Pagan Wanderer Lu

Pagan Wanderer Lu’s name is not up for discussion, not now,
not ever. You just don’t ask. Ok? Good. Pagan Wanderer Lu is
not a hippie, neither is he a mouth for political woes, however, he
is an exciting bag of tricks, a veritable lucky bag of candy, iron on
transfers and sherbet dips. A one man band careering through
the overlooked, and not mass-commercially viable world of
electronic indie-pop. Pagan Wanderer Lu’s music is an awkward
beautiful mess of organised random chaos, but when asked for a
label, as we know society loves to label things, he explains “I'm
consistently at a loss when I say I'm a musician and someone
asks me to describe what I do. I always just talk in terms of what
instruments I use or say something like 'electronic indie songs'
and get a blank look in return. I think it's best to let other people
describe it.”

Located in the North West after a furthered education at
Aberwystwyth University, Pagan Wanderer Lu has set his sticks; Omnichord and bag of instruments rescued from the dusty and murky world of car boots, down in the North West of Queen Elizabeth II pastures. His rousing performances have taken him far and wide, to the delight of gender disillusioned emo kids in Bangor, North Wales, and to the rapturous stage invasion at the Drowned In Sound ‘Tips for 2006’ gig in Camden Barfly, where he headlined, reigned supreme, owned the supporting acts of Jeniferever, Jamie T and Comanechi to pluck but a few of the acts we should all now have some knowledge of as we career through the year to this the month of July.

The first commercial release of any Pagan Wanderer Lu has been picked up by the frightfully exciting Brainlove Records. Such is the pedigree of the rostra on the label, it is with great privilege, deservedly so, that Pagan Wanderer Lu finds his “electronic indie” piece of aceness, ‘Repetition 1’ paired with the electronic stylings of Napoleon IIIrd’s ‘Hit Schmooze For Me’, in what can best be described as one-helluva-electro pop tag team. If all this talk of electronics is creating illusions of Fischerspooner or Squarepusher, then with ‘Repetition 1’, you’re coming from the wrong angle. This is electronic samples fused with guitar and dripping with bleepy samples and the best vocal interjection heard since the Flaming Lips brought us “yaryaryayryayrayar”. Pagan Wanderer Lu explains the MO of Brainlove records and his involvement in the Singles Club venture; “I think the ethos of the label is to release music which is creative and new and different without being inaccessible. Basically art-pop. And that's close to what I've always tried to do. When I'm listening to some of the really awesome stuff that they're releasing I feel kind of in over my head with my own stuff. I don't quite see myself as on a par with something like Napoleon IIIrd or Bishi...”

The two tracks on the first issue of the singles club are two different pieces of a very similar thing, how did this pairing come about? “Napoleon and I were paired together because we're probably the most similar of the Brainlove acts. We're both a 'one man band' using electronics and guitars, we're both writing in similar areas lyrically. But we're very different too. Napoleon's music is very layered and rich compared to mine. He's a perfectionist, he puts a lot into the production getting every detail right, cramming all the ideas in. I have a rougher, impatient, approach, I'll spend months writing a song but then record it in an afternoon and never go back to it-leave all the mistakes and rough edges in. That's why John Brainlove (the big grinning cheese of Brainlove Records, Brainlove TV and any other format of media he can get his grubby mittens on) suggested I record my EP with Napoleon to get something a bit more.... not polished but... finished.” From this first venture into the world of proper artwork, release schedules and publicity runs; Pagan Wanderer Lu will be back around again with ‘The Independent Scrutineer’ an EP to be released on Brainlove Records which has just been put to bed in the recording studio. The songs will feature the trademark clever structures and turns of phrase that go into the lyrics. “I try really hard to put layers into the words, make it so you don't get everything there is to get first time round. So they're intricate but not abstracted into bullshit: a puzzle that can be solved and that you actually want to solve. So that there's some obvious hooks to them to get people interested but also something for anyone who cares to look at them more deeply. I try and make the songs actually 'about' something which seems to be increasingly rare these days. I dislike them being described as 'social commentary' or 'political' because that's only a small part of it; they're nearly always about something much more personal.

A visit to his website will reward you with more material and the sounds of disenchantment in ‘Our New Hospital Sucks’. So local politics eh? Are we disillusioned with the current political setup and does this manifest itself in your songs as a ways and means of venting your disillusionment with a pop spin? “I don't think of songs as tools, first and foremost. I write songs because I enjoy it and there's nothing better than coming up with something you think is really great. I write songs about lots of different things - whatever's in my head; depression, people i've met, my friends, stories about things that happen, stories I make up... 'Hospital' gets attention because it's quite blatant. Probably my most overtly 'issue' based political song. But the intention with it was originally to take that almost too far-almost to the point of parody. Obviously Private Finance Initiatives are really damaging and people should be very angry about them. But they're also extremely boring things to become informed about. They're piles of paper and sub clauses that are screwing over more than just the health service. That song was inspired by a chapter in 'Captive State' by George Monbiot, and by a throwaway comment by him at the end of the book in which he says, basically, 'I know this book is boring' - so I was also trying to put my feelings about PFI into a song which wasn't boring. Something funny that you could dance to. Basically, if you tried to do some wholesome; worthy, acoustic, weep-along about a privately financed hospital then that song would probably end up being quite embarrassing for people to listen to. It's much better to raise a smile and get people thinking about it at the same time. It's satire basically.”

Pagan Wanderer Lu has a very versatile sound that lends itself to acoustic guitar, as well as the more manipulated and frantic electronic sounds that are created using the many machines at his disposal. Do you have a preference? “I started out as a solo acoustic singer songwriter type and just bought the groovebox to mess around with. I never particularly thought I'd end up being thought of as an 'electronica' artist. It just meant I could start adding drums and other sounds to the recordings I was doing. I still like doing acoustic stuff because I think I surprise myself in different ways. Plus the sequencers are a way to back myself up at gigs, and get a fuller sound. It gets people's attention when it's not yet another four haircuts with guitars. But I'm always keen to not come across as novelty or, god forbid, 'quirky'. I want it to be the songs people remember. I'd still like to do acoustic gigs but I don't know who people would take to that now. Maybe one day I'll just turn up with only a guitar to do a gig but people will be expecting electronic noises and omnichords. Then they'll hate it, and that'll be the end of me....”

You cite your “inability to socialise” as your prevailing reason for being a solo musician, would you consider expanding the line-up if a fellow kindred spirit came along? “I'd love to do that more than anything. I'm frustrated by the limitations of the way I have to perform live - the lack of spontaneity, the fact that it's harder to get people up and dancing when it's you and a backing track. I'd like to form a band in which I was basically the 'leader' and main songwriter, but I also love to write in collaboration with people too. Anything that makes something unexpected; like earlier this year I wrote some jazz piano music for Bobby from the Fog Band, he wrote the words and sang and used it on his solo project - it turned out great, but it was something I'd never written for myself to sing over. I'd like to see Pagan Wanderer Lu evolve into a band, maybe with a changing lineup to keep things new all the time. I hope that's something that can happen once I've established myself a little more. Advertising in shop windows is likely to get me some wacky guitarists who want to play 'garage rock with angular rhythms'. *yawn*I'm hoping the right people will just turn up one day.”

Pagan Wanderer Lu is an artist that defies the conventional recording route of sketches, ideas bandied around before demoing them to pull the strands together. The Paul Daniels of music, a conjurer of sounds utilising concepts memorised like mental post-it notes. It’s a bit unusual but it sure does work “Not writing anything down. Not demo-ing anything. Not bothering to find out if I can actually play the song i'm writing. Sometimes I've not even sung it aloud until I go to record the vocal. Some people can't conceive that that's how I work. But I do. I always have a list of stuff that I'm working on in my head, in case I forget. At the moment it has about nine songs on it. Some of them have been there for a year and a half, but they'll come out when they're ready. Like magic.”

It would be reasonable to expect there to be limitations, in logistics and physical capabilities to be a one man band, do you have to restrict yourself in your song writing to what you can actually pull off live? “I try not to do that. There are many many songs I've written that I physically could not play live. Songs that would need a full live band, or that would need the sequencers to do something they're not capable of doing. But then when I wrote things like 'Memorial Hall' and 'Gentlemen's Game' I thought I wouldn't be able to play them at gigs and I figured it out. I went through a phase of writing songs with gigs in mind but I realised that I went off those songs very quickly... So now I'm trying to write to recordings again and I'll worry about playing them live later.” So that said, how do these songs come to fruition, are you methodical in your electronic-indie madness? Incorporating the samples, synths and guitar lines into one converging picture must require some juggling and processes to get them to all come off as one. “It's rarely the same from one song to the next. Sometimes I start with a specific musical idea and a specific lyrical idea and build up a stockpile of them and then pair them together. So I may meet a homeless person with an interesting story to tell and I decide I'm going to put it into a song, and then I've got some bit of glitchy techno that I've made and I mentally match those two things up. Maybe I'll have a couple of lines for the lyrics, a title, and an idea what I want to say. Once I've decided that 'Billy' is going to be such and such a bit of music with such and such lyrics I kind of feel like I've committed myself to it. I wouldn't then go and put some different words on that music, or write some different music for those words.”

A lot of the richness of sound comes from the use of a little known instrument that produces the most hauntingly lingering and softest of tones that add texture to the movements and also adds an element of intriguing to those lucky enough to capture a Pagan Wanderer Lu live performance. Are you to the Omnichord what Jeremy Warmsley is to braces? What is the appeal of the omnichord? “I don't really know what Jeremy Warmsley does with his braces - does he play them? The omnichord is just a really great sounding instrument, it has this wonderful warm tone when you let the chord just go on and on, and the 'harp' bit of it twinkles beautifully. It's so easy to play, anyone can do it. It does get a lot of attention. I can guarantee every gig I do someone will ask what it is. I should start getting sponsorship. I know the Hot Puppies have acquired one since they had a go on mine *titter*, and Napoleon borrowed it to use on his album. I've started a trend...”

You have been very vocal about your displeasure at Jose Gonzales rendition of ‘Heartbeats’ When do we get to hear your interpretation? “I don't think I'll be doing a cover of that song. My problem with him was that he made a very dull version which was sold on the back of an advert and made a lot of 'one album a year' people buy his album. The original was so full of life, kaleidoscopic and passionate. His was lackluster and sickeningly 'worthy'. I'm sure the Knife liked his version but I thought it was more of a castration than a cover, and now for some people that's the authoritative one. It's just sad. Don't get me started on people who don't consider electronic music to be 'proper'.”

www.myspace.com/paganwandererlu
www.brainloverecords.com

Interview by James Ainsworth