Interview with Sandra’s Wedding: ‘I like things having a punchline, like poetry’

Goole, East Yorkshire alt-rock band Sandra’s Wedding are working on their next album with a working title of The Hopeful Boy Replacement Service, which they will release around June.

The band comprises Joe Hodgson (guitar and vocals), Jonny Hughes (guitar), Luke Harrison (drums) and Corey Jones (bass). They got together in Goole about six years ago and Hughes is from a town nearby (Castleford), having been introduced via a mutual friend. Of their name, Hodgson said: ‘It’s a bit of a deflating moment (laughs). I had an idea of us as a fictional band at a wedding. There isn’t a Sandra, sadly. We should come up with a better fake story!’

The new album will comprise 11 tracks. Hodgson describes both recent singles ‘Given Rain’ and ‘One Horse Town’ as being inspired by ‘kitchen sink drama, the play-for-a-day BBC dramas of the 60s/70’s’: ‘Abject misery in post-industrial towns, a scene awash with grey, rainclouds, concrete. The good stuff,’ he quipped. He elaborates: ‘I had the idea that they could be part of the soundtrack to a TV show. ‘One Horse Town’ was knocking around for a while and we were booked to record an album this spring. It felt a lot different to the other tracks, I thought it would be nice to put it out as a single and I’d also come up with ‘Given Rain’, it came together so quick.’

‘He wrote poetry coming out of the mundane, he had an eye for small details you can spin a yarn from’

His voice is very reminiscent of the warm, mellifluous voice of former Housemartins’ frontman Paul Heaton, who now collaborates with Jacqui Abbott and, like Heaton, his songwriting is poetic, wry and observational. ‘Given Rain’ opens with a mournful trumpet solo from Anthony Thompson that very much sets the scene and which weaves in and out of the track: ‘Johnny knew Anthony because Johnny’s family owns a hi-fi shop in town and Anthony used to come in. He’s played with Shirley Bassey. It’s always an honour to have him on a track. You can get ear blind to your own stuff but with Anthony on it, it feels like it’s someone else’s song, it’s a treat for ourselves.’

As the track kicks off: “Good morning from another rugby league town. Where dreams go to bed and never come down. Rise and shine never, ever really fit my style. Throwing down another instant coffee. Polite reminder of appointment that she got me. Do the windows in this house only come in grey?”

I ask him if he’s frequently compared to Heaton: ‘It’s always nice, he was a massive influence,’ he said. ‘He wrote poetry coming out of the mundane, he had an eye for small details you can spin a yarn from. Some people pick out Paul Heaton, others say Morrissey but I don’t hear that.’ I say that I don’t hear Morrissey in his voice either. ‘Our percussionist Gary Hammond, he lives in Hull, he played for The Beautiful South (a pop rock band which Heaton formed with former Housemartins’ bandmate Dave Hemingway in the late 80’s).’

‘We thought early Oasis when we started to write it but it got bigger and bigger’

‘One Horse Town’ is completely different sonically to ‘Given Rain’, it’s much rockier and uptempo and has a very cinematic feel to it. It’s guitar-driven with a huge Springsteen vibe and was made for the big screen: ‘It almost got to the point where I though it was too unlike us to put out, that it would be too weird,’ Hodgson said. ‘We thought early Oasis when we started to write it but it got bigger and bigger (laughs). It’s very cinematic, very big and brash. Johnny plays the solo. We were: “Is it too Slash, too Guns N’ Roses (laughs)?” Afterwards, I thought I’d love to have some live strings on it, then you’d almost be in Bond territory.’ It’s a heartfelt and honest track very much powered by his strong sense of storytelling, describing a town that’s decaying, highlighting the struggles of ordinary people facing layoffs and poverty, something that Springsteen is also very adept at. It almost feels like a protest song.

‘I described these two songs as a complete antithesis to ‘Penny Lane’ and ‘Strawberry Fields’,’ he said. ‘They’re macabre, dull and grey (laughs). Through writing it, you forget the song itself as being something that exists of its own accord. There’s a third piece to this ‘jigsaw’ that we’re finishing at the moment.’ The remaining song is a collaboration with renowned neoclassical composer and double bassist Gavin Bryars: ‘He was nominated for a Mercury award in 1992 and he’s worked with Father John Misty. We got in touch with him last year, a bit cheekily (laughs) as he’s also from Goole. He’s been really kind and supportive. He got back in touch and said he was at a bit of a loose end and he wrote a lovely string arrangement on the third track. It’s mellower and more understated, it’s called ‘Where No Nightclub Survives’. We’ll put all three tracks on an EP at the end of January.’

As a band, they have deliberately chosen not to put these three tracks on the upcoming album: ‘I like the old school idea of keeping everything apart,’ he said. ‘We could have put them on the album but it’s almost bold to be particular about where songs go. It’s so weird now for unsigned bands who are trying to maintain artistic weight. Everything should have it’s own little story and little world. It’s rewarding when you get a good response and positive comments.’

‘I love good titles or a line building up to a turn of phrase’

On other tracks such as ‘Should’ve Got A Trade’, they have paired a jangly, sunny melody with more introspective, self-critical lyrics: ‘I think that sort of thing is more interesting, I was big into poetry before I started in the band,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t playing guitar at uni. I was a bit later in coming to it seriously, about 25. Simon Armitage, our poet laureate, I think of him as being a bit like Paul Heaton. I contacted his agent to ask if we could use a couple of lines of his poem. The poem was ‘The English Astronaut’, the idea was going to be to read that poem over an instrumental. Great poem. That poem was one of the reasons I got into poetry and lyrics. I might yet see if we can steal some of that! He recommended our track to Guy Garvey for his radio show, which was really nice. I’ve spent some time writing poetry, I’m a big fan of Philip Larkin and Don Paterson, a Scottish poet. I like things having a punchline, like poetry. It gives it a bit of extra depth. With poems, I love good titles or a line building up to a turn of phrase. I read a quote somewhere that “90% of songwriting is a good title and the rest is homework” – it can open the door and you fall through it. It’s rewarding when a song happens quickly but others take some shaking!’

He describes himself as ‘a very singer-ey singer’: ‘I love Paul Carrack and Mike and the Mechanics, that way of delivering a song. I love singing and the melody of it, it’s a nice thing. I’ve got a really definite way that songs develop, it’s like controlled chaos (laughs). It’ll mostly be a line or a title that I’ll have knocking about for ages. I’ll pick a guitar up and start playing and coming up with chords and drop into a melodic refrain where a certain title fits. Then you’ll have a picture in your head or a character and it’ll start falling out. If an idea has legs, you’ll often know in the first five minutes.’

As a band, they have many influences, including The Smiths, R.E.M, Flaming Lips, Deacon Blue, Talking Heads, Chumbawamba, Squeeze and Modest Mouse. Hodgson has also become a big fan of Hull rock band Ketamine Kow: ‘They came on and I didn’t know what to expect but I enjoyed it so much, I was laughing. I hadn’t enjoyed a band that much for ages! When you hear a band that’s so different to you and think: “I couldn’t do that in a million years”, it’s brilliant. They do a bit of post-punk sort of anarchist stuff. It’s fluid, in your face. They get the audience involved singing lines, I loved it. Low Hummer (an alt-rock band) from Hull, they’re doing great. They’re very cool.’

‘I’m a big fan of albums having a definite structure’

For Hodgson, albums are his favourite way to release music: ‘I’m a big fan of albums having a definite structure,’ he said. ‘We all love albums, we don’t mind putting work in to do a bigger project but having a single means it’s easier to pick up interest.’

His dream line up offers something for everyone: ‘David Bowie, I would love to have seen him in his pomp. Arctic Monkeys, just love their career arc and Elvis Presley joins for the end of the encore and sings ‘Cornerstone’ and ‘505’! Nick Lowe, one of my favorite lyricists and Kirstie McColl joining for a few songs. And Jake Thackray (an English singer-songwriter, poet, humourist and journalist) kicks the evening off at about 6 p.m.!’

If he could have a pint with anyone, he picks two people: ‘Paul Heaton because it would be nice to meet him and bend his ear. And Andy Partridge from XTC (an English rock band from the 70’s). I wasn’t into them until a few years ago but I’ve been obsessed with them for two years. XTC and The Beautiful South are at very different ends of the spectrum but lyrically they’re very subjective and abstract. You can be a bit more cute with the message but not as much with the music. I feel it would be a decent evening!’

(Photo from left to right: Jonny, Joe and Luke.)