The Stills - Still happy!

[Welsh Rich]

I know there's a couple of fans on here... Interview in the Independent today...

 

Bands should have a look. That's one of the rules. If it's not written down somewhere, it ought to be. Dressing the same as your bandmates signals a corporate enterprise, a not-to-be-messed-with sense of purpose. It displays to the world that what they are dealing with is not just a collection of musicians but a gang.

 

So what to make of The Stills? Tim Fletcher appears under the Hammersmith Apollo's marquee - where the name of the band that they are touring with, The Kings of Leon, stands in foot-high letters - in a black hooded top and skinny jeans. He looks every inch the indie kid. Liam O'Neil, meanwhile, twirls the edge of his splendid ginger beard, which, accompanied by his jaunty hat, gives him the air of a Tyrolean farmer.

 

A gang they are not. But, talk to this odd couple, two of the Montreal five-piece who are currently sleepwalking between UK dates, and they seem as thick as thieves. They finish each other's sentences. They suggest each other's herbal tea. They smile broadly. This is all most un-rock'n'roll. They do not care. "We're a happy band, an appreciative band, right now," says Fletcher.

 

If they are happy, they have a right to be. Having released their epic, post-punk-indebted debut, Logic Will Break Your Heart, in 2003, the band have suffered manifold ructions. Greg Paquet, one of The Stills' two original singers, left, causing the remaining members to perform a merry-go-round. Dave Hamelin, the drummer, moved up front with a guitar. O'Neil took prominent duties with horns and keyboard. Julian Blois joined on drums.

 

Meanwhile, the band signed a new deal with Vice records in the US and, eventually, DrownedinSound in Britain. Through Vice records, they released a mellow, plangent second album in May entitled Without Feathers. The album - the working title for eight months was, improbably, Death Metal Sandwich - will be released in the UK by DrownedinSound in June.

 

"In many ways, Without Feathers is a break-up record," says Fletcher. "After our first album cycle - when we toured for about two years non-stop - we all got home to Montreal and some relationships fell apart. So the lyrics on Without Feathers aredark and pensive, while the music is, in places, celebratory."

 

The painful period after the first album, has forged an entirely different band. Not only have they changed their line-up, but they have become confident enough to use horns on their recordings, and to explore less structured songwriting. And they are all more comfortable in the studio, where their producer, Gus Van Go, has encouraged them to make more suggestions. So how do the first band and the second band compare?

 

"Musically, there's no comparison," says O'Neil. "Our playing and our confidence have improved. We've been blessed to find a drummer who is as committed to the band as we all are. It's a lot more natural, too, now that Tim and David are up front with their guitars, singing songs together."

 

Hamelin's move from drums to frontman seems, from the outside, like an odd one. Drummers don't normally yearn for the limelight.

 

"Well, Dave's always written songs," says Fletcher. "He fell into the drummer's seat as a matter of necessity. When we were all living in New York and starting out, we just wanted to get going. Dave knew how to play drums, so he just starting playing. It became more and more uncomfortable as the band got bigger and started touring more."

 

The Stills have clearly now found a line-up that suits them. Hamelin and Fletcher both write songs. The band arrange them together. But, as O'Neil and Fletcher's disparate appearances suggest, the band have managed to retain the eclectic individual interests that made their music worth listening to in the first place.

 

"I'm actually listening to a lot of classical music at the moment," says O' Neil. "Brahms, Debussy and stuff. My favourite band right now are called the Bad Plus. They are like a jazz trio who cover Pixies songs and Interpol songs. They've had a kind of left-handed influence on the band."

 

"Yeah, and I'm listening to a lot of The Pogues," says Fletcher. "If you've got that drunken, soulful, epic vibe like Shane MacGowan, what else do you really need? And I know Dave's been listening to a lot of pre-Blues spiritual stuff, and later, classical stuff, like Ennio Morricone."

 

What has been left off this list of latest, fleeting interests, is the debt The Stills owe to British music from the past 30 years. Their first album was compared (somewhat inaccurately) to both Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division. But the band they say they owe the most to is one they sound almost nothing like - The Clash.

 

"We've all, always, been Clash fans," says Fletcher. "I think it comes through in our music. We love London Calling. Without Feathers is our tribute to that album in a way. But there are so many things that contributed to the record. Liam has played a lot of jazz in his time - he's a multi-instrumentalist - so it was easy for us to get a horn section together.

 

"We were also listening to a lot of The Band, and Paul McCartney solo, and John Lennon. I think what we took out of [all the influences] was a sense of fun, when we were recording. I think this record is much more fun than the first, because we had more fun playing together."

 

Given their Anglophile tendencies, their British tour - during which they are not only supporting the Kings of Leon but playing four headline shows - must seem like a kind of homecoming.

 

"Oh, yeah, this is a great place for us," says Fletcher. "At the gigs we've done in the past week, the fans have been super-enthusiastic, and they already know all the songs because they've been buying the album on import. My impression is that they seem to be a lot more attentive over here. English audiences really know their music. They take it really seriously."

 

"That's true," says O'Neil. "It's easy to forget that when you spend so much time touring in the States. In North America, it couldn't vary more from town to town. Playing to a Seattle audience is completely different to playing a Milwaukee audience, which in turn is completely different to a New York audience."

 

Who knows what tonight's audience at the sold-out Apollo will make of The Stills: a band with two writers, six producers, a thousand influences and no uniform. What they should see is a band who have grown up - who, although they have made mistakes and the odd dull track, continue to explore.

[Azzurri]

the first album was great, but i coudn't even get through the new one. it's a totally different band now, but they changed for the worse.

[solace]

the first album was great, but i coudn't even get through the new one. it's a totally different band now, but they changed for the worse.

yup.

 

last record was just terrible.

 

Maroon 5 bad

[muller]

oh yeah. such a massive let down. though i still reckon 'in the beginning' is a great track. the rest stinks though.

[Scalzunfield]

I dunno...I really liked it still. Maybe it's just me.

[street spirit]

I wasn't really that big on either record, but "Lola Stars and Stripes" is a massive choon.

[Welsh Rich]

The debut record is good, I still listen to it a lot and I agree with you, Lola Stars and Stripes is a great, great track.

 

The new one isn't very good and it's just odd because it doesn't sound like The Stills - surely they would have been better off starting with a new band for all the changes in personnel.

[solace]

I wasn't really that big on either record, but "Lola Stars and Stripes" is a massive choon.

yup.

 

the first one was far from amazing, but it had a few killer tunes, and that one being easily the best.

 

they were absolutely terrible the 3x i saw them (twice opening for BSS and once opening for Ryan Adams)