What’s the story behind your latest song/album?
The new album, ‘Beautiful Terrier’ is my third in 3 years since I started making music again. I see so many artists that only put out about 3 singles a year so I was determined to produce music at the rate that bands in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s used to. I am hoping this will be seen as my ‘imperial phase’! I am from a generation who love full length albums as artistic statements to be listened to from beginning to end. I know this is not the way music is consumed these days (not even by me) but I am nostalgic for feeling I would have as a teenager losing myself in a whole piece. This album has regretful songs about high school, sad songs about car parks and inspirational songs about freedom fighters. The music is what I like to call cinematic / indie / bedroom / progressive rock.
How has your creative process evolved over the years?
My creative process evolves when I gradually gain a better grip of the software I am using. I have employed better plugins than I started with. I initially tried to learn to mix music myself but it was taking me out of the creative process every five minutes to watch another youtube video. I simply could not hear the frequencies they mentioned and to this day I still don’t fully understand what a compressor actually does! I hire a guy to mix it all for me and he has given me advice so I now have a method of working that let’s me get on with the creativity without worrying to much about the technology.
Who or what has been inspiring your music lately?
I still need to devour new music every day. Each year on Spotify wrapped I am in the top 0.5% of listeners. I curate a Spotify playlist like everybody else does and I would say I am often inspired by other tiny independent artists like me that I feature on the playlist. It is impossible to be original these days but the sound of the recent artists I am drawn to can usually be traced back to the indie / post punk / goth bands I listened to in my teenage years. Lyrically half my songs are personal and the other half are inspired by documentaries or the news. I like to research to make sure I am getting my facts right.
How do you handle creative blocks or self-doubt?
I haven’t had creative block (yet) when it comes to writing the music. I feel I have so many ideas at the moment that I am losing them all the time as they come to me when I am not in position or have no time to record them. I do, however, get really stuck when it comes to the lyrics. Unless I come up with them at the same time as the music, which is rare, I tend to have loads of unfinished songs without real words waiting to be completed. I sing nonsense words as a vocal guide as I always hear the vocal melody whilst recoding the music. Trouble with that is the nonsense words get stuck in my head and I cannot see past them. The way I have gotten around this in the past is by watching documentaries or reading online articles about factual things that I can then covert into lyrics. This is the reason the new album has 50% personal lyrics and 50% factual ones! I would prefer not to sing about myself but it is often the easiest route.
What’s next for you—any exciting projects or goals on the horizon?
This year I have several song collaborations on the go. I have been working with some fellow independent artists whose work I really enjoy. Strangely I have managed to insinuate myself into a lovely group of artists on instagram who predominantly make 80’s synth / dark wave type music. I am collaborating with some of them and it’s sounding delightfully retro synth / new wave so far. Other than that I aim to continue amassing enough music to attach an entire concept to for album number four next year. No idea what that concept could be at this stage. Maybe a history of curling or something like that!
CONTACT: Instagram