THE MODERN RECORD INTERVIEWS: 'FRANK CARTER & DEAN RICHARDSON'
Sitting down in the back of Fibbers in York before their final gig of a 13 date tour in 2 weeks which has seen them tour the majority of the country testing out the new material for their brand new album release, I got the chance to speak to Frank and Dean about the tour, the new album and their bonding music tastes.
FRANK CARTER
We are here at the last date of the current UK Tour, how has the reaction been to the new music?
Frank Carter:
“The new music has had a phenomenal reaction I mean we play one of the songs (Crowbar) first and its bizarre to me. We remember when we wrote ‘Lullaby’ and we remember how hard it was to put that into a set early on because we were excited about that song and it was met with like “hmmmm, ok?” and then we come out on this tour and we were like right, we are gonna change things up. We play 5 new songs and the reaction to every one of them has been pretty explosive. “
Dean Richardson:
“I thought we would end up by the end of the tour only playing 2 because after playing them in the shows we would think, you know what it’s not worth it so let’s just wait until they are out but no.... they will never leave the set now.”
Frank Carter:
“There has been a real change in how our fans engage with our music it’s been wonderful. It’s been amazing.”
That’s exactly what you want isn’t it?
Frank Carter:
“Literally it’s EXACLY what you want, you couldn’t ask for anything more. We feel humbled by the reaction.”
So the album is out on the 3rd of May what can we expect from it?
Frank Carter:
“You can expect honesty and savagery and wonder, beauty, magic..... it’s about the last 2 years of my life lyrically and musically I guess it’s about the last two years of yours (Dean) isn’t it? And how those two things kind of collide together and they have made a really beautiful selection of songs that are an honest portrayal of everything we have been through in that time. When you listen back to it, its ultimately very hopeful. There are some really low points but there are some really celebratory high points in there as well and that’s life that’s how life is. It’s very easy to just loose yourself in the misery sometimes and keep yourself at a low place. I’d always tell fans really to not expect anything, id say throw your expectations out the window and try and listen with an open mind. “
Is the album based on personal experiences or ones that you have had together?
Frank Carter:
“The thing is when you are writing about problems, a lot of the time people will have similar problems but they are never the same you know? Lyrically its about me, its about everything I have experienced, everything I have gone through so it’s the most personal record I have ever written. I try to not hide, like in the past I’ve hidden what I’ve really meant through a lot of metaphors and I’ve talked around things, this time I’ve tried to be direct. I’ve still found the right metaphors but I’m getting better at them, there a lot closer to the bone and that’s my favourite part of the record. “
So do you write separately or together? How does it come together?
Dean Richardson:
“We usually write the starts of the lyrics and the music separately and then kind of bring that together so that we can write the songs together, and that can mean writing more music and more lyrics in that moment but we try to bring some stuff to it to put down, literally like this we are doing here. If I had a guitar now this would be it. Sometimes the best stuff has been when we have both just ran out. It’s not like when we have run out of ideas that that’s a wrap.”
Frank Carter:
“We write on our own because naturally as creative people we have to, otherwise you feel a little bit crazy but when we come together that’s when the magic happens. That’s when something he has got will inspire a new melody with old word and suddenly I can see a new song in a whole new light. Or I will Frankenstein a new lyric from here with another one from over here from pg66 of my note book because of what I’ve heard him play.”
Dean Richardson:
“Basically until they merge I don’t think either of us really know what’s the best or worst thing that we have got. “
Now that we are on album 3 have you found the sound that you were wanting to create when you left the Gallows?
Frank Carter:
“When I left the Gallows I created the bad Pure Love that were at the time the antithesis of everything the Gallows was. That was the wipe the slate clean and start again. With this, it’s not about what I wanted to do then, it’s about what we want to do now. We took Rattlesnakes from an idea of us wanting to play some heavy music and let off some steam because we were both feeling quite frustrated with music and it just connected in a way that neither of us really expected and we just pounced on it and thought ok this might just be our moment. And we both thought of all the people we have worked within our past all the musical partners we have had, we have just found the right match. Once we had that we thought well let’s get to work and we went at it... probably too much we burned ourselves out on the second album. “
Why was that?
Frank Carter:
“That’s because we wrote both (albums) back to back and recorded them back to back so it was just a solid 3 years. The albums were written within the same 12 months and recorded so we held back the second one a whole year so we could release it at the correct time.”
Dean Richardson:
“Its just a complete blur of those 2 albums but then it was about playing live to cement us as a really important act worldwide.”
Frank Carter:
“Because at that point everyone was like oh well he has done Gallows and Pure Love who is he? And saying about Dean he was in Heights which was tecky metal so we were both just like have a seat, have a sit down and listen to these fucking songs and watch this and everyone was like, well they’ve still got it! They aint getting old yet!”
Dean Richardson:
“Ive think I’ve got more energy for live than I’ve ever had...”
Frank Carter:
“Look at ya, that’s because your fucking hitting the gym every day.”
Dean Richardson:
“Nah, I think it because this is the music that I like the most and when you see people really going for it , I feel we have to match it, so the crowds make it harder to slow down. “
And a final question, if you could do a cover of any song, what would it be?
Dean Richardson:
“Ive got one right now, “Red Right Hand”
Frank Carter:
“Really?”
Dean Richardson:
“Yeah, just because we have been talking about it and thinking what would it sound like? I like it when a song had been covered a lot and so that becomes the legacy of that song. “
Frank Carter:
“Well we bonded over Nick Cave quite early on because I think arguably he is one of the best lyricists and song writers of all time and we see ourselves mirrored in what he and Warren Ellis do quite a lot, they have got a really strong partnership and trust each other. So fuck yeah, that would be a banger... we should do it!”