Interview by Carlo Gironi | carlo@staff.truepunk.com | with Jonathan Clancy

Hi there
Jonathan! How are you doing?

Fine thanks, it’s a really busy period for us but also a fun one. Can you introduce the members of Settlefish and a story of how you got together?
Well the core of the band got together around 5-6 years ago out of the local high school scene. We’ve been spending more and more time though seriously in the last couple of years with loads of touring and the release of two records and a split-ep. The band is myself Jonathan (vocals, occasional guitar), Bruno (Guitar, synth, organ and backing vocals), Paul (bass, electronics), Emilio (guitar) and Phil (drums).

You come from the city of Bologna, Italy, in Europe. How is the music scene over there? How do you judge Italy from this point of view and do you have any particular friends ( bands, labels…)?
Now Italy is actually undergoing a great moment for independent music. Great labels but most of all extremely good bands seem to be coming out. Bologna is quite a nice city, it’s has a big university and that allows most bands to be able to play to a good amount of people. It has some of the best venues and also some pretty good DIY places for shows. I find that more and more bands are starting to go on the road in Europe and kind of opening things up. Lately a band from Padova called Jennifer Gentle got signed to Sub Pop and that was kind of a neat thing to happen. Bands like Giardini Di Mirò, Yuppie Flu all come from around our area and happen to be good friends. Bands coming from more of a punk scene like La Quiete, Gijoe and Redworms’ farm have also been on the road quite a lot making it easier for everyone. There just a ton of amazing music to be heard, especially on the more noisy experimental side. Other good friends are our italian labelmates Disco Drive, we are both on Unhip Records over here.

Where did you get the name Settlefish from?
Mmh, that’s and old story. I just came up a long time ago, Emilio had it in mind and we started using it even if no one really liked it. It just stuck I guess. I think it’s origin is the name of a computer font.

Do you consider yourself an indie or emo band at all? What do you think of the emo/hardcore/indie scene of nowadays?
I just consider us an indie rock band, I think this definition is quite acceptable as it is wide enough. I mean when I think of indie rock I think of all the great bands that came out of the late 80′s and then 90′s like Van Pelt, Pavement, Dinousaur Jr, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse, Unwound, Fugazi All that stuff that originally inspired us. I don’t really care for what is now identified with the term Emo/Hardcore, it just doesn’t really give me that many emotions. Music has gone in so many neat directions, why would I be interested in just a watered down version of something that came out years before. When I think of emo, bands like Cap N’Jazz come to mind, stuff like that, kids that were throwing out their emotions without worrying about their looks or the perfection of the recording or the fake screams.

You released your previous record “Dance A While, Upset” on Deep Elm Records, and now, for the new album “The Plural Of The Choir”, you worked also with Italian record label Unhip Records. Why did you decide to make this choice?

We just wanted to try something different and widen everything. We thought we needed a good label back home that was really close to us and that could also release the vinyl format. Unhip is run by a friend that we’ve known for a long time and has always given us his support and maked things happen. We also really love his diverse catalogue, all the stuff he has released (Fantomas, Melt Banana, Lali Puna, Yuppie Flu etc.) At the same time Deep Elm is doing a really good job in the Uk and in North America!

What is your opinion on the other bands on the Deep Elm label? Do you like or are in good relationships with any of them?
Yes of course, we are good friends with quite a few. Bruno (guitarist) played bass on Red Animal War’s last european tour. They are good friends from Dallas. We will be touring in June-July in North America with Desert City Soundtrack. Those guys are great pals, my fav band on deep elm for sure. Like a mix between Black Heart Procession and old san diego screamier stuff. Great! We’ve also had the chance to tour with Appleseed Cast and that was a great experience.

Your new record “The Plural Of The Choir” is coming out these days. How would you describe it?
I think it definetly represents what the band is now, what we sound like live, the mix of all our influences and the way we approach life in general. We tried to catch an atmospheric sound without letting our nervous side out of the picture. We wanted the tension to be in the record.

think on your previous album you had a sound that was very reminiscent of post hardcore music, some critis said you sounded like At The Drive-In, while on this new record I hear more rock, indie, emo-core and less “hardcore”. I mean, the new songs sound to me more catchy, simple and less intricate. Do you agree? What’s your opinion? And is there an evolution in the sound of Settlefish?
Not really sure about this one. I definetly think the new record is more catchy but at the same time if you listen closely it’s a lot more complex, there is a ton of headphone material. I think the catchyness depends on the fact the songs are really short. It’s an evolution from our first record, that’s for sure…but I mean our old songs were really OLD, we already didn’t play that many of them live. That’s why it kind of just feels natural for us, the whole change.

On “The Plural Of The Choir” there is almost an oxymoron, between the catchy, melodic choruses, and the screams, the mellow, slow parts. I think it is a great mix that was created from you, but where do you get your inspiration from and what is your way to create music? How do you work together in the studio?
We have a classic approach to making music. We just sit in a room and figure out parts altogether, some things come from improvising…actually the funny thing is the song “The Barnacle Beach” which is one of the more catchy ones just came out by improvising. We are quite lucky because all five of us in the band contribute to the musical part, even Phil our drummer is a good guitarist…everyone can bring good ideas, we are very democratic!

For the new album, you worked with Brian Deck – best known for his production with Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine and Tortoise. Did you fly to the USA to record with him? How was the experience to work with this man? Were you anxious, whatever?
We actually flew Brian Deck over to Italy. The record was recorded in a huge studio near Reggio Emilia. It was great being able to work with Brian, we really hit it off and he understood perfectly what we wanted for this record. We were anxious just ’cause we wanted to make sure that the 15 days we booked in the studio would be enough. It all went well, Brian works really quickly and already knew the songs because we had sent demos to him a few months before. It was quite nice finally seeing get off the airplane in Milan. I mean getting him to come over was a long process of exchanging emails, phonecalls and demos sent.

How would you describe Settlefish to a person that has never heard of you?
I would like to think that our music can stir emotions in people, i would describe it as indie rock thatg is not afraid of creating atmospheres with a certain nervous tension underneath.

On “The Plural Of The Choir” I noticed you have two long songs, the first and the last one, which are about 6 minute long, and then in between you have very short songs, about two minute long, with even about five track that are only one minute long. I though this was done to stress the idea of a “concept” album but I did not feel like I was in front of a concept…would you like to tell us more about the whole “concept” idea, if there is one, and how did you decide to put the songs in order?

Well the whole idea for this record was to do something more focused, work on the record not only in the song structure but as a whole. Everything had to fit in. We already knew before recording that some songs were going to be attached…we wanted it to be just like a fluent trip for whoever is listening, kind of like saying “hey this is our world!”. The lyrics are also deeply connected. Those short interludes were written for the record to help everything fit in better, we wanted an organic feel to the record. Basically those are the kind of records that we prefer, something that catches you from the beginning to the end. That’s why the first song starts kind of like how the last one ends.

What is the meaning of the album title, “The Plural Of The Choir”?
It’s a reference to the lyric content. It just means that all five of us are like a choir, the different faces of the choir…our way of being.

The artwork for The The Plural Of The Choir was created by the renowned Tae Won Yu, who has designed album covers and graphic identities for the like of Built To Spill, Beck, Versus and The John Spencer Blues Explosion. I think the artwork came out great, and even tough the Deep Elm releases always have a minimalist artwork, your disc came out great.
Yeah we are really happy with how it turned out. We wanted something different, something very personal and Tae Won Yu seemed perfect. We are huge fans of his work for Built To Spill. We had a few ideas before hand and sent some photos out to him, he put them together and did all the drawings. I feel like it represents this record and the idea of couples tangled in difficult relationships!

What about your new lyrics? What do you sing about in general?
Well on this record the lyrics basically deal about relationships. I wanted to talk about how the five of us just see relationships in a different way and all have different takes on things. At the same time I was trying to steer away from all the typical clichè’s that love lyrics can bring….

What are some of the bands that you guys in the band regularely listen to?
hehe, these questions are quite hard for us…we are all really into different things. I can tell you what we have been listening to in the van lately: The Shins, The Walkmen, Futureheads, Dinosaur Jr, Arcade Fire, Antony & the Johnsons, Yage…stuff like that….

Have you got some plans of touring to support you new album? If so, where and with whom?
Well we’ve just done about 20 shows in Italy as soon as the record came out. Now we are leaving for a month tour of Europe, mainly Uk and Germany. We love going back to England especially. This will be our third time. In June we are doing a 5 week tour that ends in July of United States and Canada. We will be on the road with our labelmates Desert City Soundtrack from Portland. Awesome band!

Any final comments?
Thanks again a lot and hopefully we will see a lot of people on the road.

Thanks so much for the interview, good luck on everything!!