“We were very headstrong…”
Stuart Murdoch speaks to Sophie Harris.
Did the idea of doing these as self-produced EPs come as a fully formed master plan? “The message from on high, from the record company was, ‘Don’t rush’ (laughs). But our group writes so much that when we’re in a period of work, we just wanna get on with it. And I thought, Let’s just in an underhand way quietly start recording and compiling tracks.”
There are nods back to the early records in terms of the arrangements… “In a practical sense, if you take a producer out of the equation then you get closer to the band, and the process of us making those records all those years ago. It’s quite artless and closer to our early inclinations. It gave us a nice sense of freedom.”
How do you relate to the first three EPs and those old photos now? “The thing that I have the strongest relationship with is the early songs. And that’s devoid of the actual recordings of them, because we were learning a trade and we were very headstrong and we made some raggedy sounding records. But when we play live, I still feel that they’re relevant to me. With the pictures, I love the delicacy of the early group, the naivety of it. You know, those things that people sometimes cast against us, ‘Fucking Belle And Sebastian’ and all this. I like that stuff, I’m glad that we had women in our band when it was a very laddish atmosphere.”
You’ve been exploring Buddhism recently. How did that happen? “It really surprised me, being almost 50 and having a substantial foothold in the Christian religion. I was struggling with my health so I went along to meditate and try and get some energy back. But actually I was really surprised with the things they were talking about there, and it really changed me quite fundamentally. If you can’t change the circumstance then you can actually change your mind. And I don’t mean that in an airy fairy way. You can put up this protection by calming your mind and by getting away from anger and fear and encouraging a mind of patient acceptance. It can be a game-changer.”