John Cale

Musician, composer, singer-songwriter, record producer and founding member of the experimental rock icons The Velvet Underground, John Cale returns with a new album set for a release on Domino imprint, Double Six, in May.

Though best known for his work in rock music, Cale has worked in various genres including drone and classical. Since departing from The Velvet Underground in 1968 he has released approximately 30 albums. Of his solo work, Cale is perhaps best known for his album Paris 1919, and his cover version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’, plus his mid-1970s Island Records trilogy of albums: Fear, Slow Dazzle, and Helen of Troy.

Cale has produced or collaborated with Lou Reed, Nico, La Monte Young, John Cage, Terry Riley, Cranes, Nick Drake, Kevin Ayers, Brian Eno, Patti Smith, The Stooges, The Modern Lovers, Art Bergmann, Manic Street Preachers and frontman James Dean Bradfield, Marc Almond, Squeeze, Happy Mondays, LCD Soundsystem and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
An album titled “Conflict & Catalysis is about to be released by Ace as part of their “producers” series focusing on the studio output of John Cale, whose work as a producer and arranger they spotlight on this 75-minute 20-track CD. Spanning 40 years, this collection includes everything from the proto-punk of the Stooges and Modern Lovers to left-field pop princesses Lio and Cristina.

Of his new album Cale told UNCUT Magazine: “I have a little studio in LA and most of the album was done there. Some of the songs I wrote on bass, there are some very sloppy lurching grooves in there. I remember first hearing Dr John doing Gris-Gris and then seeing them in LA in the late ‘60s and they were scary as hell. There were girls with feathers in their hair and a gigantic bass player in a boiler suit. It was very funky and some of that I’ve been trying to get to – that low-down funk.

My drummer, Michael Jerome, is very good. A lot of these things sound like machines, but they’re really not. At some points I’ve got two floor toms going on. The grooves are really what I started with, though there’s some lo-fi stuff on there too.
One song’s about Japanese anime and there’s one about all this nonsense with the press called ‘Scotland Yard’. And one called ‘The Flying Dutchman’, which I wrote on viola. So it’s a real variety. Some songs I wrote on Fender Telecaster, some with bass and some with a bunch of keyboards and put some back-up singers and horns on there. I’ve dressed up the turkey a little bit.”

The founding member of one of the most defining bands of a generation, the Velvet Underground’s John Cale returns to Royal Festival Hall two years after performing what is commonly regarded as his best solo record, Paris 1919.

Having started his career with The Velvet Underground in the 1960s, Cale remains an unstoppable force on the contemporary scene. His latest EP released on Domino Records, Extra Playful, garnered much critical attention.

This show coincides with the release of his highly anticipated and as-yet-untitled latest studio album which will contain brand new material for the first time since the blackAcetate LP in 2005.