MAY 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM Q&A Guy Aroch

Nick O’Malley, Matt Helders, Jamie Cook, Alex Turner ARCTIC MONKEYS After a frenzied fi ve years, it’s time to take a look back—briefl y

THE ARCTIC MONKEYS INSTANTLY on quite a bit since then. One thing about Do you record live in the studio? became a sensation in their native England that record, though, is that it was very We always have, but not to this degree upon the release of their punchy, hard- organized. I had these songs, these solid before. We didn’t fi x anything, we just got a charging debut, Whatever People Say I foundations, and I remember going into good take and kept it. We wanted to strip it Am, That’s What I’m Not. “It’s only been that recording being very organized and back and not do tons of overdubs. If we were fi ve years, but it seems like a long time having the track order in mind. I wanted going to do a guitar overdub, it was usually ago,” observes frontman Alex Turner. to do that again. a double of the solo or the chime-y part. Before heading into the studio to make We discovered this chime-y, Byrds-y sound. the new Suck It and See, Turner and his What else infl uenced your writing? Jamie and I learned how to play the other bandmates revisited their fi rst album to This was the fi rst time I’d written not on the three strings on the guitar. (laughs) We’d determine how far they’d come—and what ground fl oor. You can use that as a metaphor never been down there before—or up there, they might have lost along the way. Turner however you like. I was up on the fourth fl oor depending on which way you looked at it. spoke to us about how the Monkeys got in New York, and there’s a bit more sky on their groove back. this album, a bit more weather. Maybe that’s How have you changed? a product of staring out the window and After the fi rst album there was a bit of a How did you approach the album? being higher up. frenzy, and we really didn’t know what We tried to write more songs in major keys was going on. We got quite defensive as this time, which is something we shied away How does the group write together? a reaction, but we’re in a good place now. from on the last record. And after I’d written a Previously our songs had come from practice We’ve gotten comfortable, certainly more couple songs, [guitarist] Jamie [Cook] came rooms, just hashing it out. A riff here, a comfortable than we were when that album over and we decided to listen to the fi rst riff there, sometimes it’d come from the blew up. Don’t get me wrong: We had a record. It was the fi rst time I’d listened to drums—and we’d piece everything together great time, and it was awesome to get a that record in fi ve years. like a puzzle. This time they came from No. 1 single in the U.K. [“I Bet You Look Good things I had written on acoustic guitar. on the Dancefl oor”] That was unusual for a How did it sound? We each applied to the song what we guitar band. But it wasn’t at all what we set It had been a long time, and we thought felt was going to do it the most favors out to do. We set out to make good records, it would be quite funny—and it was. We in terms of the playing. That happened and that’s where our focus remains. had a laugh. I realized that we’d moved a lot on this album. –Eric R. Danton

‘We set out to make good records, and that’s where our focus remains.’

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