David Rowe of prog-rock outfit Plank! talks to Gareth Thompson about new album Future of the Sea on Todmorden label Golden Lion Sounds

Plank! were formed by guitarist David Rowe in Manchester and have released three instrumental albums in a ‘nature trilogy’. The many sounds of nature take in all extremes, as does Plank!’s music. The trio’s dynamic prog-rock mimics thunderclaps and murmuring breezes, weather patterns and insect life, often driven by complex jazzy rhythms. Plank!’s latest album, Future of the Sea, is described by Rowe as “a celebration of the power and majesty of our oceans and how humankind has been destroying them.” It’s the first album release from Golden Lion Sounds, an independent label run by The Golden Lion venue in Todmorden.

What’s with the name Plank!?

I started getting into NEU! and Can, that sort of thing, so we’re named after the German record producer Conny Plank. Originally we were PLANK! Full capitals and the exclamation mark, like NEU! When the new album was uploaded onto Spotify, without all that, we got lumped in with a load of other Planks.

And your own musical experience?

I started playing aged about eight. My granddad had a little three-quarters scale acoustic guitar which he gave me. It was totally impossible to tune. I got into Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses, Faith No More, that kind of stuff. Then I joined a few bands through school and started playing in Chorley pubs doing Oasis covers. I did music technology at university with a lot of video production. After moving to Manchester I met bassist Ed Troup when working in HSBC. He was in a post-rock trio which opened me to new ideas. I joined the group Autokat on the label Akoustik Anarkhy and the first two Plank! albums (Hivemind and Animalism) came out through them too. After that everyone disbanded for a bit, had kids and grew up.

How did Future of the Sea as a concept come together?

Our initial idea was always for a nature trilogy. We joked about basing one album on bacterium but couldn’t come up with enough titles. During Covid the pubs were shut so I wasn’t drinking and got this new album finished. Blue Planet came on TV about the same time, discovering all these masses of marine plastic debris. The album title comes from a government report talking about the same issues. The music has a kind of sci-fi vibe, so the impending doom of our oceans fed into that. It’s shocking that Rachel Carson was writing about this way back in The Sea Around Us (Oxford University Press, 1951) and nothing’s been done about it. That book was an influence on me, for sure.

For the cover we wanted a digital-futurist Atlantis with a medieval twist. The artist Jake Blanchard immediately said, ‘You mean like Bio Shark?’ I asked what the hell that was and he explained it’s a PlayStation game with a dystopian underwater theme. So I said, ‘Yeah, ok. If you like!’ 

Where was the album made?

We recorded the drums in Manchester at 80 Hertz studios. The whole band was playing along. We took as much as possible from those initial sessions. There’s a massive live room there with a high ceiling and world-class microphones. You don’t need the same space for recording guitars, just a mic in front of an amp. So the rest of it was done in my home studio, a converted garage. I wouldn’t exactly say it’s soundproofed which is another reason we did the drums elsewhere. With my guitar I use a ZVEX Fuzzolo box, which is my go-to for overdrive and distortion. I play a Music Man Silhouette, the guitar shape which Leo Fender designed when he left Fender after CBS bought them out. It’s one I’ll never get rid of.

Dbh (Dan Bridgwood-Hill) who plays violin on the new album has also done live keyboards with us and extra guitar. Our drummer’s got a Roland SPD-SX trigger which sets the loops going for arpeggiated synth parts on stage.

Who are you outside of Plank!?

I’m from Chorley originally and our family used to go hiking along the Pennine Way or up in the Lake District. I’d been visiting Todmorden for a while with a pal and then moved here with my partner, the photographer Emma Lavelle. I started woodturning when the music went away for a bit, suddenly making rather more money. I did a successful range of little Christmas trees once, about six hundred of them in the run up to Yuletide. I’ve recently read 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 in quick succession. I’m a big fan of 80s sci-fi/horror films, some favourites being The Thing, Hellraiser, The Fly, Scanners and Altered States. And I listen to a lot of jazz-fusion, the likes of Allan Holdsworth and Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Tell us about the Golden Lion Sounds label. 

Discussions were held during Covid about starting a label to put out this new Plank! album. The Golden Lion as a venture was cautious about committing too much, but when things settled back down they began doing a run of 7” singles with more established names, including Jarvis Cocker, who’d repay their investment. Our album was a learning curve for them in doing a full-length project. The landlady Gig and landlord Richard Walker, aka Waka, run things at the Golden Lion. They developed the place from nothing really, it was just a smelly old sports bar before they came. Now the venue attracts international names. Richard’s son Matt Hum does DJing there but has taken on label responsibilities too, making a proper office upstairs with maybe a radio station to follow.

Main photo credit: Emma Lavelle (David Rowe wearing baseball cap)

Plank! Bandcamp

Golden Lion Sounds

Gareth Thompson
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