Project Description

Interview with 

MARK GARDENER 

from RIDE 

Interview by Jarrod Henry

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I can still remember the first time I heard Ride. Watching late night Rage on ABC and being subjected to an endless array of songs that somehow now seem like so much endless white noise, when all of a sudden I was struck by the sound of a bright, jangly introduction, a wall of overdubbed 12 string Rickenbacker guitars that burst into life as soon as the drums kicked in. And the accompanying video – a harken back to the technicolour psychedelia of the 60’s – was equally entrancing. And that was it. I was hooked. Vapour Trail became one of the Oxford shoe gaze quartet’s most instantly recognisable songs, and yet as I ventured out the next day and purchased their debut album Nowhere, I was soon to discover that that initial song, one of the best pieces of pure guitar pop ever written, was just the tip of the iceberg. The sonic palette displayed by the band was and still is an impressive sound, over 25 years after the album was released.

The legacy of Ride over the years since they disbanded in 1996 has been preserved not only by the legion of fans worldwide but by the multitude of up and coming bands who’ve worn the influence of the band on their sleeves. It’s a legacy that guitarist/vocalist Mark Gardener is all too aware of and is very keen to protect.

Reforming in 2015 for a series of limited shows, the band consisting of Gardener, Andy Bell (guitars, vocals), Steve Queralt (bass) and Loz Colbert (drums) surprised fans the world over not only with a series of blistering live shows by also a comeback album Weather Diaries, an album that showed the quartet still striving forward sonically whilst also remaining respectful to the past. Now, on the eve of their first Australian tour in over 25 years, the band are set to release it’s follow up This Is Not A Safe Place and Mark took some time out to talk about the band’s triumphant return, the new album, and a whole lot more.

 

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Ok so let’s backtrack to when you first announced the band were reforming for Primavera and a few more shows, did the four of you think that you’d be where you are now, about to release album number six?
Well to be honest with you the whole reason why when we did talk about the reunion for me personally it was always going to be great to get back together and play and be a band again. And the first rehearsals we did where we were supposed to start practising the old songs for some of the large shows we were going to be doing, the minute we walked into the room we started writing and trying out new bits of music. So I did think early on the there would definitely be more music coming. And look I’ve been so pleasantly surprised at how things have turned out because given the nature of any band, it’s not something you can really make definite plans about.

 

Was there a certain amount  of trepidation about how the band would be received now, so many years after you originally disbanded?
Of course. Because most of the people who have come back and tried to make new music haven’t really done a very good job of it. And of course the legacy of Ride was really strong so if you come back and you’re not good, you’re only doing damage to it. At the end of the day we all really care about Ride and the legacy and what we do. So we really wanted it to be good and enjoyable and it is. Its kind of gone from one extreme to another really, I mean I’ve never been more busy in my life! And of course Ride are different now in our 40’s than we were when we were in our 20’s, we’ve all had other stuff going on in our lives. And look we’re loving the shows, there band’s playing better now than ever, the monitoring is so much better now so we can actually hear each other instead of just hearing a racket and so we can get a really consistent sound every time we play, you’re not just battling the elements.
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Mark Gardener live with Ride 2019 – photo courtesy of Ariel Martini/Ride official Facebook.

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So after Weather Diaries was released to critical acclaim, and then following it up with such a strong e.p. in Tomorrow’s Shores, when did you guys eventually start writing for the new album?
So when we finished the touring schedule last year after we’d been to China people started getting in there and started working on bits and pieces. It was a challenging time for the band because we parted ways with our old manager and so we tried to just get back to doing what we do which was focus on the music and have that escape mechanism.

 

Has the songwriting been an individual approach? A lot of band’s approach to composition consists of one member bringing an idea to the others and then having it expanded upon in a group environment. Is this generally the case with most Ride songs or do they germinate from a collaboration between the four of you.
Some of the songs on Weather Diaries did germinate like that, all of us being locked in a room together when we were supposed to be rehearsing and instead just doing a lot of jamming around with bit and pieces but overall we generally do work on stuff individually and then bring it to the room and start working on it together. So yeah most stuff does come individually but then it really is a group effort. And then there’s some stuff that doesn’t make it onto an album which is quite hard because you think it’s really good, but there’s certainly no shortage of stuff coming in which is really good because we all come in with ideas, obviously Andy and myself but also now Steve and Loz more so as well so we get to work on a lot of their ideas which is great because I think they were quite frustrated that we didn’t get to do that the first time around.

 

So the new album, This Is Not A Safe Place, again pushes the boundaries sonically of where the band were when Weather Diaries was released. Was there a general desire to deliberately not repeat yourselves?
I don’t really think it was so much the thought process of “well we mustn’t repeat ourselves” we just sort of make music natural to where we are at that point in time. After Weather Diaries which was a difficult album to make because we really didn’t know how it was going to be received and I think we did pretty well with that album. And so I think that doing that album and getting it out and having the whole reunion hanging over us is sort of gone now and so we can just get back to being a band again. And I think that’s probably more to do with sounds in the sense that it’s like “ok we can just relax it’s the next album”. We survived the reunion, we survived making that next album which is a major stumbling block for most bands that have tried to come back. We’ve managed to bring in lots more different audiences to the band as well as keeping those people happy who were into us from before. And that’s the thing in that we’re happy to play the nostalgia thing a bit and we understand that people, like yourself, absolutely love our old music as we do but it’s been great to take the music to some new and interesting places. A band can only survive if it reaches a new audience and new people.

 

There are still hallmark elements of the Ride sound inherent but you’ve also added a somewhat harder edge to some of the songs as well. For instance in Repetition I personally can hear a very strong New Order feel going on. Were there any particular songs or bands you were listening to that inspired the sound and feel of the songs?
Definitely. I mean you mentioned New Order but also The Cure, The Smiths, you know bands we grew up on. I mean we were all teenagers in the 80’s so we listened to a lot of those bands, it’s in our blood so some of it’s bound to come out. But I listen now to a lot of new music, more so than the music I listened to when I was a teenager however now again I do really like to go there. We just did two really big shows supporting The Cure and it really did remind me of just how amazing a band they are.

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RIDE – 1991

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The technology behind guitar effects has changed drastically since the days of Nowhere and Going Blank Again, do you feel that using these new pedals has allowed you to not only forge forward with the new music but also to allow the band to more effectively recreate live the studio sounds from those early albums? I’ve heard you in interviews extoll the sounds on the Strymon Big Sky reverb, as a fellow guitarist I’m also using that particular one as well. Have pedals like this influenced your own songwriting and playing much?
Absolutely. I absolutely love all that stuff. I’m looking around at some of that stuff in my studio and I love it. And it’s just all about trying to create different sounds and music and atmospheres with pedals. So I’m always trying to mess round with different stuff and there’s a lot more stuff to mess around with now. So yeah I love it, I’m a massive gear geek and pedal geek. I’m in my studio and I just look around at all these things that make all these different sounds and noises and that’s really why I love doing this; like having loads of different ingredients and hopefully making it more interesting.

 

And now you’re returning to Australia for the first Ride shows in over 25 years. Speaking as a fan and someone who saw you when you were last out here in 1992 it must be a very gratifying feeling to know just how highly the band’s return to our shores has been anticipated.
It’s really amazing and I’m glad because we’re kind of a better band now as well. And we’ve been trying to come to Australia for a while now it really has just been a case of how to do it without losing money. It’s really expensive bringing everybody over there and that’s really been the only stumbling block. And we’ve wanted to come to Australia since we came back!

 

Has it been hard choosing a balance between old and new songs? I mean obviously there are songs like Vapour Trail and Leave Them All Behind that are pretty much staples but is it hard to choose a set that pays tribute to the songs from those first albums whilst still showcasing the new material?
Yes it is, that’s the simple answer. So we’re coming to Australia for the first time in a long time so we’ll balance it a little more towards the older songs and then when we come to Australia again and we’ll do a bit more of the new. That’s generally how we do it when we go to places we haven’t been before or haven’t been in a while. So yeah it will definitely be a bit of the reunion vibe when we play Australia this time.

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This Is Not A Safe Place is out Aug 16th

 

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