Levitation are slowly getting there, their intricacies coupled with brain
squashing feverish rushes. They also seem a trifle weird.
'I'm just talking about Bic and Bob and how I sort of picked this up from them,
after never being able to juggle for years and years, and the fact that I never
would have learnt, had I not met somebody who acquired that craft, rather than
something impersonal...'
It's close to midnight in the lounging area of a south London studio and Terry
Bickers is doing a passable job of keeping his balls in the air. He's spent
most of the evening laying down the final overdubs on tracks destined for
Levitation's first full studio album, but now he's explaining how juggling can
be a form of meditation that gets the right and the left sides of the brain
working together. The question that arises though is whether all of this is
really relevant to Levitation.
'The point I was going to make,' says Terry, with the air of someone talking to
a child who has just left its bed to disrupt a dinner party downstairs, 'was
the fact that even at my stage of life, you're still learning things. It was a
good realisation that I should not think, before starting this session, that I
know everything. I should be open to listening to other people we're working
with - the producers - and taking everyone's opinion as equal.'
It would seem (and who could want it otherwise?) that Terry Bickers - singer,
songwriter, guitarist and father of one daughter - is in a confident mood. It's
all in sharp contrast to the first time we met at a Paris hotel in December
1990. Then, Terry had been in the motormouth mode that was seen on last years
infamous Rapido interview, which was conducted during the same period.
I'd arranged an interview as much out of curiosity as anything else. Levitation
were finishing up their first series of live dates. Low key European support
slots to Galaxie 500 and Ride. Terry, meanwhile, was in the mood to put the
record straight, tell his side of a few stories. Yes, Guy Chadwick had asked
him to come back to The House of Love; The House of Love had lost their way,
chosen the wrong producers; Alan McGees name became transposed to Mr McGoo and
Levitation's publishers were caustically referred to as 'The Music Corporation
of America' due to the small matter of a lack of tour support. Terry, although
he denied it at the time, was bitter.
It was the end of a stressful period, something which Terry now acknowledges
when I ask if he had a nervous breakdown at the time of The House of Love split.
'It was exhaustion. I did basically,' he recalls. 'I kind of couldn't function
as I did before and it's very frightening. It makes you stronger, the
experience of something like that helps you build a resistance, because you have
to in this day and age.'
It's not merely for the sake of raking over old coals that it's worth recalling
this period. The image of Terry at that time was of a half crazed, acid addled
nutter (something, like Julian Cope, he may never completely shake off). The
Canadian singer and sometime neighbour Dave Howard commented ironically on
events with a song on his eponymous debut album with The Dave Howard Singers,
'What If Terry Had Been Sane?'. The punchlines were that if Terry hadn't
freaked out, Simon Walker would never had left Dave's band to join The House Of
Love; Dave would never had discovered that The Dave Howard Singers worked better
as a bass/keyboards/drum trio - a revelation he says is partly responsible for
him getting the finance to make an album at all; and Levitation would never had
been formed.
Put simply, Terry's feelings of isolation within The House of Love meant that he
had to form Levitation. Later on that Paris day, Levitation played a gig which
only hinted at the power they've developed since, before Terry went into a
studio in the North of the city to put a guitar track on an album of Corsican
folk music (!). The contrast between the Terry of earlier in the day and the
relaxed figure of later was stark. Surrounded by other members of the band,
Terry was mellow and happily chatting over red wine and herbal cigarettes. As
Levitation drummer Dave Francolini says, 'Terry sings songs, Terry writes music,
Terry loves music, Terry enjoys being in recording studios. That is why we're
all here. He's inspiring.'
During 1991, Levitation released three singles, collected on the compilation
'Coterie'. The 'Coppelia' EP with the exception of the live favourite 'Smile',
is a half formed thing, a collection of ideas recorded before the band had
played live. 'Squirrel' from the Rough Trade Singles club, is a hint at what
the band can do, but it's the 'After Ever' ep which really shows what the band
are about. Describing the new album, Dave comments, 'you can hear a lot of arm
movements of this album, a lot of flailing around, a lot of realness.'
It's also a comment that sums up 'After Ever', an attempt to break through to
something, anything, so long as it's real.
Back in 1992, arrangements have been made to meet at six o'clock. This is fine
in theory, but the practice proves a tad trickier. Terry bounces in to meet me,
smiles, says 'hi' and bounces back to duties behind the mixing desk. This
leaves guitarist Bic Hayes, shortly to be joined by Dave Francolini and keyboard
player Bob White, to conduct one interview and Terry to talk later (bassist
Laurence O'Keefe is absent).
This is a pity, not only because it sets up an artificial dichotomy between band
and front man, but because the way the band's personalities play off each other
is fascinating. Bic is practical and enthusiastic, loathe to analyse the band
on the grounds that he's too close to what's happening. Dave is dryer, laconic,
possessed of an ironic sense of humour. Bob is the eternal innocent abroad,
peering at the world with surprise from behind his glasses, the kind of person
who loses car keys. Terry is a kaleidoscope of Winnie the Pooh characters -
frenetic Tigger one moment, wise old Owl the next.
They've all walked the rock n' roll treadmill. Bob has been in various bands,
the absent Laurence was a Jazz Butcher, Dave met Terry via a House of Love
support slot with Something Pretty Beautiful and Bic is a part time Cardiac who
used to play bass with The Dave Howard Singers. It's a disparate list.
'We all come from totally different musical backgrounds, totally different
styles and that's why it was really odd that we should get together as a band,'
concurs Bic, 'because none of us has really done similar things, or in the same
circles, or our circles have crossed over a bit but not really that much. It's
not like a band of people who grew up together - which is what I've always been
in bands like before - people you've known. This is really new.'
Bic sees this as one of the strengths of the band.
'It holds a lot more interest as you never know what's going to happen,' he
says. 'I think the strength of it really does lie in the fact that we've all
got completely different musical tastes which cross over and that really helps
to make the music more colourful, rather than a band of people trying to emulate
a musical collection, which is what most bands do. They all like the same sort
of music, so they all play the same sort of music, but we don't really. It's
got influences from all over the place, which, yeah, is definitely a strength.'
So far these collective influences have produced a sound labelled by some as
'progressive' rock. Ask Bic about this and the answer is likely to be curt,
'well that's just a tag isn't it? I mean... I dunno. That's just a media tag.'
It's also a lazy one. It's weird that close parallels can be found between
Levitation's reception and that of the bands in immediate post punk period such
as Magazine and Public Image Limited. Magazine's 'Secondhand Daylight' and
PIL's 'First Edition' were seen by some as betraying the spirit of punk, sell
outs. Levitation are in a similar contemporary position. With the vogue for the
more naive structures of younger guitar bands Levitation get put to one side,
the rawness of their music ignored. The other implication here is that Terry,
like Devoto and Lydon, is being asked why he doesn't make records like he used
to, a question not worth dignifying with an answer.
Levitation like extreme music, whether that means avant-garde, rootsy or just
plain loud. Their talk of artists ranges through Killing Joke, Dr John, Julian
Cope, Talk Talk and Crass' 'Christ The Album'. With so many ideas and comments
flying, it all confirms the impression of Levitation as a democratically run
band.
Bic visibly winces, 'It's such a horrible word, democracy. I'd really like to
usurp it.'
'Balanced. Balanced is the word,' opines Dave.
But writing credits are equally split. 'It is, it's all actually written by all
of us. Astonishingly enough,' Bob replies.
After some confusing chatter about how this process works, Bic attempts to
conclude matters, 'everyone chips in their ten pence worth.'
Bob has other ideas, 'Oohh, sometimes even more.'
'The fivers come out. It's like a gamble really, like a big gambling scheme,'
agrees Bic.
Dave is trying to reiterate his point about balance but it's Bob who has the
last word on the subject, 'Hah, I'll give you a tenner if you don't play that.'
The question of money is pertinent. Both their deals, with Rough Trade in the UK
and Capitol in the USA, look eccentric in the light of Rough Trade's recent
financial difficulties and the fact that the Capitol deal was actually signed
first. For Bic, the key to both deals lies in the attitude of the two
companies.
'The Capitol thing was because they were so interested in us,' he comments with
a slightly puzzled look. 'When we first started, we didn't get any interest
from record companies here at all and the Americans were really into it. They
just really wanted us. We met them and they were into it for what we considered
to be the right reasons, so we went with it. It's the same story for Rough
Trade, because we met Geoff Travis and he really liked the band. We get on with
him and there's a communication, which are the important things really.'
Bic is unconcerned about Rough Trade's past problems, although Bob
philosophically remarks, 'every time you mention Rough Trade, the Levitation
album is an important part of the reconstruction of the label.' The band have
been given eight weeks, including time in a residential studio in Kent, to
finish the project with producers Tim Smith and Ken Gardener. For some bands
this would be enough time for a single. Levitation have managed 17 tracks.
Tonight, there's ample time to watch Levitation work. Terry's idea of 'just 10
minutes' appears to work on some strange quantum level as he concentrates on
finishing off a couple of tracks. 'Sacred Lover' is the song 'Nadine' should
have been, a sensual, beautiful ballad. The provisionally titled 'Arcs of Light
and Dew' (the title may be saved for the album as a whole) is Levitation at
their psychedelic best, soaring melodies and pulverising guitars in equal
measures. The final mix may feature backing vocals from Heidi Berry, who comes
in from an adjoining studio to work on the song, before getting thoroughly
confused as Terry goes over the song line by line. 'Could I hear the whole
thing?' she asks plaintively.
Eventually Terry decided to call it a night, which leaves us free to talk, talk
which turns to the band's Autumn visit to the USA, where they played at the CMJ
Seminar (a smaller version of the New Music Seminar) in New York with Blur,
before moving on to Los Angeles.
'That was a real awareness opener in lots of ways,' he recalls. 'Wherever you
go, it colours your whole personality and it's good that if people have grown up
in real slum areas, that if they can get out and see other places and travel and
if they can break out, then they'll be the people to return to those places to
help people. It's very important in America that they have a feeling that
people aren't alone. It's more severe than over here, it really is. People
that we met, a lot of them were afraid to go out. There was only one liquor
store they'd go into. All the others were no-go zones, because it wasn't
familiar and there's too many shoot outs in shops and outside bars. Dave had
some cross fire near him, you know?'
Like many, Terry is both fascinated and appalled by America. The fascination
is with the deserts, space, the Indian culture; the kick in the teeth is the
exporting of the worst of America, it's cultural imperialism. Does Terry then,
consider Levitation very British?
'Yeah' comes the blunt reply.
Very English even?
'The Autumn season, the fungus among us.'
Less blunt, but a good opening to talk about drugs. What about drugs? Is
Levitation's reputation as a drug band true?
'I haven't been able to get any', laughs Terry. 'No, we wouldn't be able to
work at the rate we do. I think a big element of the band is the new adrenaline
seekers sort of thing. We smoke, but no one does hard drugs in the band at all.
Like with Ecstasy, there's a gland in your body that releases euphoria and a
lot of people think they know how to cope with what's a safe level, etc. But
the way I feel about it is that it releases a hormone that produces euphoria and
you've only got a certain amount of that in your body. So it's released in one
go and you've got nothing in storage. After a while, it definitely leads to a
tendency of depression - definitely it would, you know? Speaking from a couple
of experiences of it, then I would say it had a surprise effect two days later,
where I found myself getting really uptight about something I wouldn't normally.
It really does hinder your work too much.'
'There's no such thing as methadone pretty, it's always methadone ugly, or with
any of those things? Do you know that saying?' concludes Terry.
Indeed. Maybe it's getting on, time to conclude things with an easy question.
What about plans for the next year or so? Apparently this isn't so easy.
'I think we need to find somewhere where we can go and get in touch with nature
and hug a few trees, stand by a few trees and seek their approval. Basically,
because I know that I don't want anybody in the band to suffer from burn-out, as
so easily can happen, even on the energy level, without the knocking substances
back. I've seen lots of people burn out, just from stressing themselves too
much about why they're doing it, the motives for doing music. In one given
year, you've only got so much communicative energy.'
Terry has a plan to take Levitation on tour via the canals of Britain and it's
this kind of thing which causes some to write Levitation off. But, if
Levitation are just new age hippies (a highly debatable point), they're new
agers with an attitude problem which finds expression in the Black Sabbath riffs
on the last single, 'World Around'. There's a sense of purpose here, a sense
that Levitation are a band working to a collective ideal.
The taxi home takes me along the Thames and past the Houses of Parliament. You
want crazy? Hell, you've seen what goes on in there. Smile, the experience
begins.....
