Charlie Fink of Noah The Whale tells TONY CLAYTON-LEAthat they've moved on from nu-folk – if that's what they ever were
You’ve been feverishly working on your new album – were you champing at the bit to get out and play live?
Definitely. It’s a very different discipline to being in the studio, in that you’re almost two different people – one person is enveloped by getting the sound right, the other is concerned with giving people a good time. We’ve just come off the back of a short European tour, and spirits are high. I feel more comfortable in the studio, probably because I primarily think of myself as a songwriter, and a performer second to that, but I’m trying to embrace more of being a performer. Touring the last album we were just staring at our feet, but this new one has more of a hands-in-the-air sense to it.
Now you mention it, your live shows have been indeed been criticised as being quite static. Is that fair?
When we started we were definitely figuring things out in most ways. Last year, and to an extent the year before last, was very challenging in terms of the band. On our first major tour we encountered that broad divide of people who wanted to hear specific songs, and if they didn’t they got annoyed. Then on that same tour we had our gear stolen and band members leaving. But that passed and then we entered into quite a rejuvenating period, where we felt that all of the hard work had paid – or was paying – off. It felt easier to perform, and also much more natural. It still feels that way, thankfully.
Have you tired of the nu-folk tag yet?
It’s not so much of an albatross, but I think people would be quite hard-pressed calling us that after they listen to the new album, which is not at all what certain people would expect. You have to be realistic, and I totally understand that we originated from the folk idiom. I’m also very proud of that fact. I think, however, that we’ve evolved very much as a band. That kind of progress can sustain you over time, and once people get to hear the new album they’ll think of us in those terms less and less.
Is the nu-folk tag as much a stereotype as a perception? It’s contrived, isn’t it?
It’s never a good thing in whatever you do to be summarised by such a short, pithy phrase or tagline. And the connotations of the phrase “indie-folk” or “nu-folk” can summon up incorrect images, as well.
How do you counteract or defuse those perceptions?
I don’t know. It’s funny, because you have this divide of how you perceive your own progress and how you think other people perceive it. As much as possible I try to stay true to – or aware of – my own perception. If I feel as a songwriter or as a performer that what I’m doing is true, then I’m happy. I do the best to not think too much about what other people are saying.
Lyric content, song content – is it easy or difficult to come up with different ways to address familiar emotions?
I was very keen this time around not to rely on old lyrical tricks, or to continue with what felt too comfortable. I tried to write in third-person narrative, to see things and express feelings that I would feel but that weren’t necessarily my own. That said, I don’t think there’s any less of me on the new album than on previous records. It’s just a different way of expressing it.
Last Night On Earth is more cinematic than your previous two albums, isn’t it?
That’s true. In fact, on the last album I made an extended music video for the album tracks. I’ve got a very limited experience with film — it’s done mostly for my own pleasure, but I was trying to incorporate some kind of movie treatments, trying to imagine a movie scene or moment.
The band name is an amalgam of director Noah Baumbach's movie, The Squid the Whale. In a different universe, would you prefer to be Baumbach or another one of your favourite directors, such as Wes Anderson?
Definitely not. I’m very happy being Charlie Fink.
Noah The Whale play Whelan’s, Dublin, Sunday April 3, and The Academy, Dublin, Sunday May 8
