ANY YOUNG MECHANIC ON The Modern Shoe Is Ruining The Foot!
INTERVIEW: BREE MAY O’HAGAN
PHOTOGRAPHY: MHARI DOUGAL
Any Young Mechanic release their debut album, The Modern Shoe Is Ruining The Foot , a raw, live recording captured without edits nearly three years ago. Temper caught up with Allan, Thea, Sam, Luca and Jay to delve into the making of the record and get an insight into their long-awaited debut album.
Photo credit: Mhari Dougal
TEMPER: Congratulations on the release of your debut album, The Modern Shoe Is Ruining The Foot! How does it feel to have it out in the world over the past couple of months?
Allan: We are very relieved! Since we recorded the album nearly 3 years ago now, there was a feeling in the band as things went on that it’d never ever come out. Of course we’re very excited for the people of the world to hear our album, it renews our feeling for the music when new people get to experience it. We’re all very happy with the response.
T: Take us back to the beginning of Any Young Mechanic. How did the five of you come together and when did you know you were going to release an album together?
Thea: We came together with this lineup knowing out the gates that we were going to make this record, Sam had the full 12 songs ready to go so our first experience making music together as this band, was to rehearse, arrange and record these songs. We’d all been playing in various other projects together, but The Modern Shoe was our first project in this formation. Once we made the record in late 2023, there wasn’t really a plan for the release, just that we knew we wanted to find a way to release it meaningfully beyond just chucking it up on streaming services. 3 years on, we feel incredibly lucky to have a team who believes in the record and who supported us to get it out in the world.
T: Can you give us an insight into the dynamic of the five of you? Which role has each one of you played in this album?
Jay: Sam writes the songs and brings them to the band room, where we all write and rehearse our parts together. We recorded this record in 2023, and I think these days we use more time to discuss and try out different arrangement approaches, sections to extend or cut, and which instrument everyone is going to play. But for Modern Shoe Sam had written about 15 songs and shown them to me, and we sat down and worked out a track list of which ones made the most sense to include. Once those twelve songs were selected we began rehearsals with the band, which were very focused - because of the no-edits or overdubs concept, we all had to concentrate on fitting the arrangements to the task, and make everything practically possible for the 3 days of recording booked. Whether now or then though, I think everyone’s personality and varied personal taste comes through in how they wield their instrument - I love talking about music with the group and hearing what catches their ear, and how that informs their own playing.
Photo credit: Mhari Dougal
T: It is a massive feat recording an album, let alone an entire live album with no edits. Was this always the vision for your first album? Was there a reason that pulled you to this decision creatively?
Sam: I’ve always tried to impose constraints on myself when making a record. The way that modern recording is, you have so many options for how something could sound that it can be completely overwhelming. It often smooths out your decision making because you can record everything clean and direct into the computer and figure out how it sounds later. I’ve definitely made albums that way, but I was starting to grow weary of it. So now I usually try to come up with some kind of technical restraint or concept for how the album I’m thinking about will be arranged and recorded. That usually means thinking about the songs and what they sound like they need.
In the case of The Modern Shoe I was tired of people talking about AI as if it was some kind of fait accompli for music. I wanted to make a record where human collaboration and community were totally foundational. So I decided all the songs would be performed totally live IE with no vocal overdubs or edits, and we would only use instruments that didn’t require electricity. My hope was to prove that documenting a band’s musical relationship in the room is still one of the most interesting ways to make an album - leaps and bounds more interesting than a record made with AI in any case.
To tell the truth though, I wasn’t thinking about The Modern Shoe as a debut album. When we were making it, it was going to be my third album under an old band name (Wake In Fright). I just thought it was the next thing I was doing. I thought it was the best thing I’d been involved in so far, but I definitely didn’t think it was the first. I think that thinking about the perfect debut album can be bad for musicians sometimes. Nobody talks about Bowie’s debut much. Just make a record every year or two and see what happens.
T: Was there ever a moment during those live sessions where something imperfect happened but on reflection came to be a happy mistake?
Jay: The record is full of those given we were leaning to mistakes conceptually. There are lots of mistakes on “classic” Dylan or Beatles records too, so as long as the feeling was right for a given take - that’s the one we used. Part of the excitement of making the record was going into the studio with only just enough rehearsal time, so there was still a feeling of danger - we still had to be diligent to get the takes right rather than being on autopilot. One ‘mistake’ I’m grateful for is in ‘Bare The Brunt’ - I usually do this shooby-doo-wop backing vocal in the later verses, but because of how loud the drums are on that song the vocal didn’t really get picked up. In retrospect I’m glad because it’s an incredibly goofy part and probably best as a live-only bonus, haha. However, there is a great ‘Yeah!’ from producer Sam Lench as he exits after his harmonica solo, which is a great unplanned expression of joy to have captured.
T: You have mentioned the album was recorded three years prior to release. What made now feel like the right time to share it?
Thea: Hopefully we never wait that long again! The reason we waited was because it took us a while to build a team and get some interest in the record - we didn’t know very much about how the industry worked before this. It was lots of emails, lots of waiting for emails and then lots of touring to new places so that we had a little audience to release the album into. We kept making music during that time, we’ve actually recorded a second record and are currently rehearsing and recording demos for the third.
Photo credit: Mhari Dougal
T: This album feels so comforting on a first listen and then continues to grow each play with such introspective moments of lyricism seen in tracks like ‘Write You Wrong’. Was writing honestly something that came naturally, or did it take time to become comfortable sharing?
Sam: I think I only feel comfortable writing honestly when abstraction is involved. Generally I try to write in such a way that I can see the truth of my own experience, whilst leaving room for other people to bring themselves to the song.
T: The 12 tracks are described as representing the sounds that excited the band at the time. What were you all inspired by musically and socially?
Luka: In terms of the sonic palette I think everyone came in with an interest in folk textures from various sources. Fleet Foxes, Big Thief, 60s Dylan. Thea and I in particular took a lot of inspiration from 2020s bands from London. I think some of that manifests on a track like ‘Every Time You Put Me Up’. Socially I think it marks a transitional phase in which we were trying to shed a lot of angst. Between our friend groups, our city and the world as a whole, it’s a reflection of the absurdity of contemporary life.. I will reiterate that we hate AI.
T: Despite only releasing your own music this year, you have scaled performing at Reading & Leeds and have toured extensively across UK, Europe and Australia. What have you taken from those experiences as a band?
Luka: It’s been lovely to play songs that are now old to us to people that have never heard any of our music before. It’s continually renewing. We’ve found that every stage is more or less the same, albeit some have more space than others. It’s really what you make of it. If you’re enjoying yourself on stage, the audience is going to enjoy it too.
T: If you had to put an information label on The Modern Shoe Is Ruining The Foot, what are the five words that would be written?
Allan:
Sam
Lench
On
The
Track