Three years ago it looked like the only thing people would be hearing from Embrace again was the occasional radio play of their anthemic debut single, All You Good, Good People. After the Yorkshire lads were dropped by their label, things were looking bleak, but they were picked up by Independiente. The five-piece literally went back to the building block and constructed their own studio.  | | Steve from Embrace |
Embrace were then ready to start on their fourth album, Out Of Nothing. Although they had always produced their own LPs, they decided to get Youth back on board, who had produced some of their early singles. After having a song, Gravity, penned for them by their old buddy - Coldplay's Chris Martin - the band were ready for some chart action. Gravity, the first single to be released from the album, went into the charts at number seven while the album went gold during its first day on sale. The band are now heading off on a sellout tour and will visit Norwich's UEA on 17 November. We caught up with bassist Steve Firth to ask him about the ups and down of recording their new album. When you lost your deal with Hut did you ever feel that was the end for the band? I can honestly say we never thought it was the end of the band. We thought perhaps that our major label days were over and we might have to get day jobs, but we always thought that there was a lot of unfinished business and our best album was still ahead of us. In the end, you only had two months without a deal – was it a long wait or were things bubbling away? As soon as we were dropped we decided we needed to cut costs, so we got busy building a studio at Rick’s. We spent the next four months learning about soundproofing, plaster boarding, carpentry and secondary glazing. So getting dropped gave us the chance to build a base to work from and ensure the survival of Embrace. At your new label the boss, Andy MacDonald, seems to be very hands on – what was that like for the band to get used to? Hut used to leave us to get on with things, but with hindsight we thought we could have benefited with some guidance and gentle coercion. We played all the work in progress to Andy and luckily when we thought a song was good so did he. He even spotted Keeping as a potential album track when we missed it. After producing most of your records, you went back to work with Youth for the album. Why was that? We‘d come to realise that we’d made mistakes in the past and could do with some fresh input from outside the band from someone with a musical aesthetic we trusted. When you’ve played with the same guys as long as we have you tend to get in a musical rut and you need pushing musically. He was the man for the job. What do you think you’ve achieved by working with a producer that you wouldn’t have if you’d decided to go it alone again? Youth tends to push songs to be as fast and exciting as possible and believes in leaving as much space as possible to let the song breathe. Whereas we have a tendency to be scared of space and overdub unnecessary keyboard and guitar line. Saying that, Youth is an unpredictable genius and just when you think you know what he is going to say, he says the opposite. By all accounts it sounds like it was a tough time in the studio – did the songs change from the original vision you had for them? The main battle was getting the emotion across. Danny felt as the songs got faster they no longer affected the listener emotionally. He had a hard time re-learning to sing songs at a much faster tempo, some of which he’d lived with for two years. A prime example is Ashes which was a slow-building ballad before Youth got his hands on it. But after about six weeks we realised Youth had been right 95 per cent of the time so the tension subsided. Are you all friends now? The band is stronger than ever, probably from what we’ve been through these last three years. Although Youth is argumentative and stubborn, he’s a wonderful person and there was never a moment when anybody fell out with him. In fact, we’ve booked to go in the studio with him again for three weeks in January. Embrace are one of the last Britpop bands to still be going – why do you think that is? We never considered ourselves Britpop and were never that fashionable. We considered ourselves more of a soul band, in that our songs were more heartfelt and had an emotional resonance which was lacking in a lot of the Britpop bands. Does it feel like you’re starting out all over again? We feel very privileged to have been given a second chance and are enjoying the success a lot more this time round. There was a weight of expectancy around the first album whereas this time round we had much more modest ambitions. Your debut album repeated the form of your debut album by going in at number one – what did you do when you heard the news? We’d heard the mid-weeks and knew it was going to be close so we were very nervous. When our manager told us on Sunday morning it didn’t really sink in until I went round to some friends to listen to the chart rundown and they opened a couple of bottles of champagne to celebrate. The next day the band got together to celebrate and it felt very special. Danny said he didn’t expect the album to go to number one, but it went gold on the day of its release. Do you think you under-estimated the strength of your fan base? Understandably so, as we’d only play three small local gigs in three years. We’d have been happy with a top 10 album. How did Chris Martin come to write a song for you? Chris and Danny became good friends after Coldplay supported us at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom about four years ago.  | | Embrace stand tall again |
Chris played Gravity to Danny about two years ago and he loved it. About a month before finishing our album Chris rang Danny to ask if we wanted to do a version of the song as it had been decided there was no place on their album for it and it sounded like an Embrace song. We recorded a demo it and immediately loved it and wanted it on the album. Why did you make a song you hadn’t written yourselves the first release off the album? Obviously after spending three years on an album, we wanted to release an Embrace song but we also wanted as many people as possible to hear the album. After much debate with the record company, and in our new spirit of listening to people who know better than us, it was decided that the best way to maximize our chances of getting played on the radio again was the Chris Martin story. What was Chris’s response when he heard the song had gone straight into the top ten? Chris was over the moon as he’s a friend and a big fan of the band. How has the tour gone so far? I think as a live band we are better than ever because of the frustration of the three years of not playing. I think this has energised our performances and the crowd responds to this making the gig fantastically uplifting and rewarding. How surprised are you that all your November dates have sold out? Once again we’re overawed by our success. Every day is a good news day in Embrace at the moment and they’re even talking about booking bigger gigs next year. You’re coming back to the UEA in Norwich – do you have any memories of your last gig there? I can remember the crowd being so up for it that they were crowd surfing to Fireworks. We were also obsessed by Alan Partridge at the time and I remember having a laugh with some fans before the gig about him. During your set you’ve been performing a cover of Eminem’s and D12’s How Come. Why that song? We were invited to do Jo Whiley's Live Lounge and one of the conditions is that you do a cover version of a recent hit. We were going to do another song, but found out a couple of days before that it had already been done. Danny came up with the idea at the last minute and most of the rehearsal was done in the hour before we went out live. We were very pleased with the result and kept getting requests to play it on tour Can you drop us a hint and tell us if you have any more secret gigs planned? We’ve got another four in the planning stages to do before Christmas but the surprise element is part of the fun, so I can’t tell! Finally, is there a release date for Ashes yet? Ashes is going to be released on 15 November and hopefully will have the D12 cover as a B-side.
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