Friday, January 10, 2014

"In your mother tongue, what's the verb 'to suck'?"



Truth be told, I enjoy listening both to Wild Beasts and Arctic Monkeys, and the issue of accents (not to mention internecine quarrels) may or may not be significant. However, I'm struck by Hayden Thorpe's wisdom in the quote below. Influences are to be expected, but whether making music, brewing beer or revitalizing a neglected urban core, isn't it all about our own mystical landscape?

Wild Beasts take swipe at British bands who sing with US accents; Hayden Thorpe claims lyrics to new single refer to UK singers with Americanised voices – such as the Arctic Monkeys, Sean Michaels (Guardian)

 ... "People are absorbing the mysticism of American artists, and rightfully so," Thorpe went on. "But we're interested in the mysticism of our own landscape and trying to reflect that rather than creating one that doesn't belong to us. That's where the most interesting, intriguing music comes from. The Smiths were incredibly exotic because they mysticised the landscape they grew up in, and it's beautiful how there are people who take pilgrimages to the Salford Lads Club. Equally, I'm obsessed and drawn to Bruce Springsteen's New Jersey, but it has nothing to do with my life."

No comments: