Let the Music Speak: A Conversation With Claire Lodge

Claire Lodge is a bit of an enigma. Though she’s active on social media and releases music consistently, she rarely performs. Social gatherings are kept to a minimum. “I meet up with friends just a few times a year,” Lodge says. “Otherwise, I prefer to be home—it’s just easier that way.” She later uses the adjective “hermitish” to describe herself. Despite the reluctance to leave home, tour, or even grant interviews, she has done all three to promote her new album The Fainting Couch.

Though she plays guitar and produces records with the Compartmentalizationalists, The Fainting Couch is noisier, looser, and dirtier than anything she’s done on those records. Built of quick takes and few overdubs, the album brims with life and moves down paths that even Lodge seemingly did not see coming. This is music that exists only in the moment it was created. Thankfully, Lodge committed it to tape.

Online, Lodge routinely gets kicked out of Facebook surf groups for her controversial opinions on the genre and its purveyors. This album might not sway many surf or instrumental aficionados, but therein lies the point. This isn’t designed to be safe music. In that sense, perhaps Lodge is less of an enigma and more of a contrarian by happenstance.

Let’s catch up!

You recently went to Poland for a tour. How was it? I heard most of the shows sold out.

Yeah, it went well. It was a lot of fun. But I am glad to be home. I am not great at touring. I don’t know how bands do it.

Most bands I know are sticking to some regional tours right now, or at least international tours in the usual places like Canada, France, or Spain. What is it about your music that works for a Polish audience?

I think people are people. I never notice huge differences in regional audiences. I think my love of Klezmer music led to travel there in the first place, and now it is just comfortable for me.

I know you have “Ant Lodge” studios in London and Atlanta. Where did you record The Fainting Couch? How was the recording process?

Yes! I recorded this all in a week in London. I had a few melodies and sketches. I think because my life is so structured, I really enjoy improvisation. I am happy with what I made. I am working on the follow-up.

Would you ever work with a producer in the future?

A producer would probably be great if I were to record with a band or to help me edit myself. I try hard to trim the fat. This 40 or so minute album is cut down from about two hours of material. My hope is that people listen to it in order. That’s why the tracks are titled “Part 1,” “Part 2,” and so on.

In the past, you always released your art with little press attached. With this album, you’re granting more interviews. Why the change?

Well, I have never really had anything to promote, per se. I’ve done production and extra instrumentation on Compartmentalizationalists albums, but that isn’t my project, so I haven’t felt comfortable saying a lot about them. Now that I’ve released a solo album, a debut that’s mine, I figured I need to do press and talk about it. I think of music as being a little more utilitarian. So, this modern idea of the artists being as much of the product as the album bothers me on some level. Luckily, I don’t have a very interesting story, so hopefully, the music speaks for itself.

Like The Residents theory of obscurity?

Exactly.

What was your musical experience growing up in England?

My parents do not like singers… at all. They listened to a lot of jazz and stuff like the Shadows and the Four Dreamers (a French surf band). When I developed my own taste, it was an extension of that. Monk, Sonny Sharrock, a lot of film music. Typical stuff that every music fan likes: Swans, Sonic Youth, Tom Waits, Harry Partch, Tindersticks. When we moved to the States, I got into Dex Romweber, Man or Astroman? and Earth.

What bands past 1994 do you like?

Algiers is the best live band on the planet, and I will fight anyone that disagrees. I like your band, Small Reactions. I like Lykki Li, Pomme, West End Motel, Vera Sola, Llhasa.

I love Algiers on record, but they’re even better live. You and Lee Tesche are both unconventional players.

Lee is fantastic. I want him to build me a guitar. I like players that are more interested in texture than technique. Nothing bores me more than some smart ass staring at a camera playing really complicated guitar stuff that just sounds like scales.

You record and produce other bands and work on film scores. I know you’ve also recorded members of Mastodon and the Residents. How did you approach recording yourself? Was it a similar process?

It was. I recorded and played on a score for a play in Atlanta called Exterminating Angel. It was very loose. We set up a bunch of mics and wanted it really raw. We used loop pedals, which I have always done live. I actually made two albums back-to-back, but I am not releasing the other for a while.

I went to the “secret show” you did a few weeks ago, but that was was all you’ve done locally recently. Will you play any public shows?

I don’t think so. Nothing is planned. I think we accomplished what needed to be done at that show.

You had a strict rule about not recording the show or taking photos.

I think some experiences should only be in your mind. We don’t need to document everything. Plus, I like my privacy. I sound like a fifty-year-old man.

Isn’t that what David Lynch’s Lost Highway is about?

Lynch has said that film was inspired by the OJ trial.

What is an assumption people make about you that isn’t true?

Because I make instrumental guitar music, people think I love Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed… You Black Emperor, and stuff like that. I do not. I have nothing against them. I just don’t listen to that kind of music at all.

You mentioned earlier that a lot of your earlier musical influences are film scores. It’s clear from your social media that you are still passionate about film. Can you recommend me something underrated to watch?

Track down The Eel by Imamura. See Matador by Richard Shepherd with Peirce Brosnan. It’s hilarious and strange and people missed the boat on it. Watch Chaffed Elbows by Robert Downey, it is X-rated Marx brothers. See If You Live, Shoot! It’s the most deranged and violent Spaghetti Western that is worth seeing. And if you are in Atlanta, go to the Vernal and Sere Theatre, they are doing great work.

The Fainting Couch is out now. Lodge’s follow-up release, Seconds, will be out January 2022. A limited-edition run of 100 CDs will be pressed featuring artwork from Guy Maddin. Pre-orders are available here. Check out the cover art and tracklist below.

Claire Lodge

Seconds

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More Info
Bandcamp: clairelodge.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @clairelodgesongs