Pete Wiggs is a member of the pop/dance group Saint Etienne for which he co-writes songs, produces and plays keyboards on stage. “I’m using the GIK Acoustics bass traps in my home/demo/remix studio which is a bit small and uninteresting (and messy).”
Like many GIK Acoustics’ clients, Pete is making great sound in a room that’s not ideally suited to being a studio. Saint Etienne‘s latest album Words and Music was released in May 2012 to universal acclaim.
In 2011, Saint Etienne went into the studio. They spent three months playing and recording with people they had worked with over the years: long-time collaborator Ian Catt, KLF & Sugababes producer (and one time Rubette) Nick Coler, Girls Aloud lynchpin Tim Powell, and their newest firm friend and partner in crime, Richard X. They took the spirits of high disco, metallic house, Brill Building pop. They took the preset rhythm, the sampler, the fireside warmth of a string quartet, the strange and important sound of the synthesizer. They took song titles that said much about pop things they have loved: Popular, Answer Song, I Threw It All Away. They jumped, faster than before, into that racing green MG, put their foot on the accelerator, and took to the streets.
Pete Wiggs and Saint Etienne are back this year to remind us about what matters. That the magic of the charts, of Top Of The Pops, was – and still is – about reality, as well as fantasy. That pop can take everyday lives and make each moment sing. And that it is there for older people, younger people, all people, wherever their bedroom, their music, and their memories may be. Any time, anywhere, and for anyone.
Most of all, Words and Music… tells us this: that pop never ends.
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Peter Calandra
Steve Single