The band has existed since 1982 and this year's soon to be released 'Illumination' is only your fourth studio album. What inspires you to keep going?
"The Pastels is now just three people. Myself, Aggi and Katrina. I think the main thing for us is that we're driven to make this music. For us it's not like a band that sees a clear black and white distinction between success and failure, and in bands like that if they're failing they think 'what's the point?' With us, music is our passion and always has been, so we're going to keep doing it."
Scotland, and Glasgow in particular has now got a reputation for being a hotbed of indie talent, which you would have been involved with from the outset. Is it still a thriving place to make music?
"Glasgow is a place where everyone seems to set their own agenda, and I think the music there is very different to the music that comes out of other parts of the country. There are a couple of really good clubs in Glasgow, especially the 13th Note, that are very supportive of new music. Throughout the whole time we've been around it seems that there has always been really good people getting involved with music, and the scene has usually been socialist or co-operative minded. Everyone from the Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, right up to nowadays with the Delgados, I think there's a basic respect between all of those bands and a willingness to help each other when we can."
With the new releases on Domino records, have the Pastels now unified into a full-time concern?
"No, we aren't full-time. Aggi works as an illustrator, I think Katrina is going to be studying psychology at university and I'm a librarian, although just now I'm working in a bookshop. We've been running the group in a very committed way since about 1994 and things have become more focused since then."
You're known for collaborating with a lot of people. Jad Fair made an EP with you and you've recently been remixed by My Bloody Valentine and Flacco (from the Mo'wax stable). Do you see these link-ups as important to the creative life of the Pastels?
"Well, we're always interested in expanding what we do, so it's interesting to collaborate with lots of different people. All the people we've worked with, either collaborating on songs or remixing, it's all people we like and respect. You just get an idea to ask somebody, and they usually go for it, we've constantly been fortunate that way."
Do your influences and ambitions change with every new record?
"We just feel that everytime you make a record you want to make a better record than the one before, and after a while you have to ask yourself how it can be better, and one of the things we found that we had to do was spend more time actually working on it. This album ('Illumination') is especially important because I think it's the record that'll decide whether we can make enough space for us to operate on Stereolab-type level. It's a question of whether we can go full-time, or whether we regard what we do as a hobby, so it's a really important record for us.
Certainly, if the response to 'Unfair Kind of Fame' is a clue to the reception the album might get, it could do very well.
"Yes, I think it's the best record we've made. We're always trying to redefine what we are. I think we've got a really strong style and I think we're very confident that what we do is challenging. In that sense we're very ambitious because we challenge ourselves to go on and make better music. We're always looking at new approaches. Our agenda is constantly changing, it's not a fixed thing."
What about the legacy of the 'shambling' C86 scene, which you were very heavily associated with?
"In a way it was a good thing because it focused people on a rawer kind of music, which happened to come along at a particularly low point for music. I suppose lot of the bands associated with the C86 label weren't very good, but having said that I think that we've grown up, our music has changed, although a lot of people can't accept that. Some people still think of us as a band from C86, but along with Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine we're the only ones to develop our sound away from that, and we're the only bands to really survive it."
'ILLUMINATION', ERM, ILLUMINATED BY STEPHEN HIMSELF, IN THE TIME HONOURED TRACK-BY-TRACK TRADITION!
THE HITS HURT
It's kind of a tribute song to all musicians that die in obscurity without getting major recognition. And also to Phil Ochs (the folk singer responsible for 'Chords of Fame'). When I started to write it I had this chord progression and it seemed quite melancholy and I thought of the title - 'The Hits Hurt' - and I started writing words for it and then at the end we wanted it to go into this kind of celebratory, spiritual thing, so that's what we're trying to do on the end section.
CYCLE
For us the most important things are the chord progressions, they define the mood of the song, and this was a chord progression that I had and when we worked on it we felt really happy with it. And then Aggi went in and just did a completely amazing vocal in one take, so the song was sounding so good, and we put some flutes on it to finish it off.
THOMSON COLOUR
This is a short instrumental, intended as an interlude. Thomson Colour was a film processing method that was used in France, it's like super saturated colour. One of the Jacques Tati films was shot in it and it just jogged my memory when we were writing the track.
UNFAIR KIND OF FAME
This is Katrina's song. It was inspired by Ed Wood the film director. I suppose it's really about the way he was remembered for having a fondness for Angora sweaters and making B-movies like Plan 9 From Outer Space and Glen or Glenda. He's always been seen in a negative light, but that's unfair, he's worth celebrating.
FRAGILE GANG
It's inspired by the magic of night time in the city - just being up high above it, looking out onto the horizon lights, thinking of where the action is and waiting to go straight to the centre of that and meet up with your friends. Again, it's pretty celebratory.
THE VIADUCT
It's about two people who live in a completely dead-end town and they know they have to get out, but it's hard for them. With a lot of the songs we're using chord progressions that are a bit twisted in a way, but we wanted this to be the sort of song you would find on a Glen Campbell or Bobbie Gentry album.
REMOTE CLIMBS
I just made up a song on the spot. We needed to do a song for our friends that the Vesuvius label (fiction and tapes, I would have put their address in here, had I not lost it while moving house!- J) and we thought we would do this. It's got a slight twist to it but for me it's reminiscent of certain American music of the 50s and 60s. It's in the mood of Fats Domino 'Blueberry Hill' or something like it, although it doesn't sound like that!
ROUGH RIDERS
Quite a celebratory one, it's partly autobiographical, we see ourselves as being the rough riders in a way! Aggi came up with the chords and I wanted words to fit them that would be inspiring for everyone in the studio. Dean Wareham (Luna) was over at the time and we were having a really good time working on the record, it was just a good feeling to do this song.
ON THE WAY
It's a pretty rocking song, about eight minutes to begin with, but we cut it down and we're really happy with how it came out.
LEAVING THIS ISLAND
Another of Katrina's songs. In some respects it's quite like a traditional folk song, with a very simple melody but still very affecting. Quite a plaintive vocal, a beautiful vocal in fact, by Katrina. I think it's just about outgrowing things and having to leave places and friends behind.
G12 NIGHTS
This was just a short piece to try and evoke how it feels in the evening to walk through the streets around G12 (the Glasgow postal district to the west of the city centre, Hillhead and so on), and we summed it up in this short instrumental.
ATTIC PLAN
Again this is very much set in Glasgow, in some ways it's a similar kind of subject to 'Fragile Gang'. It's about meeting up with people, magic nights, walking back from places you've been, past the tennis courts, tree-lined streets. We just tried to do a real evocative song.
MECHANIZED
This is a protest about lighthouses not having people, and it's also a comment on how modern living is becoming dehumanized.
(Stephen Pastel was interrogated by Jonathan)
'Illumination' is released in the UK through Domino Records on October 6th. The singles 'Unfair Kind Of Fame' and 'The Hits Hurt' are available now.
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