Belle & Sebastian’s new record, “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” is a strong release from the Scottish band. However, with the new album arose many new challenges for the now well-established indie music makers. Recently, Tablet got a chance to talk to keyboardist, David Geddes, who shed some light on the making of the new record and the growth of the band.
Over the years, Belle & Sebastian have evolved substantially—they lost major members when Stuart David went off to form Looper with his wife, and Isobel Campbell went off to start her own project as well. Meanwhile, they went from being an indie band with a cult following to having a respectable amount of commercial success. Throughout, Belle & Sebastian has struggled as a band and David even remarked that the “last couple of records were a bit difficult to get finished.”
Commercial success brought with it a stronger pressure to perform than they previously had. They were also given a larger budget for the recording process, but also knew they’d have to make a successful record to recoup the costs. David explained, “It cost a lot of money to make ‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress,’ so we knew it would have to do pretty well.”
Despite having a larger budget, recording the album was a much more focused and streamlined effort than records they completed in the past. David said, “Being in the studio where a lot of things were going on was quite exciting; not a lot of time watching videos or playing Pac Man.” This precision gave them more time to fine tune things that worked, rather than struggling with getting the basics down as they had done before. He continued, “We wanted to do a record where we were well prepared going into the studio,” which was one of the things that really boosted the band’s productivity during the recording. Because of this, they were able to schedule large pieces of production in continuous blocks, whereas before it was often a very random, choppy process. On earlier records, if they had any orchestral additions to bring into the sound, they would bring in players periodically until they got the sounds they wanted. This time they brought in the string section for three days in a row and were able to get everything recorded within that time. Hammering out large portions of the production with few interruptions also allowed instant feedback on how the tracks were sounding.
In many ways, “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” represents a turn for the better and is a brand new experience for the band. The process really made Belle & Sebastian emerge as a much tighter music machine and they were able to deliver a record where “everyone got to express themselves.” The creative expression of every band member has not only made for a superb release, but the band as a cohesive unit is poised very well for the future and are very happy with the finished product.
Belle & Sebastian perform live in Seattle on May 5 at the Paramount.
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