Saint Etienne wrote the laidback soundtrack to the 90s with hits like “He’s On The Phone”, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and “Join Our Club”. Now they’re back with a new album “London Coversations”, a complete retrospective of their career and a spruced up version of “Burnt Out Car” as their new single. RealMusic Blog chatted to one third of Saint Etienne - the very lovely Pete Wiggs - about their comeback, their films, their love of the capital and running into the Sugababes…
Hello Pete - how are you? Having a good morning?
“Good thanks - I’ve just been answering a tricky questionnaire and it’s made my brain hurt…”
I’ll try not to make it hurt any more then…
“It doesn’t take much!”
It’s been three years since your last album - what have you been doing in the interim?
“Bob and I spent a year being artists in residence at the Southbank Centre and made a film called “This Is Tomorrow” about the Festival Hall. I say us - we made it in conjunction with people who actually know how to make films! We did the score and it was performed live back in 2006. Since then we’ve been planning loads of other stuff and we’re also doing the soundtrack to a cartoon series as well as which is great fun - it’s all very Japanese and cute.”
Going back to your films - that wasn’t the first one you’d done was it?
“No. We did an album called “Sinister” and Bob had the idea that we spend so much on a video that we could make an hour-long film for the price of a music video. So we sold this idea to the record company, but then they gave up on it and we ended up financing it ourselves. But making this extended video allowed us to explore London in a deep way.”
You’re not behind the camera though?
“No - we’re more putting forward ideas and the music, but we don’t man the camera. It’s a very collaborative process. We made another film called “What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day?” which is based in the Lea Valley where the Olympics are being built and we managed to film quite a lot of it before it was knocked down.”
Your new album is called “London Conversations” so you’re obviously very London-focused. Do you all still live in London?
“Bob’s the only who still does actually, but we’re here all the time and we talk about it a lot! All of us grew up in the suburbs and London was a great magnet for us - the first thing we all wanted to do was move here. London always seemed so cosmopolitan - we grew up in Croydon and although it’s not that far away, attitude-wise it seems light years away.”
And does London still hold that charm for you even today?
“Absolutely. Every time you get on the train and cross the bridge, I put my face up against the window and get all excited again and go ‘Wow’!”
Your new single is ‘Burnt Out Car’, an old song that’s been spruced up a bit. Tell us a bit about that…
“It was originally written in 1998 and the original tempo is much slower - it was written for the X Files but never ended up there. At the time it was going to be the follow-up single to “He’s On The Phone” but it never came out. We always thought it would make a good single, so we thought we’d polish it up and see if we were right…”
Your new album is a whole retrospective - are there any songs you listen to now and think ‘Oh no’…
“Not really! It’s more that when I listen to tunes I tend to think about what was going on in my life at the time and it transports you back. It’s difficult to think about what it might sound like to someone who hasn’t heard it before. Sometimes I think some of the earlier stuff is very naive, but maybe that adds to the charm. But then sometimes I listen and I’m impressed with what we did and think ‘God, we were good’!”
There are a couple of new tracks on the album - will you be doing more afterwards too?
“We certainly don’t want to stop, but the next plan is probably to do the music for another film.”
And you worked with Xenomania on this, who are the producers du jour right now, working with Girls Aloud, Sugababes, Kylie and currently with the Pet Shop Boys. What was that like?
“We have a long-standing connection with Brian Higgins who’s the head guy there. He was in Motivate and did the original mix of “Burnt Out Car” and “He’s On The Phone” ten years ago. We’ve watched him build up this empire over the years, so it’s exciting to go there…”
Did you meet Sugababes or Girls Aloud when you were there? I imagine them all just hanging out in the lobby…
“We did yes! We saw the Sugababes and said hello - and they were in the foyer! It’s a really exciting atmosphere there.”
Do you consider this a comeback?
“It depends how well it does - if not we’ll brush it under the carpet! Seriously, it’s exciting to put another record out and see how it does. Plus, it’s nice to be able to put out a complete career-spanning compilation album - we’ve never done that before.”
You’re named after Saint Etienne FC - are you fans?
“Not really - they were huge in the 70s apparently, very glamorous side. But we just like the name and thought it sounded exotic - we didn’t realise it was a very unglamorous mining town!”
You collaborated in the past with a whole slew of artists - have you got plans to collaborate with anyone else?
“We do have some ideas but we can’t say who. We worked with Kylie in the past, but we didn’t really hang out with her that much - she’s really famous and we were too nervous!”
What do you think of the modern music scene?
“There’s always good music being made, but I’m not madly into any band really - I think I might have fallen victim to the iPod effect, where I’m more into songs now than groups. When I was a teenager, I bought an album every two weeks, took it home and played it over and over - that doesn’t happen any more.”
Thanks a lot Pete - good luck with the new album!
“Thanks, bye!”
Watch Saint Etienne’s new single “Burnt Out Car” here…
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“London Conversations” is out on October 13th.
(Clare Lydon)
