Getting the lead out
They don't much like the internet but that hasn't stopped acoustic trio ALBRECHT'S PENCIL going down a storm in cyberspace – and further afield
Colin Carberry, 29 Jul 2010
We're here again with Joel Cathcart, one-third of acoustic folk provocateurs, Albrecht's Pencil, and, just like when we met last year, the classically-trained multi-instrumentalist has plenty to say.
"I loathe the internet, I really do," he sighs. "Would BB King be blogging? I doubt it. It devalues genuine praise and feedback because everyone is brilliant. I've never felt the need for that kind of exposure. My approach to things is much more hermit in a cave, I'm afraid."
Thankfully, for someone who proves such enlightening company, Joel, at the moment, is happy to come blinking into the sunlight for a chat. And while he eagerly roams across a winningly expansive conversational terrain ("I'd move away from electricity entirely if I could"), he's primarily here to talk about his band's debut album: the handily-titled Self-titled Debut Album.
Recorded last summer in various locations in and around Queen's University in Belfast, it's a record that wears its erudition lightly: smart, literate and sophisticated, it never once loses its sense of intimacy and immediacy.
"Fionbarr (Byrne, co-founder, and along with Laura McGrogan fellow, um, Pencil) stops me from becoming too obscure," reveals Joel. "I suppose I stop him from being too accessible. I think that results in a good healthy tension. At the same time, I don't think it's the case that because you think about music a lot, and have a broad range of listening, what you end up composing will inevitably be obscure. The songs are very personal to me, and I think what inspires all of our music is a desire to communicate. Really, what we're interested in is allowing the sound to get across to the listener as directly as possible. I think our mentality for this record, for the group in general, is to be as direct as possible in the relationship between the sound and the listener. Even if you're subverting expectations, even if there are tensions and dissonance, there's a desire for closeness, for as pure a connection as possible."
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