Tinder is the night

Tindersticks have returned to the fold with The Hungry Saw, a record that appears to mark a new beginning for the band. The group’s first album of new material in a number of years, it was recorded following the departure of three members from the line-up.

Tindersticks seem to have eagerly seized on the opportunity to start afresh, and along with the obligatory torch songs, there are moments on The Hungry Saw that could actually be described as upbeat, no more so than on the rather beautiful ‘The Flicker Of A Little Girl’.
“For me it’s about being in a space where you can be playful, and have a sense of adventure about making music,” considers Tindersticks singer Stuart Staples, seated across from your correspondent in a Ballsbridge pub on a rainy Saturday afternoon. “You get that from having a group of people who trust each other, and aren’t afraid to experiment. With that comes an exploratory approach that is kind of uplifting in itself. I don’t think about the album being upbeat, but I do think about it being rich. Rich in ideas and rich in emotion.”
In the time between The Hungry Saw and the previous Tindersticks LP, Waiting For The Moon, Stuart found time to release a solo record, and also work on an album of children’s music, which featured contributions from artists such as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Jarvis Cocker.
“Jarvis made our first video,” remarks Stuart. “He worked on it with Martin Wallace, who we’ve continued to do stuff with ever since. Martin and Jarvis were best friends, and still are I think. We had a really good time making that video, and they’ve always done things to help us. We played a week at the ICA once, with guest DJs, and it was at the time of Jarvis-mania. He came down to play records, and it was crazy, he was beating off people. But he didn’t let it stop him!”
Tindersticks’ track ‘Tiny Tears’ was memorably used over an extended sequence in The Sopranos’ episode 'Isabella’. It must have been a great moment for the group.
“I’ve never seen it,” says Stuart, incredibly. “And I’ve never had so many phone calls in my life. I have a lot of friends in England who are into The Sopranos, and it’s not that I wasn’t, it was just that I was too busy. If you don’t get sucked into something like that in a routine kind of way, it can be difficult. It’s funny, because it was the first series, and they approached us, and I read the synopsis, and I thought, ‘No, I don’t want to do this’. Then they quite slyly went and asked our American publisher, who didn’t bother asking me, and said, ‘Yeah, go for it’.
“So that was a funny story in the first place. But in general, when I turned it down, I always feel this thing from people who make films and TV, that somewhere down the line, it’s easy to borrow a little bit of authenticity and real emotion from somewhere. At the time, I really felt that, and that’s why I turned it down. I didn’t feel like being borrowed. But obviously I understand from The Sopranos that it’s done with creativity and it’s integral to the overall feel.”
One of the tracks on Waiting For The Moon, ‘4.48 Psychosis’, was named after the final work by the late British playwright, Sarah Kane, who tragically committed suicide aged 28. A play of quite astonishing emotional rawness, 4.48 Psychosis was almost a theatrical equivalent of the Manics’ The Holy Bible.
“There’s just no pretence about it, but it’s not all dark. There was a grace and a humour about the situation Sarah was in. Actually, it’s not just ‘4.48 Psychosis’, the songs throughout the album are all to do with that play. I think if I’d been strong enough at that point in time, I would have said, ‘I really need to make a whole thing about this’.
“But I turned up in Brussels on Tuesday night, and I walked into a bar and saw a poster for 4.48 Psychosis, which was starting the next day. Sarah’s work is spreading across the world, and it’s helping people. I saw the play in this small art space in Brussels, and I reconnected with the power of it all over again. It was fantastic.”

The Hungry Saw is out now on Beggars Banquet