Pram
have been around for eight or nine years now. A clutch of singles and EPs and
five albums with another, The North Pole Radio Station released since
I did this interview. Their jazz tinged mix of exotica, ska and easy listening
has taken them on the road with Pulp and on an annual European tour. They've
played in America and are popular with the New York underground scene. There's
even rumours of Pram style 'tribute' bands!
The venue is downstairs at Colossal Studios, the players include the core members of Pram: Rosie, Matthew, Sam and Max. the current line-up also includes Mark, who's recently replaced Darren on drums, Mr. Virdigris on trumpet and The Colonel on his theremin.
Sam explains, "We've just collected various members as we've gone along."
Pram's style is very hard to tie down. It seems that whilst the members of the band have similar musical tastes, each brings their own special musical styles - Max with his interest in easy listening and sound tracks, Matthew with his love of ska and reggae to name just a couple.
"We can't really say that there's a grand plan because we all write. So there's things coming from all directions," says Rosie. She disagrees with my suggestion that there is an atonal element in their music.
"I'll take issue with that suggestion quite strongly. I tell people to go to their record libraries and get out some old 60's Open University avant garde lecture records and have a listen to those."
"Atonal makes you think of something like Whitehouse," adds Max, "OK if you are not having a good time or if you want to clear a party !"
None
of the members can imagine life without being in a band. Rosie seems most addicted:
"I'm from a musical background, my dad plays the piano and harpsichord.
I used to play scales a lot when I was very young. I think that there was an
expectation that we would all be musical geniuses. I think I've been taking
issue with that expectation ever since. I was talking to this forty-year-old
guy who'd been in bands since he was sixteen and had ended up going on the road
with the Mekons. He says he really misses the life and it's really hard for
him to get his head round it. I'm finding it hard enough to cope with the fact
that we're not going to drive into the middle of Europe touring in December
which is what we seem to do every year. We went off for three weeks with Mouse
on Mars and about the same time of year with Stereolab. We always promise ourselves
we'll go back when it's warmer but we never do."
The first Pram album, Gash, came out in 1990. After a brief lull they were picked up by the Too Pure label who released the Iron Lung EP in 1992 and four albums: The stars are so big, the earth is so small, stay as you are in 1993, Meshes and Helium in 1994 and Sargasso Sea in 1995. There was also the much-sought-after EP for Duophonic Music for your movies and the single Omnichord for Wurlitzer Jukebox. There were plans to release the new album The North Pole Radio Station on that label.
Rosie is full of praise for Keith who ran Wurlitzer Jukebox, "He would have gone full out, worldwide. It would only have been the second album that he would have put out but he's built up such a reputation due to singles he's done. He gets people writing articles in quite large American glossies just about his label.
No
discussion about Pram is complete without mention of the varied instruments
they use. Rosie tells me about the omnichord, "It's an electronic angel.
It's made by Suzuki who obviously got bored making motorbikes. It's an electronic
harp with a touch-sensitive strip that you gently stroke. There's no keys on
it but it does have its own rhythm box with three rhythms, latin, waltz and
go-go ! It was given to me as a present by someone who thought it was highly
suitable to Pram. The recipe for the theremin was an heirloom in The Colonel's
family. He made it himself."
Matthew adds "There's a big difference between long wave theremins and short wave ones. One is easier to make but his is not one of those."
"That's why he joined in 1996 and not 1989," Max says. "He's been working on it all this time!"
Max comments on the local music scene: "More and more people are getting into bands. The reason is that after the live music recession people are looking for something different after the house market boom. There's an old audience and a new audience. The last time we played I remember thinking I don't know most of these people. Six or seven years ago I used to go to a lot of gigs but now I mostly go to the ones that I'm involved in. I'm doing the sound for Plone and Matthew does the sound for L'augmentation."
They are pleased with the emergence of new bands in Birmingham. Rosie says: "In the past promoters have not known who to put us on with. It's been so nice playing locally with bands and thinking we're on the same planet. That's a relief because we've played with such strange bands (Corrosion of Conformity, Cop Shoot Cop just to name two !) Two weeks on tour with Pulp in 1994 was great. We're not on a dissimilar wavelength to them."
"I've never disliked any of the bands we've played with," says Max, "but the ones around now are making some really beautiful music."
When Pram headline locally there always seems to be a good supporting line up. Broadcast, Plone, Avrocar have all supported Pram in the past as have Snowpony and recently Add N to X.
Max and Matthew were heavily involved in Klub Catusi, Birmingham's cult easy listening club. It seemed to provide a little oasis in the dance orientated or mainstream indie clubs around in the last few years. Rosie says, "Even at raves you could not escape Klub Catusi, it would often be there ! Now that it's gone everybody is off to join bands to play the music they listened to there."
"It's only hibernating !" Max assures us.
So
what does the future hold for Pram apart from the album and UK tour ? Max has
his interest in film and video: "We'd like to do more but it's a question
of time, we've been so busy recording. Various members of the band have got
jobs to subsidize their luxurious lifestyles. I was talking to John and Andy
from Mouse on Mars and they actually have their own video show on German TV.
We've done some music for this animation by these guys Andy and Martin in Bristol.
It's a ten-minute animation called Keep in a dry place away from children.
Freddie Jones is doing the voice-over. He was the circus master in The Elephant
Man and also in Wild at Heart. It's premiered at the Bristol film
festival."
"We'd love to do more," offers Rosie.
What about the reception in America ? "It was good," says Rosie. "Music for your movies was licensed in the States, it's done very well. We've just re-released Gash over there with a few extra tracks, some of the ones off the Perambulations tape which is from a similar period. It's doing really well and amazingly it's got onto listening posts in some shops."
I mention that a friend had seen them play in New York with a supporting cast of Pram soundalikes. The band ask for more details, but, modest as ever, just in case they can borrow a little floor space to sleep on the next time they are over there.
"In England there's a general lack of respect that musicians seem to get in Europe and America," says Matthew, "you're seen as doing a job over there. We've been misunderstood and discouraged," Matthew finishes, "it's all embedded in puritan attitudes." Long live the space cavaliers!