CityLife

Kloot ready to call on their prize pals

I Am Kloot's Andy Hargreaves, Johnny Bramwell and Pete Jobson, at the front, with Elbow's Guy Garvey and Craig Potter

TWO startled pigeons stand sentry at the summit of the stone steps which lead visitors up Stockport’s Hallam Mill, home to the rehearsal rooms known to Manchester music fans as Moolah Rouge.

Through a fourth floor entrance, past those fleeing feathered fiends, beyond buckets collecting drips from the ceiling, lies a space where it’s often possible to hear the likes of Doves and Shaun Ryder performing.

Today the air is filled with the timeless, haunted sound of a band who have earned local affection in spades, even if they are yet to attain the mass exposure of their Mancunian peers.

The trio of musicians at the core of I Am Kloot – flanked today by two stand-in collaborators – are putting in the hours ahead of a busy weekend, continuing their tradition of Valentine’s gigs.

I’m the first outside the band’s inner circle to hear new material and it’s as evocative as ever – a song about a pub lock-in, called Take Me To The Brink, designed to conjure thoughts of who we become after dark.

It’s one track set to appear on I Am Kloot’s sixth studio album (working title The Sky At Night) and it emerges friends in high places could see the release heading for the stars.

First there’s the fact that the boys in Kloot have persuaded pals from Mercury prize-winners Elbow to produce their new album.

Then there’s the small matter of an ongoing conversation with the Radcliffe-raised Danny Boyle – a time-served Kloot fan – who is keen for his next movie after the award-laden Slumdog Millionaire to be a musical influenced by their back catalogue.

The I Am Kloot song Avenue Of Hope was a highlight of the soundtrack to Boyle’s previous film, Sunshine, and the Oscar nominee has made it clear that he’d like to use them for something more substantial in the future.

If it comes off, there’s a chance that Frank Cottrell Boyce – writer of Madchester film 24 Hour Party People – will produce a script.

We retire to Moolah’s sitting room, where the boys in Kloot take me through their plans.

There are nervous glances when talk turns to Danny Boyle as if it might be tempting fate to mention a collaboration with the much feted director.

But Johnny Bramwell, singer and lyricist, says: “It’s something we’ve spoken about and something we’d love to do. We’ve always made cinematic music. He’s said he’d like to take five or six songs and use them for a musical film.

Different styles

“We’ve always tried to do a lot of different styles of music and that hasn’t always appealed to record companies, but it makes sense to us.

“That’s one of the good things about having our own label (Skinny Dog Records – co-owned with Elbow). It gives us tremendous freedom.”

Elbow’s Guy Garvey and Craig Potter produced the band’s first album and will be back at the mixing desk for the new release.

Hargreaves confesses that there was a time when he didn’t even know what a producer was supposed to do and speaks of some disappointing results.

“The difference now is that we know and trust Guy and Craig,” he adds.

“They understand what I Am Kloot should sound like and that gives us the confidence that this record is going to be right.

“Elbow’s success was great for the whole city. We don’t resent them at all – but we are going to cash in.”

Long-standing friends

Pete Jobson, Kloot’s bass guitarist and pianist, agrees that working with such respected long-standing friends can only be a good thing when recording starts next month here at Moolah Rouge.

“Recording is a discovery,” Jobson adds. “We’re always learning and we never get used to it. It’s good to have Guy and Craig stand back and listen to what we’re doing.

“We just want our music to be heard by as many people as possible, that’s only natural, it’s why we do this.”

Whatever happens as a result of any collaborations, this year will also serve as a celebration of a decade together.

Damon Gough

I Am Kloot formed amid the drunken camaraderie of an open mic spot at Night And Day in Manchester, where numerous musical wannabes would hang out, among them Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy, who won the Mercury Music Prize nine years before Elbow.

“At the time it just felt like a load of friends getting drunk with a PA,” Jobson adds.

All had been in bands before which hadn’t quite clicked.

Bramwell was perhaps the man with the most baggage. He flirted with television presenting for Granada having found local fame as the champion busker Johnny Dangerously.

“Those 10 years seem to have passed very quickly,” he says. “It still feels exciting.”

High points have included playing at Glastonbury for the first time, releasing their first album and recording sessions for the late John Peel.

They’ve got five albums under their belt and are well-known as reliable crowd-pleasers on the European and American tour circuits.

Bramwell is also keen to talk about the band’s latest work together.

This weekend’s outings will be an opportunity to play six or seven of their new songs.

“What’s next?,” Bramwell wonders. “We just play the cards that are dealt us and I think we play them well.”