“Properly, we actually didn’t imply to poison you.”
It’s a late August afternoon in England, and the three members of Saint Etienne try to offer some much-needed emotional assist over Zoom. I’ve simply confronted them with the truth that their latest determination to separate up is each untimely and ludicrous. And the truth that they’re bidding farewell to their followers with a wonderful get together report — “Worldwide,” the trio’s thirteenth album — is especially venomous.
“Oh, no. What have we completed to you,” says keyboardist Pete Wiggs with amusing.
“We undoubtedly wished to exit with an album that didn’t sound like a final report,” says keyboardist and creator Bob Stanley. “We had been additionally referencing our debut [1991’s “Foxbase Alpha”], with its upbeat sort of positivity. That was intentional.”
“I really feel this report would possibly make folks wish to return and relisten to our earlier work,” provides Sarah Cracknell, the band’s lead singer and co-songwriter. “There are such a lot of parts of what we’ve completed previously, that possibly they’ll go, ‘Yeah, I forgot about Saint Etienne.’ No less than that’s what I’m hoping for anyway.”
The band emerged within the early ’90s with a club-friendly cowl of Neil Younger’s “Solely Love Can Break Your Coronary heart,” however to name it a dance-pop act can be a disservice to the astonishing physique of labor it’s have amassed through the final 35 years. Sure, many Etienne hits depend on artificial beats and a sure European, late-night summer time glamour, however its mystique is equally knowledgeable by the pervasive nostalgia of Burt Bacharach and the cosmopolitan coolness of the ’60s soundtracks by John Barry and Lalo Schifrin.
On 1998’s “Good Humor,” helmed by the Cardigans producer Tore Johansson, the dreamy “Mr. Donut” appeared like a cross between the Seaside Boys and Dusty Springfield. The band’s haunting tribute to the Carpenters, “Downey CA,” appeared on 2000’s “Sound of Water” — an icy, melancholy confection, presumably essentially the most absolutely realized album of its profession. And its fastidious requirements of excellence have by no means wavered. “Dwelling Counties,” from 2017, included “Whyteleafe,” a syncretic gem of harpsichord-fueled baroque, electro bass traces and vocals that each cherish and recreate the delights of classic British pop. Final yr’s radical “The Night time” delved into an angelic strand of beatless ambient.
Why name it quits, then?
“We had been speaking about taking part in reside once more, which we haven’t completed shortly, and all of us agreed that we didn’t wish to go round in a transit van anymore as a result of we’re attending to a sure age and it’s not good for the joints,” explains Stanley. “I believe it was both me or Sarah who talked about the concept of quitting whereas we had been forward.”
“I used to be very a lot conscious of leaving our legacy intact,” agrees Cracknell. “That sounds actually wanky, I do know, nevertheless it looks like it’s the correct time for us. Personally, there’s nothing that I’m not pleased with about every part we’ve completed.”
The band is actually not alone in that evaluation. Its business success has been reasonable through the previous twenty years, however a digital gallery of British musical royalty seems on “Worldwide.” A duet with Haircut 100’s Nick Heyward, “The Go-Betweens” boasts the angular refrain of an ’80s radio anthem, whereas Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll lends his magic to the tribal bounce of “Take Me to the Pilot.” The brand new wave languor of “Two Lovers” was concocted in tandem with synth-pop wizard Vince Clarke.
“We didn’t actually know Vince till he did a remix for us,” says Stanley. “I dropped him a line to thank him, and we went for a curry. A beautiful bloke, and simple to get on with. Likewise, I ran into Nick Heyward at a Jewish e-book competition the place I used to be interviewing 10cc’s Graham Gouldman. Other than these two, we’ve recognized everybody else on the report for the longest time.”
The Saint Etienne universe is expansive by nature, and the band’s 13 albums are solely the tip of the iceberg. In the course of the previous decade, Stanley printed three music journalism books: one on the start of well-liked music, one other on its twentieth century apex and a newer one on the Bee Gees. Along with Wiggs — a childhood pal — but additionally on his personal, and with Saint Etienne, he has curated greater than two dozen compilations that span fom ’90s downtempo to early ’70s French chanson and the sounds of Liverpool within the second half of the ’60s.
“In the event you’re true to your self, your musical influences are going to come back out instantly in your songwriting or manufacturing work,” says Stanley. “The compilations are principally issues that we love, and it’s like a world that you could get into. The older we get, the extra we all know — so the world will get larger, I suppose. Nevertheless it undoubtedly suits all collectively.”
After which, in fact, there are the B-sides. Few bands have celebrated the idea of a B-side as an excuse to discover all kinds of indirect concepts and atmospheric impressions with the glee of Saint Etienne. Its output in that respect is monumental, and the group has produced virtually as many experimental sketches as common album tracks. A 2017 reissue marketing campaign of most of its data as double-CD units, and fan-club releases akin to 2008’s legendary “Boxette” — a four-disc assortment of obscurities — are a treasure trove.
“Rising up within the ’80s, there have been a number of British bands like China Disaster or the Teardrop Explodes that had a large hit, however on the B-side did extra experimental stuff,” explains Wiggs. “That’s what you are able to do on a B-side; you’ll be able to train your extra bizarre muscular tissues — and that’s one bizarre metaphor. Taking part in round within the studio is at all times enjoyable.”
“It’s a bit like doing one thing when nobody’s wanting,” provides Cracknell. “Like doing it in secret, isn’t it? Nobody goes to see this, however then they do. One in every of my favourite B-sides is the Jam’s ‘The Butterfly Collector.’”
I ask the members of Saint Etienne what it was concerning the previous ’60s data by Bacharach and Barry that captured their creativeness so vividly with their blissful melancholy as a everlasting state of being.
“Once you hearken to Bacharach or Lalo Schifrin, you consider a sports activities automobile driving by the Alps or one thing like that,” displays Stanley. “It’s very aspirational, however fairly intangible as effectively. It’s suggestive of the sort of world the place you wish to reside in. I bear in mind transferring right into a Thirties modernist flat and considering, ‘Oh no, I’m residing like John Barry now.’ It’s one thing that you simply wish to attain, however you don’t actually fairly know learn how to do it.”
“My dad wasn’t into music in any respect, however he randomly occurred to choose up an incredible collection of cassettes,” says Wiggs. “There was a Seaside Boys compilation, the debut album by Kate Bush, Simon & Garfunkel. I nonetheless love all of the moods in that sort of stuff.”
The band plans to observe the discharge of “Worldwide” with a farewell tour highlighting its best hits. Within the meantime, the members are starting to consider what life after Saint Etienne may seem like.
“I can’t actually assume previous the following yr and a half of doing reveals and stuff like that,” says Cracknell. “I take into consideration ridiculous issues like fostering cats, or reworking cottages in Italy. Perhaps I’ll write a e-book, or get again into appearing.”
“I’m doing a soundtrack that I want to complete,” says Wiggs. “It will be good to do the odd EP right here and there, DJing and writing music below totally different names.”
“I’ve nonetheless bought two books that I’m contracted to write down in some unspecified time in the future — that’ll most likely take me to being 70,” laughs Stanley. “There’s an previous tramway that wants volunteers. And I at all times favored the concept of being a main college trainer earlier than all this took off. It will be good.”
