Unloved – David Holmes on “Polychrome”
Threes No Cloud
March 17, 2023
Photo shoot by Katja Stuckrath
Web only
Composer, DJ and musician David Holmes is a creative bombshell. Growing up in the midst of Belfast’s troubles in the 1970s and his 1980s, Oceans 11 series and are currently working on their respective new albums with Sinead O’Connor and Bobby Gillespie’s Primal Scream. He also plans to release his own long player in late 2023.
Along with Jade Vincent and Kefus Green, Holmes is one-third of the recently released band Unloved. multicolor, their fourth album. LP is your sidekick in 2022 pink albumwhose sessions easily yielded three or four records’ worth of material. Killing EveFormed in LA over 12 years ago, the trio are now based in Belfast and Brittany, France. multicolor was held.
Lee Campbell (secretly): Where is your home these days?
David Holmes: At my studio in Belfast. We lived in LA for 18 months and never wanted to live in LA for the rest of our lives, no matter how sunny it was and how good the food was. We left just as my daughter started speaking with an American accent. I met Keefus and Jade in LA. We started making records, so a lot of good stuff came out. After all, I miss Europe. Once a month he does a DJ gig at his block of bananas in Belfast. Set is of all ages, from 18 to he’s 80, and on the last Saturday of every month he gathers 800 people at the club. There is also an NTS radio program God’s Waiting Room.
How would you describe the chemistry of the three?
very good.We’ve been together longer than the Beatles [both laughing]We met in 2010. I do my project, Keef does her own project, Jade does her own project, and then we get together and do her Unloved. We are still really good friends. Raven, their daughter sings all my songs on my new album. She’s great, she’s something else. Her voice sounds West Coast like Michelle Phillips, but with her demeanor and brashness.
Was it all recorded in the Belfast studio?
One unloved album made in LA. Since then, all albums have been produced in Belfast and France. I would send them a clip and they would send it back and vice versa. Technology has changed everything. There is an application called Audiomovers. Connect to different locations so you can hear what is being recorded in the studio in real time. Perfect for collaboration. You can even be in the same room together. That’s why I stay in Belfast, but we’re always in the studio together for core recordings, but then we develop apart. We don’t think about nuances or about making everything perfectly perfect. Regardless of who writes the lyrics, we know what a great atmosphere is like to work with. It’s okay. It also means that you can work on other things and have really fresh ears when you come back to that project. Never enter a place where you can’t see the forest for the trees. When you come back, you’ll know exactly what the problem is. He has a place in Provence, France, and we meet there as well.
And the engineering work….?
When I’m in my studio, I do all the engineering myself. It’s not rocket science. My studio is very well set up and very simple. Mixing is such an art form that it’s usually done by a professional mixer. However, in reality, it is served half-mixed. You’re always doing the mixing, but it’s nice to pass it on to someone whose ears are fresh and have a monitor mix or something.
This album pink albumWas there any temptation to release them both together?
As you know, we’ve created about four albums’ worth of music through lockdown. He will be releasing another one on Record Store Day. Everyone had this free time. Either get depressed and lose your mind, or focus on your creativity and music. It was a good time to sit, think, and concentrate. Honestly, I’ve never had so much inspiration. Turn on the fucking news.
upon multicolor Can we say that it’s the flip side of the same coin when it comes to sound? pink album?
After all, it’s all Unloved. It has a very broad palette that falls into specific genres. Live Rock and Roll, Rhythm and Soul, Girl Groups, Film Scores, Rockabilly and more. it’s all there. Just sit down and choose. The problem we had with this music was that it was too much.
wanted to dive into some specific tracks multicolor…First of all, the title song.
Tracks can occur in different ways. When Keefus and I made an instrumental for it, it wasn’t for Unloved itself. It was actually inspired by Gal Costa, a Brazilian Tropicana singer. She passed away recently. incredible talent. All the percussion was here. I sent it to Jade and she wrote the lyrics. The name “Polychrome” comes from a synthesizer I have. A member of the Farfisa family. A very unusual keyboard, it was often used during the sessions. Since there was no title, I called it “Polychrome”. Jade then decided that the definition of the word suited the music and should be left alone.
The standout track is ‘I Did It’. I love that swing element and rhythm.
That’s the rock ‘n’ roll side of Unloved. I didn’t participate in that track. That’s what Jade wrote during lockdown. I didn’t get involved until they wrote the song. My opinion on that track was to go in and be a little weird. It’s a very simple track. It comes from Jade’s deep rock’n’roll sensibility and rock’n’roll in a very broad sense. Sexy, mid to late 1950s, very minimal. Even the use of echo is from Joe Meek’s school and early rockabilly records. I remember the late Andrew Weatherall saying that when you made these records it was basically a drummer, a guitarist, a bassist, a slap echo and a song. Depending on how you record it, it can sound pretty ghostly or cinematic.
On Unloved, it sounds like a very balanced collaborative process.
yeah i wrote some songs pink album It was a new experience for me. Yes, Unloved is just the three of us, but in the end it’s Jade and Keefus. they are a partnership. Originally, Keefus asked me to produce a record for them, but I’m not really interested in producing unless a young band does it to help them. and when I saw Jade perform in LA, I was filled with ideas. The girl group thing, the horror movie aspect. She has dark hair and a striking face. She lives in a kind of black and white world. We had a great time together from the first day.
“It’s hard to hold you when the world keeps spinning”—can you briefly describe this track?
It’s derived from another track that Keefus and I made, inspired by a very obscure and psychedelic piece of 1960s French pop music by an artist named Laurent. The inspired version is actually pretty fast. We took an idea, flipped it over, and slowed it down right away. Jade then took it again and wrote the song. I think Scott Walker definitely walked into the room at some point as the song evolved. That track was done many years ago.
Album jacket reminiscent of a movie poster hell apocalypse.
That’s Julian House. he is great He completed all our artwork and videos. he is a great artist His sensibility, Folk He’s all about horror, Super 8 footage. Everything is really dreamy and strange.
For those unfamiliar with Unloved’s music, how would you describe it?
I think Jack Nitzsche, Ennio Morricone, Phil Spector and The Shangri-Las spend the night together and finally get back in the studio [both laughing]From Charlie Feathers to Link Ray, Raymond Scott to Scott Walker, all of our favorites of the time.
www.weareunloved.co.uk
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