Just under a year ago, I discovered Bauer and the joys of their album 'Sleeping Giant'. However despite having the album pumping into my eardrums on a daily basis, I was starting to suffer from Bauer-related withdrawal symptoms, especially as they were being near to silent in the Twitter world. Thankfully, medicine arrived yesterday in the form of a new album 'Lose All Memory' released on iTunes. 'Lose All Memory' is a compilation of B sides, remixes and demos which didn't quite make it on to 'Sleeping Giant'.
Despite being intended as an almost 'throw the good stuff in the pot' album, I find it still has a running theme within it's core, that of heartbreak and romanticism. Greg Matthews' effortless vocals has a soft edge to it, which although harmonious, still captures a certain emotional rawness which is one of the many aspects that make Bauer a unique band, there's never any fake elements. The album contains many similarities to 'Sleeping Giant' (which it would!) but look out for 'Starting Again (dub mix)' which I expected to be out of my comfort zone with due to it being a dub mix, but I find it is balanced perfectly.
I also asked Bauer everything that had to be known about 'Lose All Memory''
You seemed to release the album with not much prior build up or promotion compared to 'Sleeping Giant', did you feel that not much promotion was needed this time round?
That's mainly because we sort of wanted to save that shot in the arm for the next proper album really. We want the expectation to be there for the new stuff that we're working on at the moment. This one is more of a bridging thing, but that's not to say the material isn't to a high standard - some of the tracks are possibly better than a certain amount of the 1st album stuff - it was just about how things flowed. With the next record there will be more plugging, a music video, a tour etc.
The album contains an acoustic track (The Lights Go Down) and a dub mix (Starting Again). What inspired you to go down two separate paths in one album?
The tracks were both originally b sides...if you didn't already know this record is a mixture of songs that didn't feature on the 1st album (simply because they just didn't fit with the flow of things) and b sides, demos & remixes. We felt the songs were too strong to never release and it was a great opportunity for our fans the hear them whilst we work on the next album proper. It also wipes the slate clean for us and gives us the chance to go down new avenues with the next album *proper* which we're working hard on in the studio at the moment.
Lose All Memory' centers on love and heartbreak. Who is the lyricist in the group and what was the inspiration behind the theme?
Greg the vocalist writes all the lyrics. It's interesting in a way that you're saying this because a lot of these tracks come from different time periods but the way it's been sequenced you wouldn't really tell as a new listener. A lot of Smiths fans love "hatful of hollow" which is sort of a similar album to this one in that it's cobbled together, but you wouldn't really know. We worked on the sequencing for a while to make it flow like a standard studio album....so it's a real compliment that you feel that there seems to be a defined theme throughout!
It must be quite difficult putting pen to paper for new material, do any of you have any 'habits' that helps you get inspired?
Writing methods have changed and developed throughout the years. In the early days we'd slave away in the rehearsal studio for hours on end at songs....and that can sometimes get frustrating and labourous. Nowadays the writing process has changed in that a lot of the time we're coming up with fully structured songs away from rehearsals and taking them straight into record....which can be a risky way of doing things, but luckily the chemistry and level of musicianship is really strong so it's something we're comfortable in doing.
Where will you be stopping off on your 2014 tour?
I think the answer is we probably won't be doing until at least next summer. We're looking at a single in early summer, another single in perhaps october and then the album in November/ December. We're working on making the next album a real killer and thinking about getting it out for this time next year - so then we'd have put out 3 albums in 3 years. We were joking around recently saying that if we can do it so that it's 4 in 4 years we'll be in a position to release a best of album in year 5!
And finally, I think we should start a campaign to get the album a Christmas #1, how would you react if you knocked an X Factor (or whatever the kids are watching these days) album of the charts?
The charts are such a corporate bland joke that we didn't even submit the release for a possible chart placing - and i think that says a lot and reflects generally how many talented bands & musicians feel about the current situation in the music industry. It'd be pretty cool to sell a million copies and stick it up to the man though! Just to let them know we're too cool to bother with the fuckers and their major label chart con.
'Lose All Memory' is available to download from iTunes now.
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