The Brag

Belle & Sebastian
In It For Life
By Alasdair Duncan

A friend of mine, a big Belle & Sebastian fan, likes to tell a story about one night after a show, when she plucked up the courage to approach them and introduce herself. Many bands can be aloof and unfriendly in person, but not so the Scottish indie rockers, who ended up staying out late with her for a boozy night of pints and pool. Is that kind of fan interaction typical for the band, I wonder? “Yeah, it has happened quite a bit in the past,” drummer Richard Colburn tells me. “It obviously depends on the show and where you are and your schedule, but it’s not uncommon – especially if after the show you want to go do something else, rather than go back to your hotel. It’s always good to have an experience with people you don’t know when you’re away from home.”

According to Colburn, Belle & Sebastian’s gregariousness has gotten them into trouble in the past. “I’ve had a lot of phone calls from our tour manager at 4am saying ‘we’re on the bus and we have to get to the next show, where the hell are you?’ and I’ve just said ‘I’m not too sure… I’m in a bath’. If the tour manager sees anyone in the band heading out to a bar after a show, I’m sure he just puts his head in his hands and weeps.” Colburn assures me, though, that the band’s behaviour has improved over time. “We’re pretty conscientious now in terms of being in the right place at the right time, because we’ve seen the consequences when that doesn’t happen,” he says. “It can be quite major, and can really make a mess of everyone’s day.”

The four year gap between 2006’s The Life Pursuit and last year’s Write About Love is the longest break that Belle & Sebastian have ever taken between records; in fact, many fans were concerned that the group may have drifted apart permanently. I ask Colburn why the band took such a long hiatus, and if there was any one inciting event that made them decide to get back together and record again. “Well, at the end of 2006, we were coming off the biggest tour we’d ever done, and we were all feeling pretty tired and in need of a break,” he explains. “We thought we’d do that and would come back after a couple of months and see what was what, but that break just kept on extending itself.

“Stuart [Murdoch] had a couple of projects he wanted to do, and he took the opportunity to do them – and as time wore on we all just started doing other stuff,” he continues. “I think after a while we just realised we really had to get back [together], because if we didn’t it would have been too much time apart, and we would have gotten too wrapped up in the other things. I’m glad that point came.” Any fears that Belle & Sebastian may have disbanded can be put to rest; Colburn, in fact, sees the band as a life-long enterprise. “Belle & Sebastian is just the kind of thing that draws you back in no matter what you’re doing,” he says. “It’s a funny thing, it’s almost like there’s no other option. I’ve just got a feeling that we’ll be playing together forever.”

The arrangements on Write About Love are lush and luxurious, an attribute that’s been present in Belle & Sebastian’s music since 2003’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress, a collaboration with pop producer Trevor Horn. Colburn and the band credit Horn for opening their eyes to new ways of making music. “Working with him was the first time in the studio where our control was relinquished, and someone else took the reigns,” he tells me. “Up until then, we were used to calling all the shots in the studio, recording-wise and arrangement-wise. That was the first time that somebody questioned it all, saying, ‘well, why don’t you try this instead?’ That experience has definitely informed the two albums we’ve made since,” he says. “It was a transition, and it showed us that we could actually give up some control in the studio. We’ve gotten used to the idea of working with producers now.”

Before letting Colburn go, I feel compelled to ask about his curious absence during Belle & Sebastian’s performance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Drummer Questlove, from Fallon’s house band The Roots, filled in for him, leading some to speculate that there had been some sort of falling-out within the group. The reason, it turns out, is actually quite mundane. “That whole thing had to do with visas,” Colburn laughs. “I play with another band called Tired Pony and, in a nutshell, I had a two year visa organised to play shows with them in America, but they didn’t tell us until the last minute that, with that visa, I couldn’t legally go on television and play with another band! That meant no Jimmy Fallon for me,” he explains. “I was a bit put out that I was stuck in the audience for that show.”

What: Write About Love is out now
Where: The Metro Theatre
When: Wednesday March 9
More: The show at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday March 10 is sold out