Music

One Minute With The Tindersticks Stuart Staples - Singing Skies

Gavin Mecaniques | Sunday 1 December, 2013 19:12

To celebrate the book Singing Skies, a collaboration between the Tindersticks Stuart Staples and his wife, painter, Suzanne Osborne, an exhibition of 365 original ‘sky paintings’ together with Stuarts hand typed lyrics was held in London this month. An acoustic Tindersticks gig, a video installation by acclaimed French director and collaborator Claire Denis, plus a mini-documentary about the process by filmmaker Martin Wallace accompanied the event. Stuart Staples took one minute to speak to Snipe.

Please describe yourself in three words.
Man in France.

What singers inspired you when you started? What ones still do?
It was a great time for singers; John Lydon, Billy McKenzie, Marc Almond, Kevin Rowland, Ian Curtis – so many unique and uncompromising voices. They all still live with me in some way, even if I don’t listen to them very often.

What’s your favourite Tindersticks lyric?
Some songs continue to fascinate me for a long time. An early song like ‘Shes gone’ still holds a mystery for me. When I wrote it my feelings about Suzanne and our baby daughter collided, its ultimate meaning is still just out reach. With a more recent song like ‘This fire of autumn’ from ‘the something rain’ I am still trying to figure out what it is trying to tell me.

What songs, of yours, are you most proud?
For me, songs are successful when they hold the initial moment of inspiration lightly. ‘Marseilles sunshine’ is one of them, ‘This fire of autumn’ another.

What’s the strangest gig and / or best gig you’ve ever played?
Around the time of our first album we had our biggest gig to-date at LA2 on Charing Cross road. To mark the occasion we had asked the Flamenco guitarist from the bar on Hanway St (a late night haunt of ours) to support us – We were hoping for some solo loungey version of ‘Strangers in the night’ (not that he would turn up with his band and play the rock opera he had been working on for years or that he would come equipped with strong alcohol and quality substances.)

I don’t know why Suzanne wasn’t there… Anyway, the concert was something, Mark, our bass player, was reading the set list one song behind us and at one point I went down and couldn’t get up again. I looked up and saw David, who had abandoned his piano, maniacally shaking maracas, his shirt off and a thick line of his undies hanging over the top of his trousers.

What musically have you learnt recently that surprised you?
It’s a good thing to not know what you are doing.

How are the words and visual images in your book with Suzanne Osborn connected?
As I watched Suzanne work, sometimes furiously to catch a moment in a fast-changing sky, at other times, able to explore a sky more static, I was struck by how similar the process was to the writing of my songs. I felt they belonged together.

How did you come to work with Claire Denis, (director of Trouble Everyday)?
We were happy to be chosen by her. It expanded my understanding of Claire Denis films, for sure.

Who is the most famous or surprising person to come to a Tindersticks gig?
Ace of bass, The mayor of Ypres (front row, with sash), Tom Ford, Epic Soundtracks, David Byrne, A-ha, Vaclav Havel, Alain Bashung, etc.

What’s the best advice you ever had?
Take it easy, it’s not a race.

What do you love and hate most about London?
It smells of pies and pasties.

Singing Skies is released in hardback in a limited first edition of 2500 copies and is available from all good bookshops as well as Amazon from 28 November.

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