The Cinematics: Film History 101
Class is in session for the Scottish band
When it came time to locate a typewriter for the cover art to the Cinematics’ debut album, the group members had a perfectly logical solution. They bought one on eBay.
While the Cinematics’ lead singer and guitarist, Scott Rinning, is most certainly aware that the computer replaced the typewriter, the very act of purchasing this antiquated mechanical contraption clearly means something very different to him than it does to anyone over the age of 25. Rinning, as it turns out, has never had the pleasure of whiting out a mistakenly keyed letter. “By the time I was in primary school, we [already] had computers,” explains the 23-year-old. “But there is something fun about them. We played with [ours] quite a bit before burning it.”
Even if the group’s choice of cover art is driven by base motives (satisfying its pyromania) rather than some desire to deliver a broader statement about technology and obsolescence, the image accompanying A Strange Education does serve as an apt metaphor for the Cinematics – a group that somehow manages to capture the spirit of the past despite its decidedly modern trappings.
A cursory listen to Education invites obvious and perhaps less-than-flattering comparisons to Interpol, Coldplay and their fellow Scots, Franz Ferdinand. Yet careful scrutiny reveals a band that effectively conjures bands of the past, minus nostalgic intent. The taut guitars on “Keep Forgetting” approximate the staccato crunch of Josef K more than Kapranos & Co. And while the title track was probably deliberately pitched as a tribute to the atmospheric arena rock of Coldplay, it bears a more striking similarity to the relatively intimate and elegant work of the Chameleons – a band Rinning insists he has never heard even though the Cinematics’ first single, “Break,” shares a lyric with a song off that group’s landmark 1983 album, Script of the Bridge.
When asked about these latent influences, the band members seem skeptical at first, as if their purposeful songwriting process left no room for the unanticipated. Finally, bassist Adam Goemans concedes, “There’s always a certain type of band that comes out of Glasgow. [And it] goes back to the Postcard [Records] era of Orange Juice and Josef K.” He then adds: “You’re never going to get an emo-pop band from Scotland.” None of this is especially profound, yet it’s fascinating that a band can so unconsciously absorb distant musical influences despite an obvious affinity for more modern derivations and deviations.
Rinning, however, is less interested in exploring the musical elements of his band’s work. The primary lyricist, Rinning describes Education as an intensely personal album. “These ideas and songs come from a period of my life. All the things that are on it and all the things I say have affected me personally. To me, that’s what good art should be.” When asked what that period signifies for him, Rinning is less forthcoming, although the lyrics on several songs hint at a particularly tumultuous relationship.
With the band’s debut and the events surrounding it now behind him, Rinning is eager to embark on the next phase of his life, which will presumably leave less time for introspection as he races from city to city during the band’s first full-scale tour of America. Rinning, for one, is looking forward to it, given his limited exposure to the world beyond Scotland. And if his knowledge of Atlanta is any indication of his general familiarity with this continent, he stands to learn a lot. “Crunk” is only one of three things he associates with Atlanta (the others being the 1996 Olympics and Gone with the Wind) that occurred in the past decade. A rock ‘n’ roll tour may not qualify as a traditional form of education, but the Cinematics wouldn’t have it any other way.