Sheffield-based In The Nursery are the epitomy of a modern band - they have their own label, own studio, and control over their own destiny. Rob Green talks strings and things to the brothers Humberstone...

Their music could be regarded as an ever evolving soundtrack to life. As life is a changing entity, so too is their music, and brothers Nigel and Klive Humberstone certainly have a good perspective of it. Their small studio is situated on the top floor of a house overlooking Sheffield. They are also living in what is probably the most eccentric and avant-garde area of the city. ITN Corporation is their own record label, and the duo have a formidable back-catalogue beginning with a mini-album called When Cherished Dreams Come True in 1983. Based around the moods of classical music, strings have always been at the heart of their creations along with percussion and snare drums which evoke a military feel. Nigel Humberstone explained the idea behind ITN:

ITN is a band project and my brother and I write the music. We get in two friends of ours to do the vocals and the percussion in the studio and when we perform live. Classical music has always been an influence, although we don't listen to it as much now. Soundtrack music was also a big influence, and then we got a break to do a soundtrack to a movie at the end of '92 called An Ambush Of Ghosts. ITN's music, although largely synthesized, has an extremely lively, almost orchestral feel. They seem to have achieved the effect of real orchestration on an extremely limited budget. How do they do that? We picked up various tricks from doing the Soundtrack album, because a guy came over to advise us on doing it, and he suggested getting in an oboe player and a cellist. So we did that against our better judgement and we thought it wouldn't work, but it did. It helps you to imagine that the rest of the orchestration which is synthesized, is actually real. On this album Deco, we've got an oboe player, flute player and a percussionist. One of their trademarks is uplifting string sounds that quaver and modulate in a realistic fashion, and they've had a variety of instruments to achieve this over the years. The most basic of these was an old Logan String Machine in the mid-80's That was our first string sound. Then we got a Roland S10. We got some of the best string sounds we've had out of that. Then we moved onto the Emax sampler using library sounds. We've never really used Akai sounds, and nowadays we always revert to our Orchestral Sounds CD-ROM. The Akai S3000 used to be their piece de resistance, until alas, they brought in the Macintosh with Logic Audio. They spent all their time manipulating sounds, cataloging them and building up sample libraries. For their latest Deco album however, the machine they used most was the trusty Mac. We've been loading sounds in digitally onto our hard disk. For example we'll record some oboe onto ADAT and then transfer it digitally to Logic Audio and arrange from there. We had it all written in the first place, but we also found that we could take sections and rewrite. With a two gigabyte hard drive, they rarely have problems with storage space. They don't use Logic Audio as many might, with several tracks running at once - it's usually just a stereo sample that's two minutes long or less. Having previously only been used to the Atari program Hybrid Arts Sympte Track, the pair found Logic Audio an absolute doddle to handle and something of a luxury. I asked the brothers how the early days had been;

The first proper release came out in 1983. When we first started off, I suppose we mimicked bands like Joy Division and we developed from there. We used to to use guitar and bass and we'd sing. Apparently their first break was from a friendly benefactor;

With the first record, there was a guy in Sheffield who liked the whole package and agreed to put out our record. He was just a friend really who financed it. It was a chance for us to get a record out. Then we got involved with Sweatbox who also had Meat Meat Manifesto. But they ran into financial difficulties around 1989 and then we switched over to Third Mins. Later on, ITN decided they'd had enough of record companies and totally disconnected themselves. ITN Corporation was born, and they assumed full control over the process. Late on we decided we wanted to do everything ourselves. We'd been involved with everything - the releases, the artwork, the tours. We didn't think anyone could do as good a job as ourselves. The twins, as well as producing their own bold artwork and looking after their financial affairs, had also gone as far as doing their own press at times. On the last album however, they employed a PR company. On the last record, we actually employed someone to deal with our press, but the distributors we use in Europe deal with the press themselves. It really is a lot to do, but at the same time we enjoy it. Financially it's better for us and we have more control. Situated a stones' throw away from Warp Records, ITN have had a certain amount of involvement with artists in the ambient and techno vein. Beaumont Hannant for example, recently remixed one of their tracks. It was the song `Carrousella' from the Les Jumeaux album. Les Jumeaux, strangely enough, is French for twins. Beaumont's made it quite a lot harder, said Klive. Another feather in their proverbial cap for the twins, is their sometime association with Lord Sabre himself - Andy Weatherall. The pre-production on the successful Sabres Of Paradise single `Smokebelch' came courtesy of the ITN brothers. Andy had approached ITN with some ideas, and they came up with the haunting melodies of this original, emotive classic. He gave us this track, an old hip-hop track, and wanted us to re-arrange it and do the initial production. Then he took it from there. Wether or not you like ITN's efforts is irrelevant when you look at the dedication and sheer determination that they've shown over the years. With their own studio, they've managed to survive on the fringes, and although set back by record company disappointments at times, they've always managed to pull through. Having gigged around Europe to large, appreciative crowds, ITN are proving that it is possible to build up a fan base and operate with your own record company.

Look out for ITN's Deco album on ITN Corporation soon....