Imagine it: You’re in Italy for your bassist’s wedding – casually swimming in the sea and chit-chatting with assorted guests – when you strike up a random conversation with a ‘plus-one’ about music.
It’s an unusual way to happen upon the producer of your next album, but for Chemtrails, that’s precisely what happened.
Things well and truly clicked when Chemtrails’ Mia Lust and Laura Orlova told the ‘plus-one’ – aka Margo Broom – that the reference point for their future recording project was Touch The Leather by Fat White Family. “Oh, I produced that!” piped up Margo, who has also manned the controls for Goat Girl and Big Joanie, among others.
This coincidental collision led to them working together on Chemtrails’ third and latest album, The Joy Of Sects. The album is a distinct progression from their first two, Calf Of The Sacred Cow (2018) and The Peculiar Smell Of The Inevitable (2020), boasting a greater presence and revolving around a more plush, full-bass centre. It has a confidence reminiscent of The B-52s, Blondie or The Raincoats, with its scruffy, surfy punk roots poking through a sugary, bubblegum coating.
Mia: “When we started the band, we had no skills or knowledge. We had weird workarounds for everything. Then slowly we got better and the sound got bigger. But with this album, the songs were more rhythmic rather than just big, fat and heavy. So it needed better production. We tried to do it ourselves and it just sounded lo-fi. But not in a good, deliberate way. It just sounded shit. If you go lo-fi, you have to own it. That’s what the older stuff was like, 100% corroded and distorted. But for the new songs, we had to clean it up. We needed professional help.”
Laura: “We’d already recorded the whole album’s vocals. But we hadn’t thought about echo or dampening or anything. That was all wasted effort.”
At that point, Margo swept in and things changed swiftly. Chemtrails’ drummer, Liam Steers, was relatively new to the band at the time – he and bassist, Ian Kane, having recently joined – and he remembers the recording process well.
Liam: “I turned up to this farm building and they spent four or five hours setting up the drum kit with the mics. I thought it was mental. This guy was asking me what note I wanted for the snare drum. I’ve played in some punk bands that could barely tune a guitar!”
Laura: “The most important thing Margo said to us was there must be a narrative. We used to clog things up with lots of elements. She said there must be something to follow. She made our sound less ‘full’ at times but there was always an obvious thread.”
Mia: “It’s true. When you’re mixing stuff yourself you think every instrument needs to be heard perfectly. She was telling us about the psychology of it – that most people can only hear one, or maximum two, things at a time. Everything else is a texture, a cushion, for the focal points.”
There is most definitely a clarity to the album – the hooks are bold and plentiful – but there’s nothing overly predictable or formulaic about it. Chemtrails’ songs can twist unexpectedly. There are tensions and friction. The sound can be enticing one moment, drawing you in, and suddenly turn threatening or confrontational the next. As listening experiences go, it keeps you on your toes.
Mia: “I have two competing drives. One is to write the most poppy-pop-pop ever. The other is to completely sabotage it by making really horrible noises. It’s about not wanting it too overly, sickly sweet. I even have a word for it. Pollution. I say that I put in pollution. I get a riff that sounds nice then put in some nasty noise on top. It’s about trying to find a counter-point so there’s not too much of any one thing. If the lyrics are really sad, make the music happy.”
The lyrics – even the song titles alone – are awash with ‘pollution pop’. Consider, if you will: ‘Apocalypstick’, ‘Join Our Death Cult’ and ‘Detritus Andronicus’.
Liam: “A lot of people don’t want to admit they like pop melodies. So if you package it in a weird, sick way, they’ll say it’s real. Look at The Buzzcocks. They just wrote pop music in this raw, garagey way. Everyone thought it was punk.”
Mia: “It’s giving people psychological permission to enjoy pop music.”
One thing that gradually becomes evident from talking to Mia and Laura is that they are actually far more technically skilful than they first let on.
Liam, their drummer, agrees: “I mean it in the nicest possible way, their greatest strength is being so neurotic. They’re so meticulous. Before the tour, we recorded the practices and they went away and made notes. It made a really big difference. It’s made us so tight. And I now realise, as we’ve been doing some new songs, all I can really write is drums and bass. But they come in with everything ready. They know all the different parts.”
The live set reveals the fruits of their labour. They are a fastidious, well-rehearsed unit. Starting with Blurred Visions from the second album, the set then gives way to a good chunk of The Joy Of Sects. At The Golden Lion, Ian on bass had been suffering chronically with illness earlier in the day but the show is sufficiently drilled for him to battle through it relatively unscathed, Mia and Laura leading from the front.
Mia: “I suppose Margo did say to us that a lot of bands don’t put in the work and just expect her to make it all sound great. She said a lot of artists come with half-arsed demos, but that with Chemtrails, there’s never any dead time; every little bit of sound is there for a reason. And that comes from having worked on it a lot.”
It transpires Margo initially wanted a ‘mixed by’ credit on the album, rather than the more complete ‘producer’, such was the considerable input Mia and Laura had on the record.
Mia: “Maybe we were easy for Margo to work with. Or maybe she didn’t get to be as creative as she usually is. Although she did have lots of ideas. She played some ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ style one-note piano on Sycophant’s Paradise.”
Now that sounds like pollution pop.
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Listen to Chemtrails on bandcamp and follow them on Instagram.
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Words & media: Stephen Desmond
Live photos: Matty G
Event: Chemtrails were performing at The Golden Lion, one of many amazing live shows organised by Dark Matter Promotions
