(© Heleen Rodiers)
Every week, AGENDA goes in search of the sound & vision of Brussels. This week we are heading to the American Theatre where Sundogs, Great Mountain Fire’s latest album, was recorded after extensive spatial experiments.
The boys of Great Mountain Fire are still reeling from what recently happened to their colleagues in Applause. All the materials of the befriended Brussels band were stolen from their rehearsal space in Anderlecht. “We would also be in complete shock,” guitarist-keyboard player Antoine Bonan tells us. “In that respect we couldn’t be in a better location: you can’t just walk in and out of the American Theatre. It is a veritable bunker and it has security staff.” Great Mountain Fire found this space at the Heizel/Heysel at the perfect time, in the summer of 2013, immediately after an exhausting tour of France.
Great Mountain Fire
(© Keorges Gaplan)
After they were no longer able to rehearse at the Rising Sun Studio and temporarily had to store their materials in an old factory building, they were eager to find somewhere that they could feel comfortable and relaxed. Their booking agent put them in touch with Olivier Mees, the director of BME (Brussels Major Events) and the most important tenant of the building that served as the American pavilion during Expo 58, and which after the World Exhibition was occupied by the Flemish Radio and Television Network Organisation who were to use the location to shoot their most popular TV shows.“It currently serves as storage space for the organisers of the Brussels Summer Festival and Winter Wonders, but there was still enough room for a few little rock bands in the former television studios,” Bonan goes on. As a result, Great Mountain Fire now shares a large rehearsal space with Vismets, another Brussels-based band. “After our last tour, the five of us just wanted to retreat so that we could experiment without any pressure. We’re isolated here, in the middle of a park. Besides being inspiring, this is also very practical: we can work without disturbing anyone.”
After they were no longer able to rehearse at the Rising Sun Studio and temporarily had to store their materials in an old factory building, they were eager to find somewhere that they could feel comfortable and relaxed. Their booking agent put them in touch with Olivier Mees, the director of BME (Brussels Major Events) and the most important tenant of the building that served as the American pavilion during Expo 58, and which after the World Exhibition was occupied by the Flemish Radio and Television Network Organisation who were to use the location to shoot their most popular TV shows.“It currently serves as storage space for the organisers of the Brussels Summer Festival and Winter Wonders, but there was still enough room for a few little rock bands in the former television studios,” Bonan goes on. As a result, Great Mountain Fire now shares a large rehearsal space with Vismets, another Brussels-based band. “After our last tour, the five of us just wanted to retreat so that we could experiment without any pressure. We’re isolated here, in the middle of a park. Besides being inspiring, this is also very practical: we can work without disturbing anyone.”
The band even rejected the offer of a summer tour in Germany to be able to start here again. “We needed some breathing room,” bassist Alexis Den Doncker says. “One idea still remained from our Rising Sun period,” he remembers, “and we trashed it after three days.” The band subsequently spent quite a long time recording a total of 45 demos, from arranged songs to simple sounds and rhythms, which formed the basis of the new album.
(© Heleen Rodiers)
“At a certain point, we put a microphone in the middle of the hallway,” Den Doncker shows us while walking along the complex’s wide, concrete-lined central hallway. “You can hear the distance here. It’s like throwing a stone in a puddle: you can hear how deep the puddle is from the ‘plop’. Here you can hear whether the space is ten or fifteen metres wide. When we recorded our first album, we still had mattresses stacked behind the drum kit. Our sound is not so flat anymore now.”
Much more than in the past, the band has attempted to document the moment. According to Bonan, this gives Sundogs a more interactive dimension: “After our debut, we occasionally got the feedback that it was a shame that our live energy didn’t really come through on the album. We’ve solved that problem by recording everything live.”
“At a certain point, we put a microphone in the middle of the hallway,” Den Doncker shows us while walking along the complex’s wide, concrete-lined central hallway. “You can hear the distance here. It’s like throwing a stone in a puddle: you can hear how deep the puddle is from the ‘plop’. Here you can hear whether the space is ten or fifteen metres wide. When we recorded our first album, we still had mattresses stacked behind the drum kit. Our sound is not so flat anymore now.”
Much more than in the past, the band has attempted to document the moment. According to Bonan, this gives Sundogs a more interactive dimension: “After our debut, we occasionally got the feedback that it was a shame that our live energy didn’t really come through on the album. We’ve solved that problem by recording everything live.”
(© Heleen Rodiers)
While their debut energetically switched tempos, the band members have consciously opted for a more homogenous sound this time. “That did require us to impose certain restrictions,” Bonan admits. “For example, we had to avoid using all the sounds we can possibly produce or all the variation of our vocal range.”
“The challenge was to make a guitar not sound like a guitar, but to transform it,” Den Doncker says. “There are so many different ways of changing sound around: for example, we played a sitar like a guitar, and the strange noise we produce with our dulcimer could have come from a keyboard.”
While their debut energetically switched tempos, the band members have consciously opted for a more homogenous sound this time. “That did require us to impose certain restrictions,” Bonan admits. “For example, we had to avoid using all the sounds we can possibly produce or all the variation of our vocal range.”
“The challenge was to make a guitar not sound like a guitar, but to transform it,” Den Doncker says. “There are so many different ways of changing sound around: for example, we played a sitar like a guitar, and the strange noise we produce with our dulcimer could have come from a keyboard.”
(© Heleen Rodiers)
Later on, standing in the abandoned concert hall, where Harry Belafonte, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie performed during Expo 58, Great Mountain Fire drummer Morgan Vigilante casually remarks: “This is where we came to play tennis whenever we needed to let off some steam.” It says something about the faded glory of this building, where Pink Floyd once played on the roof. The cost of the renovation has been estimated and the AB concert hall is backing the project, but as is so often the case, it may be some time before sufficient funding is found.
“It’s a crying shame that the building has fallen into its current condition, and that nobody makes better use of it,” Den Doncker concludes, knowing full well that this might be precisely what played in the band’s favour. “Otherwise it never would have inspired us, though.”
Later on, standing in the abandoned concert hall, where Harry Belafonte, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie performed during Expo 58, Great Mountain Fire drummer Morgan Vigilante casually remarks: “This is where we came to play tennis whenever we needed to let off some steam.” It says something about the faded glory of this building, where Pink Floyd once played on the roof. The cost of the renovation has been estimated and the AB concert hall is backing the project, but as is so often the case, it may be some time before sufficient funding is found.
“It’s a crying shame that the building has fallen into its current condition, and that nobody makes better use of it,” Den Doncker concludes, knowing full well that this might be precisely what played in the band’s favour. “Otherwise it never would have inspired us, though.”
(© Heleen Rodiers)
The lessons of Geoff Emerick and David Byrne
These are both must-reads in any case: Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles (2006), the memoirs of Geoff Emerick, the Beatles’ sound technician, and How Music Works (2012), a collection of subtle observations by David Byrne. “These two books made us want to experiment,” Antoine Bonan says. “Although we have different materials now than in the Beatles’ day, the main point is still about what sound can do in a space. Emerick could masterfully render the natural reverberation of a space, which gave his recordings an authentic cachet. That’s precisely what we were looking for at the American Theatre, with its labyrinth of passageways and rooms of various sizes.” There is one big difference with the past. “While Emerick constantly had to break rules,” Den Doncker explains, “we had to impose rules in order to experience what we were never able to experience because we are too young. Which is basically the principle of vintage.”
Borough: Laken/Laeken
Album : Sundogs, 15/5, PIAS
Concert: 12/5, 19.30, Botanique, www.botanique.be
Info: Facebook: Great Mountain Fire
The lessons of Geoff Emerick and David Byrne
These are both must-reads in any case: Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles (2006), the memoirs of Geoff Emerick, the Beatles’ sound technician, and How Music Works (2012), a collection of subtle observations by David Byrne. “These two books made us want to experiment,” Antoine Bonan says. “Although we have different materials now than in the Beatles’ day, the main point is still about what sound can do in a space. Emerick could masterfully render the natural reverberation of a space, which gave his recordings an authentic cachet. That’s precisely what we were looking for at the American Theatre, with its labyrinth of passageways and rooms of various sizes.” There is one big difference with the past. “While Emerick constantly had to break rules,” Den Doncker explains, “we had to impose rules in order to experience what we were never able to experience because we are too young. Which is basically the principle of vintage.”
Borough: Laken/Laeken
Album : Sundogs, 15/5, PIAS
Concert: 12/5, 19.30, Botanique, www.botanique.be
Info: Facebook: Great Mountain Fire
Read more about: Muziek
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