‘It's funny; we've always felt out on our own really.’ Jack Barnett muses on his band These New Puritans. ‘Even when we first started, playing little clubs in Southend, we just had this natural inclination to move away from what was happening around us, musically.’ This year saw the release of These New Puritans’ third album, ‘Field of Reeds’, a sparse, restrained record which draws more comparisons with modern classical than with the angular post-punk of earlier releases.
Jack is quick to explain that flux is second nature to the band.‘I'm just reading about the colonisation of Mesolithic Europe by Neolithic farmers moving east to west. The Neolithic farmers crossed Europe, so about a thousand miles, in about 500 years. That's incredible; what drove them to do that? Every generation would have to move something like 25 miles. Anyway, we've always had the instinct to keep moving.’
Given that These New Puritans is a unique project, I ask Jack whether they feel an affinity with any other artists. ‘TNP draws in enough strange characters on its own. It's us 3 as the core but there's a lot of people coming in and out of our orbit for us to make albums or play live. I think this album has something like 55 people credited on it. But right now there are some young jazz people who I think are great - there's something going on there - this band called Blue-Eyed Hawk for example. We supported Bjork at the Hollywood Bowl in LA earlier in the year, and she's a good person.’
With 'Field of Reeds' These New Puritans have cast aside some of the heavy percussive elements of 'Hidden' and 'Beat Pyramid'. Jack explains the evolution of the band's sound. 'It changes over time. I think because the albums are all very different it might look like we sit down in a very premeditated way to plot what the next album will sound like. But really it's just putting one note in front of another and seeing what happens. Especially with this album, when I was writing the songs, I suppose the feelings I wanted to try and get across would just override any other sort of consideration, so I wasn’t really in control. It's more that change is just natural for us. I can't imagine making the same album over and over again, that's what would be really odd, and boring. But also we get to see the evolution between the albums whereas you only hear the albums themselves. It's a bit like seeing photos of someone taken at 3 year intervals. They might look different but it's been a natural process day by day.’
The album features a large number of musicians and Jack himself plays multiple instruments, but he seems confident about performing Field of reeds live. 'We did a micro-tour earlier this year, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris, London, LA and we're using the same band for all the shows this year. We have a 7 piece band; trumpet, French horn, piano, Elisa, Tom on electronics and George on drums / vibraphone. Oh and me. It's good - not too big, not too small. Agile but we can still make a big sound. It's perfect. Some top musicians. Elisa is singing with us which is a pleasure. Because this album is a lot more melodic and harmonic, it's quite easy to play live. You could play all these songs from start to finish on piano if you wanted. So it quite suits a honed version, it definitely brings something to the music. It intensifies it. I really love this band at the moment; it would be good to record something with them. And because now that Elisa is doing 50 percent of the singing I can focus on my 50 percent and not try and do everything. I just do what I do. I’m really enjoying it. It’s great singing with someone else, suddenly everything slots into place. You get to specialize a bit.’
2010 saw These New Puritans undertake a series of concerts performing the album Hidden live. Jack explains some of the challenges organizing a large, unconventional touring band. 'We did these shows, Hidden Live, with the full ensemble of 30-odd people or whatever it was that played on the album, with all the brass, woodwind, foley techniques, children’s choir, electronics, 2 pianos etc at the Barbican, Pompidou Centre etc. Anyway, wherever we went we had to find a different children’s choir, because you can't transport them around on a bus, you'd lose too much money. It was a bit of a nightmare. I remember in France there are all sorts of labour laws, kids can’t work for more than 3 hours, can’t stay up past 9 if they’re working, all this sort of thing. It was quite illuminating, all the different nationalities of Europe. We used live Foley techniques which involved smashing a melon with a hammer. The first show we did, when it came to the song with the melon in it, Firepower, the second percussionist hit them and bits of melon went flying all over the kids and into the pianos. We had this perspex case made for the next shows.’
It's evident that Jack has a deep and genuine love of playing live. He recalls the initial difficulties of early shows with a wry sense of humour. ‘We took quite a long time to come to terms with the idea of playing live. Haha, I remember when we first started we'd always only play for about 10 minutes, all of the songs about 4 times the speed that we'd rehearsed them, which you can sort of get away with in clubs in Southend and London but I remember for our first gig in Italy someone had signed a contract that we’d play for an hour and a half and we did our usual 10 minute set and they tried to physically stop us from leaving the stage and force us back on. I think we managed 20 minutes the next time. But anyway, we really enjoy it now. I think we're the best we've ever been live. I really like the fluidity of the music, keeping the songs alive a bit show to show. Yazz, on trumpet, is great - her solos at the ends of Organ Eternal and V [lsland Song] both of which we really extend, I really enjoy listening to. I kind of step outside of the performance and just listen.’
These New Puritans will play Hall Two at Sage Gateshead on 18th October.
Words: Gary Cossins
Picture: Willy Vanderperre
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