Hi! Congratulations on the release of ‘There Is A Land’! The album sounds fantastic. What inspired you to create it?
A: Hi, thank you very much!
I think the album started to form up once I’d written the title track. I realised several of the songs I was writing at the time shared a common theme – something around a yearning or separateness from absent things we kind of know or feel to exist, but that we can’t access, can’t reach. So then I tried to push into that territory a bit more, see what else I could come up with.
To be fair, it’s quite broad, vague territory. Or maybe I’m just that way inclined.
The other real motivating force related to arrangement and production. I think that a lot of what I love about song has narrative at the core – Ra-ra-Rasputin is my favourite Boney M song, for example – and I wanted to keep that at the centre of these songs. Narrative, I mean, not Boney M. So my aim was to try to tell stories in different ways, but only by using music and words, and the ways they can work when put together. Originally I think the decision to arrange all the songs for the same small set of instruments was an attempt to emphasise this, but now I think that’s probably not all that apparent, and I think that’s maybe a good thing!
What is your favorite track on the album and why?
A: I’m really bad at favourites, I can’t even figure out what I want for dinner. But in some ways the clearest memory I have of making this record is of writing Mute the Button. As a songwriter you kind of know what you want, you kind of know where you want to get to, but you don’t quite know how to get there. You end up making a series of decisions, blind turns, trying to find your way through to where you want to be. I remember being really lost in that process with Mute…, but in a way that was really engrossing and fulfilling, and feeling that I ended up somewhere close to where I intended.
Where was it recorded?
A: The recording process of this record I would describe as moderately labyrinthine. I really like to have a live band at the core of the recordings, so we need a room where we can get the acoustic guitar, bass, and drums all recorded playing together simultaneously, but that can be tricky to get hold of because I never really have any money! There were two main tranches of sessions. The first lot had Toby Lustigman engineering/producing, and he managed to get us downtime at an amazing studio called Cream, which was owned by the acid jazz band Incognito, and situated on a weird, blank industrial estate just off the North Circular road in London. The second set, with Ben Walker in the chair, we did at a super lovely studio called Giant Wafer in rural Mid-Wales. Then we finished everything off at Ben’s studio in Brighton.
I’m interested in how you began your musical journey. Did you always know that this was your true passion?
A: I think yes, more or less, from quite young. It certainly informed a lot of choices I made, and my decisions about where to put my energies. When I was very young I wanted to literally be Kurt Cobain, and then to be some kind of famous, blazing, iconic figure, but thankfully that all faded quickly. For the longest time I’ve just been trying to find a way to carve out a space in life in which I can keep writing, keep recording, keep performing.
Your music blends various styles and sounds in a captivating manner. If given the opportunity, who would be your ideal collaborator and what is the reason behind your choice?
A: You’re very kind, thank you. To be honest I tend to work really slowly, and ponderously, and I imagine any seasoned pro/musical legend would be tearing their hair out trying to work on a co-write with me. But I feel really lucky to have been able to work with a lot of really talented people already. And anyway, don’t you end up collaborating with everyone you’ve found influential in some way? You know, “collaborating”…
What has been your favorite musical experience so far?
A: As a performer, it might be playing a gig in kind a natural amphitheatre halfway up a mountain near Padua in Italy. The setting was beautiful, and the gig went well, but also my mum and my partner’s parents were able to meet each other there, which isn’t nothing because they’re from different continents and hemispheres. And also because I wrote my between-songs-comedy-gig-patter into my phone and got google translate to read it out over the PA in Italian, and managed to get some laughs.
Leaving my own career out of it, it might be the time I accidentally ended up bluffing my way through being sound-engineer for an Adam Ant gig. But that is a longer story.
Where are you located? Can you describe how the local music scene has influenced your sound in any way?
A: I’ve been in London for a long time, and although I’m from the north of England it’s the scene in London I’ve been most involved in. There’s all kinds of people here, from all over, which I love. I’ve never been part of a really close-knit thing here, though, although those scenes do exist. For me it’s been the other kind of city – kind of atomised, and bitty. Little glimpses of connection here and there, little islands of scenes snatched when people can manage to come together. But the bonds you do make are strong, and deep, and lasting. It’s the voices and works of those people that influence me most, maybe, and that I feel I can situate myself amongst. And the whole vastness and variety of the metropolis, you know? It feels endlessly inventive and influential.
If you had the opportunity to perform at any venue worldwide, which one would you choose and why?
A: I really like the experience of performing at smaller venues. I love being able to talk with the audience, have a laugh with them. It’s such a shame that so many of those spaces are closed or closing. It’ll be a big loss. It’s so different an experience from watching a tiny person move around in front of giant videoscreen in a thronged enormodrome. That said, I’d be up for giving Glastonbury a shot.
What was the first album you remember owning?
A: Bad, Michael Jackson.
Finally, do you have anything to share about upcoming gigs? Also, what are your plans for 2024?
A: We’re doing a full-band show at The Harrison in London’s King Cross on friday the 27th of October, to give the album a proper launch, and we’re putting things together for a tour in the new year, all of which is very exciting. I’ll also be releasing another album later in 2024, which I’m really looking forward to people hearing.