Their first album, appropriately titled A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation, was arranged more simply, with most songs revolving around guitar, bass and drums. With their second album, This Modern Glitch, The Wombats changed things up by adding a synth (or four) to most of the tracks, producing a more upbeat, dance sound. Their 2015 release continues that trend, but at the same time Glitterbug represents new territory for The Wombats. Beat interviewed bass player Tord Øverland Knudsen, who says the band was more comfortable now with their adapted sound.
“On This Modern Glitch we ‘found’ synths in a way,” he says, “but we didn’t really know how to use them. This time around, we’ve learnt how to maneuver them properly and [we’ve] gone into more detail on using them.” He attributes their refined sound to experience, labelling their new album as more professional.
“We’ve tried to find the one sound that would do the job instead of having three sounds running at the same time. It’s a bit more stripped back in that sense.” While their second albumwas recorded in LA, The Wombats headed back to the motherland to record this latest release, recording demos of the tracks in Liverpool, where they’re based. “We did most of the stuff there. We spent days making them sound good.” That explains why The Wombats are credited as co-producers of the album. “If you listen to the demo versions and the final versions, they sound pretty similar. The final version sounds maybe 20 per cent better, so a lot of the production work was done before going into the studio.”
Although the album was a move away from LA logistically, the city’s influence is still recognisable in the lyrics of the album’s songs. Lead singer and songwriter, Matthew Murphy, claims the album is inspired by LA, but to Knudsen, the city was initially confronting. “LA to me is probably one of the strangest, weirdest places in the world. It’s the least realistic place in the world. It’s detached from everything else that’s happening.” Despite never wanting to live in LA, Knudsen says he eventually got used to it. “After spending months and months there recording our second album, I started to really like it. I started to know where’s good to go for food and nice bars where you can get to know people. I think it’s a great place to record and spend time.”
Another country with an unexpected influence on the album is Japan, where Knudsen purchased the keyboard that features heavily in tracks like lead single Your Body Is A Weapon.
“I went to Japan and I bought a Roland Juno 60, so that had a big impact on the sounds on the record. We ran that through an amp and loaded up some pedals. We really played around with sounds more than we’d ever done before on Glitterbug.”
The bass sound has evolved over The Wombats discography, too, although Knudsen says he hasn’t changed his gear. He says the bass comes across differently, because of the presence of synths. “The bass was a lot louder in the mix on the first album because it was more of an honest sound.” But he’s careful to add, “There are moments on this album where it comes to life a little bit more.”
BY MAT DROGEMULLER
