THE SONG SOMMELIER
THE ANTIDOTE TO THE ALGORITHM
Everything Everything were once described as “a riot in a melody factory”, yet on the new album Raw Data Feel, I get the sense that the band has learned the craft of what to leave out. I discuss the craft of making a fine record in a rush, and not overthinking, with singer and co-writer Jonathan Higgs.
I’ve had some truly awful conversations about music and artificial intelligence (AI). I’ve met with sinister lab-coated tech-heads who are clearly plotting to put musicians out of business. I’ve spoken with disillusioned ex-musicians turned entrepreneurs hell-bent on correcting what they see as a quality dip in modern music, which they actually think robots can fix (subtext being they themselves had clearly run out of organic musical ideas).
It was then, both refreshing and genuinely fascinating to discuss the generative AI machine (rather touchingly named Kevin) employed to make my actual favourite album of 2022, with its creator Jonathan Higgs, singer and co-writer in the pop band Everything Everything. In the end, Kevin contributed ‘less than 5%’ of the lyrical content of Raw Data Feel, the band’s superb sixth album, but it was enough to sprinkle the record with something of the touch of a high concept L.P. in which Kevin the character makes appearances across four or five of the songs. But listen to Jonathan’s views on the experience of working with AI and you will get a sense of someone truly in touch with the possibilities of the future as they arrive, ever faster, in the now.
And so to that album. When I heard Raw Data Feel for the first time I had the sense that it had that extra-special something, a record instantly likeable, but with a sense it would also grow on me. After a couple more listens it became clear that the album contained no weak songs and that in fact, the album as a whole, keeps on revealing hidden depths. It made it all the more amazing to discover that the album was thrown together very quickly, in just a few weeks, with nothing other than a few ideas going into the studio. Jon told me:
“It was a surprise and a rush, anyway we’ve made our overthinking albums, we had to just get on and make a bunch of party bangers”.
The music journalist Paul Lester described Everything Everything as “a riot in a melody factory”, a perfect description for a band positively clattering with ideas, yet on Raw Data Feel, I get the sense that the band has learned the craft of what to leave out. Judge for yourself but do apply the usual rule - listen three times first!
On longevity, singer and co-writer Jonathan Higgs felt that Everything Everything crossed the rubicon on the band’s third album Get To Heaven (2015) after which “we can probably stop worrying about being in a band as a job, that we’ve woken enough people up to us that we could probably sustain. We always approached the band as a long-term thing but we see our longevity as a lasting cult rather than a big band that once had a few big hits”.
Indeed, Everything Everything is one of those bands that have carved out a fruitful, lasting existence without ever having ‘a hit’. The band's following is diverse, from ‘prog dads’ to teenage girls to electronic music fans. With four top five albums and two Mercury Prize nominations, the band has earned its place on the cultural landscape. However, it was telling that the day after my conversation with Jonathan, the Everything Everything was due to sit down with their management for a ‘brand strategy meeting’ in which the main topic on the agenda was “how are we doing as a band, because it’s really difficult to tell”.
Somehow, I feel like Raw Data Feel has the potential to move the band up a notch or two, even if it is hard to know exactly what that means these days.