I clearly don’t have a clue what I’m doing.
Well, let me clarify that. I obviously do, to a certain degree - I can put all this (waves hands in air…) together, but sometimes I have to admit I have no idea how I got here.
And by here, in this instance, I mean ‘The Claw’.
Originally, I had the bright idea of trying to mesh two things previously unattempted - ambient electronic styles and Tom Waits. Yes, the Tom Waits of fruity, gravely vocals, rattling tin pan percussion and out-of-tune, and falling down the stairs guitars fame.
Several weeks later, it’s kinda that, but kinda not. In fact, whilst it’s got those Marc Ribot-esque guitars, oompah-oompah opening and swampy rhythms, it now seems to be more like something Róisín Murphy or Gorillaz would come up with if they were trying to collab with The Black Keys.
And this is what I mean about not having a clue what I’m doing: this is being creative. Having a goal, but going down little rabbit warrens, developing bits and pieces, coming back to things a few days later and then doing it again.
I tend to find that once you’ve got a base track, you add some things on top, swap around some melodies, you then go back and change that base track - and at that point, you start losing the original idea and you’ve made something, well… new.
Obviously, in a commercial environment with a brief, you’d be much more responsible and focused, but in this little creative bubble, I don’t have to control it. Hurrah!
Anyway, rather excellently, I have no idea what we’ve got here. Happy days.
A word about the video. I knew I wanted something a little whimsical and odd. A little Wes Anderson if possible. Thankfully, the footage gods of Artlist looked kindly upon me again with this freakshow in the desert shoot. I’d imagine that crab suit was a bit hot.
Ok. Hope you enjoy ‘The Claw’ and remember: sometimes - most times - not quite having a Scooby what you’re doing is very much a good thing.
Graeme
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