The Goo 1
Interview JOHN BRERETON PICS NORMA BURKE When the
zoom link finally connects with London and I come face to face with the man behind Feather Beds, one Micheal Orange, it's somewhat disconcerting that he is wearing an orange sweatshirt. I tell him about the old Irish TV ad from the early 70’s where the punchline was “Ronnie Crane drives a crane” and we laugh but he often fields questions about whether it’s his real surname or a concocted stage name. The stage name though is Feather Beds, a moniker that suggests a comfort zone but is a misnomer, the total opposite of the music this man produces. The Dubliner’s new album Softer Measures is another misnomer, it being a dense, austere swirl of found sounds, noise, drone, prog, electronica and lush harmonies and melodies brought together to create a sound not unlike great Irish bands from the 90’s like Rollerskate Skinny, Sunbear or My Bloody Valentine. The wonderful lead single ‘Really Disney’ has a Yo La Tengo/Beck feel to it and is probably the most accessible track off an album that can daunt on initial listenings but rewards with patience, like all the great records. I started off by asking Michael to give our readers a potted history of his musical journey so far… Feather Beds I played drums in a band called Star Department around 2006 - actually I still consider myself a drummer; even now making music on my own, it doesn't feel natural for me to think of myself as a solo artist. Then I played in a couple of different bands in my twenties, a band called Subplots for five years, which was my main project in my twenties and then I played in a band called Autumn Owls for a little bit as well. We were all just mates so there was a little bit of band hopping going on between various members. Around nine years ago - when I hit thirty - I had this idea of striking out on my own and I started messing about getting into production in a serious way. I released my first album, The Skeletal System on Happenin Records, a US subsidiary of French Kiss Records (formerly home to Bloc Party, Passion Pit, Eleanor Friedberger, The Hold Steady and currently Les Savy Fav, of which bass player Syd Butler is label boss). My second album Blooming came out in 2017 and was released by the Montreal based label Moderna, a very experimental label (their website tagline is “instrumental landscapes within sound geometry”) which was cool because that's where I was living at the time. I’m based in London now so I’m a bit out of the loop with the scene in Ireland. PAGE 28