It might seem unusual, at first: British folk/pop auteur Sean O’Hagan padding Here Come The Rattling Trees—his latest outing as bandleader of the High Llamas—with several breezy musical snippets that work as either introductions or codas to delicate, fully realized songs. But in fact, the project first coalesced as a narrative the singer scripted about his South London neighborhood of Peckham, where a local working-class recreation center was being threatened by snooty gentrification. But it quickly morphed into a full-scale production that he staged at a Covent Garden theater—hence the inclusion of rising and descending motifs. O’Hagan will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new High Llamas feature.
O’Hagan: My Friend Peter Reder has been making a very unique form of theatre for 20 years. They can be installation or performance pieces, but they all aim to be poetic, funny and entertaining. The subject matter is usually how memory and history collide.
The greater part of Peter’s work has been as one-man shows, however Peter recently invited me to collaborate on his new show My Russian Childhood. The show takes us back to Wanstead in North London where the young Peter tries to negotiate his status as London boy with his dream of living his grandfathers legacy as a Russian émigré and dissident. It sounds heavy, but it’s actually very funny as well as poignant. I’ve written music for the show, which has been a new task for me, and I suppose adds to this drift into another way of working. This collaboration once more confirms that working to other people’s agendas is a great way of making you work. You can get blinded by the drag of repetition when working on your own. I think the fun returns. It’s a bit like running in dangerously low temperatures. It’s so easy because your body is instructing you to run, run, survive. I think agenda-driven work draws ideas from you out of sheer necessity.
