Episode 42
Content to Write in I Dine Weathercraft
by Stano
Content to Write in I Dine Weathercraft (2018, AllChival Records). Photograph by Paul McDermott.
On this episode I’m joined by Stano for a deep dive into his debut album Content to Write in I Dine Weathercraft released in 1983 on Scoff Records.
The Threat - ‘Lullaby in C’ (7” and Fanzine - 2023, AllChival Records). Photograph by Paul McDermott.
Stano was mentioned on Episode 41 – that was with Gerry Leonard talking about Hinterland his band with the late Donal Coughlan. During our chat I mentioned that Gerry had once played with Stano around the time of Stano’s third album Only, released on Mother Records in 1989.
But Stano has also featured on this podcast a few times already. I interviewed Stano for No Journeys End - the story of Michael O’Shea, my documentary that I presented as Episode 6. I also chatted to Stano for the first Bonus Episode, The Restoration of Michael O’Shea’s Mo Chara. Stano was also mentioned in Episode 12 because he’s the guy who produced the first demos recorded by Power of Dreams.
It seems fitting that this Episode should focus on his own music and in particular his debut album, Content to Write in I Dine Weathercraft, an album of avant-garde electronic music that was years ahead of its time and quite rightly deserves its place in the pantheon of seminal Irish post-punk releases.
‘Room’/‘Town’ (1982, Vox Enterprise). Photograph by Paul McDermott.
Stano has been a recording artist and composer since the early 80s. He has released over a dozen albums, and numerous singles of startlingly, uncompromising original music. He is regarded as a true innovator, with an intense understanding of sonic structure and always ahead of his time, he has been described as a Sonic Architect.
Stano - Mother Records Promo. Photograph by Alan McCann.
He started out as a member of Dublin’s legendary punk band The Threat. They released one single - 1980’s great ‘Lullaby in C’ (produced by Planxty’s Donal Lunny). Following the single’s release The Threat combusted. After this Stano released his debut single ‘Room’ in 1982 via Dave Clifford’s Vox Enterprise, an imprint of Clifford’s Vox, the brilliant magazine that ran for 15 issues between 1980 and 1983.
Punk was the great enabler: Stano couldn’t play an instrument but he did write poetry, he also had two tape recorders. He would bounce field recordings from one tape machine to another and add spoken word performances. He recorded band rehearsals and cut up the jams he liked: by his own admission he was a magpie, soaking up influences and regurgitating them.
Anthology 1982-1994 (2020, AllChival Records) and Content to Write in I Dine Weathercraft - DJ Sotofett Remixes (2022, AllChival Records). Photograph by Paul McDermott.
Musicians of all types, from backgrounds as diverse as classical and electronic music contributed to Stano’s first album including Micro Disney’s Giordaí Ua Laoghaire, composer Roger Doyle, Daniel Figgis from the Virgin Prunes and the aforementioned Michael O’Shea.
The album was re-released in 2018 and announcing the reissue Boomkat, the influential independent online record shop, wrote:
“We can barely contain our buzz over this reissue. From its wild DIY drum machine programming to the appearance of O’Shea’s cymbeline-like home-built instrument and the cut ’n splice, layered song arrangements, Content to Write in I Dine Weathercraft is one of those blue moon reissues that, in hindsight, seem to blow away so much other, better known material from the era whence it came… We’re left in no doubt this LP is a true, overlooked classic of its time.”
Only (1989, Mother Records) and In Between Silence, Where We Really Exist (2018, Loscann Records). Photograph by Paul McDermott.
In the Press Release (reproduced below) that accompanied Only, author and journalist Mark Prendergast wrote:
“Those scrutinising Stano as an artist for the first time should not limit him within hackneyed formats or clichéd labels. Stano has no musical training. He can neither read nor write music. Yet his instinctive touch in the studio is as melodious and harmonically varied as any conservatory-trained musician.”
It’s a theme that Michael Murphy also picks up on in the sleevenotes of Anthology 1982-1994, a compilation from 2020. Murphy writes that, “Stano’s work shows the true chasm between Ireland’s rock mainstream and its alternative scene.”
Stano - Mother Records Promo. Photograph by Alan McCann.
An illustration of that chasm is this great description of Da Vox Irrational Cabaret, a Vox magazine promoted night in the Project Arts Centre on Friday 30 July 1982.
Image from John Byrne.
I’m also conscious of the chasm that Murphy writes about. On this podcast for every episode with a band that might be described as part of Ireland’s rock mainstream – maybe The Stunning (Episode 32) or Ash (Episode 19) or The Waterboys (Episode 10) for example – I’ve tried to shine a light on Ireland’s alternative scene, episodes on Five Go Down to the Sea (Episode 40), Virgin Prunes (Episode 23), The Jimmy Cake (Episode 36) Michael O’Shea (Episode 6) and now Stano.
I really hope that listeners who found the podcast through some of the bigger names have stayed the course for some of the lesser known artists. To me they’re all great albums deserving of your attention.
Wreckage (1994, Hue Records), Blind Silence (2010, Loscann Records) and Memory Distorts a Life (2011, Loscann Records). Photograph by Paul McDermott.
Over the last few years I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Stano on a number of occasions. He joined me up in Dublin City FM for a really long chat one night a few years back. Whilst recording for the Michael O’Shea documentary we spent a great afternoon revisiting the home of Alto Studios in Robert Emmet House in Milltown. And I also the great pleasure of visiting Stano in his studio when he was recording with Thomas Haugh on Michael O’Shea’s Mo Chara. This episode is drawn from all of those encounters.
Unknown Distance (2013, Loscann Records) and Decoder (2014, Loscann Records). Photograph by Paul McDermott.
When I announced this Episode I was asked online if I had asked Stano where the name of the album had come from. I actually hadn’t so I got back in touch with Stano and this was his response:
“I just made it up. I had the names for my first three albums when I was 17, way before I was in a recording studio. I can’t remember where the names came from, I was always jotting down words and they there in my note books. They just seemed to appear out of nowhere. I’d just write unconsciously and then when I was putting my poetry together they were just there.”
Now, in a direct homage to Stano’s use of cut-up techniques I’ve edited myself out of this episode and I leave Stano drive the story forward and his reminiscences are interspersed with music from the time including tunes by Chant Chant Chant, The Threat, Microdisney, Nun Attax, Casablanca Moon, Virgin Prunes, Michael O’Shea and lots of music from different eras of Stano’s own career.
Music in Episode 42:
’Play Safe’ – Chant Chant Chant
‘Lullaby in C’ – The Threat
‘Leper’ – Microdisney
‘White Cortina’ – Nun Attax
‘Twenty Tens’ – Virgin Prunes
‘Hello Rascals’ – Microdisney
‘Between the Desert and the Deep Blue Sea’ – Casablanca Moon
‘Room’ – Stano
‘Kerry’ – Michael O’Shea
‘Seance of a Kondalike’ – Stano
‘A Dead Rose’ – Stano
‘White Fields (in Isis)’ – Stano
‘Land Slips the Mind’ – Stano
‘Dream the Little Lost Girl’ – Stano
‘Sleep Robin’ – Stano
‘The Bus’ – Stano featuring Roddy Doyle
Michael (Mackie) Moyna, the subject of Roddy Doyle’s ‘The Bus’ sadly passed away in late 2017. May he rest in peace.
For Further Listening:
Content to Write in I Dine in Weathercraft is available on Spotify:
For Further Reading:
Stano on: Dublin punk and post-punk — Vox magazine —U2 and Mother Records — My Bloody Valentine —Michael O’Shea — Alto Studios — Roger Doyle — and Micro Disney’s Giordaí Ua Laoghaire.
4,200 words (17 minute read)
1989 Mother Records Press Release written by Mark Prendergast.
