RECORDING WEEK 2024: Since releasing their debut album in 2013, British alt-rock outfit Public Service Broadcasting have attracted an ever-growing devoted fanbase, drawn to their complex instrumental arrangements and distinctive use of archive recordings in place of traditional vocals.
Known for their concept-focused releases, the band's fourth album, The Last Flight – focused on the story of pioneering American aviator Amelia Earhart – is out now. To mark the occasion, we visited the band’s chief songwriter and producer J Willgoose Esq to take a tour of the band’s new South London studio space.
“I’m lucky to be increasingly less reliant on software synthesis and plugins,” he tells us. “That’s not out of any snobbery about how they sound, because there’s very little difference other than the nightmare of maintenance for physical gear, but the one thing about having actual instruments in an actual room is that you play them differently and experience them in a physical, tactile way.
“I got a Wurlitzer for this record and the way I play that is very different to how I would play a Nord Stage 3 as my main MIDI controller. The Wurly is an instrument – it’s alive and it responds in a different way – the same way as a Roland Juno, SH-101 or my Deckard’s Dream synth. Take the Space Echo; you can get amazing emulations, but nothing matches the ability to have everything at your fingertips and just play with it. The more success we’ve had, the more I’ve been able to have those physical resources in the room.”
In the video – which you can watch in full above – J. Willgoose Esq. explains the challenges in setting up the studio space and demos some of the key instruments used in creating the latest LP.
Public Service Broadcasting’s The Last Flight is out now on SO Recordings
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