Pleasure Palaces: The Phantom Band

I've often wondered what difference moving from my dark bedroom to the bright airiness of the living-room would have on the music I was making. Would I make more depressing music if I didn't have a window to look out of? Would the music be even more depressing if I had a window but a horrible view?

Although there has been a lot of scientific research carried out to determine how colours and light can affect our mood, I'm interested in finding out how our immediate and surrounding environments can affect the creative process. We asked 5 of our favourite Glasgow musicians (including, eh, ourselves) to discuss the spaces they make music in and how they feel it influences the outcome of the music they make...

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To begin with, can you describe the space you play music in and tell us how long you've been using it?
We rehearse and write in what's essentially an office we've rented, in an office building in Glasgow's elegant East End. It's fairly high up so it commands stunning vistas over south and east Glasgow, and it has an en suite kitchen.  We've still not got it kitted out the way we want – studio gear is expensive (endorsements welcome) but we've cobbled something together what works ok for us, much of it from old gear I had just gathering dust in my flat.

We got it in April 2011 when we returned from our European tour and, fortunately for those lucky fellas, it happens to be very near the office of our record label, Chemikal Underground – near enough for us to steal their biscuits and internet, as well as those postal bags for sending out t-shirts and stuff. Andrew from the label likes our pizza oven though, and I once came in and caught Stewart jamming solo on his old bass guitar instead if doing his accounts or whatnot.

How do you feel the environment affects the outcome of the music you make?
It must have an effect. We'd never made music under such fluctuating temperatures before – in the summer the place gets incredibly hot and humid, having a big south-facing window. We actually have a track with the working title 'Sweatbox Tropicana' which was first conceived when only three of us were in, but had to play in only our boxers because the room was so hot. But just now it's totally freezing as the building's heating turns off at about 6pm, just as we are starting – trying to play guitar in mittens surely must influence the kind if music you write, no?

I think the biggest advantage to us from our space has been enjoying the ability to noodle away without that feeling of the meter running, which you'd get in a commercial rehearsal space...even though, given how scarcely we actually all get together in it, it costs us more per minute than any rehearsal room in the country. It's more the knowing that we're not going to have to pack up and leave any minute. I also feel like the sense of ownership you get from having your own space – not dissimilar to having a gang hut or tree house as a kid - gives us a greater sense of ownership over what we are doing creatively in it; we feel more in control of what we are doing.

Obviously with it being an office building we can't make much noise through the day (though I'm pretty sure we've pissed off a couple of our downstairs neighbours at some point), which can slow things down a bit, but knowing we're not going to get turfed out at midnight makes up for that, and it’s good to have somewhere to use as an office through the day, for taking care if all the boring stuff that goes along with a band, rather than sitting in the flat to do it.

We haven't properly recorded anything we've written in there yet so it's hard to tell if it's made a big difference to how we sound...maybe we'll just sound 'later'...darker, smoother, sweatier, cooler...actually we have found ourselves inadvertently writing a lot of jazz recently.

What is the surrounding outdoor environment like? Does the space feel very separate from that?
Phantom HQ is in an area of town that's notorious for being quite rough. There's a big drug problem here, so there's a degree of other crime that goes along with that. It's also in one of Glasgow's last virtually unchallenged enclaves of open sectarianism, which is depressing as fuck (not that it's one of the last, that it exists at all!), and there's been a few occasions where my route to the studio has been hampered by roads closed by police tape.

So there's definitely the feeling of the environment inside the building (whether that be in Phantom HQ or Chemikal Underground's office) being very separate to what's going on outside in the street. You have to be pretty hungry for Koka Noodles or some kind of frozen food item to warrant venturing out again once you're in. All that said, it's not as bad as all that implies, and there's an art gallery, artist studios, an online record shop and a few other bands that have all moved into the area recently, so it's definitely getting better.

What is the building's history – what did it used to be?
I'm not really sure. I know the adjacent buildings were all built at about the same time (late 20s probably) as carpet factories so ours was probably that too.

Have any other bands used the space before, to your knowledge? If so, who? Any records been made there?
We're the first band to use it for playing in. Before that it's pretty much always been used as an office. Chemikal Underground used to use it for storing stock in (in fact some if it is still there) so many a record has *been* there, does that count?

How did you find the space?
Stewart from Chemikal put us in touch with the guy who owns the building after we mentioned we'd been looking for a space of our own.

Where else have you rehearsed/made music?
We used to almost always practice at Berkeley 2 studios, and we stored our gear there for many years. They were great rooms, really well maintained with great gear and always warm etc. and Steve Cheyne who runs it always had some good chat, keeping us all informed on any goings on in any Glasgow band you care to mention- he had the lowdown. But that was a bit of a luxury. We were hemorrhaging money over the years, but the biggest issue was the fact that our studio set up was expanding. It would take us (ok, mostly me) 40mins to set up and the same to take down, meaning we had hardly any time to play. It was fine for a quick rehearsal but it wasn't really conducive to writing. We did it for two albums but found ourselves not dedicating as much time as we'd have liked to on preparing the tracks for recording, and we found the time-is-money stress element to using commercial rehearsal rooms hampered creativity a bit.

Do you use any other spaces – like a bedroom, parents' house, girlfriend's living room?
I think everyone has had a kitchen studio at some point; I did for years. My flat in Dundee used the bathroom as a vocal booth. Great if you want to record your friends having a jobby. In terms of The Phantom Band, we're far too loud to practice in any of our homes. I think we all use our flats for just messing about on stuff, whether it eventually becomes Phantom material or something we do ourselves as individuals. If any of us comes up with anything we think might work for the band, we take it in and try playing it round a few times and gauge what the response is - if nobody starts playing along with it or says 'hey man that sounds radical' then it invariably goes home with you again. I can work at home on my own stuff, and on remixes etc, but I keep my studio monitors and other gadgets at Phantom HQ as it's good to have the discipline of physically leaving your house and going somewhere to work on stuff.