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BIO
“Last
summer I spent a month fighting with myself about
where I was, where I had been and where I was
going,” Luke G Joyce, of I Build Collapsible
Mountains reveals about the origin of his
one-man band’s recordings on previous introductory
Burning Buildings Recordings EP and new eleven
song full length The Spectator & The Act.
“I had spent most of my life bottling up my
emotions and hiding that bottle away in a sturdy
cupboard. But that bottle was at breaking point.
There was no rhyme or reason. A blast from my past
was possibly the spark that set the whole thing in
motion. For a month I wrote nonstop.”
I
Build Collapsible Mountains is Scottish
musician Joyce. Yet his self-produced The
Spectator & The Act sounds as if it could
have been made by a bravely confessional and
literate lad from anywhere (say, the American
Pacific NW), and any place basement bards have
written out their hearts and practiced hard enough
on beloved instruments to please anyone’s ears.
Joyce's vivid songs about sailors and deeply
unrequited love were started soon after he
graduated art school where he studied fine art
photography. Joyce has photographed many bands and
artists such as Mogwai, Ian Rankin,
Franz Fedinand, and RM Hubbert, and
also shoots music videos and short films. “I
suffer quite badly from dyslexia and find it hard
to read so most of what I do is a visual media.”
TSATA contains songs simmering and
soothing such as “Burn,” “Face Of Thunder Grin,”
and “The Wrong Way” that are broken in sequence by
a couple of artful and blissful instrumentals,
necessary for material which summons painful
longing. Overall, its catharsis should be as
effective for its audience as its creator. It
places the Edinburgh singer-songwriter in a
similarly bucolic-sounding environment, namely his
bedroom, where he learned to write and express
himself within a restricted childhood.
“One
day I decided to pickup a Spanish guitar that
belonged to my grandmother which was always around
the house somewhere,” Joyce says. “From that day
on I hid myself away and taught myself how to play
until my fingers literally bled. I didn’t have
many music cassettes, so I would learn the theme
tunes to TV shows. To this day I don’t really know
how to play anything accept my own music.”
Working
inside his own world of music, Joyce has toured
extensively and happily throughout the UK and
Europe recording many live in-studio sessions and
his songs are receiving significant airplay. You
can hear in ICBM the same qualities (keenly
romantic, emotionally vulnerable, and openly
intelligent), as bands from his own Scotland
around the world to the Pacific Northwest.
“I
haven’t really experienced other musical
communities apart from my own. My peers are all
local and the community is very incestuous.
Everybody in the music scene here knows everyone.
Literally. The one thing about the Scottish music
scene is that there is a lot of honesty in the
music and lyrics that bands play. We don’t have
any reservations about relating our experiences
and thoughts in their most raw guise.”
Joyce
hesitates listing any overt influences on his own
work. “I actually shy away from listening to too
many other bands and artists. I have a great
awareness that I want what I write to be as true
to myself as possible, and not, even
subconsciously, a nod to any other writers.” That
said, “I guess the most influential musician in my
life has been Billy Corgan. This may be somewhat
of a surprise for listeners of my music. I also
enjoy listening to the work of PJ Harvey whom I
have great respect for. Listening to her music
allows me to leave reality for a moment and dive
into great daydreams, which is something I hope
people get from my music.
“When I
sit down to write I usually write quite quickly
and in quick succession. I have a small box-room
in my flat, which I have set up as a small studio.
I lock myself away in there and just write for
days. The album was written and recorded within
the space of about two weeks.
The
original EP was first released by a Scottish music
blog in October 2010. It contains eight tracks and
a further 15 tracks were available for download
online. “BBR heard this EP and asked if I would
like to rerelease it with them. The track listing
was streamlined so as to not smother the new
listeners with too many new songs. A new song,
‘Where We Go Tomorrow’, was also added to the EP
as an exclusive to the U.S.” Joyce admits…“my
confidence grew (since then) and I see this coming
through in the songs which made it onto the
TSATA.”
The
singer-songwriter says the outcome of his work
reflects the rumination that goes into it. “My
writing is always influenced by mood. I often
suffer with depression and cliché as it may be,
these times are usually when I am inspired the
most to put my feelings and thoughts into song."
Mostly-guitar “Instrumental #1” opens with a poem
of Joyce’s recited into a recorder by his friend
Katie. “The poem is something I wrote after the
album was written. I had this instrumental track
that I thought would sound nice with some spoken
word in unison with it. Katie is pretty much
responsible for IBCM being where it is now
in America. She stumbled upon my music as a result
of following various Scottish music blogs. After
contacting me she shared the music with her
friends and that led to BBR hearing it.
As far
as I Build Collapsible Mountains playing
live, “I only play alone because the songs are
very personal to me. I find it quite uncomfortable
when other musicians become involved with them.”
There are plans for IBCM to play the U.S.
soon.
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