Category: Interviews

Words & pics by Ed King 

“I can’t make the same record twice.”

I’m talking to Lucy Rose about her new album, Work it Out, which is set for release in mid July – the lead single, ‘Our Eyes’, scheduled for 3^rd May. It’s about four hours before she gets on stage at the Birmingham Institute, in the last leg of an 18 date tour with little time off, and there are concerns between the lines.

“It’s been kind of ups and downs in places,” explains Rose, describing the past fortnight on the road, “because we’re playing nine new songs in the set. So it’s not just two or three, as you’d imagine – just putting out the feelers; at least half the set is new.” And with tonight’s count at gig No14, how have the audiences responded so far?

“Manchester was really good,” answering without pause, “it’s always good. But there have been a few gigs that have been unexpectedly brilliant – Cardiff was great. And Leeds was really good fun as well.

Then sometimes, like in Liverpool, it feels a little bit like the audience is waiting to see. It’s more of a challenge; I’m going to play a load of songs you don’t know, and you guys are going to make up your mind about them. But I guess that’s what you have to do as an artist, to evolve. Something different is always a bit risky.”

The curse of a good first impression. Like I Used To came out in September 2012, and despite “rejection after rejection when we were trying to get signed”, Columbia’s unfettered release of Lucy Rose’s home recorded first album was a clear success. The modern British Folk scene claimed a Harvest queen, and Rose’s subsequent gig schedule went to work cementing a loyal audience for her 11-15 track debut.

The last time I saw Lucy Rose, at the Institute in May 2013, there were already new songs on the set list. But the move off the stage and into the studio, and away from the “nuclear bomb shelter” (underneath her parent’s house) where much of Like I Used To was recorded, required the right producer. She would end up with Rich Cooper in her corner for Lucy Rose round two.

“It was really good,” describes Rose, “he’s (Rich Cooper) done a lot of engineering on records at British Grove (recording studios) and I think I was the first properly produced record that he’s done. He absolutely nailed it. I love the production on my next record. I think it’s great; he’s definitely got a style.”

The lead single, ‘Our Eyes’, is a clear step away from the acoustic ballads of Like I Used To. What can we expect from the rest of Work it Out?

“There’s nothing on the first record that’s even remotely similar to this new single (‘Our Eyes’) it’s got synths on it, and I guess it’s more Pop than some of my more acoustic stuff. It’s definitely less Folk and more Indie, but I don’t know if it’s a fair representation (of Work it Out) because a lot of the songs are really different on this record.

We’ve got piano ballads, I’ve still got acoustic ballads, then there’s some really rockin’ electric guitar mental songs like ‘Cover Up’, ‘Cologne’ and ‘Sheffield’. There’s even one called ‘Like An Arrow which is almost Country, so it’s a big mix of music. But I haven’t over thought it; I just sit at home, write music and whatever comes up comes up.”

And with a few years of recognition under her belt, alongside the opportunities/pressures that a major label can bring, what was the writing/recording process like this time around?

“It was very different,” admits Lucy Rose, “I guess when it came to Like I Use To I just wrote a load of songs and when I was happy with them, I recorded them. It was good because I had all the control and could say ‘yep, I’m happy with this album going out the way it is,’ but it was tough to keep trying at something when no one in the industry is remotely interested in what you’re doing.”

Less of a problem now, I suspect. Although it’ll be nearly three years between albums one and two; did the pressures ever turn into demands?

“I felt it (Work it Out) was done a while ago,” tells Rose, “ and wanted to release it. But my label kept saying ‘it’s not done, it hasn’t got strong enough songs on it yet, you need to keep going.’ And I was completely against doing co-writes; that was out of the question, I hate the thought of it. So then it was really down to me.

Then there was about a month where I just couldn’t write anything. I felt I was writing for all the wrong reasons, or I was writing to try and write ‘a hit’, and that was just not going to work. At that point I didn’t know what was going to happen.” The double edged sword of creative control; how did you break the deadlock?

“I went back to writing songs just for myself, at home. One of them was really slow, probably the slowest one on the record, and I thought this will never go on the album, but when they (Columbia) heard them they were like ‘that’s the shade we needed, that’s the light and the shade.’ It was tough, but in the long term great; I got pushed way harder than I would have pushed myself if I wasn’t on a major. And the record wouldn’t have had some of my favourite songs on it.”

We talk a bit more about the trials of ownership, nearly being trampled by a miniature Shetland pony, and the precarious business of moving jam jars across country. Then it’s time to end the interview; a sound check is imminent and two Twitter winners are eagerly waiting outside to claim their 5 minute prize.

I love Like I Used To, but remember feeling, when watching her last set, that an even brighter evolution was set to come from Lucy Rose – the line I landed on being ‘if this is the Lucy Rose of studio albums future, I’m keen to hear more.’  And I’m genuinely excited for the 13^th July release, with the behind the scenes graft making it all the more tempting; is she happy with her sophomore result?

“There were a couple of really tough conversations whilst putting this together,” explains Rose, “like when the label wanted me to co-write something. I did one or two sessions and I really hated it. Everything about music that I loved wasn’t in that room.

I had to come to terms with the fact they might drop me, but they supported me on it and said ‘we genuinely believe you’ve got it in you, but you’ve got to work really hard.’ And now it’s done I do feel immensely proud to have gone through that, to get the record I needed to get. It was interesting to see how far I could get pushed, to the point where I didn’t even care if I’m not a ‘successful’ musician. I thought, this is not what it’s about.”

Then, in one of those rare and perfect endings, “…even if it flops and no one likes it, I stayed completely true to myself and didn’t compromise. So at least I can sleep at night.

For a Birmingham review of Lucy Rose’s gig at the Institute on 25^th Match ’15, click here

Lucy Rose is set to release ‘Our Eyes’, the lead single from her sophomore album – Work it Out, on 3^rd May. Work it Out is set for release on 13^th July.

For more on Lucy Rose, including online purchase points, visit http://www.lucyrosemusic.com/

Words & pics by Ed King

The Courtyard is covered in cables. I walk through The Rainbow fire doors into a squall of mic stands, monitors, guitar cases and flex; the furrowed brows of sound engineers directing people and equipment one way or another. I am obviously not in Young Kato.

Floating around like busy islands, the five members of Young Kato are unpacking (or possibly packing, I’m not ‘technical’) their tour kit and setting up for tonight’s gig. I look around and recognise Joe Lever’s face and Tommy Wright’s hair, the latter tiptoeing through the obstacle course to extend a hand over the carnage. “It’s all our pleasure, we love doing things like this.”

Young Kato formed in 2011 and have spent the past four years gigging, touring, appearing on the odd TV show or festival stage, then gigging some more. Tonight is “day five, or six..?” in an 18 date UK tour – which started out in Cardiff, “a tough place if you’re not sitting pretty on radio play listings or you’re not a local band,” and culminates in “the home town show for us” at Gloucester’s Guild Hall on May 2^nd. The day after the Gloucester finale sees the duel release of their debut album, Don’t Wait Tomorrow, and the LP’s lead single, ‘Children of the Stars’. It’s a busy time for Young Kato.

“It’s been great because we’ve got a good mix of old and new,” explains Tommy Wright – about the set list for their headline, album promoting tour. “But we do say on stage, ‘thanks for your patience with the new songs’. We’re a band who likes to craft hooks and melodies, and grow toplines as much as we can, because that’s kind of the way in which we write music. We like it to be a communal thing, for people to get involved.”

Young Kato are arguably a home spun success, with their constantly extended arms of social media and live shows nurturing an audience who are not afraid to join in. But on the cusp of eleven new tracks being released, how have their established supporters responded?

“We understand when people are at a gig and the band are playing a few new songs, if you don’t know them, it can take a while to get into,” says Joe Lever, “but people have been coming up to us after the gigs and saying ‘I loved the new songs’, and ‘I can’t wait for the album’ which is what it’s all about at this stage I guess.

“We released that (Sunshine EP) last summer, the end of August/September, and we’ve not had a chance to see it live in the way which we’d like,” continues Wright, “we did a support tour and a few sporadic dates, but we’d never actually played it to a headline crowd. Then we walk out (in Cardiff) and on the first verse of ‘Ultra Violet’ people are singing along. We’ve never had that feeling before.

Young Kato’s debut album, Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow, is an unashamed summer soundtrack in the making. Gloriously ‘Balearic’, as copywriters would once have proudly declared, its lead single is even called ‘Children of the Stars’. Somebody get perfecto on the phone. But what steered a band, who were busy being born in the early 90’s, towards an homage of the second summer of love?

“We didn’t write the album as a whole collectively,” says Wright, “we didn’t think all the tracks would intertwine, we just wanted eleven big songs. The biggest songs we could write by six lads from Cheltenham; a big, Pop feel, 80’s kind of thing.

It wasn’t like a concept album, each song we approached with a different mindset. So with ‘Children of the Stars’ that acted as a bit of a time portal, where we could go back and be children again – that’s the vibe that we went for with that.”

“We’ve been working on it for 3-4 years now,” adds Lever, “so our song writing and understanding of music has come on a lot since the first song we wrote. I was probably about 16 when we wrote ‘Drink, Dance, Play’. Now we’ve all got older, listened to different music and broadened our influences – which I guess reflects on the album.”

Recorded in stages, from the initial 70% to a final six day writing bender in “what can only be described as a shed, in an abandoned golf resort in Devon,” Young Kato’s debut album will be reassuring news for a patient fan base. And with Dan Grech commandeered to produce, having worked across the board from Lana Del Ray to Moby, did the band have a specific direction in mind once they started recording?

“We actually have three different producers on the album,” tells Wright, “Dan Grech was that first 70%, so there’s six songs on the 11 track album that he recorded. Then we went with Paul Stanborough who had been shadowing Guy Chambers through the whole Robbie Williams thing. He has a great ear for Pop music; we wanted to write mature songs but with that Pop feel to it so we found it worked well with him.”

And producer No3? “At the last minute we wrote a song called ‘Runaway’ and we felt there was only one person we wanted to record it, Peter Miles. He’s done lots of alternative acts, bands we know and love; with his authentic feel we thought we’d get something brilliant out of it.”

Embarrassingly for my ego and ears, after listening to Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow a fair few times, I didn’t notice the change of hands – a swing/miss Tommy Wright seems happy I made. “It’s good that you don’t realise it,” says Wright, “in a way, as we wanted it to be one whole journey. We know all the little details they (producers) have individually, but it’s great that you as the listener didn’t realise.”

Time is catching up on us; Young Kato’s tour manager comes into the room needing to “cut down the guestlist. It’s going to be a busy one tonight.” The rest of the band follow suit and names start being suggested, saved and shelved – with Joe Lever’s home town becoming a more prominent point of discussion. Once again, the Young Kato machine grinds into action.

I sneak in a final question about life beyond the tour. “We’ve been confirmed for Kendal Calling,” says Tommy Wright, “and the Isle of White festival – which confirmed yesterday. We just want to play as much as possible.” A reassuring statement from a band with an already full calendar.

But with the sound, feel and ambition behind Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow, a strong festival summer feels more like the turning point for Young Kato. “And our agents are still working,” continues Wright, “hopefully, tirelessly, to get us as many (festival gigs) as possible – especially with an album out. We’ll play any festival that comes our way.”

Not a bad idea lads. And I leave Young Kato staring at lists on a computer, wrestling with one of the more positive problems you can encounter on tour.

Don’t Wait ‘til Tomorrow is set for release on 3^rd May 2015. For more form Young Kato, visit http://www.youngkato.com/

 

 

 

Words & pics by Ed King @edking2210

A while ago, after reading one of my reviews, someone called me ‘a poet’. I’m not. Aside from the occasional toe dip into verse (mostly ending up as scribbled early morning rage) I am a writer of prose and a journalist.

But in a colloquial sense this description was awarded due to my ‘use of language’, which was ‘poetical’ to the aforementioned reader. And not wanting to a) dismiss a compliment, b) open up a broad and diverse comparison, or c) sound like a total wanker, I shrugged off both the adulation and wider conversation with “… you know, I’m not sure what being a ‘poet’ means anymore.” I may have failed to avoid point ‘c’.

“It’s funny, I had this discussion with my friend Anthony recently,” admits Helen Calcutt – poet, and curator of Regional Voice’s Love Poetry event being held at The Dance Workshop in Moseley on Saturday 14^th March.

“To me, a poet is someone who can filter their inspirations and the condition of the world around them as they see it, into incredibly heightened, visual and dramatic language. They have a particular kind of intelligence that other people can struggle to understand. And I’m not saying it’s all about editing, but you really have to think about what it is to write a poem. A poet knows everything starts with voice and finishes with it; but what happens in-between, to shape that voice, and to make the work the best that it can possibly be, can take years.” Helen pauses at her conclusion. “It’s a hard art forms for anyone to tackle; there’s the initial gift, then there’s learning your craft.”

I first met Helen Calcutt after reading ‘Dawn’, a poem she had written about the less than silent world of Goa – a place I was living in at the time and recognised in her verse despite the poem’s deliberate lack of obvious context. ‘And now, in animal red, from a tree of bones, the murmuring convicts start speaking’. Crows in the morning.

With one collection, Sudden rainfall, published by Perdika Press, and another in the pipeline, Helen is a jobbing poet – a working mum who is protective over her ‘craft’. And finding her confidence after winning a school competition as a young child, “I wrote a poem about a fox; I remember the ending being about paw prints in snow”, Helen found her voice in poetry over prose.

“Poetry is what I’ve always been drawn to the most. I’ve never been interested in reading prose or writing it, not that much. And after spending 10 years on the dance floor (Helen also trained as a dancer) I focused back on poetry when I was about 20, when I had my first proper boyfriend.” So did love ultimately inspire you? “Unfortunately, I think so; the soppy truth.”

But modern times are a maelstrom of artistic expression; the creative industries have created industries, the Internet has given bedroom recordings a global stage, whilst the tide of arts funding ensures a constant state of flux for those tenacious enough to apply. We live in interesting times, with enough coffee shop audiences to make a lot of it viable. Sometimes. But what about poetry?

“There is a feeling at the moment in poetry,” explains Helen, “there’s a divide; some poets feel it (the poetry scene) is going where it should be and it’s a golden age, whilst are others, like me, feel that it’s lost. Writers have lost connection with the centre of their work – i.e. the words, not the performance. The heart of it is being lost by a new wave, pop culture straddling, poetry performance that’s come about in the last ten years, maybe less, and is now at its peak. But even that’s starting to die; nothing is changing, nothing is evolving.”

It’s not been mentioned but I’m sensing a reaction to what I have penned ‘the recent Spoken Word Phenomenon’. “Yes, Love Poetry is about loving the poetry and not just the performance. Love Poetry is a theatre space for page poets who are powerful, who deliver the work with a voice that is theirs, not affected. I find a lot of Spoken Word performers and writers are very affected; it doesn’t have the ring of truth, to me, and this event is a counter to that.”

I sit on the fence with Spoken Word, a phrase I find oddly offensive, having seen it done both well and with an undue sense of pretension; I once heard someone refer to themselves, on camera, as ‘a word artist’. But the wide reception of it, creating an almost overnight army of coffee shop devotees, has arguably brought verbal expression back into popular culture. Even if it’s mainly Hipsters who read good it’s not uncommon to see a well attended midweek event.

“I think one of the positive things that Spoken Word has tried to do is to bring poetry to a wider audience,” agrees Helen, “but the lack of quality in the work is now starting to alienate some people.The audiences aren’t stupid; they can hear when something doesn’t have the ring of truth, they can hear the lack of integrity. 

And I’m not saying Spoken Word doesn’t have its place, when it’s good it’s really good,” Helen has booked a Spoken Word performer for Love Poetry, Birmingham born LD Henriquez, “but at the moment there’s not a lot of good Spoken Word and performance poetry out there. That is, in itself, becoming lost, and in the noise of all that, the good writing and poets are arguably becoming more and more isolated. If anything it feels like many of the events are just one thing heaped on top of another; some promoter saying, ‘I can’t think of anything to do with this poetry night. I know, let’s have a vintage dress code.’”  

Love Poetry makes it event debut on Saturday March 14^th, with Welsh poet Paul Henry reading alongside Scotland’s Janette Ayachi and local voices LD Henriquez and Samantha Hunt. Why have you chosen these poets to help shift the plates a little?

“I wanted to bring something new to Birmingham and not just draw on the same Birmingham voices. I chose Paul (Henry) because he’s a very gifted page poet; he’s also very worldly, he’s been writing for a long time and been published widely.” Paul Henry has nine books of verse already published and will be launching his latest, Boy Running, at the Love Poetry event.

“A further reason I chose Paul is because whilst an audience will have to think about his writing, it still draws you in slowly; it’s very warm. He’s quite quiet but his writing and his delivery are quite powerful.  When Paul reads it’s not a huge ‘performance’, it’s a controlled, measured, strong delivery just about anyone can appreciate. Janette (Ayachi) is of the same ilk.”

And how about the more local contributions? “Samantha (Hunt) is a local poet I’ve worked with before who’s very accomplished; I wanted to give her a chance to read alongside poets like Paul and Janette. LD (Henriquez) is a performance poet who applied for a floor spot,” there were open spots at Love Poetry by selected submission only, “and the work she sent me took me back and made me think. I could hear that she’d thought about the language, and the performance she sent me (recorded on video) was really measured; there was a bit of music and it was quite experimental. I thought that would be a good introduction to the evening.”

Also performing at Love Poetry will be singer/songwriter Hannah Brown, who Helen booked to ‘broaden the audience’ and encourage attention with a wider scope than just poetry. “I just think she’s fabulous and in keeping with the tone of the evening. Hannah will open the night then we’ll go straight on with poetry all the way through. It used to be like that; Dylan Thomas would perform to a packed out house in New York, full of people who weren’t poets, they were artists and audiences from across the board.”

It’s a wonderful ambition – to revive the days of honey tongued writers with something considered to say. But I can be cynical about Birmingham’s event scene, having watched too many good intentions get shot down by friendly fire. I’m almost nervous to ask but has Love Poetry attracted many non-poets to Saturday’s debut?

“Yes, it’s been great. We’ve had uptake from the Universities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton, and many of the advance bookings aren’t people I know to be poets or writers. The idea of Love Poetry is to bring well crafted, controlled, worldly writing to a wider public – to broaden the audience and bring poetry out of this murky world of being just only for poets, or nobody at all. That’s always been the aim, for this event to be a starting point.”

Sounds like it’s working, for this Saturday at least. But whilst a new audience is certainly promising, why the lack of immediate peer support? “I’m not sure, but it could be because I haven’t asked them to read. Or perhaps people aren’t sure where to place something that’s not the same kind of coffee house gig or Spoken Word event. Maybe they’re not sure if they want to be involved.”

Hmmm. Poets not supporting a poetry night… there’s a line in there somewhere. But I’m writer of prose and a journalist; it’s my curse to be solitary and clever. I’ll leave cliques to the artistes.

Love Poetry will be held at The Dance Workshop in Moseley on Saturday March 14^th, with readings from Paul Henry, Janette Ayachi, LD Henriquez & Samantha Hunt – alongside music from Hannah Brown. Doors open at 7:30pm, with tickets priced at £8 (advance) and £10 (on the door).

For online booking & event information, visit http://www.designmynight.com/birmingham/whats-on/experience/love-poetry

For more on Paul Henry, visit http://www.paulhenrypoet.co.uk/

For more on Janette Ayachi, visit http://janetteayachi.webs.com/

For more on Helen Calcutt, visit http://helencalcutt.org/

by Ed King @edking2210

A relatively recent pleasure has been my foray in the work of modern composers.

The rise of labels such as Erased Tapes (UK), Denovali (Germany) and New Amsterdam (US) have been bringing an array of fresh classical approaches and avant garde electronica for the past decade; exciting stuff.

As I began to explore, my Tori Amos hangover happily evolved into a toe dip of contemporary pianists – landing feet first in Italy amongst the likes of Ludovico Einaudi and Fabrizio Paterlini.

Then there was the other side of the rainbow; the more electronica based artists, from the subtle intricacies of Nils Frahm to the chill out euphoria of Message to Bears, peppered amongst the classically trained and ‘Live at Scala’. And don’t get me wrong, not every overturned stone shone gold; but as I ploughed through the Spotify ‘Related Artists’ roster I was increasingly engaged. I have not been this turned on by new music since my friend gave me a cassette tape with ‘RAVE’ sellotaped to the front.

But one of the artists who significantly stood out for me (and at one point left me sobbing like child on Harborne High Street) was Olafur Arnalds – the Icelandic ex-Punk drummer, who has been churning out consistent beauty since his debut Eulogy for Evolution EP in 2007.

I was on the hunt for something that would break and inspire me, much as Little Earthquakes did many years ago, and Arnalds has it; the pitch perfect ivory and string compositions that would make me sob like a… I think we’ve established the ‘heart wrenching’. And just as my musical history includes the Ghostbusters’ soundtrack, both Use Your Illusions and several grainy recordings from Dreamscape, it wasn’t all ethereal for Olafur Arnalds.

“It’s just what I grew up with. I always loved the music,” explains Arnalds about his Punk and Metal band beginnings. “There is some great expression in it which you don’t find anywhere else, and the whole culture around it is fascinating and healthy for teens to grow up around. I actually have more of a pop/jazz background, studying drums. I moved slowly over to classical theory in my late teens and ended up enrolling in a Classical Composition major at the Icelandic Academy of Arts. But I dropped out after 1 year.” Arnalds‘s ‘classical’ debut eventually took form in 2004, as three short incidentals on the unashamedly heavy album Antigone for German Thrash Metal heads Heaven Shall Burn. “I do miss it sometimes, yes.”

But since signing to Erased Tapes in 2007, Olafur Arnalds has carved out an identifiable corner in the burgeoning scene of contemporary composers – akin to, but not as like, once label mates Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick. How does it feel to be writing and performing these days? “

“The scene is very trendy right now,” describes Arnalds, “and people are showing up to our concerts and buying our records. Orchestras are showing interest in working with us and the big classical venues like to program our concerts. It wasn’t like this five years ago, but now it’s great. We have really achieved something…”

A shift that has arguable roots in the popularity of TV and film soundtracks – Olafur Arnalds himself gaining recent notoriety (and BAFTA Award) for his score to Broadchurch, the UK TV crime drama with David Tennant and Olivia Colman. Is this route to recognition create problems for modern composers, does someone else’s agenda reduce your creative control? “I’m not sure if we really have problems?” defends Arnalds, “I think that’s up to each and every composer to really decide for him or herself; how do you look at your creative process? Is working for ‘someone else’ really reducing? Or can you just look at it as collaboration? I personally see it all as collaborations which help you grow as an artist.” 

I still struggling with this; call it naivety or arrogance, but when I’m hopscotching through Max Richter’s back catalogue I only land on the autonomous albums. Although the success of the ‘collaborations’ is certainly fueling a welcomed fire, as Arnalds himself is currently touring the UK with Broadchurch very much on the set list. And it is a welcome change to see him booked at The Glee Club as opposed to the Hare & Hounds, which hosted his last Birmingham visit in Oct 2008 – not a bad venue by any means but not the most obvious choice for a man who warrants an orchestra.

“That must have been on my first tour. I have done around 400 shows since then, but back in those days I was very DYI (still am to a point!) and I knew a bunch of club promoters from my days touring with punk bands. I also always wanted to make a point of playing classical music in these smaller club environments. Production wise it can be a pain in the butt but sometimes some kind of magic was created.”

Is technical support is a large factor in what kind of show you can perform? “Yes indeed. We have quite a large technical setup, we are carrying a big trailer with lights for example and I’m an absolute perfectionist when it comes to sound quality,” explains Arnalds, whose current tour visited the Barbican on Feb 22^nd. “So the amount of venues that we are actually able to play these days is very limited. The light show is designed by Nico De Rooij and Stuart Bailes (www.SIDF.eu) and is absolutely amazing – capturing something you never really see at concerts. Looks more like an art installation…”

So what would be your ideal stage set up?

“I always want to try everything. We did an orchestra tour last year with 35 people on stage. It was amazing and epic. But traveling with a crew of total 50 people is not exactly economical. I have always wanted to try doing a tour alone – without a band. But so far haven’t found a nice way for that to work… Strings are so integral in my music. I’d love to go crazy with some kind of interactive technologies too, involve the audience in what they see and hear. I’ve been doing this on a smaller scale but to go big is very hard…”

And if your Tour Manger Genie could grant you one venue to perform in? “My dream venue, that I still haven’t played, is Royal Albert Hall and Sydney Opera House. I’d love to bring an orchestra to those.”

But The Glee Club in Birmingham will have to do for now, with fingers crossed it won’t be another half decade until Olafur Arnalds returns to the city. But in the meantime there is a collaboration with pianist Alice Sra Ott to keep us occupied, an homage to the Polish virtuoso titled The Chopin Project.

“I have always had a special personal connection to his music through my family and growing up. But also his melodic way of thinking is something I find myself in a lot. So doing recompositions of his works felt like something which could make sense and not sound too disconnected.” But a cornerstone of classical music none the less; what was working with such established material like? “It was definitely a process. Months of brainstorming and thinking. But once it got together and Alice was on board it was super fun.”

It’s refreshing to see nouns such as ‘fun’ appear next to names such as Chopin – a more colloquial coupling than the sometimes aloof rhetoric I have found whilst exploring ‘the classics’. I imagine an evolution from Punk drummer to contemporary composer has created some interesting attention too.

“I think if we can change something around us, then people will come to appreciate this,” describes Olafur Arnalds. “If we can remind people of these moments where they are just completely lost in evocative music. But to do this we might need to start changing how we think about mainstream culture.”

Olafur Arnalds plays at The Glee Club (B’ham) tonight / Tues 2th Feb. For tickets & info, visit https://booking.glee.co.uk/12043

For more on Olafur Arnalds, including details on The Chopin Project – set for release on March 16^th through Mercury Classics, visit http://olafurarnalds.com/

For further listings for The Glee Club (B’ham), visit https://www.glee.co.uk/birmingham/

Words by Ed King / Pics by Edward Taylor

*Chris Tye launches his new album, The Paper Grenade, at The Glee Club (B’ham) on Sun 23^rd Nov. For info & tickets, visit http://www.glee.co.uk/performers/chris-tye.htm*

_________________

“…you remember when MySpace used to be big?”

Chris Tye is explaining The Paper Grenade, his old music moniker and name of his new album. “I used to do instrumental music under that name and it was one of those titles that wouldn’t go away. It’s still up there somewhere because I’ve forgotten all my passwords.” Modern footprints; popular culture can become anachronistic quicker than it used to.

We’re sitting on The Glee Club main stage surrounded by a living room familiarity and sound engineer mutterings. Birmingham Review first covered Chris Tye at Folk for Free gig last December, the sheets of winter rain staining the bright lights and backdrop of the open plan Symphony Hall Café Bar, but the snug Glee Club surroundings feel much more appropriate.

There is immediate warmth. I’ve not met Chris Tye before but he’s on the ubiquitous list of respected regional troubadours, and to have never put ‘The Glee Club’ in a sentence next to his name feels oddly incongruous. Now I get to add ‘album’ and ‘launch’.

“I played a gig in Coventry at a pub called The Mordseley,” continues Chris Tye, “and was speaking to someone in the crowd afterwards about people we’d known who’d had cancer. Her mother had died really young and we got talking about how you’ve got to make sure you don’t have too many days that are just a non event, like a paper grenade.”  It’s a confident metaphor, original on an old theme. “It struck me a good way of describing that; these non events, these non days, these paper grenades where nothing happens.”

But the journey to The Paper Grenade was not quite as carpe diem, with Chris Tye “spending three years trying to record an album myself,” and embracing every aspect; “writing it, playing most of the instruments with the exception of drums, producing it, engineering it, thinking you know, what works for Prince. Then I realised how difficult it is really is. I did finish an album but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted it to be.”

Then just as Chris Tye “was about to knock it on the head” a referral from Fink put him in touch with Tim Bidwell. “I went to visit him (Tim Bidwell) and he has a lovely home studio in a lovely part of Brighton; went out got drunk, and I woke up with a week’s worth of dates in the diary.

It was such an important phase; I could write songs with him the vehicle dragging the ideas out of me.” After knocking out “six tracks in a week”, The Paper Grenade started to take shape – with Michael Clarke (Ron Sexsmith, Dan Whitehouse) coming in later to share production credit and instrumental burdens.

The result is a ten track album that covers the range of faces Chris Tye can bring on stage. “My tendency is to make down beat, melancholic acoustic,” admits Tye, “and I was desperate not to do that with this record. We decided some of the songs needed to be fairly big, a lot of electric guitars and big drums.”  

“I wanted to structure it like a good live set; start upbeat to capture people’s attention, run though some of the melancholic bits in the middle, get a little bit psychedelic at the end then finish with the title track.” With a bonus acoustic demo of ‘Vicious Words’ as encore, curtain down.

But The Paper Grenade still feels personal, despite the eventual collaborations – something that can distill or distort a creative endevour. I never write in tandem. Some of the album artwork was even done by Chris Tye’s daughter, Daisy, who has track eight named after and dedicated to her.

“You know when kids paint and you put down a split open cereal packet underneath, so the paint doesn’t go on the table,” explains Tye, “I took up her painting and that was on the table I had load of different ideas but I couldn’t get away from that one.” It’s oddly beautiful too, an oil swirl of watercolours on the back cover. Don’t look at it and think.

Chris Tye seems to have found something else in The Paper Grenade too; a reinforced zeal, new blood to keep moving. “As a starting point, which I really do see it as, I wanted to represent all aspects of what I might do. The next album might be more in depth; I’m thinking me, a piano and a quartet – embrace the melancholic section in the middle.”

As a fan of most things ivory, and melancholic, this sounds good to me. And as Chris Tye confirms, “people like miserable, it makes them happy; it makes me happy.” A sentiment that kept busy with unrequited lust and Tori Amos albums throughout my blotter acid munching teens. But one that would not be unwelcome on The Glee Club programme, should this be the venue to host round two.

But first things first; Chris Tye launches The Paper Grenade on this stage in a full band showcase on Sunday 23^rd November, with support from Sam Redmore and Vijay Kishore.

I look around the room and try to imagine it full of more familiar faces. The sound engineers start to mutter in more obvious tones. The room is no longer ours but I feel comfortable enough to ask the obvious.

“Markus (Sargeant, The Glee Club music promoter) has given me a lot of good support slots here,” explains Chris Tye, as we pack up like the end of picnic. “You know it’s always going to be a quality gig; a good sound, for me and the audience. It’s a quality seal at every turn.”

And as we walk quiet steps out of The Glee Club, I’m gifted a copy of The Paper Grenade. “It just made sense to be here.”

‘The Paper Grenade’ – Chris Tye, live in Cheltenham. Click here or on the image below

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Chris Tye plays at The Glee Club (B’ham) on Sunday 23^rd November, launching The Paper Grenade – with support from Sam Redmore and Vijay Kishore. Ed King will be there for a Birmingham Review.

For gig info & tickets, visit http://www.glee.co.uk/performers/chris-tye.htm

For more on Chris Tye, including online purchases for The Paper Grenade, visit http://www.christye.co.uk/

For more from The Glee Club venues, visit http://www.glee.co.uk/