White Denim
Block And White
Loud,
proud and stomach crunchingly good (I have no idea what that means but
it sounds impressive), White Denim’s debut album was without question
one of the highlights of this year’s musical calendar. Drummer
Josh Block gave me an insight into the Texas trio’s working methods,
amongst other things.
AD: “Workout Holiday”, is pretty damn diverse, but would I
be correct in the assumption that bands like The Sonics and MC5 had
a profound influence on you?
JB: Yeah, we’ve gotten that a few times in the press actually.
But we do love those guys. The reason it’s such an eclectic mix
of songs is because they’re a collage of our ideas. We all came
from a very different musical background – not to oversimplify
things but Josh had a strong jazz upbringing, I’ve always been
into harder punk rock and James is the soul funk jam boy. We all listen
to everything though, it gives you more to work with.
AD: And the album was recorded in a humble motor home?
JB: Yeah, I’d say that influenced the sound of the album quite
a lot as well, because we sorta had to make do with whatever means we
had, and y’know, we really HAD to work with them. It was a metal
caravan in the woods and in a great setting, and the actual recording
process was spread out over the weekends because of day jobs and college.
It took a good six months to make.
AD: Well it was worth the wait. It seems like a celebration of everything
that’s great about music. It also seems quite macho though…
JB: Well, that might be a product of us recording in the woods –
you know, the whole thing – the airstream, the scorpions, the scenery…and
of course we turned up the amps really, really loud.
AD: To eleven?
JB: Exactly.
AD: Did you have a specific process for writing the songs?
JB: A lot of them just started on James’ front porch with an
acoustic guitar, and he’d bring them to the studio, while we just
brought elements of our own musical background with us.
AD: Has anything really excited you in the past year?
JB: Glastonbury! None of us knew what to expect and we had no idea
just how big it was – that thing is huge! Everyone camped out and
we had the time of our lives. We loved everything about it, the atmosphere,
the buzz, the decoration. The toilets were pretty bad though…
AD: I gather you’re fans of The Mighty Boosh…
JB: I’ve never seen it, but the other two guys watched every
episode before we came on tour and I’ve been assured it’s
great. I’m looking forward to seeing it. I’m a big fan myself
of “Trailer Park Boys” – if you’d seen us while
we were making the album you’d have been forgiven for mistaking
us for them!
AD: I know what you mean – I love “Curb Your Enthusiasm”
and I think I’m getting more like Larry David every day…
JB: Oh yeah we definitely watch that too, and I think you’re
far from alone – everyone’s a bit like Larry David aren’t
they?
AD: I hope so. The world would be a better place. So what do you
aspire to most as a band?
JB: Just to continue making quality recordings, not letting the
hype and things like that tear us apart. And we’ll carry on celebrating
even more Texan music. The most important thing is that we ignore whatever
all the writers say about us!
Well thanks a bunch! Surely you can take notice of what we at AD
say, especially as we regard “Workout Holiday” as one of the
finest albums of the year! Go on, buy it, and stop buying crap X-Factor
charity records. You know it makes sense.
Interview by - Tone E
