An Interview with James Elkington of The Zincs

The Zincs avoid the A.A.A. (Asinine Answer Area).

.MP3: The Zincs - Head East Kaspar

James Elkington of the Zincs tells us a little about his new album, and competing with Modest Mouse.

.ISM: Your new album is being released on a truly epic day for music that also sees releases from El-P, LCD Soundsystem, Willy Mason, Modest Mouse, Joss Stone and… groan… Good Charlotte. How do you plan on keeping up with the competition?

JE: Well, it seems like there’s always a good reason why you shouldn’t put out a record on a particular date. Summer’s bad because school’s out, winter’s bad because everyone’s clearing the shelves for Michael Bolton’s Christmas album and…I don’t know…its snowing and the trucks are moving slower, perhaps? We may struggle a bit for review space this time round, but I’m not sure that anyone’s going to have a problem deciding whether they’re going to buy our album or Modest Mouse’s. In fact, I’m expecting an almost unanimous decision on that question…

.ISM: What is an unprepared piano?

JE: As you probably know, a prepared piano may have paper clips or pieces of wood on the strings to change the pitch and tonality of the notes – when Nathaniel sat down to play his eight bars of piano, he wasn’t sure what he was going to play at all and we had to piece it together bit by bit. I suppose it wasn’t so much the piano that was unprepared but the player.

.ISM: In the days leading up to the recording of ‘Black Pompadour’ what were you thinking about? Reading? Listening to? Eating?

JE: I had been listening to a lot of guitar bands that pre-dated my more mature appreciation of music, just to re-visit some stuff that I had written off for a long time. It seems to be a common characteristic of people in the their 30’s to start reviewing their life as if it was someone else’s, and I was interested in hearing the music that dominated my early/mid-teens like The Smiths, The Go-Betweens and The Wedding Present. There’s a sort of un-self-conscious energy to those records that’s undeniable. At least it’s undeniable to me. I can’t really remember what I was reading but probably some John Hawkes books because that jump-started me back in to writing words. As for food – I’ve been on all carbs for a couple of years and its going just great.

.ISM: What is the most important element to creating a great record?

JE: I’m not sure I would be the best person to ask that question since I’ve been involved in less ‘great’ records and more ‘workable’ ones. I would imagine that great records are made by great bands with great songs but I might be wrong. Some of my favourite records are made by bad bands with questionable material so, like I said, I’m not the person to ask. Maybe having central air?

.ISM: What would you say to anyone reading this interview to persuade them to listen to ‘Black Pompadour’?

JE: Well, John McEntire recorded it nicely and the words are not too terrible – I’ve kept the swearing to an absolute minimum. People seem to think that it doesn’t sound particularly like anything else which is unusual for a four-piece pop band that plays three minute pop songs, but don’t get your hopes up…its not that different. A convincing argument if ever I heard one!

.ISM: Do you think that Britain would make a good 51st state?

JE: I think it always has been to an extent. I grew up immersed in a totally trans-atlantic culture and my favourite music and books were all American. The combination of my moving to the US and getting older has brought out the Englishness in me in a kind of creepy, ex-pat, PBS way. Now that our toadying to the US has been exposed in the most embarrassing way to the rest of Europe, I’m hoping that it’ll quickly subside.

.ISM: Do you have a mantra? If so, what is it and where did you find it? If not, could you maybe make one up?

JE: Me and my brother have been saying ‘Who Dares Gins’ for decades but I don’t really know what it means. My friend Ian says ‘Sometimes you have to run towards the train to get out of the tunnel’ and I seem to be doing that a lot.

.ISM: Do you believe that the quality of music is determined by how popular it becomes or is there some higher standard of quality that music can be held to? How do we rate music as art?

JE: That’s a question that I have thought about quite a bit – to the point that I don’t have an answer anymore. Although I grew up in the 80’s and that music is a part of my life as much as anything else, it boggles the mind to think that a band like Yes could put out an album like Relayer (which is a fucking huge piece of work to say that least) and play actual stadiums all over the world with it. AND fill them! Maybe they didn’t fill them, but I think people demanded more of their rock bands than they do today. This, I should point out, is not a fact but just a feeling I get. On the other hand, I’m not a massive fan of Radiohead but I’m impressed that they can push themselves into different areas and still appeal to so large a crowd. This probably tells us that it’s the rock bands who aren’t trying hard enough. So there we have it, I don’t know.