Music: Tindersticks are back for a Brighton Festival concert

After 2012’s ‘The Something Rain’, Tindersticks needed some time to figure out what this rebuilt, reinvigorated band we had become. There were welcome diversions: the electronic soundtrack to Claire Denis’ ‘Les Salauds’, the orchestral soundscapes for the Ypres WW1 museum, the ‘Singing Skies’ art project and book. And also celebrating our 20th anniversary with a live in the studio album and European tour… moments of coming to terms with our past, being released from it.” So says Stuart A. Staples, frontman with the much admired band, who over the years have developed a sound loosely using the building blocks of lounge jazz, soul and indie, often with an orchestral backing and with film very much a part of the overall aesthetic, and completed by the baritone of Staples.
“We are all in different places in Europe,” says David Boulter, who along with Neil Fraser is still with the band that was formed in 1991. “We generally spend every couple of months at Stuart’s place in France. He has an old farm building which he has turned into studio. With this album (this year’s ‘The Waiting Room’) we started with myself, Stuart and Neil, to see what ideas we had.”
“Gradually the songs began to surface and show themselves. From abstract ideas (‘Were we once lovers?’, ‘How he entered’) to more traditional structures (‘Second Chance Man’, ‘The Waiting Room’)” says Stuart.
“I think we have never made music to be famous, or to achieve anything really,” says Boulter, who has lived in Prague for the last 17 years. Perhaps this helps to explain their status as one of the most intriguing and unconventional bands of recent times; sophisticated yet louche; warming yet with a hint of darkness within their soul.
Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Sun 8 May, 8.30pm. £10-£20