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New Buffalo.
 Sally Seltmann was impressed after hearing the latest album from lo-fi folk act Little Wings. So much so that when tour promoters Woody & Penny asked if Seltmann would like to have the American act along for her national tour, she happily obliged. "Apparently he surfs," she says of Little Wings songwriter Kyle Field. "And he's bringing his girlfriend out. I think it's just going to be me, him, and his girlfriend on the road. So it should be good," she says with a laugh.
As alter ego New Buffalo, Seltmann brought out 'The Last Beautiful Day' last year. It was an album that so impressed dB Magazine that it was declared a We Liked It And You Will Too. The last few months have been hectic for Seltmann, who aside from all the normal duties of launching the album locally, has been performing and otherwise doing business with labels in the UK, US, and Japan. And of course, there was the recent tour with Architecture In Helsinki, which included a show where both acts supported The Polyphonic Spree. "It was fun, touring with all those guys," she says of AIH.
"I've got quite a few labels in America that are pretty keen, so we're just at the point of negotiating and all that stuff. And also in Japan," says Seltmann of the overseas interest. "So it's all looking really good. I'll probably be quite busy doing stuff for those countries later in the year. But I'm looking forward to it. I'll definitely go to America to tour, and probably Japan as well. Maybe go back to the UK as well."
As for after the current round of touring, Seltmann's schedule doesn't give her much time for rest. She'll be working on bonus tracks to add onto the overseas releases of 'The Last Beautiful Day'. "Oh, and I've got a remix that'll be coming out soon. It's by Tim Simenon, who was in Bomb The Bass. He produced that song Buffalo Stance, by Neneh Cherry, which is one of my favourite songs in the world. So I asked him to do a remix and he said yes."
When asked in what form the remix will appear, she's a little guarded. "It's maybe a little bit of a surprise," she laughs cheekily. "But yeah it's still a bit hard for me to plan things for the next six months because I don't know when the American tour and that sort of thing is going to be happening. So that's all going to take a few months, and then I'll probably start recording."
By now she's a learnt a few lessons about the recording process and has some ideas about how to go about things the next time. "I sort of like the idea of when I'm going to be recording the next album, to really have this good chunk of time where I can get into it," she explains. "So even though I'm constantly thinking up ideas and writing things down, I might start doing a bit of pre-production which will maybe include doing a couple of demos and try working with some people, or try recording songs in a certain style and seeing if they work or don't work. Usually I find that whenever I start working on any new album or whatever, you start off and then you always scrap the first whole lot of stuff that you do."
I recall hearing about a 2002 recording session in the US which did, in fact, get scrapped. "Yeah, I recorded in LA with this guy, Jake [Davies]," she says. "But we were waiting to see whether I'd be working with the UK label [Heavenly], but I didn't end up working with them, so it was like I could have found another label and gotten more money and kept working with Jake, but I just thought that I wanted to do this album on my own. The songs that I'd done with Jake; well they're good, but they just sound really different to the ones that I did by myself. I just didn't think they would suit being on the album."
So will the songs that came out of that session ever come out? "I don't know, maybe they will be some rare bonus thing in ten years time," she jokes. "They kind of exist on their own, so it's a bit tricky to know whether I should do anything with them."
Eddie Chan
 | New Buffalo plays at the Grace Emily Hotel on Wed 2 March with Little Wings. |
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