By Quentin L. (translated by Liam Porter)
16.06.2020
Amongst our music playlists, it's the more obscure groups which are so often our favourites. In an ideal world we would have them be world-renowned classics. Today, we've chosen to exhume one such of these treasures, titled "Market Traders" which was released in 1992 on the album Santa Barbara, the High Llamas' first album. It is a work which strikes us as British right down to its lyrics, whether or not its writer had exactly intended that to be so.
But who better to explain its intentions than Sean O'Hagan himself, the singer-songwriter behind "Market Traders"? At that time, O'Hagan had just newly formed the High Llamas. Two years before, he had released the first High Llamas album (simply titled "High Llamas"). Moreover, this release came with the disillusion of the Microdisney, the group in which O'Hagan had already proven his talents.
The song like "Market Traders" was written at a crossroads in O'Hagan's life. Moreover, it was a crucial point in his career. Musically speaking, he was "coming out" - writing music strongly influenced by Brian Wilson - and meanwhile discovering the rich musical traditions of Latin America.
Hi Sean. Before we get on to "Market Traders", I'd like to know what were your aims when you began a career in music?
I don't think that I had any conscious aim at that point... it was just a very strong urge to write songs. I had all the melodies in me and I just externalised them. I didn't have the impression I was accomplishing anything special. Since I was very small I had these melodic lines which would run through my head so it became very natural for me to make music.
Even before you picked up any instrument?
Yes, well before I learned to play guitar, I would write songs in my head. I think that many children do this without really realising it: it's a means of escapism. It's natural and instinctive, and I try to retain this even when I compose a complicated set of songs. When at the end you have all that complexity standing upon a kind of of lullaby; retaining a certain naivete, then you'll have something magical, I think.
In a documentary, Ray Davies explained that, for all the songs which he had composed, he was looking for an unknown classical air which his big sister had played at the piano when he was 13 years old. And the poignant thing about this story is that his sister had died of a cardiac arrest that very day. Is this your approach? Is there a search for something which you use to escape, artistically?
That's a very moving story and I would say that for certain songs you effectively try to attain a sort state of of nirvana - it's a sensation of elevation. There are all kinds of art that access something ineffable, which one is searching for in the act of doing it.
In "Market Traders" and in the majority of your songs besides, there is a certain nostalgic or melancholic mood. Where does that come from?
I think that sadness and beauty go hand in hand. There are lots of preconceptions in pop music. We very often used to associate pop with youth and vigour, which really makes me laugh. It is quite interesting, writing a sad or introspective pop song - perhaps nostalgic too - in which you inject a certain kind of happiness. It's a kind of happy sadness and you get to something that's real. There are many wonderful songs that seem to strike that balance - for example John Cale or Brian Wilson. Also in folk music. Lots of people need a little nostalgia. It is a ingredient of many films too.
And is there any song by another artist which you would have liked to have composed?
I would say "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times", written by Brian Wilson for the Beach Boys. I think that this song approaches perfection, or very close to perfection. The chord changes are incredible and there are two particular chords which fit to each other so perfectly that you just don't want them to ever end. It is that well-constructed. At the level of the lyrics, they speak about someone in the thrall of isolation and solitude. It's very profound.
Regarding "Market Traders", which has been a staple of my playlist since its release in 1992 - which memories do you have of its recording?
If I rightly recall, when I wrote it I was looking to write a song in the style of John Cale. I was a huge fan of everything he had ever done. But at the same time, I was thinking of a kind of song that would be good for FM radio: a nice little ditty that would grow on you with the synths and everything else. I wanted it to sound very American but with a slightly bizarre set of lyrics - very clichéd lyrics reminiscent of that kind of love song: "we're gonna make it to the stars!" So I thought up a story of a guy who's just going about one day and starts having all these funny ideas come to him in broad daylight. So all in all, it's a song about a kind of person who likes to go cycling! These are the moods I really enjoy creating, which are pretty "jazzy" and aren't my typical style, but in which I'm searching for a sound which makes you think of East-Coast jazz.
Is it one of those songs that people ask to be played live?
It's been a long while since I played it. Back then, I remember that the French audiences really liked it. It has been so long - you know - sometimes it gets mentioned but it's very different from the music I play these days. It's funny how you bring it up because I feel like I'm talking about another person!
Did you always intend for it to be a duet?
Yes absolutely. Anita Visser was a member of the group at that point. She was from Santa Barbara in the USA (which is where the album title came from) and I wanted a kind of conversation which was sung. But I was thumbing my nose at that fashion (you remember) at the beginning of the 90s - Nirvana, Pearl Jam and those guys who wore baggy trousers, so I went for the contrary style - an "arty" style of American FM radio of the 70s.
When I heard the song for the first time in 1992 it made me think a little of Michel Legrand's musical dialogues, so to speak. Are these kinds of musical comedies a part of your music influences?
I would love to say "yes", but at that time I only knew "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" and I didn't know anything about Legrand or his whole oeuvre. When I relisten to this song of mine today I would make exactly the same comparison! It was all done very instinctively. What I like the most is the wonderful accent of Anita Vesser, which provided a contrast with the very British sound of the song title.
Speaking of influences, where did your attraction to the Bossa Nova sound come from, which pervades a good deal of your work?
It's the French artist Louis Philippe who introduced Bossa Nova to me. One day, he had me listen to Milton Nascimento and - wow - I discovered this fascinating music! It completely obsessed me. I began to follow the BBC program "World of Thomas Patton" who covered the genre. I discovered that these artists had in turn influenced the golden years of 60s and 70s music! When I was younger I had heard Sergio Mendes talk about Tom Jobim and Frank Sinatra's Bossa Nova standards which one heard of so little. The day I discovered Jorge Ben, Joyce, Elis Regina, Chico Buarque, Joao Gilberto, Ivan Lins and many others... The list is infinite. It's like a source that never dries - I set myself to study and listen to them on a loop. Then, I started to play nylon-stringed guitars exclusively. I absorbed and assimilated these influences and made them a little part of myself.
The first time I heard "Market Traders", it was during Bernard Lenoir's "Black Sessions" on [the radio network] France Inter: can you remember it?
Very well! And with a lot of fondness. The trip from London to Paris... the grand studios of France Inter and the excellent sound during the concert - it was really magically and truly a very happy memory!
What inspired the lyrics to "Market Traders"?
A little town North of London called Hichin [sic: "Hitchim"]. I had been there while I was a child. It was a Saturday, the market day, and the sun was shining bright and the day was full of colour. When I think of the day, I realize that it was really another time - the world before we had experienced so many great changes like what happened after September the 11th and all the other more recent political upheavals.
When will your first solo album, released 1990, be available on streaming media platforms?
This album does belong to me. I have no right to release it, actually. It appeared on Demon Records and they must be a little too old-fashioned for that. It's without a doubt for that reason that it's not come out online - I can't do anything about it myself.
Thank you immensely for this interview, Sean, and to conclude it, a few words about the present: a fews months following the release of your new solo album, "Radum Calls, Radum Calls..."...
...I am releasing a new single, this coming 18th of June, a song inspired by the confinement called The Wild Are Welcome. It will be available on Drag City and I sing it with my daughter, Livvy O'Hagan, who is also co-composer!
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