If one of the secrets to longevity in the music industry is simply taking your time, then Danish alternative rock band Mew are grand masters. Formed in 1995, the band took eight years before a major label deal came along, and with it, international success (the superb breakthrough album Frengers). It did not lead to a rush. Some 26 years into the band’s career, Mew has released just seven studio albums - one every four years. That’s not something Spotify would advocate as an operating model for bands these days, is it?  It’s rare for a European rock band to breakthrough to an international audience and to have a career of real longevity (count them on one hand), but it is even rarer to be so damned cool about it! Yet Jonas Bjerre is unfazed by any concept of FOMO - or the creator equivalent ‘FOBF’ - fear of being forgotten. In fact, when the band released their last LP  ‘Visuals’ in 2017 just two years after the 2015 album ‘+ -’, Jonas’s overwhelming instinct was that fans were not expecting it. Visuals plays from beginning to end like a stage musical, something I put to Mew singer Jonas Bjerre on the Art of Longevity. It may well have been the influence of Prefab Sprout and Paddy McAloon. When it comes to influences, Mew are true musical alchemists. While many ‘rock’ (as in guitar rock) bands have eclectic and ‘classic pop’ influences, very few can meld them successfully into their own sound. Perhaps it’s because of the restrictive formulas of rock, or not wanting to upset fans. Not so with Mew. One minute they’re all off-kilter time signatures and dissonant guitar noises, the next, soaring, beautiful and catchy pop - nicely topped off with Jonas’ angelic vocals. Listen in to hear a truly unique way of working. Jonas and Mew don't rush anything, but the results are often sublime. It is good to hear that the band is talking about another project - even if it is early days and Jonas would also like a break before. Sometimes as a music fan, patience is a virtue and the rewards are all the sweeter. Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

When I sat down with Steve Berlin, the Los Lobos sax player and de facto spokesperson, I was a little more than intrigued. To most people around the world - outside of North America anyways - Los Lobos remain the La Bamba band. How wrong we are.There is a very common thread with the artists we’ve had on the show - and with longevity - every one of the artists (except so far, Laura Veirs and Maximo Park) had a very big song: James, Turin Brakes, Gary Numan, KT Tunstall…But Los Lobos is the most extreme example of a longevity outfit with a big song - the band had no other hits at all. Taking nothing away from La Bamba - a fine record and a justified number one in ten countries back in 1987. But stop right there. Try Googling, as I did, “Los Lobos, greatest American rock band” and there are more than a few articles examining that hypothesis, for good reasons. Built around the soulful songs of drummer Louis Perez and lead vocal and guitar player David Hidalgo (throw in a few rollicking rockers by Cesar Rosas) Los Lobos make solid, classic Americana-rock, but from a Latin point of view - and a deep rooted connection to traditional Mexican music: cumbia, boleros and norteños. Finally, throw the city of LA into the mix and you have the Los Lobos agenda, musically speaking. It’s not surprising that Los Lobos have made a record of cover versions of seminal LA songs (The Beach Boys, Jackson Browne, War, Percy Mayfield) but what is surprising is how long it took to come up with the idea to do just that.“We have a sixth sense of when to do stuff, somehow the muse talks to us. It's important for us to have a boundary - an idea - not just another Los Lobos record. The main thing for us is longevity and being able to do what we do and to answer to nobody other than ourselves, we have such gratitude for that. We have no obligation other than to move forward with our music”. Now that is an agenda for lasting the distance. Yet Steve and I have fun with one idea - for Los Lobos to soundtrack a Netflix (or HBO, or AMC) production of Jaime Hernandez' genius Mexicana soap opera Love & Rockets. What a collaboration that would be.Somebody get Ted Sarandos on the line…it’s Steve Berlin calling, from Los Lobos...Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

On The Art of Longevity, Fin Greenhall explained the ideas behind Fink's new project IIUII: an acoustic retrospective of some of the band's (and fans) favourite, biggest songs. “I’m a better singer now than I was in 2005, so I feel I can do a better job of singing these songs. As a band we are much more loose, grounded and subtle than we used to be - comfortable with who we are”. As such, the idea behind the project is to do a better job of those songs by bringing experience to bear as the songs are revisited and reinterpreted. “I love the fact  that when you write a song, that song exists, but then over time it can be dressed many different ways”. Indeed, we discuss one of the most intriguing concepts in music today - that of making a song something more than simply finite recording. A song should never be set in stone, something Fink seems to understand acutely. Their last studio album, ‘Bloom Innocent’, is a case in point - the band has since released two further versions of the record - an acoustic work and a “Horizontalism” edition (Fink has even sub-branded it’s remix versions under the Horizontalism concept). The IIUII album is the first acoustic retrospective of the whole catalogue, yet already there has been some orchestral versions of some of these songs, in the superb 2013 release ‘Fink Meets The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’. While the music industry is littered with ex-musicians and creatives now working on the management side, Fin Greenhall did the opposite - spending nearly half a decade in the offices of labels (hence ‘Biscuits’), figuring out how the industry worked (and working his way up from office skivvy to marketing manager). He flipped from being an executive to a creator - but seems to have picked up on some clever marketing angles along the way. Along with these reworked versions, the 2015 short film “Less Alone” was one of the first examples of an artist manifesto I’d ever seen expressed through the short documentary format. It’s a nice exercise in artistic branding. That might just have something to do with Fin’s thought processes. Another example is the track selection for IIUII. Fin told The Art of Longevity that: “we went back over the streaming stats and thought about our live shows over the years and picked the songs that the fans feel really represent us”. Savvy indeed, now that is how creatives can use industry data simply and effectively. Considered decisions have been part of the band's two decade career, along with a close knit musical understanding between the three members, Fin, Guy Whittaker (bass) and Tim Thornton (drums). The benign dictatorship is a famous formula for some bands but Fink works a very democratic system. The band still enjoys the shared experiences of touring, recording and creating their unique sound. The way Fink works is what most bands would wish for, so tune in to Fin and co's guide to longevity. Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

Is it possible to make your best record 33 years into a career? That’s what may just have happened with Canadian legends Barenaked Ladies and their 2021 release Detour De Force. The album covers most of BNL’s styles (i.e. a long list of genres) and is a masterclass in songwriting. It starts out with three BNL bangers, before settling into something more reflective, but typically varied and never boring. When I spoke to Ed Robertson for episode 2 of season 2, he himself seemed pleased with the results on Detour De Force and explained how carefully the band had scheduled the record despite the irony of doing that at a time when few listeners have the attention span to listen to entire albums. But with those songs and the order they are in, the band has made another classic alongside their phenomenal debut Gordon (1992) and international ‘claim to fame’ Stunt (1998). The in-between has been the usual roller-coaster ride (all in all BNL has made 17 albums in not including the early demos, live albums and compilations and occasional side projects). There is just so much, we barely touch on matters such as the departure of Page and the band’s steady successful transition to a four piece. But we do talk about their surprise success in the early 90s (yes, they worked at it in those early years despite what looked like a surprise success in their home country), the early days of signing to Sire Records, and how tough it was to make their sophomore album. The tough times continued through the 90s when things became something of a grind - to the extent that Ed Robertson was telling his manager of doubts about carrying on: “I could have made more money managing a McDonalds”. Then came the big breakthrough with their song ‘One Week’ (a US Billboard number 1). Although he had written the song and taken the lead vocal (including that famous dexterous rap) Ed thought the idea of the record label to make One Week the lead single for Stunt, to be a joke. But then suddenly it all got very serious. The band’s peak came at a time of change for the record industry though, with Napster emerging as the century changed over and we discuss being experimented on by visionary manager Terry McBride in the post-Napster, digital music industry in which band’s cannot expect to ‘sell’ anything as far as records are concerned.The band’s chemistry has survived line-up changes (even the departure of co-founder and principal vocalist Stephen Page) and more recently of course, the pandemic live music shutdown. Once BNL returns to real live shows though, expect their dedicated audiences to be chanting along to new numbers like they’ve known them for as long as the classics. One senses that Ed and co will enjoy every minute but not take any of it for granted. Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

On the Art of Longevity Series II, Episode One, KT Tunstall tells me that albums can feel like a ‘flash in the pan’ despite all the work that goes into them. But albums like Wax (her latest, from 2018) will stick around in the ears for a long time to come. KT Tunstall was the classic ‘overnight success’ i.e. ten years in the making, having busked her way around the St Andrews and Fife scenes since the mid 90s. It all ‘began’ with that performance of ‘Black Horse & The Cherry Tree’ on Jools Holland (2004) - an old fashioned breakthrough moment. As remarkable as she came across working with just the guitar and the delay pedal, she was simply doing what she had been for the previous 18 months - busking her way through it. Except this time, it was on UK national television on the only music show that mattered. What followed was a version of the classic Art of Longevity career curve: the stratospheric rise, the pressure drop and the years of wrestling between her own creative instincts and the commercial demands of the industry. But through it all KT understood that the record labels' job is business, while what she does is make art, and that attitude has seen her navigate the industry mangle to come out the other side stronger, more rounded as an artist and, if you listen to Wax, still making platinum grade pop-rock. Meanwhile, KT will always be on the music scene thanks to those immortal songs from her debut. She has come a long way from the rainy streets of St Andrews to the arid canyons of Topanga. It seems like she has much further to go. Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

The Coral is a band revered on the music scene - a real artist’s band. They are very accomplished musicians who first got together at school in the small Wirral town of Hoylake. The band members bonded over their many music icons, from The Beatles and the Small Faces to Acker Bilk and Del Shannon. Listening to a record by the Coral is a dizzying fairground tour of Liverpool’s music hall pop heritage mixed with American West Coast psychedelia and a lot else besides. Sometimes all in one song. Yet it sounds like no other band except The Coral. Funny then that some 20 years after their debut, The Coral has made an album that sounds more like themselves than anything else they’ve done. ‘Coral Island’ is themed on the romantic ideal of the faded seaside town. The band has had an ongoing obsession with the sea since day one, but Coral Island is different. The band collaborated with artist Edwin Burdis to actually build the island and once it became a physical thing, the band’s imagination was stretched further to bring it to life with stories, characters and poetic interludes narrated by the Skelly brothers’ own Grandad. The album is an end-to-end modern classic, yet the band’s singer James Skelly told me he expected the album would linger in obscurity, but it reached number two on the UK album charts and has received critical praise across the board. It’s probably their best record so far and if it’s too early to tell, then let’s say Coral Island is a potential masterpiece. It’s nice to see a band as good as The Coral come full circle over the course of two decades.   When the band was elevated to the top of ‘Britpop’ mania in 2002 with their song ‘Dreaming of You’ and their Mercury Prize nominated debut album, they had a great time basking in the limelight and usurping industry etiquette (a Freddie Mercury impersonator stood in for them at the Mercury Prize ceremony). However, The Coral also lost touch with reality. When they released a third album of spooky psychedelic jams, they thought it might get to number one (like their second album ‘Magic and Medicine’). It was perhaps an act of subconscious self-sabotage. A self-correcting mechanism. But at the time it’s just what the band wanted to do, though their judgement was somewhat skewed by skunk. In episode 7 of The Art of Longevity, James Skelly walks me through the rest of this remarkable band’s story in a conversation we both thoroughly enjoyed, partly because I was very impressed by the combination of working class ambition, humble wisdom and complete dedication to artistry. There is no doubt when you hear James’s account of the band’s character and history, that The Coral would work their way through the mangle of the music industry and come out of it relatively unscathed. And, creatively speaking, even better. In particular though, it’s the songs. Skelly and co do not lack a way with melody. As I put it to him, he could write Coldplay songs all day long, but then there are these things called minor chords...and The Coral never minded a little darkness and spookiness mixed in with the melody. No need for them to call Max Martin in to help write the next few hits (though I suspect Max is a fan). As James says himself, in The Coral’s early days he would kill for a song. Some 20 years in, he’s no longer in need of such morbid thoughts. Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

Music critics have tried to classify the music made by North East England’s Maximo Park for the past two decades, eventually converging on the term ‘art pop’. Yet Paul Smith, the band’s singer and main co-songwriter (with guitarist Duncan Lloyd) describes their music thus as: “Odd but still pop music. Weird but anthemic. Music with a literary influence but also immediate - in some ways primitive - music that tries to slap you in the face a little bit, but twangs its way back to being pop. We try to make it accessible, if only to ourselves”. Only Smith could describe Maximo Park’s music in that way and it’s perfect. No wonder perhaps, since he has practiced since the band’s early days when Smith wrote his own marketing copy for early gigs (‘unruly pop’ was one elevator pitch from Maximo’s early days). With his art school background and literary leanings Paul Smith can express himself through music more than most - the thinking person’s pop lyricist if you will. While I worry that Maximo Park may be limiting their audience to the world’s intellectually curious (and possibly Northern sympathisers), the band’s most recent album ‘Nature Always Wins’ was a number two charting record. While some of the band’s previous albums have been statements of feeling - often political or raging against the machine in some way - their most recent outing seems more expansive and personal at the same time, while musically melding all their influences and styles into something of the perfect embodiment of Smith’s own definition. While Smith has worn his emotions on his sleeve lyrically before, Nature Always Wins has seen him hone the craft but be more pragmatic too. There might not have been a better song about the parental relationship than ‘Versions Of You’, nor indeed ‘Baby, Sleep’. To say they are both great examples of parent pop would just add more Maximo music theory into the mix!After two decades on the British pop scene, Maximo Park is very much evolving. The band has been brave enough to step outside their trademark melodic hooks and catchy choruses to make a song like ‘Child Of The Flatlands’ (let alone make it the album’s lead single, something that brought to my mind The Police and their 1981 gloomy lead single ‘Invisible Sun’). The song is a step away from the emotional yearning or intellectual playfulness of previous singles to something more personal, reflective and deeper. The song was inspired by a walk Paul Smith took on the North East’s industrial path. That bleak, abandoned beauty of the industrial wastes close to their homeland has inspired one of their best ever songs. When it comes to longevity, the band has stuck to the art and put its trust in partners (Prolifica and PIAS these days) to get their records to public, yet the desire to be accessible has always been there. From Paul Smith’s point of view, gratitude to the early days of decent record company advances and tour support (WARP records in those days) allowed the band to simply focus on the music, song-by-song, album-by-album and tour-by-tour. A Northern work ethic combined with the art school sensibilities hasn’t done them any harm over the years. However the modern way is a necessity too: hence in 2021 a YouTube Premier of Nature Always Wins, presence on socials, playlist meetings and radio edits. After all, in Paul’s own words “We were lucky to be in the spotlight and over the years, the light may brighten or dim, but we’ve still managed to stay in it. We’re not daft”.Humble to the last and doing just fine. It won’t be long before National Treasure status is suitably assigned. Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

When you’ve been getting away with it as a seven piece band for nearly four decades, with 22 albums behind you - something’s got to give when it comes to longevity. Especially when, in the case of James and Tim Booth, you’re on yet another roll. The band has made another vital album (All The Colours of You) despite the backdrop of a global pandemic and, in Booth’s case, an unsettling period on the run from the increasingly virulent wildfires encroaching on his family home in the Topanga Canyon of L.A. I wanted to find out just what has driven James on, through a prolonged pre-breakthrough struggle in the 80s, a break-up in 2001 and what must have been many creative ups and downs in-between. One has a sense of Booth as shaman, a leader of his merry band of brothers (and now sisters, with the addition of percussionists and vocalists Deborah Knox-Hewson and Chloe Alper). And leader too by divine inspiration, of James’ devoted audience. A cult, but one with entirely positive vibes. James creates songs from jams, that’s how they work: nobody controls it. For James, it’s all about inviting the muse to descend and join together with the band’s four core jamming members (Booth, Saul Davies, Dave Banton-Power and bassist founder Jim Glennie). That’s perhaps why uber-producer and electronic music god Brian Eno (who has turned everyone down from The Red Hot Chili Peppers to REM) put in a request to be that muse and produce the band’s 1992 masterpiece Laid. ‘Honour thy error as a hidden intention’ was a card drawn from Brian Eno’s oblique strategies deck in one session, but James already lived by that particular axiom. From day one in 1983, the band had a philosophy and pact to always take risks - whether that be creating new songs from jam sessions to walking out on stage in front of the crowd before finalising the set. James’ are driven to experiment, and it’s remarkable that such fully formed songs as Beautiful Beaches, Sometimes, Say Something, Fred Astaire or Sit Down came from short improvisations. Then again, the band will jam over 100 pieces of music and zone in on the best 10-15 to make an album, setting the quality bar high. As such, the band has survived members coming and going and the music industry  changing beyond recognition - such that their last single to chart was Getting Away With It in 2001. That unsuccessful single slow-burned its way to become one of James’ anthems and their third biggest song on streaming, typically atypical James. As Tim Booth enters his sixth decade on this earth, he is of course the polymath one might expect - teaching transcendental dance, writing a novel, acting a little here and there and meditating throughout. But as All The Colours of You beds in as another vital James album, Booth and James' three other core jamming members were already due to be in Scotland working on the next 100 jams that might lead to album 23. Let’s hope the muse lays in wait. Tim Booth spoke with Keith for The Art of Longevity, ep. 5!Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

Success came relatively quickly to Gary Numan, when his single ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ rose to the top of the UK charts in May 1979. Without a chorus and clocking in at nearly five and a half minutes, it was an unlikely a hit record as you could imagine. Its parent album, ‘Replicas’, released the month before, went to number one in the album charts, as did its successor, ‘The Pleasure Principle’, released only a few months later. This album featured what is perhaps Numan’s best known single, ‘Cars’. He went out on a national tour to promote that L.P. yet still found the time to write and record his next album, ‘Telekon’, released in September 1980, which also reached the number one spot. Three chart-topping albums and a national tour in less than eighteen months! It’s a hell of an achievement, matching the The Beatles’ first three album releases no less. Numan crowned off this period with three shows at Wembley arena. Not surprisingly, the twenty-two year old was burned out and he announced that these were the last dates he would play.He continued to release albums, though – and, in fact, returned to playing live quite quickly – but his career shifted into a slow decline, despite the high quality of albums such as ‘Dance’ and ‘I, Assassin’. The constant mockery by the press and Radio 1’s steadfast refusal to play his singles meant that by the late eighties, Numan had mislaid his artistic vision as he struggled to write the kind of songs he thought people wanted to hear.In the early 90s, though, encouraged by his wife, Gemma, and inspired by Depeche Mode’s ‘Songs Of Faith And Devotion’, Numan decided to write the kind of album that he wanted to hear. The result was ‘Sacrifice’, which was an unarguable return to form, a trend he sustained on the subsequent albums ‘Exile’ and ‘Pure’.1997 saw the release of a double album of Numan covers, called ‘Random’, with artists such as Damon Albarn, The Orb, Pop Will Eat Itself, and Republica paying tribute to Numan’s songs. Around this same time, acts like Nine In Nails and Marilyn Manson were including Numan covers in their live sets. Suddenly, Numan, long scorned by the British music press, underwent a critical revaluation. Over the last fifteen years, Numan has released a further five albums, including his new release ‘Intruder’. The albums have achieved higher and higher UK chart positions, with 2017’s ‘Savage (Songs From A Broken World)’ reaching number two. Throughout this time, Gary has continued to tour, with his concerts attended not only by the die-hard ‘Numanoids’ from his early successes but also a whole new generation of fans. Next year, it looks as though, forty-one years after his ‘farewell’ concerts, Gary will return to the stage at Wembley Arena. It has been an incredible career, forged by both Numan’s musical talent and his tenacity and determination to succeed. In an hour long conversation for The Art of Longevity, Gary tells lifelong fan and Electronic Ears presenter Fenner Pearson, all about it. Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

There’s no such thing as a critical review for any of Laura Veirs' 11 albums. But how does Laura measure her own success? The answer is, she doesn’t stop to think about it, much. Instead, as one project gets done, she’s into the next. A prolific songwriter and increasingly accomplished musician, Laura is constantly moving forward with all the restless energy of a fast flowing river. Perhaps it’s because her albums really are like statements of parts of her life. Not many artists are brave enough to put out their first LP as a concept album, but that’s what her debut The Triumphs and Travails of Orphan Mae was. Her rise to fame came with 2004’s Carbon Glacier, the first of four records steeped in and themed on, nature. Carbon Glacier was earth, Year of Meteors was sky, Saltbreakers was sea and July Flame was...guess what? Fire. If you have never heard July Flame, you’ve been missing something truly special. But here’s the thing...Laura Veirs made her masterpiece in the aftermath of being dropped by a major label (Nonesuch, despite two very decent - and critically revered - albums, with them). And it sold better than anything she’d released up to that point. Sometimes creative peaks are met with commercial peaks and when that happens, the world opens up to artists. It was the beginning of a fruitful independent career with a successful album of children’s music Tumble Bee right after July Flame (still brave then). For Laura Veirs the album is the thing - the perfect expression of music as an art form - at least on vinyl. Each album she makes is a complete work, hence those rapturous reviews. The trials of Orphan Mae was a bold opening act, but for Laura Veirs the journey continues…continually brave...album by album, and the song economy be damned! We’re with her all the way.Lookout for our forthcoming artist retrospective on Laura but for now, listen in on what makes her tick and how we might have even nudged her into the next project. Whatever it is - it will be four or five stars in all the papers.  With thanks to Mick Clarke for artwork and Andrew James Johnson for editing. Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/