London-based Pete Gow’s three solo albums have been a dramatic departure from his work with Case Hardin, the band he fronts and is credited as the leading songwriter. The most recent, LEO, was released in April this year. It followed on from HERE THERE’S NO SIRENS (2019) and THE FRAGILE LINE (2020), and its recording took place in a starkly contrasting environment to the earlier ones. We recently caught up with Pete to learn about the recording of LEO and some of the contributors to what is a stylistically impressive venture on all fronts.
As I recall, you had already done the spade work for your latest album LEO, when we spoke back in May 2020. Did the enforced lockdown, which I understand delayed the completion of the album, change the musical direction of it in any way?
The lockdown - and the attendant inability to be together in the studio - certainly meant we had to make a number of decisions in isolation, without the usual studio practice of throwing ideas around, trying things on for size, then sending them back if we don't fit. This environment was oddly conflicting. It encouraged a certain level of efficiency, otherwise things could/would be left unresolved for days, even weeks, but it also allowed a freedom, especially for producer, Joe Bennett to take an idea and run with it or overdub it as far as he wanted. So, as far as that changing the musical direction of the album, it did. We had originally chatted about bringing back some lead guitar, maybe adding female vocalists, all of which had to be discarded quickly and without room to ponder, or regret. But it meant that the horns, also something we discussed 'introducing' to this project in pre-production, were allowed to become central to its sound.
LEO took a somewhat different musical direction with the introduction of a horn section, as you say, yet in many ways, it seems like the completion of a trilogy following your earlier albums. Was that a conscious thing?
It really does feel like a sister or brother, I guess, to both those albums. I've always slightly struggled with seeing 'The Fragile Line' as an album in its own right. It was devised as a companion piece to the live shows, an antidote to the somber mood of HERE THERE’S NO SIRENS. I once said those songs on SIRENS made a brilliant record, but a terrible set list – however, it soon took on a life of its own and contains many folks’ favourite songs. What was conscious was to expand the sonic production on 'Leo' so it could - as you say - sit alongside its predecessors without feeling like a re-tread.
You teamed up once more with Joe Bennett to produce the album with you and contribute instrumentally. Were the recordings conducted remotely given the environment at the time and, if so, do you feel that had any marked effect on the final product?
We actually beat the clock on recording the basic tracks by a matter of days. Fin (Kenny, drums) and I were at Farm Music in late February and recorded the drums, guide vocal and guitar for what became Leo plus Cheap & Shapeless Dress and Happy Hour at the Lobby Bar and a couple of covers (Elvis Costello Oliver's Army and Jimmy Webb's paen to bro-mance If You See Me Getting Smaller.) A week, or so, later, the shutters came down.
Was it just Joe Bennett, yourself and Fin Kenny playing on the album? Were the horn parts performed by Joe?
It was. As with both its predecessors, Fin and I recorded our respective parts and then left Joe to the rest. It's not simply that he is capable of playing all these instruments, he is quite brilliant at them. Once this stuff gets transcribed and given to the members of the 'Siren Soul Orchestra' for the live concerts, everyone is amazed by just how crazy good all these parts are.
The final touches came courtesy of Tony Poole, an individual highly regarded by us at Lonesome Highway. What did Tony bring to the party?
He brings the greatest ears in the business. I don't pretend to understand the 'dark arts' of mastering, but my aim is to get your listening experience as close as possible to when I first heard the completed tracks blasting out of Joe's studio speakers. Tony has taken these songs, like those he worked on before them, and puts you in that room with us.
There are lots of references to bars, rock and roll lifestyle and personal struggles on the album. Is there a degree of personal reflection mingled with imagination?
Ha, good observation. In fact, it gets better, or possibly worse. I mentioned earlier two additional songs recorded for the project that we ended up peeling off and releasing as a vinyl only single during lockdown. One was specifically about a hotel (Happy Hour at the Lobby Bar) and the second about a hotel (Cheap & Shapeless Dress). I'm not sure when, or even how, the next batch of songs will come, but I have promised my partner and all those that hold me dear that there will be no more hotels, no more bars and no more drinking (in songs).
Tell me about the character Leo, in the track Leonard’s Bar. He reads like a character in an American hard boiled noir novel but must be hugely significant to have the album named after him.
You will be relieved to know he is a composite of both the real and the imagined. The earliest genesis of Leonard, as a character for a song I can recall was a guy who served me in a bar in Baltimore, who had 'This' and 'That' tattooed on the knuckles of each hand. That's the first reference in my notebooks I can find of someone who could go on to become that character. During that same trip, staying with family, my partner, Mikaela's brother - Nathan - was sleeping off a divorce back at their mothers for a few weeks, so that fed into some of the colour we get in Leo's life in the second verse of the song.
Listening to the album transports me back to Van Morrison’s work with The Caledonia Soul Orchestra in the early 70s. Was that an influence?
Not directly, but I'll take it. I've always been a huge fan of that period Van Morrison: the live album 'It's Too Late To Stop Now' has always been a favourite, but we never really discuss influences ahead of recording. I think I tried that with Joe ahead of the first Pete Gow album and he completely ignored me, so I haven't bothered since.
The Pogues are referenced on HERE THERE’S NO SIRENS and The Clash this time around. I get the impression that LONDON CALLING is possibly closer to your heart than SANDINISTA?
I mean, for sure there are a couple of great tunes on SANDINISTA (Somebody Got Murdered and The Magnificent Seven to name, well, both of them), but LONDON CALLING, man, what an album, top to bottom. I stand by my assertion that side III of that record - Wrong 'Em Boyo, Death or Glory, Koka Kola and The Card Cheat - is pretty much a perfect run of songs. To tie into your question, I saw Joe Strummer perform with The Pogues as a guest during their 1988 run of shows at what was The Town & Country Club in Kentish Town.
I have to compliment you on the album’s artwork and packaging, something that is often neglected on releases in recent years. Who can take credit for this?
Thank you and thank you for noticing. I recently took delivery of the vinyl pressing of LEO and it looks simply stunning. Since Case Hardin's third album (PM - Clubhouse Records) I have used Rumney Design for everything: album art, promotional materials, merchandise, and Darren Rumney and I have still never met in person. We always work the same, I send him the finished recordings and a lyric sheet, then, once he has lived with the album for a few days, we start discussing artwork. He is so in tune with what we are trying to achieve. It's scary as he pretty much nails it in concept first time, every time.
Interview by Declan Culliton