South
No Limits
2008-07-02
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Jamie McDonald of the UK trio South has a cough and a cold. Since he is leaving in less than a week for a three-week tour of North America in support of South’s latest full-length, You Are Here, he is trying his best to get over his infirmaries before it all starts. To this end, he is holed up at his place in London, recuperating by watching every episode of “The Wire” starting from the very first season.
“I can recommend it,” he says confidently and congestedly. “I’m discovering you can download all these shows and watch them when you want, or watch the whole series in a day, which is pretty cool, so I’m getting into that at the moment. And if I’m going to get ill, it’s much better to do it now then when I’ve left. I’ve been ill when we’ve started a tour before and it’s the worse fucking thing man. You just don’t really get to a place where you can feel like you can get better.”
McDonald’s gentle and affable personality has been unchanged since South’s debut, From Here On In, in 2001 when he was barely out of his teens. The same can be said for his fellow bandmates, Joel Cadbury and Brett Shaw, all of whom share multi-instrumental duties in the group. From Here On In is an homage/reinterpretation of the early Nineties sound with particular affinity to the Stone Roses, but with an experimentation in its nature that put South in the incongruous stable of artists on James Lavelle’s Mo’ Wax label in their home country and alongside electronic artists stateside on the Kinetic imprint. Its follow-up, With The Tides (2003) further realized this exploration in sound with a significant maturity in songwriting.
But South’s music has not stuck with its winning personality as much as its creators. The next two albums, 2006’s Underground Journey To The Stars, and this year’s You Are Here signify two different personality changes. Essentially, you have to approach each album like you’ve never heard of South before—while giving credit to the South boys’ increasingly improving musicianship.
You Are Here opens with promise on “Wasted,” heralding the start with orchestral flourishes. “Opened Up” carries this uplifting mood with South’s signature drum rolls and a sweetness that is downright appealing. “Soul Receivers” combines these two qualities for a fresh blend. But then, You Are Here embarks on a schizophrenic patch, jerking into borderline Eighties synth territory on “She’s Half Crazy” then into the acoustic mandolin plucks on “The Creeping,” and ending up with some mariachi horns on “Lonely Highs.”
“I’m of two minds whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it just is South kind of thing,” says McDonald of the variation heard on You Are Here. “The styles seem to jump around a bit more on this record. I can imagine that some people, by the time they get to ‘Lonely Highs,’ saying, ‘Wow, where else can this possibly go?’ There’s a couple of tunes that are really heavy in the final third of the album. Then you can that weird instrumental thing at the end, which is one of my favorite tracks on the album. We did talk about making a more conformed album, but in the end we put on the tracks we wanted to put on so yeah, it’s a little bit all over the place.”
Setting up their own studio and putting their expertise in that realm to use, South produced themselves on You Are Here, with Shaw at the helm. Recording a total of 22 tracks at a converted basement warehouse that housed bags of all kinds before it housed South in the East London neighborhood of Hackney, this was the first time there were no limits imposed on the group—perhaps why there are no limits on the resulting album.
“We were allowed to explore as much as we wanted to and that is a really great thing for a band to be able to do,” says McDonald. “When the clock’s ticking in a big studio, you’re never going to be able to do that because you’ve got someone counting the money. We made the album for very little money because we had all the gear and we rented our studio for cheap. I think it was a good thing for us.”
With that, McDonald departs to answer the door as he is expecting a package delivery. But it’s for the people next door, whose Sunday night party is continuing into Monday afternoon—interfering with McDonald’s recuperation. But it’s okay. He’s feeling much better today.
“I can recommend it,” he says confidently and congestedly. “I’m discovering you can download all these shows and watch them when you want, or watch the whole series in a day, which is pretty cool, so I’m getting into that at the moment. And if I’m going to get ill, it’s much better to do it now then when I’ve left. I’ve been ill when we’ve started a tour before and it’s the worse fucking thing man. You just don’t really get to a place where you can feel like you can get better.”
McDonald’s gentle and affable personality has been unchanged since South’s debut, From Here On In, in 2001 when he was barely out of his teens. The same can be said for his fellow bandmates, Joel Cadbury and Brett Shaw, all of whom share multi-instrumental duties in the group. From Here On In is an homage/reinterpretation of the early Nineties sound with particular affinity to the Stone Roses, but with an experimentation in its nature that put South in the incongruous stable of artists on James Lavelle’s Mo’ Wax label in their home country and alongside electronic artists stateside on the Kinetic imprint. Its follow-up, With The Tides (2003) further realized this exploration in sound with a significant maturity in songwriting.
But South’s music has not stuck with its winning personality as much as its creators. The next two albums, 2006’s Underground Journey To The Stars, and this year’s You Are Here signify two different personality changes. Essentially, you have to approach each album like you’ve never heard of South before—while giving credit to the South boys’ increasingly improving musicianship.
You Are Here opens with promise on “Wasted,” heralding the start with orchestral flourishes. “Opened Up” carries this uplifting mood with South’s signature drum rolls and a sweetness that is downright appealing. “Soul Receivers” combines these two qualities for a fresh blend. But then, You Are Here embarks on a schizophrenic patch, jerking into borderline Eighties synth territory on “She’s Half Crazy” then into the acoustic mandolin plucks on “The Creeping,” and ending up with some mariachi horns on “Lonely Highs.”
“I’m of two minds whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it just is South kind of thing,” says McDonald of the variation heard on You Are Here. “The styles seem to jump around a bit more on this record. I can imagine that some people, by the time they get to ‘Lonely Highs,’ saying, ‘Wow, where else can this possibly go?’ There’s a couple of tunes that are really heavy in the final third of the album. Then you can that weird instrumental thing at the end, which is one of my favorite tracks on the album. We did talk about making a more conformed album, but in the end we put on the tracks we wanted to put on so yeah, it’s a little bit all over the place.”
Setting up their own studio and putting their expertise in that realm to use, South produced themselves on You Are Here, with Shaw at the helm. Recording a total of 22 tracks at a converted basement warehouse that housed bags of all kinds before it housed South in the East London neighborhood of Hackney, this was the first time there were no limits imposed on the group—perhaps why there are no limits on the resulting album.
“We were allowed to explore as much as we wanted to and that is a really great thing for a band to be able to do,” says McDonald. “When the clock’s ticking in a big studio, you’re never going to be able to do that because you’ve got someone counting the money. We made the album for very little money because we had all the gear and we rented our studio for cheap. I think it was a good thing for us.”
With that, McDonald departs to answer the door as he is expecting a package delivery. But it’s for the people next door, whose Sunday night party is continuing into Monday afternoon—interfering with McDonald’s recuperation. But it’s okay. He’s feeling much better today.
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South
Bio[+]South are a British rock band. The band consists of Joel Cadbury, Brett Shaw, and Jamie McDonald. Each member is a multi-instrumentalist and they share duties on guitars, bass, percussion, keyboards. Cadbury is responsible for the lead vocals. South was formed in London in 1998 and was originally conceived as an electronic act. The band was mentored by ex-Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown. South later worked under the tutelage of UNKLE's James Lavelle, who signed the band to his personal record label. After a promo album, 'Overused' released in the US, South released their first official studio album entitled From Here On In. The popular song "Paint The Silence" was featured on The OC and The O.C. Mix 1 leading to a bigger fanbase in the US
Interview
South (current page)
Bio[+]
South are a British rock band. The band consists of Joel Cadbury, Brett Shaw, and Jamie McDonald. Each member is a multi-instrumentalist and they share duties on guitars, bass, percussion, keyboards. Cadbury is responsible for the lead vocals. South was formed in London in 1998 and was originally conceived as an electronic act. The band was mentored by ex-Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown. South later worked under the tutelage of UNKLE's James Lavelle, who signed the band to his personal record label. After a promo album, 'Overused' released in the US, South released their first official studio album entitled From Here On In. The popular song "Paint The Silence" was featured on The OC and The O.C. Mix 1 leading to a bigger fanbase in the US
Interview
South (current page)