Stornoway rage against the machine

ON their 2011 debut album Beachcomber’s Windowsill Oxford band Stornoway raged against the rise of internet obsession.

So for the band which once sang “free the battery human” to turn to that same technology to fund their third album Bonxie is more than a little ironic.

“With Battery Human we talked about how we didn’t like the way technology was going,” says Oli Steadman, the band’s bassist and online representative who tweets under the @stornoli handle.

“People were trapped in their computer screens and mobile phones. It has turned out as we sang it!

“I grew up in South Africa and enjoyed hanging out away from the city. But I’m slowly embracing the battery human lifestyle.

“You can communicate huge ideas really quickly with each other across the globe. Musicians used to be revered as magic geniuses who spent all their time on the tour bus and never existed in real time.

“I’m happy the way it has become more democratised, with everyone seeing the reviews and getting feedback.”

The Guide speaks to Steadman ten minutes after a stream of Bonxie was launched on The Guardian website.

“It can determine the rest of what happens to the band,” admits Steadman.

“One number difference in our chart position can really affect our lives for good. It’s a funny situation.

“On the internet you can read your reviews right away, and interact with the reviewers.

“When you play a gig you gain more followers in the real world, and you can get them to sign up to stuff to keep in contact forever.

“Someone might move house, stop listening to a radio station or cancel a music magazine subscription, but they have a permanent relationship with you in the digital world.”

The band teamed up with crowdfunding site PledgeMusic to help fund the recording of their third album with guest producer Gil Norton, of Foo Fighters and Pixies fame.

“We needed to put together a war chest of recording funds,” says Steadman.

“In the past patrons used to look after classical composers.

“The 20th century was an awkward time – being in a group started out being more viable, and then less viable as touring and making records became more expensive.

“PledgeMusic is a way of getting patronage back. Record labels are nurturers for first or second albums for any band, but for a later career album like Bonxie the funding-based approach was good.”

The band is supported by the Cooking Vinyl label, whose role extends to providing the admin and promotion for the finished album, rather than funding its creation.

Steadman feels the PledgeMusic money has been well spent on Norton, after the Oxford band self-produced their previous two albums which also included 2012’s Tales From Terra Firma.

“Gil focused on locking in the bass and drums,” he says, admitting he has since taken away a lot of inspiration for producing local Oxford bands from how Norton worked.

“It took a lot of computer work and tweaking, but it created a danceable groove.

“Bonxie is a much more inviting record, it feels polished and well-made. I’m so happy with it.

“With our first two albums we were still learning – there’s a lot of poor recording and production on there, with lots of layers.”

With Norton they have stripped that back – although that has led to more problems of what can be left out.

“At one point on Man On Wire there are so many instruments our keyboard player [Jon Ouin] has to play the keys with one hand and do a complicated rhythm with the tambourine in his other hand,” says Steadman.

“It’s a simpler record, but more complex to try to reproduce. They are fun songs to play live, because each has a more powerful groove.

“Me and Rob [Steadman’s brother and band drummer] have a great time on stage because we’re conscious of moving a whole group of people.”

Despite the album’s creation being linked to the technological world, the album’s subject matter is very much connected to nature.

The Bonxie itself, which gives the album its title, is an alternative name for The Great Skua, a migrating visitor to the UK’s northern isles known as the pirate of the bird world for stealing food from those as large as the gannet, or eating other smaller birds.

And the bigger folk-pop sound, led by lyricist and guitarist Brian Briggs’ dinstinctive tones, is accompanied by washes of field recordings of rivers, the natural world and birdsong.

“The new album may be a return to nature,” admits Steadman.

“But it’s the most we can do to enhance some of that natural world sound in the face of changing sonics.

“With this album you can stick a song on your headphones and take a walk, to retreat into your own world.”

Essential info

Doors 7pm, tickets from £14. Call 01424 229111.