The Sun
is shining down on the Meadows as Joseph Malik talks about his new record. It’s
the perfect weather for the 12” EP released by ever-expanding Edinburgh
collective, Out of the Ordinary, and which also happens to be called Meadows.
It’s one of the hottest days of the year, and the birds are singing in Malik’s
back garden. You can hear them too at the start of Meadows, just before the
guitar pattern from Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow era song, Today –
played live rather than sampled, with the band’s blessing - eases in the
woozily transcendent song launched at a very special gig on home turf next
weekend.
Meadows
features the twin vocals of former Coco and the Bean chanteuse Rosanne Erskine
and Davy Henderson of Fire Engines and The Sexual Objects. Malik may be taking
a back seat, but the song’s melting pot of low-slung psychedelic soul, euphoric
strings and gospel chorus couldn’t have happened without him.
“It’s an
anthem of well-being,” says Malik, who wrote the song after waking up on the
Meadows during a period when he was homeless. “I heard the chords of Today, and
I knew I wanted that Californian hippy vibe, but still with a tint of Edinburgh
and Scottishness. The chorus says ‘I don’t know what to do, but I’ve been here
before’, and that’s a unifying anthem. Things can get bad sometimes, and in the
modern age just putting ‘like’ on Facebook isn’t enough. Go for a walk with
someone, have a cup of tea, and just talk to someone.”
The backbone
of Meadows comes from Malik’s long-term collaborators, Proclaimers keyboardist Stevie
Christie and guitarist David Donnelly. Also crucial are the string arrangements
produced by Chris Greive, trombonist with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra
and a ubiquitous figure in bands such as NeWt, The Bad Plus and Salsa Celtica.
Malik sees Greive as his right-hand man.
“It was
a marvellous process of building it up piece by piece,” Greive says of making
Meadows. “Being handed something like that with all that beauty in it, I
started imagining all the shapes it could be, and the strings had to take it
somewhere else.”
Meadows
is a trailer of sorts for Out of the Ordinary’s forthcoming album, Stranger
Things Have Happened. This takes an after-hours trip through Leith into
Edinburgh, and features a huge cast that includes The Bevvy Sisters, former
Josef K guitarist Malcolm Ross, Mike Keat of the Cuban Brothers and jazz
trumpeter Colin Steele. Younger members of the crew including Zimbabwean
vocalist Einstein of Edinburgh reggae band Mellow Chants. Also on board are ex
Fire Engine Russell Burn, whose studio hosted much of the album’s recording
sessions, while his acting brother Tam Dean Burn channels the spirit of Rabbie
Burns by way of Tom Waits and Alex Harvey.
“There’s
a crime noir feel to it,” says Malik. “You can hear the cobblestones. You’re
there. There’s a daytime/night-time feel to it. It’s got a beginning, a middle
and an end, and it’s a great story. It’s not just a record. It’s a statement.”
Meadows and
Stranger Things Have Happened are a continuation of Malik’s very personal
journey first heard on last year’s Diverse Part 2 album, released under his own
name. Fired by a will to survive beyond heartbreak, drug and alcohol problems,
homelessness and mental health issues, Malik used music to find some kind of
redemption. A packed-out launch show featured many of the players on Meadows
and Stranger Things Have Happened.
“It felt
amazing,” Malik says of his first gig since 2008. “I couldn’t have done it
without everyone who came, but also the band who stayed with me, because we’re
one big collective now. I’m a massive Marvel comic books fan, and I see our
mission being like The Avengers or something, to win the city back from the
cabal of developers, Edinburgh University and the Council who are ripping the
ass out of this city.”
Producing
two albums over the last twelve months was a life-saver for Malik.
“Music
was the only thing keeping me alive,” he says. “Stevie Christie always said
before he went off on tour, keep him busy, because if I didn’t stay busy, I’d
probably be dead.”
Diverse Part
2 was Malik’s first record for more than a decade. Before that, he had been one
half of hip-hop duo Blacka’nized, and was at the forefront of a burgeoning nu-jazz
and hip-hop scene. The core of this was the East Coast Project, founded as a
collective of kindred spirits much as Malik has done with Out of the Ordinary.
A
compilation, East Coast Project – A Journey Through the Sound of Edinburgh,
showcased a scene that revolved around Lizzard Lounge, the legendary club night
promoted by Malik at the much missed Café Graffiti venue. This era in the
capital’s musical life has been all but airbrushed out of the history books.
Once
Malik moved in front of the microphone, his debut album, Diverse, released in
2002, shifted 80,000 copies. When the music industry went into freefall,
however, Malik ducked out of view.
Today, things
have come full circle. This isn’t just in terms of Malik’s own musical output,
but his presence as a catalyst, with Out of the Ordinary now spanning three
generations of artists.
“The
band are so big now it will take more than two gigs to explain who we are,”
says Malik. “This one is to introduce Meadows, but we’ll be doing another one
in October. We’re going to reinvent what Scottish music can be. Whether it’s
soul, gospel, techno, jazz, folk, it can be anything.”
Joseph
Malik Blues and Soul Sunday, The Argyle and Cellar Bar, tomorrow, 3-5pm. Out of
the Ordinary presents Meadows at the Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, July 13. Meadows by
Out of the Ordinary is available on Ramrock Records. Stranger Things Have
Happened by Out of the Ordinary will be available shortly on Ramrock Records.
The Herald, July 6th 2019
ends
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