When I started working on building the new website for inFictions, I spoke to Ed Cartledge to get some background info. Here is what he said.

How long has the album taken to produce?

We started work on this album in 2009 and indeed the basis of a couple the tracks were recorded as far back as then, although have had a big overhaul since. One of the reasons for it taking so long has been the inconsistency of our line-up. We’ve worked with 8 different drummers over the course of these 3 years, some for much longer than others, but none have managed to stick around long enough to appear on more than 2 tracks on the album or do more than a handful of gigs with us. Still, we’re happy with the way things worked out: the diversity of drum styles on the album is one of the things we really like about it. We eventually threw the towel in and decided to try and work without a permanent drummer for the time being. Any live performances will require one or more session drummers to help us out, but that’s fine – we’ve got a few offers on the table for that.

I guess another reason has been my determination that we don’t include any ‘filler’ tracks on the album. At least 5 songs that we initially thought very strong and played live repeatedly eventually worked their way to the back of the line and then dropped away….possibly to be revisited again in future, who knows. The pursuit of perfection is a waste of time, but there’s no reason to be lazy and let things through that might be embarrassing.

Could you explain the ‘album artwork project’ that you organised?

When we approached the final mixes, we also needed to start thinking about packaging, websites, social media etc. I had the idea of collaborating with a range of local artists to create a visual hook for the album. At the time, we had no visuals at all, just sounds. We didn’t have to do an enormous amount of promotion to come across 10 really talented people – which suggests to me that the talent pool in and around Sheffield must be incredible. It was great that they all tackled the project with such enthusiasm and passion for originality and there’s not one of the completed pieces that I don’t like. I think the chaotic imagery we’ve ended up with is kind of reflective of the diversity and collaborative nature of the album. It feels more appropriate that we used many artists rather than just one.

When would people listen to this album? How does it fit into people’s musical landscapes?

 I think it’s probably an album to listen to alone, perhaps with headphones if you can face it. I know that I, for one, miss that experience enormously. The function of music seems increasingly to paper over silences in the background ambience, perhaps to make us feel less lonely in our digital caves. Songs (let alone albums) are rarely given a complete and focused listen with minimal extraneous noise intruding on the experience. I think there’s an audience out there for albums that are richly detailed, articulate and varied in tone and I guess that’s what we’ve tried to accomplish with this, on an extremely low budget sadly. We obviously have no idea if we’ve succeeded. Other people will have to decide that.

Interview by RICHARD KEENAN