Going into the studio with all the ideas and demos, the band hadn\u2019t played them. It was a beautiful and simple idea; I had a focus and a vision for the record but experience has taught me in the past that that\u2019s sometimes not enough, and sometimes it is when you\u2019ve got everything in place, y\u2019know. It wasn\u2019t just about going in the studio and knocking out some good tunes. I had a proper idea of what I wanted. I had an idea of the character of the record and I had a feel for the whole colour of the album. It was going in with a framed picture of what I wanted to do.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nFor long-term fans of the band, the next sentence may come as something of a shock: “I\u2019ve said that this is an album that Cast needed to make and hadn\u2019t made,” he ponders, before elaborating: “Because of the rhythms within the songs, the jumping acoustic guitars and the rock and roll\/punky beats – the DNA of that is right through punk – but in my experience as a bass player in The La\u2019s, that was the jumping feel that we had.”<\/p>\n
“Two separate things came into one and I kind of realised that my experience as a songwriter is one thing. Although sometimes – I suppose you think you\u2019ve led two separate lives, if that makes sense.”<\/p>\n
Comparing Love Is The Call to two sacred cows is brave, but the songsmith is right to be pleased; the album is bristling with verve and energy. Furthermore, it\u2019s part of an album campaign for the makers to make such lofty claims. Unusually, if not uncharacteristically, Power has a thought process and justification:<\/p>\n
“I wasn\u2019t trying to parody The La\u2019s or All Change, I was just taking my experiences from the energy of both them bands that went through me,” he explains. “I was the bass player of The La\u2019s and then I went into guitarist, singer and songwriter of Cast. It\u2019s quite a rich heritage so all I really had to do was go to the place where they overlapped a little bit, for an inspirational thing. We really needed to make one more seminal record \u2013 at least \u2013 but I wanted to look like I was going to complete the circle. I\u2019m happy that this record seems to have completed the circle for me.”<\/p>\n
“I told the band to look at it like it was the last record we\u2019d make as Cast. That might be true, it might not be true, but the point is that I wanted to come full circle to where it started without trying to replicate something of the past. It never really left me. This album is a very present record, but I had to find my roots and inspiration again.”<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve got loads of good songs, stuff recorded, ideas here and there, but the idea from me and Alan (McGee, Cast\u2019s manager) having a conversation was, \u2018Look John, go away and write a fucking good record. You can do it, I know you can do it’. That\u2019s your ticket, in a sense, I don\u2019t need to justify why we\u2019ve done it. I don\u2019t need favours or a break off people. \u2018Make a truly great record that you\u2019re happy with at that moment in time. Then you\u2019re liberated from all that neediness’.”<\/p>\n
All this talk of the two debut albums begs a question: with five other albums since All Change was released in 1995, in his effervescency Power seems to be disregarding everything since then. Not so, he clarifies. “All Change is a seminal record, every track runs, it\u2019s got character and identity. I knew that was amazing but I was young and no-one was going to tell me any different. The band was on fire, it\u2019s a classic record.”<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m very happy with Mother Nature Calls, but in hindsight I could have done it a different way but it still did very well and it\u2019s perceived well, which is important as an artist, I guess,” he continues, warming to the theme.<\/p>\n
“There\u2019s some great songs on Magic Hour but I\u2019m not really that arsed about the rest of it. Beetroot…maybe it should have been a solo record, but there\u2019s some great songs on there. I know it\u2019s produced in a very different way, but maybe it was ahead of its time. Some people love it and some people don\u2019t. I don\u2019t really think about the past records.”<\/p>\n
“When I write my autobiography one day I\u2019ll go in-depth about Troubled Times, which was a comeback record and I haven\u2019t heard it for ages. Kicking Up The Dust was a unifying record for the band. I think there\u2019s some really good songs on it. The point is though, perhaps the identity of it, in having a pop song, a country song, a Floydy song and then a bouncing pop song…I don\u2019t know what the identity was of it, but there\u2019s some really good ideas on there because I was writing them, and it felt good. But I don\u2019t sit there listening to it. But this record feels like it\u2019s got the identity.”<\/p>\n
And with that, Power is off again: “Bluebird, for example, is a million miles away from Starry Eyes or Love Is The Call and all these intense, psychedelic stuff. It\u2019s got its place, and the last track (Tomorrow Calls My Name), how it ends, the sentiment, the calling, the reassurance to everyone, myself included…when someone sings a song like that, even the singer is listening, d\u2019you know what I mean? It moves me because I\u2019ve touched upon that combination of people\u2019s sounds. We\u2019re talking about an abstract piece of work, but this whole album, for me, runs.”<\/p>\n
“The Rain That Falls is Cast at their best, with a slight Stonesy groove. The performances are wonderful; Skin (guitarist Liam Tyson) and Keith (O\u2019Neill drums) are the best playing of any record. My playing, singing, songwriting, everything, is in a real sweet spot. I can only say my opinion but I feel it gives something back.”<\/p>\n
Indeed, Power is eager to offer warm praise for his bandmates too: “We ran through these songs for the first time since we recorded them and you\u2019ve got to take into consideration that we didn\u2019t have them all orchestrated when we went into the studio. They were ideas that were demoed and maybe they\u2019d heard them a little bit, but they couldn\u2019t have played them because they weren\u2019t formed.”<\/p>\n
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