Band: The Wedding Present
From: Leeds, England
Sound: angst-ridden guitar rock that ranges from jangly to thunderous; witty lyrics to boot
Similar Artists: Superchunk, The Fall, Buzzcocks, Pixies, Teenage Fanclub
Listen Now: “The Thing I Like Best About Him is His Girlfriend” (Jet Age Remix)

Few artists in the indie-rock world have been able to achieve the success and longevity of The Wedding Present; even fewer have managed to do so on their own terms. Since 1985, lead singer/guitarist David Gedge has guided the band through a variety of lineup changes and record labels while relentlessly pushing their sound forward. Always changing and growing over the course of a twenty-three year career is quite a feat in an industry full of safe-bets, managing to do so while charting eighteen U.K. Top 40 singles and consistently scoring favor with critics is nothing short of remarkable.

After an eight year hiatus, David Gedge revived The Wedding Present with the 2005 release of Take Fountain, an album that found the band moving away from the more lush and orchestrated sounds of Cinerama and back towards the six string attack they’d made their trademark time and again. Three years later, Gedge and crew headed back into the studio with Steve Albini to record El Rey, and the resulting album is as powerful, witty, lovelorn, catchy, loud, and dynamic as anything the band has produced. You’d be hard pressed to find a better matched combination of songwriting and production anywhere else in 2008.

EAR FARM was very fortunate to be able to catch up with David on the phone to talk about the new LP, his love of cover songs, working with Steve Albini once again, and his potential future career penning songs for American Idol winners…

EF: First off, just briefly, you’ve obviously done a billion of these things and answered the “how did you get started?” question a lot, but for the readers of EAR FARM, if you could just tell me what record first got you interested in music and then what got you from that point to the formation of The Wedding Present…

DG: Well it sounds a bit pretentious, I always feel a bit weird saying this, but I kind of always knew I was going to do it really. I felt I was kind of destined… people say “when did you decide to be in a pop group?” and I didn’t really make a decision, I don’t think. It sounds a bit odd but, you know, all my life as far back as I can remember I’ve always been a bit obsessed with pop culture and music in particular I suppose. And I always had this idea that one day I’d be in a group myself or be a DJ or be involved in some way. I grew up listening to the radio, I’ve always been a big fan of radio, so I suppose that shaped it really. As soon as I got the chance to meet like-minded people I started forming groups at school and that eventually became The Wedding Present. So it’s just been a path I’ve followed as though it’s been laid down for me almost. It sounds a bit stupid, but that’s the way it’s been.

EF: Speaking of growing up listening to radio, what led your band and your first single into the hands of John Peel? And was that your first airplay, or did The Wedding Present receive attention elsewhere first?

DG: No, no that was the first… I mean, with The Wedding Present and the bands I was in before we’d done demos and things but we’d never made a record and we’d never gotten any airplay or anything. But again, to follow up on what I was saying before, I grew up listening to radio and I grew up listening to John Peel because he was kind of the focus of my radio listening from that point onward because he had such an eclectic mix of music and stuff. And so, he was the obvious target for my demos. I suppose everybody’s really.

EF: Absolutely. I mean, growing up in the States he was a hero of mine just as a result of buying Peel Session records. I couldn’t listen to him here other than that. And, from everything I’ve read, he seems to have been one of The Wedding Present’s number one fans…

DG: I suppose so, and people always say you must feel really lucky that John Peel supported the group in that way. But in some ways, and I don’t mean to sound big headed, but it was obvious because I’d grown up listening to that program and it kind of shaped my musical outlook in a way. In some ways I’d almost constructed this band to fit in with his tastes. So it actually would’ve been very disappointing if he’d not liked the band. Which again sounds a bit weird…

EF: And do you remember the first time he played one of your songs, was it “Go Out and Get ‘Em Boy”?

DG: That’s right, yeah, “Go Out and Get ‘Em Boy”… oh definitely because we’d sent him the single down and then, I mean we listened to the program all the time anyway. So it wasn’t as if we’d just all gathered around the radio as if it was a special thing, it was John Peel’s show anyway so we listened. And then he played it, and I’m running down the street - I used to live next to the bass player at the time about a few hundred yards down the road - and I was like banging on his door you know “do you have the radio on?!” and he said “of course we have, yeah. He’s played the record!” and we were absolutely elated really because, you know, that was sort of a massive ambition for me. To have my record payed by John Peel on the radio. And that became, you know, well the next ambition would be “can we do a John Peel session at some point?” It was really very exhilarating.

EF: I can’t even imagine… so, when did you feel like The Wedding Present had finally established your own identity, or was it something you were ever even conscious of? You know, I first heard the band here rather inaccurately described as “the next Smiths”…

DG: Yeah (laughs).

EF: Which, I suppose, nearly every band around that time with a guitar and potential was being called… between that and the whole C86 thing, when did you feel like you broke out of that and became your own entity?

DG: Probably after the C86 thing I suppose. When we started we were just kind of this jangly indie band, and I think we were quite fortunate… although I don’t know whether it was good fortune or whether we were influenced more by that scene than we thought. But we were kind of one of the archetypal bands of that period really, with that kind of guitar music. As you say, it was in the wake of The Smiths and it was actually quite an exciting time because it was a guitar band scene so there were all these bands springing up all over the country and then loads of fanzines and people putting on concerts and stuff and it was a great time to be in a band really. And I think we did fall into that scene very easily. But I think we’ve always tried to be, musically, a bit different from other people. If we’ve ever arranged a song and it appears to go in a certain direction like “oh, that sounds like the Pixies” or something, you know, we always stop at that point and say “wait a minute, let’s try and get away from that.” You know, we don’t want to be accused of ripping off the Pixies. We try to be unique.

EF: And speaking of The Pixies and The Wedding Present’s sound with the new record, with El Rey, obviously you’ve gone back to working with Steve Albini…

DG: Yeah.

EF: And I read somewhere that it was his work with The Pixies that first kind of caught your ear…

DG: It was, yeah.

EF: So what brought you back to working with him? I know you worked with him in Cinerama some, but what brought you back to working with him for a Wedding Present project?

DG: Well it was a tricky decision, to be honest, because the previous LP we did in Seattle with Steve Fisk. And that worked out really well, and everyone was happy with it and it sounds good and it was a very interesting project to be involved with. So there was this feeling of “well, if it’s not broke let’s not fix it… let’s do the next LP with him.” And we kind of tossed it backwards and forward and thought “well, it’s the safe way” but then there’s a voice in the back of my mind saying you should move on and change it every time anyway. So we were kind of discussing that but then we noticed that the new songs were getting more guitar-y, even more guitar-y than Take Fountain was I think. And we just suddenly felt, you know, wait a minute. Steve Albini is the best engineer in the world for recording guitar bands, you know we shouldn’t even be thinking about this really, we should just go there and do it. And I had this… sort of another fear in the back of my mind… I didn’t want to make it Seamonsters Part Two. Because that was the previous Wedding Present LP that he’d recorded and mixed and I didn’t want to copy that really. But I don’t think El Rey sounds anything like Seamonsters, so I think it came out okay in the end.

EF: Absolutely, and I was going to mention that the record does seem to recall previous work with Albini while totally taking the band and your songwriting forward. Which, whether with The Wedding Present or Cinerama, is something I’ve always appreciated about your music. And I wonder how you’ve managed to remain inspired and fresh with your songwriting through a career that’s spanned decades?

DG: Well, I think it’s partly a conscious thing… an example of that would be changing the producers and stuff but I’ve never liked those bands who, you buy an LP and it’s a good LP and you enjoy it and think I’ll go and buy the second one and it sounds the same and you think “well I’ve already got this one.” And I find that quite disappointing, so we’ve always tried to move on anyway. And then, I think the other part of that is the fact that we’ve had so many lineup changes over the years and obviously that is going to effect it because you’ve got different people coming in and out of the group with different ideas and influences and inspirations. So I think that has helped it move on really.

EF: In terms of releasing your records, you’ve kind of done everything from DIY to being with RCA and Island and Cooking Vinyl and now Scopitones, what’s been your favorite record label arrangement/situation?

DG: That’s a tricky one Matt, because my favorite in terms of the way I work is probably where we are now really. Which is, it’s our own label and we just license it, license the finished thing, to various people. For instance, it’s Manifesto in North America and then back home we use various people for different projects really. So, I am a bit of a control freak I think. I like to have my fingers all over the production and the marketing and the manufacturing… anything really. So I suppose that’s the way I’m more comfortable. Having said that, I did enjoy my time at RCA. I always hear these tales of bands who’ve had a nightmare relationship with major record labels and I’ve been very fortunate, I think, because it went really well. And we had a similar situation to what we have now in that we could control everything but obviously we had the advantage of them, sort of, throwing a lot of money at us as well. So it was quite nice. Having no restrictions on recording, budgets, they’d basically given us stupidly big advances. I think they expected we might become the next U2 or something.

EF: And tell me about that, because The Wedding Present are a band that most critics and people who really love music would easily consider one of the best guitar bands of the past twenty years, but the majority of the public likely has never bought a Wedding Present album… do you feel like you’ve achieved the things you always wanted to as an artist, or do you wish you’d moved to London at some point and tried your hand at writing disposable pop songs?

DG: Um, well I suppose I’m bound to say it, obviously, that I’m happy with the way we’ve done it because we’ve made the records that I wanted to make personally. And I think we’ve probably not achieved the commercial success we sure could’ve done had we gone that other route. But at the same time there is an inkling towards… not just for the success and the money, but I actually do like that kind of pop music. I could quite have imagined going down that road as well really, so I’m kind of sitting on the fence with that…

EF: There’s still time! You could write songs for an American Idol winner or…

DG: (laughs) Yeah, I suppose… well I’m not dissatisfied with what we’ve done really. At the end of the day it comes down to the records and the songs you’ve written and the recordings you’ve made and I’m fairly pleased with what we’ve done by and large.

EF: One thing you’ve made clear throughout your career is that cover versions are something you enjoy greatly…

DB: Definitely.

EF: What’s led you to cover the particular songs you have (partial list here), and are there any that you haven’t covered that you’re kind of dying to get to?

DB: Well, the first answer I suppose is that I’ve always been interested in doing covers because it makes you think about arranging songs and recording songs in a different way. You know, when you’re covering a song you realize how other people have done it, what structure they’ve used, how they’ve achieved dynamics and stuff. So it’s always been very useful. And… I think we’ve just chosen songs we like, or bands we like. Like, for instance we did a radio session a couple of years ago for the BBC and they just said, “what do you want to do?” and we said “oh we’ll just do covers of classics” and we did, like, one from the ’60s, one from the ’70s, one from the ’80s, and one from the ’90s. And then somebody emailed us the other day and invited us to be on a Cure compilation album. I’m not the biggest fan of The Cure, to be honest. I liked the first LP, but… in some ways it was a nice challenge because it’s not music that I was particularly into.

EF: And so, did you pick a song off of Three Imaginary Boys?

DG: No, we actually did “High” in the end, I don’t know if you know that…

EF: Sure, that’s more recent. Or, from Wish actually.

DG: Yeah, I think our drummer chose it. He’s the only one of us who’s actually a Cure fan so we let him choose it. And we just kind of did it in a Wedding Present style really (laughs).

EF: That’s great, I can’t wait to hear it.

DG: And you know, there’s other stuff… we’re thinking of doing a Christmas single at the end of the year. We’re doing a tour in December in Britain, which leads right into Christmas, so we’ve done a cover of “White Christmas” for that. You know, the old Bing Crosby song? I’ve always wanted to do that.

EF: Is it going to be slow and similar to Bing Crosby’s version?

DG: Yeah. Slow and quiet. And then, a bit sad in a way. I hope.

EF: Right, sure. It definitely can be a sad song… and is there any current music that’s been catching your ear lately?

DG: I like The Ting Tings, have you heard of them?

EF: Absolutely! We listed them as a band to watch out for this year… I was sad to just miss them in Austin during SxSW.

DG: Yeah, I’ve not seen them yet. It’s a shame because I’ve only been back in LA a few days and they played the day before we arrived, I think. So it’s a bit of a shame because I’d like to go and see them.

EF: You mention being back in LA, I know you’ve recorded a few albums here in the States, and correct me if I’m wrong, but you’ve also spent some time living here in Seattle and LA?

DG: Yeah.

EF: Is the US some kind of inspiration or sanctuary for you? Is there a particular reason you’ve spent so much time here?

DG: I think it’s always been inspirational for us. As a band that’s existed over the last 20 years I think we never thought of ourselves as a particularly British group, although a lot of other people do. But I’ve always felt we’ve looked to North American culture as well as European culture really. And, yeah I do enjoy coming over here. Although, it’s partly because my girlfriend now is American.

EF: Is she from the LA area?

DG: No she’s from Seattle actually. Where I was for the first bit. And, I suppose, we lived there and I enjoyed it and then we went back to Britain and when it came to actually thinking about writing the next album we just suddenly thought “well, we can do this anywhere in the world really” so it just kind of dawned on me that I don’t need to be in a certain place to write songs. And I quite like the idea of living in Hollywood. It’s a bit of a stupid place really, but it kind of appeals to me.

EF: Do you ever watch any American TV shows, reality shows, or anything when you’re over here?

DG: Let’s see… what do we watch? What’s that with the Bond girl? Denise…

EF: Richards?

DG: Richards yeah. (laughs) I found myself watching that the other day. I don’t know why… but that’s the only one really. I think. But I do like a lot of American television. Because of the nature of what we do, and being away a lot, I think we watch DVDs more. I watch “Big Love” and “Entourage” and… I’ve not seen “Heroes” yet but that’s been recommended to me. Oh, and “The Wire”. I’ve got a copy of “The Wire” I need to watch.

EF: Do you have a US tour lined up to coincide with the release of El Rey? Could watch it then…

DG: Yeah, we’re going back to Britain in about a month I think and we’ve got festivals to do then. And I think the last one of those is in September and then we come straight back to North America after that. We’ve got a North American tour from the middle of September to, kind of, the middle of October I think. Although the dates aren’t completely confirmed yet. But I think that’s the time period… and then we go back and do a European tour all the way until Christmas.

EF: And have you played a show in every state?

DG: Um, we haven’t played in every state but I’ve actually been to every state but one.

EF: Alaska?

DG: No, I’ve been to Alaska.

EF: Oh you have? Wow.

DG: Yeah, my girlfriend’s parents have got friends up there so they invited us for a little holiday. So that was fun going on a little fishing boat.

EF: Oh that’s excellent.

DG: Well, it was freezing actually. But it was interesting. And the only state I’ve not been to is Maine. I think it’s probably because there’s nowhere to play up there I imagine. So yeah, I’ve never set foot in that state. Although, I noticed there’s a car just parked outside of our little flat here which is from Maine. So I wonder, if I sat in that car would that count as being in the state?

EF: Haha. Hey, it might be a concert promoter’s car, might be a chance to secure a show and finally hit your 50th state…

DG: (laughs) Yeah, maybe I’ll put a little note on there.

The Wedding Present play Southpaw in Brooklyn, NY on October 9th. All tour dates listed HERE.
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Purchase El Rey on Amazon HERE.

Listen: “The Thing I Like Best About Him is His Girlfriend” (Jet Age Remix)

Visit The Wedding Present on MySpace.

See the list of bands recently featured as EAR FARM’s Band of the Week HERE.