For the reviewer whose pointed words inspired the name of Folie À Trois' opening track, The Parallax Method's debut album will be a bit of a disappointment. For readers of this magazine, however, it beautifully summarises what makes the joyously obtuse yet refined Derbyshire outfit so appealing.
"We've Learned Nothing is a reference to a review we had," bassist Ben Edis explains. "The person didn't like the first EP and recommended we put vocals in and started following more normal song structures. So when he reviewed the second EP he said, "They've clearly learned nothing from my last review.' And he's right. We have clearly learned nothing, because now we're doing more of the same. So we thought it would be funny to open with that statement; we're doing what we are doing and we're happy."
For the instrumental trio, getting to the precipice of their debut LP's release has been a long journey. Yet it's one that's been perennially defined by a collective desire to challenge and inspire one another, no one else.
"The Parallax Method is very collaborative," Edis continues. "It's all of us bringing ideas and chewing them over with one another, working through them and refining them and we vibe off of each other in that process.
"There were a lot of mistakes made when we were recording," he continues. "In a lot of moments we'd look at each other and go, 'Wait, what was that? That needs to be on the record.' So we'd have to listen back to it, figure out what the mistake was and incorporate it into the song. It's a very organic, evolving process between the three of us."
Much of this music has been written for some time. While drummer Dave Wright says that the music came together "much quicker and easier" than before, it was the recording and mixing process that the band were hell-bent on perfecting.
Says Edis, "Events of recent years forced us to record the album at home, and that's a double-edged sword. With recording at home, you haven't got the time constraints; you haven't got the price constraints either. So, you can really take your time and you can really work on things and explore ideas until you're really happy with them. The flip side of that is without those constraints, you can take a very long time to get it done because you want it to be right. It was very much a process of doing a bit, going away, doing a bit more, deleting it, rewriting and recording all over again. We were constantly mixing the album too, finding we weren't happy with it and starting the mix from scratch. It was a slow process and we're okay with that."
Having first toyed with their sound, pushing and pulling their compositions across two EPs - The Owl in 2015, and The Squid in 2017 - the trio were able to find their footing ahead of their first full-length. For guitarist Danny Beardsley, their lack of haste to finish the record has been a positive thing.
He says, "We've evolved between us [since getting together]. We've always been great friends, but we're a much closer unit and we're so very comfortable talking about each other's parts, whether that's positive or negative. Some of the coolest riffs have come from tweaks because of suggestions from the others and they wouldn't sound the same otherwise. I love how these guys pick apart my parts and I love being able to do the same with them as well."
"When we pick apart each other's ideas, I think it's easy to take that in the wrong context because it ...
"We've Learned Nothing is a reference to a review we had," bassist Ben Edis explains. "The person didn't like the first EP and recommended we put vocals in and started following more normal song structures. So when he reviewed the second EP he said, "They've clearly learned nothing from my last review.' And he's right. We have clearly learned nothing, because now we're doing more of the same. So we thought it would be funny to open with that statement; we're doing what we are doing and we're happy."
For the instrumental trio, getting to the precipice of their debut LP's release has been a long journey. Yet it's one that's been perennially defined by a collective desire to challenge and inspire one another, no one else.
"The Parallax Method is very collaborative," Edis continues. "It's all of us bringing ideas and chewing them over with one another, working through them and refining them and we vibe off of each other in that process.
"There were a lot of mistakes made when we were recording," he continues. "In a lot of moments we'd look at each other and go, 'Wait, what was that? That needs to be on the record.' So we'd have to listen back to it, figure out what the mistake was and incorporate it into the song. It's a very organic, evolving process between the three of us."
Much of this music has been written for some time. While drummer Dave Wright says that the music came together "much quicker and easier" than before, it was the recording and mixing process that the band were hell-bent on perfecting.
Says Edis, "Events of recent years forced us to record the album at home, and that's a double-edged sword. With recording at home, you haven't got the time constraints; you haven't got the price constraints either. So, you can really take your time and you can really work on things and explore ideas until you're really happy with them. The flip side of that is without those constraints, you can take a very long time to get it done because you want it to be right. It was very much a process of doing a bit, going away, doing a bit more, deleting it, rewriting and recording all over again. We were constantly mixing the album too, finding we weren't happy with it and starting the mix from scratch. It was a slow process and we're okay with that."
Having first toyed with their sound, pushing and pulling their compositions across two EPs - The Owl in 2015, and The Squid in 2017 - the trio were able to find their footing ahead of their first full-length. For guitarist Danny Beardsley, their lack of haste to finish the record has been a positive thing.
He says, "We've evolved between us [since getting together]. We've always been great friends, but we're a much closer unit and we're so very comfortable talking about each other's parts, whether that's positive or negative. Some of the coolest riffs have come from tweaks because of suggestions from the others and they wouldn't sound the same otherwise. I love how these guys pick apart my parts and I love being able to do the same with them as well."
"When we pick apart each other's ideas, I think it's easy to take that in the wrong context because it ...
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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 141