FELIX BUSHE of GENGHAR: Creating A Place Of Refuge
An interview by Tim Gruar.
Following the recent release of their third album ‘Sanctuary’, indie psych rockers Genghar are set to play Auckland’s Neck of the Woods this March. I had a chance to chat to front man Felix Bushe about the new album, working in tandem with the Bombay Bicycle Club and the classical education that will, ultimately bring them to the ends of the earth.
Originating in 2013, Gengahr hail from Hackney, London, forming during their time at Stoke Newington School. Originally calling themselves RES, they had to rename after discovering there was already another artist by that name. They hit upon their latest title Felix tells me, as a twist on the name ‘Gengar’. “It was one of the original Pokémon characters… It was kind of noble, and ridiculous! But we were into stuff like that along with Greek tragedy and Classics. I studied that at college and I loved the imagery.”
His classical education still plays a part in song writing. The video for Everything and More (the first single from Sanctuary) features lines from Homer’s Odyssey: “… the dawn’s horses that draw her heavenward for men – Athena stayed their harnessing”. The track’s theme is almost perverse, at least on first glance. A man is stranded on a deserted Industrialised Island, with only a German Shepard and the ghost of a blue headed lover for company. Across the sky comes Eos, driving a horse drawn carriage, bringing down the dawn in her wake.
Bushe explains: “I wanted to put myself in part of Odysseus, in this kind of ‘captive journey’ (I’m doing air quotes here, he laughs). At the time I felt like my life was out of control and I wanted to get back to where I wanted to be. I wrote this at a time when I was reading a lot of classics, and at the same time there was a lot going on, So I guess I was processing all that.” More on that later.
“But you know,” he says, taking the conversation down another path, “that’s nothing new. The Greek tragedies aren’t stories from the past hidden in the library. They happen every day, to you, me, they’re more common than you think. It’s the same stories we see on Coro and Eastenders, Neighbours. Same stories, different stage, different scenery. They are retelling stories that are still as relevant today as ever.”
When Gengahr hits our shores in March, they’ll be promoting their new album Sanctuary, which just dropped in January. It comes a year after their sophomore effort, ‘Where Wildness Grows’, which was a huge blaze of an album, full of confidence and swagger. While a natural progression in style and maturity from their debut, it unfortunately never really hit the high mark with the public at large. While other bands were getting the call up to the big festival stages, Gengahr was overlooked. Then things got even darker. “First my mother passed away, and that was really hard on me. Then my girlfriend had to return to Australia because her visa had run out.” He says she was his rock through the hard times and good. He took it hard. “She had stopped me from entirely losing it. I went through a time when I was really off course, listing all over the place, lost at sea… (he laughs at this pun). But we came right finally. We’re married now, so it’s all worked out. Shows it does.”
But while it was hard going Bushe was channelling his suffering into songwriting, tapping into his own personal pain. “I was searching, just trying to get back to a good place in my life. After the release… wildness… things weren’t easy.” He tells me that he had over 60 new songs. Sure, many were still roughs, but they were complete units, ready for the band. “That was a very creative time for me. Strange how the worst brings out the best.”
At this stage he had no real plans for any of this material. “Maybe a solo album, maybe a band project, I was undecided” he reveals. Bushe, alongside John Victor, Hugh Schulte and Danny Ward were all rudderless at this time – no idea if they’d ever get back into a studio. They were clock watching, with the pressure to come up with the goods and the demands of fans and a record company weighing heavily on their our shoulders.
Yet somehow, the camaraderie spirit of the band pulled them together and it was during early collaborations on the new tracks that they decided to experiment. That meant breaking away from the constraints of a label or traditional management and going it alone. It also meant Gengahr fronting up to pay for all their studio sessions but Bushe is confident that it was worth it. Early critical response agrees. On Sanctuary it seems, they’ve found the magic that made their debut so special, with heady, intoxicating, vivid and yet intimate performances.
“I think you get a real buzz, that it’s an album capturing the sound of friends having a good time and in control of our own direction. Plus, it’s way more banging than anything we’ve done. It felt good.”
So with the help of Bombay Bicycle Club’s Jack Steadman on the production desk, they left behind the adversity and cerebral intensity of the last work in favour of fun and funky-ness. The recording process began with a one-off single called ‘Atlas Please’ which they made at Jack Steadman’s family home, in Highgate. “It’s actually quite a lo-fi sort of thing.”
“We’ve known The Bombay Bicycle Club for ages, but it was the first time we’d they’d all properly hung out with Jack since we were gigging at those teenage house parties, smoking weed, drinking and trying to impress girls.”
He says that the recording process was very uplifting. They went at their own speed, with no record executives looking over their shoulders. “That really felt great.”
The timing to get Steadman on board wasn’t that great, though. The Bombay Bicycle Club were about to start work on their comeback album. “Jack said, “Well, if we’re going to do this, it has to be now”. So, although we weren’t entirely ready, we got ready! We started firing off tracks to Jack, and he got them together, he chose those with the most cohesive ideas and themes. It was the first time really working with a producer, as opposed to just an engineer, he shaped our creative ideas, not just made us sound good.” Steadman, Bushe says was “ruthless” about editing. But it also made a much faster, more efficient studio experience.
With help from their debut’s original engineer, James Bragg, they set up camp at the brand new Propagation House studios out the small village of Bude, Cornwall, in a further attempt to resurrect that early vibe and creative energy they’d enjoyed during the recording of their debut.
“Making the …Dream album was such a cool experience. So we wanted to relive that.” Instead of clocking in and out, then nipping off to the local pub at the end of the sessions, they’d spend evenings together at the studio, replaying their younger days, grooving to music by old skool hip hop artists as well as Deftones and Aphex Twin, building back the rapport and good vibes. That definitely comes out on the orchid crisp performances on this album.
“That was also Jack,” Bushe notes, “he was adding samples and kind of dreamy loops. He’s very clever when arranging the band, to get the maximum out of the guitars and keyboards but not making it too cheesy or OTT.”
“Yes, there was definitely a theme to Sanctuary. All 10 songs revolve around this need to feel normal again. You are right to ask about Homer’s Odyssey – it was constantly in the back of my mind – like this constant guide, I guess. But the album’s not intentionally written as a Greek tragedy or play. I have tried to make a new, modern version of what that might look like. If you are looking for some kind of narrative,” he says, “then that’s what holds it, thematically, together. The most obvious example of that is Everything And More, about the emotional challenges of maintaining a long distance relationship. We’d seen each other for only three months over two years, so it was very hard. It was like my own personal epic journey.”
One could argue that Sanctuary runs the full gamut of human feeling, from the euphoric disco-like Heavenly Maybe, inspired by the party bender Bushe undertook in order to distract him from his own real world problems, to the soaring Icarus which see him opening up about the ‘world of pain’ he found himself in, especially when his mother died. “That was the hardest time. I wasn’t right there with her. Losing a parent is always the hardest thing.”
“But, you know, not every song is dark, or about darkness. I had a chance to write a more harmonious song, about togetherness. I did that with my wife, while we were in Vietnam. It was a really great way to come together.” Moonlight is all about that – a hopeful tune that turns self-doubt into a sumptuous celebration emerging from the embers of bad times.
Bushe is well pleased with this record and keen to show it off to new audiences. This will be their first time in New Zealand. He admits that apart from the usual notions of how beautiful the scenery is, he knows very little about the place but is looking forward to discovering it all. “We’re keen to come. To play, to see what you all think. I really think this is our best one yet.” I can’t help suggesting that how it’s received will be in the lap of the gods. “Let’s hope they’re smiling down on us,” he laughs. “Bringing it to New Zealand will definitely be an epic journey!”
Gengahr will be hitting New Zealand on March 10th 2020 for a special one-off show at Auckland’s Neck of The Woods. There are tickets still available from Ticketmaster, but get in quick as they’re well on their way to a sell out!
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