Sheila Chandra: Part Two

Sheila Chandra Abonecronedrone Ganges Image

Five years have passed since Sheila Chandra released ABoneCroneDrone. While it might seem a long time, she's undergone throat surgery, worked on rehabilitating her voice, released two experimental EPs, and finally taken the plunge with the contradictory and playful This Sentence is True (The Previous Sentence is False), a collaboration with the Ganges Orchestra - longtime partner Steve Coe and friends - that continues her exploration of vocal possibilities, but with a sly sense of humor often at the fore.

"That's because it's a collaboration with the Ganges Orchestra and I can lay half the blame at their door!" Chandra explained. "The joke is that I've been an informal member of the Ganges Orchestra since they put out their first experimental 12" in 1983. So I can be a lot more irreverent with them, and Steve has a very anarchic, lateral sense of humor, and it really comes out on this."

It's different from her earlier work, in some ways rawer and more demanding. But, she noted, "that was part of the concept. There was a point where I felt completely allergic to gloss. After I'd put out Moonsung I wanted to listen to Japanese noise, to things that were really dirty and horrible. I needed to get away from that for a while, and I think some of that has come through."

It also gave her a chance to work with new technology, and examine the ways it could be used - or not used.

"There always comes a point where there's a divergence, and I feel impelled to push out beyond the bubble of what's expected."

"Neither Steve nor I had worked with a hard disk before, and we thought the EEPs and this would be a great opportunity to do that.We were both worried that computers can be slow and the process can take over and keep you from the vision of what you were chasing in the first place. Fortunately that didn't happen, because although we used the fact you have infinite numbers of tracks to make this album relatively complex in terms of the number of sheens and textures floated over the top of things like gossamer. But we also used it like a four-track, committing very early on to what we were chasing and what the structure was and how we were hoping to get there. So we got the bare bones constructed really quickly and then did a lot of refining. But not over-refining. We wanted to use a lot more adventurous effects, and a more distinctive flavor to each of the soundscapes." So while the vocals themselves were recorded on 2" analogue tape, with a session of "me making ridiculous vocal sounds, building up a palette of vocal textures to use as collage, then using the hard disk for what it's good at, mixing and matching and compiling and editing and adding effects. Then we transferred it back onto 2" to mix and warm up when did the additional production work at Rockfield. So we got the best of both worlds."

On listening it's immediately apparent that songs as generally recognized don't exist on the record. But they were never meant to. "It's not your average verse-chorus thing," Chandra agreed. "There are cues that lead you through the soundscapes, but they're not the classic ones. So it can be a bit disturbing. On things like "Is," where you're going isn't obvious at all. EEP1 and EEP2 were sketch pads, but I've never been afraid of putting something raw out. You can get locked into your own process."

At the same time, it's an extension of the work she's never done in the past, probably never more so than on "ABoneCroneDrone7," the record's climactic track, which demands a lot of the listener after the cuts that have gone before. "It's not so much that it's more serious, but the record's led you to a point where you're ready to concentrate, and it's also a coming-back-to-source point," Chandra observed. That has been my source right the way through from the Monsoon stuff."

"ABoneCroneDrone7" is a cut which "didn't make it onto the last album. We'd been thinking about it, but didn't get around to using it. And I think, in some ways, we didn't go far enough on ABoneCroneDrone. It's perfect for when it was put out and the way it was done, but it really wasn't as close to my experience of hearing things as it could have been, in the sense that what I hear is very quiet and you have to listen very hard for it. So we took it all back, and got adventurous in the sense of there being even less of me on the track. I think it's the most gorgeous, sonorous drone with so many patterns in it." And the original Monsoon connection was maintained when "we went to Rockfield, where Monsoon recorded "Ever So Lonely," and used Hugh Jones, who co-produced Monsoon with Steve to help. So it was great to seem the two of them together after almost 20 years."

In the past, it's taken Chandra a year to fully understand the albums she's released. With this, she noted, "it could be two or three years, because it seemed to fall together as a bunch of happy coincidences. Quite intellectual themes emerged, about being word-sensitive and vibration sensitive, and some tracks having no lyrics, others having no vocal except lyric. But they were emerging from my unconscious, in a fairly uncensored way."

However, hearing her performing it is unlikely. While he voice is now back to about ninety per cent, she won't commit to shows "until I'm absolutely sure, so not in the near future. But this album wasn't written with playing live in mind, and it's nice to have that kind of freedom."

Ultimately, it becomes about art. Not so much the responsibilities of the artist, but the contradictory urges that have always formed art's base. "I can't make myself submit to a set of rules," said Chandra, "and there always comes a point where there's a divergence, and I feel impelled to push out beyond the bubble of what's expected. But it must be so cozy and comfortable to belong without a struggle. Artists have this tendency to push themselves and forget there are basics they need. Beyond living in garret, there are psychological and social needs, because they're out there on the edge. And I've become aware of how isolated I am these days, because I work so much alone, and I haven't put an album out in five years."

Sheila Chandra: Part Two

"There always comes a point where there's a divergence, and I feel impelled to push out beyond the bubble of what's expected."

Related Articles in the 'UK & Irish Aritsts' Category...