BEST FIT: This song has been described as “one of the best booty call songs of all time,” but, beyond the chorus the lyrics aren’t quite as straightforward as that. It feels like there’s a lot more to it. What can you tell me about this one?
ISOBEL CAMPBELL: I remember when I first sent the songs for Sunday at Devil Dirt to Mark, he was really enthusiastic about this one. He described it as one of our raunchiest songs. I chose it here because it was always so fun for us to perform it live. It was almost like a striptease or something. There would always be some reaction from the crowd, like they’d shout at us to go make babies or something. So, yeah, it was raunchy but I was also just really, really funny. I think “booty call song” is a good way to describe it.
I remember going to Palm Springs with a bunch of ladies and it turned out that one of the ladies, who I didn’t know very well at the time, would use that song in a pole dancing routine that she’d do. She ended up giving me a lap dance to show me her routine, which was so funny.
Going back to your point, yeah, I do think the song is actually quite dark in a way. In a sort of intoxicating way. I remember when I was writing it in my kitchen, smiling away to myself and just having so much fun. I really like how our voices go together on this song, and it was always a little bit theatrical to play it live.
I was always really dreaming about and looking for this ‘Great Dark Man’ figure. I mean, if you’ve read Quentin Crisp’s autobiography, you’ll know that there is no such thing. I would agree with that, 200%, but it’s still the fantasy, you know? We all know that it’s not real but it’s really, really hot still [laughs].
I actually still can’t believe that I met Quentin Crisp! When Belle and Sebastian were first flown to New York, someone set up a meeting for us with Quentin at some diner. He was wonderful. I mean, what a character! I wrote to him a few years later and sent him a silk tartan scarf and some chocolate, and he wrote back. That’s wild to me.
I laughed so much at his quote about refusing to clean his house.
Yeah, what did he say? After a few years it doesn’t get any worse. I’m not sure I could live like that!
What do you remember about the recording of this track?
Unlike the first album, which Mark and I recorded remotely, for Sunday at Devil Dirt we flew him to Scotland and hired a studio for the weekend. There was some kind of building work going on so we both had to sing in this makeshift cupboard tucked away in the back of the studio, and that’s how we recorded most of the vocals.
It was honestly just so great to have him in the studio at the same time because it was easier to fix things if something wasn’t in the right key or something. And because I was producing the album myself, I could really focus on making sure all the performances were 100% there. I’ve not always been the most confident person in life. I mean, I’ve never really had a reason to not be confident, I just wasn’t particularly. But working with Mark in the studio was wonderful because he validated me quite a lot. He would say very kind and reassuring stuff about the songs, and I really appreciated that.
I knew he had faith in me, or at least saw something in me, and that made me want to be as good as I possibly could be. There was just such a nice back and forth between us. I also appreciated that he would also let me know when he did not like something, because that’s how I could kind of trust that he was always being genuine in his reactions.
I remember I was so happy when Mark said he wanted to do a second album together, but I was also quite terrified to ask at the same time. We were playing our final show on the Ballad of the Broken Seas, which I think was in Athens, and our tour manager kept saying to me, “Ask him! Ask him now,” but I was kind of losing my nerve. Eventually I did ask him, in the dressing room after the show, and Mark said in that voice, “In a heartbeat.”
You probably saw quite different sides to each other when you were actually in the same room recording. At some point he called you a benevolent dictator. Do you remember what provoked that?
On all three of the records we made together, I was quite single-minded in going after the sounds and feelings that I wanted, so I probably was a bit like a dictator. But I was also lucky because the musicians I was working with at the time were very willing and able to deliver what I was asking for. I think, after being in the studio with me, he must have observed how I can be pretty determined and don’t really give up on things creatively. I go after them until they come together in some way that I like.
Actually, Richard [Barron], who owns the Sonora Recorders studio where we recorded some of Hawk, pretty much said the same thing. He said, “You’re the nicest control freak I’ve ever met,” and I’m okay with that. I think, in those days especially, when I had a vision, I would move heaven and earth to make it happen. I’d do everything in my power. Looking back, that’s maybe because I didn’t feel in control in my own life at the time, so being a perfectionist and trying to control things was my way of feeling okay.
I think a lot of artists can relate to that, and I think that having some of those character flaws or quirks or neuroses, whatever you want to call them, can make things happen. I wonder if I was really laid back and sloppy, would anything ever happen? I’ve spent a lot of my life dreaming and fantasising, so I’d always go the extra mile for art and creativity. Whatever it took, really, and I would always push for that. I remember one time when we were in the studio recording Hawk and Mark clearly wanted to get out of there and watch the basketball, but I kept pushing him. I think that was the only time I ever felt sort of threatened by Mark, because he was just being so, so grouchy.
He could be scary when he was grumpy, but Mark was also really funny when he was in the mood to be. One of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He had people in stitches a lot.
