'We’re all 20 years older': Sean O'Hagan gallops onwards with the High Llamas
Sean O'Hagan of the High Llamas. Picture: Simon Russell
It’s 20 years since The High Llamas played in Ireland. Back in 2005 the Anglo-Irish art pop band led by the former Microdisney guitarist Sean O’Hagan, played a gig in Dublin’s Vicar Street and a free gig in Cork as part of a Beamish-sponsored festival.
As can often happen with a free gig a small contingent of the Cork crowd was a bit noisy in An Crúiscín Lán that night. O’Hagan laughs when he's reminded how he became a little frustrated.
“I think I’m a little bit more relaxed on stage now,” says O’Hagan. “I’m sorry that I used to be a little bit of a perfectionist or particular in the past. We’re all 20 years older and I would hope 20 years more mature.”
“Financial logistics severely restrained touring live possibilities in recent years,” says O’Hagan of the changes in the music industry. “We live in the new age where record companies don’t bankroll the artist on the road unless you’re a high streaming act.”
Though it's 20 years since The High Llamas have played in Ireland O’Hagan has played a few acoustic shows here in the intervening years. He recalls his last visit to these shores.
“The last time I played in Ireland was the Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2022. I performed with my daughter Livvy and my old friend and High Llamas’ producer Charlie Francis. I was processing how to actually make the last High Llamas’ record when I was in Ireland that time.”
That album, Hey Panda, the band’s 11th was released to critical acclaim last March. Uncut named it one of their Albums of 2024 writing, “After three decades of exquisite retro orchestration, Sean O’Hagan took an unexpected left-turn here into digital production and avant-R&B. The results were spectacular.” Now The High Llamas are taking this modern-sounding pop production out on the road.
“We’re trying to represent Hey Panda in its contemporary R&B electronic ways, as best as possible, says O’Hagan. “Re-creating the songs from Hey Panda is a real challenge, but that challenge is invigorating. However, I’m very aware that being a bunch of 60 year-old guys what will happen on the stage will be uniquely that of the High Llamas. So they’ll be a few beats but the older 'legacy' set, as we call it in the business these days, will also be represented."
For this Irish tour the Llamas will be a five-piece: Sean and Livvy, with John Fell on bass, Rob Allum on drums, and Marcus Holdaway on keyboards.
The High Llamas “legacy” that O’Hagan mentions was brought back into focus in December 2024 when Drag City, the Chicago-based independent record label, that has been home to the band for over 20 years secured the rights from Universal Records to re-issue the band’s first six albums. These albums have been long out of print and it’s also the first time that Santa Barbara, the band’s debut album from 1992, has been released on vinyl.
O’Hagan, “has fashioned an idiosyncratic brand of electronic pop with The High Llamas think The Beach Boys signed to the Warp Label,” Record Collector magazine wrote recently of the band’s back catalogue.
O’Hagan is pleased to see these albums available again. “I enjoyed the process and I’m really grateful to Drag City for pursuing Universal Records. Some records like Hawaii have been high on the radar for quite a long time. But others like Snowbug and Here Come the Rattling Trees are less discussed and not even on our radar as a band. I almost forgot the remix record Lola Rosso. So, recutting the catalogue was like being an executive reviewing another artist’s work.
“We’re now in a world where everything gets archived digitally,” says O’Hagan. “But if your work precedes that process, you find yourself mixing apples with oranges and trying to fit square pegs in round holes. Re-creating the artwork was the hardest challenge. Getting the original proofs was sometimes impossible and we had to actually fully re-create the work.”
After the Irish and UK gigs The High Llamas head to Europe. “We are looking forward to France and Spain, these countries have always been good to us,” says O’Hagan.
“Touring this extensively is so welcome after so many years. We’ve had to look at the representation of the 'legacy' set to create as exciting a show as we can. It sets new challenges and requires new harmonic voices. That’s a refreshing process. I hope the audience is ready for the new songs as well as the old.”
- The High Llamas play Whelan’s, Dublin on Saturday, February 15; and Cyprus Avenue, Cork on Monday, February 17
Checking In, Checking Out: “An altogether special out-of-body pop experience” declared the NME in 1995 when awarding this single, from the band’s second album Gideon Gaye, their Single of the Week.
The Sun Beats Down: For me The Llamas’ Cold and Bouncy has always been a counterpoint to Stereolab’s Dots and Loops. Upon its release in 1998 O’Hagan told me that, “this record has less of The Beach Boys than before, it’s mainly Italian soundtrack writers and current German electronica.” ‘The Sun Beats Down’ was the album’s glorious single.
Cookie Bay: 1999’s Snowbug is one of the true gems in the Llamas’ catalogue. The album was mixed by Tortoise’s John McEntire and Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier and the sadly-missed Mary Hansen sang on ‘Cookie Bay’.
Sisters Friends (feat. Rae Morris): “Got a shakuhachi, Made it in Osaka” sings Rae Morris on one of the best songs from Hey Panda. I was humming the song for weeks before realising that I had no idea what a shakuhachi was. Turns out it’s a Japanese flute made from bamboo.
Dorothy Ashby: Taken from 2007’s Can Cladders, Pitchfork called ‘Dorothy Ashby’ the album’s “most affecting moment.” Still not convinced? Tyler, The Creator has declared O’Hagan’s tribute to the legendary jazz harpist, “my favourite High Llamas’ song.”
