The last time Say It With Garage Flowers spoke to Pete Fij, former frontman of ’90s indie band Adorable, was nine years ago, for the release of We Are Millionaires – his second album with Terry Bickers (The House of Love, Levitation).
Now he’s back with his first solo album, Up’s The New Down, which is one of our favourite records of the year. It opens with the thundering and edgy indie-rock of ‘Love’s Coming Back’, finds time for some infectious and jangly pop on ‘Don’t Bring Me Sunshine’, heads into goth-rock-meets-Cold-War-spy-film-soundtrack territory on ‘Cuckoo’, goes electro on ‘Kitchen Disco’ – imagine a low-budget version of Beck’s ‘Where It’s At’ fuelled by cheap supermarket wine – gets scuzzy and fuzzy on the Pixies-meets-The-Jesus-and-Mary-Chain blast that’s ‘Wake Up Honey’, and, on the closing song, the six-minute, hypnotic epic, ‘Fragments’, Fij nods to Adorable by using a guitar riff from his old band that never saw the light of day back in the ’90s.
In an exclusive interview, he talks about writing and recording the new album, shares his influences and inspirations for some of the songs, and reflects on Adorable’s legacy.
“It’s nice to know that Adorable are still getting listened to and picking up new fans,” he tells us.
Q&A
Why did you decide to make a solo album and how did you approach it?
Pete Fij: I wanted to do something that was more electric and going back to my full-band indie roots. That had always been in the back of my mind – it was an itch that needed scratching. I had a couple of songs that I’d written and demoed that I was really pleased with – ‘Love’s Coming Back’ and ‘Don’t Bring Me Sunshine’ – but they didn’t really fit with what I was doing with Terry. So, it was always in the back of my mind – those songs felt too good to leave by the wayside. I kept on sort of thinking that I needed to revisit them at some point, and that I might as well make an album, so that those two songs weren’t just waifs and strays – they needed some friends alongside them, but I needed to write some more songs.
I loved the intimacy and the fragility of the music that I made with Terry, and the live shows that we did – the art of storytelling and being able to hear a pin drop – but, when Adorable reformed in 2019, it reminded me just how much I enjoy the energy of loud guitars on the verge of feedback, and so I thought I would like to do that.
‘I wanted to do something that was more electric and going back to my full-band indie roots. That had always been in the back of my mind – it was an itch that needed scratching’
I enjoyed the collaborative aspects of working with Terry and working with the band, but there was part of me that really liked the idea of calling all the shots for once. Having said that, I worked with [producer] Julian Tardo, [on the new album], who’d worked with me and Terry on our two albums – I’ve known him for a long time, and we’ve got a good relationship. He was an important part of the process, so it’s not like I was completely alone.
Where did you make the record?
It was done at Church Road Studios [in Hove, East Sussex), which is where I’d recorded the two albums with Terry. It’s exactly what you want a studio to look like – slightly worn and saggy at the edges, but in a lovely way. It’s not a pristine or sterile environment – it’s got character. I love playing live, but I also enjoy the recording process, and I always have done.
Some of the songs are from a while back and some of them are more recent. There was a progression, and, as the album went on, I found myself leaning more on elements of electronica, so on songs like ‘Cuckoo’ and ‘Fragments’. That’s probably an indication of where I will go on the next album – more electronic – but it will always have guitars.
Talking of guitars, the new album doesn’t mess around – it opens with ‘Love’s Coming Back’, which is a thundering juggernaut of a song. It feels like a statement of intent…
I’d done two albums with Terry that were very melancholic and self-reflective, so it was quite nice to have a positive and assertive song, but there’s always a little twist – I never quite do out and out positive…
‘Complicated’ is a song about two people who want to be together in a relationship, but it’s hard to make it happen….
Yeah. It’s about how life gets in the way of logic sometimes because life never runs smooth, so it’s kind of a messed-up relationship – one where people are dancing around the edges. I think there’s a tension there, which is captured in the music.
I think ‘Complicated’ sounds like Depeche Mode if they’d ditched the synths and gone indie-rock…
Yeah – I’m quite happy with the Depeche Mode reference – I have a lot of time for the Mode.
So, from dancing around the edges of a relationship to dancing in the kitchen… ‘Kitchen Disco’ is electro-influenced, and is set in your kitchen, where you’re drinking a £6.99 bottle of wine and dancing to a playlist on your laptop and a speaker. It’s like a low-budget version of Beck’s ‘Where It’s At…’
Yeah – Beck and LCD Sound System were reference points. The idea for ‘Kitchen Disco’ came from my girlfriend, who is now my wife, talking about a previous relationship that she had been in. It was a very safe relationship, and he had a good job and money, but there was no excitement.
She said to me, ‘What’s the point of money if you can’t dance in the kitchen?’ And as soon as she said that, I went, ‘Bloody hell – that’s good. I’ve got to put that in a song.’ So, I wrote about the celebration of that.
I’m slightly reluctant to go on about lockdown because everyone does and it’s tedious, but people rediscovered dancing and music in their homes, which is something that I’ve always done anyway.
‘Often, in an evening, I’ll put on some playlists and some disco lights and we’ll have a party in our kitchen – just me and my wife; just for the hell of it’
I’ve always had music, and I DJ on the side, so I’ve got lots of disco lights in my house – often, in an evening, I’ll just put on some playlists and some disco lights and we’ll have a party in our kitchen – just me and my wife. It’s not just for lockdown – we’ll sometimes do it just for the hell of it.
I’m regretting making the wine in the song £6.99 because I feel that’s going to age the track. I should have made it £7.99 or £8.99, but £8.99 is quite expensive for a bottle of wine now. The trouble with £7.99 is that there are two syllables in seven, so it doesn’t work – £8.99 would future-proof the song for a little bit longer. Maybe when I sing it live, I’ll change the price as as the years go on.
You can adjust the song for inflation purposes…
Yeah – I wanted it to be a cheap bottle of wine, and £8.99 isn’t cheap… I will go up to £10 for a special occasion, and, if it’s Christmas or I’m going round someone’s house, I might go for a £12 bottle. I wouldn’t normally buy £6.99 wine… unless it’s on special offer.
If you listen carefully to the song, you can hear a female voice singing – that’s my wife. She was the muse and the inspiration for the song, so she appears on it.
‘Cuckoo’ sounds like The Cure doing the theme to a Cold War spy film…
I’m quite happy with that – I felt I was capturing Siouxsie and the Banshees and dark Human League – that was the vibe.
That song was written in quite a different way. Most of my songs involve an element of storytelling, but this one didn’t – it’s stripping it down just to semantics. All the words are code words that are used in espionage, but, in the second half of the song, I cut them up and reposition them. It’s almost like they’re creating new words which are, on the face of it, meaningless, but I would argue that it’s like a code.
‘I’ve always loved The Jesus and Mary Chain school of songwriting, which is sometimes just saying stuff that sounds cool’
It’s like when you create codes and ciphers… things get broken up, and that was the idea. So, it’s quite lyrically abstract. I’ve always loved The Jesus and Mary Chain school of songwriting, which is sometimes just saying stuff that sounds cool – I just quite liked the sound of all those words.
‘Don’t Bring Me Sunshine’ is slightly tongue-in-cheek. In it, you sing: ‘Don’t bring me sunshine, because I’m blinded by the rays that it sends, and don’t send me roses, as I’m allergic to the sentiment.’ Is it anti-romance?
It’s not against romance – it’s against romance songs… I don’t want jollity and sugar-coated happiness. When Radcliffe and Maconie played it on their [6 Music] show they described it as “the anti-Morecambe and Wise song”, which I liked. It’s [about] a curmudgeon who might be in love but doesn’t want all the trappings.
It’s got a great twangy guitar solo…
The song reminds me of those summer hits when I was a kid – when I first got my driving licence and my first car, and I was driving along with the stereo on and listening to summer hits, which sounded great in the car – a bang-on, three-minute pop hit.
‘Actor’ has an electronic edge and is quite an unsettling song…
Yeah – there’s definitely a darker edge to it. I think bits of it sound like The Cure. It’s about the different roles we all play depending on who’s watching, and, in the song, it’s within the context of a relationship – wanting to please that person and being prepared to play whatever role it is that they want or whatever role is required in order to take the relationship further.
You’ve often used cinematic themes and ideas in your music…
Absolutely – films and music are the things I’m obsessed with. I suppose there have been oblique references to films in some of my songs, and some of the songs have deliberate cinematic motifs within them musically, but this one [‘Actor’] is the first one which has been an out and out song about it…although I suppose ‘Road Movie’ by Adorable was about films…
The thing that I really enjoy about being a musician, especially a musician who’s able to call the shots on their own, is that, if you want, you can also be a graphic designer.
You can design your own sleeves in that world and you can also oversee the photography and the art direction, and how you are portrayed – you can make videos if you want and have a big influence on that. You have to think about fashion – the clothes you wear – and aspects of theatre when you’re playing live.
Music isn’t just about music – it’s all-encompassing, and the interesting artists are the ones who take kind of ownership of those aspects, or who hand over those aspects to people that they trust. When I talk to young artists, I encourage them to go and watch films, read books and go to art galleries to get inspired by other things.
I enjoy making videos. If I was to rewind the clock to me being 18, at that point I thought I wanted to be a film director and that was the route I went down – I went to university and I studied film, but it was a film theory course and not a practical one, so it wasn’t the right course to do, and then I fell into the world of bands when I was at uni. But then I got a chance to direct some of the videos I did with Terry and it’s been fun to make these three-minute films [for some of my songs].
Who would play you in the Pete Fij biopic?
I’ve been compared to Javier Bardem before, so he can play me.
You mentioned The Jesus and Mary Chain earlier. I think ‘Wake Up Honey’ has that feel – a scuzzy and fuzzy indie vibe. It’s also a bit Pixies…
It was a song that was written quite a long time ago and then re-recorded, although it’s very faithful to the original recording – I decided the song was too good to go on a B-side. The Pixies were a reference point – it’s that sort of dirty indie thing; it’s a storytelling song, which is classic me. His girlfriend has walked out on him, and he hasn’t woken up to the fact.
The final song on the album is ‘Fragments’, which has an Adorable feel…
It was done right at the end of the session and I thought, ‘I’m going to try and write a song that has a nod towards Adorable.’ It’s a linear song rather than the more traditional kind of verse/chorus – it’s slightly more abstract and poetic writing rather than a song like ‘Wake Up Honey’, which is storytelling.
‘Fragments’ does have nominal sections that are choruses, but they’re more like little breaks. It’s essentially a song that just goes along on one riff, and then just builds with other stuff coming in. The guitar line was an old Adorable one that never got used.
‘Fragments’ was written in the studio – I just went in with the guitar line. It was a little bit like freeform jazz…. We just put the guitar line down and a drum pattern, and then we just built it up and repositioned everything.
Talking of Adorable, there were 12in reissues of ‘Sunshine Smile’ and ‘Homeboy’ released for Record Store Day earlier this year – it’s nice to have them back out there…
Yeah, and we’re hoping to get Fake [the second Adorable album] out in the not-too distant future – it’s never been reissued and it was never released in the States. So, that’s the plan – we’ve managed to negotiate getting a licensing deal with Sony for that.
It’s nice to know that Adorable are still getting listened to and picking up new fans. There’s a whole new younger generation who’ve found out about shoegazing and are into it, but at the time, I was adamant that we weren’t a shoegazing band. I was an angry young man – now I don’t give a shit; just as long as you’re listening… but, back then, labels were important.
If you’re being a purist, I think there is a link [between Adorable] and the shoegazing scene, and I can totally see where that is, but I don’t think we were an archetypal shoegazing band. If someone was to say, ‘What is shoegazing?’ Adorable would not be the band that I would play them.
‘I was adamant that Adorable weren’t a shoegazing band, but I was an angry young man – now I don’t give a shit!’
We were within one or two years of that movement, and we were on Creation, which was intrinsically linked with shoegazing, and, sonically, there are similarities, but there are also quite distinct differences. When I think of shoegazing, I think of 1990, but music evolves… I suppose we were just an evolution of that sound. There’s nu-gaze now, isn’t there?
Shoegaze was ’89/’90, and Britpop was’94/’95, and we were around in ‘92/\93, so were bang in the middle of that, and I think we were a bridging point between the two. Our vocals were higher up in the mix and were much more audible, which wasn’t the style in shoegazing, where it was a lot more buried and more ethereal.
We weren’t as punchy as some of the Britpop stuff in terms of the verse/chorus thing, but we were definitely a staging post between those two scenes. I always felt that we were in a sort of no man’s land.
Up’s The New Down is released on September 25 via Tip Top Recordings. To coincide with the release, Pete Fij will also be heading out for a series of intimate live dates around the UK.
- https://petefij.bandcamp.com/
- https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/pete-fij
- https://www.instagram.com/petefijski/
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