The London-via-Lebanon/Grenada songwriter tells us about his new collection and the balance of embracing the modern and the keeping in touch with yourself.
“You know what the three most exciting sounds in the world are? Anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles.”
Delivered by James Stewart in Frank Capra’s classic, ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’, this line serves not only as the title of Skydaddy’s sophmore collection, but also as a hint at what it grapples with. In the relatively brief period since its inception, the brainchild project of Rachid Fakhre has always worn its heart on its sleeve, putting forward a distinctive mix of baroque, continent-spanning pop and more home-spun, bedroomy compositions. These two seemingly disparate disciplines are united remarkably well under Fakhre’s direction, creating a timeless sound that pays homage as much to Dean Blunt as it does to Kevin Ayers. The old-school influences are not limited to the instrumentation however, as the record’s lyrical themes also explore the trials of traversing today’s digital age when feeling more inclined towards the analogue.
‘Anchor Chains…’ listens like a celebration of an artist who knows exactly what it is they want to do, or in this case, a reclamation of what made them want to do it in the first place. There is a sense that the project is picking up where the debut collection left off, but launching into decidedly more ambitious, grandiose territory. Enlisting a large cast of musician friends, Fakhre embellishes his melting pot with a whole host of orchestration, group vocals and shifting passages to help shape the vibrant, colourful world of Skydaddy.
We caught up with Rachid on a storm-weary Sunday afternoon in St. Leonards, reeling not only from the howling weather, but from the previous night’s triumphant tour-opening show.
How was the show last night?
The show was great thanks. It was our first time playing some of the new songs as a band and I’m happy with how they came out. A little loose in places of course, but we have the rest of the tour to tighten them up. I was also a little nervous about not having a few of the instruments we usually have in the show like an electric guitar and a cello. But it did make things easier in some ways – we didn’t have to squeeze onto the stage, and soundcheck was a bit less of a shit storm for the tech! It was especially nice to be able to go home and shower and have a cup of tea before the show.
How have things been for the project in the year since the first record?
It’s been really good. I felt an overwhelming response to the first record. I think it had a narrative that resonated with people, even if that collection of songs was a lot sadder than the new songs. I was second guessing a lot of it in the run up to releasing it. Because we recorded to tape, there were some limitations with how many takes we could do, and once it was mastered it was completely set in stone. But I love the sound of that record.
Was this record also recorded to tape?
Only one song was, ‘Allicin’. The weird thing about this record is that it is the most hi-fi record made on no budget. We tracked most of it at Church Studios in London, thanks to the incredible altruism of Balász Altsach who brought me in.
I recorded ‘Allicin’ in LA at Sunset Studios thanks to Charlie Daniels, an engineer there who invited me in. That was the funnest day ever. They have grand pianos in every room that were all personally modified by Prince, who used to live in the studio. And then in the courtyard there’s a basketball hoop also put there by Prince – apparently, he was an incredible basketball player.
I read that ‘Allicin’ is a love song to garlic – what prompted these feelings and the song itself?
Well, garlic is a huge pillar of Lebanese cuisine, and I’ve always loved lots of garlic in my food. Perhaps we live in a country where the garlic is pretty weak? For me, a whole bulb goes into in a curry. But no, it came up in conversation with my friend Jules who mentioned Allicin was the chemical compound released when you crush garlic. I was like, oh fuck, I love that stuff. And then it’s a name of course, and as I’d met my girlfriend around the time I was writing it, it became about her, and garlic.
Given the ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ reference in the title of this project, what significance did the film have in its writing?
I think it’s rare and difficult for me to go into a project with a concrete concept. I’m always looking back and thinking, “What was the unifying theme here?”. In this case, I think it was a study of being a luddite. Around the time I was writing the record, I was getting to grips with the modern world, which has always been something difficult for me – I didn’t get a phone until maybe three or four years ago. But being a musician in the modern age, without a label or a manager, you need to be on the phone and on top of emails all the time. Coming to terms with having to constantly negotiate your creativity and your commerce is quite a hindrance on creating art. It’s a shame, because there’s nothing that zaps your inspiration like spending some time on your phone.
When it comes to ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’… I’d watched it recently and remembered the scene where George Bailey says to his brother “Do you know what the three most exciting sounds in the world are? Anchor chains, plane motors and train whistles”, because he’s such a fierce industrialist. I’d never thought about it that way at all, but perhaps it was it was time to. I guess it just tied in well with a conflicted approach to the modern world.
The record has a very clean, vintage pop sound. Had you been listening to anything that sent you in that particular direction?
I’d actually been listening to a lot of newer music coming out of London by my peers. I don’t really listen to that much when I’m making music, I guess I can’t think much about other people’s music. When it comes to the writing, though, I think every song I’ve ever written can be traced back to a song I’d heard and thought “I wanna make a tune that sounds like that”. ‘Mushrooms’ was actually inspired by Dean Blunt. There was one tune that he recorded with Elias Rosenfelt, ‘Smile Please’ – I thought it was the best sounding tune. With ‘Allicin’ I was leaning into a psych-folk thing – I’d been listening to a lot of Jessica Pratt. Kevin Ayers was also a big influence, as was the Jorje Ben Joro album ‘A Tabua De Esmeralda’.
By the end of the sessions, I was a bit conflicted between the grand modern sound of the record and my love for more raw-sounding music, so the ‘Age of Empires’ reprise was harkening back to making more bedroomy music – to bring it back down from this cosmic pop world…
How did you go about putting together and arranging the choir featured on the record?
I run a night called ‘Works in Progress’ at The Crypt in North London, where musicians can test unreleased material. The venue is right next to Church Studios, where we were recording for the record. I asked the artists who were playing this one event if they could come next door a little earlier in the day to record some choral stuff. There were about 12 of us, and we set up mics all over the studio and worked out the arrangements mostly on the spot. I only knew beforehand that I really wanted some atonal shouting in ‘Mushrooms’, and because they are all great singers anyway, it came out sounding really good.
Could you tell us a bit about the new music video for ‘Mushrooms’?
I called upon Charlie Henderson from Drug Store Romeos to make a video for me for the song as I love the videos he’s done for his own band. I thought the juxtaposition of a simple lo-fi green screen video against the expansive sound of the song and its somber subject matter would be interesting. Charlie is an exceptionally talented director and I loved all the ideas he had. He listened and took in everything about the song and the stories behind it and channelled them in a touching and funny way. I told him about a group therapy centre that a family member of mine runs in Lebanon and that’s where the ‘Spiritual Healing Centre’ section came from.