Lanegan and Campbell Hold The Porch Down

After recording their debut album together whilst hardly seeing each other, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan finally stepped out together in the truer sense with their latest player, Sunday at Devil Dirt. Jamie Scott finds out how their partnership is developing

Feature by Jamie Scott | 12 Dec 2008

Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell's collaboration over two records has often been described as a marriage of beauty and the beast. Well documented is the fact that this musical relationship awkwardly unites two musicians from quite differing backgrounds and completely contrasting sounds, on paper at least; Lanegan with Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age and more recently, the Gutter Twins, Campbell as part of the Belle & Sebastian jigsaw.

However, the effortless and supremely confident Sunday at Devil Dirt exudes a nonchalance and quality that puts any doubts aside. Their relationship has developed somewhat since work on Mercury-nominated Ballad of the Broken Seas, when - based on either side of the Atlantic - they emailed tracks back and forth without rehearsing or recording together. Coerced into getting to know one another through playing shows across Britain and America last year, Campbell admits she was more confident in writing and recording the second time around. "I thought I'd play to his strengths", she says of her co-conspirator, "we're getting to know each other all the time". Having not recorded a note in the same room before - no longer an unnatural collaborative process in our world of instant communication and diminishing geographical boundaries - the recording dynamic was as fresh as on their debut.

Going straight into the studio without rehearsals, the pair faced an unknown quantity in working on material that was completely new to Lanegan. "I was hearing most of the songs for the first time right as I was getting ready to sing them" he says between sips of soup. Lanegan has spoken before of his preference for spontaneous musical ideas and performance, coaxing guitarists such as J Mascis and Josh Homme into playing drums on his solo albums. So when the man works with such an unrelenting focus, this must have been second nature to him, surely? "It went very smoothly", he affirms, cards typically close to the chest.

Video: Keep Me In Mind (Live at the BBC)

Despite being written entirely by Campbell, their work does ring of a yearning for Lanegan's home country. "I sort of fell in love with America", she softly incurs, "maybe I should live there...I haven't ruled that out". The jaded rhythms and pulling instrumentation echoing across deserts and roads, evoked not least by Lanegan's voice of grit and hard work. Campbell speaks of a potential collaboration with Cold War Kids, and it seems that any viable contemporaries that she would be most akin to all hail from North America. I ask about her listening habits as she went into the recent collaboration with Lanegan, and she laughs. "Just what I always listen to. Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits always, Bob Dylan always."

Of course, the American influence is inherent to the musical culture of Scotland, the roots of Scottish rock and pop forming in the folk clubs and ball rooms of the 1950s, where country and blues filtered in from across the Atlantic. But this influence is written boldly across Sunday at Devil Dirt. It is not a stretch to hear Campbell and Lanegan singing in these smoky clubs, the pair static onstage, immersed in the troubled romance of Leonard Cohen, of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood.

Campbell's influence and vocal parts sit perpetually in the background, an omnipresent pop svengali to Lanegan's reluctant star. Writing for someone else clearly appeals to Isobel: "You feel less exposed. I can write a song with the most personal information or the most personal feelings, but then if Mark sings them, I'm quite safe". Naturally friendly and open, but held back by onstage shyness, she is pulled by a determination to write and perform songs. What appears to give her drive is a love of craft, nights spent in the kitchen composing and the release that songwriting provides. "I get a kick out of writing for other people" she claims, however, it may be less a desire to produce music for other people than a fear of being left alone onstage, when she no longer has Mark by her side. "I don't enjoy being out on a limb on my own, or making an exhibition of myself" Campbell admits. "When there's someone along for the ride, that really helps me". Interesting then, having someone quite so stoic as Mark Lanegan for a musical partner. "It's quite hilarious that the person that I choose to join me on my thing, use as a front to hide behind, is one of the most introverted, quiet men" she laughs.

Lanegan's reticence is apparent, with a clear reluctance to talk about the new album, simply content to turn up, play the songs, and move on. Clearly, this working relationship is less unwieldy than it first appears. The opposing shyness of the two artists, playing off each other creatively, and performing together creates a beneficial environment for the pair of them. Suddenly, the chalk and cheese comparisons begin to look a little foolish.

What the future holds for the duo is another story, with no commitments for a third chapter at this moment. "Much as the people who work with me don't want to hear it, I'm quite enjoying taking my foot off the gas a wee bit," Campbell confesses. "Though I've not ruled out another album with Mark, if we feel like it.

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan play The Picture House, Edinburgh on 14 Dec.

Lanegan joins with Greg Dulli to perform as The Gutter Twins at Òran Mór, Glasgow on 15 Jan.

http://www.myspace.com/isobelcampbell