SIMPLE PLEASURE

ISLAND, 1999

A compact departure, with a simpler, soul-influenced feel

After Curtains, it felt as though we’d worked our way through something and had almost arrived in a corner. There was a feeling, maybe driven by me, that we needed to break things down and start again in a different way, and just try and discover a different way of working together. Halfway through the recording of Curtains, Ian left us, so that became a personal quest to finish the album – it put a lot of pressure on me, and I was thrown into a place that I wasn’t ready for. The only antidote I could find was listening to things like Al Green, music which felt so much simpler and more natural to me. That approach, the way the Hi Band plays together, it pointed to a new direction for us. Myself and David got the basis of a couple of songs, “Before You Close Your Eyes” and “I Know That Loving”, which were very rhythm-based. But it was like trying to change the direction of an ocean liner or something –that change was kind of brutal, from the way we made the first album to making Simple Pleasure. It started to fracture us. But at the same time, I think Simple Pleasure is one of the most important records we’ve ever made because it was the bravest record we ever made. If we hadn’t done that I don’t think we’d be playing music now, but it wasn’t without casualties.

“The only antidote I could find was to listen to things like Al Green, music which felt so much simpler” STUART STAPLES