INTERVIEW: LES MYSTERINES: Silent Radio

Photo credit: Sylas Agtarap (@ShotBySig)

After writing a review of “Afraid of tomorrows”, I had the opportunity to speak to Lia Metcalfe and Paul Crilly, an opportunity I couldn’t refuse. Asking questions is an easy task, even in unfamiliar territory, like on a Zoom call.

Sitting in the room on Zoom, I arrive a few minutes early to show my impatience and because I am an impatient bastard. Paul soon joins and the usual greetings take place before the most important question is asked. “If you owned a pub, what 4 taps would you have on tap?”, which I would happily judge them on. Laughing, Paul replies: “You must have a Guinness, Ashai (which is the group’s favourite and was also in mine), Tennent’s for my Glaswegian roots and I used to work in Penny Lane wine bar which don’t judge me on that, we used to have Becks on tap (I judged it), I feel like I’m going to regret half of those choices.” My offer of a cider is quickly dismissed, which I try to pass off as just for my girlfriend. Lia then joins the conversation by answering my question “Guinness definitely but not the very cold one, Stella (with which I strongly disagree), Estrella, Ashai”.

After asking the main question, the next question is: “How was the creative experience of ‘Afraid of tomorrows’ different from ‘Reeling’?” Lia says: “The whole process was different, creatively it was different with Paul and I going on writing trips. It was isolating compared to the writing process of ‘Reeling’. A lot of things were different. The sound was completely different and with years apart, you’re a completely different person.” I interject by talking about how they said it was more raw and ask if they put more of themselves into this album. “It was definitely quite an immersive process, we wanted that because we felt like the only way to really get the most out of what we wanted to create and dig into who we were at that point was to make it immersive and intense.” With writing trips being so isolated for days on end and non-stop, not sleeping became intense. It worked for this album by putting us more into it.”

An artist has to love what they do, so I ask him, ‘What’s the highlight of the album for you?’ Paul replies, ‘There were a lot of moments that led to other things. The first song we wrote together that made it onto the album was ‘Hawkmoon’, which was a great moment for a lot of reasons, one of them being that it was completely different to ‘Reeling’, which was the idea all along, it excited us and proved to Lia and I that we could do it as a duo. There were also so many possibilities for the album that it didn’t have to be a rock album and if you listen to ‘Hawkmoon’ it’s a world away from ‘Reeling’.’ Great minds must think alike, because ‘Hawkmoon’ is my favourite track on the album. Paul adds: “We went to a place called Hexon a month or two before the Arctics where everything came together and we ended up doing 4/5 songs there, maybe more. It just glued everything together. There were a lot of moments of domination. The last song we did was ‘So Long’, it came out of nowhere and once we wrote it we knew the album was done.

Choosing songs that evoke an era has to be done carefully. “How did you decide which songs were going to be on Afraid of tomorrows?” Lia replies, “To be honest, we had a lot of tracks, after the last writing trip it all came together and made sense of what we were going to record with John. We ended up recording more tracks than what’s on the record, but we could feel naturally which ones were going to be the world of Afraid of tomorrows and what was most appropriate to tell the story. It just revealed itself to us.”

I like to know the difficulties behind the art, so I asked, ‘Did we find anything difficult about recording?’ Paul says, ‘The whole process is difficult, but I would be worried if it wasn’t because we wanted to change and push ourselves a lot. If it seemed easy or if it wasn’t a challenge, we would have taken the easy way out. There were times in the writing where it was difficult because we were going in with just ideas, it took a while for everything to come together and then we went to LA to record it, you’re going to a place you don’t know at all, but these songs you’ve lived with for 18 months and handing them over to someone else to develop is daunting and weird.’

Showcasing an era must be a challenge, so I ask him, “How did you decide which singles were going to be?” Paul replies, “All the other ones that aren’t singles are really sad, so we couldn’t have them as singles. The three of them were pretty obvious that they were going to be singles. There was talk of throwing a curve ball in there, but that was us trying to overcomplicate things.”

“Since it’s a festival, what’s the craziest festival experience you’ve had?” Lia says, “Let’s try not to incriminate ourselves here.” Paul says, “There were a few early on, when the album had just come out and we were doing things way bigger than we were used to and it was like walking around and watching the Strokes have tea. We did a festival called Secret Garden Club and we played at like two in the morning. It’s known for being a weird place. It’s even weirder at two in the morning.” Lia adds, “I think I jumped up on stage and sang ‘La Bamba’ a capella before we actually played.” Paul says, “There was a guy who played before us who had a harmonica and asked him to introduce us, and he didn’t really think about it and just went up on stage and did a five-minute intro.” » Lia adds, “He made a poem about it, it was crazy, he’s a poet.” I then tell them my story, where a bald redhead punched me in the face and then kissed me in a Kasabian mosh pit.

It’s a pleasure to speak to Lia and Paul and a big thank you to them for taking the time to speak to me.