John Robb: The Membranes: “What Nature Gives…Nature Takes Away”

“Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws. She has no effort without cause nor invention without necessity”…. Leonardo da Vinci…..and he didn’t even know The Membranes…

Following the alchemy of The Membranes last album, Dark Matter/Dark Energy which focused upon Super Nova’s, Black Holes and the perplexity and conundrum of the Universe, they have literally descended back down to Earth with their new double masterpiece, “What Nature Gives…Nature Takes Away.” Nature is powerful and mighty and capturing its essence is nearly impossible however John Robb, lead singer and bassist has managed to imprison it within the intrinsic quintessence of the record. 

The Membranes capture the opulence and the destiny of nature, by defying it and at the same time defining it. As one of the most fascinating, haunting, lustful and decadent albums released this year I couldn’t resist having a conversation with John Robb….. 

Although each song I believe is opened to the listeners interpretation you as a visionary I’m sure had an inspiration in mind when creating this Triumphant masterpiece “What Nature Gives Nature Takes Away”….so please explain yourself and the message accompanying the record.

The album before this, ‘Dark Matter/Dark Energy’ was inspired by the universe after meeting the boss of the CERN project at a TED talk. We were both talking at the event. CERN is the leading space and science research centre in the world and this was an amazing meeting. It was full of ideas about the universe and life – as you can imagine it was a pretty mind-boggling conversation. This time I decided to bring things literally more down to earth with a nature album! Of course, it’s a far more complex subject than that and the album is about life, death, sex, and how we are part of nature even if we are running away from it all the time and also about our relationship with the planet….

It’s about the transient nature of life and of nature itself and of the chaos of the end times. Nature is cruel. We are now of a certain age when not just the planet is coughing and spluttering into the 21st century and run by insane, babbling, clueless children throwing tantrums whilst it chokes with a serious illness, but friends are also starting to die on us and it’s tough. 

Everyone of our vintage knows this process and it makes you despair but always makes you see things with an incredible clarity. I’ve always lived life fast – not in a drugs sense – but in a real life sense and I’ve made every second count but now that has been put into sharp focus and decisions are made with one eye on the clock ticking down and nature lurking for its payback.

Ironically this is the time to take more gambles. There is no time to get bored or not take chances and making this album and being in this band is a huge creative gamble but I believe you have to be reckless to make great art. The album title is about this and the passing of time of life and death and sex and love and how they all come and go in a heartbeat and also of the power, beauty and cruelty of nature as it gives you the ultimate gift and then steals it back at will. 

Each track on the album has a nature theme too it – not direct as that would be too corny but they do link…A Strange Perfume is about the animal attraction of scent – the pure sex of pheromones that captivates you whilst Snow Monkey is about the Japanese monkeys that bathe in the hot pools but only the higher caste monkeys are allowed in the pools – thought that would be a nice comment on the UK! Some songs are about voluptuous flowers, some are about the seething ocean, some are about the backdrop of dancing birds on Blackpool prom, some are about the music and soul of England being in its soil and some are the mystery of deep dark winter…

What is Strange Perfume about, ( the video is hauntingly effervescent)?

It’s about the power of scent, the power of pheromones that cause people to fall in lust and love with each other. I got fascinated by perfumes and scents from doing interviews for Lush – the cosmetics company who don’t use plastic and look after the environment. We are making perfume at the moment with them – the first test bottles arrived yesterday!

I wrote a paragraph on what the perfume should smell like for them – something with a deep in a forest smell and also something very sensual – and they took that and listened to the track over and over and are alchemising a Membranes ‘ A Strange Perfume’  right now! 

 I got really into the idea of the subtleties of scent and perfumes and how each smell can change and enhance a mood and the idea that your natural scent can be so perfume. Animals use scent and small all; the time for a myriad of purposes and that was mixed into the song as well. 

Does the album reflect any secret political agenda considering the landscape and climate of the world?

Stopping the world getting totally fucked up by the human race is not a left/right political issue – lets stop te bickering. The Trump voters will have to live in the mess as well as the liberals so lets stop shouting at each other and trying to score points. We need to find a way of not poisoning the planet and keeping peoples standards of living as high as we can – there must be a way of doing it. Its not apart political argument – its far too important for that. It’;s beyond politics its now a matter f life and death. 

The 20-piece choir really adds depth to the alchemy of the album, I’m wondering how or whom arranged their presence in the songs?

I wrote the parts and the choir leader, the wonderful Claire Pilling, arranged them into the choir pieces. It’s great working with a choir – it adds something really epic and special to the songs. Some of the songs were written with the choir part first – A Strange Perfume starts with the choir section and we built the song around it – I’ve never worked like that before and it was thrilling to make music from a totally different perspective.

The choir songs on the album (about half the double album’s 16 songs) are written very differently from our normal way. They would start from the choir part and melody that I had which I would often take to Claire Pilling – the choir conductor and she would work out my waving of hands and gruff singing into a piano part so we could show the choir what to do. We would then add this to the band but sometimes it worked the other way round when a song was begging for the epic landscapes and seascapes of the choir! 

A Strange Perfume started with the choir part which had been going round my head for years as a melody but there was never anywhere to put it. When I first saw the Estonian choir in Tallinn three years ago I was blown away with their dark and epic melancholia. I could see how it would contrast and yet work perfectly with our dark post punk. We did a couple of big gigs with them in Estonia and it was obvious that we should take the Membranes into a choir direction – it fits our sense of adventure and constant quest to do something out of the box and darkly epic. The glory of this band is that we can go where we want – there are no rules and since everything has to be on an epic scale a choir makes perfect sense to us. At that point I put together a UK based choir with Claire and then that melody in my head finally had a home. I first sang it to Pete the guitar player who worked out a guitar part round it and then I brought in the choir and we built the song around that with Rob providing those amazing tribal drums that made a huge difference. The song itself then took on its own life and just builds and builds and explodes at the end!

 What inspired the powerful theme of nature?

We are nature. Every lustful moment, every sigh of death, every scream of birth, every step we take is nature – nature is everything. The beauty and violence of nature is also intriguing – the idea that the beauty we see in nature is nature’s desperate battle for survival – a birds colourful plumage is its breeding clothes or its territorial fuck you screech. Nature is in a desperate battle for survival – there is no mercy out here – it’s almost fascist in in its brutality and yet can be spellbindingly beautiful. A spider’s web in the morning dew can be a stunning photo but it’s a hideous death trap for anything that falls into it. 

Where will you be touring the album, aside from the gigs you’ve already completed?

At the moment UK festivals and Europe – looking come back to America as the album is starting to pick up some great radio play in the USA – the big problem we have like all British bands is getting the work visas they cost up to $5000 dollars now to get a whole band into the USA and they always give you the visas late so you have to cancel half the tour – it costs $30 for an American band to come to the UK though – I thought we had a special relationship! 

Aside from this record, what other projects are you involved in?

Loads! Just finishing off writing a book on Goth music – out early 2020, I’m filming loads of interviews for Lush, Im making a couple of documentaries for TV.

http://www.themembranes.co.uk/

Follow John Robb on Instagram and Twitter @JohnRobb77

Photo Credits: Melanie Smith 

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