Toby Partington

Factory Records and “Post-punk-funk” are words you might associate with A Certain Ratio. Read about these, along with Manchester’s wider musical history over the last 40+ years, and you’ll find that A.C.R. crop up more times than you’d expect.

I sat down with Donald Johnson, Jez Kerr and Martin Moscrop at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, to discuss their new album.

It All Comes Down To This shows reminiscence to the sound of their early albums, whilst also steering them in a new direction of social commentary on the world’s current climate. They’re keeping it simple but effective.

“You’re hearing 10 of probably 12-13 songs”, says drummer Don Johnson. This isn’t a concept album, more the result of the band continually developing new ideas all the time. After finishing last year’s album 1982, “this was obviously the next thing in line, with loads of ideas and concepts… and it just came together.”

Frontman Jez Kerr says the last two albums (1982 and Loco, plus a few EPs), were a half-and-half mixture of studio work and jam sessions. “On this album, we wanted to make a change of everything, that’s why we decided to use a producer… and that’s what made the whole thing different, stripping it back to myself, Donald and Martin.”

Removing the chore of producing the album themselves took lots of pressure off, allowing them to concentrate on the music itself, which they described as having a simpler framework of guitar, bass, drums and vocals, the simplicity being a breath of fresh air.

The producer in this instance was Dan Carey - producer of Wet Leg, Fontaines D.C. and many more. Working with Carey began with a remix he did of an A.C.R. track found on the Loco Remezclada album. Johnson talks of how Carey came to Manchester as a student and found an A.C.R. remix done by Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim, The Housemartins). “He’s always wanted to work with us. We wanted to work with him, as well.” A full circle moment, indeed.

Kerr says “the fact that we’d stripped it down, listening to his other records with Wet Leg”, meant they knew he would add a similar essence thanks to technology in his own studio. “He was like another member of the band, really… very quick, like we are, now, quick at producing stuff, it was a great success, the marriage of the two.”

The groundwork for It All Comes Down To This was completed in around 12-14 hours, due to a similar working ethic between band and producer, spending several hours there at a time and managing to lay down the tracks in just a few sessions.

While A.C.R. usually move on quickly to other projects, their focus right now is on touring - a fair decision. As Johnson described, they’ve had to learn to play the album live in a way that blends the best elements of Dan Carey’s work, as well as keeping “stripped-back elements” of their own. Despite this, “there’s one little secret that will be divulged when it’s ready to go”, so we can probably expect even more music soon.

Discussing the differences of the music industry over the last 40+ years, Johson says “it’s changed massively, but it was doing that all the time.” The change from cassettes through to 12” (and 10”) singles, CDs and eventually digital downloads, has had its pros and cons. Spotify and its revenue are undoubtedly problematic, but “I like the idea that people can find things easier now.” Streaming can be “a shop window that can get you quick access to learning about other people”, encouraging people to support artists directly in the form of live music, merchandise, etc.

The current resurgence of vinyl popularity has brought about the same “visceral” aspects of physical copies of music that were once appreciated more, such as sleeve notes and the social aspect of discovering new music with friends, but Don claims this will continue into further generations, too.

With the new album featuring more social commentary than anything else, personal lyrics aren’t too frequent, with the exception of Estate Kings. Written by Don Johnson in a day, after visiting the area where he grew up, “[it’s] looking back on a past, when I was a kid… that’s the latest one that I can think of, which has a personal aspect.”

I’ll end this article with a direct quote from Johnson – a useful piece of advice, I think, and a clear statement on how his own playing has changed over time:

“Every day you learn. I find now at this end of playing music, I’m learning more from simplistic things than complicated things. When you start, you’re listening to all these great musicians who can do really complicated things, and you’re trying to deconstruct that and find out how they do it… now I’m listening to Charlie Watts just keep a groove… that to me is excellent.”