We Are Driven

Rip It Up, Issue 88, 1 November 1984, Page 22

We Are Driven

Russell Brown

Car Crash Set make their first LP and walk away without a scratch

Nigel Russell admits he doesn’t have a clue about what kind of people buy Car Crash Set records. “I mean, we hardly ever see them,” the singer smiles and shrugs. With their debut album No AccidentouX on the streets any day now Car Crash Set have played a grand total of six times this year, mainly at clubs not noted for their capacity to squeeze in hundreds of potential consumers. In fact launching an album with that kind of backup in this country might seem foolhardy were it not for the fact that Car Crash Set have managed to sell respectable quantities of their first two singles already. “Here you’re expected to play live, do it all first, before people can say 'I like that song’ and go out and buy the record," he says. “I think we’ve been pretty successful in getting away from that. After all, people will go out and buy a Rolling Stones record or one by the flavour of the month English band when their chances of ever seeing either live are pretty slim.” Car Crash Set songs come from a nucleus of Nigel, keyboardist Dave Bulog and guitarist Trevor Reekie additional musicians are brought in for live performances or for recording. Would it be true to say that the band as a whole is still learning to play live? “Yeah, that would be right. We haven’t played very much but we finally seem to have settled into a lineup now so it’s going to be easier to rehearse. I think our last gig at the Windsor was the one where we really started to find our feet." It's also been suggested that the band should put on more of a show live...

“I think we found out a lot more about the gear and about getting something from our heads into a usable sound. It was just a matter of the different ways we could connect things up and use pieces of equipment," Nigel explains. They’re happy with the production of the album which isn't to say they wouldn’t change anything given the chance to rework it: “I couldn’t put my finger on any one thing for the whole album but just things song by song. There are ideas we tried which I don’t think quite worked which doesn’t necessarily mean anyone else is going to notice it.” With ‘Breakdown’ (the single) the oldest song on the record apart from last year’s ’lmagination’ B-side 'Those Days! Dave describes the album as marking a period of transition for the band. "I think the album is part of a change for the band, it’s sort of a move across to what the band will be like in the future, sort of half old and half new," he explains. "On several tracks we’ve mixed the synthesisers back. They’re still there but we’re not a synthesiser band any more.” “I don’t think we ever were that was just a convenient term,” adds Nigel.

“So we want to dispel the tag to : tally," Dave continues. “We're as much a ’synthesiser band’ as, say, Hunters and Collectors they were using a Fairlight two years ago. That was the ultimate in synthesiser technology and no one classed them as a.synthesiser band. The songs are just songs." Nigel: “The songs would work regardless of what they were played on and I think that’s always the bot-? tom line, the songs. It doesn’t matter so much how they’re played, what they’re played on or even how they’re recorded |a[Asl if to prove the point, guitar dominates their most recent recording, ‘East and West’, which took a mere five hours to put down at Echo Park. Nigel describes it as one of three or four songs in the set that can ’’go either way, fail or succeed live because they’re open to ' spontaneity. We still haven’t really made ’East and West’ work live." ’East and West’ won’t be out until next year and between now and then Car Crash Set would like to play live a little more, perhaps out of town. A major problem is that it’s hard to make sufficient money to reimburse professionals like Pat. Like every synthesiser owner both Dave and Nigel have their eyes on new and better gear. Nigel has sold all ; his and will ;be looking at possibilities while he’s overseas on holiday and Dave has his eyes on a digital machine that t will not only play real sampled sounds but has the capability to play itself what he plays now, leaving him free to play, say, a guitacp|o^o^HM They’re also looking at overseas support and a tape of ‘East and West’ has been despatched to New Order’s Bernie Albrecht for comments and perhaps an offer to mix it. 7 And musically? Dave: "Rhythmically, we wanttb become a lot freer, because I find’that a lot of the English stuff is very tight but I think Australasia nrhythms are a lot looser and that’s what I’m interested in working towards. And I’d also like to write songs with certain emotional quality something that people can get something out of.”

■ “I don’t know, if we were putting on a show it wouldn’t be us. At the j moment I . see it as being fairly honest. We’re not putting on airs and graces when we get on stage. I’ve had a lot of people say to me .things like 'why don’t you get Dave to jump around a bit more?’ well that’s just not Dave. It’s the way it is and I don’t think a "show" as such is necessary. I think well probably, ■ loosen up on stage the more we do.” No AccidentuWWsed the talents of Trevor’s workmate Sharon Tuapawa on vocals, Ryan Monga on bass and Roddy Carlson' and Henri Downes 1 (who hit things with the Machinations for a while) on percussion. But Simon Mark-Brown has now firmly settled into the live lineup as percussionist and j Pat Roxborough (who was called in at the 11th hour before the Windsor gig) may replace Ryan, who is committed to his own professional band, Ardijah. Songs basically come from the three core members, who will come up with ideas individually at home and knock them into shape as a I threesome and fit was through some fiddling about with potential ! rhythm tracks for. a single that 'No Accidentwas born:jMißß|K Nigel: “We had to use the 16-track studio at Mandrill because s the? 24-track was busyjand by the time the 24-track became free we had the basic skeletons of six songs 1 worked out and decided we might as well go ahead with an album." The album, recorded between [March and August (with a late addition, ‘Heart Of Stone’, recorded at Echo Park Studios), presented an obvious opportunity to stretch out technically.