aaamusic | On 06, Jul 2010

Banish Negative Thoughts is the opening track and first single from European Monsoon, the new album by Cardiff solo artist Pagan Wanderer Lu, aka Andy Regan.

It’s a twisted-up pop song built on Omnichord loops, pounding drums, jarring guitars and dizzying electronic blips and squelches, but the phrase “Banish Negative Thoughts” is tongue-in-cheek. “It’s often used in those sorts of self-help books that allegedly teach you to re-wire your brain to be succesful, happy, more attractive etc,” explains Regan. “It’s such a vapid thing to say – as if just by saying it you can do it. If things are bad then you need to acknowledge they’re bad and do something about it rather than magically dismiss it with a slogan.”

The video sees PWL take a surreal journey that sees him sliding high-speed along pavements and flying in stop motion. It was inspired by the first episode of the new Doctor Who – and even filmed the same location, Llandaff village green. “David took about four thousand still photos for the video and about four hundred of them were of me jumping in the air,” he says. “It was quite tiring. If you look closely there’s one frame where you can see a dad and his two kids joining in with the jumping in the air in the background. Also Cardiff legend Sweet Baboo is visible in two frames. The guy playing the ‘guru’ in the video is Ben who plays bass in the new band.”

There are two remixes on the single, an italo-style reworking by DREAMTRAK, and a drone remix by labelmate Napoleon IIIrd. “Napoleon took the omnichord/circuit bending parts and looped it into a drone. It really reminds me of the Spiritualized ‘Electric Mainline’ stuff they did before ‘Ladies and Gentlemen…’ – also a bit Fuck Buttons maybe? I love it.”

“When Oli Dreamtrak said he wanted to do ‘A Girl Named Aeroplane’ I was intrigued. It wasn’t an obvious choice for his big dancefloor-style productions but I knew he’d come up with something good. He’s reworked it so one of the more peripheral parts of the track is now this huge synth riff. You can see a club full of people loving it, but then being bummed out by the words…”

And is everything really as unbearably awful as the song suggests? “Not everything. Not always. There’s lots to be happy about. Hopefully people don’t take the song at complete face value – although past experience suggests some people will. I think/hope it’s more obvious that the song is supposed to be amusingly hyperbolic when you see it with the video.”

LIVE DATES:
11th July – CARDIFF – Clwb Ifor Bach – w/The School, Gindrinker + more
16th July – LONDON – Betsey Trotswood – Records Make Great Pets
21st July – CARDIFF – Buffalo Bar – w/The Felt Tips

FREE DOWNLOAD OF THE DREAMTRAK REMIX:
http://soundcloud.com/brainlove/pagan-wanderer-lu-a-girl-named-aeroplane-dreamtrak-diamond-sound