Ultimate Painting is James Hoare of Veronica Falls and Jack Cooper of Mazes. They delve into their shared influences, to create a loose, natural and confident sound. They released their self titled debut in October 2014, on Chicago’s Trouble In Mind label, receiving great accolade. I first came across their track ‘Ultimate Painting’ just before Christmas and it made my ears melt. On their website it read, “Ultimate Painting is a band from the earth”. Spot on – their music sounds like is has been dormant since the beginning of time, and they have just unearthed it.  Their smart lyrics and intricate guitar interplay, creates a truly infectious sound. I caught up with the band before their fantastic performance at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar when they supported White Fence.

How did Ultimate Painting come together?
UP: Our bands did a tour together in Europe for 3 weeks. We became friends on the tour and talked about doing a musical project. When we came back it wasn’t immediate. Then a couple of months later, we started recording stuff in my bedroom. Initially we thought about doing a 7” Single, which then turned into a 12” EP. Then when we were at the EP stage, about this time last year, we thought why not do another 3 or 4 songs to make an LP.

Your sound differs a lot from both of your previous bands. Do you have the same influences?
UP: I think you get a little bit more chilled out with age. I’ve always been into the slower, more melodic kind of stuff. But being with Jack, I wasn’t having to persuade other people. It was easier to get what you want across being on the same page.

What are your influences?
UP: We spoke a lot about Television. About there not being a lead guitar or a lead guitarist, and the guitars being mutually beneficial. I don’t think we sound like Television at all but that was our inspiration. Our original plan was to have a drum machine and guitars that sound like Television. We did start with a drum machine, and then we put live drums over the top and got rid of the drum machine, and the guitars ended up sounding like the late part of Velvet Underground. It was a sound that I’ve been into since I was 16 years old. We also both like Richard Lloyd which was another thing we both talked about.

How did you attack the recording process?
UP: It’s all recorded onto tape so it sounds a bit more like an old record. We didn’t seem to work on the songs very much, quite a lot of them didn’t have endings. We just literally recoded them, which gives it a relaxed feeling to them. We tracked it as it was just the two of us. We put down a guitar track first, then Jack will put on some drums and the bass, and then the vocals on top.

We didn’t have the pressure of recording in a studio. Everything was in my bedroom. If we weren’t feeling it after 20 minutes we could stop and start again another day. Something that you can’t do in a studio as you’re paying for it. We probably didn’t record for more than 5 hours in a day. It was chilled.

Do you have plans for the next album?
UP: We’re recording another album which we’ve almost finished. That’s going to come out this year on the same label. We are keen to keep busy whilst we are feeling good about it and motivated. In the sixties people released records a lot quicker. These days even small band will take a year to get a record out. The record label are really nice and chilled people. We told them what we wanted to do, and they were happy for us to record another album straight away. Major labels and big indie labels are so business driven and you have to do this and that, spending a year just promoting one album, and they forget about the fact that none of that matters. They should just be interested in releasing good music. If you are true to yourself and you stick to your own ethos and beliefs, you will win a fan base.

What do you think it is about your music that resonates with your fans?
UP: I think the thing that people have been responding to is how natural the sound is, that it lacks any real sinister’ism. Just good instruments being played, something that you don’t really hear anymore. Even in things that are called lo-fi or that are recorded on cassettes and stuff – That’s an aesthetic in its self, people wanting to sound purposely shitty. We just wanted it to sound like it should sound, and that’s mainly down to how you record it. All of our stuff is recorded on high quality vintage equipment, and that’s why I think it sounds so good. That’s what people don’t really realise, is that the equipment that they used in the 50s 60s 70s was the best of the musical age and it sounds beautiful.

Twitter: twitter.com/ult_painting