Tindersticks are a London band who make dark, moody, romantic music with orchestral overtones, anchored by Stuart A. Staples tremoring croon. After issuing two wildly-praised, self-titled LPs in 1993 and 1995, they undertook their first collaboration with French filmmaker Claire Denis, the score to Nenette et Boni, in 1996. They have since issued give subsequent albums, and worked with Denis on five more films. In 2011, that work was collected on the box-set Claire Denis Film Scores 1996-2009.
Interview: 26 November 2010
Few musicians who make scores have recurring relationships with filmmakers. Why has that been the case with you and Claire Denis?
"It's felt natural. I never think Claire is going to ask us to be involved, and when we first speak, it's still just a conversation, a starting point to see where that takes you. Maybe, because of that, it always seems to start in a fresh place. It makes for something different; all the soundtracks we've done with her feel very different to me."
How different is working on sound for film as opposed to your own music?
"It's fundamentally different. Working on our own music, it comes from inside us; we're trying to create our own world. Working with Claire, it's a reaction to her world. It takes that center away, and that's liberating. On White Material, it was a chance to be free of your own thing, and to just go off in this unexpected direction. From seeing the first rushes, it just asked for something that was out-of-reach. Something that I didn't understand. That was just so much to do with the feeling of the earth within the film."
The Earth?
"It was about the earth. The soil. The feeling that the music was in the trees. That it was closing in on these characters. That, coupled with a sense of a collapsing system, brought out disjointed rhythms, things where the structures of the music sounded like they were collapsing. It wasn't to do with character or narrative, just that impending feeling of things falling apart. And the heat of it. It wasn't a film in which you immediately felt melodies coming from it. The melodies were, in some ways, the images. So, I started from that point, with these experimental sketches that allowed the images space. I often feel that, if I could explain my music, if I knew why I was making something, I wouldn't be fascinated with it. White Material is very much along those lines. It's experiencing something, reacting to it, feeling it, and then exploring the way that feeling sits inside you. It's not an analytical process."
Were you working on White Material at the same time as (2010 LP) Falling Down a Mountain?
“White Material came at a time when our music was going through a strong progression, anyway, and for the film to be involved with that was satisfying. It felt like it was part of this growth we were going through. We stopped playing around 2004, and in 2007 we decided to get back together to feel how it felt after that break. What it brought out of us. From that point to the present, it's just been a feeling of growth ever since. For White Material to come along at that time and asked the questions of us that it did, I feel like that was a really important part of that growth."
Why did you go on that hiatus?
"Working together for 12 years constantly, making albums and soundtracks and touring, we'd just gathered too much baggage. There's all these things that get you down about the music industry, and it starts to become hard for you to remember why you were even driven to make music in the first place. To go from your mid-20s, starting a band, to working without a break 'til your late-30s, you had to stop and work out what you wanted, and where the joy was in this."
How have the two post-comeback records felt?
"They feel like they're on the way somewhere. I remember when we made Waiting for the Moon in 2003, it felt like we were arriving somewhere. And arriving, to me, feels like a dead space. I don't feel like the last two albums we've made are perfect, by any means, but there's been a real sense of experimentation, and adventure, and fun in making music to them. That makes us excited about what we're going to do next. Whereas, in 2003, I couldn't imagine feeling like that again. I remember that year we were on tour a lot, and it wasn’t a particularly fulfilling place to be. And I think everybody in the band felt like it was a day-job, and something fundamental had gone wrong."
Was making your first solo record (Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04) a reaction to that?
"It was, but I didn't actually identify that at the time! It was a total antidote to being on tour: going straight into my studio and experimenting, just for the simple love. My first solo album came from those recordings. I never thought I was actually making a solo album, I was just addressing this need I felt. Looking back, I think the two solo albums were something I needed to do to find out who I was away from the structure of this band I'd been in for what felt like all of my life. To be left on my own for a while, to figure things out. I remember feeling in 2003 that I was never going to go on a stage again. And I really felt that for 18 months."
When the soundtrack to Nenette et Boni came out, it was striking, almost shocking, to hear a Tindersticks LP without your voice up front. How did it feel to you not using your voice, that first time?
"Singing has always just been one thing I've done in the band. Making music has always been, to me, about imagining, and then using the tools you have in your head. My role in the band has always been as instigator, and, then, as editor. Providing a framework for other people to find their own story, their own voice, within the music. That wasn't different with Nenette et Boni. For me, that's one of my favorite albums that we've ever made. Being a singer, having 35, 40 minutes of music with one song in the middle of it, it's kind of perfect for me. If there's a whole album of vocal songs, you can kind of get desensitized to my voice, but, in Nenette et Boni, as an album, it has the opportunity to keep all of its power."
What's your favorite Claire Denis film?
"Making the box-set, I've probably watched all of Claire's films in the last six months. And some surprised me. Nenette et Boni really surprised me. When we were working on it, there was an air of uncertainty about it, which made us very precious, and took away some of the joy about the process. Going back, now, being able to not be concerned about the tiny intricacies of our work that bothered me at the time, it was a real pleasure to watch. I felt very proud to be involved in that. But, if you're just talking about going into the cinema, and just sitting down to watch one of Claire's films, well, Beau Travail takes some beating, doesn't it?"
