Paul Smith, ever-dapper and seemingly never-ageing frontman of distinctive indie band Maximo Park, has a solid grounding in art, having completed a foundation studies course at college, going on to further develop his arty-ness with a BA and MA in Art History and English Linguistics, and even having a brief spell as an art teacher.
After spotting a photography book of Polaroid pictures, released by Smith in 2010, taken in and around the various cities and towns where he has wound up on tour, and judging by his Instagram account of the same name (@thinkinginpictures) we were keen to find out more about his love of everything visual and the kind of art that gratifies him.
The title of your book and your Instagram moniker brings to mind the ground-breaking work of Temple Grandin, whose Autistic Spectrum Disorder meant that her brain was wired to view the world through hundreds and thousands of photographic images that were seared into her memory. Is this something that you relate to? Do you feel that you think in pictures a lot of the time?
I had never heard of this lady until now, so thanks for the introduction. I do have a bit of an obsessive mind, where images or words get lodged in my brain, often to the detriment of more important things. I used to leave revision until the night before exams and rely on seeing things clearly the next day. It didn’t always work, but I passed.
Do you feel that you think in pictures a lot of the time?
It depends what I’m doing at that point in my life. I studied art and would try to make marks or brushstrokes in my mind out of whatever was in my field of vision. If I’m writing a lot, I tend to think of how to describe what I see in words before writing it down, if I remember.
When you’re creating music and writing lyrics, do visual images play a part in that too?
Yes, I sometimes see a picture that I want to describe; an image of a walk on the Town Moor became the opening lines of ‘The Undercurrents’, for example. I might see a photograph, a film, or a painting that I want to put into a song, like my song ‘Dare Not Dive’ which describes a Peter Doig painting of a ski-slope.
How closely does what you see, either in the world around you, or through your mind’s eye, influence your writing style?
It’s one of the main tools I have because our songs are quite descriptive, but also very emotional, so an image would have to stir deep emotions to get into a song usually – the two are intrinsically linked. My album with Peter Brewis, ‘Frozen By Sight’, is the strongest example of imagery being translated into song in my back catalogue. It contained descriptions of places as the basis for each song.
Have you ever consciously aimed to match lyrics to a particular image or piece of art?
As well as the Peter Doig-referencing song I mentioned, there’s a song called ‘I Recognise The Light’ that was influenced by a Mark Cousins film and a Roberto Bolano book.
Do you collect art?
I can’t really afford a lot of the art that I like, to be honest. Not after buying copious amounts of vinyl and musical equipment. I have a George Shaw print of a woodland walkway that is in my front room, a Dan Holdsworth print, and some original pieces by friends of mine, including artists Rachel Lancaster, Alex Charrington and Susie Green. You’ve got to get in there before they get too famous.
Who are your favourite artists working today?
A big hitter like David Hockney comes to mind because he has such a large body of quality work. Because he’s a master image-maker, you can enjoy his etchings, his photomontages or his different painting styles. I love his refined 70s approach, but his looser, more recent work shows a mind in constant motion. I like Peter Doing and George Shaw, as I’ve already mentioned. I like Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, too. Artists who were at university alongside me in Newcastle like Laura Lancaster, Narbi Price, Flora Whiteley and Phoebe Unwin are all producing good work. In terms of photography, I love Chris Killip and Bruce Davison’s classic documentary photography. Paul Graham is great too.
I’m fascinated by the overlap of the body’s senses and the condition of synesthesia, and recently heard of an artist who paints the songs that she hears. If there was a style or a particular artist who most closely represented your music, who would it be? Are there any pieces of art that bring to mind songs or lyrics for you?
In terms of the lyrics, maybe someone like Lucian Freud, where the details are closely observed and he allowed the people he painted to become distorted in the overall picture as long as their true essence, or the essence of what he saw, was represented. Accuracy was part of his craft but not to the detriment of a great image. Maybe some of our songs have that obsessive aspect to them.
Along with photography, with which other mediums do you connect with?
Painting and drawing is my real love. I try to do little fineliner sketches when I’m out on tour, if I get time.
Quite often when I go to galleries, I play a little game called ‘make yourself look like the art’, sometimes a bit of a challenge but always highly entertaining. If you could ‘make yourself look like the art’ which piece would you choose?
I’m thinking you wouldn’t have to put in too much effort with a few of Hans Memling’s portraits, but that wouldn’t be as amusing. Robert Longo (our first album cover was a pastiche of his work). I’d get to keep my suit on.
If money, time and space were no object which one piece of art would you love to own and where would you have it displayed?
Maybe a Joan Mitchell painting – I can’t choose one. They’re endlessly revealing and have a life and energy to them that would bear repeated viewings.
Going back to your early times as a teacher of art, were there ever any times when you felt that a student showed real promise? Conversely, did you ever have any ‘oh wow that’s truly awful but I have to say something positive’ moments?
I mostly taught pensioners on an NCFE course, so they were set in their ways, generally, for good or bad. There was some talent, but for many it was just a way of passing the time. One guy had been a draughtsman and had wonderful control over his line when he was drawing, but he was very slow and often restarted his work over and over. I had a class with one woman who was also doing a fine art degree who was good but thought she was better than she was. She was pretty insufferable.
Were there any teachers or other inspirational figures in your life who helped to develop your interest in art and how did they encourage or support you?
I had an A-Level teacher who was very encouraging – Ms Gill. At university, my drawing teacher Alan Turnbull was all about accuracy and I definitely got better when encouraged to observe in that way. Funnily enough, although I met incredible people, the teaching was less than inspiring at art college on my foundation year.
If you could go back in time and visit the Paul of art college days, what words of advice or wisdom would you impart? And what advice now would you give to the Paul of twenty years’ time?
Work harder – fill those sketchbooks!
AND
Work harder – fill those sketchbooks!
Do you have any desires to further extend your artistic side? Or does the creativity in your music fulfil your artistic nature?
I’d love to draw and paint more. The photography is more observation than creating a world, or an interpretation of the world. I like its instant quality, and, yes, because I spend a lot of time creating music, there isn’t much energy left to pursue fine art on the level I’d prefer. We’ve just made a zine to go with our new album and I enjoyed pulling things together for that. I like the idea of little pamphlets that merge artforms and different disciplines..
[…] isn’t something people normally engage in moments after digesting breakfast, but Maxïmo Park’s Paul Smith isn’t your average frontman. Record label owner, photographer and scissor-jumping extraordinaire, […]