Monthly Archives: May 2024

So where did it all start for you – the music?

My parents divorced when I was about eight, and mum took us (me, my sisters, my uncle, and his partner) on this massive road trip, from Minnesota down to Vegas. I remember looking out at this wild landscape – the Badlands, camping, bugs on the windshield, stopping off at rodeos, and picking up tapes of Country artists at these old gas stations like The Mavericks, Patti Loveless, George Strait.

I think I was going through quite a lot at that age, with my parents splitting up, and I needed a way to process it. Part of that for me was becoming a kind of cowboy figure with a guitar who could withstand anything. It was about expression, writing songs, and personal transformation at a young age.

All your songs are quite different. How would you classify your style? Who have your influences been? Whose music do you love?

I have struggled with classification. One of the projects I’ve been working on lately is the fusion of Grime with a string quartet. You can’t hear grime on my records, but I have really broad elements to my songwriting – folk, soul, jazz, blues, country, and poetry. Poetry is a big part of it for me – American poets as well as British have influenced my writing. I love John Martin; he was a big influence.

Tell us about your orchestration – the instrumentation you use on your recorded songs as well as what we will hear live. The harmonies are really intricate and beautiful – what do you play?

Guitar, vocals, and a bit of piano. I was really lucky – I lived in Nashville for two years and started recording songs, but they were mostly moot attempts and had to be thrown out! Finally, I met this guy Matt Odmark who had a studio down in Fairground and a band who are a kind of crew – a really wonderful network. We worked together to create those orchestrations. Because a lot of what I’m doing is with voice and guitar, a lot of the process for me was learning the vocabulary to communicate what I wanted.

Do the musicians play by ear, improvisation, or do they write the music down?

Most of the time, I play the song and they make the charts (score) – they play the notes written. After about 2-3 takes, you get something that feels really good. Normally, for me, it takes about 4-5 takes to get it right.

So it’s a really creative process then? You don’t just give them the dots and say, ‘Here’s your music, play this’?

Yeah, it’s a huge process of collaboration and feedback. That’s why the studio is such a special place. For me, it’s all about the vibe. If you can create the vibe where everyone feels appreciated and listened to, and everyone is involved in making something and is excited about it in an almost childish way, you can create something really special. A lot of stuff like the strings were added afterward, and I worked with this guy called Avery Bright in the States to craft those string arrangements.

So what comes first? The music or the lyrics? And do you write both?

I don’t really know. I write both, but it depends on the original song. I keep a diary, a notebook, and most of the time I find what works for me to write songs is to completely absent myself.