Naked on the Vague interview by Chris Downton

Multi-instrumentalist duo Lucy Cliche and Matthew Hopkins, otherwise known as Naked On The Vague, have cast a distinctive presence over the past couple of years amongst Sydney’ burgeoning experimental/improvisational music community, at a time when there’ seemingly more interest in those genres than ever, thanks to the efforts of high-profile practitioners Wolf Eyes and Black Dice.

While last year’ limited-run Sad Sun EP on Sabbatical showed the duo successfully capturing the enveloping and frequently jarring/confrontational energy of their live shows to disc, their debut album Blood Pressure Sessions sees them applying their energies to a considerably broader canvas, with arguably more finely honed and developed results. While Naked on the Vague’s (NOTV) established penchant for noise-based elements and industrial atmospheres is certainly apparent amidst the churning Throbbing Gristle-esque nauseous synths of tracks such as opener “Old Leader’ however, merely tagging them as a noise/No Wave act does them a considerable disservice, with the presence of elements unmistakeably drawn from both pop and psychedelia amongst the album’ nine tracks hinting at a far broader aesthetic at work.

When I get the opportunity to chat with NOTV’ Lucy Cliche, I’m particularly keen to find out more about the events that led her and Matthew to first start working on music together, and that would eventually lead to the formation of the Naked On The Vague partnership. From Lucy’ description of events, it certainly appears that happy accidents played just as much of a role as any pre-meditated concerns in this specific instance.

“We never planned to start a band together, but a series of events led to the birth of NOTV,” Lucy explains. “I had just come back from overseas and moved into a big house with room to store my friend’ drum kit, found an organ on the street, and then some jams started happening between Matthew, me and some other friends. Matthew already had a band called Vincent Over The Sink with his friend Chris, and they were asked to tour to Brisbane with Kiosk and the Grey Daturas, and it so happened Chris couldn’ make it to Brisbane, so Matthew decided to teach me the drums to some Vincent songs so Brisbane would still happen…but being a crap drummer I could only remember a few songs, so I decided to bring some keyboard songs I’d been working on into the mix. So we went to Brisbane as an unnamed band, a ramshackle mix of drums, bass and keys. It was fun. We decided to become a band, and Naked On The Vague was born from a Vincent Over The Sink lyric.”

I mention to Lucy that one of the first things that particularly struck me upon listening to Blood Pressure Sessions and indeed the band’ preceding Sad Sun EP, was the fact that I was continually picking out traces of different musical influences in there with each listen; some parts coming from more aggressive noise/industrial backgrounds, and at other times more unexpectedly gentle and almost veering towards twisted psychedelic pop structures. I also suggest that NOTV have deftly sidestepped the trap often inherent amongst the noise genre – that of numbing the listener with unrelenting harshness and textural aggression.

“Yes, I think you are spot on with your interpretation about our genre influences,” Lucy confirms. “We both listen to a lot of music… and I think it all has an influence on what we are doing. That said, I’ve read a few reviews, which reference us to bands I haven’ heard… I think the music of some of our peers such as Lakes, Castings and Fabulous Diamonds has influenced early Naked On The Vague, just as much as say Swans, Joy Division, or Brian Eno. Would you be surprised if we said that the Flying Lizards are a major influence?

“I guess we never set out to be a noise band, and that element of aural harshness isn’ something we specifically aspire to”, she continues. “We did want a changing dynamic on the album, and didn’ want it to be all “same, same, same’, like an adventure through a dark psychedelic underworld. We were keen to break up the darkness, with the pop elements in the music, which also helps to avoid the “noise’ trap. Even some of the improv/live-recorded material gets a good going over, often extra vocal and percussion parts are added to give something like a rhythm. Also sections of the structured songs that descend into textural aggression and harshness are planned, and allowed for, often repeated and re-recorded if they don’ fit with the other more “traditional’ elements of the song.”

When I enquire about the duo’ priorities when approaching the recording sessions for Blood Pressure Sessions, Lucy’ explanation gives the strong impression of a band increasingly honing its creative focus as times goes on.

“We went into recording Blood Pressure… with a really clear idea of what we wanted, which was an album that really reflected both our “pop’ oriented live “songs’, and the psych/ noise recording experiments we were just beginning to work with,” Lucy replies. “Doing a recording of just the song-based material, or something that was only improv/noise jams or whatever, did not seem to make sense. Older “pop song’ structured tracks such as “Horse He’ Sick’, “Lonely Boys’, and “All Aboard’, tracks that we have always worked around live, had never been documented. So the focus was to get them down, then spend time adding the other psych/jam style element.

“Sad Sun did influence Blood Pressure… in the sense that recording Sad Sun was presented to us as an opportunity by the Sabbatical label, to record some new and more experimental material. We wrote all of the songs on Sad Sun exclusively for that recording. It was great, because I think Matthew and I had both felt a bit daunted by recording an album, and Sad Sun kind of liberated us a bit to feel more free about recording an album of our older stuff, and also renewed some faith in studio recording – something we’d been suspicious of previously. That said, we did end up recording much of Blood Pressure… ourselves.”

I’m also curious to find out whether Lucy personally detects any particular lyrical themes recurring as touchstones throughout Blood Pressure’ nine tracks, given that somewhat loaded titles such as “Old Leader’ rear their heads amongst the tracklisting.

“Yes, we definitely get influenced by ideas and moods, which we channel into our music,” she confirms. “”Old Leader’ is pretty much a protest song about leaders (political, religious, other bullshit artists, etc), so that “protest’s vibe led to us taking out the guitar and drums. Also, other songs are much less literal or political and are more concerned with a general mood, for example, “Horse He’ Sick’ is a song about modern day malaise, the swamp of apathy which we are caught in, the sickness, the swirling headache, the nausea… I guess at the time of recording there seemed to be, and still is, so much mounting pressure in the world. Much violent threat on a global scale. This, mixed with a kind of tongue-in-cheek nihilism about our own frustrations and failures as artists is the definite mood.”

When I ask Lucy whether much of NOTV’ writing process for songs is based around improvisation during recording/rehearsal sessions, or alternately, the duo entering the studio with clearly preconceived ideas already in mind, Lucy indicates that both creative approaches in fact play complementary roles in the gestation of NOTV’ music.

“It’s definitely a bit of both. Sometimes songs just appear to us like magic, through jamming, and then others we really work on, and bring different parts together to form a song. The “Brown Sun/Sydney Lane Road’ song was an entirely improvised jam, which I don’ think we could repeat if we tried. Also, rather than practising and recording a song, then performing it live, we seem to do the opposite and figure out its final form by playing it live for a while, then going in to record it, where it always changes, then appears live again entirely different.

“The only definite is either a strong bass part, keyboard part, or lyric that one of us has invented. Entering into a practice is always loose, confusing and full of blood pressure boiling frustration! We have both tried to work hard separately on an entire structured idea for a song, then bring that to practice, but it never seems to work, Naked On The Vague seems to be some sort of vehicle for tormented spirits or something. The work of something else…

“I think in our live performances we always change what we are doing slightly; as that’s the way we finalise songs, so there is always that element of improvisation there,” Lucy continues. “It’s essential. In the recordings we have layered the sounds much more than is possible when playing live, we just don’ have enough hands to make possible what is happening in the recording, which we have come to realise is perhaps the challenge. We have only done one show in support of the album so far, and by the time this has gone to print we will have done another in Melbourne. The Sydney album launch went well, despite the sound being a bit off at that particular venue. I was surprised by just how many people came out to support us. We’re heading to the USA on a big tour in March, April and May to support the release of this album, playing loads of shows, driving in a big loop around most of the country.”

As our conversation turns towards more localised themes involving various venues, I suggest to Lucy that being a Sydney-based band, NOTV are certainly operating in something of a thriving epicentre of fellow-minded experimental and improvisation-based bands – does this sort of creative situation have both its advantages and disadvantages?

“Yes, there are so many good bands/artists coming out of Sydney at the moment! I only wish there were some more solid venues for bands like ours to play in. That is the main disadvantage – no long-running venues that house experimental/non-rock type stuff. This is also a disadvantage, as it eliminates the ability for great Australian artists to exchange with interstate and international acts. After both of us spending some time overseas, seeing lots of music, it is obvious that what is happening currently musically in Sydney, is world class, but this suffers severely due to establishment problems.

“No one else would even consider us at the time Dual Plover released our 7”. As a label, Dual Plover seem to share similar concerns with us in the way seemingly opposites can be bundled up together, and work. I think the fact that a band like us, can tour reasonably successfully with someone like Kevin Blechdom, slams faith into Dual Plover’ relentless, chaotic pursuit of diversity in art.”

In closing, I return to Lucy’ earlier remarks about NOTV’ planned upcoming US tour, particularly in regard to the Stateside vinyl release of Blood Pressure Sessions through US independent label Siltbreeze during March. Is this a listening audience that she and Matthew are increasingly keen to concentrate on in the near future?

“This will be a great way to spread it out amongst the listening audience there. Most of the interest we have had so far has been from America, and much of the music we are both listening to at the moment exists over in the “land of the brave and free’. We are particularly keen to try our hands in the USA rather than say, Europe. We are very excited about being able to play in parts of America other than just the major cities. If you’re from America reading this, and are interested, invite us to your town!”

Naked On The Vague’ Blood Pressure Sessions is available now through Dual Plover.