Steve Ignorant And Paranoid Visions Talk Of ‘When…?’
Out on Nov 11th on Overground Records is a collaborative album between former Crass frontman Steve Ignorant and Dublin’s Paranoid Visions titles ‘When…?’ which is being launched at a special one-off event on Saturday 9th Nov at The Dome, Tufnell Park, London with support from Zounds, The Cravats and Craig Temple. WithGuitars have been privileged to hear this fantastic release and were sufficiently enthused to catch up with the protagonists.
So let’s start with the obvious question, how did the collaboration with Steve Ignorant come about?
We got to know Steve via the Last Supper gigs, and at the after-show party for the Shepherd’s Bush gig. I mentioned to him about the track ‘Split Personality’ and how we couldn’t get a take we were happy with because what we had in mind was a delivery like his, and then asked if he fancied doing it with us. He said yes, and once we had him in Dublin to do it I suggested a second track because John Robb’s Louder Than War label wanted a 7″ off us, so we did both. Things went really well, with Steve comparing the style of recording to when he was recording ‘Stations of The Crass’, “get in there / get it done / grab a can of lager / roll up a ciggie”! So in the pub later that night he said he really enjoyed working with us and totally understood what we were doing, so if we ever wanted to do more work he was up for it. So we suggested an EP, but ended up with about 7 tracks for it and decided we may as well just do a whole album!
You’re in Dublin, Steve’s in Norfolk, that has logistical nightmare written all over it?
It’s not as bad as you’d think. For recording we put the whole thing together with a guide vocal, not knowing where Steve would fit, so once we had sent rough mixes and lyrics he basically learned everything and came over and recorded a full vocal on all the tracks (11 songs in 4 hours including smoke/beer breaks). We then added everyone else and spent a long time rough mixing until we sussed out where he fitted best and getting the balance right. We rehearse all the time ourselves anyway so the music is nice and tight, and because we don’t deviate from the structures. Steve rehearses in his car to the cd (otherwise the dog attacks him!)!
How did you select the songs to be included on the album? I notice that some are older Paranoid Visions songs.
Well we wrote all but 3 songs specifically for the project, trying to keep lyrics more global and making sure all the tracks were tracks that could be played live (at least half the tracks on a PV album are never intended to be played live and often have layers and layers of different guitars on as a result). ‘Rock n Roll n Revolution’ was recorded again because we thought the version we did with him worked really well, but as it was a limited edition 7″ it deserved a full hearing, ‘Braindance’ was recorded as we felt Steve could add to it and because we feel we do a much better version if it these days! And we’ve been looking for an excuse to record ‘Sex Kills’ with the girls singing it for ages (the version on ‘Beware of The God’ had Deko on lead vocals), and felt it served as a great contribution to the record!
Steve Ignorant with paranoid Visions ‘Join The Dots’
Do you intend to continue this collaboration or is it a one-off project.
Well we are doing 5 or 6 gigs next year, Steve is doing his Slice of Life project too and we’ve our own gigs to do too, but I can’t see this being the last material we work together on because we do gel very well with him!
What’s next in the pipeline for Paranoid Visions?
Well we’ve the album launches on Nov 1st (Dublin) and Nov 9th (London). Then we are playing a PV gig in London with Conflict on Dec 7th with an acoustic show the night before with New Model Army in Dublin. We are already about 4 or 5 songs into the next album or ep! There’s also a production company doing a documentary on us, they started filming live stuff and audience stuff a week or so ago and will be following us around Dublin shows for a while picking up footage and talking to audience members! Don’t know where it will appear, it seems Irish TV is interested and they are intending on touring round film festivals as a short film… Either way we have requested the rights to release it as a DVD with an upcoming ep or album.
And then we caught up with Steve Ignorant and asked him a couple of questions…
You’ve just released two DVDs: ‘The Last Supper’ live from Shepherd’s Bush 2011 and ‘Feeding of the 5000’ live 2007. With the release of these and ‘When…?’ album is this you ending your relationship with punk before moving on?
No it is not ending my relationship with punk, it’s letting people know that I’m trying a different direction which won’t include Crass songs.
Please tell us something about your latest project ‘Slice of Life’?
It’s not so much a gig but more of a performance, comprising of spoken word and music. It’s a lot more personal and can range from talking about life, death, sex, loneliness, some Crass anecdotes etc.
Original songs, written by me, are delivered in an acoustic style with Carol Hodge on piano & backing vocals and Pete Wilson on acoustic guitar & backing vocals.
For more information:
SteveIgnorantOfficial.blogspot.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCJKlb1wb9A