Girlfriends is both buoyant and sad, featuring tales of love and failure over rambling acoustic arrangements. The subject matter, obviously, is girls – a near-universal preoccupation for a certain kind of lovelorn young musician. I ask Smith the extent to which the songs on the album are drawn from life, and he tell me the lyrics are a mix of real and imaginary. “Some songs, in my mind, are about girlfriends that I’ve had, or combinations of girlfriends in the one song,” he says. “I guess it’s the default position for a lot of song writers to write a song about a girl. You don’t even think about it, that’s just what it’s about. That ‘I love you/I hate you’ stuff makes for pretty immediate subject matter. Some songs are about real people, but there are some that are just more general break-up and love songs.”
The album is also unique in that it feature backing vocals from a choir of indie all-stars, singing Smith’s insecurities back at him in bright harmonies. “A lot of the choir were friends and people I’d played with on album in the past,” he says. “Prue from Hammocks And Honey came and sang with me, as well as Laura Jean and some of the guys from Rat Vs Possum. Getting them together was easy – I made sure everyone was well-hydrated with alcohol, and got a couple of packs of Doritos. It doesn’t take much to rally a choir,” he deadpans. Smith had most of the choral arrangements worked out ahead of time, and the rest, he just improvised in the studio. “A lot of them are in unison or two-part harmony – it was more just about trying to get a big sound, a raucous, fun sort of sound, which I think we achieved.”
Smith delves pretty deeply into his own insecurities on the album, whose lyrics don’t hold back in their examination of inadequacy and self-loathing. When asked about this, he tells me somewhat sheepishly that he doesn’t often pay too much attention to the lyrics in songs, so has been surprised to find that others do, and have been grilling him on his mental state ever since. “I had no idea I was going to get my head shrunk when I released these songs,” he laughs. “I guess they’re a bit dark. Before I made this album, I was listening to the Beach Boys’ Party!, which is meant to be them at a party, but it’s all studio-manufactured – there are people in the background talking and clanging drink, and it has a really fun vibe to it. I thought it might be fun to do something like that, but when I wrote my songs, I think I got a big discombobulated, because they all turned out really dark. I’d like to make something lighter and happier, but it’s easy to be self-doubting … I’m working on it in my songwriting.”
Though Girlfriends has only just made its way into the world, Smith is already planning his next four records. “I have three coming out next year,” he explains. “I’ve written most of the songs, I just need to polish them up. There’s also a triple album that I’ve been working on, and I’m thinking about maybe putting that out the year after. That should be interesting – it’s 50 tracks or something. It’s kind of fun, just a massive thing to work on while I have nothing to do.” When you think triple album, you can’t help but think of The Magnetic Fields, but Smith tells me he doesn’t take any particular influence from them – or anything else. “I can’t really think of any influences regarding triple albums. There’s George Harrison’s first solo album, but I haven’t really listened to that either. You don’t need influences to make a triple album though; you just need a lot of songs piling up.”
BY ALASDAIR DUNCAN
