Artist on Artist: Wilding vs Cian Ciaran

Super Furry Animals’ CIAN CIARAN (pictured) has teamed up with Melbourne’s own JUSTIN WILDING STOKES (a.k.a. Wilding) for a new split single on the Super Furries’ label. Ahead of its local launch, they talk about corporate greed, dream collaborations, childhood aspirations and Tony Abbott.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Wilding: Hello Cian. Do you get fed up telling people how to pronounce your name?

Cian Ciarán: No, I gave up on that years ago. I let it slide now. My surname (Kee-rohn, I think) is what gets most people, as it’s spelt the Irish way. It’s still annoying, I guess, when I have to give my details over the phone to a call centre or during a government security type question, as they think I’m spelling my first name over and over.

Wilding: It was great working with you as Ciarán and Wilding. You have quite a distinctive style and approach as a producer. I’m wondering – do you have an ‘add instant Super Furry Animals/Cian Ciarán’ plug-in at your studio? Can I have it?

Cian: Ha, not really. I do still like my 303 and dx7, both classics. I’ve been using the Novation bass stations recently too, both senior and junior. I still love to experiment in the studio. I often forget to press record and then end up spending hours chasing what I thought was the perfect take that I’d missed. Happy mistakes are what keep me going. I still can’t get what’s in my head out onto record, though. But writing songs and seeing them develop from a flicker of an idea into a piece of work still excites me.

So who would you like to collaborate with next?

Wilding: I always thought I’d like to work with Andy Partridge, but the more I read, the more I understand that he can be a bit difficult. So he’s off my list. I’m not great at songwriting collaborations, so it would need to be a producer/musician. I’ll choose Emitt Rhodes. He was making music in the late ’60s/early ’70s in a band called The Merry-Go-Round, then quit them to make solo records. He built a recording studio in his mum’s garage in California and self-produced albums, playing all the instruments himself. Hopefully his mum’s garage is still intact and we could dust off the old gear.

Our collaboration was released on your record label, Strangetown Records, which is run by yourself and some other band members from Super Furry Animals. I find that music outside the creative process can be a bit tiresome. What made you decide to start your own label? Do you have a label manifesto or philosophy?

Cian: It was set up for me and Daf [Dafydd Ieuan] to release our own material. We then started releasing stuff that got made in our studio and then a couple of mates got a head-in. No philosophy, but Motown is a distant dream.

How do you think streaming has changed things? Is it the nail in the coffin for musicians?

Wilding: No, but I don’t like it, just sort of accept it. Obviously only a fraction of the streaming money is going to artists and I’m not happy that a bunch of corporates from Spotify and Pandora are taking the piss and making bundles. Saying that, with streaming on SoundCloud and YouTube and the like, it’s easier for musicians to get their music out into the public. It’s a very cluttered space though. And who is really listening? Do listeners care enough? When I buy a record or CD then I know I’ll have a good listen. I think it could destroy a musician’s creativity if they grow up just listening to music online as it’s so trend-based. Listen, then find the next thing – never to return. Most musicians I know have a decent record collection. It’s a much better experience to visit a record store and randomly buy some cheap vinyl because the cover’s cool.

Also, streaming data metrics really annoy me – how many listens, views, likes, comments. I’m uncomfortable with competition and measuring success. I know these measures don’t equate to worth, but I can’t help wondering!

The rest of the Super Furries are busy on various musical projects, some of which are released on Strangetown Records. Obviously there are your two solo albums and Daf’s The Earth. I also like Huw [Bunford]’s work with The Pale Blue Dots and Guto [Pryce]’s project Gulp. And then there’s Gruff [Rhys], who continues to make remarkable music and multimedia adventures. So when will you all find the time for another Super Furry Animals album?

Cian: When the time is right, I guess. We still work together on each other’s projects. I mixed The Earth, Gulp and Pale Blue Dots’ albums this year.

Wilding: Your last solo album [2013’s They Are Nothing Without Us] has many musical elements I like from Super Furries – fuzz-pop, blissful ballads. Lyrically, like in songs like ‘Sewn Up’, it seemed you were consciously making a statement about how the world is fucked up – corporate greed, destruction, but it also feels like a call-to-arms. Are you optimistic or pessimistic?

Cian: Depends what side of the bed I get up from or what’s the first thing I read that day. Sometimes it’s all doom but I/we have to carry on and fight back. That’s what they want us to do – lie down and take their shit. I think there is a growing awareness of the corruption up above and people are starting to wake up to the fact, but apathy is still rampant and it will take a generation and some sort of revolution probably to undo their work. Scotland had an opportunity to make a real difference. It goes to show how powerful the media is and what fear can achieve.

Wilding: And on the other side of the world Australia is still not a republic and republicanism is not even part of the mainstream political debate. Does that seem odd to you?

Cian: Yeah, but with what happened in Scotland I’ve lost all sense. It was a shame and a missed opportunity to make a real difference. Less than 48 hours later, the Scottish question became an English one. I don’t think any referendum on independence has ever resulted in a ‘No’ before. Lies and fear won the day.

Wilding: I know that you care deeply about renewable energy sources and are an anti-nuclear campaigner. You recently played a gig at the top of a wind turbine – what was that like?

Cian: It was part of a pro-renewables/anti-nuclear protest. Again it was an attempt to bring awareness , especially here in the UK, at the new nuclear build programme the government is taking us down. It’s economically and morally unjustifiable.

What do you know about Australia's uranium mines?

Wilding: I know that Australia is one of the world’s biggest uranium exporters. I think we recently did a deal with India to supply them with shitloads of the stuff. Enough to build some more nukes to point at Pakistan. Happily, we don’t have any nuclear power plants here.

The mind-boggling thing about mining in Australia is that we’re supposedly coming to the end of a ‘boom’ and the massive mining companies haven’t paid enough tax. They managed to convince the public that they shouldn’t pay a tax on their huge profits, as it would affect jobs and investment. The tax was watered down with little money collected and has now been repealed by the conservative Abbott government. Another corporate win.

I don’t know how much you know about our Prime Minister Tony Abbott, but he’s on record as saying that climate change is ‘absolute crap’. The other week he said that coal ‘has a big future’ and is ‘good for humanity’. I’m not kidding. Imagine you have him in a room for 30 minutes: what would you say to him?

Cian: I’d start by asking him about his childhood. What would you say to him?

Wilding: Well, I don’t think I’d be able to have a rational conversation about the government’s policies. He’s a pretty confrontational guy. And I’d just get annoyed. So I’d get all chummy with him and record his bigotry with a secret recording device. I’m sure I’d have some nuggets by the end.

I remember seeing Super Furry Animals at The Zoo in Brisbane in 2003 and having my musical mind blown away. What do you remember about visiting Australia? Any stories to share?

Cian: Stubbies, koalas, kangaroos, cockatoos and playing tennis at 2am. Big spiders, checking under the toilet seat and my shoes in the morning. All a bit fuzzy to be honest.

I know you’re originally from the Wirral. Do you miss it? Do you think you’ll ever move back?

Wilding: I don’t miss the Wirral or the UK that much, but I sometimes revisit memories. I’m quite nostalgic. I’m glad I grew up there and still identify with the place, but I’m also pleased that I now live here. Melbourne in particular. My family moved to Australia for a ‘better life’, which basically meant sunshine and a nice back garden. I also don’t have any close family in Liverpool or surrounds anymore, but have two brothers who live in London.

Cian: What did you want to be when you grew up as a kid?

Wilding: Well, I remember being forced to go to a school careers counsellor who said I should be a chartered surveyor. How I’ve wasted my life.

It sounds a bit miserable, but I can’t actually remember having any childhood dreams. I don’t think any of my friends had dreams or ambitions either. People around me were quite pragmatic and unassuming, so it was a bit conceited to have dreams – unless it was playing for Liverpool or Everton!

I know you’re a Manchester City fan. Do you know that the owners recently bought a Melbourne team and rebranded it as Melbourne City? Expectations are high. If you one day make it back to Melbourne I’ll take you to a match.

Cian: I look forward to it!

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Wilding and Cian Ciarán’s split single as Ciarian & Wilding is out now through Strangetown Records in the UK and independently in Australia; it features Cian covering Wilding’s ‘Missing Her’ plus a new Wilding song, ‘Stuck in the Middle’, which Cian has remixed. Cian Ciarán’s latest album is 2013’s ‘They Are Nothing Without Us’. Wilding’s latest album is 2012’s ‘Bird’s Bread’. He’s launching the split single locally this Friday (Nov 21) at The Old Bar in Melbourne with Grand Prismatic, Slow Fires and Sean Molloy.

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