After enjoying a stateside hit with The Freshmen in 1997, Brian Vander Ark of the Verve Pipe got the chance to write with his hero Andy Partridge. His band had already recorded a cover of Wake Up (and an unreleased Blue Beret) and now he'd fly to Swindon to co-write Blow You Away.

It's a story he tells in Go Further: More Literary Appreciations of Power Pop (Rare Bird Lit, 2021), an anthology of essays about everyone from Squeeze to Teenage Fanclub and the Ramones.

In this episode of What Do You Call That Noise?, Vander Ark joins co-editor Paul Myers and power-pop fan Melanie (@mixtape64) to talk about harmony, songwriting and their love of XTC. Mark Fisher is the host.

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Thanks to the Pink Things, Humble Daisies and Knights in Shining Karma who've done the same.