No. 35: Steve Queralt

Ride, rhythm and rebirth with the shoegaze original

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Obviously it’s a cliché to say that someone needs no introduction, but in this case we’ve already provided an intro to Steve Queralt, in the form of an interview with his Ride bandmate Andy Bell. But when the opportunity came up to meet Queralt too, as he prepares for the release of his first solo album¹, we were super keen. To start with it’s a gorgeous album, which incorporates the vocals of Emma Anderson (formerly of Lush and Sing-Sing) and Verity Susman (Electrelane, MEMORIALS) into a super distinctive and focused sound, and shows just how much possibility there still is for new kinds of expression in the shoegaze palette. But also, and just as importantly for the way BMTatR works, we thought it would be super interesting to get a different view of the Ride story in light of how different Queralt’s trajectory has been from Bell’s.

Whereas Bell has put himself across dozens of projects since Ride, Queralt has taken a very contrasting path by…. well, you’ll see! There is also a lovely UK bass cross-wiring, as he reveals he has absolutely outstanding taste in reggae and jungle.

Hi Steve, nice to see you, I love the new album – but how do you feel about it? It’s your “debut” after all so it must have been different to what you’re used to, at what point did it come together to feel like an album as such?

Yeah I mean I still don’t know... not until it’s out there and it gets everybody’s feedback do I actually know what it’s about, what it is, really! It was a long time making and I fell in and out of love with it over that period... You know, the comments I’m getting so far are all good but that’s like... my mum likes it, put it that way. But yeah I mean it’s nerve-wracking – being in a band is one thing because you get to kind of hide in the shadows of the other three a little bit, so you know we’re playing a gig and we’re not very good it’s not my fault, it’s kind of all our fault... similarly if we make a record that’s got terrible reviews, again it’s not my fault – but this one might be if you know! So I’m taking the whole responsibility but I think the fact that Sonic Cathedral are willing to put it out, that Emma’s willing to sing on it, Verity is willing to sing on it... you know they’re good signs so yeah I’m feeling I guess I’m feeling pretty good about it.

One thing that jumped out for me was that it feels like more of a return to the initial influences on Ride in the old days than actually Ride’s recent records have been. Is that fair to say?

Yeah, I kind of agree with you. I mean, I made an EP a few years ago, and that was very, very indulgent. It’s full of, you know, synths, long kind of soundscapes and drums coming in and out and stuff. And that was really, really indulgent. But then when I started this, it started with two tracks that I wrote for Ride. It was like, there were two long kind of like post-rocky tunes. And I presented them to the guys, they liked them, but the timing wasn’t good. So we thought, well, let’s, we’ll hang on to them, we’ll park them in case we do an EP or something. And so they, they went on the shelf. I carried on writing tunes. And I kind of came to a point where actually, I thought hmm, maybe I could make my own record here, you know, if I had enough tracks, then, then do those.

And because I kind of got the ideas together in quite a short space of time, I was using the same sort of sounds, and it was all very, very guitar-y. And I was trying to move away from the kind of the more synths, poppy stuff that Ride had been doing more recently². And, you know, I’ve been guilty of kind of feeding that stuff to Ride as well. So yeah, it was a chance to make the music I wanted to listen to, and not have to write a piece of music, give it to the guys and have them tear it apart a little bit... You know, you’re the fruits of your labor, and everyone needs an input, everyone wants to kind of make it into something that they like, and it becomes a massive kind of compromise... sometimes. Sometimes that works out well. You know, people who like Ride will say, yeah, well, whatever works, works. But doing this record, I was able to take full responsibility and make my own decisions, and, you know, not having to worry about Mark or Andy or Loz, if they’re also going to like it.

Well you say that, but it clearly does work – the diversity and the constant barrage of invention makes that Last Ride album... It feels rejuvenating! It’s funny that the latest Jesus and Mary Chain album came out sort of similar-ish time....

Yeah, a couple of months before us.

...and they’d done something similar, pinging off ideas and not resting on a classic sound or anything³. It was interesting to see two bands known for a particular thing do the opposite of just playing the “heritage act” game.

Yeah, I think Ride have always been scared of repeating themselves right from the off. We did Nowhere, got well received as this guitar band, but we went into the studio and felt very confident at that point, brought in some keyboards, Alan Moulder to work closely with us on arrangements. We weren’t afraid to use strings, synth sounds, and we made Going Blank Again, which sounds very different to Nowhere. Then obviously the next two albums, one was very West Coast Americana sounding, which was probably the start of the end, and then the Britpop disaster that was the fourth album. So there was always very different, very conscious, significant changes between all the albums.

And when we came back, we decided that we should probably just try and stay in our lane, try and just make music that we know we can make, rather than, right, our next album’s going to be a reggae album, or our next album’s going to be a jazz fusion album. You know, next one’s going to have lots of Brazilian influences. It was very much like, let’s just do what we do and see how that goes, rather than trying to reinvent ourselves with each album. But then that settled down and I guess we started experimenting a bit again! But going back to your point with this [album], absolutely it was really going back to the music I like, like the heavy guitars, the kind of moody, broody, shoegazy, post-rocky sort of sound that probably influenced Nowhere at the time.

Yeah, I could really hear you wearing influences on your sleeve – almost the triumvirate of pre-shoegaze. I mean, it felt to me like there’s The Cure, there’s My Bloody Valentine and there’s Cocteaus in it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Maybe not so much My Bloody Valentine, but definitely there’s a bit of Cure in there. Definitely There’s a Cocteau Twins section in one of the tracks for sure.

My Bloody Valentine more in the basslines I thought...

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, maybe, maybe. I mean, it’s just, it’s difficult to make My Bloody Valentine sounding records without sounding exactly like them. You know what I mean? I mean there’s so many bands that absolutely nail that Valentines sound. And they probably feel very good about it. But to me, it’s... you’ve got to do something with your influences, you have to try and do something different. I think take it on, you know, have influences by all means be a magpie, but add your own twist to it or your own layers on top of it just to make it you.

Well it certainly does sound like a personal record – and it’s nice to have your little statement that it’s a bass player’s record by coming in with just like a heavy bass tone right at the top.

Yeah, that was by accident. I had the bass plugged in and I had a swivel chair similar to this and I turned and banged the neck on the desk and it was plugged into all sorts of delays and reverbs and it was like.... wommmmmmmm.... wow that’s actually quite good. So I banged it again and thought yeah well there’s the bassline.