Noah And The Whale are planning to make a film to run alongside their new record. I talked to frontman Charlie about it.
Can you explain what the plan for the film is?
Essentially it’s a visual accompaniment to the music of the album, so its running time is synched with the record. The film itself is a thematic representation of the narrative of the album and fleshes out the universal themes of the story of the album rather than the more personal themes. It has three stories that will run around that.
How will people see it, ideally?
The cinema is the ideal for me, I’d like people to see it in the cinema. Essentially, as much as anything I’m trying to create an environment as much as anything else. Part of the appeal of this project was that my concern about this album as a piece is that with iTunes etc, it’s very rare that people consider albums as a whole. We were discussing that Grouper album, and I know if I came to that album and just listened to a couple of tracks I’d never feel the worth of it as much as if I’d listened to the whole thing. I guess part of it is by doing it in the cinema, you’re putting people in this environment where they’re almost forced to absorb the whole thing as one. And not only that, but by having a visual thing to it you’re not only putting them in the position where they’re absorbing the album as one thing but also you’ve created the environment for them to hear it in.
Do you think it’s a reaction to how you perceive the first album was perceived?
I know what you mean. Maybe it’s a subconscious thing. With that first record as well, I tried to make it a coherent piece. I feel like I realised that project as I intended. With this project it’s not like we’re changing our stance, it’s just a more realised version of what we were doing. It’s hard for me to say; I feel like it’s not a reaction but a continuation.
What was the inspiration for the making of the film? Why do a film?
Well partly it’s that idea of creating an environment to hear the record, but I don’t wanna make it seem like I’m considering the film to be a smaller priority that the music, I do consider it to be one thing. It’s not a film or an album, it’s a weird combination of both. I think it was because we talked about, on the first album, doing a video for every song – which is something I think Radiohead did on their latest album; that eventually turned into the idea of something that runs the whole length, of making a film for it.
What will the actual film be about, and how will it be structured?
It’s hard to talk about it in too much detail. The narrative of the album is about the end of a relationship, it’s one voice, the same narrator in every song. Whereas the film divides itself into three separate characters in separate times in their lives who are all affected by similar things. The things affecting the narrator of the album are the things affecting these three characters in different ways. Essentially the way it’s going to be filmed is like you’re watching someone’s memories; I want each character to be shot in a different format, one in super-8, one in super-16, one in HD. As you’re watching the film, you watch their memories, and the inconsistencies in their memories will be shown by the inconsistencies in the footage. For example, when a character remembers something wrong, that sequence will be in black and white. Essentially the main theme that binds them is how the one moment in your life that you hold as the happiest memory can be something you fight against for a long time, something that you glamorise, and can become more significant than it ever was.
Did the film influence the making of the album itself?
It was a weird writing process; I kind of let the album change the direction of the film, the film was definitely more malleable. I guess it’s more come down to the production of the album than the writing of it. For example in Peter And The Wolf, whenever Peter shows courage, there’ll be a melody that occurs during those moments. The album itself is very cyclical, the second half of the album returns to the first half of the album. It’s that thing of reconstructing memories, the second half of the album comes back to the first half and retells it, almost. So when in the second half you’re returning to earlier moments, there’s melodies that repeat. Hopefully the film will bring that out even more.
How will film in general be involved in the next tour?
The plan is that we’re taking the theme of the night as ‘illusion in film’, so we’re gonna be showing some Andy Kaufman stuff, and some Marx Brothers.
Is that part of the same thing of wanting the audience to view the show in a certain way?
Yeah. We’re gonna have archive footage and film footage that we think corresponds to the music we’ll play. But at the same time we kind of want to include a certain element of entertainment to it! It’s constructing a show that I think I’d really like to go and see.
