Ahead of the release of their new album I Contain Multitudes this week, self-confessed “inconsistent indie” band Stoat select and discuss the tracks that have influenced them the most from The Felice Brothers to Frank Ocean.
Oliver! Soundtrack – Reviewing the situation
Cormac: There’s always been a vein of musical theatre running through Stoat’s music. I listened to the Oliver! soundtrack probably a thousand times as a kid, and have always wanted to play Fagin on stage … me and John have both been in stage productions of the show, but alas, neither of us got that role (weirdly, we both played Mr. Brownlow, Oliver’s grandfather). The theatricality of this song, the harmonic minor key, and the funny-but-serious lyrics are all very much part of our musical DNA.
The Felice Brothers – Inferno
John: Discovered and became addicted to these guys a few years ago. We’re kind of a wordy band – we put a lot of effort into getting the words right. So do the Felice Brothers (or maybe it comes effortlessly to them, I dunno). The first time I heard the second chorus of this song, I went “ohhhh” as if someone had let all the air out of me. The melodies are perfectly weighted with just the right words, and Ian Felice – the singer – sounds so mystified. The whole thing creates this intense sense of longing.
Frank Ocean – Pink + White
Jamie: I’m currently obsessed with this. The medium 6/8 tempo – so long associated with the pastoral – along with the hypnotically repeated three-chord cadences, wafts us into our own personal Garden of Eden. The lyrics are sufficiently abstract that almost anything can be projected onto them, in which case (well, my maudlin, geriatric case anyway), subjects of otherwise inexpressible import are conjured: brief snapshots from childhood – real or imagined – the echoes of youth’s enormous emotions now faded into middle age. A glimpse of our individual prelapsarian paradise. Again with the garden imagery! Ocean truly is the Monty Don of hip hop.
Therapy? – Innocent X
Stephen: As a drummer, hearing Therapy? for the first time – with their slightly disco beats, heavily distorted bass, samples, and amazing guitar lines that sometimes sounded like sirens – blew my mind. I think this song sums up the best of that era of Therapy?. The drummer, Fyfe Ewing, was amazing. I always imagine he never listened to another drummer or got a drum lesson and just sat behind a kit and played what he wanted – it sounded so different to what any other drummer was doing at the time. The whole EP Babyteeth is still an amazing feat of music.
Caribou – Broke My Heart
Cormac: Caribou is probably the closest thing to “my favourite band” that exists in the current musical landscape. As (mostly) the bass player, I’m the member of Stoat who’s most into groove-based music – it’s usually funkiness I seek out – and Caribou isn’t remotely funky, but for some reason, this music still makes me want to jump up and dance. Also, even though this is all electronic, I somehow find it emotional – no idea why. Maybe the mystery of my own reactions is part of the appeal.
Anne Sofie von Otter with Brooklyn Rider – Doctor Atomic: Am I in Your Light?
Jamie: Good old Cillian Murphy’s recent Oscar win for Oppenheimer reminded me of this track. While I’m generally not a huge fan of string quartets doing “pop songs” – it reminds me of James Last (James Last, for those of you lucky enough to be too young to remember, was kind of an early version of André Rieu, but without all the good taste…) – Am I In Your Light? is a quartet arrangement of Mrs. Opp’s aria from John Adams’ Doctor Atomic that, while that opera is perhaps a bit more approachable than Adams’ earlier Nixon in China, is definitely “The Single.” As good an expression of love under extreme pressure as you’re likely to hear anywhere, the threateningly building middle section talks of a “night thick with birds” and being reminded “… beautifully of death.” Although it works well as a standalone piece, the last words – “Tic, tic, tic, tic…” – are a reminder that hanging over the whole thing (literally, in the case of most productions) is the most famous bomb of them all.
Gene Austin – Everything’s Made for Love
John: Sometimes I try to take songs apart to see how they work so that I can rip them off. This one just has a killer melody and perfect prosody. Words are always the most difficult bit – finding ones that sit properly into the melody and can carry a theme through two or three choruses, pre-choruses, breaks, and the rest of it. Gene Austin was a master at that. He was a blacksmith and a soldier (he survived WWI) before he started writing songs. And they all sound so damn good still. This was my most listened-to song last year.
Mumblin’ Deaf Ro – It Never Even Entered My Mind
Stephen: I heard this song first a few days after seeing Mumblin’ Deaf Ro playing an afternoon show in Whelan’s. As soon as I heard him, I needed to hear more of his music – and thankfully, he had five tunes recorded for his first album, and this was one of the five. I remember listening to the words and thinking it was the best lyrical expression I had heard up to that time – and possibly since – of how relationships and break-ups are. The storytelling is impeccable. You can feel yourself in every line of the song – or at least I can. The vocal delivery and the piano suit the story perfectly. “Believing every song I owned was somehow meant for this moment” is the line that really sums up the mindset of the narrator. A truly beautiful tune.
Jinx Lennon – You Must Forgive The Cunts
Cormac: Jinx’s approach to lyric writing has had a huge influence on me – I used to be much more oblique and abstract until I heard this album, and hearing someone write about their real life in a way that sounded like them just talking to you was a revelation. This particular song is all about accepting the things you cannot change, and came out at a time when I really needed to hear that, and I’ve kept it in my heart since. I saw Jinx a few weeks ago and the whole venue roaring out “YOU MUST FORGIVE THE CUNTS” was kinda overwhelming. Forgiveness will set you free.
Stoat release their new album this week. Click here for more info.
