Burnt Log is a Scottish project created by Andy Smith, aiming to transport the listener on an emotive journey of self discovery. Their new album, Time Is A Heron Waiting For Prey, was released in May, and it certainly lived up to the hype for me! I decided to have a chat with Andy too find out more – you can also check out the record at the end of the interview.
By Jane Howkins
You recently released a new album titled Time Is A Heron Waiting For Prey. What can you tell us about the record?
The new album is very much a companion piece to my first album, The Punishing Stage. The album employs much of the same instrumentation as its predecessor and the same unique mix of styles, but with more ambition in the form of two progressive rock epics. Not exactly cape-wearing prog, but prog as in the many places the listener is taken in the songs and the narrative that carries them through to their lengthy conclusions.
The album opens with The Equivalent, a historical epic documenting Scotland’s disastrous Darien Scheme in the late 17th century. The song, aided by some subtle sound effects, documents some of the misfortune and poor planning experienced through the eyes of the main protagonist William Paterson. Optimism, seafaring, disease, famine, adverse weather conditions, bitter disappointment and death are all visited on whilst the music is calm, queasy and rocky in equal measure. The second of the epics is, The Gallery, which is the centrepiece of side two of the imaginary vinyl.
I find the hardest part of songwriting is coming up with lyrics that are not obvious and banal. I like them to be intriguing. I intentionally visited a retrospective exhibition by Scottish artist Peter Howson as I knew the artist’s colourful life and confrontational artwork would provide the inspiration and facts I needed to complete the song. “Do you mind if I borrow your pain and your sorrow? Provides authenticity”. The whole album has a loose theme of time, the passing of which, is an obsession of mine.
The album artwork features a representation of each of song. The intention is to convey a progressive rock aesthetic and perhaps hint at a loose concept. I hope to achieve a FULL concept on album number three.
It’s an interesting title – where did that come from?
I had written a song for the album which I had given the title Time Waster.The song had a painfully long gestation period – it was mixed and mastered and ready to go, but I decided it was a bit rubbish. I was determined that the album should be all killer, no filler, so Time Waster got the boot at the last minute and was replaced by the hastily assembled, The Sea And The Ice. The unused song was about drifting through life without making the most of it or something like that. I tried to write a poem about the nature of time which I did as a spoken word bit tacked on the end. By far the best line in the poem was, “Time Is A Heron Waiting For Prey” which I found to be a pleasing metaphor. The Heron stands stock still for hours waiting to pluck a busy life from the passing current, or perhaps an unfulfilled life is snatched away before they had the chance to finally ‘live’.
How has the reception to Time Is A Heron Waiting For Prey been so far, and where can it be purchased?
The reception has been positive from my small group of followers. This time round, I am attempting to lure more people in with some low level stealth advertising, so I’m getting plenty of ‘likes’ for my adverts but it’s pretty hard to quantify if any of them went on to treasure it. You can find it here for those that are interested: music.burntlog.c…valent
It’s your second album, yet it sounds very accomplished! What is the writing and recording process like for you?
I record everything in my kitchen/dining room in a pretty shoddy way as I don’t have a space of my own. I then get it professionally mixed and mastered by a miracle worker I found on the internet. He is always telling me off because of my “screaming guitar frequencies” or he can “hear the room” in my audio takes. I did try to learn how to do it all myself in the beginning but it was clear I couldn’t hear the frequencies the YouTube guys were always banging on about. I often come up with songs in the morning, usually in the shower, and then stab them down on a keyboard in the 5 minutes before I have to go to work. So many amazing songs are lost this way!
Being a pretty limited musician, my recordings are comped together from millions of takes. The music part is easy but as I mentioned, the lyric part is HARD. Songs lie unfinished for months waiting on the right words.
Do you have any singles planned for release soon?
I have already milked this album for a whopping five singles starting from January till May. Predict The Outcome, So Emotional, Ten A Penny, Dizzy Spell and To the Sea. The Sea And The Ice is a cracker and could have been a single so let’s say it is one! Exciting news is I had my first ever collaboration released on 28th June. It is pretty different and I’m keen to see what everyone thinks of it.
Burnt Log is a passion project of Scottish artist Andy Smith. Why did you decide to use the Burnt Log moniker, instead of producing music under your own name?
I probably have the most ordinary names ever. I always prefer solo artists to come up with something more enigmatic or mysterious than their own names. The reason I chose Burnt Log is I liked it better than Spent Force.
Your music has a unique sound. What/who are you most influenced by? What have you been listening to recently?
I have been devouring new music all my life, but I think the strongest influences on what I do now are probably the grey men with raincoats from the eighties. The Cure, The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen etc, as well as the grey men that followed such as Interpol. Bowie also plays a huge part. The guitar of Rowland S Howard and the many guitarists of the Banshees. The rock genres of prog, math and post where song structures are complex or extended.
Cinema is another enduring influence on the music I make. Pair the right music with a scene and the emotional punch is increased dramatically. My song, So Emotional, is an attempt to achieve this using scenes from films that always choke me up set to my version of a John Hughes soundtrack. Scott Walker’s and Tom Waits’ orchestral ballads. The atmosphere of The Blue Nile. The absurd humour of Dry Cleaning. The heaviness of Deafheaven. I could go on and on! I am currently listening to Mui Zyu, English Teacher and Dehd, amongst many, many others. Oh, and I was very impressed by System Exclusive when I saw them the other night. I will stop now.
Do you have anything else exciting coming up over the next few months?
Last year I got a cool remix done in a synth wave style by the talented James K Ultra of Pain In The Yeahs. I want to carry on this tradition, so this year I have approached another gifted electronic music producer to do a remix of a song from the album. I told them to really go to town on it creatively and I am really looking forward to hearing what they come up with.
Do you have any tour dates lined up for the UK?
Haha, not likely I am afraid. As I said my musicianship is very limited. Visit my Instagram profile for a couple of examples of this! Last time I was on stage would have been in the mid-nineties. It was an ordeal I used to dread and I was fairly confident then compared to now. I watch a lot of live music and since I have been doing this I often fantasise about playing live whilst I watch others doing it. Then I get the absolute fear of all the things that can go wrong and think it’s better left to the professionals.
Any last words for the fans?
If I have any actual fans and they are reading this I would say thank you so much for listening. If the music has moved you in any small way then I’m absolutely delighted. Thank you.