London-based Pete Gow released his solo album HERE THERE’S NO SIRENS in April 2019. Produced by Joe Bennett (St. Etienne, Dreaming Spires), it was quite a departure from his signature sound with highly regarded UK Americana band Case Hardin, who recorded four albums between 2011 and 2016. The addition of orchestration on the tracks propel the sound to an altogether higher level. It was a brave move that has paid off deservedly and spectacularly. Recording the album at that point of his career might have seemed like a musical suicide mission, departing from his core sound.
‘To a certain extent each new record is a potential musical suicide mission. Within the tiny orbit of Case Hardin, if you loved our album ‘PM’, there’s a chance you wouldn’t get along with COLOURS SIMPLE but that is where you have to sit back and trust your audience. By the same token, every time you write a song, it’s a personal exorcism of sorts.’
The album has been particularly well received but I get the impression that it has not reached anything like the audience that will eventually cherish it.
‘Well, a ‘slow- burn future classic’ status would certainly be nice, but yes, we are more than happy with the audience who are cherishing it right now. It makes our job so much harder next time around, but that’s a fantastic problem to have. None of this would have been possible without the unswerving support we have received from Clubhouse Records, who I have been with since the second Case Hardin record, Del Day from Ark PR and more recently SRD.’
Recorded swiftly under producer Joe Bennett’s trusted eyes and ears, the notion of populating the songs with strings was Gow’s intention from the outset.
‘Yes. The idea came from the very first phone call and it was the main reason I chose to call Joe; I knew he could bring that skill-set to the project. The four songs I already had were written for a Case Hardin album that never happened, so internally I was hearing them one way and then got really excited about the potential once Joe got to work. The remaining tracks were all written once Joe had signed up, so I could really work on giving him a platform. Album opener One Last One- Night Stand is a perfect example of this... that big instrumental section in the middle was written very specifically to give Joe room to roam … similarly the outro to Pretty Blue Flower. That song was written before the sessions, but the final section was written in the studio, knowing it would close out the record.’
The album was mastered by Tony Poole who has previously worked with Steeleye Span, Maddy Prior, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Pentangle and Danny & The Champions Of The World. Poole was also a founding member of the 1970’s rock band Starry Eyed And Laughing and more recently joined forces with Danny Wilson and Robin Bennett to form Bennett, Wilson, Poole.
‘Tony most definitely added to the final product. Mastering is the final layer of polish on any track and helps pull out those tiny musical nuances, especially with complex string arrangements. Tony masters pretty much all the albums Joe produces, so there is an intrinsic understanding between them as to what the final product should be.’
The songs that make up the album were written with this venture in mind together with some previously written for Case Hardin.
‘For this album it was about 50/50 split (a few of the Case Hardin songs went on to our follow up album THE FRAGILE LINE and a couple will even be revisited for the upcoming record that we have just started recording). When I was choosing the songs for the Sirens recording sessions, it wasn’t so much I felt they were better suited to a solo project, it was more picking songs I thought would work for where we hoped to take the production on Sirens. I had, for instance, written a song like Mikaela for the Case Hardin album. I never thought it wouldn’t fit on a band record, but when pulling material for the solo project, it shone out to me as perfect, both in tone and subject matter.’
A snippet of The Pogues’ Rainy Night In Soho features at the tail end of the title track. It’s a deeply evocative inclusion possibly mirroring the emotional state of mind of the composer at the time of writing the song.
‘Shane MacGowan has been mirroring any state – emotional, or otherwise - I have found myself in since I first heard RUM, SODOMY & THE LASH in 1985. He is one of a couple of artists that I fully submerged myself in both when I first heard them, then at various points along the way. That kind of obsessive love of a song and its composer felt like the kind of thing the young woman at the centre of my song would feel and link it internally to her own experiences.’
One of the album highlights is the song titled Strip For Me. It was a brave song to write with lyrics that could invite a number of interpretations. I wondered if it was a deliberate challenging the listener given the lyrics.
‘The challenge for me came in putting it out as a song without caveats, or explainers: there are ways around that. On a record you can go back and listen to the song again and study the lyrics, and in concert you can set the song up before a performance.
‘When I was pulling it together, I didn’t really see it as a gauntlet being laid down. I wasn’t pushing buttons, or thinking about what kind of a reaction it might generate. Simply because at that stage I wasn’t writing for anyone but me.
‘Anyone who came to my songs before this album, that kind of approach – taking an ironic distance from a tough subject, or character, that then allows you to write in the first person – is something I have done on a couple of occasions previously as it gives a lyric so much more power, but it also runs the risk of being misunderstood. Again, you have to go with your instinct and trust your audience. There were a couple of additional verses to Strip For Me that would have made the song less ambiguous, but you have to make decisions on making the best possible song you can, and that doesn’t always align itself with fully explaining yourself for the benefit of the listener.’
The album works spectacularly well in the live setting with Pete accompanied by The Siren Strings on stage. Given the logistics of performing as a nine-piece assembly, they have been astute in their options to tour and perform.
‘It doesn’t compromise touring options; it redefines what touring looks like. No- one on our circuit is, or really has, toured this kind of show before… it’s special. As we can’t go out and play 75 shows a year with it, the concerts themselves become special. Joe has been very careful as to how we curate the live shows, particularly where we play. So, we have done churches and theatres and resisted the temptation to reduce the numbers on stage, or perform without strings which would undoubtedly mean we get to go out and play more gigs, but at what overall cost?’
One of the festivals chosen to perform was The AMA UK Fest in Hackney. The occasion was a delight, goose bumps inducing times. After showcasing your own material, the band launched into a hair-raising delivery of Warren Zevon’s Lawyers, Guns & Money. An inspired set closer, the inclusion of a well-chosen cover version has become part of their setlist.
‘I can’t really recall where the idea of putting a cover into the Siren Strings show originally came from (we performed Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Into My Arms at the Here There’s No Sirens’ album launch). I’m a huge Zevon fan and each night I hear that riff and counter riff in Lawyers, Guns & Money being performed by the Siren Strings, it sucks the breath out of my chest. I can only imagine what it does to an audience member hearing it for the first time?’
The artwork by Veronica Casey on the album is particularly dramatic, capturing the darkness and mystique of the project. It most certainly does the album justice by matching the material with equally striking imagery.
‘Veronica’s portrait of me was perfect for this project, in every way and its design has been the template for all the promotion, singles artwork etc. so it’s an honour to bring her work to the attention of a new audience, she truly deserves it. This entire project has been put through the filter of making it a separate entity to Case Hardin. Remember, even four months after it came out, Case Hardin was still a going concern, so outside of the actual music there were a couple of more subtle, personal touchstone. No Case Hardin record has, or ever would be, titled after one of the songs on the record and no Case Hardin cover would ever feature the bands image. Like I say, pretty subtle, but it meant a lot to me at the time.’
Given the distinctiveness of the album it’s difficult to imagine a HERE THERE’S NO SIRENS Part 2. It’s also a project that is unlikely to be bettered or equalled for that matter.
‘Within a wider musical and personal context HERE THERE’S NO SIRENS is unique, a one- off venture. The confluence of good luck in bad times, hard work, sadness and fun that pulled the eight songs out of me, through Joe and Farm Music Studios then out onto that album simply can’t be repeated. Why even try? Just move on to trying to find the next bolt of lightning and hope there’s another bottle nearby!’
Gow is one of quite a number of UK artists, loosely categorised in the Americana cubbyhole, that hardly receive the exposure and recognition their talents deserve. His previous band Case Hardin alongside Peter Bruntnell, Danny & The Champions Of The World, William The Conqueror, The Hanging Stars, My Darling Clementine, Ags Connolly, Thea Gilmore also come to mind. They share the distinction of artists that would have been household names in the music industry in different times.
‘Wherever you are in the world there is an attraction to the seemingly foreign and exotic, what Billy Connolly calls ‘windswept & interesting’. Just look at how Brits are treated in the US? Doug Sahm pretty much pretended he was from England (Sir Douglas!!) to give his band an edge in Texas, because he thought it would improve his chances of making it. It took The Rolling Stones to persuade Americans that their blues musicians should be revered and respected.
‘Record companies funded touring for just about everyone in the decades before the 90s. Not many bands, or artists, toward the lower reaches of the food chain, like myself, who didn’t sign up to a crippling deal with a label could afford to do it themselves. Pretty much everyone these days funds their own tours, so for acts like us economics make the kind of relentless touring required to build up a fan base anywhere harder than it used to be. And who can even begin to predict how much more difficult touring will be in a post-Brexit, post COVID-19 world?’
We await with interest the next musical direction and journey that Pete Gow decides to undertake.
‘I was fortunate to be surrounded by music from the very beginning. My Father and my Grandfather on my Mother’s side were both performing musicians in their respective local circuits, around Elgin in Morayshire, where I’m from, so I was exposed to a pretty eclectic catalogue of music before I hit puberty. But my ‘moment’ came around 1983/ 84 when I first heard Dylan’s Desolation Row. It hit me in a way I had not been hit up until that point. I had never picked up a guitar, had no aspiration to write a song, but I knew then – even if I never did pick up that guitar or pen - that music would be the most important thing in my life from that point, and that song still hits me like that every time I hear it.’
Interview by Declan Culliton