High Land, Hard Rain

Product Information

When it appeared in the spring of 1983, Aztec Camera‘s debut album, High Land, Hard Rain, was an acoustic-driven breath of fresh air. Led by teenaged singer/songwriter/guitarist Roddy Frame, the Scottish band offered a batch of memorable songs that deserved a broader audience than they reached at the time, from the infectious “Oblivious” and “Pillar to Post” to the introspective “The Bugle Sounds Again.” Frame went on to release another five Aztec Camera albums before recording under his own name. How much was Aztec Camera a group activity in the early days? Was it already basically you writing songs and presenting them to the guys, and then everybody getting them together?

I liked what he did when he was in the Yellow Magic Orchestra, and I also liked that album where he plays the music from Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence on piano. That's where you realise that the atmosphere around his compositions is actually in the writing – it's got nothing to do with synthesisers. [20] Released on the late-end of a Glasgow Postcard Records post-punk renaissance that included aesthetically similar if slightly more abrasive bands like Josef K and Orange Juice, High Land, Hard Rain wasn’t entirely peerless when it arrived, though few bands actually sounded much like Aztec Camera. Frame wasn’t much interested in adopting the synth-heavy new wave sounds that were so prevalent at the time, nor were big, dumb power chords his thing — although his cover of Van Halen’s “ Jump” at least proved that both could be adapted to his own playing style. Rather, the sound of the record leans heavily on crisp, clean guitar riffs, acoustic strums and flourishes of classical guitar, all in competition with his own charmingly witty lyrics. And “Oblivious,” one of the most enduring singles from the album, even ascends into a climactic flamenco-style guitar solo — not exactly par for the course in the early days of MTV. It was formed in a town called East Kilbride [in Scotland]. It’s just about nine miles south of Glasgow. We formed there and made our first couple of singles there and then finally moved to London about two years later. At the time the album came out, did you feel there were other bands moving in a similar direction to Aztec Camera, or did you feel like what you guys were doing was a bit outside of what was going on?That’s an interesting question. I was talking about this the other night. I still have the rejection letter from Rough Trade. We started out on Postcard Records, which was a small Glasgow independent label, and we were distributed by Rough Trade. And when I decided I wanted to leave Postcard to make an album, Geoff Travis from Rough Trade got in touch. For some reason, after the Postcard thing, they wanted to put our records out, and that’s when we moved to London and went to Rough Trade. Rough Trade was kind of the big indie label at the time, so it was a good place for us to go. I know that, in retrospect, some people think that maybe the album is emblematic of its time, and that it has things like Syndrums or drum sounds that were very ‘80s, but that’s what was happening at the time. And in fact, I never met a more sympathetic producer than John Brand. He really was great for me. I was young and he was very sympathetic, very kind, and he helped me make the kind of record I wanted. And I really wanted input from him, too, because I didn’t know how to make records. I was so young, and in those days it was still quite a mysterious experience for me to enter a recording studio, and he made it easy. I think those guys [Brand and Bernie Clarke] did a great job.

a b c "Aztec Camera interview 1988 #1" (Video upload). megumino2 on YouTube. Google, Inc. 28 July 2009. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 . Retrieved 29 May 2014. Debut albums rarely arrive with the kind of pristine aesthetic and sophistication of Aztec Camera’s High Land, Hard Rain. The first proper full-length outing from Scottish singer/songwriter Roddy Frame, the 1983 album isn’t always mentioned in the same sentence as similar classics from the same era, such as The Smiths’ similarly jangly 1984 debut, or Elvis Costello and The Attractions’ rich and soulful Imperial Bedroom, but the talent on display is by all means close to par with those heavyweights. Of course, when you take into consideration that Frame was 18 at the time it was written, High Land, Hard Rain seems like an even more outstanding accomplishment.

Shows

Frame changed the band's line-up numerous times over the course of its existence and, in a 1988 interview, Frame explained that the changes were underpinned by a desire to continually improve the quality of their music; however, he differentiated this desire from "blind ambition", whereby popular success is constantly sought after. [8] Early members included Owens ( bass) and Mulholland ( drums). [3] Gannon was a member from 1983 to 1984 before joining the Smiths, [50] while guitarist Malcolm Ross (formerly of Josef K and Orange Juice) joined the band in 1984 and played on the Knife album. [51] Other musicians [ edit ] As you were recording the album, were there any difficult choices to be made, such as the producers’ suggestions for how the songs might be presented? Was there anything that went against what you wanted to do?