Running from your past can be difficult. Accepting it can be even harder. Evolving it is the toughest trick of all. Our affection for all things Colin Newman is well documented and I am hard-pressed to think of an artist who has managed to stay current and relevant in the way that he has. Strengthened by the creative push and pull of his wife, and long-time collaborator, Malka Spigel and Robin Rimbaud (Scanner) the group Githead has truly come into their own. Following a bracing EP and long player, they have brought “Landing” to our hungry ears (available today!) It is the true crystallization of the collected talents as a band and it really shows. Colin, Malka and Robin were kind enough to field our e-barrage of questions and fawning. Listen in:

My new favorite Githead game is trying to figure out who is taking the mic on lead vocals for each song. Will you be providing any hints? There has emerged an interesting shift in melody depending on who it is, especially Malka's twists, and then the "expected" Colin direction on something like "Before Tomorrow" has a completely different impact - what decides who will take the lead?

C - Well the running order & who sings are two separate issues but I get the point. I think it's part of the natural development of Githead that Malka sings much more. Also we are becoming more sophisticated about how we develop the vocal melodies.

M - it's an organic process, we don't start with a fixed idea.

C - We develop a "backing" and then it becomes obvious who should sing either because of the right tone or because someone has a melody. It wasn't a planned thing to have Malka take up the majority of the vocals but in hindsight I think it would be been harder to come up with something that would make more of a statement about our intent and the fact that Githead is a band not anyone's side project..

You always seem to be submerged in lots of music - what new stuff are you listening to?

C - Well if you asked me to DJ I'd pick out a bunch of tunes, some old, some new some obscure, some well known. I don't think I have a secret stash of musical inspiration that no one else has access to :)

M - I'm not going to mention any names because by the time the list is published it will have all changed! Sometimes I will listen to something that is very new and sometimes I'll go back to something old.. Things change all the time according to my mood.

R - I tend to be obsessed with wanting to hear everything, all at once, so at one listening will slip between latest Cabaret Voltaire Kora! Kora! Kora! mixes, the new Ben Frost album, Flying Lotus and Luc Ferrari: L’oeuvre Electronique box set.

Has there ever been a darker/funnier band than McLusky/Future of the Left?

C - Depends what you mean by dark & funny.... In fact Malka & I saw McLusky about 6 times in one year (2002 I think), they even supported Wire once (in Bristol) They were amazing live but for whatever reason it just didn't last.

The past records seemed to pace themselves more, where as this one just hits the krautrock buzz and snare snap right from the get go like an in your face live set - is that a conscious decision? Is the band more "focused" now on a direction?

M - The band is more focussed now. Although we are all experienced at what we do, Githead is still like a new band and we are growing. We are also a more confident live band and that feeds into the records.

C - Starting with "Faster" was a definite decision (it was always going to be the opener and it was named for it's speed). We also felt that ramping the tempii would stretch us out a bit and take us in a new direction. We wanted to make a record that sounded more like the live band. Rhythmically Githead has always had a bit of Krautrock about it even right back to our debut EP "Headgit".

R - I agree, I think it's been a process of finding our voice, which has always been there, but allowing it to finally breathe and expand. There's a directness and immediate appeal in this new recording that I've found especially rewarding.

The use of repetition is so vital to the songs that it is the tiny deviations that make a huge impact - how much of that is cerebral and how much is from the gut as far as when to make the subtle shifts?

C - Githead en-masse can be quite minimal but also we are very quick to impose structure on ideas. What became "Take Off" was recorded within minutes of the piece having been pulled out of the ether in Rotterdam. There was a subtle tightening when we finally came back to work on it here  but it's all simple counting & feel really..

M - There is a definite core of minimalism in Githead. Max & I have always been a pretty minimal rhythm section! Playing minimal creates the repetition because you don't change all the time. I'm also quite lazy and prefer the others to do the changes :)

R - There's a restrictive nature about the structure of the pieces in essence, but it's the changes that completely open a song, so with "Take Off" there's this extremely elegant melodic guitar pattern which shifts the whole piece in the chorus.

"Ride" suddenly comes on with a 50s Duane Eddy slash before being swallowed up - that is the first time I recall hearing that influence really in a Newman project - who or what brought that to the table?

M - We did the basis of that one & also "Lightswimmer" in our studio after watching a documentary on Hawkwind. We were just messing around.

C - The music wasn't at all influenced by Hawkwind but somehow it put us in the mood. "Lightswimmer" came first I was fiddling with the wangy bar on my Map guitar (I never use it ordinarily) and my guitar ended up out of tune. It somehow works though. "Ride" was right after, i was just trying to play in a stye I'd never played in before. I wasn't really imagining it would end up on the record or if it did  that it would only be an instrumental.

M - I had rough mixes of the tracks when Colin was away on tour and it was one of those days I was feeling a bit pissed off with the world. I had the lyrics and melody all ready by the time we came to record it.

C - BTW - Githead is not a "Newman project"! And anyway "Ride" is so atypical to what anyone would expect from anything I'm involved in.

R - Who's Duane Eddy? ha ha. I always thought we had an unwritten rule that Wangy Bars were out order in the studio :-)

C - That's 'cos i have no idea how to use them :)

How do your kids feel about you smacking today's youth about and showing them how to properly layer sheets of guitar and bass rumble?

M - When you grow up with both parents as artists all the creative stuff is just part of the furniture. However when our son saw us at the back end of last year he was blown away! Especially as his usual taste is grime, dubstep & drum & bass etc.

C - We also don't dismiss his own generation's ability to impress, actually he was at school with the xx, they were all in his year... We just do what we do and if people are impressed that's good, if they love us it's even better. We try to make records that have some kind of sonic impact but not everyone is trying for that.

Speaking of kids - is Max's drumming getting faster and tighter with each passing year? Amazing!

M - For sure Max is getting tighter & faster! With Minimal (Compact) it was always the case that Max felt he was lucky to be there, that he wasn't a "proper" drummer or even a  "proper" musician. In some ways the responsibility he has in Githead has given him more confidence & self-belief.]

R - I recently played drums in a covers band for a wedding in Croatia for fun and since then I've had even more respect for Max's technique. He's extremely tight and punchy with his rhythms though I never followed his example and removed my shirt when I played!

I imagine listeners might just assume that you are using the studio and electronics in various areas given your past but this seems to feel far more like a cohesive band - how were the songs recorded?

C - This is an evolving strategy in fact. If you have a set of songs that can be played by a band then the "classic" way to do it is rehearse it all up in a rehearsal room, take it on the road to harden it up then record in a "proper" studio. Problem is that would be very expensive for us to do so we work for strategies that will get us a similar sounding result on our kind of budget! Luckily our sound man of choice Frank Lievaart has a studio in Rotterdam. The set up is pretty similar to ours (see - http://www.colinewman.com/studio.html) but it's attached to a nice sounding live room that he built himself. This means that we just need to bring ourselves, our gear & a hard drive. Everything else is totally compatible! We tend to use Rotterdam for recording live drums and sending out guitars to amps to give a big ambience as well as some ensemble playing. I think the thing that really knitted this album together is the fact we had Max go through all the tracks very late in the process and re-do the drums in the light of having played those tracks live.

Also many of the tracks we started here we used a tinny little drum machine to set the basic rhythm so knew this had to be replaced by proper drums to finish the track. That was great for having the tracks go "up" when Max played on them instead of struggling to replace some drum loop we all got attached to..

It's funny - I always felt like you didn't get proper recognition for your guitar playing in Wire but in Githead Robin contributes a lot of surprising and inventive guitar parts - do you find that it is now reversed where most people assume you are playing all the guitar parts?

C - Well Robin, Malka & myself all play guitar in Githead at various points! If you found out who plays what you might be surprised! But on your question so far I didn't come across anyone that assumed I play all the guitars.

R - I'm only inventive in the sense that I never wish to play the same chords or structures as Colin, so constantly search for more intricate patterns that test the span of my hand and my memory ( I frequently get Malka to film my moves in the studio so I can recall them later on!)

Will we finally get to see a Githead performance in DC in 2010? (The answer should be in the affirmative.)

C - We'd love to tour USA in 2010! There are substantial practical issues but believe us it's a priority!

Certainly you have the reputation of your collective past musical projects to draw attention, but Githead is run from your label - how are you getting the music in front of people and how has the industry shifted in just the few years since the first Githead record? How do you see this changing as you move forward? Is it more satisfying this way (running it on your own?) Which strongholds have emerged for the band around the globe? I couldn't help but notice your use of different promotional people/companies in so many specific countries.

M - First of all, I don't think our reputation makes a huge difference to how we "sell" Githead or how it advances. "Headgit" felt to us very much like a debut from a novice band. It comes to us very naturally not to fall back on reputation. Githead HAS to stand on it's own.

C - As regards us actually promoting the band, it's never easy but we have access to the same "tools" as every other indie label with more ideas than money. We use independent promotion in the UK, USA, Canada & Belgium, the rest is through the various distributors we work with. We have live agents in North America & Europe to set up shows. What we really lack that a big label can bring to the table is a pile of cash to underpin everything. BUT you have to make a lot of compromises to have that and to be honest the "industry" is not interested in bands like Wire & Githead, too old & not malleable enough.. Our audience is growing all the time and much is through the internet so it's not always geographically based. Once of the reasons we want to play in the USA is that we will definitely grow our audience by doing so..

Do you find it to be a liability at all - carrying the "Wire" tag with you? What I mean is that I see this record as something that would hit a lot of the right buttons with bloggers and tastemakers as this fresh and exciting take on a guitar buzz, but as you are involved it gets chalked up to "oh, of course it is like that with Colin there" and somehow it is tempered.

C - Yeah of course people make all kinds of assumptions based on prejudice & scant knowledge. Historically Githead gets beaten up for not being Wire while being dismissed as a "side project" but i think something is changing with this album. There's much more of a buzz here in London for us. "Landing" is very potent and those that do listen without prejudice get very excited about it.

R - I simply think it's inevitable and understandable given history and knowledge. We are quite a different band indeed and just hope that people can see beyond this!

I love the lomo travel photography and some of those images (such as Malka's cover shot) are emerging - any chance we get to see more in the future in some capacity?

M - My main "image portal" is www.mayanewman.com which has links to my flickr page which is always up to date. My approach to photography is like my approach to music, not very technical, all feel. I have had various exhibitions, including one in Strasbourg in September. I don't push really hard to be a "name" photographer but image making is part of my work!

C- Shameless plug - if you pre-order/ order the album from our mail order (http://swim.greedbag.com/) by Fri 13th Nov you will get put in a prize draw to receive a signed print of the cover image (there are other prizes too) We also intend to do a set of Githead related Malka prints which we can sell through the shop.

Speaking of chances (or chancers - haha) how many bottles of scotch do I need to send over to get Githead to shred through an oldie like "Can't Help Being" from "It Seems?"

C - Well the point is that the reason why we can be any good is that we don't do stuff like that. Githead music is Githead specific!

R - Umm..perhaps you could encourage Nouvelle Vague to cover that as we are not a covers versions band.

What did you enjoy about curating the Sled Festival and what would you do differently if you had to do it again?

C - I loved the whole process! Malka & I went over back in April for a week of "discovery", it was great to feed into the Calgary scene and Zak, Shawn,  Craig & Drew (who actually does our Canadian promo now) continue to be friends. I really wanted to be part of the festival on all levels not just sit in London & come up with a list of bands. In fact in many ways I feel that long term the greatest impact we might have had will be on the visual arts side. The process is all about putting Calgary on the cultural map and making Sled Island a destination Festival. It's highly likely we will continue to have a relationship with Sled island & Calgary.

What band would be your ideal tourmate for this record (any line-up any era)?

C - Hahaha well the ideal support "band" is a solo acoustic instrumentalist (with a small instrument) who doesn't need anything other than one mic and takes up very little space in the bus :) Otherwise I have no idea, we plan some dates next near possibly with Lonelady (a new Warp signing) who we get on well with..

M - How about Ulrich Schnauss?? The atmospheres would be very complimentary.

R - I think a great mime group who play cardboard or inflatable instruments would be ideal.

I seem to have forgiven you for nearly running me over in a DC alley outside the old 930 Club in the 80s, so much so that you are listed in the "special thanks" in my most recent book. Have any of your other interviewers given you this honor or been so self serving as to insert themselves into your interview in such a manner? (Just say a humble "no.")

C - a humble no :)

See all things Githead here! + Check out our previous interview with Colin Newman Here

Some photos "appropriated" from a concert in Israel on their facebook page.