Bill Ryder-Jones is a quiet man/ He may have seemed to have a diminutive role in his previous band, The Coral, standing off to the side, with floppy hair covering sad eyes, quietly playing his guitar—a veritable George Harrison for the 90s British retro-pop set. Like Harrison, his quietness belied the fact that he was a superior musician, and a damn fine guitarist to boot. When he left the band in 2008, he too went silent; occasionally popping up here and there, infrequently putting a song fragment or two on his Myspace page, or turning up working with such folks as The Last Shadow Puppets, Alex Turner, and Graham Coxon. His interests led him to soundtrack work, scoring a number of short films. It wasn’t until this year, though, that he released anything officially; his debut EP, A Leave Taking Soundtrack, were songs taken from his work for the film Leave Taking. This form of composition inspired his debut album, If…, a unique soundtrack—not of a film, but of a book, Italo Calvino‘s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler.
I recently sat down and chatted with Bill via the wonders of the internet.
BT: When did you first read If On A Winter’s Night a Traveler? What was it that appealed to you?
BRJ: The book was a present from an ex girlfriend, I’m not really sure where i read it to be honest most likely in the bath or on some train station somewhere. The thing that popped out of the novel was the magic of inspiration and the almost impossible feat of handling that first burst of inspiration and mystique and making it last as long as possible but without giving way to just abstract shite, y’know. I often find with a book or film or piece of music that when it starts, if it grabs me then it takes on all your hopes and it’s the thing potential to live up to what you desire in some art that affects you and how because it has to be rounded off and finished that it never really lives up to what you’d hoped.
BT: Was there anything specific in the text that made you say, “This book needs a soundtrack!“
BRJ: Not really, to soundtrack a novel was something that seemed obvious to me and when I thought about which novel I’d like to do this one jumped out. Each chapter I’ve written for is meant to be a chapter from a different book that the protagonist in If On a Winter’s Night is reading, so it made the choice easy. Ten chapters and ten totally different concepts and therefore pieces of music really.
BT: In the book, there’s a split between the story and the telling of the story. Musically speaking, was there a split between who you were musically, apart from The Coral, and what you were expected to be? Do you feel like this dichotomy applies to you?
BRJ: I guess it does, though I’ve not really ever thought about it. There were differences between myself and The Coral musically but not great ones! Just things like I don’t really like doo-wop and 50s rock n roll, and I’m not sure if they enjoy classical music like I do. Nothing major and certainly nothing that drove us apart.
BT: The music of If… is very beautiful. The arrangements are grand, elegant, and epic, while maintaining a simplicity that doesn’t demand much of the listener. When vocals do appear, they feel less essential to the overall sound, and much more a musical flourish. On first listen, I had to stop to make sure I’d actually heard singing!
BRJ: Ha! Yeah that’s nice to hear; I’m glad of that. I’m not really a singer and I think that’s obvious, but i am a decent musician. I wasn’t thinking of singing or having an instrumental album at any time, I just felt like putting some words and vocals on some tracks, using as another instrument. The voice is no more important or emotion evoking than any other instrument to me i think. In fact, I think that very few people can affect me with their singing and even fewer can do for me what a well played violin can do.
BT: Do you see yourself wanting to break away from pop and be a straightforward composer?
BRJ: I think i have, yeah. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy pop music or think it’s beneath me it’s just I did that for a while, and now I’m not.
BT: You played on “Gently,” a recent Coral B-side.
BRJ: Well, “Gently” was an old demo we recorded years ago. James texted me, saying, “We’re putting ‘Gently’ out, hope that’s OK,” and I said, “yeah, sound good” and that was it really. I’m glad they did it, though. I’m not sure if it was an olive branch or anything but it’s a great tune that, always liked it.
BT: What are your plans for the future?
BRJ: I don’t really think about the future much; to be honest, i spend a lot of time thinking about the past. I guess I’ll make another album next year and hopefully work on some other projects, film scores being the obvious idea. I’m producing for my friends band at the moment, they’re called By The Sea. I like them, they’re the least pretentious band I’ve ever met, and it shows in their music.
