Returning from a short break in the musical wilderness, Over The Wall are back with a fresh single,
Tell Her I Love Her out on the glorious Gerry Loves Records, and a continuing love for crafting 'grown-up' and interesting pop songs. Consisting of Ben Hillman and Gav Prentice, the band met and formed in Glasgow back in 2006 and, in their words, have been inflicting their relationship on others ever since.
Hello, how are you?
Ben: Very well thank you.
Gav: No too bad.
It's the question everyone hates, but could you tell us a little bit
about your music and your influences?
Gav: We've always said we make euphoric pop music, taking away a lot
of the unnecessary fluff of pop music and replacing it with other
complicated things of our own which are increasingly difficult to
perform live, and with the songwriting at the heart of it the most
important thing. Unfortunately years of constantly insisting we make
pure pop music has resulted in people slightly underestimating us I
think, and particularly overlooking the lyrical content. So let me
stress that we also have lyrics in our songs, into which a lot of
thought goes, and we take the songs themselves very seriously.
Ben: Gav and I were recording some new songs in Over The Wall HQ the
other day and stumbled across some really old songs of ours in the
back of the vault. It was funny to listen to them again. Some were
great and perhaps should be rushed off and taken further, others were
truly awful. I think what really came across though was that we have
always said that we are inspired by people like Bruce Springsteen or
Peter Gabriel or Ryan Adams. In reality these are more like artists
that we really like, but those recordings back then sounded like they
were influenced by bands like Cursive and Bright Eyes. This is
actually more like the stuff we were listening to a lot at the time.
So with that in mind I would say we are probably most influenced by
whatever it is that we are currently enjoying listening to… …and about
to rip off… …Toto beware.
What's your song-writing / creative process like?
Ben: We usually start separately and then come together. The coming
together part can happen at any point, and sometimes there is almost a
complete song, or at least a complete song skeleton to try and
augment. Other times one of us might hit a couple of chords that
sound good together and then we take it from there. I would say
Tell
Here I Love Her falls much more into this latter category.
Gav: I think people might be surprised at which one of us came up with
which part. For example, Ben wrote and plays the mandolin part on
A
Grand Defeat from our first E.P., and I play the keys on it, and Ben
came up with the slightly odd guitar tuning which quite a few of our
songs are in, and I've come up with melody lines for Ben to play on
the trumpet in a couple of songs.
What could we expect to see from a live show?
Ben: Hopefully something fun, engaging and enjoyable.
Gav: We have fun and make jokes and there's a lot of energy, but again
we do take the songs seriously. I don't think it detracts from a good
song to clown about a bit around it, I think it's a lot more honest
than staring at your shoes for the whole show.
What would you say has been your greatest achievement so far?
Ben: There have been a lot of victories for us along the way. Perhaps
the greatest achievement though is that I still really enjoy making
music with Gav. Having been very active recording recently it has been
incredibly rewarding to be able to play each other our ideas and see
where they go. I mean don’t get me wrong it was fantastic when Jason
Statham asked us to play at his wedding, and when Emilio Estevez asked
us to write the soundtrack to the new Mighty Ducks.
Gav: I think if you don't say that the actual music you make and the
process of making it is the best achievement then you really couldn't
be proud of what you'd done at all. Hearing your songs on the telly or
radio or playing a festival is great but the buzz you get from that
doesn't actually last very long, and any material success you get is
always dependent on an accompanying slice of blind luck. I have
actually met people who don't like the music they make but think that
it'll get them to a certain position, I think that's so cynical and
completely the opposite of everything I grew up believing in for
music. I think those people can consider themselves complete
failures, whereas we'll always be able to say that we liked it (at
least at the time) no matter what. That said, Jason and Emilio are
pals, and it was a pleasure guys.
Has your short break while Gav worked on his solo stuff changed
anything within the band?
Gav: It hasn't changed the way we work together or anything, no. The
reason the solo thing happened, and is continuing to happen I suppose,
was because I had a bunch of songs that would only really fit by doing
them that way, or that I could only do justice to that way, so it
meant that Over The Wall wasn't bothered by them. I must admit that
after playing a lot of subtle acoustic things coming back to making a
lot of noise and playing solos and that in Over The Wall has been a
great deal of fun.
What have you got planned next?
Gav: We have a batch of new songs recorded which you will be hearing
very soon, hot on the heels of this single coming out, and we should
be taking to the road again in December.
What other artists (Scottish or not) would you recommend to the
Scottish Fiction readers?
Ben: Can I recommend a folk guitarist called Martin Simpson? He’s
from Scunthorpe and has been around for a little while now but I have
only recently got in to him thanks to Mark Radcliffe and his Folk Show
(BBC Radio 2, Wednesday evening at 7pm). His latest album ‘Vagrant
Stanzas’ is incredible. It has been produced by Richard Hawley and
has got real restraint but masterful guitar playing all at the same
time.
Gav: In a similar trad-folk vein, I think everyone should listen to
Lau. Also, my girlfriend is a piper and in the flat at the moment
we've mainly been listening to the pibroch of Allan MacDonald, which
is this incredibly heartfelt and emotional, and technically brilliant,
pipe music, the likes of which in my lowland ignorance I previously
didn't know existed.
Thanks for speaking with us, would you care to share a joke with us?
Gav: It goes way back in my family that we don't lower ourselves to
the set-up/punchline form. My great-grandfather was buried with his
lathe, and if he could see me now, he'd be turning in his grave.
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