British Sea Power We’re all at Sea but we love the Power
Odd lyrics, bear suits, happy siblings, very silly name...
British Sea Power have been confusing, intriguing and enamouring since the turn of the millennium. I first encountered them in a tent at a festival in Leeds in 2003. I remember it as the day I saw the justifiably hyped Franz Ferdinand and the immensely powerful headliners System Of A Down. Of the three, I’ve been most confused, intrigued and enamoured of British Sea Power ever since.
The name of their 2003 debut album, The Decline Of British Sea Power still sounds like the title of a worthy documentary on BBC4. The albums Valhalla Dancehall and 2013’s Machineries Of Joy expect a higher than average level of engagement and curiosity from the listener. They often play live with a stage set covered in khaki netting, festooned with plastic ducks. One or more people dressed as giant brown bears may invade the stage and the audience. Guitarist Martin Noble’s best advice is ‘go with it.’ And their fans do.
‘At the time we were starting out there was a resurgence of very straight ahead rock bands wearing the generic rock clothes and we didn’t fit into that world,’ Noble says. ‘Some people loved what we were doing straight away. Other people came to us along the way. Others again just think we’re oddballs. When we began, we set such small goals. To play a gig, release a single and maybe make an album. It never crossed our minds that we’d still be together nearly 20 years later.’
The six-piece group are from Brighton via England’s Lake District. It includes the brothers Jan Scott Wilkinson and Neil Hamilton Wilkinson but, no, there are no Gallagher or Davies-style brotherly boxing bouts in this band. ‘They’re clever, emotionally intelligent people… No they never have a fight or anything like that. They’re not animals,’ Noble says.
British Sea Power are now as well-known now for soundtracks to films and documentaries – some of the which coincidentally enough have ended up on BBC4. But they’re back with an excellent new album. It goes by the genius title of Let The Dancers Inherit The Earth, which is good advice if we choose to take it. So what’s that all about, oh Noble one?
‘It’s been four years since our last record although we’ve done soundtracks and other projects,’ he says. ‘In those disciplines you can’t be thinking, “Hey listen to us. Listen to our wonderful tunes.” You’re there to serve the visuals. You’re playing a supporting role. We had to go back to writing verses, choruses and our best melodies and that was a bit of a challenge.’
Amid the layers of guitars, keyboards and exquisite viola – courtesy of Abi Fry – they’ve certainly remembered their knack for hooks and melodies. It’s typified in different ways by the tracks Bad Bohemian and Keep Trying. Sample lyrics include: ‘The formation of the elements makes you yearn / What’s done is done and open to redemption / just periodic elements to be learned.’ And the chorus of the latter which includes the chant ‘Sechs Freunde! Sechs Freunde!’ ‘We love people coming up with their own meanings to our lyrics. We’re not precious like that,’ he says. ‘But we had to edit out the ‘Sechs Freunde!’ chant in Keep Trying when we sent it into [BBC] Radio 2. They thought we were alluding to some sexual predilection.’
The literal German translation of Sechs Freunde is Six Friends and it relates to the ‘small world experiment’ that proposes that you are only six people away by connection from anyone else on the planet.
‘We’re saying that because you are only small connections away from anyone that the possibility of changing people, changing things would be really high if people really went for it.’ And Noble is clear that beyond the perceived quirkiness of some aspects of their presentation there is serious intent to British Sea Power.
The track The Voice Of Ivy Lee is so-named for the first PR guru of that name; effectively the world’s first spin-doctor.
‘It’s frightening that the people who are running America and the people who speak for them at the moment are just lying,’ Noble says. ‘We know they’re lying. They know we know they’re lying but anyone who points that out to them is just shouted down by them. It’s outrageous and its dangerous.’
‘We love people coming up with their own meanings to out lyrics. We’re not precious like that’