Robin in the ‘hood
The following article was published in Venue, Bath and Bristol’s listings magazine on 19 Janaury, 2007 (scan here).
When Robin Allender talks of his music, he largely does so in the future tense: needs to learn this, experiment with that. It displays both a charming humility and a sense of realism. After all, his debut solo gig was only in October 2005. But it shouldn’t disguise the fact that with his forthcoming long player — working title ‘The Bird And The Word’ (Dreamboat) — he’s already reached a level that the majority of singer-songwriters could spend a lifetime approaching but never truly nearing. Not bad for someone who partly turned solo because his band, post-rockers Azalea City Penis Club, “always seemed to have trouble getting gigs. I thought it would take away a lot of the hassle doing stuff on my own.”
It’s a tense place inside that album. The past tense, usually. A laconic world living lazily, if not always comfortably, in reflection. If the finger-picked guitar looks to instil a sense of urgency, neither the hushed vocals — oft soaring on a Simon & Garfunkel-like multi-tracked width — nor the darkly portentous lyrics much want to follow. “Investigation into the fallen leaves… something is buried in the lake.” In the wordless ‘Black Wave Part One’ the warmest of electric guitar tones and fleet-footed acoustic combine to show someone familiar with, if not practitioner of, the ambient side of electronica. As a reviewer of earlier work noted, Allender plies ‘instrumentals of such circular sadness that you could curl up with them and spend an afternoon wrapped in melancholy’. The catch-all comparison would be Elliot Smith, albeit one applied with too a broad brushstroke to pick out the numerous subtle differences. That it was recorded by fellow ACPC member Simon Grant, engineer on Gravenhurst’s first album, also serves as a neat pointer.
But enough of the past and future. Presently, we’re sat in a distressingly smoke-free Watershed, and Allender is excitedly talking about moving to play with a full band: Alex Wilkins (lead guitar), Sam Tarbuck (bass), and Gravenhurst drummer, ACPC bandmate and album mixer, Dave Collingwood. “I’ve been feeling a bit limited playing solo, and it’s really good to be able to bounce ideas off each other. You get to explore so many different things, like dynamics and repetition; if you’re just sitting on your own playing the same things over and over again it looks a bit silly. We’ve got some new stuff which is very different, quite shoegazey, a bit Red House Painters. It’ll be a bit strange, because I’ll be trying to promote [the solo, acoustic album] with the band.”
And a further step for someone who, in his eyes at least, is still learning his stage craft. “I played a recent poetry event at the Lansdown in Clifton, and that was really good because there was a lot of banter, turning it more into a story-type thing. It’s not serious all the way through. I’d like to do some more of that.”
The first London gig comes next month. Given the challenge he presented himself last summer, courtesy of an invite from a friend in Romania, it should be a doddle. “I played at Ceausescu’s former palace, which is one of the biggest buildings in the world. I didn’t fill it.” As it turned out, vastness of venue was the least of his concerns. “The reception was quite frosty. I found out afterwards that they associate folk music with propagandist songs, so being a singer with a guitar is actually quite a politically loaded image. I don’t know if I’ll be going back…”
Aged 12, Allender began knocking out Nirvana songs on his brother’s Spanish guitar. The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ provided the impetus to learn finger-picking. “And then there’s that Jim O’Rourke record, ‘Bad Timing’, his tribute to John Fahey. That was a big album. Then guitarists like Bill Frisell, Nick Drake. A lot of music my dad played has been quite influential: Pat Matheny is probably one of my favourite guitarists.”
In Bristol, You & The Atom Bomb are “one of the best bands I’ve seen in the last year,” and there’s admiration for The Master Chaynjis’ Sam Halmarack’s all-in approach to singing. “He’s got an excellent voice. I’d love to be able to let go a bit more. The band will help, but seeing that guy really nail it live…” And so the learning process continues. In the meantime, we’d sincerely recommend that aspirant singer-guitarists go see Allender himself.
By Julian Owen