Hey! Can you share the inspiration or personal experiences that led to the creation of “Poetry in Exile”?
A: I had a tough time for a while. I felt exiled from a vocation that I had loved, due to a sequence of events that came out of the blue and were beyond my control. I felt something inside break, it was weird, I guess I had a breakdown because something ’snapped like a rubber band’ in my mind. I literally heard it snap…. ‘Poetry in Exile’ is about recreating yourself from scratch again and reaffirming yourself as a human being with a purpose. It’s about how someone can renew, refresh, rebuild and construct themselves, how they can use art to build a new, stronger, better version of themselves. This album feels like an extension of my soul, its creation basically saved me from something very dark, it’s a very important and vital record. I would say that it’s like Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ or Dylan’s ‘Oh Mercy’, it’s a turning point in my life. It might not be a commercial turning point, but it’s a spiritual turning point. Dylan says ‘life’s not about things, it’s about creating yourself’. He’s right…
What was your songwriting process like for “Poetry in Exile”? Do you usually start with lyrics, melody, or a combination of both?
A: I generally start with a lyrical idea, it might be something I’ve read, or something quirky someone says, then a melody will come and then I’ll flesh out the lyrics. ‘Leaves to Burn’ on the album came from something my partner said about a neighbour having ’no more leaves to burn’… then I reimagined the story as a country farmer who’d been bereaved and was trying to come to terms with loss… it’s a case of returning to an original lyrical idea and finding different perspectives..
The song “Out of My Mind” has resonated with many for its emotional depth. Could you discuss the key themes or messages you intended to convey through this track?
A: The song is about how sometimes you literally can’t get a person ‘out of your mind’, it can be a very positive way such as falling in love, or in a very negative way. Unfortunately as well as there being people who want to do us good there are also people that want to do us harm. So, the song is a mixture of those two themes. I guess there are metaphors in there about almost drowning under someone’s influence ’the devil stems the tide’ and ’the rivers deep and wide’, dark water I think can represent something dangerous and forbidding. I guess I’m trying to then in the third verse regain a sense of spiritual renewal with ‘leave the memories behind’ and ‘find the better man inside’, in that with a negative experience with someone in many ways you need to claim the spiritual higher ground and try and grow from the experience, even if it’s not a pleasant one.
Hence, the track and much of the album is about a sense of renewal and metamorphosis, hence the title ‘Poetry in Exile’ – trying to build a new version of yourself…
Who or what are your biggest musical influences, and how do they manifest in your music, in “Poetry in Exile”.
A: I think it’s fair to say that I write music in many different genres. ‘Out of My Mind’ is very Beatles and Britpop influenced with the key changes from Bm to Gm to Am to A to B in the bridge. I’m very conscious of how effective the Beatles were in matching their harmony to their lyrics – a change of theme of change of key. Furthermore, the brass arrangement is very bluesy a bit like Sergeant Pepper era Beatles.
‘Riverman’ is another example – the song starts in F#m but cycles to F C G D in the bridge where the lyrical theme changes, it’s called a cycle of fourths and you find it a lot in Bach fugues. That’s why that song immediately cried out for strings and Chris Payne did such a wonderful job, it’s such a great string arrangement reminiscent of those on Nick Drake’s songs. I am definitely influenced by rock/pop, folk and classical idioms. So ‘Riverman’ is a fusion of classical music and folk.
I also love Americana and the lyrical giants such as Springsteen, Dylan and Cohen. I love the Springsteen album ’Nebraska’ and ‘Don’t be a Fool’ started off as a sparse Springsteen lament, but then became something else when we added drums. You’ll also hear the Leonard Cohen effect on ‘Everything’s a Bit Broken’. I’m very fortunate in that my voice can cover over 3 octaves, so I can become different characters and fill the vocal lines with different palettes of colour. I loved harmonising a symphony of voices at times on this record!
So to sum up The Beatles, Blur, Bowie, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwirght, Nick Drake, Dylan, Cohen, Springsteen, Chopin, Bach, Debussy… I love them all…
How has your background influenced your music career, and in what ways do you think you’ve evolved as an artist since you first started?
A: I’ve had a very rich and full life in terms of life experience. I went to university in England and then worked in San Francisco and Sydney, Australia as a waiter and a barman, then travelled through India. So travelling and the Beat poet ideas of Kerouac and Ginsberg were the early influences on my writing style. I busked a lot and had fun without taking music too seriously until my late 20’s. Then, suddenly I became more serious, I played in a Pogues type band around the folk/Irish circuit in London and wrote my first great song – it’s called ‘Whiskey Priest’ and it caught the attention of an all-time great songwriter called Mike Scott of The Waterboys who wrote ’The Whole of The Moon’. It showed me that I could write something truly great, from that moment I went from strength to strength, I was selected to play a big London singer/songwriter festival and then started getting noticed on the folk circuit for my own material.
My early music though was very optimistic and celebrated themes such as childhood, falling in love, raising a young family. I had yet to ’see the darker side of human nature’. Then four years ago just before Covid I suffered a really serious health scare. For some reason, it opened me up to ideas about suffering and pain, it was the first time I’d truly suffered in life, so I then started writing different types of songs that were more powerful. I also learned how to use Logic and recorded an album ‘Hard to be Human’ by myself during lockdown. The album is stark and brutal and the songs are very powerful. My ’Nebraska’ moment!
More importantly I learned how to produce myself, and in my latest album ‘Poetry in Exile’ I’ve taken this a step further with collaborating on more intricate arrangements. I played guitars/bass/keyboards but learned how to layer instruments and fill in the 3d space with the full sonic range of frequencies. Chris Payne did some beautiful string arrangements, Dave Palmer did a wonderful job in finding every instrument it’s ’sonic space’ and other great musicians like Hank Zorn, Beatrice Limonti, Jimmy Van Lin and Pietro Chiodi added some phenomenal instrumental virtuosity to the record. Hence, I guess that I’ve learned to collaborate more and enjoy the fun of the collaborations, music is made richer through collaborating and working with others.
Every artist faces challenges. What have been some significant hurdles in your career, and how have you overcome them?
A: An early hurdle was developing my voice. When I played in the Irish Band, I used to suffer from sore throats and I didn’t feel that it was powerful enough, certainly not powerful enough to lead a band. I met a genius of a singing tutor, he was an Italian opera singer and he taught me how to breathe and use the chest cavity to support the voice. He was also a very intuitive songwriter, he taught me how to edit and refine lyrics, I think that Dylan and Cohen and all of the greats did this. ‘Hallelujah’ was written over a six-month period, not in a single sitting. Song-writing is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. The very greatest songs are not born in an instant! So I guess I’ve learned to be more patient and to not record until every word is right.
Could you give us insight into your creative process? How do you approach the creation of a new song or album from concept to completion?
A: With an album, you need a thread, a universal idea. It needs to permeate the majority of the album. It can be a song title, not necessarily the strongest song, but the songs that encapsulates the message you’re trying to get across to the listener. On this record that song is ‘Poetry in Exile’ and it’s about the feeling of being exiled from a vocation in life to which I’d dedicated so much energy and passion, its was very sad. The only way I could face the world again ws to turn to music and re-invent myself much like Bob Dylan did when he became a ‘gnarled old blues singer’ after admitting to himself that his muse had deserted him in the mid 80’s.
I also refer to the Roman poet Ovid in this song, who was exiled from the Roman Empire by Augustus. The theme of exile, vengeance then renewal, retribution then empathy is a cycle which then cycles through the rest of the record.
You then have assess if ’songs don’t fit’ or how to ‘group the songs’ on the album so there’s a progression in genres and lyrical themes and musical keys that works. It’s like trying to solve a mathematical puzzle!
How do interactions with your fans, whether through social media or at live shows, influence your music or creative direction?
A: I use live shows to try out new songs and gauge their power. It usually confirms a feeling/an intuition that I’d had about the song. People are very perceptive, the best songs have a real resonance, they fill a room, they take on a persona and they carry people. When I can see this happening then I know I have something good. I think that this is a more effective way of assessing a song than playing a recording to someone, I stand by Dylan when he says that a ’song isn’t a meaningful song’ if you can’t play it on an acoustic guitar to people. It needs to have a ‘life of its own’, it needs to exist in a higher dimensional space.
Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations you’re particularly excited about? Can you share any details or teasers about what fans can expect next?
A: I’ve written some more very powerful songs, enough for a new album and have been listening to new people. I’m very taken at the moment by Harry Nilsen and by Jason Isabel. I love Harry Nilsen for the sheer range and emotion in his voice, on this record I did push myself to the limits of my vocal ranges, as I said almost 4 octaves from a real low A to a real high D. However, I think there’s more in the locker, I love the way that Jeff Buckley sings too and can just maintain the very high falsetto. So, I’m going to experiment more vocally, people say that Harry would record up to 30 vocal parts for a song, a vocal symphony! That’s something I want to try! Furthermore, I want to maintain an experimental approach to the arrangements and continue to work with world-class musicians such as Chris Payne and Beatrice Limonti on these new songs.
Looking to the future, what long-term goals do you have for your career? What kind of legacy do you hope to leave with your music?
A: I want to reach people who still love great songs and not production fads. I think that means trying to find my audience on Spotify and gradually refine and improve my songwriting further. I’m going to try and release a song every couple of months or so, to grow my fanbase. I hope that by working on this, that I can then demonstrate the following to bookers and play some bigger festivals and venues.
I want to leave a legacy of music that resonated with people and helped them to move on and grow in their lives. I want them to look back at various songs I’ve written as their friends!
At this stage I also wanted to give a big shout out to my partner Karen and my children for their support with my music! Thank you so much for interviewing me Broken Colour!