Nile Style

Scrupulous honesty has always been a hallmark of The Blue Nile, so with one of the trio missing from the forthcoming Dublin show, Paul Buchanan and Robert Bell are dropping the name. They'll be playing a few favourites, though, Buchanan tells Brian Boyd.

YOU wouldn't think Tom Jones, Mel C from The Spice Girls, Issac Hayes and Rod Stewart would have that much in common, but all are huge fans and have recorded cover versions of Blue Nile songs. The Glaswegian band have an almost mythical place in the music world - they're viewed as near recluses and they are characterised by a work rate that would hardly be considered as Stakhanovite. To put this in perspective, the band have released four albums since 1984. The gap between the third one, Peace At Last in 1996 and the current one, 2004's High, is longer than the entire recording career of The Beatles.

"If I had my way we'd still be working on the first album," says a smiling Paul Buchanan sitting in a Dublin hotel on a rare day of promotional activity. "With every album we wonder why it has taken so long. I'm not defending our work rate, because it is ludicrous. I think a lot of it is to do with the fact that we don't think we're good enough. There's a feeling that nobody would really be interested if we released more. We want to make records that are in some way. . . irrefutable. Success doesn't come into it, we're pretty hardcore in our approach to recording and if we don't feel something is right, we won't put it out."

One of the consequences of such an on/off approach to releasing records, Buchanan says, is that people frequently think the band have broken up. "You'd be out somewhere and someone would say 'didn't you used to be in the Blue Nile, I used to love your band'. But then you also get people who think we live in Miami or somewhere."

To their devoted fan base (and they are one of those bands who inspire a particularly intense following), the long wait between albums matters little. There's a depth and a soulfulness to the Blue Nile's music that few other musical outfits can replicate. The general consensus seems to be that if such a level of quality control only means an album every seven or eight years, then it's worth it.

Given how atypical they are, it's no surprise to learn that they started off as "crash test dummies" for an electronics company. When the core trio of Buchanan, Paul Moore and Robert Bell put out their first ever single on their own label it was seized upon by a local hi-fi manufacturer who wanted the band to record a few songs for the sole purpose of showing off the company's high-end audio equipment. That accomplished, the company then decided to release the songs as the band's first album, A Walk Across The Rooftops.

Although it sold modestly, the acclaim for these seemingly sombre and stripped-down songs about broken dreams and squandered ambitions was massive and newly signed to Virgin records, there was hope of a quick follow-up. The band reacted by recording and binning a few almost complete albums before releasing what is generally regarded as their masterpiece, Hats, in 1989.

"We never regarded ourselves as skilled musicians, we don't know much about technique or anything like that," says Buchanan. "We're a very instinctive band and I think that accounts for a lot. If we think something isn't working with the songs, we move on. Also we were never part of any scene - we certainly weren't shoegazers or anything like that. I suppose we did feel a bit isolated from the general music scene, but we wouldn't have had it any other way. There was never a sense that we were a Scottish band, although people say there is a certain Celtic disposition to our sound. All I know is that we are a very democratic band, maybe a bit too democratic. I've never seen us as mystical at all, I think we're an everyman sort of band."

After moving to Warmers for Peace At Last and then on to Sanctuary for the current album, Buchanan has a rather jaundiced view of how the major labels work. "With Sanctuary it's good because they know how we work and know what to expect, but I have been in record company meetings where they will show you graphs of your sales figures. These graphs show you who is buying your album and where. It really is as stark as that," he says.

The intensity of their fanbase does cause him a little unease. "The first thing here is that there is a lot of self-doubt within the band. We're never sure if we're doing the right thing or going the right way about doing something. There is never a plan. Even when we're going on to play a sold-out show somewhere, I still see the empty seat and wonder about that.

"There's always this thing with us that we feel we should be doing better, producing better work so when we do get the response we get, it can be a bit worrying. It does make me very uncomfortable sometimes how people relate to the band and to the music. It's particularly bad in the US, where, to be honest, I was deeply freaked out by it. People get certain ideas about you and they're usually wrong - for all they know I could be at home watching a Naked Gun video!"

Typically, he chooses a rather recherché image to try and explain what the band are about. "It may sound strange but there's a Fellini film called Eight And A Half and I see us as being similar to the Marcello Mastroianni character in that," he says. "We're just people who turn up every few years or so with something to present and we would like to leave it at that."

Never a huge touring band, there has been a rash of live dates of late - including a memorable appearance at this year's Electric Picnic. "We also did a few shows in the UK and I felt great about them, so when we were offered to come back here and do Vicar St, I immediately said yes," he says.

The posters for the Vicar St show only advertise the name of Paul Buchanan and again the story behind this is typical of his approach. "What happened was that one of the trio can't make it, so I'm just going out under my own name out of courtesy to him," he says. "I don't want to bill it as The Blue Nile if he's not there. It's just a gesture. We've agreed on a certain period - we may be using the Blue Nile name again in the future. Maybe I'm wrong about this, maybe I just should have called the shows Blue Nile shows. But it's like how I approach the music - I don't care if I'm wrong, I still think this is worth doing and that's why I'm still doing it".

Paul Buchanan and Robert Bell from The Blue Nile perform at Vicar St on November 21st