Mt Desolation

Insieme per un album membri dei Killers, Keane e Mumford & Sons

Una collaborazione apparentemente strana ha visto assieme in sala di registrazione membri di vari gruppi riuniti con il nome di Mt Desolation. Si tratta di Ronnie Vannucci, batterista dei Killers; Tim Rice-Oxley, compositore e tastierista dei Keane; John Roderick dei Long Winters di Seattle; Marshall Winston, suonatore di banjo degli indie-folk Mumford & Sons; e infine Tom Hobden, violinista dei Noah And The Whale. La formazione, riunitasi a Londra, ha prodotto un album di canzoni country che sarà pubblicato nel corso di quest'anno.

fonte: rockol


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Pensare che avevo intuito qualcosa di questo progetto parallelo sul forum dei Keane, ma non ero andata a leggere bene di cosa si trattasse.
Non mi aspettavo di ritrovarmi Keane e i The Killers insieme. Anche se l'idea di un album country non mi ispira nulla di buono. E poi non riesco a vedere Tim Rice-Oxley in altre vesti all'infuori del pianista indemoniato dei Keane

Allora, rispolvero questo topic per parlare un pò di questo progetto che unisce gente di un pò di band diverse.

Intanto una piccola recensione dal Rolling Stone nostrano:




In tempi di recessione spinta, che continua ormai da anni nel mondo della musica, la nascita di un nuovo supergruppo non fa di certo male, anzi forse è l'unico antidoto per sopravvivere a un periodo di vacche magre profondo come questo.

Così accogliamo con piacere la nascita dei Mt Desolation , nuova band che raccoglie facce a dir poco familiari a chi di musica ne mastica. Alla batteria ci sarà Ronnie Vannucci dei Killers, mentre l'indie folker Tom Hobden dei Noah And THe Whale e Winston Marshall dei Mumford and Sons sono fortemente coinvolti nel progetto. Chiudono in bellezza Tim Rice-Oxley e Jesse Quin dei Keane. La band nata dopo una sbronza colossale in un pub di Dublino, riporta Clash Music, sta terminando la registrazioni del nuovo album.


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E poi per chi mastica l'inglese, ecco un'intervista a Tim Rice-Oxley

It started, as many ingenious ideas do: over a few, or maybe more than a few, drinks at a cozy bar—specifically, a Dublin pub. A little more than a year later, Tim Rice-Oxley and Jesse Quin, pianist and bassist respectively in Keane, had a new project, a new album, and a new tour on their hands.



Mt. Desolation take their name from the fictional mountain in Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, and the music reflects that nominal starting point, even if the American-style country it aims for often comes off (wonderfully) more Kinks than Cash—more Muswell Hillbilly than Virginia hillbilly. The self-titled album, made with members of Mumford and Sons, Noah and the Whale, and the Killers, is an understated gem, full of melody, brisk storytelling, and barely concealed excitement—no wonder Rice-Oxley was in such a pleasant mood when he spoke to Blender.



So, the now-famous band origin story. You and Keane bassist Jesse Quin are in a bar, and...

Well, Jesse and I spend a lot of time sitting around drinking and talking about music, which is basically my favorite way of spending an evening. On this evening in question I'd gotten around to talking about country music, and even more strangely, about making a country album. We thought it would be a challenge to make a pastiche-y country album, seeing as how we're two pasty English guys.

Once we started writing the songs, it developed into something we were much more excited about. And we began drawing some friends into it.



Did you and Jesse write together or separately?

We wrote the songs individually, but once we had gathered up the collection of demos we had, then we'd kick ideas back and forth, tweak lyrics, say, or a song's bridge. There was a lot of finessing that was collaborative. But the initial ideas for songs were definitely individual.



The album is so enjoyable because not only does the music come from a country place, but so, too, do the lyrics.

The challenge was to write lyrics that had that country spirit of not being afraid of emotion, and of telling stories, but to do it in a way that felt real to us—in a way that wasn't just us pretending to be American. There were times when it was difficult, but it was a pleasure to dig in and write songs that were meaningful to us.



It's interesting that you keep bringing up your Englishness as outsider status, because there are lot of elements of English folk and traditional music in American country. I don't see two Englishmen making a country album as a huge stretch of the imagination as others might.

I don't either. But, country music is such a huge part of American culture, yet in the UK, it still seems to have a sort of stigma attached to it. There's still a sense, even with the great songwriters, that it's a bit of a guilty pleasure for people... and it's difficult for people to get over that. And to me, it seems rooted perhaps, in xenophobia [laughs]! I think that opinion is gradually being eroded, which is a good thing, of course. And I think that Nashville songwriters are the best in the world.

I think the qualities that make great American country music so well-loved are fundamental things that make beautiful songs. The ability to bring emotion into songs, and to wear your heart on your sleeve is crucial, as is the ability to bring humor into very sad songs—to tell tragic stories in a catchy song. Those are qualities that pop and rock songwriters are always striving for. But I think in the genres that I'm more used to, people are afraid of doing things this way—we're always being knocked off course by other agendas. It seems like there's less bullshit surrounding country music.



So you had the songs written, and then it was time to hit the studio. How were the songs recorded? Were they cut quickly?

Pretty quickly, yeah. The original idea was to do it live, or as live as we could. We had a core band of six players: Tom Hobden from Noah and the Whale was there for a lot of it, John Roderick from The Long Winters was there for a lot of it... We had a core of six or seven or eight of us, and a producer as well. And then others would just drift in and out.

We did all of the basic tracks live, and then we'd add bits accordingly when people could make it down to the studio. We did things fairly quickly, as we didn't have much time, and we didn't have much money to spend. So there were those constraints, but also I'd never made an album that way, so it was a challenge for me. I'm not a technically great musician, but it was exciting to do it this way, and I hope that comes across on the record.



How did you decide who would join you on the record—are these people friends?

Yeah, absolutely! All people that we knew and loved, and wanted to make music with, but hadn't had a chance to. Part of the purpose behind the album was to create a context to put all of these people in a room together—to make music together.

It started off with 'Well it'd be great to have some fiddle, as we're trying to do a country record.' So we called up Tom Hobden. Then it became, 'Well, we could use a banjo,' so we called up Winston [Marshall, from Mumford and Sons]. And from there it spiraled out of control. Soon people we'd bump into a gigs, or see out, were coming down to the studio, adding guitar lines or backing vocals or whatever. It became very loose, and the album evolved in that way... which was really fun.



In the official Mt. Desolation bio, Ronnie Vannucci of the Killers is credited with drums and 'vibes.'

[Laughs] Ronnie was one of the many people that came in and did small parts here and there. He added some nice drums and percussive touches in the middle of "Departure," as well as hitting an anvil and coming up with other strange effects. He's so used to being responsible for all of the drum parts on an album that I think it was quite nice for him to be able to experiment and throw down little things. And I think it was like that for everyone who was a guest contributor, if you will.



So you set out to make a country record. What are some of the touchstones, the names from the record collection that came to mind when making the album?

Well it's hardly a music snob's country album [laughs]. I mean, people would expect us to say names like Dolly Parton, for example, and yes, that's there, but there was a lot of influence from West Coast rock, for example—Fleetwood Mac were quite a big influence on this record. Also Springsteen, Petty, and a lot of what you'd call alt-country, for example Wilco, as well as The Band, Neil Young, and Dylan.

And we brought our English influences, of course. When I played what I thought were very American sounding demos to John Roderick, he said it sounded like the Kinks! [laughs] So I don't think however hard we try that we are ever going to sound American.



What has the reaction to Mt. Desolation been from Tom [Chaplin] and Richard [Hughes] from Keane?

They've been lovely—really good, really encouraging. Jesse and I are very focused on Keane, and very excited about making the next Keane record. We've fit Mt. Desolation around Keane, so it's not like there's been a clash of schedules. And they love the music. Tom's been to quite a few Mt. Desolation gigs, even the first two tiny ones, just to support us, really. They've been brilliant about it; it hasn't caused any problems at all.

Both of those guys appreciate escaping from the Keane thing for a few weeks, getting back to normal life, which I think is very sensible, whereas Jesse and I are obsessives that need to be making music every moment that we're awake.



It might be too early to ask this, but what is the future of Mt. Desolation?

I don't know. We're very lucky that we don't feel the pressure to push it for all it's worth. Our plan is to do this tour and then go back to the UK and start making the next Keane album straight away... and I'm sure that will take up the next two years of our lives!

We have a very strong sense of wanting to continue Mt. Desolation, but it's hard to know yet when or how we will continue. But it's nice to put it aside while there's still a hunger to do more. We really enjoyed making the record, which is important. It's been so fun making it, so fun being on tour. We just did three weeks in the UK, and now we're living the dream bringing the tour to the States. It's been amazing, and I've learned so much from it. I would love to do it again, and I'm very excited to take everything I've learned back to writing for Keane. It's been a real education to me—a real eye-opener.



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Quindi, tanto per cominciare, leggendo l'intervista di Tim, si capisce che la presenza di Ronnie Vannucci dei The Killers è molto limitata, rispetto a quanto si vociferava inizialmente.
Poi che a cantare sono proprio lui e Jesse dei Keane ad alternarsi.
Ma sopratutto, cosa importante per i fan dei Keane, che questo progetto non minerà la carriera dei keane, ma che anzi, grazie a questo "svago", sembra che si siano trovati nuovi stimoli musicali, e sopratutto che gli altri membri (Tom e Richard) siano stati contenti di prendersi qualche settimana di riposo dopo il Forest Tour estivo dei Keane e che hanno sempre supportato il progetto parallelo dei due amici.

L'unica cosa che ancora non riesco a mandare giù, è una frase rilasciata da Tim in un'altra intervista nella quale Tim afferma di essere sempre vissuto all'ombra di Tom (nei Keane).
Ovviamente da quel giorno non guardo più nello stesso modo Tim
Cmq al momento non ho ascoltato l'album. Solo una canzone, "Annie Ford" che però trovo molto piacevole, in tipico stile Keane e con un retrogusto alla Bruce Springsteen.

Per finire eccovi pure un video.
Buon ascolto

l'ho ascoltato e mi sembra molto country rock .....come stile...cmq meglio i keane nella loro consueta formazione...anche se è una valida alternativa quella proposta in questo cd...

Si, lo stile è asssolutamente country, molto distante dalla nostra cultura musicale (anche dalla loro a dir la verità, visto che sono Britannici ) però qualcosina non è male.

La cosa che non mi sarei mai aspettata di dire è che preferisco la voce di Jesse a quella di Tim. O per lo meno è molto più nello stile musicale del progetto.

Comunque anche la canzone del video non è male, e poi il video m'è piaciuto parecchio. Davvero carino

Ah...ho appena scoperto che le canzoni cantate da Tim, sono scritte da lui. E lo stesso discorso vale per Jesse. In poche parole le canzoni vengono cantate da chi le ha scritte (piccola curiosità in più)
Ho letto inoltre che nei vari cori, partecipa anche la moglie di Tim.