Straight in with a tough question! What was the most rewarding track on ‘No Leaf Clover’ to put together, and why?
For me, “Little Ones”. It’s a song about a very delicate subject matter, the abuse of power to lure teenage victims into depraved acts. Lyrically, the song just wrote itself, I merely was holding the pen. I think we managed to make the music match the sinister lyrical content quite well, although unlike the lyrics, to get the music right was more of a challenge, but I think we pulled it off as well after a few failed attempts. To me, this song is the highlight of the new album.
Which song did you write first for ‘No Leaf Clover’, and what can you tell us about that track? And when recording, how do you go about capturing a sound that will translate well in a live space? And, was that something that you focused on with ‘No Leaf Clover’?
The song “I Hate Myself” is quite old. I wrote the initial set of lyrics in the early 2000. It was a more personal song back then, but over time it transformed into a sort of political rant. Musically, what I had in mind was more of a straight guitar rock track, but during recording we found that by enhancing the song with electronic elements it made more sense.
I don’t think about the live sound much when we record. Our music is quite layered, and there’s an “anything goes” approach when we are in the studio. So, you get some songs where there’s half a dozen guitar parts, which of course would be difficult to replicate in a live situation.
Which song did you write first for ‘No Leaf Clover’, and what can you tell us about that track? And when recording, how do you go about capturing a sound that will translate well in a live space? And, was that something that you focused on with ‘No Leaf Clover’?
The song “I Hate Myself” is quite old. I wrote the initial set of lyrics in the early 2000. It was a more personal song back then, but over time it transformed into a sort of political rant. Musically, what I had in mind was more of a straight guitar rock track, but during recording we found that by enhancing the song with electronic elements it made more sense.
I don’t think about the live sound much when we record. Our music is quite layered, and there’s an “anything goes” approach when we are in the studio. So, you get some songs where there’s half a dozen guitar parts, which of course would be difficult to replicate in a live situation.
Which songs from ‘No Leaf Clover’ are you really enjoying playing live the most at the moment, and why?
We are currently not doing any live shows. A Permanent Shadow is basically a solo project under a band name, and as such to get a band together and play live is a bit of a challenge, both economically and logistically. I imagine though that most of the songs will go down a storm once we get to perform them live, especially “Brother”, “The Wait” and the title track.
Which songs from ‘No Leaf Clover’ are you really enjoying playing live the most at the moment, and why?
We are currently not doing any live shows. A Permanent Shadow is basically a solo project under a band name, and as such to get a band together and play live is a bit of a challenge, both economically and logistically. I imagine though that most of the songs will go down a storm once we get to perform them live, especially “Brother”, “The Wait” and the title track.
What plans do you have for the future?
We are currently preparing a covers EP that will be out later this year. We did one in 2022 and enjoyed the process so much that we are looking forward to recording a new bunch of covers.