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The Vault

In The Vault, you'll find a collection of old feature pieces from our back issues. Beta started in June 1999, so you'll find a veritable history here.

Manchester duo George live in sadness

As musicians, Manchester folk duo George thrive on sadness. They are odd, possibly eccentric people who seem to prefer old-fashioned feelings like love, suspense, and resonance to modern-day emotions like rage and vitriol. Suzy Mangion and Michael Varty's second full-length album A Week of Kindness is the follow-up to 2003's critically-acclaimed The Magic Lantern. If reviews are anything to go by, the former manages to extend and even surpass the beauty and sadness of that debut. Again, Mangion and Varty share singing, writing, and playing duties. Their collection of strange instruments has grown: apart from guitars, basses, and drums, they also tinker with loops, wurlitzer organ, drones, chimes, bells, bird sounds, and even old chairs. Mangion's clear voice spin melancholy like a glistening web, and words like "See the living sound; no metronome goes this far" capture, not just nuggets of wisdom, but refractions of meaning that sew feeling to musical form. Clearly, George's anachronism is part of their charm, but you'd be silly to see Mangion and Varty as fragile folks who might wilt in the sun. No, these are people of spirit, as Beta's Lee Chung Horn discovers, talking to Suzy Mangion.

Beta: We love the new album, "A Week of Kindness". It's very much in the same mould as "The Magic Lantern", but sounds warmer and more variegated. How long did it take you to make it?

Suzy: It was recorded fairly swiftly, considering it was made in spare time after work, and during weekends. We started recording it before The Magic Lantern came out in 2003. By the time we were doing gigs to promote that in October and November, we were playing some of the songs from A Week of Kindness. Most of the recording was finished by the following spring, but the final touches - whistling, clarinet, strings - took a bit longer to finalize because of the logistics of getting other people involved. We let the finishing and mixing drag out, unfortunately. The album was finally polished and mastered January 2005.

That's quite a while.

"Closest of All" was an old 4-track piece recorded years ago, maybe in 2001. We transplanted it onto this record. Including that spreads the time span further!

Were you recording in the same studio as before? Was anything different inside the studio this time?

Well, all George recordings are made in my music room at home. It's a pretty small-scale set-up, but one that I'm very comfortable working with. I don't think anything was different hardware wise, all the same mics and so on. We were probably a little more confident on everything than before. There was definitely a more excessive use of double-tracked vocals this time round! A few new instruments were featured, a few "new" (i.e. second hand) synths, a cymbala which is like a small zither, a banjo. The main change was in the extra musicians who feature on the album.

Pitchforkmedia really came behind "The Magic Lantern". Have they heard "A Week of Kindness" yet, and if so, what was their response this time?

Yes, they've written another really complimentary review. I think they like the sadness sound. I'm glad that people who liked our first album still like us now. It's similar but obviously not the same, I couldn't be the same as I was years ago, and you only hope people's tastes grow in the same direction as your music. They've said George sounds very much like being alone, this makes me smile. I record and play mostly alone, it's not an unpleasant thing, I like being by myself to make music. Don't like too many people in the room, because you've got to explain what you're doing which is hard when you don't know yourself until it's done!

Pickled Egg sounds like a very English label. Our impression is it's very small, run by a tiny group of people who potter around in a small office--very DIY operations, but nursing big ambitions. Kind of eccentrics with a business-savvy work ethic. Are we right?

It's funny you say that! Nigel Turner who runs Pickled Egg is a very lovely English gentleman, but the label has bands from all over the world - Need New Body from the US, Pop Off Tuesday from Japan, Nalle from Scotland with Finnish influences - so overall the mix, culturally and musically, is as broad as any label gets. Check out the double CD compilation Jar that came out last year for an overview of the Pickled Egg output. I don't know if I'm spoiling illusions or helping the image by saying that Pickled Egg is smaller than you think. Nigel Turner is Pickled Egg in its entirety, and he works so hard and seems so committed to his label that he is dearly beloved by many of the Egg brethren. The release of sonic adventures is masterminded from his house in Leicester. The eccentricity and work-ethic fit appropriately, the big ambitions... well, more attention paid by the press would be a helpful thing, the label doesn't have much funding so reliance on the genuine enthusiasm of writers like yourself is essential. I think the main thing is that being wholly independent and autonomous means he can support the work of weirdos like George and release the records entirely as the artists envisage them. It's definitely a cult label, and this year Pickled Egg will host the second annual Eggstock event in Leicester, an all-day event with as many of the label's artists performing, us included. Last year's was amazing.

What does the label want you to do to sell the record?

Nigel doesn't expect us to do anything more than we want really, he lets us take things at our own pace and in our own fashion. It's an invaluable respect which works both ways. We play at the Eggstock event, tour with other Pickled Egg artists, but really that's our own choice. If we don't want to play a gig, that's ok too. We're very lucky.

You use unusual and ancient instruments. What was the strangest instrument you used in your music? Where do you get your instruments, your tools?

The strangest instruments are probably just the found and made sounds, so perhaps the amplified sound of me scratching my carpet on "Week of Wonders" would be a strong contender, or the chair which becomes a drum on "Do You Know A Music" by the addition of reverb. Or maybe some cheap little toy, like my plastic bird whistle that's used on "Compass Song": it's a little yellow plastic bird, hollow inside, with a spout. You fill it with water and then blow, making it chirp. The last thing we recorded was a version of "Mother Nature's Son" for a Radio 1 Beatles special, and I ended up moving a piece of kitchen towel around some rice in a plastic bowl to get the right kind of hissing noise in the background. Some of our instruments are pieces I've owned for ages - like my Yamaha keyboard I got for Christmas 1988, when I was ten. It's still got a sticker on the side with my name on it. A lot of instruments are from toy shops, mail order companies and charity shops, ranging from funny whistles to the cymbala. Some are simply found or inherited, like our banjo which we were given as a banjo skeleton on condition we repair it and use it, or a Bontempi organ I found behind a sofa at a party last year. Anthony (my husband) and I keep our eyes open for such marvels wherever we go, and although we have some larger and more valuable pieces of equipment, we love oddities and novelties. For a long time I yearned for a percussion trolley like the kind we had at primary school, and now I have one, of sorts. We even made our own coconut hooves by sawing a coconut in half very carefully! This took a long time, but meant we could perform "Man Taking A Stroll" live with an extra comic dimension.

I'm struck again by how strongly, on some tracks, you conjure up the spirit of Minnesota band Low. And I remember how you told me you once tried to hand them a tape. Did you hear "The Great Destroyer"? To me, "The Great Destroyer" was very strange---Low trying to be the loudest band in the world.

I have all the Low records, including that one. There are some very powerful songs on that record, and a few which are a little so-so, veering towards indie rock. On the whole, I liked it, though I haven't played it that much. We get compared to Low, and although there are times ("Now You Want to Settle Down") when I have self-consciously cultivated that comparison, in general I don't think we are that similar, beyond the boy-girl harmony aspect, and a tendency towards minor keys. I think I sound far more like other people I'm influenced by, like Paul McCartney or Harry Nilsson. I also am aware that, especially live, Low are very much a guitar-led trio. Increasingly I'm becoming an electric piano-led singer of whimsy. I'm getting more like early Elton John! It's harder for me to listen to Low now than it was a few years ago, I'm self-conscious about picking up their style. I know Songs for a Dead Pilot, Secret Name, and Things We Lost in the Fire far better than the last few records. I think I also preferred them when I could see them live playing in a small pub in Manchester, and the tension was electrifying. I'm glad they have the success and recognition they deserve, but there is far less magic for me in hearing them play a large hall somewhere else.

Seaming To plays clarinet on your record. Does she also sing?

No, I thought it would be nice to get her to do something other than sing. You know, that's my territory, and she's such an amazing singer it would be terrifying to share it with her! I really love the sound of clarinet, and she's a brilliant musician, she studied at the Royal Northern College of Music here in Manchester. We did another track with her, a trad-jazz sounding song, something that would sound at home on the soundtrack to Cabaret. I'd love to collaborate with her again, but she's a very busy lady and in great demand from her other projects. I was particularly pleased about the texture made between clarinet, organ, cymbala and percussion on "Fabula", a combination I had never heard before but was curious about. For me there is a strangely eerie quality when they are heard together.

Are you touring behind the record?

We did a tour of Scotland and England late last year, with Nalle and A Hawk and a Hacksaw, which was great fun, especially as A Hawk and a Hacksaw are one of my favorite bands so to hear them for a week was a joy. There was wild dancing every night! We're hoping to tour a little more in England and Wales this year, and hopefully play some dates in Europe too.

If you could choose only one, what is your favorite record of all time?

I really can't answer that! I was talking about this question over lunch today, with Bev and Tim who play strings on the George records, and it's the kind of question that upsets musicians. There's no "all time" for opinion, it's hard to get outside blocks of 4 or 5 years - I can't say that what I like best now will have similar value for me in a couple of years. I shall just tell you what I've been listening to today instead: BBC Radiophonic Workshop compilations; the Raymond Scott Quintet; and Handwriting by Rachel's.

What was the first record you bought, and where did you buy it?

I remember it vividly. It was a cassette copy of "Give Me Your Heart Tonight" by Shakin' Stevens. I was about 5 years old and a big Shakin' fan. My mum and dad took me to WH Smith in Durham to choose a record. I listened to it in my room on a marvellous chunky-buttoned cassette recorder, sang all the songs and danced around. I still remember them all, with titles like "Bop-bop-boppity-bop". Shakin' wore a tuxedo on the front cover, and I though he looked very handsome, like James Bond.

In your opinion, what was the most overhyped thing in music in 2005?

I don't really know. I don't read music press much, don't listen to pop radio channels, don't watch music video TV... I hardly buy any new albums. Mainly I'm interested in things which are no longer new and being pushed into my viewpoint, but that I have to go and seek for myself. I find music press upsets me, music shops can make me weepy, it's upsetting to see all the talentless wonders being raved about sometimes, but not upsetting if I just forget about it and play my castanets or something! There are some appallingly bland things out there like James Blunt and Katie Melua that bother me, but really they're just dull biscuits for someone else's cup of tea. I don't know what was hyped really last year... maybe one of the worst crimes is so-called "jazz musicians" like Jamie Cullum who sound like Jamiroquai with a TV presenter's haircut bumbling their way through songs that were once lovely. I especially dislike this dinner jazz thing because I'd love to have a proper jazz band to sing with myself. We would perform "Sunny Side of the Street" and I would tap-dance and be very happy. Awful bands like Coldplay or Dido fill a vital role though, because without them all the people with no musical taste might turn up at our gigs, waving their lighters in the air and asking us to sign their tablature and chord books, which just wouldn't do.

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