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Month: October 2013
A Tour of Manchester’s Finest Falafels
Photo: Maddy Hubbard
Manchester is a great city for the deep-fat fried chickpea, with a multitude of options from the Northern Quarter to Curry Mile and even out in the ‘burbs. However, not all falafel were created equal, so here’s a handy guide to help you traverse the terrain:
Kukoos
Price: £3.50
The most recent addition to Oxford road’s many lunch-break snack bars, Kukoos describes itself as bringing the sunshine to Manchester, and I’m inclined to agree. The bright orange decor, soothing Middle Eastern tracks and piles of mouth-watering super-food salads presented in huge wooden serving bowls are enough to brighten anyone’s day before you’ve so much as had a mouthful. Luckily, the food tastes as good as it looks. The falafel balls were warm and crispy, although perhaps a little dry, you get a generous helping of the salads of your choice, including a creamy curried coleslaw which lent the falafel an Indian flavour, and although the portions aren’t the largest it’s certainly filling. Kukoos is ‘street food’ however, so seating is limited, especially during the lunch rush.
Special ability: You’re given the selection of a huge selection of sauces ranging from mango to mint alongside the classic tahini and hummus.
Perfect for: A between lectures lunch-stop
Go Falafel
Price: £2.50-£3.50
Go Falafel does what it says on the tin: a tiny, fresh falafel and juice bar. Although this is very much a specialised takeaway with no seating at all and nothing on the menu but falafel, this allows them to focus on doing what they do best, and they do it very well. Service is quick and friendly, often they’ll give you a free falafel ball to chew on whilst you wait for a fresh batch to be cooked up. The falafel balls are prepared on site and taste particularly fresh and flavoursome in the wrap. There’s a small range of salads for you to choose, including a vinegary red cabbage salad, spicy potatoes and pickled gherkins, all of which miraculously taste delicious together. The sauce is suitably generous and the wrap is soft but strong enough to hold the bulging falafel in place. The new branch in town is a great addition to the original curry mile outlet, with a slightly larger variety of salad.
Special ability: The falafel balls are cooked to perfection, crispy but never dry.
Perfect for: Food on the move
Photo: The Mancunion
Fuel
Price: £4.30-£6.20
Withington’s Fuel has a wonderful atmosphere. A warm, cosy vegan and vegetarian cafe/bar with a slightly kooky design – cosy leather sofas for a chilled out lunch and higgledy-piggledy candle lit tables for an intimate date. They offer great drinks, with a large range of beers, ciders or freshly made coffee and incredible milkshakes, along with friendly fast service. They also have regular evenings of entertainment, so if you pick the right night you could watch a band, singer or comedy act over dinner. On the falafel front there are two options; the light bite falafel wrap or the more expensive main meal falafel burger. The wrap comes with both humus and caramelised onion chutney, which added a sweeter flavour, and the falafel balls were cooked perfectly, with a basic lettuce and tomato salad both packed into the wrap and alongside it. The falafel burger was more substantial, a typical veggie burger with gherkins, a slightly spicy tomato relish, salad, and Fuel’s amazing chunky home-made chips. The falafel options at Fuel make for a tasty meal, although they are a whole different breed of fried chickpea from the street-food options, offering an English take on this middle-eastern staple.
Special ability: the lovely atmosphere makes it a joy to eat in Fuel.
Perfect for: a wallet-friendly meal out or date.
Album: Etherwood – ‘Etherwood’
Released 4th November, 2013
Med School
9/10
As the most recent signing to infamous Hospital Records imprint ‘Med School’, much anticipation has surrounded the debut album of young talent Etherwood. He doesn’t disappoint.
Simple piano rolls and crisp drum production define his signature sound on ‘Weightless’, whilst allow for areas of development as the album progresses. ‘We Are Ever Changing’ and ‘Say Life’ build on this style with floaty vocals and unusual sample choices that reveal new dimensions to his sound.
However, Etherwood shows himself as more than a first-class producer. His authentic approach to lyrical writing is what creates profound opening track ‘Begin By Letting Go’ and contemplative anthem ‘Hold Your Breath’ that feature his own vocals on arguably two of the album’s strongest tracks.
It is this honest tone that proves so captivating as Etherwood makes no attempt to conform to passing trends in electronic music today. With a background as a guitarist for British producer Jakwob, ‘The Time Is Here At Last’ replaces piano rolls for heartfelt guitar licks and can only be described as a timeless classic through its embrace of past, present and future styles. It is this emotional directness that gives the album such a fresh and relevant sound.
Etherwood creates great music for music’s sake and as a result, manages to achieve what so many producers can’t – a signature sound simultaneous to astounding versatility. Although his music generally translates best when featuring vocalists that span from Rocky Nti to Georgia Yates, as lyrical meaning builds upon the complexities of his production, Nu:Tone collaboration ‘Shattered’ explores the weightier depths of Drum and Bass and is a testament to Etherwood’s ability as a versatile producer.
The relevance and sincerity of ‘Etherwood’ will doubtlessly leave you wondering if this is the future of Drum&Bass to come.
Etherwood’s self-titled album is out on the 4th November and available to pre-order NOW from the Hospital Shop and iTunes.
Interview: Lucy Spraggan
One year on after her first X-Factor appearance, it’s all change for Lucy Spraggan. She is currently in the middle of a 19 date UK tour, making a stopover at Manchester Ritz on Monday 28th October, her debut studio album Join the Club has been released and her singles ‘Last Night (Beer Fear)’ and ‘Lighthouse’ have made the charts. Lucy and I had a chat about life after X-Factor, the tour, and her album.
Despite being three days in to her first UK tour, Lucy is remarkably calm and laid back over the phone. She described her shows so far as “a laugh”, and she’s particularly looking forward to playing Manchester. “I can’t wait, I’ll be seeing all my mates and stuff, it should be such a laugh. It’s going to be packed out”, she explains. In 2012, Lucy auditioned for the X-factor in Manchester, but she highlights that this element of nostalgia isn’t the only reason she’s looking forward to the show. “I used to go out in Manchester a lot actually, so I’ve got quite a big loyal fanbase there”.
The tour comes off the back of her debut album Join the Club. The album features several tracks from her self-released album Last Night at the Zoo as well as a few new songs. Lucy spoke to me about the difference being in the studio has made, saying “the support that comes with releasing something professionally is great. It’s very exciting [to have the album out]. The chart position that we got as well”. Within a week of its release, Join The Club hit number 7 in the official albums chart and number 4 in the iTunes chart. I asked Lucy if she had expected it to take off so well, to which she replied “Not at all really, it just did! It’s all very exciting and it’s been a lot of hard work”. Despite having shot to fame via the X-Factor and a top 10 album, she still seems very down to earth and humble. A distinctive feature of the album and Lucy’s musical style in general is the fusion of genres. Lucy described her own tastes as, “I like sort of hip hop and a lot of rap music so I take a lot of inspiration from that. It’s more truthful and quite genuine”, and this influence is very evident in her album, all the tracks are very expressive and at times emotional.
With regard to the X-Factor, Lucy’s very thankful about the opportunity it has given her, despite pulling out due to illness in week 6 of the competition last year. “I just think it’s nice to have such a platform like this. There’s a huge variety. I’ve been doing it for so long and not really getting anywhere so it’s nice really, it makes it worth all the hard work before that”. During the competition last year, Lucy broke with tradition and performed many of her own songs with her guitar as a backing. This could suggest that the X-factor is no longer about generating another samey pop act, but Lucy was quick to deny this, “That is what the X-Factor’s about but it wasn’t when I was on the show. It’s also about what you make of it”. She admits she was “that person who’s like ‘oh well he’s off the X-Factor’”, when asked if she feared being judged by this background as opposed to the hard work and perseverance behind it, but seems proud of her experience on the show. “If you want something and you love doing it so much you will actually do anything to get it. I guess the people that slag it off are kind of jealous because they’re not doing something about it”, she affirms. “Sometimes people are like ‘Oh yeah I’m going to go on the X-Factor’ and you have to remind them they probably won’t get through the first round.”
In Lucy’s first audition for the X-Factor, she mentioned how nervous she felt before performing. So I asked her if she still gets that feeling before a gig. “I’ve played T in the Park this year, and lots of big festivals; it’s nerve wracking at first, you don’t know what to expect but then it all turned out amazing. Me and the band get more excited than we do nervous”. As a testament to how things have changed for her, Lucy’s now performing and touring with a band, “It sounds so much better and it’s just good fun”, she told me.
Lucy is appearing at the Manchester Ritz on Monday 28th October, and her album Join The Club is out now.
Should students become bankers to end poverty?
At face value, the question seems ridiculous. Yet, it is just one of many controversial questions being asked at The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) and its answer may surprise you.
80,000 Hours is a careers advice service with a difference. Working within the CEA they work to discover the most ethical way you can spend your 80,000 working hours.
When we think of words to describe bankers ‘ethical’ is not likely to be at the top of our list. With their reputation for greed, recklessness and the pursuit of self-interest at the expense of society, ‘ethical’ is probably the last word we would use. But for students wanting to help the world’s poorest, 80,000 Hours suggests the high-flying world of finance might just provide their best opportunity.
Research carried out by charity evaluator GiveWell suggests we can save a life for as little as £1500 by donating to the Against Malaria Foundation. Investment bankers can relatively confidently expect to earn somewhere in the range of £8m to £40m over the course of their career.
Giving What We Can, part of the CEA, encourages students to pledge 10 per cent of their income to charity, but some go further. The Further Pledge asks you to give all of your income over a certain level to charity.
£50,000 a year is a comfortable salary, more than twice than the median income – over a lifetime that works out as a lifetime earnings of £2m.
If we assume that our prospective banker is nothing special and put their earnings at the lower end of the pay scale. We are still left with £6m worth of malaria nets to be handed out.
In other words, over her entire career our banker can earn enough to save 4000 lives. Even if our banker cut the amount she gave a year by £50,000 she will still have given enough to save over 2500 lives. Keep in mind these are conservative estimates, many investment bankers can earn significantly more and save many more lives.
When 80,000 Hours co-founder William MacAskill came forward with the case for earning to give in 2011 it shocked many. With public opinion firmly against banking it seemed a bizarre time to come forward advocating the profession. Was it a publicity stunt, an attempt to rehabilitate banking’s tarnished brand or was MacAskill just being contrarian?
When I spoke to 80,000 Hours researcher Thomas Hendry, he made a nuanced case for earning to give.
“We got a lot of publicity for earning to give, we think that often this can be a very good option over the non-profit sector. But that’s not the only option we consider. For example, the people working at 80,000 Hours aren’t earning to give.”
Guiding every decision at the CEA is the question ‘which action will have the greatest impact at reducing poverty?’ For people like 80,000 Hours founder William MacAskill and Giving What We Can Executive Director Michelle Hutchinson its public advocacy and groundbreaking research.
Replaceability is vital when considering whether earning to give is the right option for you.
For example, training to become a Doctor may mean that you save lives on a daily basis, but jobs in medicine are highly competitive. If you choose not to train as a doctor, the place you free up will be filled immediately by someone as equally qualified as you. The direct impact of becoming a doctor on saving lives is marginal.
“If you take a job at a non-profit, you may be making less of an impact than you think. If this were a competitive job, then you may not be as productive as hoped.”
Replaceability also casts doubt on the idea that many high-earning careers cause more harm than good. Wall Street trader Brooke Allen responded to MacAskill arguing that there was no amount of money a securities trader could give to make up for the harm caused by the collapse of the mortgage industry.
Investment banking jobs are some of the most competitive jobs out there. If you reject the profession for ethical reasons, another person will take the job instead. The only difference is that now none of the money is going to alleviate extreme poverty and the person taking the role will likely be less inclined to think ethically.
Ethics still remain an issue, but the benefits of earning to give dwarfs the harms of working in an ethically dubious industry such as high finance. In a recent blog post 80,000 Hours estimated for the harms to outweigh the benefits of a Goldman Sachs employee giving half their earnings to highly effective charities, Goldman Sachs would have to be responsible for five per cent of all deaths in the world. Keep in mind that Goldman Sachs represents just three per cent of America’s financial industry.
80,000 Hours’ ideas are not just amusing thought experiments. The arguments they make have persuaded people to put their ideas into practice. One example is Jason Twigg, an MIT Computer Science graduate who chose to write software for a high frequency trading firm. Despite having the potential to be a successful academic, working in finance provides him with the greatest opportunity to save lives.
Most students and academics tend to have strong opinions on what constitutes fairness in society and the need to alleviate extreme poverty in the developing world. Yet when push comes to shove, very few actually follow through with what their ideas demand. We are left asking the question first posed by Marxist philosopher Gerry Cohen – “If you’re an egalitarian, how come you’re so rich?”
You cannot make the same charge against 80,000 Hours and Giving What We Can. Translating theory to real quantifiable action runs through everything they do. Giving What We Can Executive Director Michelle Hutchinson commented on the organisations origin.
“Toby Ord is a philosopher who always thought we ought to help people much less fortunate than ourselves – that we should take our duty to help much more seriously. His friend said ‘If you really believe that why aren’t you giving your money away?’”
This along with the problem of working out how best to help those in need lead to Ord founding Giving What We Can.
Peter Singer – the philosopher who inspired the work of CEA – is the perfect example of someone who puts theory into practice.
After arguing that failing to give to those in extreme poverty was tantamount to refusing to rescue a drowning child because you did not want to be late for work – Singer has given 25 per cent of his income to Oxfam.
Singer’s analogy between failing to save a drowning child and not giving to charity may seem shocking. Yet, the principle Singer establishes is that when we can reduce large amounts of suffering with little cost to ourselves is hard to argue with.
Giving 10 per cent of your income to charity may seem a lot, but Giving What We Can point out earning the median UK wage puts you in the richest five per cent globally.
Part of the reason Giving What We Can primarily talks to students is that most students are used to living on a modest income. Hutchinson points out that you can pledge to give 10 per cent of your future income.
“We have a lot of people who join as students. Students typically live on a very small income and they are very happy, they don’t mind not going to fancy restaurants all the time. If someone thinks about it as a student, they realise that even if they are not going to be earning massively more in the future, they will still be richer in the future and can make plans to live on 90 per cent of that income.”
She concedes it will be more difficult for people who already have financial commitments.
Giving What We Can stresses the importance of not just giving but giving effectively. They evaluate charities on how well they can help people in the developing world. Rather than focusing on individual charities, they look at research into healthcare to find the most cost effective interventions.
Some interventions can be one thousand times more effective than others. Giving What We Can focuses on two – stopping neglected tropical diseases and preventing malaria.
“We try to find charities that implement those particular interventions – at that point we go into the charity asking questions such as; … Are they implementing the intervention in the way the World Health Organisation recommends? What is the charity’s budget like? Can it absorb more funds?“
When discussing charities at Giving What We Can, with all the numbers flying around its easy to forget the solutions being proposed will help real people, a problem Hutchinson is all too aware of.
“There has been a lot of psychological research showing that reminding people of numbers and reminding people about money in terms of costing less and costing more immediately takes people out of the altruistic part of the thinking process.
“We try reminding people that there are actual real people in these equations, what it actually means for a charity to be 100 times more effective than another, that means you can save 100 lives where you would have only saved one. Each of those lives is worth just as much as the one. They each have their own families, their own plans and hopes.”
Giving What We Can’s research shows that we have the potential to do a lot more good than we would have otherwise suspected.
“Before I joined Giving What We Can I had no idea just how effective some of these treatments are, 50 cents for a tablet of Albendazole allows you to treat someone for four different prevalent intestinal worms. It’s really impressive, almost unbelievable for that little money to be able to help so much.
“Therefore, if I give a substantial part of my income, I could help a lot of people.”
One difficulty with getting people to focus on the most effective charities is that they tend to focus their donations locally.
“Charities who work in our local communities tend to be less effective than ones that work in the developing world because we are lucky enough to have the NHS and a government social security system that means that if a problem is fairly easy to solve and fairly cheap to solve, it plausibly already has. While there are people around us who do need help, it tends to be the case that it is very difficult to help them.”
Throughout both 80,000 Hours and Giving What We Can is a healthy optimism about our potential to solve extreme poverty and a willingness to put ideas into action. By backing up noble sentiment with rational calculation they are able to have a huge impact and should act as an inspiration to us all.
Feature: Is Glasto Worth the Hype?
Glastonbury, a festival that was initially free and a safe haven for travellers has become the jewell in Britain’s festival circuit, with the amount of people there each year making it temporarily the third largest city in the South West. With the demand for tickets now so high and outweighing the 120 000 supply, the Glastonbury ticket sale is now a frantic button bashing event that leaves a lot disappointed at the outcome. This year tickets sold out in record time although See tickets failed to sell a ticket in the first half hour, leading to just a few disgruntled customers. See tickets then responded by tweeting “Thanks for all the advice. Never knew we had so many IT consultants following us”. This measured response did little to ease the storm – not the best way to encourage customers to buy through them in the future.
Is the early wake up worth it though? Would you be better off seeking cheaper alternatives and still have just as much fun? Naysayers insist Glastonbury has transformed from a place of escapism for everyone, to a very much middle class love-in – with the price of a Glastonbury ticket now above £200 you can understand some of their gripe. But if you compare it with the other large festivals in the UK, they are all in the same price bracket, and if you’re paying per act then Glastonbury wins hands down. There are alternatives overseas, but with travel expenses this can work out just as pricey. But what about the infamous Glastonbury weather, surely that’s a major turn off. However last year Glastonbury (much bemoaned for its wet and muddy conditions) was bathed in sunshine throughout the weekend.
Whilst Reading and Leeds have strayed from their rock roots, Glastonbury has stayed true to providing a diverse range of music. Where else could you see half of a career-spanning set from The Rolling Stones, then go and indulge in Olympic opening ceremony contributors Fuck Buttons atmospheric electronica. Each year Michael Eavis books a mix of established acts and Glastonbury newcomers, making the line-up appetising for young and old.
Music continues long into the night as well – Glastonbury is well known for special guest DJ sets, notably Shangri La (Thom Yorke was there last year), or see Fatboy Slim play in a giant Arachnid. There’s a wide range of literature, theatre and comedy on show too for all the Travel Agents who’ve gone because they think they have to. Even a casual stroll around Glastonbury delivers extraordinary sights, such as a man playing a piano whilst riding a bike. A place where the weird and wonderful become the norm, you should definitely visit Glastonbury at least once in your lifetime, but if you’re like me you’ll be hooked after your first five days there, and want to spend at least a couple of months in your life wandering around worthy farm.
Live: Goo Goo Dolls
Manchester Academy 1,
16th October, 2013
7/10
If you’ve ever happened to bring up the Goo Goo Dolls in conversation, you’ve likely received one of two responses – either “Christ, are they still about?” or “they did ‘Iris’, right? My mum loves that song.” Such is the current status of Buffalo, NY’s most famous sons; it’s been fifteen years since a slew of ballads and jangly rock anthems made them MTV and pop culture icons. Fast-forward to 2013, and, with newly released tenth album Magnetic in tow, the band are keen to prove they’re not just another nostalgia act.
After a warm-up set from the newly reformed, leopard-print loving Flesh for Lulu, the Goos kicked off proceedings in curiously low-key fashion with new album track ‘Last Hot Night’. However, it wasn’t until the early one-two punch of fan favourites ‘Slide’ and ‘Here is Gone’ that they properly got the crowd going. Their hit-heavy, slickly executed ninety minute set largely depended on their more subdued recent albums – save for 2010’s moody Something for the Rest of Us, which was omitted completely – all but ignoring the scrappy grunge pop of their formative years.
The band themselves seemed genuinely glad to be back on the live circuit, as frontman John Rzeznik – with his trademark mega-fringe hidden under an unassuming beanie – regularly bantered and shared personal stories with the crowd between songs, and bassist Robby Takac grinned and headbanged along enthusiastically to even their softest tunes. ‘Black Balloon’ and their breakout track ‘Name’ were highlights, both showcasing Rzeznik’s husky baritone, with the only real lull coming in the form of recent single ‘Rebel Beat’, as its electronic flourishes and layered sound came off comparatively flat in a live setting. Takac also stepped up to the mic on occasion, his piercing rasp carrying the band through some of the more upbeat tracks in the band’s catalogue such as ‘January Friend’ and ‘Crash’, providing brief, light hearted interludes in a show that was otherwise fairly ballad-heavy.
The band held off playing signature song and instant tearjerker ‘Iris’ until near the end, and its unveiling received raucous applause and an enthusiastic sing-a-long from fans; the years had clearly not numbed its show-stopping potential. The Bon Jovi-esque ‘Broadway’ ended the main set, which was capped off with a brief encore containing a vamped-up cover of Supertramp’s ‘Give a Little Bit’, which ended the gig on a positive, almost celebratory note.
On paper, their performance was expertly delivered; one thing that became immediately apparent is how the Goo Goo Dolls have, in the intervening years between Dizzy up the Girl and Magnetic, turned into a polished, veteran live band. Whether this is entirely a force for good, though, is unclear – they’ve managed to iron out most of their kinks and flaws, but there’s also a sense that they’ve lost some of their energy and intensity along the way. This could also be down to the setlist choices, as they seem to mellow out more and more with every passing record.
In short, the Goo Goo Dolls are a likeable and enjoyable live band, and deserving of their longevity, but I left the Academy with the feeling that I wished I’d been able to see them the first time around instead.
Interview: Gentleman’s Dub Club
Pioneers of Reggae revival with modern dance floor dynamics, Gentleman’s Dub Club are a group of musicians, engineers and writers who are bringing the authenticity of live performance back to the UK Music scene. With their long awaited debut album FOURtyFOUR due for release on 21st October, I caught up with the band to discuss the creative process, social commentary and a live set up that’ll knock you sideways.
What is the concept behind the new album FOURtyFOUR?
It’s really a combination of loads of different styles that range from Ska to Reggae, Dub and even some Grime in parts. We tried to reflect the heavy weight bass and fun in our live shows and capture that on record.
How important was it for you to have this variety of influences in your sound?
Well, as there is a lot of us, the influences mainly came from the music that we all listen to and like as people. The record was produced by our bass player, Toby and he did the vast majority of the production. Although the main concept was to capture the energy of a live show with different tempo and beats, the album mainly revolves around Bass music.
In five words then, how would you describe your sound for those who aren’t familiar with you?
High energy Bass driving grooves!
Track ‘Riot’ has a very important social message. What inspired this?
‘Riot’ isn’t so much about London in particular or even social commentary. It’s more about the state of mind present in today’s youth. The track was quite a personal thing to Johnny (lead singer) and aims to reflect where society is at now. I’d say it’s more about how society is losing its humanity.
Are there any other tracks on the new album that are politically motivated?
‘Give It Away’ is about looking at peoples’ journeys. The band always have deep lyrics about human struggle alongside the party vibes.
With so many of you who make up Gentleman’s Dub Club, what is the creative process like?
It can be hectic, but generally there’s three or four main writers, they’ll bring a tune to the band, Johnny will think about main line melodies and lyrics and then we’ll all play it live and work out different bits of the structure. Normally however, the foundation of the song is usually written before it all comes together.
How important is it for you to have a live set up at your gigs?
The hardest part is to translate between the live and the record. Lots of artists have experienced that and so we’ve built up a reputation of consistently strong live songs that aim to smash it every time. The live is so important. With us it’s all live, no backing track. As the tempo swings around, it allows us to speed up and improvise and that’s the secret to a really tight live show.
What has been your favourite live show that you’ve done in the past and why?
Outlook festival! Its always absolutely crazy with 6,500 people watching our show this year. This summer in Boomtown was also amazing.
We’re looking forward to hitting Hit&Run at Mint Lounge in Manchester on the 21st October. Last time we played Manchester, it was at the Ritz and it was absolutely packed.
What other artists are you really admiring at the moment?
Submotion orchestra are fantastic live and really good musicians. Also people like Congo Natty, who consistently put out amazing music.
What does the future hold beyond the release of this album?
We’re already looking at the summer for next year and festival season is always massive for us. We’re just starting to push into Europe, last year we played in India and now we want to tour France, Germany, Spain and America. That’s the big plan, to tour. We want to continue writing too although FOURtyFOUR took us 7 years to complete and so it’s a big accomplishment! Now we’ve found our method and formula for writing, it’s an exciting time.
You can catch the Gentleman’s Dub Club live at Mint Lounge in Manchester on 21st October by grabbing your ticket HERE.
Review: Captain Phillips
Tom Hanks is one of the few actors who can play an everyman so convincingly and still be Tom Hanks. It’s this remarkable ability which propels Captain Phillips through the rough waters of films based on real events and comes out a storming success.
With a story of this calibre there is very little need for alteration. Based on the events in 2009 when the crew of Maersk Alabama were taken hostage by Somali pirates, and a subsequent US military operation was launched to rescued the ship’s captain who had been taken with the pirates after they left the ship in one of its lifeboats, is the sort of material for great cinema.
The producers have provided the material with a crew of master filmmakers, chiefly among them Paul Greengrass, whose unique style is perfectly suited to this story. The jittery, hand-held camerawork which has become synonymous with Greengrass (and copied by so many others) has at times been distracting, even slightly nausea-inducing, in some of his past films. But in Captain Phillips, where we witness the terror and drama of the ordeal almost exclusively from Phillips’ perspective, Greengrass’ intimate camerawork, aided by cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, creates a totally immersive experience. From the moment Phillips reads where he’ll be posted at the beginning of the film, through to the extra precautions he takes once on board and up until the green dot appears on his radar signalling the pirates’ arrival, Greengrass sets the level of tension at high and it only grows from there.
Greengrass and co have also made the brave decision to portray Phillips’ pirate captors as more than faceless villains. But nor does he try to humanise them to the point that you would pity them: the opening scenes where the pirates’ leader, Muse (Barkhad Abdi), recruits his team on the beaches of an impoverished Somali village, establishes that piracy for many young men is simply a job where there are none else to do- a sentiment expressed by Muse when confronted by Philips about why he had chosen a life of crime. But the potential for extreme violence always hovers, despite their claims that they are ‘merely fishermen’. Most remarkable of all is that despite knowing how this story ends, the threat that Phillips might not survive is constant almost right through to the final reel- a testament to Greengrass’ direction and Hanks’ brilliantly measured performance.
There are moments in the final half hour where the temptation for the film to turn into a Team America vs Team Evil Somalia is real but resisted. This restraint pays off and the climatic rescue leaves you neither cheering or weeping, but echoing the exhaustion and relief felt by our protagonist.
If Captain Phillips needs to be faulted, then its running time is slightly longer than perhaps necessary, a crime most Hollywood movies are guilty of these days, but given the real life event stretched out for five days, you’d forgive the producers for wanting to emphasise the duration of Phillips’ detainment. Besides, when Hanks is giving one of his best performances in years, a few extra minutes with Phillips and his captors in their cramped lifeboat is hardly a chore.
★★★★
Album: The Dismemberment Plan – Uncanny Valley
Partisan Records
Released October 15th, 2013.
6.5/10
Back in 2011, after a session of trawling the internet for 90s post-hardcore bands, I stumbled upon the track Girl O’clock by The Dismemberment Plan. The track instantly struck a chord with my mid-teenage, angst-ridden self; Travis Morrison’s stuttered, awkward musings about his sexual frustrations paired with perhaps one of the tightest yet off kilter rhythm sections ever to grace rock was exactly the catharsis I needed. After buying the seminal Emergency and I vinyl reissue, The D-Plan went on to soundtrack my latter teenage years, so it’s easy to see why I might have difficulty accepting the harsh reality that their new release- the first since 2001’s Change may not be the glorious return of one of indie rock’s most intelligent bands.
Sonically, Uncanny Valley has much in common with Change featuring what some would call a more “mature” sound than their 90s discography. Perhaps the albums greatest strength lies in its focus on punchy, well-crafted pop songs. At less than 40 minutes, it doesn’t outstay its welcome, and ultimately it proves quite satisfying. The melodies are catchy, with the experimentalism downplayed in favour of simpler arrangements. The rhythm section is still as solid as ever, and many of the use of samples on tracks such as “Invisible” adds a welcome new dimension to the sound.
Fundamentally though, Uncanny Valley is missing the magic that made The Plan so notable. Travis’ vocal delivery is on form but he no longer has much to say, resorting to songs based on anecdotes about Brian Eno’s dad. Whilst the song writing is solid, and there are a few standouts bookending the album, the end result brings to mind latter day Weezer, having lost the energy and freedom of their previous material in exchange for a more plastic sound.
Uncanny Valley is by no stretch of the imagination a bad album; rather it is just a bit “meh” for lack of a better word. That being said, The Dismemberment Plan little else to prove, so perhaps it was foolish of me to expect Emergency and I part II. Rather, what they have produced is a solid set of new material that is fun to listen to and more crucially, should transfer well to their live shows.
Boy, 14, charged with sex attacks
A 14-year-old boy has been charged with a string of sexual assaults near the University of Manchester.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was due to appear before Manchester magistrates court this morning, charged with five counts of sexual assault.
Three of the incidents happened near the University campus.
Police investigating the crimes also arrested an 18-year-old man, who has been released on bail pending further investigation.
Det Chief Insp Colin Larkin said today, “I am extremely grateful to the public for all the calls we received this weekend after putting an appeal out for information in connection with these incidents.”
From the Vault: U2 – Achtung Baby
How do you follow a landmark album of the 80s? With a landmark album of the 90s of course. In 1987 The Joshua Tree made U2 superstars, with its mix of painfully earnest themes and grand, expansive sound. After trying to repeat that success by taking the Americana angle to its nth degree on its follow up, the scatter-brained Rattle & Hum, they decided the only way to avoid musical stagnation was to go away and, as Bono put it, “dream it all up again.” The result was a dark, danceable, unabashedly kitschy record; Achtung Baby was the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree for good.
Opening track ‘Zoo Station’ acts as U2 mark-II’s manifesto. “I’m ready for the laughing gas”, Bono howls, his once preachy bellow now distorted and fuzzy, “I’m ready to let go of the steering wheel”. With its grinding guitars and industrial beat, the song introduces listeners to the Zoo-era U2, a leather clad, wearing-sunglasses-indoors group of men who were ready to party, and do the most un-U2 of things – occasionally laugh at themselves.
Singles ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’, ‘Mysterious Ways’ and ‘The Fly’ carry on in a similar vein: funky, futuristic pop tunes steeped in swagger and irony that showcase Bono’s newfound embracement of his rockstar image. ‘Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses’: a slow-burning torch song that’s as bitter as it is sweet, and mega-hit ‘One’ are about the only remnants of The Joshua Tree’s epic formula, with the rest of the songs leaning towards the trashy and throwaway.
The most deeply personal and melancholy record in the band’s canon, Achtung Baby is one of the few albums that manages to make you want to dance and mope at the same time; ‘Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World’ is the only light and breezy track here. The album’s climax, the closing trio of ‘Ultraviolet’, ‘Acrobat’ and ‘Love Is Blindness’, is one of the most spectacular in pop music, and serves to make sure the album doesn’t end on a happy note: they’re all ruminations on failed relationships inspired by The Edge’s personal life.
Achtung Baby gave the band their much-needed second wind, as well as a return to critical (and monumental commercial) success, and still stands as their creative high-water mark, an era-defining snapshot of the early 90s.
Album: Special Request – Soul Music
Released 21st October
Houndstooth
8.5/10
Paul Woolford is currently on a very hot streak. He produced the biggest house anthem of the summer in ‘Untitled’ and has also recently released a string of original-topping remixes of already excellent tracks. Now, on Soul Music, Woolford airs his more formidable side, under his Special Request alias.
The album is deeply nostalgic for the sound of 90s raves, but at no point does it feel like a cheap throwback or a rehashing of the past. The jungle influence is at the forefront of most of the album, but Woolford modernises the material with streamlined production, and by throwing more instrumental flourishes into the mix. Opening track ‘Forbidden’ is driven by an aggressive bass line and crashing drum sounds reminiscent of the 90s era, but is also decorated by a serene harp-like strumming. ‘Undead’ is underpinned by piano chords akin to those heard in many of Paul Woolford’s recent house hits.
However, acting as Special Request gives the producer license to be a lot more boisterous and the rave spirit pervades Soul Music. In fact, it’s inescapable. This is due to features like ‘Soundboy Killer’ and ‘Hackney Parrot (Special Request VIP)’ sampling MCs from such events: “Can you please clear the stage? All you’re doing is jumping the records … so just get off the stage, get in the crowd and have a party”. It’s impressive how Woolford manages to utilise so many aspects related to consuming music in a live setting without them sounding ostentatious or out of place when listening alone in your room. A wheel back embedded into a song? Sure. Gun shots firing over a Lana Del Rey sample? Absolutely. It all fits into the context of this album which captures the hedonistic party atmosphere so excellently.
Indeed, the first time I listened to ‘Hackney Parrot (Special Request VIP)’ a delirious grin spread across my face and the words “so good” involuntarily escaped my lips. This is certainly a piece of music that impacted my soul. With Tessela being another producer presently crafting his productions with the crashing breakbeat sound, it’s unsurprising that a joining of forces between the two is the standout track of the album.
The album is very long, totalling 23 tracks across 2 CDs. However, artists such as Anthony Naples, Kassem Mosse and Anthony Shake Shakir provide remixes that diversify the sound, meaning it doesn’t stagnate.
Soul Music showcases an artist at the top of his game channelling and developing the sound of raves when they were becoming a phenomenon – it’s instantly classic.
Top 5: Halloween Costumes
1) ‘In the regular world, Halloween is when children dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In Girl World, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.’ Unless you’re Cady, of course. Her dead bride costume is a movie classic.
2) ‘I told you Siamese cats, not Siamese twins!’ The twins’ Halloween-costume-gone-wrong in A Cinderella Story is probably not one you’d want to copy!
3) Georgia as an olive in Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging. This is definitely one of the funniest fancy dress costumes we’ve seen!
4) Friends: Monica’s fancy dress party. The rabbit suit may be where the one obsession stems from: it’s definitely something special! And Monica’s Sindy in Grease-style catsuit is a classic.
5) And finally, Halloween film fancy dress at its best: Hocus Pocus. Sarah Jessica Parker is almost unrecognisable under those eyebrows! This would be so much fun to recreate for Halloween, especially the hair!
Interview With Jeremy Deller
Hannah Summers with the help of Matilda Roberts and Maddy Hubbard (visiting from the Food and Drink section) interview Jeremy Deller about his upcoming exhibition, ‘All that is solid Melts into air’, kick started at last weekend’s Manchester Weekender at our city’s beloved Manchester Art Gallery. After giving us a tour of the exhibition, Deller indulges us with his thoughts on his exhibition and Manchester itself.
Your show focuses on how the industrial revolution has greatly influenced music, has it influenced art in the same way?
That’s a really difficult question. I mean [L. S.] Lowry is the main example, but it is more music that has been influenced by that environment. Lowry literally painted that world, even if it was a slight confection. He depicted it, whereas these musicians channelled it, it’s subtler.
Is the influence of industry still prevalent or is it something else affecting the music of today?
Dance music, maybe has [roots]. The digital revolution has obviously influenced music, in tonnes of ways, not least how it’s consumed, how people listen to it, how people share it, how it’s made. Dance music in the 80s, a lot of it was all made on computers.
Part of the exhibition shows scenes from an acid rave overlaid with audio from the mills.
That’s a very direct connection I’m making between the sounds of industry and digital music. Repetitions and beats [making mill sounds] but also those parties, in the North-East and North-West at least, took place in disused factories and warehouses, in former industrial spaces.
Do you think Manchester’s music scene has somewhat declined from then?
I don’t know much about the music scene but I’m sure some people would be very upset to hear you say that. I mean ‘Oasis’ might be the last huge band from Manchester. But ‘Take That’ are from Manchester, or around.
Quite a lot of your work focuses on Manchester, for example the ‘Procession’ in 2009, and your ‘History of Time’ which makes connections between different music scenes in Manchester, do you feel you’re drawn here or does it just happen?
No I am. I like being out of London. I’m from London, my parents are from London and I like not being in London, to see things slightly differently. [The Procession] was for the [Manchester International Festival] so it had to be. But I knew I could do something with Manchester like that, just because there is so much going on.
Did this exhibition start with Manchester or the Industrial Revolution?
The revolution came first but then they wanted to show it here. And it makes sense to have it here, especially this section. (Deller points out the intricate drawings and photographs of the ‘Scuttlers’ – gangs of young working-class Mancunian men.) And the audience is less cynical here. In London you see tonnes of stuff and people can get a bit blasé.
When you curate a show like this do you see the end result as almost an artwork in itself?
It can be. It might be, that’s not for me to say. It’s definitely a different kind of show, you wouldn’t get this show from a traditional curatorial perspective, there are some strange bits to it, there might be bits, that shouldn’t be here.
Do you approach curating in the same way you do creating your own work?
No, you just carry on the way you are and try not to think about it too much. It’s for other people to judge you.
Interview: Eats Everything
Few producers in the history of dance music have made such a rapid and far-reaching impact on the Electronic music scene as Eats Everything aka Daniel Pearce. We caught up with the larger-than-life beat maker in anticipation to the newest Electronic festival to storm the North-West, the Bugged Out Weekender.
Gobbling a path across clubland with unstoppable force, the Eats Everything sound has proved impossible to pigeon-hole with journalists and fans alike fighting tooth and nail to claim him as their own. “I suppose I’m harder to pigeonhole because I don’t really make tracks that sound the same as each other. I don’t have a signature sound per se, I just make music I like and hope that people enjoy it as much as I do.”
You can’t help but admire Eats’ determination and commitment to playing the music he believes in. His signature sound changes with the times whilst you will often find him playing anything from Disco to Jungle if you go to the right place.
“I’m not really into this 90’s house/garage stuff anymore” he muses, “that kind of died for me a year or so ago. I am really into techno again, which I used to be into when I was younger and have been incorporating a lot more of it into my sets of late.”
However, despite his high reputation among House-heads nationwide, it was only a this year that Dans brain child Edible came to fruition. How, I ask, did he manage to storm the scene so quickly? “Track ‘Entrance Song’ definitely gave me my big break” he answers, “but at the time I had no idea how successful it’d be”. I made it in the summer of 2010 and it was rejected by 5 or 6 labels before Pets picked it up in March 2011.” Similarly, the success came out of nowhere. “None of us had any idea just how big a track it would be. I think people are always on the look out for something new to latch on to and at that time that track may have been it. Who knows, but I am glad it worked!”
But the Eats Everything wave didn’t stop there, as the last twelve months have seen Eats win DJ Magazine’s ‘Best British DJ’ whilst becoming the first artist to have ever done two BBC Radio 1 Essential Mixes within the space of a year. “Although I produce, I’ve always seen myself as primarily a DJ.” Dan elaborates. “I have been DJing for 21 years and it’s the only thing I ever wanted to do. Production is just a tool to make it possible.”
This experience has earned Eats a reputation envied by many as one of the scene’s most on-point party starters as proved by last year’s off-the-cuff set with Claude Von Stroke in Ibiza. What started off as a casual lunchtime spin to 40 people finished nine hours later to a crowd at least ten times bigger. “I never plan sets, ever, I just go and see what the vibe of the party is and try and compliment it as much as possible.” The owner of this particular club then went on to say that in 10 years of living on Ibiza, he’d never witnessed a party flow so naturally. “I’ve hardly have had a bad gig in the last two years really! Playing at Bestival, the Amnesia Closing, Enter @ Space on the terrace, I’ve had so many great sets. I’m a very lucky chap.”
As the conversation draws to a close, I ask Dan when we’ll next be seeing him up North. “Well, next year I will be playing my third Bugged Out Weekender on 7-9th March. I love the music scene in the North, it’s a great place to party and DJ. Obviously the north was at the forefront of the early house and rave scene and it’s really right up there now with the clubs in Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. There are so many respected DJ’s I’m looking forward to playing alongside at Bugged Out too.” Hosting many of the industry’s finest, the festival is quickly building up hype due to it’s return to the North and original spiritual home.
In terms of new material, “I just released a collaboration EP with Catz n Dogz which is out now on vinyl and digital and have a big project I am working on with Justin Martin throughout the whole of November”. We can’t wait to hear the edible results.
Click HERE for tickets to catch Eats Everything alongside other headliners at the Bugged Out Weekender that will take place at Pontins, Southport on the 7-9th March.
Elaine Feinstein: an unconventional life
I’m in the lift of The Midland Hotel, on my way up to the fifth floor to speak to the award-winning poet, novelist, playwright, biographer and translator Elaine Feinstein, for what will be the first interview I have ever conducted. As well as having had 16 collections of poetry, 15 novels, three Russian poetry translations, seven biographies, two collections of short stories and one memoir published, she has written for The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The New York Review of Books.
Nervous doesn’t quite cover it.
Yet I needn’t have worried. As Feinstein graciously welcomes me into her hotel room (she is in town for the Manchester Literature Festival discussing her new book It Goes with the Territory: Memoirs of a Poet), her first concern is the room’s thermostat – it isn’t working, and the room is chilly. I suggest ringing down to reception, but she waves this idea away. “Never mind,” she says, smiling, “I’ll just leave my coat on.” I laugh at this unconventional solution, but as we sit down and she begins to talk about her new memoir, it becomes clear that unconventionality lies at the very heart of her career.
“The book examines what it has meant to my life to have spent so many years dedicated to poetry. Men are allowed to be withdrawn in a way that women usually can’t be, without putting some strain on their marriage and their role as wife and mother. I started much earlier than the feminist movement, when the idea of a woman dedicating her life to a literary career was quite outrageous”.
Being a woman wasn’t the only barrier Feinstein had to overcome as she made her way in the literary world.
“I’m Jewish, was brought up in Leicester so was provincial, and I’m a woman. So before I’d even started, I already had three strikes against me! But I was part of a kind of underground movement. While at Cambridge I edited a magazine called Prospect. I was a friend of Alan Ginsberg’s and published some of his poetry. I published Harold Pinter. I was part of a network of people who were interested in what was unusual. Also, Ted Hughes helped me in lots of ways.”
As well as being peppered with literary anecdotes, It Goes with the Territory is also about travel.
“I’ve travelled to the Arctic Circle, I explored the far-east when it was not really a traveller’s destination, Malaya, Indonesia, Singapore, I’ve led a very fortunate life.”
As my first ever interview draws to a close, I thank my host sincerely for her time.
“Not at all,” she says, “I’d like to read how you do, send me a copy will you?”
Despite my first interviewee being such a prominent figure in the literary world, I couldn’t have asked for a better one.
It Goes with the Territory: Memoirs of a Poet (Alma Books) is out now.
The American Adventure
St Augustine once said “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page”, and as time flew by I began to realise that I had yet to move from the first chapter of the world, having never left Europe.
I heard about the Work America program with BUNAC through a friend who completed the program in summer 2012. After seeing photographs of all his new friends and places he was visiting splashed all over Facebook, I knew I wanted to go to America too. Work America offered a great opportunity for me, to go to America alone and meet like-minded people, whilst earning money for travelling and experiencing American culture.
It took a lot for me to work up the courage to do it all by myself- travelling to America alone for the first time was a daunting experience- but looking back I don’t know what I was worried about. After applying to a range of jobs on the Job Zone, I was offered employment at Trimper’s Rides of Ocean City, an amusement park in a tourist town on the east coast. I willingly accepted and couldn’t wait for summer to begin.
I met and worked alongside lots of people; a mixture of Americans, Eastern Europeans, British and Irish Students. I first worked as a Games Cashier and then moved on to the Photo Emporium dressing people in old time clothing and photographing them. Living right above work was perfect and we all became really close really quickly, which meant I had a great social life outside of work.
Before I knew it the summer was nearly over. A group of us arranged to go travelling and we did a road trip down the east coast through the Blue Ridge Mountains and finished in Miami, then flying to New Orleans. I had the best time travelling and looking back, I loved every second of my summer; the only downside was that it all went by in the blink of an eye.
The best thing to have come out of the whole experience was meeting like-minded people who wanted to travel and do new things, but I’ve also added to my CV, improved my confidence, saw a different culture and travelled. All I can say is: what are you waiting for? Don’t miss the opportunity of a lifetime – to travel, experience diverse places, find new friends and make memories you’ll never want to forget.
Visit www.bunac.org for more information on Summer Camps, Work America, Internships USA and other work abroad programs.
Cornerhouse Pick of the Week: Le Week End
Paris, the romantic location, is no stranger to the wistful idealism of cinema. Through the eyes of a cinematic lens, it’s a location where every apartment overlooks the Eiffel Tower, the streets are paved with fantastic low-key restaurants, and the water supply must be pumped with aphrodisiacs only the French could understand. The material reality however, is that the city is a bugger to manoeuvre, the cost of anything could potentially bankrupt you, it’s very easy to fall over cobblestones, and, well, it’s full of the French. Navigating the poles of romantic idealism and bitter cynicism from too much bad experience is the 30 year wedding anniversary of Jim Broadbent’s Nic and Lindsay Duncan’s Meg. From the start the film gives a sense of a relationship with deep history, that these two know each other inside-out, have a working routine together, though their ties are getting strained. With this tension the film follows a movement where their relationship goes through several possible breaking points as we follow their romantic routines oscillating radically between ecstasy and anger; endearments and abuse.
If you are fed up of films which illustrate the ennui of bourgeoisie twilight years, this may sound dull and cliché. I thought I had that fatigue, but instead found myself irresistibly drawn into the possibilities of these characters. This is down mainly to the acting, where the central couple shine in their respective roles; Broadbent can summon a wave of pathos through listening to an MP3 of Bob Dylan, whilst Lindsay Duncan carries the weight of years of frustration through her telling bursts of vitriol and mischief. Supporting them, is Jeff Goldblum , who, in a marvellous feat manages to create the performance of a man who you would immediately want to punch in the face, but wouldn’t as the next thing he had to say would probably be pretty funny.
The navigation of emotional poles of experience in stressed situations punctuates the film’s narrative. The characters are burdened with a frustrated history that is reaching boiling point, yet there is a lot of love invested too, allowing the film to simmer things down and let matters settle with a delicate touch. This almost feels like Mike Leigh’s answer to Breaking Bad, where the explosive situations carry the weight of middle-class anger at failed opportunities and neglected desires. Yet instead of cooking crystal meth in New Mexico, there is a return to the graceful textures of Parisian romance, where a delightful ode to Godard’s Bande à part manages to evoke enough whimsy to keep you entranced with the possibilities of human vitality in Paris, and not angry at the bill it leaves at the end.
EXCLUSIVE: Interview with the creators of Monsters University
Robbie: At what point in the creation process did you decide to make a prequel rather than a sequel to Monsters Inc, as far as I know this is Pixar’s first prequel?
Dan Scanlon: I think really early on we just talked about ideas we wanted to do, as we wanted to make sure we had a great idea. And during the discussions we talked about the relationship between Mike and Sully which was something we loved from the first film, and in talking about that we decided that in order to explore that relationship further we would have to go back in time and watch how the relationship happened and that’s what really got us on the idea of a prequel. That, and then I think we got really excited about the idea of doing a college movie and having great big monster fun. That then really led to the story of Mike, a character who doesn’t get everything that he wants, which is something we haven’t seen in films very often and that’s what really got us excited about a movie prequel.
It’s funny you mention the university setting because when you think of films set at university there’s a certain level of sordid and raunchy behaviour which you wouldn’t see in a kids’ film. How do you reconcile the university setting with Pixar’s code of ethics?
Dan: What you talking about man (laughs) that’s not what my college experience was like. But you know we wanted that too and we realised as long as the characters are ruckus or wild or knocking things over and eating garbage that would sort of sub for any specifics.
You mentioned Mike, and I think that Mike is a more sympathetic character in this movie than he is in Monsters Inc. Was that a decision you made early on because he’s a younger character or because the movie is more focused on Mike, so you want to make him more likeable?
Dan: It really came out of his story and we knew if we we’re really going to believe in his dream he couldn’t just be the wisecracking guy. He had to have a sincerity to him if we we’re going to believe in his dream. So we changed his character ever so slightly as he was the main character. But we’re all different fifteen years ago so it worked in that way.
Billy Crystal is a brilliant comedian and known for his improv. Does he improv when he’s doing his recording, and if he does, how much of that do you incorporate into the animation?
Kori Rae: He definitely does and the hard part is that a lot of stuff is improved in sections we can’t really change. But we definitely use some of it in the film for sure. He’s such a great energy and he brought so much of that to his character and he did a great job of making Mike feel younger just by the energy that he has.
Kori, what was the process of finding a new director after Pete Docter’s great work in the first film?
Kori: Well we knew Dan had been an integral part of the story team on both Cars and Toy Story 3, and we knew he had the right sensibility to tell this story. Pete Docter was still pretty involved in the film as executive producer and we’d meet with him every week and he was a really great support for Dan. It was really important that we had a director who had a really solid footing in story as we knew this was going to be a difficult story and it came with its own unique set of problems so Dan was an obvious choice knowing his background and sensibility.
You mentioned the story and I wondered, after the revelations in Monsters Inc about the nature of ‘scarring’ and the fact that children’s’ laughter could power the city just as well, was there a risk that the premise of the new movie was undermined by the fact that they’re still trying to be ‘scarers’?
Dan: I think again, because it’s a prequel, we understand that concept and in the film we never show them really scare a child. We only see them scare the simulated children, so our hope was that since it was about his pursuit of this education that hopefully it would work.
I think it does work well. I have to ask about Helen Mirren’s casting. At what point did she come across as the ideal person to voice Dean Hardscrabble?
Dan: Actually originally the character was male and we just kind of defaulted to that and then at some point we realised we had a really great opportunity to open up the Monsters world a little bit and have a really great female ‘scareer’. We knew we wanted her to be someone who was very well respected, she was someone who was very talented, and someone with a somewhat scary dry wit and the whole thing started coming to Helen, and how much we thought she embodied all those things. We thought she could add so much to the character and she absolutely did. The first session I spent the first two hours with her just trying different takes with her on the character and she showed up with ideas on the character and she was excited to try all sorts of stuff. It was really amazing. I’ll be honest, I was intimidated at first about working with somebody so talented, but boy within a few minutes of talking to her and working with her- she was just a joy and it was a great time.
- © Pixar Post
Kori Rae and Dan Scanlon
As a student paper we’re interested to hear about your student experiences, how they informed your animation and whether you knew you wanted to be an animator and work at Pixar, or whether you had other ambitions?
Dan: I’d always liked drawing and film making and I went to college to study illustration and fine arts but animation was a part of it and was always an interest of mine.
I’ve got a cousin who’s an animator and he’s up in Scotland, and I wonder how does an animator in Scotland get the attention of a big animation company in California? Is it quite an international base you recruit from?
Dan: You know it’s about talent and no matter where it’s from and it’s all about practising your craft and getting as good as you can.
Kori: We recruit from all over the world so it is pretty international.
2014 will be a significant year as it will be the first year since 2005, I believe, that Pixar hasn’t released a film. Do you see it as a positive thing that you’ve stepped in to ensure the high quality of your movies continue?
Kori: For sure it was the right decision for the film. It just needed a little bit more time, a little bit more focus and bumping it a little bit is allowing us to do that. We know it has the potential to be an amazing film and it’s great that the extra time that will help us a little bit.
How long to these films take from the point of having the idea to the film being released? What is the time frame?
Kori: Around five years. Anywhere between four and six years. This one was just about five.
And at what point do start casting characters. Obviously you’ve got the main characters already, but what about the secondary characters?
Kori: It kind of depends when in the process the characters get fleshed out, and the story is solid enough on the page that we know who they need to be and then we can start thinking about who might be appropriate for that role. It’s usually a year/year and a half years into production that you start thinking about that. You might have an idea sooner than that if there’s a substantial character.
Dan, at what point the the creation process did you decide that you needed a bit more Steve Buscemi in this movie as we’re obviously very happy to hear his voice again?
Dan: We loved him in the first film and the fun of a prequel is seeing how people were different and we loved the idea he would be this sort of sweet, naive guy, or seemingly so, and we knew we wanted to fit him into the story and he had to have a reason to be in the story. He worked as a nice mirror of what Mike could have become if Mike really was obsessed with fitting, in the way both of them are at the beginning of the movie, and could have gone down the wrong road.
What have you guys got lined up? Will there be a return for Mike and Sully in the future?
Kori: There’s no plan for that. Dan and I are going to go back this week and wrap up Monsters University and go into development and think of an original film idea.
And take a holiday?
Dan: Yeah exactly.
Dan, what have you got planned ahead. Are you going to go the route of other Pixar directors who have gone onto live action?
Dan: I’m very happy at Pixar and it’s a real privilege to carry on exploring things here. Animation is where I come from and I’m very happy with that.
Why is it do you think that directors from Pixar have gone on to do live action work? Do you think it’s a style of direction at Pixar which lends itself to live action direction?
Kori: Both are about telling great stories so there is an element of that but the medium has less to do with it than just the story. Folk learn how to tell great stories whilst working at Pixar.
In terms of sequels and prequels, there’s been more of them from Pixar in the last few years. How do you make the creative decision, or how is it made, that this film warrants a new story and this one works better as a stand alone film?
Dan: There’s no real formula to it, it’s about when a good idea shows up. If a good idea doesn’t show up we really wouldn’t go down that path.
Kori: We have the luxury of having these films that have fantastic characters that we develop in the first of the films. So it’s truly a luxury to go back and re enter those worlds and go back to say Toy Story or Monsters or Nemo and get to tell these stories with these characters. We love that we do have these films that we can go back to if there’s a great idea.
And finally, on that subject, what can you tell us about Finding Dory? How much of that is it borrowing from it’s past films or is it going in a very different direction?
Kori: The truth is we don’t know. We’ve been away so long we’ve missed all the screenings and everything. We’re quite eager to find out what it’s about (laughs). I know it has Dory. Other than that we don’t know.