Document: 'The Spy Who Came In From The Cold'
Evoking the noir, paranoid imagery captured within the spirit of early post-punk, Document’s violent stage performance is a vessel for observational, character driven lyricism. After a year of gigging within the Manchester venue circuit and supporting the likes of Phobophobes, Polevaulter, TVAM and Sweaty Palms, the band are quickly establishing themselves as a key part of the city’s modern punk revival…
So your new single is premiering on Yuck! Magazine today, tell us a bit more about it…
Alex: The title was lifted from a ‘60s Cold War novel by John le Carré which I’d been reading around the time we wrote the song. It highlights themes closely followed in the book, such as the idea of mortality, ideological divide caused by cold war politics and betrayal. The main focus of my attention when writing the song was to convey the alienation that the protagonist Leamas faced throughout the story, which is a state that I believe a lot of people face in today's society.
You've been playing live for over a year now, what can an audience expect from a Document show?
Charlie: Our live shows have come on leaps and bounds since we formed. Quite a few of us perform and collaborate with other artists across a range of different genres but regardless of that it still took us a few months to find our feet with what we wanted our live show to be. I think we’re most comfortable in producing the kind of intensity and energy which best compliments the music, and because of that there tends to be a lot of movement and engagement with the audience. It’s an amazing feeling performing your own songs but it’s even more exciting when you can throw that energy into the crowd and have them respond by throwing it straight back. A typical evening with us provides that kind of raucous spirit that post-punk’s always had.
You've currently got an EP in the works, can you tell us a bit more - what is the recording process like?
Max: We recorded at The Nave Studios in Leeds with Alex Greaves, which was an all round brilliant experience. We knew which songs we wanted to have on the EP before heading into the studio, but once we got to work Greaves really helped us develop our initial ideas and translate our live performance into a studio recording. The majority of our time was spent working to produce a wall of noise using guitar, and in that respect the whole EP is mainly driven by those strung instruments. In fact we omitted the use of any sort of keys or synth after toying with the idea for a while, even though we tend to use them live. We wanted as much as possible to portray that raw, organic feel you can only witness in a dark, sweaty basement venue, as that’s the kind of environment in which we thrive.
Charlie: Choosing to produce a five track record was a big decision for us. We have these pieces at the moment which work in such a perfect capacity as set openers and finishers, songs we knew we wanted to record, and as such we’ve been able to build this release to not just be a collection of great songs but more so something which has those most basic aspects of storytelling: a beginning, a middle, and an end. A lot of music is storytelling in one form or another and it was interesting for us to explore that side of things.
Your new single 'Pity' was released recently, it's been making a lot of noise, what's the reaction been like for you guys?
Max: Very reassuring. We’ve been sitting on Pity for nearly six months, and between having people ask us when we’re finally going to get around to releasing something and listening to some of the brilliant unsigned music that’s been put out recently it’s been tough for us not to jump the gun and release early. I think it was important for us to have 2020 be the year we start to really make ourselves known through recorded music and the reaction we’ve got from our peers and fans has solidified that idea for us. We just can’t wait for people to hear more.
You recently played a show in London for We've Never Heard of Ya, is it important for you to be playing outside of Manchester?
Max: Very much so, yeah. London’s been one of those things we’ve been meaning to tackle for a long time, especially considering we’ve only ever played extensively between Manchester and Leeds, but it’s kind of hard to decide when the right time to do that is. It can be quite deflating heading to such a cultural hub only for your performance to fall flat in front of perhaps half a dozen audience members but fortunately the show was packed out, and we were only the openers. Between the contacts we’ve made already and the brilliant audience response we received from that gig, we’d say London’s probably going to become second in importance only to Manchester, our home.
