more license to let things play out in full.
Smoke Fairies are the opening act on this tour, will they be recreating their vocals on Valentina with you live?
Er, I don't want to spoil anything by saying yes or no to that. Let's just say it would be a great shame and a terrible missed opportunity if it didn't happen.
* Public Service Broadcasting, Sunday May 3, The Mandela Hall, QUBSU, Belfast.