‘Sundazed’ by The Green Tambourine Band | Interview | Album Premiere
Exclusive album premiere of ‘Sundazed’ by The Green Tambourine Band, out November 5th via East Records.
‘Sundazed’ by The Green Tambourine Band is an album inspired above all by nature, the cyclical change of the seasons, the inherent symmetry and geometry in nature, the fundamental truth of our known dimensions and then beyond. Perfect circle music. Musically from beginning to end there are recurring motifs and themes throughout, if we imagine the album in a physical space it can be folded upon itself in various ways, each song has a partner in the symmetrical whole…but we will let you work that out for yourselves. Most importantly beyond grand concepts is the music and its a big development upon the sound of The Green Tambourine Band’s first album ‘…Let Yourself Be / Aum’. That album also explored symmetry and repeated motifs within a whole and ‘Sundazed’ is a maximilist progression of this basic idea.
From the beginning the album was conceived as a work of maximalism, pushing the Tascam 388, an 8 track tape machine to its outer limits. Overdubs upon overdubs were recorded and the tracks shaped, formed, altered until they revealed themselves to their full potential. In the initial tracking sessions of 2014 and 2015 many of the tracks were recorded up to 30 times to achieve “the one”. This base layer of music was then used as the foundation for the songs and the productions were then sculpted and completed by Jack Burns over the next 6 years, across various studio spaces. The record was not rushed in any way, it was given time and allowed to reveal itself. ‘Come In / Come Out’ is their closing track on the record for good reason, it’s also the oldest song on the record. Written at the age of 18 by Jack and Liam. It’s the perfect way to end the record and lyrically encompasses all the themes featured throughout the album. Beginnings and endings.
Jack Burns – Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Percussion, Keys, Production
Liam Payne – Backing Vocals, Guitar
Ross Lynchehaun – Organ, Keyboards, Harmonium
Murray Pettit – Drums, Percussion
“I started using the term perfect circle music to describe the concept of this interlocking cyclical music”
Would you like to talk a bit about your background?
Jack Burns: Hi Klemen! My name’s Jack Burns, thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about the album and preview it on It’s Psychedelic Baby! Magazine. The Green Tambourine Band were started in 2012 with myself, Liam Payne and Murray Pettit. We had been playing together for a good few years at this point and this new group marked a slight change in stylistic direction. Ross Lynchehaun joined us later on organ around the time our first record was released. We initially released it through the Active Listener blog (another massively influential source at the time) and then later released it on East Records which is a project label I started to essentially archive various projects in and around our musical world in Edinburgh. Our next release ‘Sundazed’ will mark our 14th release and we have around 3 more before the label is being put on hiatus. I run the label with Fraser Johnston and we have taken the decision to wind down the label because I am now based in Valencia, Spain and Fraser is in London, UK. Our next few releases are certainly an artistic high point and because the label is so Edinburgh centric we’d like to go out on a high before continuing with new projects. The Green Tambourine Band is also no longer an active unit so this can be seen as a farewell release to that project.
What does the name “The Green Tambourine Band” refer to in the context of the band name? Let me guess! Is it named after the track by The Lemon Pipers?
Funnily enough the name does not come from that song and we hadn’t heard the song before choosing the name (I personally don’t enjoy the song or band). To my memory it started as a play on ‘hey mr tambourine man..’ Became Tambourine Band and then Green was added because it’s the right colour to be in Scotland.
How do you usually approach music making?
In the Green Tambourine Band the songs were written by myself or Liam either collaboratively or separately. With ‘Sundazed’ I had a very clear concept of a basic tracklist and flow to the album and the end product is fairly accurate to that vision. ‘Feels Like The Sun’ and ‘Come In / Come Out’ were always the bookends of the album and then other tracks came and went. There was always a large instrumental side to the group and the two ‘Sundazed’ instrumentals were effective in bridging distinct sections of the album. I record everything using a vintage reel to reel recorder (Tascam 388) and all of our equipment is analogue. For the album we tracked the whole album’s base layers first. In a pursuit for the perfect take some of the tracks numbered up to 20 takes before the perfect one arrived. After this initial tracking session we had around 15 raw songs with which to work.
At this point the band as a functioning unit was essentially winding down so I became custodian of a large amount of unfinished music with which to work. In 2016 I moved to Spain and was unable to work on the tapes but a brief return from 2019-2020 allowed me time to complete the record. I wanted this production to be very maximalist in style, with a great many overdubs, layers and variations sonically throughout the album, which is a large part of the reason why it took so long. I was inspired by hearing George Lucas had a very detailed plan for his 6 Star Wars films in which each one has connections and mirrors with another, in plot and theme. I wanted the songs on this record to connect and reference each other in a similar way. There’s a lot of symmetry on the album musically and also a lot of repetition. I started using the term perfect circle music around this time to describe the concept of this interlocking cyclical music.
“The centre of the process is the Tascam 388 tape machine”
Can you share some further details on how your latest album was recorded?
The centre of the process is the Tascam 388 tape machine. It’s an 8 track tape machine across 1/4 inch tape, which is a very narrow tape for so much sonic information, resulting in natural compression and saturation. Our base layer of music was always 4 microphones on drums into a mixer, mixer into tracks 5 and 6 as a stereo drum track.
Tracks 3/7/8 were then filled with organ, guitar and bass or guitar depending on our setup. We played that all live together. At that point these tracks are then bounced together across 2 tracks which leaves 6 remaining. Usually then percussion comes next, more guitars, sitar, keys, some final guitar touches and the process of bouncing down continues. Bouncing the tracks together helps the individual tracks meld together sonically as they are literally being compressed together onto a small piece of tape however if done poorly or too many times the sound fidelity decreases so it’s a very fine balance. In general because there was so many instrumental features on this record I had 2 tracks left at the end to finally add the vocals. It’s fair to say the tape machine was pushed to it’s limits by the record. When all 8 tracks are filled it is time to mix the record. Again, because it’s analogue the process is longer and more intense than with modern digital technology as it happens all in real time, and has to be repeated many times until the result is achieved. However when the perfect mix is achieved it’s often far more evident in the feel, the same way a perfect take at the inception of the track is all down to a gut feeling and energy in the room.
How pleased were you with the sound of the album?
Overall I am very pleased with the sound and vibe of the album. It’s exactly as I imagined and listening to it now I can be transported straight back to the original takes. It was certainly the hardest album I have worked on purely because the vision was so clear from the start, if a note was out of place or the tone wasn’t correct it was always redone and many many overdubs were recorded. Added to that the whole process happened over 6 years, at times motivation was difficult to find. However nothing is on this album that wasn’t intended to be and I am very glad to be putting it into the world.
What are some future plans?
I am starting a solo project here in Spain. The production techniques are very similar to this record in general but the music is more instrumentally focused rather than traditional songwriting, with more Latin, ambient and soundtrack / library touches. Very explorative.
Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?
I play in a spiritual jazz collective called East and West Rendezvous and I am about to embark on the solo project. Liam, Murray and Ross all play in a project called Ghost Dance Collective.
Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?
Rather than new things I am including some records that inspired this album (also including some films). ‘666’ by Aphrodite’s Child, ‘Bitches Brew’ by Miles Davis, ‘Songs in the Key of Life’ by Stevie Wonder, ‘Revolver’ by the Beatles, Tropicalia compilation, Ravi Shankar at Woodstock, ‘Smile’ by The Beach Boys, ‘Forever Changes’ by Love, ‘American Beauty’ by The Grateful Dead, the 3 Amorphous Androgynous compilations (mindblowingly incredible series, was played ALOT). Deerhunter, Apocalpyse Now, Space Odyssey, The Godfather, Thunderball, Killing Them Softly.
Thank you. Last word is yours.
Thank you and I hope you enjoy the album!
Klemen Breznikar
The Green Tambourine Band Bandcamp
East Records YouTube
