This Saturday, December 6, Rose Dougall’s playing Wire’s ace DRILL: BRIGHTON festival, and ahead of that, she’s kindly given us a new song, ‘Take Yourself With You’. It follows on from last year’s EP Future Vanishes left off: lush, hook-laden four-minute pop with touches of Destroyer’s gloriously louche Kaputt.
What’s more, as Dougall tells us below, it’s the first taster of her new album, STELLULAR, which is on the way next year. Have a read of our interview below and get hold of tickets for DRILL here.
How has 2014 been for you?
Rose Dougall: It’s been quite a strange transitional year to be honest. I finished my album, which is probably the biggest achievement. On a personal level it has been a year of big shifts and extended periods of reflection. I feel like 2015 is going to be better for what I’ve worked through this year, creatively and emotionally.
Tell us about ‘Take Yourself With You’ – when did you write it, and what’s it all about?
RD: I wrote it last year whilst I was getting songs together for the album. It’s about something I’ve noticed in myself and other people, the need to escape, the thought, ‘If I went to this or that place, I could reinvent myself, everything could be different, I could be better, etc, etc’, but then maybe you can’t escape who you are essentially, and maybe learning to accept to exist within that might be a way to be truly liberated instead of running away. I was thinking about this a lot at the time, having left people behind through my travels and being left behind myself. Distance, space, the passing of time; I realise that these have become overarching themes of the record since having lived with it for a few months. All of these kind of ideas, but translated into a four-minute pop song… ha!
Is it part of a new collection of material? And if so, can you tell us about that?
RD: Yes, this is a track taken from my forthcoming album entitled STELLULAR, which is gonna be coming out in spring next year. I recorded it over the course of last year and this, with Oli Bayston. It follows on from my Future Vanishes EP that I released last November, and maybe represents the more melodic, song-based material from the record. I’m really looking forward to getting this music out into the world finally!
You’re playing DRILL this weekend. What is your favourite Wire song?
RD: Maybe ‘Lowdown’? It’s my first show in a year so I’m very happy to be playing alongside such a good bunch of bands. I was very flattered that Colin Newman e-mailed me to ask if I would be on the bill with his band Githead… Should be an interesting combination!!
What music have you been enjoying this year?
RD: The first half of this year I found myself listening to a lot of old soul, people like Roddie Joy, Sunny & The Sunliners, Carlos Wright and then stuff like Timmy Thomas and Marlena Shaw… I think Cate Le Bon’s record was my favourite album of the year, I think she’s fantastic. Such a sense of economy within the production but the songwriting and playing feels so natural, but intelligent and unusual. Pretty much everything I’ve heard by Arca has been incredible sonically… I enjoyed the DonChristian album… The Lewis record was an interesting discovery. Been getting into the Bohren & Der Club Of Gore record this week too.
