Clinic: Human Or Animal?

Liverpool quartet Clinic know a thing or two about adversity. Four albums into their career, they find themselves in an unenviable position — nothing they do seems to satisfy the music press.

Perhaps their elusive lyrics and cryptic song titles are responsible. Maybe it's the fact that their sound is so distinct that it's impossible to draw meaningful comparisons to other bands. Or it could be the collective fuck you that they give to the media with their ever-present surgical masks.

Whatever the cause, since the release of their Internal Wrangler debut disc, Clinic have been seeing an endless stream of reviews that throw out adjectives like "stagnant," and claim the band are treading water, incapable of making a disc as stunning as their first.

It was amidst all this criticism that Clinic did what they do best — they made a Clinic album. Singer Ade Blackburn talked to ChartAttack about the band's latest disc, Visitations, and his search for the altruistic side of human nature.

ChartAttack: A number of writers, in reviewing Visitations, have said that Clinic seem stuck in a rut — that your albums are all starting to sound the same. How do you respond to that?
Ade Blackburn: I think with every album that we've done, there's a lot of scope across each album. I could understand if we just started out as a really guitar-based band, but I think from the beginning we've had a lot of different sounds, and I think that's something that we've continued to do. I think the scope of what we do as a band has always been varied.

Did you purposely try to do anything differently with Visitations?
I think there's more of a blues element to this album — more 13th Floor Elevators or Captain Beefheart.

Is it safe to say the album has more of a raw or primitive sound than your other discs?
Yes, definitely. That's how we recorded it. We wanted to make it work in a really simple way so it didn't rely on a lot of frills or overdubs. It's just really direct sounding.

It was recorded in a new studio that the band put together, yes?
It was one that we set up in Liverpool. It's really old analog equipment. It gave us so much more freedom when we were recording. We didn't have to be aware of clock-watching or the expense of it.

The lyrics on your albums are very abstract. Why the decision to go that route with them?
I think within a song, you can have something abstract next to something that's personal. It's that sort of mixture that appeals to me. I think if you have a straightforward narrative in a song, it can get tedious. Once you've heard it once or twice, you're less likely to go back to the same song again.

Is it important that your vocals don't overpower the music?
Yeah, that's totally true. I think on the more gentle or slower songs, the vocals take over as the lead, but on a more rhythmical, raw song, the vocals are more of an instrument. They're on an equal level with the instrumentation.

What are some of the themes that are present in the lyrics on Visitations?
Being accepting or looking for something good in people, rather than looking for bad or for complications in things, or aiming for perfection.

One of the more unique songs on the disc is "Animal/Human." Is that division an essential point?
That's an important part of it. You can choose either a selfish or an altruistic route. It's saying that that's something that you can actually make a step towards, rather than always falling back on what suits your self.

After four albums Clinic's sound is still very unique and unlike any other band's. When you started making music as a group, was there a conscious decision to do something that would distance you from everyone else?
It wasn't something that was forced. I think it was just an extension of our personalities. We weren't excited or inspired by any one contemporary sound or band. It didn't seem an exciting way to go about it — to be derivative or to copy someone. It's not a natural way to make music.