TINDERSTICKS

THIS WAY UP, 1993

From a kitchen in Queen’s Park, west London, came this epic, sumptuous debut Individually and collectively we’d spent the previous eight or nine years making demo tapes and sending them to record companies, but there was no interest in Nottingham music from the industry. At the end of 1990, we moved to London, and I was fortunate to get a job at the Rough Trade shop. I think being exposed to a different type of creativity was very freeing – it was a do-it-yourself time, labels like Domino were starting, and there was a lot of energy around in London. We were so disillusioned with trying to please a certain idea of what the records companies were that we just started making records in our kitchen in Queen’s Park, where the whole of the first album was demoed. By the time we got a chance to [properly] record it, we had a really strong idea of what it should be. We were listening to things that maybe not many people were listening to at the time – Lee Hazlewood, Townes Van Zandt, Serge Gainsbourg, lots of different things. It was a time for British music that was almost like a dead spot, there was no overriding dogma, and so it felt like there was freedom, and we happened on that time. I don’t think we were expecting it to be 21 songs, but I suppose we thought we might never make another one! It just gathered momentum on a daily basis. [Producer] Ian Caple was able to bring something to these ideas and help us realise them. Some of the ideas were pretty radical at the time, of what we were trying to do. We were very much in tune, so he was an important part.

We recorded at The Townhouse 3, the original Ramport Studio that The Who built to make Tommy. It was a very special place, it had a very particular sound and a real energy about it. I really like the sound of that record.