The Clientele Podcast

In the final episode of The Clientele Podcast, host Robin Allender talks to singer and guitarist Alasdair MacLean again, this time focussing on songwriting. It's a chance for Alasdair to look back at the early days of the band and talk about learning to play the guitar and write music. It's a very Beatles-heavy episode, but Robin and Alasdair also talk about Madness, Boards of Canada, Burial and Subway Sect, and many other musicians who helped Alasdair to develop and expand his songwriting. There is also some chat about music theory, particularly relating to chord progressions, and the idea of songwriting being a combination of technical understanding and instinct.

Also, what connects The Clientele and The Great British Bake Off? Have a listen to find out!

For more Beatles chat, here's Alasdair on Your Own Personal Beatles:

https://play.acast.com/s/personalbeatles/alasdsair-maclean

Some other songs and albums that are mentioned in this episode...

Red Deer by Tom James Scott:

https://tomjamesscott.bandcamp.com/album/red-deer

The Cloud of Unknowing by James Blackshaw:

https://youtu.be/aWhLctzLD9g?si=BIuWs1dA8daGI8ZZ

Phantom Brickworks by Bibio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WbHLIm8kDs

Robin here (I don't know why I write these in the third person): Just wanted to say thank you so much for listening to this podcast series, and thanks to The Clientele for asking me to make it! Thanks also to Johnny White, Dave Collingwood, Max Tundra and Ruth Tebby for their help and support.

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In Part 2 of Episode 9 of The Clientele Podcast, Robin Allender talks to multi-instrumentalist Mel Draisey. Following a hopeful MySpace message back in 2006, Mel was asked to join The Clientele and immediately embarked on a US tour which culminated in the recording of the God Save The Clientele album in Nashville. She also appears on, and wrote arrangements for, Bonfire on the Heath – adding vocals, piano, violin, drones and much more. Her contributions, particularly her beautiful voice, are really key elements of the band's sound during that period.

Mel also appears on the (brilliant) EP That Night, A Forest Grew and the mini-album Minotaur.

You can follow Mel on Twitter, to keep up to date with her ongoing musical projects:

https://twitter.com/Mel_Draisey

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This week it's a bumper edition of The Clientele Podcast, as Robin Allender speaks to three former members of The Clientele: original drummer Dan Evans, guitarist and songwriter Innes Phillips, and multi-instrumentalist Mel Draisey. As such, this episode has been divided into two parts. In this part you can hear Robin's chats with Dan and Innes, and in Part 2 (which should be next up in your podcast feed), you can the interview with Mel.

It's definitely worth checking out Tomorrow is Again by The Relict, a beautiful collection of Innes's songs, and a key part of The Clientele's discography:

https://therelict.bandcamp.com/album/tomorrow-is-again

Held in Glass, the song Innes mentions, is sung by Abigail Marvell.

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This week on The Clientele Podcast, Robin Allender talks to his good friend Kate Connolly, who introduced him to the band! Kate is hugely passionate about music and has followed the band from the start, so it's an illuminating conversation about what the music of The Clientele means to their fans. Robin and Kate also talk about Gravenhurst and the similarities between Nick Talbot's songwriting and Alasdair's.

Alasdair MacLean performing The Age of Miracles at Union Chapel for Daylight Music (a gig put on by Kate):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFp0SB1foW0

Animals by Gravenhurst:

https://youtu.be/j-bQBlZgU8g?si=H8ymkFF60w9cAskU

Interview with Alasdair in Our Culture:

https://ourculturemag.com/2023/07/28/the-clientele-i-am-not-there-anymore-interview/

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This week on The Clientele Podcast, Robin Allender is joined by the Australian author and critic Anwen Crawford. Alongside the music of The Clientele, they discuss Sinéad O'Connor, Broadcast, Burial, the 00s blogosphere – and cricket. Anwen has recently published No Document, an extraordinary book, fragmentary, part memoir and part elegy; and Robin and Anwen talk about its similarities to The Clientele's new album, I Am Not There Anymore.

Anwen's website:

https://demandspopular.net/

Anwen's recent blogpost, which mentions The Violet Hour (and the podcast!):

https://www.fridayjukebox.com/selections/phantom-folk

Anwen's review of Music for the Age of Miracles:

https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2017/october/1506780000/anwen-crawford/another-summer-s-night#mtr200

Backlisted episode which discusses No Document in the introduction:

https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/170-elizabeth-gaskell-north-and-south

24 Hour Theory People: Mark Fisher and the blogosphere:

https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/essay/mark-fisher-blogosphere/

Ian Penman on The Beatles:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n12/ian-penman/four-moptop-yobbos

The extract from T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone, which I (Robin) was struggling to remember!

One Thursday afternoon the boys were doing their archery as usual. There were two straw targets fifty yards apart, and when they had shot their arrows at one, they had only to go to it, collect them, and shoot back at the other, after facing about. It was still the loveliest summer weather, and there had been chicken for dinner, so that Merlyn had gone off to the edge of their shooting-ground and sat down under a tree. What with the warmth and the chicken and the cream he had poured over his pudding and the continual repassing of the boys and the tock of the arrows in the targets—which was as sleepy to listen to as the noise of a lawn-mower or of a village cricket match – and what with the dance of the egg-shaped sunspots between the leaves of his tree, the aged man was soon fast asleep.

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This week on The Clientele Podcast, host Robin Allender talks to the American writer Audrey Golden. Audrey is a longtime fan of The Clientele and talks about hearing Suburban Light for the first time, seeing them live in a small venue, and interviewing Alasdair recently about the new album. Audrey has recently published her first book I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records, an oral history of the legendary label.

Audrey Golden's website, from which you can order I Thought I Heard You Speak:

https://www.audreyjgolden.com/

Audrey's interview with Alasdair on Louder Than War:

https://louderthanwar.com/the-clientele-interview-with-alasdair-maclean/

This is the first of three episodes in which Robin speaks to fans of the band. Next week's episode will be a discussion with the Australian writer Anwen Crawford.

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This week on The Clientele Podcast, Robin Allender talks to singer and guitarist Alasdair MacLean about his lyrics and literary influences. They discuss Alasdair's brilliant collection of lyrics, Exhaust Fumes, Magnolias and Light, and the spoken word Clientele songs ‘Losing Haringey’, ‘The Green Man’ and ‘The Museum of Fog’.

In the episode, Alasdair mentions The Clientele beer, which is called Conjuring Summer In and is brewed by Ocelot Brewing Company:

http://ocelotbrewing.com/

P. S. Someone on Twitter jokingly asked for a reading list for a previous episode so I thought I’d make a note of all the books mentioned in this episode!

Jealousy, Alain Robbe-Grillet

Gradiva, Wilhelm Jensen

Ulysses, James Joyce

The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot

Exhaust Fumes, Magnolias and Light, Alasdair MacLean

‘Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge’, Jorge Luis Borges

The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper

The Owl Service, Alan Garner

Astercote, Penelope Lively

The Mabinogion 

The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

The Good Apprentice, Iris Murdoch

Red Shift, Alan Garner

Create Dangerously, Albert Camus

‘Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote’, Jorge Luis Borges

Scarp, Nick Papadimitrou

‘Axolotl’, Julio Cortazar

The Dedalus Book of Surrealism: The Identity of Things

The Hand of Fatima, Georges Limbour

Nadja, André Breton

Paris Peasant, Louis Aragon

Last Nights of Paris, Philippe Soupault

‘Free Union’, André Breton

A Cornish Childhood, A. L. Rowse

The poetry of Joë Bousquet, Robert Desnos and Paul Éluard

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This week on The Clientele Podcast, Robin Allender talks to the band's drummer Mark Keen. Mark talks about joining The Clientele, playing live, and how his drumming complements the band's delicate sound. He also talks about his beautiful piano compositions, including the Lyra pieces on Music for the Age of Miracles and the Radial pieces on I Am Not There Anymore.

Mark has an extraordinary story about the song 'Conjuring Summer In' and this episode ends with his original demo of the song.

'Another summer's night', Anwen Crawford's review of Music for the Age of Miracles:

https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2017/october/1506780000/anwen-crawford/another-summer-s-night#mtr

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In Episode 2, host Robin Allender continues his chat with Alasdair MacLean and James Hornsey as they give him a track-by-track guide to The Clientele's new album I Am Not There Anymore. The discussion touches on production, equipment, recurring lyrics, and the album as an 'emotional autobiography'. Along the way, Alasdair talks about the influence of the writers Alan Garner and Susan Cooper.

Interview with Alasdair on Our Culture by Konstantinos Pappis:

https://ourculturemag.com/2023/07/28/the-clientele-i-am-not-there-anymore-interview/

Louder Than War interview with Alasdair by upcoming guest Audrey Golden:

https://louderthanwar.com/the-clientele-interview-with-alasdair-maclean/

Recommended Backlisted episodes:

Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones: https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/55-diana-wynne-jones-fire-and-hemlock

Red Shift by Alan Garner: https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/31-alan-garner-red-shift

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper: https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/127-susan-cooper-the-dark-is-rising

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