Wie eine Oase der ganz besonderen Art präsentierte sich am diesjährigen Pfingstwochenende der Garten der Glitterhouse-Villa am Weserufer des kleinen Städtchens Beverungen. Labelvater Rembert Stiewe und die Seinen hatten wieder einmal zum vielleicht schönsten Gartenfest des Landes geladen. Vom exzellenten Wetter (den gefühlt einzigen sonnigen Tagen in diesem Mai) über das größtenteils entspannte und musikbegeisterte Publikum bishin zu den angenehm unkomplizierten Einlasskontrollen sollte an diesen Tagen für so ziemlich alles, was das Festivalherz begehrt, gesorgt sein. Sogar das Fressbudenangebot konnte mit dem katerfreundlichen Fischstand ein ganz spezielles Highlight aufbieten, während sich all die üblichen, nervigen Sponsorenmaßnahmen nahezu vollkommen auf das überdimensionale Banner eines bekannten Outdoorbekleidungsherstellers am Balkon der Villa beschränkten.
Was ein Festival im Endeffekt aber nun einmal stehen und fallen lässt, sind natürlich die Musiker und auch hier konnte das Orange Blossom Special mit einem feinen und ausgewogenem Line Up irgendwo zwischen derbem Rock und sanften Folktönen brillieren. Neben vielen noch relativ unbekannten Newcomern und einigen großen Namen wie Kante oder aber den dänischen Radiohead-Epigonen von Kashmir waren es natürlich auch diesmal wieder die klassichen Glitterhouse-Acts, die an diesem Wochenende für echte Höhepunkte sorgten. Neben Wovenhand, die den Festivalfreitag mit einer energiegeladenen, manischen Predigt passend zum Sonnenuntergang in Düsternis tauchten sind hierbei natürlich ganz besonders Savoy Grand hervorzuheben. Die als “Gods Of Thunder” angekündigten, britischen Stoiker beschlossen am Sonntag nicht nur das diesjährige Orange Blossom Special sondern auch ihre von AUFTOUREN präsentierte Tour zum aktuellen Album “Accident Book“. Während ihres Auftritts hatten sie zwar nicht nur mit dem Geplapper des nach drei ereignisreichen Tagen etwas zu ausgelassenen Publikums zu kämpfen, sondern auch mit der Technik. Am Ende triumphierten sie aber wieder einmal über alle Hindernisse hinweg als konsequenteste Zauderer und unangefochtene Könige der Langsamkeit, die das Festival auf die denkbar würdevollste Art zum Ausklingen brachten.
Auch wenn Interviews ganz offensichtlich nicht zu dessen Lieblingsbeschäftigungen gehören, ließen wir uns kurz zuvor die Chance nicht nehmen, einige Worte mit Bandkopf Graham Langley zu wechseln:
It’s your third time at Orange Blossom Special, do you have a special relationship to this festival?
Well, obviously it’s Glitterhouse and we’ve always really enjoyed it. It’s great, it’s just the right size. It’s a really a good thing to do, so we are always very glad when we get asked.
You’re more popular in Germany than in the UK. You even only toured here this year. What is this special relationship about? Is it also about Glitterhouse, who support you so much?
I suppose, it’s the way things have turned out. When our first record came out in the UK, Glitterhouse heard it and wanted to put it out in Germany. Then we got some good press and it was just the way that it goes. We had always something to build on. And because we don’t do this for living, we all have dayjobs and limited time to put into touring, we always concentrated on Germany and so it is alway built up here and not elsewhere, which we’re going to try to fix someday, maybe.
There was such a long time between your last two albums. Was it just because of the regular jobs, you had to do or was it about the process of songwriting taking so long this time?
Both those things really. We all got dayjobs and all different things, so we can’t concentrate on it 100% in our everyday lifes. And writing our music does take quite a long time, because we work hard at it and we don’t really think things are finished until everybody is satisfied. Everytime we’ve put our record out, we say: “Let’s do the next one quickly, we took too long.”, and it’s the same thing now, but we will see how soon it will be to follow up again.
That is a fact, that, I think, expresses in the music. You feel every single sound so precisely placed and then you know, that it has to be a very long and hard work to do songs like these.
Yeah, I think, everything we do is based on our instincts and if it doesn’t feel right, we won’t push it and that is why things take so long. But I think, it works to the benefit of what we do, because it is always kind of genuine.
When you read about Savoy Grand, you will always find your music defined as Slowcore. What do you think about those definitions?
I find it funny, because it is slow and I sort of wonder where the core comes from, but you can’t just say slow music. I used to describe it as torch songs but no one really uses that term anymore. I always find these labels quite funny. I’m happy to get along with it. When people say: “Hey, what’s your band like?”, it’s a horrible question for me and so actually saying Slowcore could be the easiest way for me.
My next question is about the cover artwork of your last album, “Accident Book”. Somewhere I read, Savoy Grand are now in their pig-phase. What is it about whith this pig?
It is not really anything specific. Our last couple of sleeves were all kind of abstract and not really figurative at all and I just made a conscious decision that this time it has to be something living. Then I decided not a human, so obviously an animal. I started making lots of photos of animals but there was no intent, that it had to be a pig. I took pretty good pictures of a cow and some not so good of a sheep, so it could have been any of those.
You live in Nottingham, are you still involved in the local music scene there?
Well yeah, because it is small enough, that if you are making that kind of music we are, you definitely are involved with other vaguely like minded musicians. It is a very small town, there is a limited number of studios, limited places to rehearse, so everyone works together and shares rehearsal spaces. It’s really good in that respect. I lived in London for a couple of years and I found it just impossible to relax into a routine of working. London is great for writing songs but actually getting together with any other musicians is impossible.
You said, you share rehearsal space, do you work together on songs with other musicians too?
No, not so much with us, althoug it’s probably something I would like to do more of. People in the band do that more than me, but I tend to concentrate solely on Savoy Grand because I got limited time and it takes me so long to concentrate on songs. There are different sorts of side projects of the other guys in the band, but I at the moment just concentrate on this.
So, this will be the last concert of your tour. Do you have further plans for this year or the nearer future?
Next thing for us is to write new songs and record them as quickly as possible. We think, we’re going to put out some singles or EPs before we do a new album, but that’s always something to change. It’s our rough plan, but well, you don’t ever know what happens.
Das Interview entstand in freundlicher Zusammenarbeit mit Anke van de Weyer von Kölncampus und ist ebendort (Zeitpunkt noch nicht bekannt) im Originalton nachzuhören.
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