It was with great sadness we learnt earlier today that the talented, lovely singer and multi-instrumentalist Trish Keenan of Broadcast had passed away. We were really sorry to hear the news and our hearts go out to James and her family for their great loss. Ross Cotton pays tribute to Trish…

Lead singer Trish Keenan’s soulful and hypnotic vocals will always be remembered for creating such beautifying, soothing sounds to Broadcast’s music.

While her earthly and artistic lyrics will never be forgotten, warming listeners into a hearty emotional reflection.

Like the sunrise of summer, Keenan’s glow filled the minds of all who came in contact with such profound exhilaration, combining an essence of bohemian bliss with sensitive lulling perfection.

Though there was so much more of Trish to be heard, as we find ourselves cut short of such an effectual, heroic female pioneer.

Blending ’60’s pop with electro/sci-fi, Broadcast were able to craft stirring, retro-futuristic admirations, taking inspiration from experimental/psychedelic rock outfit The United States of America into a whole new dimension of past and future fixations.

With tracks such as Until Then breaking into a slow motion horror-gazing soundtrack and Before We Begin providing the sweetest ode to life “Oh it’s in tomorrow, fortune or sorrow, wait you may win”, Trish’s grasp of emotions portray effortlessly throughout her lyrics.

While never forgetting her roots, Michael a Grammar provides the perfect association to home, “Wake up we’re going back to Chelmsely Wood” re-connecting with her past as well as early fans.

As a huge contribution to the Birmingham music scene Trish will be dearly missed, never forgotten and always cited as a groundbreaking creative figure.

If only her talent could have been continued, for us all to feel the vibes of a truly magnificent artist once more.

Image by David Osbaldestin which was taken for an interview he did for Fused Issue 30 on the release of Tender Buttons in 2005 – the interview is below…
The mighty Broadcast are back with a new sound and a new direction. The now two-piece from Kings Heath, Birmingham, begin to scale the uncharted cinematic highs and circumnavigate the sonic depths of their careers.  Since the release of the highly acclaimed ‘Ha Ha Sound’ in 2003, James Cargill and Trish Keenan, (Tim Felton has subsequently teamed up with Mike ‘Billy’ Bainbridge from Plone to form Seeland), have been perfecting the reductionist art of less is more.  Perhaps the most important recording in Broadcast’s catalogue, ‘Tender Buttons’, sets the agenda for the bands future, with no one to shout at but each other, Jam and Trish lead the way as they embark on a familiar journey with an unknown plastic sound.

Could you describe how your sound has developed since the release of Ha Ha Sound?
Trish: I think it’s the opposite of developed, what is the opposite?
James: Regressed.
Trish: Yes, I think we’ve regressed. (Laughs)
James: I think it’s more focused.  Before we really wanted to create quite deep and detailed textures.  I still think that was good for that time, it’s what we felt, but since then we’ve decided to focus on a more simpler and consistent sound.
Trish: A less precious approach as well.  We definitely re-thought how we use the equipment and where.  We’ve always had quite a conventional set-up before, speakers on stands and the mixing desk in between.  We just got really bored with it.

So in what ways have you shifted that now?
James:  Less of a studio record, more of a simple intuitive sound.  I think that when you begin to record music, you go down the routes you are supposed to do it and that’s often a way of blanding out your music.
I think there are a lot of elements that forced us into this sound as well, initially we were going to use drums on all of the tracks, but we worked on that and we couldn’t get it to sound right.  There are only two of us now, whereas with the first album there were five people, which could also be the reason for it being more focused.

Across the City, the Birmingham landscape has physically changed, has this effected its music scene?
James: It feels like there is money being chucked at everything, at the moment.
Trish: Except for any decent music.
James: I mean architecturally really.
Trish: Well, something happened.  I don’t know what the details of it were but something happened 7 or 8 years ago, and I thought that it would just go from strength to strength.  That’s the thing about that Birmingham scene there really wasn’t many Birmingham people involved.
James: It wasn’t really made up of Brummies.
Trish: It’s people who come in and then they just leave.  So something happens for just a short while and then it disappears again.  I think that if the scene was made up of a majority of Birmingham people, then there would have been something to build on.
James: We’ve been looking for musicians to go on tour with, but we’ve found it really hard.  Not that we walk around with a big banner that says we need musicians.
Trish: The words out there.
James: So in the end we’ve got my brother in, and he’s from Bristol.  We couldn’t find anyone local to do it.

Do you have a really big fan base in the States?
James: It’s not too bad.  It’s a bigger market for us.  You can’t really say that it’s one thing, there are so many different parts to America, as it changes so much from the east to the west coast.
Trish: We don’t know what they make of English bands or our sound.
James: I don’t think we are anywhere near to conquering America, we’re still only playing to 200-300 capacity audiences.

What’s it like being on the road?
Trish: That’s the good bit.
James: It can be the good bit.  This time we are starting in San Francisco and we go up, up and round.  For instance, the drive from Vancouver to Minneapolis is at least two days, that’s the one that always stays in my mind because you’re just sat on the bus for all that time.  It can do your head in!

Is the album title and the song Tender Buttons influences by Gertrude Stein’s writing?
Trish: Definitely, the title is influenced by a Gertrude Stein poem. I got obsessed with, well really appreciated, the fact that she wasn’t hung up on making sense at all.  It didn’t really inspire the writing as such but the technique of automatic writing is used all over the LP.  That’s how I generate the lyrics.  It’s good to put conditions on automatic writing otherwise it can get a bit too obscure.

Could you describe the process you followed when writing America’s Boy?
Trish: It was just an instrumental piece of music to begin with, I liked it but I wasn’t particularly trying to craft a song.  I was looking after my Dad who died during the making of the record.  We always had a ritual of doing the Sun crossword and I started to like the language of the cryptic clues.  I loved the weird sentencing of the clues and I started to echo them back a little bit.  One crossword in particular was very negative towards America (around the time of the scandal of the American troops treatment of Iraqi prisoners). I guess that the crossword writer was expressing this through the coded system of the language.
James: So the crossword was about the abuse of the prisoners?
Trish: It wasn’t about it directly but my interpretation was that it had an anti-American tone.  In writing the lyrics, I kind of answered my own versions of the questions, as a spontaneous reaction.  It was something that I wrote within a 20-minute session.  It wasn’t until I had the four-track on my headphones and I heard that piece of instrumental music, that I made a connection and I just started singing the song.  I swear to god, it happened so quickly.  Perhaps because I was busting my balls on a track two weeks before, that I couldn’t make work.  That classic thing where you trying to knock something into shape and it’s not happening but what is happening internally is you are practicing, and you subconsciously home in on some inherent skills to find a solution.

Gertrude Stein wrote Tender Buttons in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War, you could say there is a subconscious link between that and your recording post Afghanistan and Iraq.
Trish: I guess but the thing with America’s Boy is that it’s apolitical.  I am not trying to make a statement, I am not commenting on America, really it’s an appraisal.  Perhaps the wrong time to do an appraisal of America!
James: I think that again came out of the fact that you were doing the crossword with your dad.
Trish: Yes definitely, I stood back from whatever political slant it had on it.  It wasn’t about me.

Do you find it easier now that there are just two of you in the band?
James: Yes, it’s a bit of both really. With the internal tensions, there’s no one to complain to anymore.  You just turn to each other.

So you live together, play together and work together!
James: Well, it was tough when there was three of us, and it was still tough when there was four of us.  I think to be creative in a band (when you are writing), if you’re not improvising, then it’s best to do it on your own really.  To put people under pressure together to come up with something, without just playing your instruments is hard.  That’s why I think, if people are going to play together, the best way is to get together and don’t put any restrictions on it either.  That’s why improvising is the best place to get to for anyone who’s making music.

Now that Warp have their own Warp Films distribution, would you be interested in directing your own films?
James: We just bought a camera actually!
Trish: But it’s a difficult thing to start getting into at this point.  The difficulty with going in as a beginner is that there are a lot of creative pitfalls, the obvious clichéd stuff that you have to develop out of.  If you are going to make film, there is a huge difference between what you understand as a listener or viewer and then what you understand of yourself as a creator/maker.  I think there would be too much of a gulf.
James: But through collaboration, yes!
Trish: It’s definitely something that we are going to get into but not immediately.

Fused have compiled a limited edition CD in deluxe digi-pack packaging of some of our fave bands out of the West Midlands. The CD will go out free to anyone lucky enough to be attending this years SXSW in Austin, Texas. But if you’re not going to be there, don’t despair, as we’ve uploaded it here for your listening pleasure. Dig it!

Track 01: Yelps – Cavalier Frontier (3.40)
A name like that needs to inspire shameless caterwauling, so it’s a good job Yelps’ scattershot pop does the job. Shout for joy upon hearing their glam, ragtag party music, already given the thumbs up by BBC Radio 1 DJs following the release of single P.E.O.P.L.E on 1965 Records. Yelps are currently writing/recording their debut album, so see ‘em live and spread the word before everyone and their mom is, well, yelping along.

Track 02: Voluntary Butler Scheme – Fffoolsih (2.28)
“Love is a game, a game for two/Love is a game I wanna play with you,” sings VBS head butler Rob Jones. After one listen, you’ll wanna crack open your toy box and hand over your heart. Along with the two members of his live band, Jones spins a refreshingly old-school mix of stomping Northern soul and brassy, very British love songs. With witty but honest observational lyrics and boyish good looks to boot, this one’s a star in the making.

Track 03: The Traps – Echoes (3.39)
Get caught. The Traps are one in a long line of British bands (hello Oasis et al) who combine laddish, balls-out bravado with bare emotional resonance. They do it supremely well, so much so that Noel Gallagher has already declared himself a fan. More, from high profile rockstars to council estate everymen, will follow, the band having just released their debut EP on their own label, Speech Fewapy Recordings.

Track 04: The Scarlet Harlots – Backlash (3.00)
Loved by the hot young things of our isle’s largest city, the Scarlet Harlots do a nice line in ‘anthemic’ that is propelled by Sam Baylis’s snarling and charismatic frontman. Recent opening slots for Howling Bells, Jamie T and local-boys-done-good the Twang will have no doubt widened their appeal, but it’s the charm of their ramshackle tunes that will have the girls and boys of indie disco-dom falling in love with them all over the UK and beyond very, very soon.

Track 05: Deluka – Black Cloud (5.01)
Straddling that ever-precarious line between electro and indie rock, Deluka are one of Birmingham’s hottest properties and not just because they had the guts, after a night of alcohol-fuelled brainstorming (as ya do), to steal their name from Pretty Woman. Think a drunk and bubbly noir flick rather than romantic comedy, though; their femme-fronted new-wave is certainly crazy, sexy and cool. They could give Metric the run-around, which is no small praise.

Track 06: Youves – On Probation (3.51) This band has already survived one major name change, and you get the feeling that Youves’ (formerly Mirror! Mirror!) schizoid mash of angular guitars, danceable beats and hardcore spirit was what pulled them through. If you like what you hear – and that will be a spitting, macho punk party, no? – prepare yourself to get sweaty upon the release of their mini-album, released on Holy Roar Records, in spring 2009.

Track 07: Copter – Can’t Help It (1.46)
Visiting us from 500 years in the future, the deranged but quite possibly brilliant Copter are here to save us with their rocket powered rock & soul. Their live shows are glammed up, pants-down parties-cum-sermons curated by intergalactic preacher Stevie and, on occasion, their android pal. The sci-fi theatrics are what you would expect from a band with their own comic book, but let them probe you with their music and you’ll realise they come in peace and so much more besides.

Track 08: Untitled Musical Project – Endless Deodrant and Bad Shoes (2.11)
Who needs a moniker when you’ve got NOISE?! Pairing snotty with smart, UMP have caused a stir on the live scene with their energetic performances and cutting lyrics. Want controversy? This no-nonsense trio have a song titled Why Isn’t Paul McCartney Dead Already? So, Heather Mills may be a fan but don’t let that put you off this fearless, and weirdly winsome, punk.

Track 09: The Big Bang – Vampire’s Hand (3.25)
Dinosaurs, be-fuckin-ware! Indeed, us humans might wanna think about gettin’ outta Dodge too. And why’s that? Well, Big Bang’s ballsy, bluesy rawk ‘n’ roll is certainly big enough to blow a hole all the way through this sphere to the next. With hip-shaking rhythms and dirt-under-the-fingernails riffs, one thing’s for sure: you’ll have one heck of a final night on Earth before their sweet, heady explosion makes us all go bye-bye.

Track 10: Kelli Ali – Rocking Horse (3.23)
Providing a welcome dose of oestrogen to the tracklist, Kelli Ann is a feisty singer/songwriter who deals in pop that cuts with a fiercely independent edge. She’s toured with Garbage, collaborated with everyone from Marius de Vries to Primal Scream, and even Madonna – yes, Madonna – is a fan. Make no mistake, though; she’s in charge, of both her own sassy electro-pop credentials and, sooner rather than later, your very own dancing shoes.

Track 11: Swampmeat – Sister Mary (2.35)
You would be forgiven for thinking Birmingham, UK had nicked this bluesy duo from Birmingham, Alabama, such is Danny C and T-Bird’s tight embrace on Americana. The two brothers blend tales of heartache with the rough hues of their soulful rockabilly, resulting in grizzled ballads made for a darkened bar. So grab a whiskey and drown your sorrows in the Swamp…

Track 12: Seeland – Call The Incredible (4.37)
This trio may indeed ‘see land’ but, upon hearing their dreamy symphonic pop, you’ll be in no doubt that they’re happily freewheeling somewhere between clouds. Forming amidst the fallout of Birmingham’s ‘retro futurist electronica scene’ (who knew?!) back in ’04, the boys have been playing with analogue synths and all manner of instrumentation favoured by Brian Eno and Krautrock pioneers. The woozy, transcendental results have bagged them a record deal, and an album due in March promises to take you to the skies.

Track 13: Grandmaster Gareth – Oh No! B-List Celebrity (1.21)
Taking fun seriously (but not too seriously), Grandmaster G is perhaps Birmingham’s only creator of ‘minute melodies’ that combine SFX, cartoon voices and whimsical melodies and are named things like Dr Dre Gets Complacent. So combat your own complacency by getting to know our Gareth, a member of revered Brummy collective Misty’s Big Adventure, and no doubt that frown you’re wearing will turn a full 180 on its axis!

Words: Luke McNaney
CD: Compiled by Fused
Artwork: Newtasty