Bill Wells says that he had a dream about a fictional Japanese soap opera called Lemondale. “I don’t recall much about it, except that when the credits rolled there was a theme tune I clearly remember hearing in my head. So I immediately recorded it.” He continues, “That happens quite often to me.” Even though sometimes the ideas may not be so great. “I’ll be lying down thinking, ‘Is it really worth getting up to write down that?'” Wells is a self-taught musician who won the Scotrail Award in 1996 for the Best Scottish Based Performer at Glasgow Jazz Festival. He performed there with his octet. He knew he was dependent on jazz musicians to read his charts. However, he felt his music was more jazz-by-default, since his interests included musicians such as Burt Bacharach and Brian Wilson, as well jazz pianists like Carla Bley or Count Basie. He has even said that he empathizes more with Indie musicians than with jazz musicians. “Who often have too much respect for jazz, they often have too little,” he says. Wells’s passion for musical exploration was demonstrated through collaborations with a variety of musicians, including Isobel Camp, Stefan Schneider of German electronicists To Rococo Rot and Jens Lekman. Also, Kevin Ayers, a Canterbury Scene legend, and Maher Shalal Hash Baz, a Japanese naivist group. The album Everything’s getting Older was released this year with Aidan Moffat (former Arab Strap singer), and his new group The National Jazz Trio Of Scotland. They are not jazz or a trio but are a pop-oriented four-piece group, all-female, with the exception Of Wells. Their debut album will be out next year. Wells has more control over Lemondale’s activities, but he still allows musicians to express themselves within a set framework. He says, “I like things messy so it doesn’t sound too neat and clinical.” The album was recorded in Japan by Jim O’Rourke (American guitarist based in Tokyo), Saya and Uneo (aka Tenniscoats), and Nikaido Kazumi (singer who Wells considers “One of the greatest on the planet”. Maher Shahal Baz’s Tori Kudo is also a clarinet player and has the sweetest melodica lines. Wells met Tetsuya Umeda in Japan while on vacation. Wells recalls that he first met him fixing a fan at a friend’s vegan eatery. “I assumed at first that this was just a kid who fixed fans. It turned out that he was an established sound artist whose main instrument was an electric fan. He also used a variety of homemade instruments and gadgets, including big tubes with balloons at the ends. When I began to talk with him, I knew I wanted him on the record. We joked that he makes the sounds every studio engineer tries erase.” Satoko Fujii booked Wells a day at a Tokyo studio. However, it was difficult to get all 13 musicians together in one place. Wells accepted that he would only be working with O’Rourke. However, all musicians were able make at least part, even though they had just returned from touring the day before or the morning before, and some had had to leave the next day. He laughs, “It’s not that great a way to record a record.” “If it hadn’t been a day on either side of the date, it wouldn’t happen.” There were also other basic problems. He admits that he couldn’t speak the language and SekijimaTakero, the tuba player, didn’t understand what he was saying. Lemondale, despite its complicated origins, has a relaxed, spacious feel. This is especially evident in songs like “Courtin’ Love”, a luminous bossanova. Saya’s voice is adorned by beautiful horn and brass playing and TetsuyaUmeda’s fan sounds like a wet finger rubbing wine glasses. Satoko’s poetic piano arpeggios and swelling brass lines are joined on “Piano Rolls” by Saya and Nikaido, who weave their voices together and bend notes to dramatic effect. Jim O’Rourke’s scrambled guitar coda closes the track. Wells confesses that she didn’t realize they were singing on the track, because it was so loud. “Everyone was playing the song all the time, but I then told them to stop. Each track was recorded several times on Lemondale. However, the studio was only available for one day so there was not enough time to play back. Wells says that making the record was an unusual experience because it didn’t sound the same as it does now. “At the end, I knew that a lot had happened. But there was still a lot that was happening that I wasn’t sure about or that I didn’t know about.” Wells spent months editing the raw material to create a stunning record. It is a wonderful mix of the intuitive and the composed that Wells wanted. Given the organizational headaches he faced, Wells would hesitate to attempt such a venture again. However, he would love to return to Japan to perform the music live. He concludes, “It was risky.” “But it was a risky strategy,” he concludes. – Mike Barnes, domino records
