Tweet this

My Festival Feelings: Ralfe Band

Gareth Main

For some, the best music in the world is library music, there’s a quote somewhere about how, “once you’ve understood library music, you’ll never be able to listen to any other type of music again.” It’s almost a curse, but it is also a blessing to recognise the unjustified hype around “experimental electronic music” ofthe like that gets Fuck Buttons and LCD Soundsystem onto critics’ choice lists. Yes, Tarot Sport and Sound of Silver are amongst the most overrated records the last decade spawned, and, The John Baker Tapes and Science Fiction Dance Party are amongst the best, it’s just that pretty much nobody has noticed yet.

There are few artists that can make the crossover between composing for the consumer market and for the screen, but the end of 2009 saw the release of acclaimed indie film ‘The Bunny & the Bull’, with music composed by the criminally underrated Ralfe Band, the band whose first record ‘Swords’ left John Peel befuddled in his last days to say “it’s difficult to tell who they’ve been listening to,” nothing other than the highest praise from the only man to truly love nearly all music.

Like ‘Swords’ and its successor ‘Attic Thieves’, the Ralfe Band’s soundtrack to ‘The Bunny & the Bull’ is influenced by nothing other than the surreal ideas swirling around in Oly Ralfe’s head. Its uniqueness and kooky journeys into uncharted waters have yet to find a place in the wider consciousness, perhaps due to their debut being released on Brighton dance label Skint , home of Fatboy Slim and X-Press 2, a theory Oly doesn’t quite acknowledge but to say that they, “don’t seem to fit in with any label or scene,” which is territory criminally few artists these days seem to occupy.

Even a friendship with The Mighty Boosh and multiple cameos in the television show, most notably as the pub band in The Legend of Old Gregg, hasn’t managed to propel the band into the public eye, and with a third long-player proper on the horizon, those who notice will have a fresh insight into the wonderful world of the Ralfe Band.

TFF sat down with Oly whilst travelling between his multiple bases in London, Berlin and Oxford to delve deeper.

How did you come to compose the music for The Bunny & the Bull?

I got invited by the music supervisor to do a demo to a couple of scenes. He and the Paul the director thought I could be right. The demo worked out, and I got the job.

How did you go about writing and producing the music?

We watched the film, and then wrote new tunes or adapted old ones to fit. Sometimes I’d sit and watch the scene and play along on the piano, silent movie style, or write something in response to it the next day. There wasn’t a lot of time for chin scratching, we just had to go on instinct and run with ideas. Paul the director came over and responded to what we’d done and it progressed from there. It was recorded mostly in a room in a big house last winter.

Your music tends to have cinematic qualities to it as it is, was there much difference in approaching this music to writing an album? Was it simply easier to find inspiration in what is on screen to conjuring something in your head?

It was different to have to respond to what was on screen rather than what’s in my head. It’s mainly instrumental music so that’s an obvious difference to my albums. An album can be quite exposing if it’s honest, and the soundtrack didn’t really pose quite that issue, so in a way it was quite relaxing. But it is still emotional music.

Were there any particular influences in the writing of it? Did you look towards other soundtracks, library and incidental music for influence?

There was no particular influence really, I just wanted to create something unique, and it was a big opportunity. There’s a European, rather than British flavour to the film so I was inspired to bring that out. I also wanted to avoid standard film music techniques of using a lot of strings or trip hop beats that you hear in films. I’ve always written instrumental music, which helped. I really like film music; I’d distinguish it from library music as it’s more of an art form. Compared to pop, film music isn’t defined by the three-minute song. It’s a much more open book, linked to classical music and sound design. I love the romance of the cinema and the part the soundtrack plays in that. Ultimately film music is there to serve the whole but there are soundtracks that work in their own right like Bernard Herman’s soundtrack to Hitchcock’s Vertigo or Morricone’s soundtrack to Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West. And I like 60’s rock soundtracks to films like Antonionoi’s Zabriskie Point. Recently I’ve listened to the soundtrack to Mulholland Drive as well, a weird trip. There’s a lot of great film music out there.

There were three years between the release dates of Swords and Attic Thieves, but the working period between Attic Thieves and Bunny & the Bull was just a year, was the process rushed at all, and will the next LP be coming as quickly?

It was pretty rushed doing the soundtrack after Attic Thieves. I’m now working on a new album. I’m actually getting on with something at the moment. I’m working quickly. Attic Thieves took a while to put together and then a while to get out, that’s something I want to avoid now. The film soundtrack was good because it had momentum. Life is short so I’m trying to keep that momentum up. I used to think the latest thing I do will be the last thing I do, but maybe that’s just a lack of confidence.

Do you prefer going to festivals as an artist or a punter?

I remember thinking when I was younger that I decided I wanted to keep going to festivals if I could perform somehow. I like festivals but it’s a shame people have to pay so much for them, especially when most of the smaller artists get paid sod all. I don’t particularly like being enclosed by fences and people in shiny yellow jackets either. I think the smaller, intimate festivals are better.

What has been your favourite festival experience?

We played in Istanbul that was memorable. All the punters were sitting on rugs. I got lost for hours in Istanbul the night before the gig, It’s a long story involving two streets with the same name, a frightening taxi driver, a police van. We played before Morcheeba of all people, it was a weird couple of days.

Do you tend to stick around at the festival or do you leave once you've played?

I’ve always liked watching the good acts. I’ve managed to see some legends in the last few years, from Leonard Cohen to Bjork, people I wouldn’t pay to see normally but who were great.

Are there any festivals you'd like to play but haven't?

Maybe Latitude, the more artistic eclectic ones and little intimate ones in beautiful settings.

What would be your perfect festival - setting, audience and line-up?

A festival on a Japanese mountain with William Burroughs doing spoken word and Thelonious Monk jamming with Billie Holiday. Kraftwerk in the dance tent. And there could be a bordello tent with the ghost of Eric Satie playing the piano. And Captain Beefheart could headline the whole thing. No fence.