6
Bido Lito! April 2015
Words: Maurice Stewart / theviewfromthebooth.tumblr.com
Photography: Andy Votel
Despite a career stretching over twenty years, incorporating
five singles with the Sleeper-esque Kill Laura, an album of
synth pop with Misty Dixon and five previous solo records, JANE
WEAVER is endearingly unprepared for stardom. The success of
her sixth album – the prog-folk masterpiece The Silver Globe
– has caught her somewhat on the hop. All of which explains
why she's spending a precious day off drowning under waves
of unread emails: “I thought I'd worked hard before, but actually
this is what hard work really feels like!”
As her melodic yet melancholic tales of intergalactic
misadventures racked up the column inches, and saw her
welcomed into the influential bosom of BBC Radio 6Music,
Weaver was claimed by Liverpool, Manchester and all parts in
between. My request for clarity causes the second hearty laugh
barely three minutes into the interview: “They can all have me!”
All claims appear valid. Currently residing in Marple (just
outside Stockport), Weaver was born in Liverpool, but grew up
in Cheshire. Returning for college, it was here that Kill Laura
was born, before crossing the M62 to sign with Rob Gretton's
Manchester Records. Working with Gretton brought Weaver
into contact with a multitude of talented musicians and future
collaborators, including Badly Drawn Boy, Doves and her husband
– DJ, producer and co-founder of Twisted Nerve, Andy Votel.
“I've never really belonged anywhere – while living in Liverpool
I was called a Woollyback because I didn't have the proper accent!
I was on Billy Butler's show a few years back and he was getting
complaints because I didn't sound Scouse enough to be from
Liverpool.” Thankfully those fiercely defended boundaries don't
exist in the musical realm. And in disregard of these boundaries,
Weaver has staged her latest album amongst the stars.
The Silver Globe is a concept album based on a film by madcap
Polish director Andrzej Zulawski that deals with a bleak apocalyptic
future. “It's about starting a new civilisation on another planet,
but it goes wrong. Andy was watching it at home, kinda checking
out the soundtrack. I was intrigued but it was so bizarre I had
to watch it again on my own to try and understand what was
going on. Then it broke my TV! It's very stark and depressing – the
cinematography, the colouring, full of greys and blues. The idea of
artists literally fighting to get their work out there really made an
impression on me.” Weaver is a long-term fan of science fiction,
dating back to a childhood obsession with Space 1999: “I loved
shows like The Tomorrow People, and Sapphire And Steel – I was
attracted to anything with a weird edge to it.”
Despite the otherworldly setting and spike in acclaim, in
Weaver's eyes The Silver Globe isn't a grand departure from her
previous work. She claims the difference to 2010's The Fallen By
Watch Bird – released during the rise of the Mumfords – is one
bidolito
bidolito.co.uk
of motivation, rather than style. “The Fallen By Watch Bird was
The
exasperating – I was getting bored of being a singer/songwriter.
It was a time when it seemed everyone was OD'ing on folk. I
began looking to inject more experimental elements into my
music.” Finding inspiration in movie soundtracks, Weaver created
a score for Finnish director/designer Paloa Suhonen's 2011's
short, Intiaani Kesa (translation: Indian Summer). Employing and
enjoying a wider range of instruments, such as tubular bells,
bowed guitars and detuned pianos, Intiaani Kesa acted as a
bridge to the loftier ambitions of The Silver Globe.
In the wrong hands, a concept record can stifle creativity
just as easily as give it new life – narrowing the walls instead
of focusing the mind. In this case it was just what the doctor
ordered, as Weaver explains with unmistakeable vigour: “I really
enjoyed writing in that manner, with a narrative and a theme
running through everything. Rather than sitting down thinking
‘I've got to write a song from scratch’, there was a bigger sound
picture to work with. An enjoyable process, if not necessarily
a quick one.” The familiar struggle of fitting creativity into the
timetable of family life meant the album took nearly four years
to complete. “Eventually it all came together. At the start I did
worry about how they [the tracks] would all link together, but
the experience of being older made me realise I don't care if they
don't marry perfectly – an album is supposed to be a collection of
songs, and that's what it is.”
February's re-release of the record saw that collection expand
to a second disc. The Amber Light features four brand-new songs,
three instrumental scores and three tracks from The Silver
Globe re-imagined by Votel, The Horrors' Tom Furse and drone
rock virtuoso P.J. Philipson. They may be born in the same world,
but Weaver is keen to assert that The Amber Light is more than
just stale leftovers: “ %Н́