Pye Corner Audio
“If you're on a major, you'd be tied down and it’s very restrictive as to what you can do.”
Pye Corner Audio's Martin Jenkins is not about to be backed into a proverbial corner. His one-man electronic band is many things to many people, depending on which label a music fan might come to his stuff from. On 'Ghostbox', expect your customary sampled weirdness and hypnagogic ambience, whereas his work for Sonic Cathedral is more epic, psychedelic, progressive and, well, shoegaze-y.
“I guess that's the thing now, being an independent artist,” shrugs Jenkins, speaking from his home studio in Ashford, Kent. “I don't think I've ever signed a contract with a label. If you're on a major, you'd be tied down and it’s very restrictive as to what you can do. It's just the way now for independent artists where you're a bit more free to shop around. It keeps me interested and it pushes me out of my comfort zone sometimes.”
If Pye Corner Audio pushes in the direction of his label’s chosen genre, then Sonic Cathedral must have been delighted when they first heard 'More Songs About The Sun'. It’s a sequel of sorts, and perhaps the buzziest, most refulgent thing Jenkins has ever done. The title is a nod to the final track on 2022’s 'Let’s Emerge' called 'Warmth Of The Sun'.
“It's definitely meant to be a continuation,” he says. “'Let's Emerge' was a direct response to lockdown. I think a lot of it was written during lockdown and just when we were coming out of it. By the time I was finishing it it was just like, ‘Let's get back out there!’ With this one, I've pushed it a bit further in that it's just wearing my influences a bit more directly, whether that’s Stereolab, Spacemen 3 or even Cluster or Neu!”
Jenkins brought in some cheap drum machines in order to get a more organic sound, which he likens to Harmonia, the Krautrock supergroup that featured members of Cluster and Neu!’s Michael Rother. He’s also a great believer in harnessing the sound in the room, which flies against contemporary wisdom where leads are fed straight into the computer, giving rise to music that can be overly clinical. “Play through the amp and then mic it up, because then you get all the quirks and the weird hisses and all that kind of thing, and it just seems to come alive a lot more,” he enthuses.
Technology certainly came in handy when working with shoegaze architect turned folky psych man, Andy Bell - he of Ride and Oasis fame - who added vocals and melodies and some electronics on this album and its predecessor. Jenkins met him at a Sonic Cathedral show and they’ve become friends since, though Bell’s schedule meant most of their collaborative tracks happened remotely.
“For the first album, we were just coming out of lockdown, so it was all done remotely. And since then, he's been so busy with various things, like touring with Oasis. He’s a workaholic. I sent him some tracks for the last album and he just sent me back loads of stuff. He just doesn't really stop.”
- Jeremy Allen
PROG FILE
Lineup: Martin Jenkins: guitars, keyboards, electronics, programming, etc…
Sounds like: Blistering shoegazey psychedelia with a progressive edge.
Current release: More Songs About The Sun is out now via Sonic Cathedral
Website: Music | Pye Corner Audio