Roots
Ahead of the release of her latest work of genius, Savage Purge on the 30th of March, I had the privilege to catch up with fellow Hodge, Carol. I don’t often meet other Hodges, so I had to ask about her roots and whether she had ever investigated her family tree…
Yeah, well, funnily enough my mum did, she was into genealogy for a while, so she did our family tree. I was born in Greenock, we lived in Port Glasgow when I was a kid. All my family comes from around there.
Then going back far enough, from Ireland, it was maybe like the 1700s when the first Hodge came over. I moved to Cumbria when I was 6 or 7.
We’re probably related at some point.
I’ve always planned to investigate my family tree, maybe this will give me the impetus to do something about it.
Not going quite as far back as the 1700’s, I was interested to find out how Carol first got into playing music. Obviously, you have the new album Savage Purge coming out soon, but before we talk about that I want to go right back to the start. What first got you into playing music, and why the piano/keyboards in particular?
My dad had really good taste in music when we were growing up. I remember borrowing a Queen tape. It had A Night at the Opera on one side and Sheer Heart attack on the other. I played that to death when I was about 8. I always liked music. I always liked singing.
Probably about the same time as the Queen tape my brother got one of those tiny little Casio keyboards that have a cartridge you put in, it lights up the keys and you play along. He got it at a car boot sale, played with it for about a week then didn’t want it anymore so I played around with it and really liked it. My parents obviously saw that I had a bit of an aptitude for it, then I bought a couple of books with my pocket money and taught myself how to read music and saved up for a full-sized keyboard. When they saw I was serious about that they got me piano lessons, so that’s where it all sort of started.
You mentioned Queen as one of the bands that started your interest in music. Your own music has covered a variety of styles over the years from Wrecks, Bad Taste Barbies to Crystal Grenade and Carol Hodge in your own right. How would you describe your journey to where you are now?
My first ever band was called Synko when I was 15, we basically wanted to be a combination of No Doubt, Green Day & Nirvana. We started doing a whole load of covers then started writing our own stuff. We ended up being more of a ska punk thing.
Then I was in a band called Sadie Hawkins Dance, that was kind of emo before becoming a bit heavier and ending up like a Nine Inch Nails-y 3 -piece.
Then, yeah, did Bad Taste Barbies. We’d all been in bands before and we were just sick of the hard work and trying to get somewhere. We were just like, fuck it, we’ll all just be in a really silly fun band. We all got dressed up, had a laugh and that fulfilled the brief. Ironically up until that point that was the band that got the most attention. We got offered loads of gigs. I think because it was just that thing, we didn’t really care about progressing, we just wanted to have fun. I think that in itself, if you’re in a band in your own little world and doing your thing, that’s quite appealing to other people, there’s something quite magnetic about it.
So, when I was with Bad Taste Barbies, I got the gig with Steve Ignorant. And, yeah, done loads of stuff with Steve since then, a bit of solo stuff did some stuff with Ginger Wildheart, played with the Membranes a few times, then with Ryan Hamilton. I came on board with him after a recommendation from Ginger, and yeah, that’s about where I am now.
Crass, Ryan Hamilton and Beyond
Picking up on your work with others – touring with Ryan Hamilton, doing Crass stuff with Steve Ignorant Slice of Life and so on. Does it take a different mindset, how does it differ playing your own stuff and playing with someone else?
I kind of feel that playing other people’s stuff is still a lot of responsibility but a different kind of responsibility. In a lot of ways, it’s more straightforward. I get sent the songs, it’s like, learn these songs, be at this place to at this time cos you’ve got a gig. Other people do all the behind the scenes work and I just need to learn the music, do the gigs and do the rehearsals. Whereas when it’s my own stuff it’s a lot more. Its kind of like the performance is more rewarding because it’s my music and I feel a connection to it, so that is more profound than the other stuff I do. I still get really emotionally involved with everything I do musically, but when it’s your own stuff there’s an extra layer of that. But the flipside of that is that is more responsibility, the onus is more on me to do everything, plan everything get everything organised so it’s more a labour of love than just being in someone else’s band and the focus is on them.
Songwriting
When you’re writing a new song how do you know you’ve got the song the way you want it. Is there a difference between listening back to it yourself and the first time you play it to an audience, is there a different feeling, what is going on in your head?
That’s a good question. I’ve kind of realised relatively recently that there’s always going to be more than one way of doing things, so I try not to torture myself too much. When I’m writing – I was like you could have done that, you could have done this, how about this, are you sure these are the right words for that verse? I’ve kind of learned over the years to trust my gut instinct and be like its done. And that being “it’s done” is, it’s got to be that’s what this song is right now. It might evolve a little bit when you play it live. That’s always an interesting thing to think about, sometimes it may feel way too long live so I might edit the structure of it. Particularly with this new album more of the songs have a full band sound so I’m working on two sets. I have got a band together so we are going to do some full band shows, but I will also be playing solo so I’m kind of like there’s going to be two versions of every song, there’s going to be the versions that’s me and a piano which might have a slightly different feel to it and then me and the band which is going to be more like what’s on the album. The more you do things live they become their own beast you throw little things in there, you try things. When you perform the same song for the 50th time live, you kind of feel confident enough to twist this little bit here, throw this little riff in there or “what if I pause and stop dead here?”, so you experiment and try things out.
You touched on it yourself – on this album there are a lot of your torch song ballads, but you also have more full-on rock songs – are there songs you prefer playing?
It’s kind of literally our first rehearsal next week so I kind of don’t know how it’s going to be playing with the band. I can imagine it will be more fun having more people to interact with. Obviously, I play in other bands and its really nice. It’s to do with a pressure thing. I really enjoy playing live on my own. It’s a different type of challenge. I’ve been in bands for 23 years now, and I don’t really get nervous before I go on stage, I’ m not somebody that suffers from stage fright. The closest I get to being nervous is when I’m doing solo gigs. I think it’s that thing like, say you did stand-up comedy, it’s just you on your own, every wrong note you hit is exposed, there are no other instruments to hide it. It is a different challenge and part of that challenge is also the most rewarding thing. The songs are my babies I birthed them (to give you a horrible metaphor), they’ve been pulled out of me. They’re an expose of what goes on in my head and in my heart, it is very cathartic and very rewarding to to be able to perform them for other people. I really enjoy it and get a lot out of that process as well. So, playing with other people may be a bit more fun and a bit more interactive and less of an emotional roller-coaster.
Album themes
You mentioned fun there, and the word cathartic. If you read your press release, it states “lyrical themes include domestic abuse, beauty standards, self-love, alcoholism and the dark frontiers of mental health” If someone were to read that they might think the album will be heavy and depressing, but it is the opposite. It is emotional but it is so uplifting. How do you pick your subjects, do you have a writing process?
I’m really glad you said that because that is kind of my aim, a few years ago I did the Crystal Grenade album, about 5/6 years ago now and that was I think similar depressive themes but there wasn’t much light in that album. I went back to it and thought I don’t want to be that type of artist who people just feel it’s a real struggle to get through an album or a live set. That’s not me as a person, I have a very dark side, but I’m also vert sarcastic and I find the humour in things and I’m generally quite upbeat with other people, so I wanted my music to reflect that.
In terms of what I write about, I hit a bit of a roadblock with song writing about a year ago and I read an article about it. They suggested the reason you stop writing is that you’re not writing what wants to come out and you’re not accepting what you want to write about. I thought that could be true, because I often find it’s the same stuff that comes out to begin with and you’ve got to let that come out, you’ve got to have that as your starting point you’ve got to let something emerge. Then you can go refine it and change it and go back over it, but you’ve just got to let that initial thing come out even if it’s the same “I hate myself and I want to die”, whatever, just let it come out and just keep going and something else will emerge. I’m sure this is the same with most songwriters, real life is the starting point and what you end up with is a combination of real life and fiction, and poetry and imagery. I know some people just write “here is me pulling my heart out and sticking it in a song for you”. I do feel like I expose a lot of myself in my writing, a lot of it is really honest but within that there is a little element of, you know, sort of polish and maybe exaggeration for effect and trying to find the most poetic and true way to phrase something.
I think the honesty comes across, I think that is one of the things that touches people and helps really engage the listener with your songs. The emotion is obvious in your music and I find it personally really affecting.
Going back to your metaphor of birthing your songs, this is probably an unfair question, as you shouldn’t pick a favourite “child”, but do you have any favourites from your new songs?
It’s really weird. There are a couple of songs when I wrote them I though “that’s the big one”. Like Semi Colon – I though this will be the big one, but maybe now there are other songs I prefer? I Still Love Me for now. It kind of changes all the time. I’m proud of that as it turned into a full band song and turned out how I wanted.
Self promotion
You have mentioned the additional pressure of self-promoting and doing everything yourself, what do you see as some of the challenges of an independent artist in the 21st century world of streaming & instant gratification?
A lot of the last few years for me has been suck it and see. Cos I’m in other bands as well, I have the benefit of seeing what people want to buy at the merch stall and seeing what songs resonate with people. I realised long ago it’s not about ego, it’s not about making money, it’s about connecting with people. I listen to a lot of music and I was anti Spotify for a long time, but I finally bit the bullet and pay for a subscription. It’s great, I’ll have music on at home all the time, and whenever I’m working, between lessons I’ll stick on Spotify and discover loads of bands I really like that I would have never heard before. I’m kind of just embracing it now. It’s kind of silly not to embrace the fact that people listen to music for free these days.
There is an element of how do I keep the good ship Hodge sailing, how do I make enough money to pay for the next album? I did bundles for the last album and it worked really well, so I’ve done bundles again and it worked really well. I’ve basically paid for my album pressing with the pre-orders which is really amazing. Everything is changing. So quickly as well. Everyone has different preferences. Some people love vinyl, some still buy CDS. Other people are all about Spotify, they won’t even buy a download, but they come to a gig and buy a t shirt.
To be honest the thing I find the hardest is to just keep on going. Especially when it’s just me on my own, you know it’s very easy to be “I just can’t be bothered, what’s the point there are so many other people doing what I’m doing”. I’ve felt like that a few times, like I can’t do it anymore, completely lost faith in myself. You feel you’re constantly treading water, you just question why you’re doing it when you look at other people and they’re doing really well. It’s like when I’m in other bands, I get told what to do and someone else is steering that ship. I totally get that and I’m aware the grass is always greener, but it is hard to keep the faith sometimes and keep on working.
I’m sure I’m not a lone voice is saying how grateful I am that you do find the strength to keep going and do what you do. Your music means a lot to many people I’m sure. One last question before you go, what’s next for Carol Hodge?
The album will be ready for its release date of 30th March. I’ve got a couple of Carol Hodge solo gigs in March with One Sided Horse in Preston (The Ferret) on the 21st and on the 25th in The Parish, Huddersfield. In May I’m playing a few full band gigs with Pog. Gigging as much as possible. Julia Othmer is coming over again, so I’ll have a couple of gigs with her. The Crass stuff will keep me busy too. So, it’s going to be just trying to fit my own stuff in.
Thanks to Carol for taking the time out to talk to me. Plenty to look forward to in the coming months. Follow her on Facebook so you don’t miss out on anything. I look forward to seeing the songs of Crass at this years’ Scotland Calling on the 25th of April.
Album Review
Those listeners out there who loved Hold on to That Flame will not be disappointed as the emotionally charged torch song style ballads are once again in evidence on Savage Purge. The combination of Carol’s honest and open lyrics, yearning vocal and supreme keyboard/piano playing that made Hold on to That Flame such a poignant masterpiece is a winning blend, so unsurprisingly it works to great effect again on this the follow up. Add to that the beefed-up full band sound on several tracks here and the package is complete. I’m glad to report the good ship Hodge is shipshape, so it’s all aboard, anchors aweigh and time to embark on another triumphant voyage
One of these full band tracks was one of the songs revealed in the album preview and mentioned by Carol in my interview. I Still Love Me is an anthem for those who have ever had that feeling of not being good enough, those who feel downtrodden or are brought down by their own anxieties or feelings of inadequacy. Sing it loud and sing it proud. Love Yourself. Rejoice in what makes you, you as you sing along to this belter of a tune. “I over-threw the previous me.” “There’s nobody else that I’d rather be.” An uplifting and joyous celebration of the self – warts and all.
As already mentioned in the interview, the subject matter tackled reads as a seriously heavy list of topics, but fear not, you will not be brought down by these songs. The manner in which Carol tackles the subject matter is sensitive but full of hope. They are inspirational to the max.
Stop Worrying Baby
Take album opener, Stop Worrying Baby. I know from personal experience stop worrying is one of those stock phrases (along with cheer up, man up or what do you have to worry about?) bandied about by people who really don’t understand you. One of those pieces of advice that other people say to you as if it is the easiest thing in the world to do. When Carol sings it, though, you know it comes from the heart, it is being said by someone that understands. An encouraging mantra that makes you feel that no matter how hard things seem, you want to get through.
Waving not Drowning is a jazz tinged lament that tackles the subject of suicide, how difficult it is for people to talk and seek the help they need, the feeling of being alone and not having anyone you feel you can turn to. “I know I’m loved and liked but I’m losing the light” tells a story in itself, even when you are surrounded by loved ones and friends, you can feel alone. It is often easier to speak to someone you don’t know. The song sees things from both sides. “We saw the ripples but we missed the signs, I guess I couldn’t be there every time”. The effect of suicide spreads far and wide. (If you are feeling suicidal please talk to someone – if you can’t talk to someone you know, call Samaritans – 116 123)
Domestic abuse Is explored in the highly affecting In Case of Emergency. The song demonstrates the power Carol has in her song-writing and how she puts her songs and messages across. A song in which Carol sings accompanied only by her piano playing, but what power. The power continues into the chugging guitars which introduce the soaring melody of Magic Bullet, another of the full band tracks on Savage Purge. The transition from plaintive piano ballad to this foot stomping gutsy belter is seamless.
Back to the piano for the elegiac plea of Send Me Someone which reminds you of where the strengths of Carol lie, in her ballads. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the full band tracks, but the most affecting songs are those which feature just her and her piano. Then Semi-Colon hits you. The layered harmonies of Semi Colon are a fragile thing of great beauty that make you sit back and take notice. This is one of those Carol Hodge songs that has me physically and visibly affected; I go through the wringer several times during this one. Wow. Never doubt the power of a well written and arranged song.
After that I needed something to shake me up. Virtue Signals does just that. A combination of chiming guitars and a soaring chorus make this another anthemic rabble rouser. Then there is an unexpected twist as Stopped Believing in You hits you with its electronica leanings. Unexpected but exceedingly welcome and uplifting from a personal perspective as I read my own meanings into the lyrics. “There’s nothing I can’t do, since I stopped believing in you”.
The final track on the album is another relatable ballad. Let Gravity Win is a reflective narrative lamenting getting older. Listen carefully though, this isn’t a sad “oh woe is me I’m getting old” tale. It has a wry sense of humour and advocates embracing life while you can. Magnificent.
What are you all still reading this for? Why are you not logged onto Carols page and pre-ordering your copy of the album? Go. Now. You must.
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