In Conversation: Jane Weaver

How synth loops and Cash Converters fuelled 'Modern Kosmology'...

When Clash calls Jane Weaver we manage to catch her during a sunny day in the North of England. Retreating to her back garden on a cordless phone, she’s able to unwind in the sun, to pause for reflection as each answer comes her way.

It’s a relaxed conversation, but then we’d expect nothing less. One of the many positive traits running through new album ‘Modern Kosmology’ is how relaxed it feels, how much space is less in each song, and how entirely natural the whole project is accomplished.

Unsurprisingly, the album itself owes some of its roots to a desire to get away from heavy touring and back into the studio. “I write quite a lot of the time, but I hadn’t done much and so I started writing again in 2015, really,” she says. “At the back end of promoting ‘The Silver Globe’ I thought, I need to get back into it now. So that started it. It’s probably about a year and a half, all in all, with writing, that this one’s been done in.”

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I spent a lot more concentrated time on this record…

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It’s a very focussed blast of creativity. “I spent a lot more concentrated time on this record,” she says. “I’ve been thinking about it more all the time. I don’t like to commit myself to doing two or three weeks in the studio because that just seems so pressurising, I don’t know how people do it!”

Constructing demos at home, Jane poured over every detail, pushing against her limitations and in turn adopting those as stylistic traits. “I like to work around a loop,” she explains. “Or I’ll hear a motorik thing that stays on the same level, and then I’ll try and put the melody around it. I’ll try to make a song that’s a traditional song, with a chorus or whatever, but you’ve got a similar kind of backing all the way through.”

“It’s quite a challenge, really. To come out with a song or a pop song. But I like pop melody, really. It’s a mixture of that with the heavier backing, I suppose.”

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Working with minimal kit, she continually improvises to achieve the sounds she desires, achieving some unexpected results in the process. “I’ll play something – badly – but I can hear it, and I’ll get somebody else to maybe re-play it. Like, my friend Liz ended up replacing all the violin parts because I thought they were just too bad! So I just needed her to do that. The thing is, if I can hear something in my head I won’t let anyone stop me from going there, or trying that type of instrument.”

“There’s been a few instruments recently where I’ve gone, oh I’ve not played flute for years, or clarinet! Or I really want to play drums, because my son is actually nine and he’s much better at playing drums than me. So I was like, I need to sort this out because he’s teaching himself and I do it all back to front! I need to sort that out.”

“So that’s my next thing, to learn to play drums,” she chuckles. “I’m getting the drummer to teach me. But he probably won’t!”

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That 80s synth stuff is so strong, it knocks everything out the park…

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One of the primary shifts between her last album and ‘Modern Kosmology’ lies in technology – she finally grabbed a Roland Juno synth, pushing her retro-futurist outlook in fresh directions. “I’ve always wanted one. I bought it from Cash Convertors in Doncaster or something! I had to go and get it.”

“It’s just got a really strong sound, it’s very powerful. That 80s synth stuff is so strong, it knocks everything out the park, really. It just has a really strong presence. Same with the Moog – it’s quite dominant when it’s in the track.”

The Juno becomes a subtle influence on ‘Modern Kosmology’, with Jane Weave fusing her Radiophonic Orchestra leanings with the British art-pop of the early 80s. “I’m appreciating that kind of sound more when I go back out. I’ve just been listening to a lot of Japan and David Sylvian.”

“I kind of grew up with them,” she continues, “but I didn’t really appreciate some of the electronics in it, and now I’m listening back to it thinking: that synth sounds really cool, that drum sounds really cool! You go back and on a production level some of the stuff is really interesting.”

Largely self-produced, the transition between home and full studio recordings meant that some tracks underwent a form of evolution. Different skills were added, particularly as guest musicians came on board.

“Some things get lost in translation or diluted,” she admits. “But the thing is, if I hear a full song in your head then I always think it must be somebody else’s because it’s so loud and big. It is a bit of a job getting it out, but I’m determined to do that however I can. Even tapping things out on my legs to a drummer – I don’t care, that’s the way it’s got to be.”

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Somehow, by hook or by crook Jane Weaver secures her artistic vision, even grabbing Can vocalist Michael Mooney – “he’s a friend of the family!” for a guest spot.

“I sent him a really shonky demo, which was me playing violin on it at home… and I’m not great at playing violin! But he was very polite about it, and I thought: don’t worry, it sounds terrible but it will eventually be good.”

“I felt like he could obviously add something great to what I could hear in my head. So he did it. He came over and we captured him for a couple of hours before we all went to Festival No. 6 and got it done.”

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I was dipping in and out of mysticism and living in my own bubble…

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Out now on Fire Records, ‘Modern Kosmology’ feels like a confident step forward, a deeply English psychedelic treatise that manages to escape convention while somehow also feeling quite familiar. It’s even there in the title – close your eyes and ‘Modern Kosmology’ could be some long out of print early 70s sociology tome.

“Well the thing is it’s slightly tongue in cheek,” she admits, “but I was dipping in and out of mysticism and living in my own bubble…” “I think it’s about concentrating on your own creativity and your own bubble. I think it was born out of last year and a lot of upsetting things being in the news and feeling out of control of the political landscape and everything that was going on with Brexit.”

“A lot of people felt depressed and sad – and still do! So it’s like, what can we focus on? And I thought, I’d love to do a protest album. But lyrically, and not as direct as sleaford mods or something. So I thought it would be good to focus on what I’m trying to be good at, and use those strengths to try and do something good.”

On the morning after the night before, when British politics feels like a more and more alien realm, it’s good to have something to turn to.

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Catch Jane Weaver at the following shows:

October
21 Bristol Simple Things
22 Brighton The Haunt 
23 Norwich Arts Centre 
25 Folkestone Quarterhouse 
26 London Islington Assembly Hall 
28 Nottingham Bodega Social Club 
29 Oxford The Bullingdon 
31 Leeds Brudenell Social Club

November
1 Stoke on Trent Sugarmill 
2 Newcastle The Cluny
3 Hebden Bridge Trades Club 
4 Glasgow Stereo 
10 Dublin  Workmans Club 
11 Belfast Maple Leaf Club

For tickets to the latest Jane Weaver shows click HERE.

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