After rocking for 35 years, Teenage Fanclub turns reflective on 12th album
On Teenage Fanclub’s early albums, the Scottish band swathed its folk-rock songs in guitar distortion. So longtime fans couldn’t have been surprised that the group’s 12th and latest studio album, “Nothing Lasts Forever,” begins with an electric snarl.
“It’s always been a part of what we do,” says singer-guitarist Norman Blake via a video call from his home in the countryside near Glasgow. “We like a fuzz pedal.”
Teenage Fanclub and Sweet Baboo play Thalia Hall at 8 p.m. Sunday, May 5.
Blake and Raymond McGinley, who also sings and plays guitar, are the only members who’ve been with the band for its entire 35-year run. Drummer Francis McDonald was there at the beginning but stepped aside for a decade before rejoining. Bassist Dave McGowan (who also plays with Belle and Sebastian) entered in 2004. The most recent recruit, as of 2019, is Euros Childs, formerly of the Welsh-language neo-psychedelic group Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.
Childs isn’t such a newcomer, though. He played on the Fanclub’s 2010 album, “Shadows,” and he and Blake made an album together under the name Johnny in 2011. “He’s a longtime friend, and he was kind of part of the gang,” Blake notes.
The latest lineup resulted from the departure of founding member Gerard Love, who wrote some of the Fanclub’s best-loved songs. Blake, McGinley and Love usually had an equal number of compositions on each album, and the two remaining songwriters have divided the post-Love records equally. Songs by Childs could appear on subsequent releases.
“We haven’t ruled that out at all, but it just hasn’t happened yet,” Blake says. “There aren’t any rules here.”
“Euros has brought great harmonies,” he adds. “He also contributed on the last two records some really interesting keyboard parts.”
While the Fanclub is known as a “guitar band,” keyboards are prominent on “Nothing Lasts Forever” and its predecessor, “Endless Arcade.” Both are mostly gentler and more contemplative, qualities Blake ascribes to aging. “Inevitably, you start to reflect a bit more,” he muses.
“You find yourself more often pulling out the black tie, because you’re off to a funeral. In fact, I’ve had two in the last week.”
Despite their musical similarities, the two albums were made in very different places. The first was recorded in Hamburg — where “there’s loads of action. And madness,” according to Blake — and the second in rural Wales. (Yet another Welsh connection: Opening for the Fanclub is Welsh musician Stephen Black, aka Sweet Baboo, who plays clarinet and saxophone on “Nothing Lasts Forever.”)
“We always like to go someplace different,” says the guitarist. “We learned very early on that it can be a mistake to make an album in your home city. Because you tend to not get very much work done.”
Self-discipline is essential, since the band hasn’t worked with an outside producer in almost 20 years, and finishes writing its material while recording. “We don’t generally arrive at the studio with songs fully formed. In fact, we do that less than we ever did,” Blake says. “Because all the other guys are great musicians, and they’ve all got really good ideas.”
While “Nothing Lasts Forever” has noisy moments, Blake is living a quieter life these days, as he acknowledges when he apologizes for being a minute late for the interview. “I was just topping up my bird feeder outside,” he explains. “It’s not very rock ’n’ roll, but there you go.”
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Teenage Fanclub with Sweet Baboo
When: 8 p.m. Sunday, May 5
Where: Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St., Chicago
Tickets: $28 at ticketweb.com/