Interview with Q magazine founder and broadcaster Mark Ellen

[Published in The Student newspaper 4/11/14]

I had a chat with the journalist ahead of his Born To Be Wide event to be held Thursday 6 November. 

Events targeted at giving you a sneak peek into the intricate workings of the music industry are sparse. But Born to Be Wide is here to change that. The Edinburgh-based project, founded in 2004 by friends Olaf Furniss and Brodie Smithers, aims to provide insight into areas within the industry through seminars, guest panels, and showcases of local bands, the odd DJ set being thrown into the mix. A brief trawl through their most recent endeavours reveals a spread of events on everything from music management to designing a record sleeve. It’s informative without the cost of an extortionate ticket down to a music convention in London. Their latest event is to be held this Thursday on the topic of music journalism. Edinburgh’s cosy Electric Circus will be the stage for a professional panel including Alan Morrison (Arts Editor of The Herald), Nicola Meighan (freelancer at The List) and the headline act of the evening, Mark Ellen.

You’d be excused for not recognising the name, but you’ve most definitely heard of Mark Ellen’s accomplishments. Founder of Q and Word magazine, former editor for MOJO, contributor for the NME, he has broadcasted for Radio 1, sitting in for John Peel, and he was the familiar face presenting Live Aid in the 1980s. It’s half expected that Ellen would be a bit of a condescending media ‘wise guy’ based on this impressive résumé. Quite the opposite: self-deprecating, funny and very talkative, he’s a gold mine of anecdotes. Ahead of the event, I had a chat with him about his career and new book Rock Stars Stole My Life!.

“It seemed the perfect way of bookending 50 years of an obsession with music”, he says of his nostalgic memoir. It speaks quite heartily of an ever-changing form that has recently led to the diminishing importance of the writer. In fact, when I first question Ellen about his goal in writing it, he’s quick to throw himself into an exaltation of the bygone eras of his youth: the birth of rock n’ roll and the subsequent boom of the music press that, panting behind, fervently tried to keep up with this rocketing scene. “Nobody knew which direction it was going to go”, he professes, in his distinct booming voice. “I was right in the central, molten core. It was really thrilling”.

His breakthrough as a journalist in the 1970s was due to the painstaking process of sending live review upon live review to the NME reception desk, until they eventually caved in and published him. Does he feel he’s delivered valuable insight into how you’d get into the industry at that point in time, then? Ellen is quick to agree, before nostalgically musing about an early interview he did. “I interviewed Sting at one point and The Police were literally the biggest rock and roll band in the world. And I’m sat there in Sting’s house, having just been given his home address on a piece of paper, and gone around to spend 90 minutes with him. When I was a kid, you had the most amazing access.”

It’s hard to imagine a similar situation in the modern day. In fact, Ellen contrasts this with meeting another successful musician. “I was put into this situation where I was eventually interviewed by Lady Gaga for half an hour in order to see if I was worthy of passing the test whereby I could interview her.”

This changing landscape of music and press is made even more apparent by the rise of social media. Magazines like Smash Hits and the NME used to be the foremost sources of news, offering a sense of community amongst readers. The writers also shaped the artists. “A lot of your understanding of them was inflated by the great mythology of the press”, Ellen pronounces. “Now, everything is available, worldwide, instantly, in a way that’s completely controlled by the artist”. He uses the example of Rihanna and her gratuitous tweeting and self-advertising. “She’s the architect of her own propaganda”, he concludes. It would seem that the power completely lies at the other end of the spectrum now.

The modern day has an undeniable impact on the way we listen to music. There’s an immediacy and speed of listening today, as opposed to when the younger Ellen had to ride miles on the bus to pick up a record and bring it home. Platforms like Youtube are changing this struggle to hold on to something concrete in your hands. There’s a lack of “jewel-like, fabulous recordings and B-sides” being heard because “they’ve been lost down the back of the giant sofa of the iCloud.” “Everything else just disappears, it’s vaporised”, Mark Ellen mourns. So should we at least be trying to listen to albums as a whole? “Yes. You wouldn’t in any way think of spooling a tape forward and just watching your favourite bit of a film. You either watch the film in its entirety, or you don’t watch the film”.

Finally, I ask the man if he can offer any advice to aspiring music journalists. “First thing; write”. He pauses before reaffirming, “You really have to sit down and write”. The next professed tip is to do your research. “The more you know about the author of those songs, the deeper, the more soulful and resonant the music becomes”. Once you have this, you need an angle. “You need an intro and some kind of trajectory to follow. You need to have a new opinion that someone’s never had before”. But by far the most important thing is trying to find your own style, he explains. “Find a real individual voice, the voice that’s you. Don’t impersonate somebody else.”

Rock Stars Stole My Life! is out now.

For more information on Born To Be Wide and their events, check out http://borntobewide.co.uk/.

MUSIC – Interview with Kimberly Anne

[Published in The Student newspaper 14/10/14]

Kimberly Anne is a singer-songwriter from London. Her distinctive clipped vocals and charismatic live shows have helped her to build quite a name for herself on the independent scene over the past year. Having featured on Lewis Watson’s EP Some Songs With Some Friends, been on tour with Hudson Taylor and now putting the finishing touches to her debut album due out next year, the South-East Londoner is easily climbing the rungs to well-deserved recognition. The Student had a chat with her about her latest EP, intriguing music videos and left-handedness.

Could you tell us a bit about your new EP Liar? What is the meaning behind the title? Do you feel like you’re breaking new ground on it?

I wanted to push things a bit further production-wise on this EP so it’s a bit of a reflection of an exploration period. In the past, I’ve kept [sic] to keeping things quite stripped back so I wanted to have a bit of experimentation to help inform the sound of the album next year.

The title track ‘Liar’ is all about lying to ourselves to protect ourselves.

What song do you think is your biggest achievement and why?

I wrote and demoed a track called ‘Almost on My Feet’ from my new EP after setting myself a 4 hour challenge to write and record a new song. I promised myself I wouldn’t change anything afterwards and I haven’t to this day.

Can you describe what you look for in your sound in 3 words?

Must be good.

Has being left-handed ever affected you in your career so far? Has it been an impediment in any way?

No, not really. It actually helps me out a lot because I get out of being asked to spontaneously play tunes when I’m at my friends parties because I can’t play right hand guitars!

You seem to be quite a fan of close-up music videos. Is that a conscious decision at all? How do you get inspiration for your music videos?

I’m quite conscious that image is really important in the music industry which is why I’ve enjoyed messing with that by focusing on distorting my face in different ways. I never want to be an artist that’s too concerned with having a perfect appearance so I have purposefully made myself a bit rank, I guess! I’m massively inspired by videos from Radiohead.

You’ve collaborated with artists like Lewis Watson on his latest EP. Who would your dream collaboration be with?

Imogen Heap

Congratulations on supporting Ella Eyre! How does that feel?

The Ella Eyre tour is amazing, The crowds are so up for a laugh and sing along. It’s really nice to have such welcoming crowds when people don’t really know who you are. Ella is a great performer too, I’m so impressed with her energy. Just watching her makes me need a little sit down!

Will you be heading up to Edinburgh any time soon?

I would really love to come and play Edinburgh, it’s actually one of my favourite places to play. If I’m lucky and work hard enough hopefully I’ll get to do a headline tour next year. I really hope people come!

 

Kimberly Anne’s latest EP Liar is out now.

MUSIC – Interview with Hudson Taylor

[Published in The Student newspaper 21/01/14]

“Guitars, Irish and harmonies”. When asking duo Hudson Taylor to describe themselves in three words, these were the words they felt were the most fitting. Though perhaps restrictive, they do a good job of labelling the pair, also known as brothers Harry and Alfie Hudson-Taylor, within the nu-folk scene, and hinting at the image they have built over the past few years. Elder brother Harry provides the fingerpicking and impressive falsetto in the pair whilst Alfie enhances the sound with his rawer, nasal vocals, none too far from Mumford & co.

2013 has been a big year for Hudson Taylor, supporting established folk-pop acts like Jake Bugg and fellow Irishmen Kodaline, but also earning a support slot for none other than the Rolling Stones.

I had a chat with the two Irish lads about their hopes and aspirations before their gig at Edinburgh’s music haunt Sneaky Pete’s. Due to the venue being relatively small, and there being no adjacent and quiet room, the interview was conducted in the ladies’ toilets. It goes without saying that it was a first for everyone involved.

LC: You’re on tour currently promoting new EP Osea. How would you say it compares to previous EPs Battles and Cinematic Lifestyle?

 Harry: It’s our first EP that we’ve released with a record label. And it’s also the first one that seems to have got a lot of attraction. It got played on BBC radio and stuff.

It’s a different type of approach. We wrote all the songs in one place, on this island called Osea. Battles and Cinematic Lifestyle were kind of written over a space of a few months.

Alfie: And we worked with different people as well.

LC: Was it quite strange making that transition from uploading videos to Youtube to being signed to an important record label?

A: It was strange.

H: We were already fairly well established before, we kind of knew what we wanted. That helps a lot because some people might sign a record deal and they don’t really know or maybe the record label wants to shape them a bit. But we were left to our own devices, which was really cool.

A: We were put out with some people that it didn’t really like work out with though.

H: We’ve got our own instincts. That was pretty good.

LC: Which composition are you most proud of and do you ever go over songs and think you should have changed a lyric or used a better chord?

H: What we tend to do, more so, is leave a song for ages and not finish it.

A: I don’t think there’s anything we would have changed. I mean, my favourite in terms of writing it and everything behind it is probably our song “World Without You”. I’ll go with that.

H: I really like that song. I like “Care” as well.

LC: What’s the song writing process like between you? Alfie, do you write a half-song and then Harry writes the other half?

H: We’ve got many different ways but mainly we sit down in a room, even if it’s a bathroom like this. Bathrooms are good actually because they’ve got good acoustics.

A: And we just jam. Harry will start playing something awesome on the guitar and I’ll play it and then I’ll just start singing some words. I have a little book, so I write it down in it.

H: Sometimes it’s bits of poetry, sometimes it’s just a scrap, like rap or something.

A: Like “Care”, for example. That was all one go. So, we’re sitting down, singing it, going over the chords.

H: We go over the chords like five minutes, listen back to it and then just transcribe that.

A: Sometimes that happens, and you can get very lucky. I have all these recordings we’ve made. We’ll listen back to them and Harry will just be singing the words with the vowel sounds in harmony. That always gives me a boost. Sometimes it happens like that. These are the ones we enjoy the most because they’re so…

H: Spontaneous.

LC: I was at a gig the other day and I noticed that many people were filming with their camera phones. I was wondering what your views were on this and if it annoyed you as musicians?

H: I think everyone is guilty of it. I do it myself. I think the best thing is to go to a gig and if there’s one song that you film, then just film that one song, but don’t do it all. Otherwise you’re basically watching the gig through it.

LC: It sort of hinders your enjoyment, doesn’t it?

H: I think it does.

A: Well, if you’re paying for a ticket… I’m probably guilty of it myself. Yeah, I wouldn’t film the whole gig.

H: Nobody in 1969 at Woodstock had a camera phone. It’s interesting because we play at a gig and then someone, that night, has already uploaded the video online. It’s nice to see, but I don’t know…

LC: Where would you ideally like to be in three years time?

 A: Well, we’d probably have two albums out by then! The first album will hopefully be out by the middle of next year. We’re cracking away at it now, getting the singles in and just recording really.

H: In three years time, I would love to have been to all parts of the world, every continent would be nice. It’s more of an ambition. By the age of 25, if I’d seen every continent in some form because of music, that would be pretty cool. I feel like we’re achieving quite a lot anyway. Music as a career is pretty hard, having to sustain ourselves next to the label and all that.

A: Touring and doing some albums.

H: I still want to be able to go busking as well.

LC: In Dublin?

H: Everywhere.

 

Hudson Taylor’s new EP Osea is out now and available on iTunes.

MUSIC – Interview with Editors bassist Russell Leetch

[Published in The Student newspaper 05/11/13]

Birmingham-based rockers Editors have been prominent on the music scene for well over a decade. They have gradually established themselves as a band to be reckoned with thanks to a string of festival headlines, tours with the likes of R.E.M. and Muse, and a Mercury-prize nominated record back in 2006.

With the release of their new album, and after the departure of guitarist Chris Urbanowicz, comes the arrival of two new members in the shape of Justin Lockey and Elliot Williams. As a result, the new album is a work of boundless musical talent but also a showcase of the persistence and passion that underlies the founding members.

Russell Leetch, bass-guitarist of the band, speaks to The Student about the importance of music videos, what he thinks of talent shows as well as having dinner with REM.

TS: Having seen you play at Rock Werchter festival in Belgium this year, I wondered what it was like playing a massive gig compared to more intimate ones? Which ones do you prefer?

RL: Obviously, there’s a lot of difference if we’re headlining and it’s 90,000 people. It’s really special and you only get a few chances like that. Sometimes I think that at our own shows, the intimate shows, and where everyone is listening to all the good tracks, it makes it feel pretty special.

TS: Tom Smith [lead vocals] got down on the piano and played Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’. Who’s idea was that? Are you a fan of the Boss?

 RL: Yeah, we all are. I think the idea to play came from an English publication, and the Belgians picked up on it. It sort of went a bit viral there. We just thought that would be quite a good song to play. We thought we’d throw it in.

TS: You chose to direct the ‘Bones’ music video. What do you feel about music videos today, do you still feel they’re important, especially now they’re not really being shown on a platform like MTV?

RL: Yeah, they are. Obviously, you mention the MTV thing, but they’re also online and on Youtube. It’s still a really big, important tool to get music out there. The ‘Bones’ thing is just footage captured on tour, just to show life on the road.

TS: Why did you choose the name Editors and what are some of your favourite band names on the scene today?

RL: Our band name was because, when we signed our record deal, we were called Snowfield and we thought that we didn’t want to be called that. That would be the name if we were to go down in history. We just found Editors and we thought, ‘Oh, that looks good on paper, we’ll stick with that’. My favourite band names? That’s a good one because some people have got terrible band names and it just works out for them. To be honest, my favourite records this year are by David Bowie and Jon Hopkins. See how I avoided the question?

TS: Being together for about 12 years, you’ve had time to learn about the music industry. So, what’s your opinion on TV talent shows?

RL: It’s not something that I’d really want to enter. But, for music, it’s entertainment really, isn’t it? There’s always that line between entertainment and soulful music. We’d prefer to be on the more real, organic side. The other is not really the environment I was brought up in.

TS: You opened for Muse a few years ago. Who would you dream of opening for, living or dead?

RL: Well, to be honest, we did it and it was with REM. We played with them in 2008. We got to do 20 shows with them at the end of our second record. It was a dream come true. I’ll always remember that time.

TS: What were they like? Did you get to meet them?

RL: Yeah, we got invited out to dinner most evenings with them after the shows. That was incredible.

TS: You’ve actually been compared to bands like REM and Depeche Mode. Do you think comparing music acts hinders them or does it make them strive to do better?

RL: I think it makes us want to always improve but I think we get it a little bit more than some other people. I don’t know why that is. Because when we first came out, we were given the Joy Division tag. Maybe they need to continue justifying something. It gets a little boring to us because I think we’ve got four albums that are all different. To be compared to just some other bands, it can get a bit frustrating.

TS: What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career so far?

RL: Just the departure of Chris, really. We didn’t know whether we were going to continue as a band. That was the biggest thing: to try and figure out how to continue as a band.

 TS: How did you go about finding new members after that? I imagine it was a difficult process.

RL: It came quite quickly. With Justin, the guitarist, as soon as we met we thought that we were on the right wavelength. With Elliot, we toured with him a couple of years earlier with this band called Airship and we thought he would work as another element. It worked out in the end.

TS: Who are you listening to right now?

RL: David Bowie, the latest record. I really like the Daniel Avery record, which is a bit more of a dance record. And the Jon Hopkins record as well.

TS: Where do you see yourself in five years time?

RL: Oh, five years? I don’t know really. We could be anywhere. We’re very content with the band and we’re very happy. So that would be 2019? I don’t know, it’s hard to say what we’ll be doing, looking at how old we are now, I’d like to think there would still be some part of Editors going around.

Editors’ single ‘Honesty’ and latest album The Weight Of Your Love are out now.

MUSIC – Interview with Lewis Watson

Photo: Alex Brown

[Published in The Student newspaper 5/03/12]

Hailing from Oxford, 20-year old singer-songwriter Lewis Watson is part of a new generation of self-promoted musicians. Having begun his music career by uploading covers to popular platform Youtube, he now has a small army of avid followers. His low-budget debut EP It’s Got Four Sad Songs On It BTW was recorded in 3 days and quickly caught the eye of record labels. Finally, Watson chose to sign to music giants Warner Bros Records, following in the footsteps of acts like David Gray and Damien Rice.

Two years after his first upload, Lewis Watson is rapidly building a name for himself. Promoting his latest EP The Wild and set to begin his UK tour this week, the young man took time out to speak to me about touring, his career inspiration and the changing music industry.

What’s your favourite gig you’ve played so far?

I played a gig in December in Oxford, which was 400-capacity. That was really cool because that’s where I’m from. It was a really big gig and I felt really good.

 Who would you dream of opening for?

Oh [pauses]. It’s probably between two people. City and Colour as they really introduced me to acoustic music and they’re really cool. It would be a massive honour to open for them. My second would have to be Matt Corby, I’m really into his music.

What would you say is the biggest obstacle you’ve had to face as a musician so far?

That would probably be playing live. I used to get really, really nervous and never used to play in front of anybody. It’s one of the best things to do though.

 Your debut EP ‘It’s Got Four Sad Songs On It BTW’ topped the iTunes singer-songwriter chart on the first day of release. What did that feel like?

I was kind of shocked if I’m honest, I didn’t expect it to chart at all, so to chart that high was huge for me. I’m just really overwhelmed. I was watching the charts all day. I noticed that when I woke up it was at number four and I didn’t take my eyes off it all day. I was fixed on it. It’s kind of embarrassing!

Your latest EP ‘The Wild’ is coming out in March. How would you say it compares to your previous music?

 I think it’s just evolved a bit. It’s been drip-fed a bit more production. A lot of the tracks are still very true to the previous EPs. I hope that people don’t get put off by the fact that Into The Wild has a bigger band production on it, because the rest of the songs are very stripped back. It’s got a few more textures rather than simply me and an acoustic guitar.

I see you’re friends with Hudson Taylor and supported Gabrielle Aplin on her tour. Is there any chance of collaboration someday?

We did Twist and Shout together when we were all playing a festival [Barn on the Farm 2012]. It was a really cool and organic thing. I think that was where the charm of it came from. I don’t know if we’ll collaborate on a record, but I’d love to do so, as I love the guys. It’d be a great thing to feature on.

You have quite a large online following, on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Do you think it’s an important part of the industry these days to have a decent online presence?

It helps. I think some people don’t use it because, although it has helped so many people, it has broken a lot of people too. The worst thing that could happen is that you get no publicity, but if you do, it ends up going viral and you’re suddenly the thing everyone is talking about. But it means that CDs and vinyl are disappearing. I try to push physical sales of my EPs by signing as many as I can. I want people to buy physical because I think that it makes everything so much less disposable. I saw Bombay Bicycle Club do a cover session and Jack Steadman [lead singer] said that he had bought one of the songs in a bargain bin. He wouldn’t have listened to the song otherwise. He gave it a chance and now it’s one of his favourite songs. I think that’s cool. You can’t just delete a whole album from your CD rack, it’ll be there and it’s an incentive to listen to it and hear it out.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?

If I’m still in the music industry, and still somewhat relevant, then I would be very happy. This is what I want my career to be. It would be an honour if I were still doing what I am doing. Still touring, still recording, still writing. I would feel that I’ve succeeded.

MUSIC – Interview with Matt Corby

[Published in The Student newspaper 20/11/12]

On 17 November I had the opportunity of sitting down with singer-songwriter Matt Corby before his gig at the Electric Circus. Soft-spoken and genuine, he comes across as a musician who is truly impassioned by what he does.

Corby is a 22-year old singer-songwriter hailing from Sydney, Australia. Former contestant on Australian Idol, he is currently signed to Ben Lovett’s (of Mumford & Sons) label Communion which prides itself on being a friendly platform for independent artists.

His latest EP Into the Flames (out this week in the UK) has already gone 4X Platinum in Australia. Mixing indie rock with stunning falsettos, Into the Flames offers a break from its folky predecessors with a venture into blues on song Souls’ A Fire. I asked him if this new musical direction was intentional “I try to make a decision not to do that. I have always wanted to write that type of music. But I try as best as I can not to let it head down that avenue. Too much blues can be a bit overbearing.” The Australian is definitely non-committed when it comes to defining his musical genre “I write whatever I feel. If I want to write a blues song, I write a blues song. For me, it’s finding that cross-genre balance in the songs.”

Trained classically as a child, Corby started touring in a 5-piece vocal group at the age of 13. He tells me that he’s always placed particular importance on his singing voice “I trained and practiced for years and years. It’s always been my number one instrument”. His vocal control is definitely put on show during his live performances where it ranges from low and husky to surprisingly high and powerful, particularly on Brother which Corby agrees has “different elements and dynamic, jumping notes”. In fact, friend and musical act Passenger (who is currently supporting Ed Sheeran on his Autumn tour) asked the singer-songwriter if he would collaborate with him on his track Golden Thread. “He’s a beautiful human being. We recorded that song when I had no money,” confesses Corby, “when I was bumming around Sydney not doing anything and he just got me to do these twirly vocals on it. He even paid me which I thought was the sweetest thing ever.”

I purposefully avoided asking him about his experience on reality TV, but there still seems to be a lingering grudge against the current music business. “People have to like it, market it, and distribute it”, he says, concerning his debut album to be recorded in January. “It’s not really in my hold. Musicians don’t run this industry, funnily enough. I’m just trying to write music that’s timeless, so it doesn’t really matter when it’s released”.

And writing music always seems to follow a certain creative pattern for him, describing how he always hears the melodic structure of the song “then you’re honing it to lyrically what you mean to say. There’s a thousand ways to say one thing. But there’s only one or two great melodies that would fit with the words.”

“I love singers that have a proper message, even if they say the simplest thing ever. Ryan Adams gets away with so much. He has blatant, obvious lyrics, but he’s so incredible. I don’t know how you can get away with saying something that honest.”

What would be his perfect collaboration then, if he could choose any musician in history?

“There’s people I would want to collaborate with just because I would want to see them work and people that I would want to collaborate with because we could do something great. I’d be interested to see what would happen if me and Tom Waits got into a room together. He’s one of the best songwriters ever.”

Certainly Matt Corby is one to watch. After success down under, all signs lead to him becoming a sensation in the UK. Into the Flames is well worth checking out for avid listeners of Ben Howard, Jeff Buckley and Bon Iver.