Sans Pareil
Over the May Bank Holiday weekend BOO! chatted about creative inspiration, imagination, long-distance song-writing relationships and ways of escaping Medway, when we caught up with Tom, head honcho of Sans Pareil at the launch for their new album The Future Ooze.
Live and on record this project feels and sounds like it was created by a whole band of cohesive musicians, but Sans Pareil began as a song-writing duo, Tom Dowse and John Casey. The pair met at art college and have been writing and playing together ever since, initially forming Pariah in 2005. For the new album and the subsequent live dates they have brought together a group of old friends and musicians whom they have met along the way to create the full band. There is a long musical history between the band members with George Clift and Rory Batchelor, the guitarists, having previously brought Tom in as bassist in their band November Coming Fire back in 2001, so this may explain the sonic unity they seem to have on stage.
Not being great at French the first thing I wanted to know about was the name, what it meant and where it came from. Unusually from this everything started to make more sense. ‘It means without similar or without equal.’ Tom explains. Then he asks ‘Do you know Chatham?’ so I laugh and say I’m from there. He goes on to explain that he went to school in Chatham and had a lot of friends from nearby Strood where there is apparently still a pub named The Sans Pareil, on the top of Frinsbury Hill. ‘There were ships built at Chatham Dockyard called Sans Pareil and I like the idea that it’s like ‘we are the best’ but also we used to sit outside that pub in our tracksuits drinking cheap cider.’ Tom smiles ‘So it’s like a boast but it is also shit.’ This makes sense of things for me because this is a band that subverts what you would expect, who aren’t going to come out with a bland ‘We are the best’ statement, and who are lyrically and musically interested in the crap that surrounds us. Tom also insists that the name is pronounced without any trace of a French accent.
Tom explains that the song-writing process usually starts with him creating the basic structure of a song and then he brings in John, who for the last four years has been living in Derby. As their time together is now limited Tom tends to build up a bank of stuff to work on. The lyrics come last although it’s clear that a rhythmic sense of the song has been there from the start. Writing lyrics is both a pleasure and hard work for Tom, ’the hardest part.’ He draws inspiration from things he has seen, clearly a lot from when he was living in Medway (he has since moved to and settled in London) but also from his 3 year old niece, including the fabulous title ‘Snake Footprints’ which came from a name she gave to one of her drawings.
As songwriters, the pair’s first efforts were on violin and electric guitar and they had a baptism of fire when it comes to performing their music. ‘During the Easter holiday from Uni, John bought a £40 violin from a charity shop, and I had started to write a few songs from listening to Masters of War by Bob Dylan, which to me sounded like a hardcore band in one man’ Tom tells us. ‘So I had these ideas and I was howling at John in his basement in Maidstone and he was trying to play the violin. We worked really hard on it for four weeks to play a show at my Uni and were really excited, but within two minutes the bridge pops off his violin and all the strings fell off. I’d never really sung before either, so that was really humiliating. Afterwards we went outside and said “Shall we really keep doing this?” but we both said “Absolutely” ’. We laugh about terrible gigs and how they help to test how much you really want to make music. I tell our hippy festival story (turns out people in rainbow clothes who’ve been getting stoned for 3 days and jamming don’t really like loud shouty music – who knew?) but Tom’s story trumps this. He explains that hilariously they once somehow got booked for Luton Folk Festival, which they were surprised by but thought they would give it a go. It turned out to be a BTEC project involving a makeshift stage being set up outside ShoeFayre, so they played to passing bemused shoppers.
They’ve come a long way since Luton Folk Festival though. In April they played to a packed and appreciative crowd at Ramsgate Music Hall as the support for the legendary Pere Ubu. To launch the album the band played two busy shows, first at The Harbour Arm in Folkestone and then the next night at Bramleys in Canterbury. We talk about shows and pre-gig preparation and Tom talks about picking up his guitar every day, even though he doesn’t usually play guitar when the band play live (although he is tonight).
The album is out on Hot Salvation, a natural choice for Tom and John since George Clift, the label owner, has been supportive of their musical endeavours since the early days of Pariah. ‘When we started out with the violin and guitar thing, George would give us support slots with November Coming Fire, they were so encouraging to us. When we recorded an EP George recorded it for us, back when he was working in a school, working with us at the weekend, so they have always been involved. Now that we are out playing the new songs live George is also playing guitar for us, interpreting what John has written.’
Now Tom and John don’t have to focus on trying to keep a line-up together, but have a core group of musicians they can call on to play shows, they have been able to write more, with an EP due soon and already having a new album written. Since the show The Future Ooze has had some great write-ups and attention so there’s a real sense that the band is gathering momentum. At the end of the interview we talk about how much Medway inspired Tom but also why he left. ‘Being a six foot, Asian-looking dude who was listening to nu-metal living in Gillingham you are going to get shit every single day, so as soon as I could I moved to London. I love Kent but I couldn’t stay here’. He tells a story about some 30 year olds trying to provoke a fight with him and his friend at around 16 years old, asking ‘Who’s the best fighter of youse?’ and being saved by some passing squaddies. If you really listen to the record you can hear that Tom is mining this past and looking at the gutter but not as a cold observer or courting controversy, these are compassionate, heartfelt songs. Oh, and the gig was a blinder, no need to be the best fighter, just KO everyone in the room with tunes.
