“I guess I kept my songs, riffs and lyric ideas around me over the last five years, and any time we’d get together socially we’d listen to records and talk, and three days later we’d say ‘Oh, aren’t we supposed to be playing?’” says frontman Tim Rogers. “So I thought if You Am I were going to make another record we should make one that shows off Andy and Russ’s rhythm section, more than anything, because I don’t think that’s been exacerbated before and I don’t think we’ve shown how amazing they are.”
Hopkinson let the folks know there was a week available at the studio he works at, so the band grabbed a bank loan, flew in and got to work. Rogers presented his songs, Lane and Hopkinson contributed a few, and from there it was, “four guys and a case of beer, with musical equipment in our hands and not a lot else. We just had to rely on imagination and Chutzpah.”
You Am I have always been a great four chord rock band, but on Porridge and Hotsauce the chord progressions often feel a little more explorative, a little more jazzy. “I explore a bit more when I write for myself or different combos – not for You Am I,” says Rogers. “We have a tendency to say, ‘Aw fuck it, it’s meant to be easy and let’s just put all of our enthusiasm into it.’ But I think there’s room to make this more diverse harmonically and melodically, for your own self-interest.
“I think it’s more challenging for yourself, and as long as it doesn’t become po-faced – because I think this band’s energy is its biggest strength. But if you can do something that’s stimulating to us creatively and, dare I say it, intellectually, that can only be a good thing. As long as there’s still a troglodyte edge to it.”
Despite fleshing out the arrangements on Porridge and Hotsauce, Rogers says the aim was to adorn the rhythm tracks with additional instrumentation without making them sound like adornments. “It’s a struggle. If you love four-and-a-half-chord rock’n’roll with some lies thrown in over the top, you want to be true to that. But each of us are attracted to pop music, orchestrated pop, but still wanting to represent what we are when we play night after night. We’ve got limited time in the studio and we can’t go nuts with that shit, so it’s almost like the strictness of the way we can record is beneficial. Thank Christ we only ever get eight or nine days in the studio otherwise Davey and I would still be there and we’d get Jeff Lynne to produce.”
Rogers is a compelling interview subject: thoughtful, considered and candid. But as eloquent as he is, it’s clear he’s more comfortable making music rather than talking about it.
“I prefer to live that rather than to talk about it. I only talk about it because it’s a way to make sense of it for myself. I think to live with optimism, and erring on the side of kindness, wanting to show love and affection when you can, is a wonderful default to have. And it’s difficult some days. It’s very easy to be cynical and to not try hard, but I think the four of us would die as unhappier people if we went that way. I love people who want to go that far and make beautiful mistakes.”
BY PETER HODGSON
