Hit The North

The Jane Bradfords’ Deci Gallen on the inspiration behind his remarkable new album.

Colin Carberry, 01 Mar 2012

Deci Gallen may have just made the album of his life, but that hasn’t stopped a little part of him yearning for a spot of moonlighting.

“I love photography,” he reveals. “It’s just a much more immediate process than making music. The album took me a year to mix, never mind record. Photographs – if you want to do it, you just go out there and do it. It’s an illusion, of course. Because once you take them home and develop them, you start noticing what’s wrong. I mean, I took the cover picture and love it, but the lines aren’t straight enough – I probably needed to spend as much time on it as the record.”

100 Miles Of Broken Pavement, the ten-track delight we’re talking about, is the second LP that Deci’s band, The Jane Bradfords, have released. And while it zips along at a rare downhill clip, it’s primarily a record of deep textures and arresting details. One that repays the time and attention lavished on it over the last three years.

“It was psychotically worked over,” he laughs. “Every detail, every shade. Not in a dry, clinical way; I just wanted to make sure I got everything right. Making an album is its own wee trip. Every stage – writing, recording, mixing, coming up with the track-listing – throws up surprises. At times it felt like the songs were dictating things to us rather than the other way round.”

Lyrically speaking, Pavement... is an album that wears its war-wounds on its sleeve. Songs like ‘Until The End’ and ‘About Our Love’ come with enough baggage to trigger an extortionate surcharge. Safe to say, it’s not a young man’s record.

“No, it’s not,” says Deci. “Wish it was though. I could talk all day about the music, but it’s funny – I do feel a bit queasy at the thought of someone unpicking the lyrics. I try not to think too much about them, but it’s broadly about growing up. It’s about interactions. Not necessarily romantic ones – just people getting on with one another, and the problems that crop up. But it’s funny, once it’s out there – it’s out of your control. People attach their own meanings to things. Someone said ‘Retro Romance‘ was an anti-hipster anthem. It isn’t. And anyway, the only people who would write anti-hipster anthems are hipsters. I’m definitely not a hipster.”

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