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Sounds like they'll be doing Europe... :D
From Swervedriver to the lesser known Toshack Highway, those who know Adam Franklinīs work are rather faithful in their appreciation of his music, often speaking of it in an affectionate tone more often reserved to refer to a first love or at least the first girl to take one's virginity. This appreciation has spanned nearly two decades for many, and as those fans have undoubtedly matured, so has Franklinīs style, though it still holds all the magic that drew us all in at the start.
And on the heels of his recent much-anticipated and well-received Swervedriver reunion tour comes Magnetic Morning, a collaboration between two musical superpowers -- Franklin and Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino.
The music skews closer to some of Franklinīs later solo work than the driving sort of force that propelled Swervedriver into a guitar loverīs heart more than 15 years ago, but that sentiment very much remains, and Franklinīs skilled songwriting shines through melodies that fit both comfortably on a Saturday night out as it does a lazy Sunday morning.
The band plays the Earl Monday night with Sleep Therapy and Creepy. But in the meantime, read the interview below.
Pine Magazine/Holly Lang: Tell me a little about your current project Magnetic Morning. How did you come together?
Adam Franklin: Sam (Fogarino) and I met in New York City when introduced by a mutual friend. We then hatched a plan to work together in some capacity - in fact, I needed a drummer for a recording I was doing and he was looking for someone to add some vocals and guitars to a project he was working on for a gallery exhibition. So after helping each other out on these initial projects we then decided to work on a totally new project, which is what became MM.
HL: How does the tour as Magnetic Morning compare to your recent tour with Swervedriver (past the obvious line-up and sound differences)?
AF: Well, it's interesting because this band is a totally new, totally fresh thing which is also particularly cool for everyone in the band as well because everyone has their own other projects (Jimmy Lavalle from the Album Leaf plays keyboards, bass player Josh Stoddard heads the Still Out and guitarist Blasco has his own projects as well as having toured as keyboard player with Interpol and Secret Machines) so it's fun to be playing slightly different roles. Swervedriver was a band that hadn't played for ten years, but that actually made the Swerve thing very fresh also! One major difference of course is that people don't really know this new material so well so they're kinda checking us out, seeing if they like it. I think we're winning them over though.
HL: You have worked with several collaborators spanning a few states. Can you tell me about the songwriting process for the recently recorded album?
AF: You're quite right - although the live band was formed when four of us were living in New York City and surrounding boroughs, now everyone lives in a different state! The songwriting process is only between myself and Sam though and although there was a period when we were living down the road from one another in Jersey City, even then most of the songs evolved from sending mp3s back and forth.
And it's very much a collaboration that works in various different ways "No Direction," for example, would be the only one song written in the classic Lennon/McCartney way, where it's Sam's chorus, my verse and a collaborative middle eight. Aside from that, either one of us might be bringing atmospheric sounds to the other's idea or cutting up and rearranging.
HL: Where did you record?
AF: We recorded in Athens, Ga., at a little studio called Normal Studio because it's just around the back from Normal Street. The studio is a barn situated in Sam's neighbor Pete's back garden actually, so it was a very sweet arrangement! And Athens is a lovely town too.
HL: How does Magnetic Morning work in tandem with your solo work, if at all?
AF: It did take a little while to establish different roles. Somebody said to me earlier on, "If you write a song how do you decide if it going to be an Adam Franklin song, or a Magnetic Morning song or even a Swervedriver song?" The original tunes on the Magnetic Morning EP were Sam's original musical ideas which I helped flesh out with arrangement, lyrics, further instrumentation etc and I brought in the arrangement of the Kinks tune ("The Way Love Used to Be"). Once we'd kind of established where this thing was going, the first song that I actually sat down to write as a MM tune was "Indian Summer."
HL: Past the tour, what are the plans for Magnetic Morning?
AF: We'd like to get the album licensed in Europe and tour there and do further recording and touring here. There are a few schedules to work around though.
HL: You've recently spent some time in the South. Does your location affect at all your songwriting? Does it lend towards a different sort of inspiration, or are the songs already in you to a point where geography doesn't matter?
AF: I think there is quite likely a different sort of inspiration but I wonder if you end up at the same place ultimately. Maybe it's like that whole 'crushed butterfly' (Ray Bradbury/"A Sound of Thunder") theory where things are just slightly different in the end, like maybe the South inspires a seventh chord whereas if you were writing in the
Caribbean you'd finish the song on a diminished 9th or something!
HL: What's next for you musically?
AF: The next Adam Franklin album comes out in the new year, around March time and it sounds great. That album was recorded and mixed around the Swervedriver and Magnetic Morning work with the drums being recorded in London before the SWD tour, guitars and keyboards in Toronto before the MM album, and it was mixed in Wales just before the UK Swerve dates.
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