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Maps
Article written by
Ged M - May 16, 2007
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Maps, in recorded form, is a one man band - James Chapman from Northamptonshire - though live he’s joined by Ben, Phil, Matt and Andy. His music is clearly influenced by the sound sculptors of the shoegazing movement but he’s just as interested in pure pop music; his Myspace page lists 57 influences, including My Bloody Valentine, the Postal Service, Animal Collective, the Beach Boys, Nick Drake and Shostakovich so the music of Maps doesn’t fit into any neat electronica box. Maps self-released three singles before being signed by Mute, on which label the new album ‘We Can Create’ and single ‘It Will Find You’ have just been released. We spoke to James Chapman before his prestigious ICA gig in April 2007.
SXP: Your EPs attracted much attention, you’ve signed to Mute, and the Guardian and other press are tipping you. You’re really making a name for yourself!
James: Yeah, it’s been really pretty awesome to read some of the stuff that’s been written. I never really thought it would happen because I’ve been making music for so long. When I started, I did it because I enjoyed doing it, I never thought anything would come if it. It’s a pretty surreal position to be in, but it’s a good one!
SXP: Were you in bands before or have you always made music on your own?
James: I was in a band when I was about 17 or 18 with some friends from around Northampton. We didn’t really do much, we just played locally, but I wrote the songs for that band and when we split up I carried on writing by myself. I kind of got into it that way.
SXP: Do you still live in Northampton?
James: I actually live in a little village between Wellingborough and Northampton called Earls Barton – I’ve lived there all my life. It’s a great place to work really because it’s so quiet. It’s quite different to being in London I guess.
SXP: Are there many outlets for music in Northampton?
James: We’ve got the Soundhaus, the Roadmender, a few other little venues and various pubs that put on an indie night. The Soundhaus and the Roadmender are the two main ones – we played the Soundhaus a couple of times, which was cool because it got all our friends down for the first time. It was a good experience!
SXP: And now you’re playing the ICA.
James: Yeah, it’s pretty mental!
SXP: I’m a bit suspicious of electronica, partly because I don’t like the trancey elements and it can be very self-indulgent. But while you might be using electronic instruments, there’s a really strong pop sensibility and irresistible melodies on your album.
James: It’s nice that you said the melodies are good because what I spend most time on is getting a strong melody - it’s really important. I start with the chords and try and get the best tune possible. It’s a pretty basic thing to say but I do spend ages trying to get that right. And then I think about the sounds I’m going to use and how I’m going to use beats and things.
SXP: Your influences [listed on the Maps Myspace page] go from post rock to 60s psychedelia and stuff like the Postal Service who have a strong sense of melody. And then there’s Shellac!
James: *laughing* Yeah, I just listen to loads of different kinds of stuff. It looks funny just reading that back. But I just listen to such a varied lot of different music. I just put everything down there that I could think of!
SXP: And stuff that you might not associate with Maps like Elliott Smith and Nick Drake.
James: They were both amazing songwriters. The whole album is really song-based, it just uses electronic elements. They are basically pop songs but I try to make it as interesting as possible and try and experiment a bit more to make people think: “I haven’t heard that sound before”.
SXP: Is it true that you recorded your album in your bedroom?
James: I recorded most of it, yeah. I actually went to Iceland for a bit and worked with Valgeir Sigurdsson. Some of the stuff was started from what I’d done. We added certain elements like strings and brass, maybe played with the beats and changed instruments. But there’s some stuff on the album that hasn’t changed much at all since my bedroom and there’s one track in particular, called ‘Glory Verse’, which we started from scratch; I just has the melody and chords. Hopefully it all turned out well.
SXP: Did you work in your bedroom out of necessity or choice?
James: It’s just the best way that I find to work. When I was in bands, you’d try writing with other people and I just found it wasn’t as productive, it wasn’t the best way I got results. It sounds quite sad but I just like being shut away on my own and just spending hours working through the night!
SXP: Will you be writing more in the studio now or go back home for the next record?
James: I’m already thinking about the next album. The way I work best is to start on my own and just experiment: maybe just go away somewhere to a wooden shack in the country or something! I’ve got ideas so I can’t wait to start working on the new album, which is kind of strange as this one isn’t even out yet! The next album might involve more live instruments but we’ll have to see how the songwriting progresses.
SXP: I’m looking forward to seeing how you perform the songs live. I went to a festival once and saw an electronica artist and at one stage I swear he left the stage for a piss with his laptop playing, and then wandered back for the end of the song to press a button to start the next one!
James: I saw a guy once and I thought he was checking his emails as he was playing! Sometimes there’s a fine line with laptop sets. I’m not slagging them off but when I started the live thing I always wanted to have a band. I think it’s more interesting for us playing and for the audience to see something different from the record. Even if they don’t like it, at least they’ll see a different side to Maps I guess! We still use a laptop with sounds we can’t recreate live but we play over it with a lot of live instruments: we’ve got two keyboards, guitar, bass and live drums so it’s a quite different sound.
SXP: You’ve got some really good but quite subtle samples on the album. ‘So Low So High’ has a sample of ‘Theme From A Teenage Opera’, and on ‘To The Sky’ there’s a sample of Sweeney’s Men, a fairly obscure Irish folk band.
James: The sample is from a track called ‘Willy O’Winsbury’ which is on a compilation I’ve got called Folk Troubadours. It’s the very first part of the song; it’s like a basic riff and it develops into more of a folky medieval love song I guess. But I just nicked the first part and it came together around that!
SXP: When you hear music, are you always actively listening for a part to sample? Or do you just stumble across things?
James: I never really thought about it before. But if I hear something in a club that I like, I often ask the DJ what it is and then perhaps take it home and listen to it. Some things do poke up at me and I think: “I’ll use that” but there’s other stuff that I have to spend a long time searching for. That’s the hard part of sampling, where you’re digging through records trying to find something fresh that no-one’s used before. But you can reverse it or muck around with it or something!
SXP: I understand that you were really inspired by shoegazing.
James: Yeah! Probably not the first time round but definitely now. Loveless is probably one of my favourite albums ever. There’s a lot of amazing stuff that was around at that time. Bands making amazing music that is timeless. Even stuff like Ride; I love Ride. Their album Going Blank Again is a great record, I’m not ashamed to say it!
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