With eighteen years’ experience under their belts and four albums to their name Elbow are by no means fresh faces. So how does a band which receives constant critical praise for their work slip under the commercial radar for so long? Dave Drummond caught up with guitarist and founding member Mark Potter to find out.
In terms of having a good year, it’s hard to imagine that many people have had a better 2008 than Elbow. Their fourth studio album, “The Seldom Seen Kid” became their most successful to date, they won the Mercury Music Prize, and they booked their biggest ever gig at Wembley Arena. It’s enough to make even Lewis Hamilton question the fruits of his year. What makes it extra special for the band is that they’ve been at this music game for some time – and they’ve always proved to be damn good at it. Nursing a bad head from the previous night’s pub session, guitarist Potter is friendly and talkative, and still amazed at the year just gone: “It really was an unbelievable year for us last year. It didn’t really sink in until we had this bit of time off for Christmas really, because we were always working towards something else. We did a Glastonbury performance, and were working on the next thing and the Mercury happened.”
The clear jewel in Elbow’s crown must be winning the Mercury Music prize, but did they see it as the boost in commercial success that they needed, or as just another reaffirmation of the critics’ love for them? “Critical acclaim is something we’ve always had, and it’s great to have that…but the fact that it made people go: ‘Well hang on a minute. I’ve heard of this band, maybe I should go have a look at them.’ That’s what it’s done for us more than anything.” Boosting sales of “The Seldom Seen Kid” by a massive 688%, it’s easy to see that the award has been instrumental in their success. With all three albums prior to “The Seldom Seen Kid” being much-lauded but not even coming close to achieving the same sales, what is it about this record that makes it so special? “I don’t know why this record connected…It wasn’t like we sat down at the start of writing “The Seldom Seen Kid” and said, ‘Right we need to break into the mainstream.’”
So with a year like that in the bag how do you beat it? “I’m not sure about beating it…2009 is really about focusing on making the new record.” Relocating to a converted church in Scotland, the band has already begun throwing ideas together in preparation for the recording. When asked if it will be more of the same, Potter brings up the descriptions “rustic”, “organic” and “a little rough around the edges” to describe how it potentially might sound. “We’ve never actually made a record knowing that people are going to buy it, and probably quite a lot of people, based on how well “The Seldom Seen Kid” is doing.” Does this mean that there is outside pressure on the band wanting them to make “The Seldom Seen Kid Pt. 2”? “Pressure to make a better album comes from within. It’s given us a platform to do whatever we want and really make something new and different and make something that people haven’t heard before.” The New Year also brings their upcoming tour, which comes to Brighton in February, (a place Mark is very fond of, “If I was going to live anywhere else in the UK it would be down there”), and of course includes the huge date at Wembley Arena. With the massive scale of the venue and the intimate nature of Elbow gigs, I wondered if they now saw themselves as an arena band. “We thought: let’s not try to make the show bigger…rather than do an all frills, dancing girls and elephants show, we can try to shrink the arena.”
While this may seem an intimidating task, nothing seems beyond the band’s capabilities at the moment. Upcoming collaborations with The BBC Concert Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra, and plans for a children’s animation film, “along the lines of Jungle Book”, mean that 2009 will provide no let up in the Elbow boys’ schedule. As Potter says: “Doing what we do is also about keeping it interesting for yourself and challenging yourself.” For a band that have been operating at such a consistently high level for so long, it might be hard to see how they can get better, and yet it seems they’ve only just found their stride.
Words by Dave Drummond, February 2009
www.elbow.co.uk
