On May 11, long-term Quietus favourites The Pre New are putting out their new album The Male Eunuch on 3LoopMusic. We’ve previously heard ‘Speed Queen’ from the record, and now the band have unveiled another song, ‘Photographed’, an art-rock rumination on today’s snap-happy culture – take a listen above.
By way of introduction to the album, the band’s Stu Boreman writes: "Binary digital bankruptcy converts this sonic debris into the sound of summer. Offshore becomes onshore as British Summer Time arrives early. Shot through the black hole into the hole in your heart, it’s the colour chart from hell. Foxton’s still burns. Face-sitting is banned. Froch vs Groves. Farrow & Ball. We are at war." Intriguing, eh? We though it was high time we found out more, so we consulted Boreman’s bandmate and two–time Quietus interviewee Jim Fry. Meanwhile, catch the band on Marc Riley’s 6 Music show on May 11, which they’ll be following with three dates, down at the foot of the article.
We’re really enjoying this new track, ‘Photographed’ – can you tell us a little about it?
Jim Fry: We came up with this song for the album a while ago, it was one of the first we wrote. It sort of rolled out on its own. It’s a bit ‘Numan-esque’ isn’t it? A big wide electronic slab of pop music.
Playing it back now it also reminds me of Holland Tunnel Dive by impLOG, which is one of my favourite records.
Photography has always been central to anything I’ve got involved in – I’ve made a living out of it, but I’ve never taken a selfie – I just don’t get it. I was Barcelona with my phone and we took the train to Castelldefels – Barcelona suburban footballer belt – to get out of the city for the day. I couldn’t bring myself to take a selfie – what would be the point? No one wants to see a picture of me with a tree growing out of my head, and anyway, it might remind you that you’re on your own and make you feel really lonely…
What can we expect from the album? Stu Boreman’s statement in the press release mentions horrific estate agents, expensive paint and face-sitting, among other things.
JF: The album is a reflection of what we’ve been doing and how we’ve been wasting all our our time.
We sort of put up the antenna and see what is transmitted and make it into an album, a bit like tuning through radio stations without listening to a whole tune… more of an observation than a crusade.
Moving home and painting your house nine different shades of white paint was inevitably part of the story for the two Stuarts in the band. (Spunk White is Stu Boreman’s favourite colour).
Vinny Gibson has been through great deal in the last 12 months and become central to the band and there’s a lot of him on there. MRI scanners and estate agents with shit aftershave, and the banning of face-sitting and me wandering around Barcelona not taking selfies all came down the same transmitter, so they all make it onto the album.
Stu B writes like that, he always has: there’s a great example of this on the tracks ‘Middle Class Heavy Metal On Anti Depressants’ and ‘Janet Vs. John’… That’s what it must be like inside the wind farms of his mind. It’s good to get some sleeve notes out there or scramble with the lyrics; for me it’s another extension of the music and the artwork. The album is like others I’ve been a part of… everyone in the band is invited to have a go; there is no such singular way of writing a Pre New tune. It’s a compilation album of what’s going on inside our Pre New heads during the winter of 2014.
We’re intrigued to see that the record will be coming out on PowerPoint – why diversify releases down the path of software? Could we expect future singles on Excel?
JF: If we’re going to sing songs about 21st-century office life, Foxton’s, LA Fitness City boys and girls and meal deals then we should transmit our album using the correct medium for them, the one they are familiar and comfortable with and the one they will understand – surely PowerPoint is it isn’t it?
We were talking about getting maximum resolution for the sound and vision when we mastered The Male Eunuch last week and it could look and sound really special. I can almost see our album being ‘presented’ to a small group of office workers, around 4.30pm, mid week through an office window, you know, about 10-12 people gathering around taking notes… nodding and smiling gently in the half-light pretending they’re enjoying themselves, like a Jeff Koons photograph.
Three-minute single on PowerPoint? I’m not sure about that – aren’t PowerPoint demonstrations about going on a bit? (Not that our album is that long; 44 minutes actually).
Finally, what can you tell us about the psycho-geographic tour of the UK?
JF: Ahh yes… Pub talk made real. It’s not the first time we’ve hatched an idea pissed out of our heads and implemented it. That’s how we ended up at the top of MT Fuji…
I guess it’s all about land art, Robert Smithson and Hamish Fulton and all that stuff… we’re not the first band to employ this way of touring, but it’s not been done for a while. It’s about placing our British Rail-inspired Pre New logo across the UK, Europe or anywhere else, and following the outline. If I’m being honest it’s looking a bit patchy at the moment, but it should all fall into place. We start with a live radio session in Salford and there’s a Cardiff trip planned, but we will need to find something in the Irish Sea, an oil rig disco or Stena ferry crossing. And we will eventually end up on Wardour Street in London. Because we’ve said it we have to do it. I’m looking forward to where it takes us. I’ve never been to Trowbridge or Hereford… but I have been to me…
Pre-New tour dates:
MAY
Tue 12 – Rough Trade in-store, Nottingham
Wed 13 – Rough Trade East in-store, London
Fri 15 – St Moritz, London
