Collette And Neil Of SirenBlue

Interview With Collette And Neil Of SirenBlue

SBS:  Welcome to our pages!  Whether you’ve been here with us in some way before, or you’re brand-new to the site, it’s probably best to get an introduction from you so that we get everyone on the same page to start.  Tell us a little bit about the history of your music, and what’s happening with it lately!?!

Collette:  Hi, well we are part of SirenBlue (SB), we are a UK based Indie-Pop/Rock band who have been working on and off together for a (very) long time.  After a long hiatus, we have got back together again over the last 3 or so years to record and release a couple of albums (Same but Different and Hit Like and Carry On).   

SBS:  Let’s talk about the before and after of where you’re currently at.  What’s something about the music that you’re making now that you don’t think you could have done five years ago, and what’s something you think you’ll be able to do with your music five years from now that you can’t do today?  How have you grown as an artist/band, and what steps do you take to continue your artistic evolution?

Neil:  That’s an interesting question, the improvement in technology has been a massive help for us.  We live in different parts of the UK so given our family and musical commitments, don’t see each other perhaps as much as we’d like.  We can work and share the songs/parts separately before bringing them the studio, which means that often important scene setting activity is already complete even before even walk-in.  For the future, more of the same hopefully, demos these days are already very complete and the tools and sounds already available have allowed us to expand our style as we want to keep growing.  We are constantly trying not to get pigeon-holed into a particular style, got to push what you can do and all that.

SBS:  If you were to assess the overall health of the independent music scene right now, what would you say?  What are the positives and the negatives about the current state of independent music, and what do you feel like artists & bands can do to contribute to the community & help it grow beyond the music being made?  If you’re not actively looking to listen to the music of other independent artists/bands, is it really all that fair to expect anyone would listen to yours?  How do you help the scene around you grow?

Neil:  I’m the wrong person to ask really, I am very insular.  The rest of the band play with several other acts and are constantly gigging playing/supporting live shows.  They live and breathe the independent scene in their respective areas of country.  If I’m not writing, I’m recording, so I live under my own musical rock in many ways.  I often listen to other independent acts as our tunes are combined with others in playlists and like to hear the overall sounds with which we are being placed.  What is great is the diversity of styles and songs across all these acts, the volume of music being created and talent of those involved is just a joy.  

SBS:  What do you consider to be the biggest accomplishment or achievement you’ve had with your music to-date?  How do you personally measure your own success – is that something that even can be measured?  Is it awards, accolades, chart position…or is your definition of success based on something entirely different?  Should success, however you define it, be something that artists are continually focused on – or is success something that naturally occurs in the course of doing what you love to do?

Collette:  That is easy; success is keeping on, keeping on and hopefully getting better at it.  We are now in the midst of recording our fifth album as SirenBlue.  We have the same core members (+ 1 additional member since we got back together) as we started with all those years ago.  We are self-contained, good friends and I believe everyone in the group enjoys and knows what they are doing.  After all that time, if that isn’t success, I don’t know what is.  Anything else is secondary.  We can keep doing what we are doing until we run out of energy collectively for it.

SBS:  When you’re working on something brand-new, and something about it just doesn’t feel like it’s coming together the way that you think it should, how do you know when it’s time to give up on it, or how do you know that it’s time to dig in even harder and find a way to make it work?  Are there distinct red flags you can hear when something’s not working?  What are the signs you look for that tell you to stop forcing the material?  What would actually encourage you to keep going with the process instead?

Neil:  I’m my own worst critic; I am constantly writing and deleting, then maybe one in every 10 or so will be shared for the band to call whether we should progress with it.  If it is a collective yes, then that goes the on the to-do list.  There is another vetting process between me and our long time co-Producer/Engineer) Steve Evans (who’s worked with Siouxsie, Robert Plant and the Proclaimers) then to decide which are going to be the priority tracks for studio time.  As an independent band and don’t have bottomless pockets or massive amounts of time, we have to be organized and focused.  We used to spend days/weeks getting ready for shows and used that to get the audience feedback to determine what we would record.  Now, as we don’t play live as SB, we use a different approach to decide what is included.  The red flags show themselves pretty early in the work on the songs.  For instance on the last record, I had a track called “Maybe.”  It started life as a full band arrangement, it was strong melody and lyric but my demo just sounded meh!  We stripped right back to piano and voice initially to say, right where do we go from here?  Immediately, it shone through, Steve said ‘there is your song’ so we added some supporting keyboards and we were all happy with the result.  Less is more and all that.

SBS:  One of the points of general consensus in the art of making music, is that we all get our sound from somewhere…we hear what we like, then more often than not, we take tiny pieces of what we love to find our own voice & approach to go on and make music in our own way.  Essentially, what I’m saying is that it’s absolutely natural to be inspired by other artists/bands, and almost every artist/band ends up having that inspiration show up in their own work in some way, shape, or form.  What the real key is though, is retaining your own organic perspective – you still wanna be original too, right?  So how do you go about doing that?  Are there artists or bands that you know have been an influence on your style & sound?  How were you able to incorporate that influence without becoming too noticeably derivative and still be yourself?  Should we embrace and celebrate our influences more than we do?  It’s almost like we try not to admit influences exist in the pursuit of being original, but it’s like, bruh…if it’s there, we can hear it.  We all borrow something from those that came before us to some extent, don’t we?

Neil:  That’s quite a question, when individually and collectively we have all grown-up absorbing so many songs and sounds.  Early on, of course it’s natural you gravitate to those songs or bands you like and try to be like them.  Hopefully you can take elements of the best of them and leave the rest that do not chime with you.  There are far too many to mention and everyone’s taste and approach constantly evolves as you grow older.  

Collette:  When the band started, virtually everyone asks who do you sound like?  Initially we started to fill in those blanks to help give those who are new to us a way to recognize your sound.  The danger is of course you get marked as pale imitations of the band you were forced to compare yourself to.  As you get older you start to make your own choices based on experience and ability.  Then of course you have to deal with trying not to make it too different each time as you can lose those who have come to enjoy your style.  We have always varied our approaches each time so hopefully that is the very thing people enjoy that about us. 

SBS:  Has there ever been a time where you wrote something inside one of your songs…maybe it’s a lyrical line, or maybe it’s a riff of some kind…something that you did, where you surprised yourself?  I like to think we all have a moment or two where we can stand back and be amazed by something we created, and appreciate the fact that maybe, just maybe, we exceeded our own expectations of what we thought we could accomplish – you know what I mean?  Get as specific as you can so the fans out there know what they should be paying attention to when they hear it – what’s your favorite thing that you’ve written on the inside of one of your songs, and why does this particular piece resonate so much to you?

Neil:  It is difficult for me to stand back and consider anything as truly complete as I would have always done more to each and every track we’ve ever recorded but you stop else nothing would ever get released.

If I was to plump for one thing, is after all that time away, the release of the completion and release of last two albums; that would be the ‘wow! we did it’ moment.  It takes a lot of energy, time and effort to produce to the level we are all happy with.  To have the same people doing it all over again, after all this time makes me ever so grateful to have had the opportunity to do it again.  Everyone is so generous and giving of their time and talent to ensure we create the best we can.  

SBS:  I’ve been having a lot of great debates lately about whether or not everybody that’s making music has the right to be heard…and you’d probably be surprised by how different people seem to feel about this issue.  I know where I stand on it, and I think you can all probably get an idea of what my position would be from this free interview we’re doing here & the way we run things at sleepingbagstudios…but regardless, I’m putting this question out there to you, because I’m interested in YOUR perspective.  Just because you’ve made a song, does that mean people should listen?  If your answer is yes, do your best to explain why you feel that way & why we should make a sincere effort to listen to the music of others.  If your answer is no, explain why you feel that way, but also explain why people should still be listening to your music if that’s the case – what would make your music the exception, and not follow the rule?  Is there any value to an idea that’s not finished, or a song in its demo stages, or maybe something that’s not recorded in a top-shelf studio or with good equipment – somebody still took the time to make that song to the best of their ability with the means they had to create it – should that be listened to, or not?

Collette:  Yes, in my view, everyone has the right to heard, provided the creator wants it to be available in whatever state of completion, there should always be a means open for them to do so.  Difficulty comes with so much music is how potential listeners become aware of it.  When you hear the crazy number of tracks being released every year, increasing the profile of independent acts is so difficult.  We are grateful for every single radio play/stream and every platform they are available on.  They make the world of difference to us.

SBS:  There are ups and downs in the dynamics of almost every album we listen to, with very few exceptions.  Even those exceptions, probably still come down to more of a personal preference about what we enjoy about music and how we personally hear it, rather than anything being completely and totally “perfect” – you know what I mean?  Does an album actually need to have some kind of up/down dynamics in terms of what’s appealing to the masses in order for the best of the best songs in a lineup to be fully appreciated?  Wouldn’t every artist & band avoid the ‘down’ side (less accessible/less popular for example) if they could?  Does the ‘down’ side represent something else perhaps, like the story of an album or journey of an artist?  Is the ‘up’ side of a record as potent or noticeable if it doesn’t have a ‘down’ side to go with it?  Would a completely balanced album somehow be boring if it didn’t have the ups/downs that most have?  Do we HAVE to like every single song on a record for it to be considered complete?  Are the dynamics of an album something anyone can really steer in the direction they want to, or are all artists & bands simply going with the strongest material they have created at the time?

Neil:  Our tunes are centred strongly around the initial melody and lyric, which is then sculptured into the shape it suggests early on.  What has been easier since the return is the approach on the last couple of records.  Each has been based on a particular theme (dare is say the much-maligned ‘concept album’).  The songs are written to support the direction of that theme, so there could be twists and turns which are dropped or underlined as you complete.  There has been a very different arc to both albums to support the narrative.  As you are working on the album, there are tracks that show themselves as more accessible and are used as ‘video singles.’  We never set out to create one and we may all have our own favorites by the end of recording, however the more accessible ones still shine out.  For me, when working on an arc it does mean you have to be careful with song placement although there are moments where tracks could be interchangeable, but we found as we do more and more, the relative position in the running order is generally self-selecting.  One thing we are keen on is there is some kind of positive/hope expressed at the end of the record, the last track will be more ‘up’ given the journey through the record to that point. 

SBS:  I wanna send out a shout-out to YOU from me personally – I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to talk tunes with me throughout the years, and I appreciate the time YOU have taken with this interview too.  Because this one’s a little different in the sense that it’s been sent out to multiple people and is a little more generic in that regard, I have no doubt whatsoever that we probably didn’t get to talk to you about something you wanted to talk about – so let’s fix that!  This final space is what we call the SBS Open Floor – a spot where you can say anything else you want to say to the people out there.  It can be anything at all…your main websites…something else you want them to know about you and/or your music…your favorite bands in the scene right now…the secret 11 herbs and spices to the Colonel’s secret recipe – you get the idea, and it’s probably best you choose something that suits you rather than take any of my suggestions, but feel free to take the SBS Open Floor for a ride.  Whatever it is you want the people to know, now is the prime time for you to tell’em!  Thanks again for everything – keep in touch!

Collette:  Thank you to Jer and sleepingbagstudios, since we have first crossed paths you have been nothing but a positive energy for us, it is incredibly important to get that sort of support.  Your reviews and kind words have been so encouraging, and we love your site and ethos.

Neil:  Exclusive news to this interview…  We are currently working on new tracks for either 2 EP’s or a full album, probably for release mid-next year.  We’ve just about completed 5 tracks and are starting on the next set.

Finally, if anyone reading wants to give the albums a spin:

SirenBlue – Same but Different and/or Hit Like and Carry On

Love and Peace to all x

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