Battling on

Shortly after they storm Forbidden Fruit, Battles release their second album, Gloss Drop, which comes four years after their cracking debut, Mirrored. The record had a somewhat difficult birth, given that guitarist/vocalist Tyondai Braxton left during its making.

So, how did the band cope with losing a member?
“We considered it to be an inconvenience to have to go backwards,” reflects Battles guitarist Ian Williams, who interrupts some repairs to his guitar case – the group are about to jet off to Guadalajara – to speak to Hot Press. “It’s almost like making a record is a large performance; when you’re on tour, each day there’s always some unforeseen thing going on. Like, you’re flying to the next city, your guitar got smashed and you have to scramble to find a replacement. Or your power converter in Spain is not working or what have you.
“There’s always this strange scrambling, and so for me, Ty leaving was almost like a continuation of that process. You’re going, ‘Okay, fuck it, what do we do?’ It was okay though, because in the end we were very happy with the record. I guess at this stage, I’m used to the unforeseen happening and then coping with it.”
Gloss Drop has a notable guest appearance from electro pop legend Gary Numan, who contributes vocals to one track. How did the collaboration come about?
“He was really in the category of the fantasy pick,” admits Ian. “Somebody like Eye from The Boredoms and some of the other guests on the record, they were picks that weren’t that hard to imagine, but Gary Numan was the one where we went, ‘Wouldn’t that be surprising, not just to the rest of the world, but also to us?’ So we asked him if he was up for it, and I don’t know if he knew who we were, but I think somebody in his camp said, ‘Battles are a good band, you should check them out.’ So he listened to the track and really liked it.
“To me it actually sounds like a Gary Numan song and a Battles song at the same time. It succeeds in letting Gary Numan be Gary Numan and letting us do our thing. A lot of times in collaborations, one of the artists has to play so much by the other’s rules, that they cease to do what they do best. He’s doing what you want Gary Numan to do, and it makes me happy.”
Later this year on the festival front, Battles will be co-curating All Tomorrow’s Parties’ Nightmare Before Christmas at Butlin’s Holiday Camp in Minehead. So far, the band have put together a tasty line-up, with artists including the aforementioned Mr. Numan as well as fellow Warp groove technician Flying Lotus.
“I like the bill we have so far,” enthuses Ian. “There’s some artists people probably know, and there’s some other artists who might be a little new. We’ve played ATP a bunch, so we tried to grab a few bands outside the regular ATP family, just because I think we’re familiar with a lot of those acts. They’re great bands, but we wanted to ask some other interesting bands who as far as we know don’t play ATP all the time. I think it’ll be cool.”
Battles’ music is certainly uncompromising and doesn’t feature many singalong choruses, but in an unlikely turn of events, the group last year featured on an international hit album, thanks to the inclusion of ‘The Line’ on the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack.
“It was one of those things where, when we got asked, we were like, ‘Er, really? Okay!’” laughs Ian. “The best thing I can say about the song is that we made it in three days, which was a really positive achievement for us. It was during that time where we very slowly writings songs at the beginning of this album, and inspiration was a little hard to come by. All of a sudden this Twilight thing popped up and we had a week to do it. So we spent three days in a rush putting it together and we felt good at the end, like, ‘Wow – we actually made a full song!’
“It provided the impetus for us to get going again, and it influenced the way we made Gloss Drop – that song was created in the studio, which is subsequently how we wrote a lot of songs for the album.”
Earlier this year, your correspondent described Mogwai as the hardest working band in post-rock. However, Battles may be about to assume that mantle – their upcoming tour schedule includes gigs on an incredible 12 nights in a row.
“Oh, I know,” sighs Ian. “I’ll be tired. I don’t know the right way to do it, but that’s the way we’re doing it. It makes you tired, that’s the worst thing. But we still like playing shows. Even having said all that, we barely get anywhere. We recently played the west coast over here – and that’s the first time we played the west coast since 2008!”

Gloss Drop gets a live airing at the Forbidden Fruit festival in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on June 5.