Interview with Simon Bradshaw

Shortly after analysing and discussing Simon Bradshaw’s album cover work, we were able to hold an hour Skype call with Bradshaw interviewing him and throwing questions at him from all angles. The Skype call was an inspiring experience and I am mostly appreciative my class and I were able to speak directly with someone of such high talent. As Bradshaw has worked his way through the music industry, it was fascinating and expressively interesting to listen to every word he said, rapidly making every minute of the interview valuable.

The purpose of the interview, was to allow my class and I to ask as many questions and queries we had. During the interview, I made sure I was confident and clear and this allowed me to ask some of my questions in which I was longing for to be answered. The questions I produced and felt were most fascinating and intriguing were ones where I thought ‘out of the box.’

The answers I received from my questions came as a slight shock as Bradshaw almost took his music life as a comical humoring phase instead of a serious chapter in his life. However, I was glad we were able to video call him through the use of modern technology. So my class and I could hear him as well as see him. This was an effective source as I could put the work heard with a face and it was almost unfolded as a reveal, to see who created the work we’ve been examining. Although the interview was inspiring, if I could interview Bradshaw again, I would like to ask him “Why none of the band members ever featured on the album covers?”

During the interview, a few questions, which stood out to me mainly, covered aspects of his album work. Bradshaw’s answers to each question were an overloading success as my class and I were able to learn more relevant information about his career, background and work. The questions and answers below were the ones I was inspired and most interested by. However, if I could interview Bradshaw again, I would like to ask him “Why none of the band members ever featured on the album covers?”

Question 1: “What were your ideas behind your albums and where did they spring from?”

Dark Sparkle Corner

Bradshaw immediately blurted out the ideas behind all his albums, primarily explaining his first album. For instance, he simply stated ‘Dark sparkle corner’ was created by the use of “orchestral sessions played by three lads, including strum and rock and we also successfully bought in a fluke, violin and saxophone player” He quoted he found “this scattered imperative and successful sounds on top.” I quickly established his long for the group to be a “rock band.” Bradshaw began expanding his words by projecting “The dark sparkle side” was compacted with “anything that was oxymoronic or showed two examples of each other.” For example, he explained, “Dark sparkle corner seemed to work because the music was a fusion something that clashed with orchestral sounds and something of noise and horror” Bradshaw also felt this album was “his favourite sleeve” and sensed the band “got it right.”

A day in July

Steadily Bradshaw progressed onto his second album, ‘a day in July.’ I quickly learnt this secondary sleeve was a huge contrast to his first album, as the band “wanted to represent a change.” For instance, the band didn’t want every album to be the same, so therefore the group decided they wanted to tie the sounds with the position the band were in at the time. For example, the band achieved this by juxtaposing “lighter scenes and adding more members to the band.” Therefore, Bradshaw explained, “’a day in July' was meant to follow summery, vaster elements including images of beautifulness and mountaineers, trying to capture holiday like aspects.” The band also felt they had a “better idea of what” they were “trying to achieve” as they “had already created a previous album.”

However, during the interview Bradshaw explained ‘A day in July’ received terrible review, but unexpectedly secured a place in the album charts. 

Test card

Test card was the bands third album; it consists of a straight-ahead 80’s electronic pop record, so sounds created by hot chic or pet shop boys similarly match it.

The album sleeve holds engraved lines on the front of the product aiming to display “a visual representation of what music looks like on a screen.” However, Bradshaw clarified “the physical copy of the sleeve is handmade with thick cardboard lines scratch into it.” He explained, “Test card took a long time to put together but it is a beautiful design and the cleverest, hence why the sleeve is a piece of artwork in itself.” I rapidly understood the linear and mathematical structure simply demonstrates “making music on a computer.” Bradshaw humorously states “the album made a massive sale in Russia.”

Roja

The bands last album Roja is still ongoing and was “done really well, which led to us signing a new record deal and TV goods.” Roja uses the colour red, blood red on the album sleeve. “Roja is blood red, representing the murder and death in the songs, therefore Roja red are kind of hugely horrible stories of people meeting grizzly ends.”

Question 2: Which band are you similar to?

During the course of the interview, the query of “Which band are you similar to?” appeared. Bradshaw apprehensively struggled to compare his band to another but found “Marlowe could be compared to things like radio head but with the more heavily string base radio head.”

Question 3: Why do you not use capital letters in your album titles?

Bradshaw answered confidently by quoting “The idea is similar to the Marlowe red concept.” For example, Bradshaw felt he “was really pretentious and really wanted to have a thing”, as he loved the way in which Jack White (White stripes) made strong decisions and themes “to only going wear specific colours, to only use this instrumentation, and to only record like this.” He felt White “almost put in boundaries, to try and get the best out of himself rather then allowing him to do whatever he wanted.” So therefore Bradshaw fell in love with the idea of “rules for no apparent reason.” Hence, the band “don’t do capital letters and we always use this red colour.” By hearing sentences like that fall from Bradshaw’s mouth, it inspired my class and I to make bold decisions, and to not be afraid. Bradshaw stated “I would almost arbitrarily put things in our way to make life difficult for ourselves.”

He explained, “Who cares if there’s capital letters or not? Who cares if a theme was made sense or not?” Bradshaw humorously claimed, “If someone copied it then we could say they copied us.” However, Roja is only ever written in all capitals for ironic reasons and Roja doesn’t use the same red.