It's been four years since the last Magic Numbers album. In that time the two sets of siblings that make up the band built a studio and set about album No 3, The Runaway, a bolder, less guitar-driven affair that will alter people's perceptions. Frontman Romeo Stodart talks love, life and regrets with LAUREN MURPHY
SPACE, ACCORDING to Romeo Stodart, is an essential factor when it comes to making music. Not the intergalactic kind – that really would mark something of a turnaround for The Magic Numbers – but physical space, emotional space, mental space. When you’re on the road for almost three years, Stodart says, you begin to realise just how important having your own space is.
“We were still enjoying the shows and everything, but it was starting to test the four of us. You know, you spend long stretches of time with the same people every day, you’ve got nothing new to bring to the table. We used to just sit in the room and not say anything to each other – not in a bad way, but I think we were just kind of tired from the road.
“But it’s one of those things, isn’t it? You enjoy it so much, and you enjoy the show, that you’re so hyper and ‘up’ that you want to spend the rest of the night drinking until six in the morning. With that every night, you just get worn down. It was a welcome break.”
It's been four years since The Magic Numbers released their last album ( Those the Brokes). After they stopped touring it in late 2007, Stodart, his sister Michele and siblings Sean and Angela Gannon slowly reclaimed their personal lives, including a baby for Michele.
Last year the quartet began gearing up: they bought a property in Wood Green in London and set about turning it into a studio. Then it was a matter of fine-tuning the songs that comprise their third album, The Runaway. Having their own studio without – to a degree – time or money worries was both a blessing and a curse.
“Yeah, it’s dangerous to go down that road and keep writing and writing and never finish,” Stodart chuckles. “But it was something that we always wanted to do, and now we’ve got a place where we can go and make music whenever we want, really. And that’s opened up a new creative mindset for us too. For instance, Michele has almost finished doing her own record, and I’ve been working with different bands and producing different bands there.
“We made this album all ourselves, and the way it sounds is pretty much, well, for us it’s the best-sounding record of the three, because we’ve had more time and we’ve been more hands-on, and we know what we want now.”
There's no doubt that The Runawayis a bigger, bolder and perhaps riskier album than anything the quartet has recorded to date. The Magic Numbers are usually shunted into the folk-pop pigeonhole, but songs such as the funky disco murmur of Why Did You Call?and the slinky Isley Brothers-esque The Song that No One Knowsmay well alter people's perceptions. The Pulseand The Start with No Endingfeature sweeping string arrangements by the late Robert Kirby, famous for his work on Nick Drake's albums.
Stodart co-produced the album with Icelandic knob-twiddler Valgeir Sigurðsson, who works with acts that thrive on peculiarity – Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Björk, CocoRosie.
“He was someone that we got to come in, and he realised where we were trying to go,” Stodart says. “He had this real calming effect. It can get quite heated with the four of us, so it was nice to have someone there to feel like you always had to behave in front of.
"With this record, I didn't want to drive it with the guitars, which is what I did on the first two. It kind of made it less like the Love Me Like Youor Forever Lostside of things."
Stodart remains fond of those early hits. Still, 2005 and their hugely successful eponymous debut seem so far away. Five years ago, there weren’t really any other commercially successful bands that straddled the folk and pop boundaries – no Mumford & Sons, no Noah and the Whale, no Laura Marling. Yet as unique a selling point as they were (hippyish brothers and sisters with chart-busting tunes that sounded modern and vibrant), no band wants to be categorised so easily.
“I don’t mind, really, because you know, great bands are misunderstood,” he shrugs. “I mean, The Cure have this life as a pop-singles band, then they’re perceived as being this dark, gothic band too. We still get the whole ’60s Mamas the Papas thing – the happy, sunshine band thing.
"When we brought out the first album, people really honed in on the singles – which admittedly are pop singles, and I love that side of what we do. But the whole record wasn't filled with songs like Love Me Like You. There were songs about a massive break-up, as in a long-term, nine-year relationship. So they weren't exactly happy songs.
“When we came out with the second one, I think a lot of people who thought they were going to get really upbeat songs were like ‘Oh, this album’s too slow’. It’s funny, because if you think about it too much you’ll drive yourself mad. The people around us were like ‘Hold on, you guys write these really catchy pop songs, why would you not wanna do that?’ I was kind of like, well, it’s not about sitting down and saying, ‘Right, I’m gonna write about this now’.
“It’s what happens in your life, I think. People who really know the group and what we’ve been through will kind of see that this is the natural way for us to go.”
There's no need to read between the lines when the lyrics say it all: it sounds like the scars of heartbreak still cause pangs from time to time, with songs such as I'm Sorryand Only Seventeenparticularly forlorn.
“With this record, I asked a lot of questions of myself. I mean, I was in a band with Sean for 11 years before the girls joined. I went out with Sean and Angela’s sister for nine years. Then the band thing happened, and you get kind of swept up in it and do crazy stuff, you know. You have regrets and things. Then you reach this point where you think ‘hold on’. Especially with my sister having a baby girl – it brings things into perspective and allows you to figure out where you are, in a way.
"Life outside the group, for me, has always been such a nightmare, because I put so much into it. My whole life is music-obsessed, so everything else suffered, I guess. So I'm Sorryand Only Seventeenare about looking back on stuff and relationships and mistakes. But I don't know. I guess I'm just trying to find a cool way of making it all work."
It doesn’t sound like you’re particularly happy with life at the moment, I wager.
“No, not really,” Stodart agrees with a sad chuckle. “I mean, I feel like we’ve made the best record we’ve ever made, and I feel like it’s such a different time now, everything’s moved quicker. I’m not going to lie, when the album comes out, I want everyone to love it and think it’s amazing. But who knows if that’ll be the case?
“I’m going to be really happy once we get on a long stretch of being on the road and playing live every night, because that throws up these really liberating, unpredictable feelings. It’s like you wake up and think ‘Right, where are we?’ It’s fun, and it’s a good escape from stuff.”
So perhaps The Runawayis an apt title for both the album and where Stodart finds himself at the moment. At the same time he realises that returning after a break of several years won't be a picnic – where once the band might have been billed close to the headliners at Glastonbury, last month they found themselves playing an early afternoon slot on The Other Stage.
The singer and guitarist insists that having to re-establish themselves is a good thing. Still, he’s also confident that people already see The Magic Numbers as a band in it for the long run.
“I think everyone, after being away, should feel like you have to fight the fight, and prove yourself,” he nods. “We don’t expect everyone to be there waiting. I mean, you hope that people are there for you, but after taking a break it does feel like we’re a new group, and it’s exciting, it’s good. With every record, it feels like a new start. And maybe it’s good to whittle away the people who kind of liked you but weren’t really sure.
“We’re on our third record now, and I don’t know how it goes. I see great bands that I love, like Super Furry Animals or Teenage Fanclub, these groups that bring out consistently great albums. But with each one, their audience maybe sort of dissipates, becomes smaller, but becomes more honed in on the really hardcore fans who are really into it. So I would hope that people stay with us.
“I think that’s a bit lacking in the world that we live in, where everything’s so fast. People love a song, they do a click, and then they own the song. Then they listen to it for a while, forget about it, and move on to the next thing.
“I just hope that with us, and the music that we do, that people stay with us as a group.”
The Runawayis released today on Heavenly Records
