Speaker 1: Loud and Quiet presents Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: Evening listeners, Greg here with another episode of Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: Because we like to keep you on your toes, we've
Speaker 2: mixed things up for tonight's episode of the podcast. I
Speaker 2: say mix things up. What I mean by that is
Speaker 2: that instead of recording this episode in our office in
Speaker 2: East London, we did it in a windy field strewn
Speaker 2: with cowpats in rural Oxfordshire. More on that in a sec.
Speaker 2: Have I got anything to tell you before that? Yes,
Speaker 2: I have. Thank you to those who tuned into episode
Speaker 2: forty seven of the podcast, you'll have no doubt heard
Speaker 2: that I thoroughly enjoyed spending an hour with Courtney Barnett
Speaker 2: and her slightly strange sounding recipes for a Sunday roast.
Speaker 2: Wherever you're listening to this now, you'll find that chat
Speaker 2: there if you haven't had a moment to listen to
Speaker 2: it already. And when I was looking back the other day.
Speaker 2: Already this year we've recorded conversations with Old Jay Craig,
Speaker 2: David Shirley Manson, Graham Coxon, who else? Shame that was
Speaker 2: a good one back in January. If you like us,
Speaker 2: do leave some star ratings and feedback comments, that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. And even better still, if you like what
Speaker 2: we do, do subscribe. You'll automatically get a new episode
Speaker 2: when we stick one of these out every fortnight. On
Speaker 2: a Thursday at midnight, speaking of the start of the year,
Speaker 2: in January, and email dropped into my inbox announcing a
Speaker 2: new album from one time Supergrass front man and now
Speaker 2: very established solo artist, Gaz Coombs. I'll save you the waffle,
Speaker 2: but basically it said, Gaz Coombs has a new album
Speaker 2: coming out in May, called World's Strongest Man, and it's
Speaker 2: informed by a number of things including toxic masculinity, Californian weed,
Speaker 2: Grayson Perry's book The Descent of Man, Frank Ocean's Blonde,
Speaker 2: and the British Woodland. And I thought I'd quite like
Speaker 2: to talk to Gazcombs about all of that, So a
Speaker 2: few weeks back, I packed up this podcast gear, got
Speaker 2: into my car, drove to Gaz Coombs's family home in
Speaker 2: a village in Oxfordshire. He made me a cup of
Speaker 2: tea in his kitchen and very generously showed me around
Speaker 2: the place and we recorded this conversation you're about to hear.
Speaker 2: For context, We started in his garden and to put
Speaker 2: the picture in your mind, there's a slope from there
Speaker 2: down to a garden gate out into a huge field.
Speaker 2: We walked a big loop along a tree lined avenue,
Speaker 2: past some derelict farmhouses and then back through the field
Speaker 2: just as it started to rain quite heavily. So, yeah,
Speaker 2: Midnight Chats something slightly different for our forty eighth episode,
Speaker 2: A visit to Gazcumbs's house. Thank you for listening, enjoy.
Speaker 2: This isn't normal for us. We don't normally do podcasts
Speaker 2: like this is normal. Well, you know, welcome to this
Speaker 2: is this is Midnight Chats. But we're starting it in
Speaker 2: Gas Coombs's garden. Yeah, your house in Oxfordshire. Your house
Speaker 2: is stunning, by the way. Just we should probably start
Speaker 2: by describing the view for people from where we stood. Well,
Speaker 2: back garden here you can hear the faint laughter of
Speaker 2: school children at the primary school down there. My kids
Speaker 2: went to that school. Yeah you know, so I guess
Speaker 2: we'll be a back garden looking out across the fields
Speaker 2: over towards Shotover. So yeah, and I grew up in
Speaker 2: this place as well, so I remember all those cows.
Speaker 2: Probably not the same cows that were there when I
Speaker 2: was like seven. Probably the relatives of various cows descendants
Speaker 2: were eaten. Not I didn't kill any cows. Don't get
Speaker 2: me wrong. I didn't do anything illegal. But yeah, so
Speaker 2: the field's over there, and you know this is the
Speaker 2: overgrown lawn handy in the garden. You get out in
Speaker 2: the garden as a family. No, I'm terrible in the garden,
Speaker 2: in fact, so much so. I saw an advert. I
Speaker 2: was in Europe last week and I saw an advert
Speaker 2: for this kind of robot lawn mower. I thought, man,
Speaker 2: I might get one of those, although at the same
Speaker 2: time I think they're awful. But no, I struggle with
Speaker 2: the garden. But get my dad over sometimes to to
Speaker 2: do some weeding. As soon as you get that sort
Speaker 2: of barbecue season. Yes, exactly, it's a really beautiful scene.
Speaker 2: We've got rolling fields kind of stretching out into the distance.
Speaker 2: We've got some stunning trees just like that kind of
Speaker 2: go in a semicircle around the back of your garden.
Speaker 2: Here you've got a little garden shed their green and
Speaker 2: white gardens, revolving Yeah, a little revolving house. Yeah. Nice. Yeah,
Speaker 2: do you find yourself going down there occasionally. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: sort of. I have taken cables from the house before
Speaker 2: because I've recorded here at the house as well. I've
Speaker 2: done Yeah, I've done pretty much three albums here. I've
Speaker 2: tried feeding cables down to the summer house to record
Speaker 2: some guitar. It kind of works. It's good for the
Speaker 2: you know, bird noises and stuff if I want to
Speaker 2: get all yeah, all kind of nature and it's a
Speaker 2: good vibe though. It is a nice garden that you know,
Speaker 2: it feels good. I try and get the kids out
Speaker 2: here more. But man, you know, I used to build
Speaker 2: like camps and ugh, and you know, go because there's
Speaker 2: a bit of woodland down the bottom there. And I
Speaker 2: used to go and build camps all the time when
Speaker 2: I was a kid, and just try and get the
Speaker 2: kids out of this. Are you're talking about that? What
Speaker 2: do you mean a camp? What sort of camp? And
Speaker 2: I was like, well, just I don't know, go and
Speaker 2: get some twigs and some leaves and build yourself a
Speaker 2: little area. They look at me like I'm utterly mad.
Speaker 2: It's like, look, it's all here for you guys. Put
Speaker 2: the eyepad down. They can learn how to do treehouses
Speaker 2: on YouTube. Now well, yeah, yeah, that could be cool.
Speaker 2: There's a couple of nice trees for that here. Actually, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: we would have walked down these steps here, let's do it.
Speaker 2: So this, as I was saying, this is not the
Speaker 2: normal situation that we're we record a podcast, this is
Speaker 2: actually what normally we're in our office in East London,
Speaker 2: which is which is lovely but quite cramped. And here
Speaker 2: this is actually what fresh air smells like, you know it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is unpolluted, whether nature's goodness is Yeah. I particularly
Speaker 2: enjoyed the drive up here because I came cross country
Speaker 2: out of London to Oxfordshire, and besides seeing lots of
Speaker 2: really nice looking country pubs and potentially a steam train museum.
Speaker 2: I think I went past that sounds familiar. There are
Speaker 2: some great names of villages in this part of the
Speaker 2: world that's coming through Skittles green nice. I think there
Speaker 2: was one called pickle Wick Lovely maybe Kingston Blout Have
Speaker 2: you been there? No, not being to Kingston Blount. No,
Speaker 2: where's the other one? Is there was? I can't remember? Yeah,
Speaker 2: now there's some quite Who's this my wife? We're meeting her? Hi,
Speaker 2: gass wife, She just come back from the gym, and
Speaker 2: she's thinking, look at these two ridiculous looking fellows. Have
Speaker 2: you got a key? All right? Oh, we're just gonna
Speaker 2: go for a little wonder all right, it's tea in
Speaker 2: the pot. Well done, gas, good planning. Yeah, we're getting
Speaker 2: towards actual We're getting getting towards the end of the garden.
Speaker 2: This garden gate, Oh yeah, so this is the this
Speaker 2: is the Yeah, there's a little veg plot down there,
Speaker 2: and we can go and raid it for some corsettes
Speaker 2: and the occasional garret and then yeah, that's that little
Speaker 2: bonfire bit there. The kids think a witch lives in
Speaker 2: there for some reason. I've never seen her myself, so
Speaker 2: I'm doubtful that that's actually true, but it is. It's
Speaker 2: good looks. End of the garden myth material when we're
Speaker 2: walking back from the pub a sort of five six,
Speaker 2: and it gets it's getting dark. I like it down here.
Speaker 2: It's almost like an orchard or something, isn't it. Well
Speaker 2: it is, Yeah, there apples a few apple trees here,
Speaker 2: I think. So, yeah, we've let it, you know, we've
Speaker 2: let it kind of be a bit more wild down here.
Speaker 2: I kind of like it wild, yeah, less kind of
Speaker 2: preamed and sculpted. It's nice and yeah, wildflowers and stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 2: as you were saying, it is perfect for den making.
Speaker 2: So yeah, through the little let me just log it
Speaker 2: our gate just as your listeners, we're hear onto some gravel.
Speaker 2: Exciting there we go. So yeah, this is like the
Speaker 2: little shortcut that where we can get down to the
Speaker 2: village basically without seeing any other any other human beings. Yeah,
Speaker 2: become this little secret way. As I was saying, there
Speaker 2: are some brilliantly named villages in Oxfordshire that I drove
Speaker 2: through my way to visit. Even here today, there's a
Speaker 2: there's a place to park. I don't know where it is.
Speaker 2: There's place of past called Toka's Greenways thoughts that sounds cool.
Speaker 2: That sounds cool. Yeah, apparently it's terrible around there. No, Yeah,
Speaker 2: so anyway we were, we were approaching the field. We've
Speaker 2: come out of the back of gas his house, through
Speaker 2: his garden into onto the sort of short village path
Speaker 2: and into the into the field. We should probably before
Speaker 2: we go any further, just explain where we're going. We're
Speaker 2: kind of on our way to do a little walk
Speaker 2: around to sort of see some of the local local sites,
Speaker 2: a place where you kind of grew up and hang
Speaker 2: around with and like basically the area that made you
Speaker 2: you and therefore helped go into your writing pro Yeah,
Speaker 2: I guess it's there's just a lot of memories here.
Speaker 2: I think it's there's a lot kind of etched in
Speaker 2: my mind from from over the years, you know, way
Speaker 2: back from when I was a kid, and you know,
Speaker 2: I used to come and hang out down by this
Speaker 2: little stream here and and you know, have a joint
Speaker 2: away from my folks and you know, just escape the
Speaker 2: house for a little bit. And you know, I've come
Speaker 2: up here for you know, different reasons. I mean there
Speaker 2: were times I've I've written a song called the Oaks
Speaker 2: on my latest album, and it's kind of inspired by
Speaker 2: where we're going to head towards just a group of
Speaker 2: oak trees where I don't know, I maybe go. I've
Speaker 2: remember going there a few times when after my mum
Speaker 2: died and when she was very ill. Just yeah, i'd
Speaker 2: almost like, you know, just getting a bit of headspace
Speaker 2: and then kind of find myself talking to them and
Speaker 2: and you know, questioning, questioning things, and you know, I
Speaker 2: don't know, just just that sort of freeing up, you know,
Speaker 2: any kind of negative sort of thoughts, and it's good
Speaker 2: for that, you know, just to just to wander along
Speaker 2: and feel that air around you. You know. I guess
Speaker 2: you're a big advocate for if you're working on something
Speaker 2: and the idea is just not coming, or if you've
Speaker 2: had a stressful day week of just taking yourself out
Speaker 2: for a bit of fresh air, long walk kind of.
Speaker 2: I'm not, I'm not. I'm not as intuitive with that
Speaker 2: as I as I should be. I kind of tend
Speaker 2: to battle through and think, no, this idea will come,
Speaker 2: and then I just kind of end up doing my
Speaker 2: head in a bit about it. So I'm not. I'm
Speaker 2: not great at kind of seeing when that moment it
Speaker 2: is right to sort of step away. But but you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: I do. I do kind of come out here all
Speaker 2: the time and take the kids for little wonders and stuff.
Speaker 2: And even when I was in my teens, there's a
Speaker 2: lot of we used to have parties at my parents'
Speaker 2: house when they went away. I remember a few kind
Speaker 2: of mad parties we'd have and then we'd all pile out.
Speaker 2: I think I think there was one where we took
Speaker 2: some acid. It's just like kind of very sort of
Speaker 2: seventeen eighteen. We took some acid and then walked across
Speaker 2: the fields and like we all sort of, I don't know,
Speaker 2: we kind of raided loads of cupboards of my younger
Speaker 2: brother and my older brothers and put on loads of
Speaker 2: weird clothes sort of school uniforms and stuff, and like
Speaker 2: it ran out across the field, like with no shoes
Speaker 2: on and stuff, and we made it over to this
Speaker 2: amazing little it's like a little building. Yeah, I can
Speaker 2: see it in the distance, and yeah, it's kind of
Speaker 2: this mad little sort of chapel sort of type building,
Speaker 2: and yeah, just hanging out in there and going bonkers.
Speaker 2: And and then there's that cowshed over there, which has
Speaker 2: been there sort of for as long as I can remember,
Speaker 2: which I can see from my house. So it's like
Speaker 2: it's just a sort of view that I'm really used
Speaker 2: to and I love to look out on it really so.
Speaker 2: But yeah, this field and over in the shot over
Speaker 2: is just all sorts of memories, you know, some kind
Speaker 2: of from tough times, some just from you. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 2: It's just a little bit of everything. But yeah, we
Speaker 2: go through here, Yeah, let's go for a walk across
Speaker 2: the fil for me to get that, it's like a
Speaker 2: one at a time. All right, there we go. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you always want your field gate with a good squeak
Speaker 2: on it, don't you. It wouldn't be the same to
Speaker 2: be authentic. You grew up in Oxfordshire, you grew up
Speaker 2: in the house that you live in now, but you
Speaker 2: haven't always been there, so you moved away. You've in
Speaker 2: different places, including Brighton. What was part of the well,
Speaker 2: what was this? You know, the greenery, the fresh air,
Speaker 2: the kind of open space. Was that part of the
Speaker 2: attraction that coming back to this part of the world
Speaker 2: kind of? I mean, I'm really not. I really enjoy
Speaker 2: city life. I think I moved to Brighton when I
Speaker 2: was seventeen, I think kind of ninety yeah, ninety six,
Speaker 2: ninety seven. I moved to Brighton, stayed there for ten years,
Speaker 2: and yeah, I loved it. It was really In fact,
Speaker 2: it was quinde quite tough decision to decide to come
Speaker 2: back to Oxford but it was around a time where
Speaker 2: my mum was ill, and so after she died, I
Speaker 2: just wanted to come back and hang out with my
Speaker 2: dad and just you know, be around and be there
Speaker 2: and for my kids. To be near their near their cousins,
Speaker 2: because my brother lives here too, So it's just I
Speaker 2: don't know. I guess it was more of a sort
Speaker 2: of instinctive kind of family move. You know. You just
Speaker 2: get those points in life where you know, I'd started
Speaker 2: my own family and and you get you get a
Speaker 2: feeling for what's important at that at that time in
Speaker 2: your life. And I think at that moment it was
Speaker 2: it was here to come and be an email man.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I know here I am sort of eight
Speaker 2: years later, but you know, I've done three albums here
Speaker 2: at the house, and and I just had this space
Speaker 2: to explore and to experiment and to set up the
Speaker 2: studio and and to really play with all these new ideas,
Speaker 2: you know, And so I think it's it's worked out
Speaker 2: really well. Just coming back, but I am getting pangings
Speaker 2: for the city life. What thing? Is there any specific
Speaker 2: things you miss? Is it the proximity to things to do?
Speaker 2: Is it just the general buzz? What are the kind
Speaker 2: of specifics of the city that you miss? Yeah, I
Speaker 2: think it's that sort of you know, where you can
Speaker 2: wake up Saturday morning and I always remember, you know,
Speaker 2: I used to live two two doors away from a pub.
Speaker 2: So wake up Saturday morning, pop pop into the pub
Speaker 2: about Levenish. They used to do a great Saturday, a
Speaker 2: great Saturday breakfast, have a breakfast, have a little pint
Speaker 2: and then you know, maybe some foot you would be on.
Speaker 2: And I don't know. Those Saturday mornings I remember really
Speaker 2: really well, just being kind of quite free and exciting
Speaker 2: and yeah, everything's on your doorstep, But I don't know.
Speaker 2: At the same time, that's kind of you know, life
Speaker 2: moves pretty fast anyway, with touring and traveling around and
Speaker 2: visiting different cities and countries. You know, it's it's it's
Speaker 2: it has a certain pace to it that I'm very
Speaker 2: used to and I think, but then to come back
Speaker 2: here to the country side, I don't know. I just
Speaker 2: I appreciate that a change and that different way of living.
Speaker 2: So do you feel like you get as many ideas
Speaker 2: being out here? Would you have to work harder to
Speaker 2: find inspiration? Because I guess one thing you could say
Speaker 2: about living in the city is that you're surrounded by
Speaker 2: noise and buzz and opportunities to go and see things
Speaker 2: and learn things. And yeah, I guess when you're a
Speaker 2: little bit further out those things you have to work
Speaker 2: a little bit harder to go and experience those things.
Speaker 2: You've got as much inspiration coming to you on a
Speaker 2: sort of day to day basis. Yeah, because I mean,
Speaker 2: like I said, I guess because I see a lot
Speaker 2: of you know, the kind of the faster sides of life.
Speaker 2: I guess when I'm working, and I guess I look
Speaker 2: at this as a as a opportunity to sort of
Speaker 2: process all of the experiences, and I think that that
Speaker 2: space in my head is Yeah, I find that it works, Yeah,
Speaker 2: just to kind of work through those ideas and any
Speaker 2: any new inspiration that I've seen, or kind of a
Speaker 2: mad train journey through Europe or or you know, a
Speaker 2: period of time in one city and I come back
Speaker 2: here and I can just sort of you know, make
Speaker 2: notes and yeah, process all that and turn it into something. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I do feel like I've got you know,
Speaker 2: it's kind of best of both in many ways. You're
Speaker 2: putting out a new record soon in May at the
Speaker 2: World's Strongest Man, which will talk about a bit more
Speaker 2: about in a bit, But there are a number of
Speaker 2: big influences that or influences experiences I guess that informed
Speaker 2: the ideas that fed into the album, one of which
Speaker 2: is The Great British Woodland, I guess. But there are
Speaker 2: lots of other things as well, and I wanted to
Speaker 2: talk about a couple of those before we get to
Speaker 2: the woods, because we're on our way there now. We are,
Speaker 2: we are, We're close. The Descent of Man is a
Speaker 2: book by Grayson Perry, which you've mentioned was something that
Speaker 2: you read in the run up to writing some of
Speaker 2: the songs that appear on this new album. How did
Speaker 2: you come across that book? I can't remember. My wife's
Speaker 2: a writer and she also works in the bookshop. She's
Speaker 2: always throwing me new books and just kind of placing
Speaker 2: them by the side of the bed and going, you know,
Speaker 2: just kind of pushing me to read other stuff because
Speaker 2: I can be a bit lazy with all that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And it was just I think it was summer last summer, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and just kind of went off for a bit, you know,
Speaker 2: just to get away from the village and take the
Speaker 2: family away for a little bit. And yeah, that was
Speaker 2: just what I was reading at the time, and I
Speaker 2: just sort of thought it was really it was really enlightening,
Speaker 2: really beautifully written, really non judgmental, kind of very very
Speaker 2: on the nose and just very relevant, and it kind
Speaker 2: of resonated a lot with me, you know, and I
Speaker 2: think also having two daughters, you know, they're growing up quick,
Speaker 2: and you just think, you know, I want to make
Speaker 2: sure that that they've got a good outlook on you know,
Speaker 2: I guess on the social side of things and how
Speaker 2: relationships play out, how you deal and interact with other people,
Speaker 2: and I just think, Yeah, it's hard to sort of ignore,
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of the sort of negative, kind
Speaker 2: of toxic, sort of alpha male driven shit that we're
Speaker 2: sort of all seeing a lot of the moment and
Speaker 2: just feels a bit old fashioned, you know, for people
Speaker 2: that haven't read it. Grays and Perry as well as
Speaker 2: being hugely talented artist, green writer as well, so articulate.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think I read I read it recently
Speaker 2: as well, and it's his take on I suppose the
Speaker 2: shape of modern masculinity, how it's come to that point,
Speaker 2: and also a bit of a handbook about how how
Speaker 2: we might all be able to do things a bit better,
Speaker 2: you know, to shape shape the next few years of
Speaker 2: how masculinity might look. Yeah, and I think one of
Speaker 2: the things that really stuck with me was you know,
Speaker 2: imagine for young kids, you know, young boys, imagine sort
Speaker 2: of being able to free free them up from any
Speaker 2: kind of cliche perception kind of of how a young
Speaker 2: man should act or how tough he should be, or
Speaker 2: whether you need to guard the end of your street,
Speaker 2: you know, at night, you know, from from other dudes,
Speaker 2: and whether I don't know, and if you sort of
Speaker 2: kind of freed them of a lot of those perhaps
Speaker 2: kind of inherent Yeah, those sort of inherent ideas, those
Speaker 2: sort of emotional kind of you know, ways of dealing
Speaker 2: with things I don't know, I think then then you
Speaker 2: you know, they could be amazing, amazing people. It's just like,
Speaker 2: you know, if you're freed up of that ship, imagine
Speaker 2: how amazing and free you could be. Yeah. In the book,
Speaker 2: he talks about how some of that traditional sense and
Speaker 2: some of that traditional way of thinking or shaping masculinity
Speaker 2: has quite destructive effects as well. That kind of emerged
Speaker 2: almost like silent destruction effects because of almost not expressing yourself, yes,
Speaker 2: and not feelings, not feeling comfortable, not not you know,
Speaker 2: and maybe the just it's more what's on the outside,
Speaker 2: it's kind of surface and you know, that's I guess
Speaker 2: that's another thing with you know, we've seen to a
Speaker 2: really positive degree of the loss of four or five years,
Speaker 2: is you know, men being able to speak about mental
Speaker 2: health and men being able to talk openly about stuff,
Speaker 2: and it's yeah, it's all right, you know, it's all
Speaker 2: right to kind of talk to your best mate and
Speaker 2: and and not feel like you're you're being really girly,
Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, it's just it's just very sort of
Speaker 2: a very coherent book and very articulate, and I just
Speaker 2: really enjoyed enjoyed reading it. Yeah, I must have been.
Speaker 2: When I finished reading it, I kind of wanted to
Speaker 2: go out and buy a bunch of copies and give
Speaker 2: it to lots of my male friends. Yeah. Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: I just say any young lads, you know, every young
Speaker 2: lad should read it, just, you know, just give it
Speaker 2: a shot. You know, you might not agree with all
Speaker 2: of it, but it's just it's the word. I don't know,
Speaker 2: it's just it's sort of I felt quite You mentioned
Speaker 2: the word enlightening early. I think, yeah, I think what
Speaker 2: it does so well is for many people, I know,
Speaker 2: it articulates the way that they feel the feelings that
Speaker 2: they have that they perhaps haven't been able to articulate themselves.
Speaker 2: And also, I think any man, I know, from whatever age,
Speaker 2: any generation, will recognize parts of themselves in that book.
Speaker 2: And I think it's just a bit of a some
Speaker 2: of it's quite a wake up call, I think. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I actually read it briefly after I'd finished reading Harry
Speaker 2: Clinton's but okay, Yeah, Combine those two things. Hearing about
Speaker 2: the the barriers that were caused purely by Hillary Clinton
Speaker 2: being a woman, which she came up against when it
Speaker 2: came to the last election in America, and then couple
Speaker 2: that by reading Grayce and Perry's book, The Descended the
Speaker 2: Man I wrote, I really it felt very It resonated
Speaker 2: heavily with me. Yeah, you know, and I think that's
Speaker 2: the same for me. It sort of felt modern, and
Speaker 2: it felt it just felt on the pulse on the nose.
Speaker 2: It was, you know, times are changing, it's kind of
Speaker 2: you know, and there's almost a bit of a sense
Speaker 2: as well from men that they're kind of you know,
Speaker 2: that they may be concerned or they're worried about this
Speaker 2: sort of shift or well, I know, well, how am
Speaker 2: I supposed to be? You know, what we're supposed to do.
Speaker 2: And it's like and I sort of think, well, you know,
Speaker 2: fuck it. It's kind of maybe it's sort of men's
Speaker 2: turn to feel a bit awkward and uncomfortable, and like
Speaker 2: we've been running the show for you know, it's the
Speaker 2: beginning of time. It's like, you know, you're right, so
Speaker 2: you're going to feel a bit awkward. You don't, you
Speaker 2: don't quite know, you know, how to you know, deal
Speaker 2: with with you know, strong women and strong opinions from
Speaker 2: women and stuff. It's like, just you know, that's the
Speaker 2: way it's been for you know, for women for so
Speaker 2: many years, and it's I don't know, it's just it's
Speaker 2: just kind of ridiculous. It's I just sort of see
Speaker 2: see you know, the human being, you know, and you
Speaker 2: know you've got to really I don't know, at the
Speaker 2: same time, knowing that we are different, you know, men
Speaker 2: and women are different. We kind of you know, we
Speaker 2: do get attracted to each other. They result there that
Speaker 2: sort of sexual chemistry. It will always be there. It's
Speaker 2: kind of but ultimately it's just yeah, just just don't
Speaker 2: be a dick. It's quite it's quite simple. Just you know,
Speaker 2: be a decent person. And you know, yeah, I just
Speaker 2: want my two girls to to grow up and meet
Speaker 2: do you know, Actually I've got friends who've got teenage
Speaker 2: boys and stuff. They're they're all amazing. They're really its
Speaker 2: gentle guys you know who are just don't know. I'm
Speaker 2: sure they have they're just going to maybe have a
Speaker 2: bit more of a perhaps the sort of balanced overview
Speaker 2: of things as they I hope they are, you know,
Speaker 2: but at the moment they seem very sort of on
Speaker 2: it and have a gentle kind of aura about them.
Speaker 2: You know. We had Shirley Manson from Garbage on this podcast.
Speaker 2: She was on here a few months ago. It's still
Speaker 2: still there if people want to go back and listen
Speaker 2: to that, if they haven't already. But we had a
Speaker 2: similar conversation to this, but with regards to the Me
Speaker 2: Too movement, for example at the end of last year,
Speaker 2: and how at that time when I was catching up
Speaker 2: with her, there were lots of symbolic things happening at
Speaker 2: awards ceremonies, for example, at the Oscars and the Bafters
Speaker 2: and stuff, people stressing the imagine the pressure for a
Speaker 2: lot of those, but she actors and stuff as well,
Speaker 2: just not wondering if they've done the right thing or
Speaker 2: warn the maybe is that okay, what of wa tonight?
Speaker 2: You know, I know, but she was also making the
Speaker 2: point that all these experiences that have happened to these
Speaker 2: women and who are now speaking out, she just felt
Speaker 2: like this was women speaking out on a male problem,
Speaker 2: as in, the problem is not with women, The problem
Speaker 2: is with men, and as you just mentioned there, that
Speaker 2: we might be entering a period of discomfort and some
Speaker 2: you know, really kind of looking herself in the mirror,
Speaker 2: period where it actually is men's turn to recognize the
Speaker 2: privilege that they've sat in for so much time that
Speaker 2: maybe it is time that completely completely. Yeah, it was disappointing,
Speaker 2: possibly much more than that, not to hear more men
Speaker 2: speaking out about particularly you know, those movements and just
Speaker 2: but I think that's also social media in the way
Speaker 2: that things are interpreted. I think it's I think that
Speaker 2: like I guess, like I was getting out when I said,
Speaker 2: it's like there's a bit of panic and pressure, and
Speaker 2: I think I think, I think genuinely a lot of yeah,
Speaker 2: probably a lot of decent, you know, very well meaning men,
Speaker 2: which maybe we're unsure about how to say something. But
Speaker 2: I mean, again, that's kind of not it's not a
Speaker 2: bad thing to kind of have to stumble over words
Speaker 2: to find it right. You know, we'll get there, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm confident that there will be a more
Speaker 2: balanced outlook, and I think with the generations to come.
Speaker 2: I know, with my nine year old daughter, she's she's
Speaker 2: very clued up on things, and you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: I know, it's kind of it's classic for sort of
Speaker 2: you know, kids to sort of get into the environment
Speaker 2: and say, oh, I never smoke a cigarette and I'm
Speaker 2: never going to drink. You know, although it's kind of
Speaker 2: it happens. But at the same time, she's very kind
Speaker 2: of she seems quite certain about certain things, you know,
Speaker 2: in terms of the environment and and what we're doing.
Speaker 2: And you know, even down to the kind of the
Speaker 2: trash TV that that they watch. You know, you'll get
Speaker 2: kind of some sort of dating program, but you know,
Speaker 2: you have two guys, it might have two girls being
Speaker 2: on the date. And man, you know, that wasn't like
Speaker 2: in the eighties watching Blind Date it was it was
Speaker 2: all it was all very sort of you know, well
Speaker 2: hemo sexual kind of completely. So the fact that even
Speaker 2: the trash TV that that's just happening in our homes
Speaker 2: is it is rightly so it's it's normalizing any any
Speaker 2: sexual preference that you know where you know, where people
Speaker 2: want to sit in their lives. And I think that's
Speaker 2: that's a great thing for the new generation to sort
Speaker 2: of see that as a just a normal thing that
Speaker 2: passes by. You know, it's nothing unusual. If we head
Speaker 2: down here, We've just down a really really nice kind
Speaker 2: of tree lined track. It's like the avenue. It's called
Speaker 2: the Avenue of Trees, and but here that's the sort
Speaker 2: of that's the main big boy over there, that big
Speaker 2: oak tree. It's glorious, isn't twelve fifteen high? Maybe? Yeah,
Speaker 2: so yeah, no, this is kind of it's just like
Speaker 2: I said, I just come and rant and you know,
Speaker 2: not get any answers, never get any answers, but never speak.
Speaker 2: They don't silent wisdom. They do and they kind of wave,
Speaker 2: they wave me away, wave me on my way. We
Speaker 2: just go up there and then we can then we
Speaker 2: can sort of head back the other way. But this
Speaker 2: is a cool little spot here. But you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's also just just kind of with the album title
Speaker 2: and the and the artwork, you know, the artwork, it's
Speaker 2: got this kind of flawed character, kind of lying down
Speaker 2: and you know, in this very sort of glamorous setting,
Speaker 2: although it has a slight sort of faded glamour to
Speaker 2: it as well, which I quite like. And then you've
Speaker 2: got the big bold to a title World's Strongest Man
Speaker 2: in you know, in pink font and I just sort
Speaker 2: of think I felt like that sort of said quite
Speaker 2: a lot for me in terms of, you know, not
Speaker 2: even the sort of not even the kind of the
Speaker 2: masculinity sort of issues as such, but just more being
Speaker 2: a vulnerable, flawed human being and and sort of what
Speaker 2: strength is, I guess, and just and just, you know,
Speaker 2: is his strength kind of Yeah, it's not about money
Speaker 2: or muscles and power and rising to the top and
Speaker 2: making your way to the White House or whatever. It's
Speaker 2: it's kind of about, you know, It's it's about resilience,
Speaker 2: I guess, and just and being open to be really
Speaker 2: lost and kind of messed up. And I think the
Speaker 2: opening line of the album is I'm a little mashed
Speaker 2: up because you know whatever, my head's in a weird
Speaker 2: kind of toxy turvy state. And I guess I just
Speaker 2: sort of thought, I don't mind a missing that I
Speaker 2: don't mind just sort of, you know, I never want
Speaker 2: my lyrics to be kind of morose and depressing and
Speaker 2: too self analytical. I don't think. I think. I always
Speaker 2: look outward, I think, and the lyrics have to still
Speaker 2: have a hook. You can't just ramble about my inner thoughts.
Speaker 2: But I can take some of those inner thoughts and
Speaker 2: put them into a framework that's got a cool structure
Speaker 2: to it, that's still you know, a palatable, cool structure,
Speaker 2: and it's not it's not just some guy moaning. And
Speaker 2: I thought that was kind of interesting as well, just
Speaker 2: to sort of, I don't know, just to sort of
Speaker 2: entertain those things and not not sort of hide away
Speaker 2: from them and place myself as this I don't know,
Speaker 2: this rock and roll style that's got everything or whatever,
Speaker 2: you know, whatever it is, all this kind of untouchable
Speaker 2: sort of thing that that I don't know, I just
Speaker 2: sort of feel the life's not like that. Man. It's like,
Speaker 2: if I can put you know, put it into my art,
Speaker 2: I think that's I don't know, that's what I like
Speaker 2: to see in a painting if I go to if
Speaker 2: I go to a gallery or so, I like to
Speaker 2: see true expression, emotion in a painting. You know, I
Speaker 2: don't want to see them trying to be something or
Speaker 2: or painting for the painting, for the person looking at it.
Speaker 2: It's kind of it's got to be something raw. There's
Speaker 2: a little barn. Yeah, it's like a kind of old
Speaker 2: deserted barn. It is often. There used to be chickens here,
Speaker 2: actually loads and loads of chickens. Okay, did this used
Speaker 2: to be used lived in? Yeah? I think it's part
Speaker 2: of a there's a a there's various sort of houses
Speaker 2: through shot over it's part of a big estate. I guess.
Speaker 2: I think this used to be part of that place.
Speaker 2: But it's seen better days. Yeah, it's sort of begging
Speaker 2: for a renovation. Yet it's kind of cots cootts old
Speaker 2: stone will Yeah. Yeah, that's not too good with my
Speaker 2: stone getting stone. So look, we can spin around if
Speaker 2: you want. It's wander back. But there's another big beast
Speaker 2: over there. Look another big oak. Some cows in the
Speaker 2: field over there, cows lying down. Doesn't that mean it's
Speaker 2: gonna rain? I thought it meant that their legs are tied.
Speaker 2: I think probably more likely that isn't it. But yeah,
Speaker 2: you could be you could be. Are you like a
Speaker 2: country person because I'm from the country originally, although I
Speaker 2: live in the city now. But there's a certain way
Speaker 2: about country folks, isn't that Because I mean, I suppose
Speaker 2: we're we're wildly out in the country here. I guess
Speaker 2: we're still close to Oxford, which is which is a
Speaker 2: big city. But yeah, have many farmers. Yeah, yeah, there's
Speaker 2: one over there. There's one in the rain over there.
Speaker 2: Do you know. Actually we've had a few dodgy runnings
Speaker 2: with the farmers. Actually, yeah, we've had dogs before of
Speaker 2: what friends who've brought dogs out stuff. Yeah, man, we've
Speaker 2: been sort of shot at. But but I mean I
Speaker 2: doubt if we were sort of directly shot out. I
Speaker 2: think it was a warning shot, a sort of warning
Speaker 2: get off my land shot, right, they don't want to Yeah,
Speaker 2: they can be quite brutal, man, But but no, it's
Speaker 2: I don't know if I could do deep country mat.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that might drive me a bit mad.
Speaker 2: So I do like being close to the close to Oxford,
Speaker 2: but a nice bit of both. Yeah, yeah, no, definitely,
Speaker 2: But I also like sort of country pubs are like
Speaker 2: the village pubs that I kind of like, you know,
Speaker 2: if I wander in for a pint or something after
Speaker 2: rehearsal of the fact that there's the same three four
Speaker 2: old geezers at the bar and right, guys totally unimpressed.
Speaker 2: And I just sort of think that's I think that's brilliant.
Speaker 2: I think that's something quite raw about that that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, you're not going to make a fuss out
Speaker 2: of me. I'm not gonna I'm not strolling any of
Speaker 2: like a big rockst I just want to pint and
Speaker 2: and you know, write some lyrics or catch up on emails.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's kind of a good fight. Yeah. Some
Speaker 2: of the other subjects things that have informed the record.
Speaker 2: Picked out a few to talk about today. You also
Speaker 2: mentioned one album in particular, which is Frank Ocean's Blonde.
Speaker 2: A huge fan of that album. I think it was
Speaker 2: more that I think I waited for the the hype
Speaker 2: to die down. I think it was an extremely sort
Speaker 2: of hyped record and Channel Orange as well. I think
Speaker 2: I think as soon as as soon as I sort
Speaker 2: of let it, yeah, that it does settle. I guess
Speaker 2: I just I just thought I'd put it on for
Speaker 2: a long, long car journey home this one time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and it just really. I just thought it was really cool.
Speaker 2: I thought it was really experimental and a bit different.
Speaker 2: I didn't think it was full of you know, hip
Speaker 2: hop hits. You know, it had it had some great
Speaker 2: roots still in all the incredible stuff that Stevie Wonder
Speaker 2: gave us and that sort of things he'd do Frank
Speaker 2: would do with his voice and with the melodies and stuff.
Speaker 2: I thought was really cool. But yeah, just the experimental
Speaker 2: approach I thought was really refreshing. A tractor come in there,
Speaker 2: have we It's not going very fast. I'm sure we
Speaker 2: could be. We're going to get stuck behind it. Actually
Speaker 2: coming down on this bit. I was with the kids.
Speaker 2: It is a few years back. I was with the
Speaker 2: kids and my dad's dog as well my niece who
Speaker 2: was in a like a pushchair, and we were just
Speaker 2: sort of strolling as we are now, just down here,
Speaker 2: and then just heard this land rover just steaming up
Speaker 2: behind us, and he started beeping the horn mentally and
Speaker 2: he just said, look, guys, you've got to get off
Speaker 2: the road. There's a herd of cows and they're legging
Speaker 2: it this way. And we were kind of like, you what, no, man?
Speaker 2: And it looked around and Yeah, there was about thirty
Speaker 2: cows stampeding towards us, and so then it was like
Speaker 2: an operation to try and get the dog, his massive
Speaker 2: black labrador, into the boot of this land rover and
Speaker 2: chuck the you know, the push chair on top as well.
Speaker 2: It was just this insane sort of two minute period
Speaker 2: where we were all freaking out and got in just
Speaker 2: in time. Yeah, and kind of literally drove away as
Speaker 2: the cows were sort of panting, like, you know, a
Speaker 2: foot away from us, just kind of legging it. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that could have been could have been the end avoided
Speaker 2: a major cow incident. Yes, you discover Blonde a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: after after the hypod had died down, and you you
Speaker 2: were just the fact that you found the production like
Speaker 2: Frank Ocean songwriting, do you think I like the sort
Speaker 2: of resistance to hammer home an idea. I think the
Speaker 2: resistance as far as the production and stuff to something
Speaker 2: that I found quite inspiring. And I think on my
Speaker 2: last two records, I think in the writing stages, I've
Speaker 2: got to a point where, you know, you maybe like
Speaker 2: a crescendo or there they be a bit of music
Speaker 2: at the end of a verse kind of building up
Speaker 2: and building up, and yeah, I just kind of got
Speaker 2: into sort of at that point just taking it down
Speaker 2: to nothing or just to a single instrument or you know,
Speaker 2: rather than the build up, the build up and then
Speaker 2: delivering with a big, big chorus where you go, yeah, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm the chorus. It's just sort of there's a subtlety
Speaker 2: so much. I think the underplayed, sort of understated thing.
Speaker 2: I think it's I think it was really cool, and
Speaker 2: I just I sort of always feel that it's you know,
Speaker 2: it's a real sort of show of confidence in a way,
Speaker 2: and that sort of strengthened songwriting that you can resist.
Speaker 2: You know. Well, one thing that really excites me is
Speaker 2: having an amazing bit of music that like that's just
Speaker 2: you know, I know that it's a yeah, this bit's amazing,
Speaker 2: and I'll keep it for like five five second bit
Speaker 2: at the end of the song or something or halfway through,
Speaker 2: you know whatever, just almost kind of don't sort of
Speaker 2: make a massive song and dance about it, just kind
Speaker 2: of create things that have a subtlety that you can
Speaker 2: you can enjoy in different ways. But anyway, yeah, I
Speaker 2: thought that was quite inspiring. I mean, I thought Beyonce's
Speaker 2: albums where Lemonade was a great record of kind of experimental,
Speaker 2: interesting at times, a really weird record, and I think again,
Speaker 2: just to hear a sort of you know, a global
Speaker 2: superstar makes something that as unconvention in that moment. Since that,
Speaker 2: I think it's quite impressive because you know, well, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2: I mean, there must be somebody whispering in your ears
Speaker 2: saying we just want ten radio songs please. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think you know, I definitely admire that defiant yeah,
Speaker 2: yeah exactly. And you know, I get that with Frank
Speaker 2: Oschean as well. I just sort of think it's it's
Speaker 2: I've always sort of enjoyed the the elements of the
Speaker 2: production of hip hop as well, I think, and now
Speaker 2: I'm sort of coming at things from the solo thing.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't I don't write with a band
Speaker 2: and a room around me. You know, I really enjoying
Speaker 2: that space, space and freedom of experimenting on my own
Speaker 2: and finding new sounds and new ways of writing. That
Speaker 2: it kind of makes sense that, yeah, maybe some of
Speaker 2: the hip hop stuff, some of the more those hip
Speaker 2: hop solo artists would I could I could find things
Speaker 2: in that that would be that would give me a
Speaker 2: little light bulb moment, or just push me towards something that,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe more than listening to, yeah, listening to
Speaker 2: the Clash again or or Neil Young again or whatever,
Speaker 2: you know, as much as I still listen to sort
Speaker 2: of classic stuff as well, but it's I think it's
Speaker 2: just you know, moving forward, and you know, I'm evolving
Speaker 2: and trying different things, and so I want to I
Speaker 2: want to listen to different stuff. I want to, you know,
Speaker 2: just not base it on how I approached music for
Speaker 2: the last twenty five years. You know, it's kind of
Speaker 2: new thing Gas two point zero. How are you finding
Speaker 2: it these days? I mean it's three albums into your
Speaker 2: solo career. I mean it's an unfair question to say,
Speaker 2: do you prefer being a solo artist and being in
Speaker 2: a band, But what are the kind of pros and
Speaker 2: the cons as far as you see it? Because you've
Speaker 2: done done this now for a little while, do you
Speaker 2: still feel like you're finding your feet in those in
Speaker 2: this in this respect or would you feel quite established now?
Speaker 2: Definitely hit a rhythm now. Whether I'm whether I found
Speaker 2: my feet, I don't know. I kind of hope I'll
Speaker 2: never know that part of the challenge is to sort
Speaker 2: of just keep writing and keep trying to find something
Speaker 2: new that I find exciting. And I don't know if
Speaker 2: i'd feel a bit lost if I if I felt
Speaker 2: like I'd nailed it, you know, if I knew exactly
Speaker 2: who I was and what my sounding in the pursuit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: because a lot of it's a lot of what it
Speaker 2: is kind of instinctive and spontaneous. And that's why I
Speaker 2: record right from the beginning. I record everything from the
Speaker 2: early writing stages, and it's because I want to capture
Speaker 2: the I really want to capture the performances where I
Speaker 2: actually don't know what the fuck I'm doing, and there's
Speaker 2: something in that. There's there's a sort of I mean
Speaker 2: maybe I kind of overromanticize it, but I just find
Speaker 2: there's a bit of magic in that way where you
Speaker 2: don't really I haven't really nailed the idea. It's not
Speaker 2: fully calculated, it's not planned out. It's kind of like
Speaker 2: stream of conscience in a way, you know, and I
Speaker 2: like to capture those bits. And yeah, is it a
Speaker 2: lonelier experience anyway? Oh yeah, Well, delegating to other band members' interviews, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's something that that could be quite and now, you know, no,
Speaker 2: it's cool. I've got I've got good people around me.
Speaker 2: You know, there's some since I started on my first
Speaker 2: record back in twenty twelve. Yeah, I just made sure
Speaker 2: that I've got like minded people around me. There's you know,
Speaker 2: you know one of my managers is it's more of
Speaker 2: a sort of creative manager as you know, it's opposed
Speaker 2: to sort of business side of things. Okay, it started
Speaker 2: to rain a little bit, that's a little bit. Although
Speaker 2: what do you reckon five minutes away? Yeah, no, not far.
Speaker 2: Is that your house? We can see it on the
Speaker 2: eposite side of the field, Yeah, through there, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: kind of can see it there. So yeah, you've got
Speaker 2: you've got somebody helps on the creative side. Yeah, you know, definitely,
Speaker 2: there's there's definitely a cool little network of of buddies.
Speaker 2: You know that well, you know, yeah, it means I
Speaker 2: just don't always feel completely isolated. Do you still get
Speaker 2: excited when you sit down to write a new record? Yeah,
Speaker 2: but there's not really a particular starting point. It's kind
Speaker 2: of I think I've got like an internal clock that
Speaker 2: just tells me when I'm done with touring, you know,
Speaker 2: and I think it's just just a voice in me
Speaker 2: that so it says, right, yeah, just tomorrow, just go
Speaker 2: into the studio and sit on the drum kit for
Speaker 2: a few hours and see what happens. And and so yeah,
Speaker 2: I always find it exciting that that beginning, that beginning
Speaker 2: point where I guess I've got I've got a bit
Speaker 2: of a feeling of where I might want to go.
Speaker 2: You know, after Mattador. There was some things I sort
Speaker 2: of touched on in Matador that I wanted to make
Speaker 2: more of and and and push push forward even more.
Speaker 2: And then other brand new kind of approaches and ideas
Speaker 2: that that I wanted to explore as well. So I
Speaker 2: always find that a really really exciting time. But you know,
Speaker 2: there there is always the kind of, you know, kind
Speaker 2: of niggling thought, I I written my last best song.
Speaker 2: Not have I written my last I'm sure I could,
Speaker 2: you know, But I've written the last song that's really
Speaker 2: fucking good. You know, it's this, This is next eleven
Speaker 2: just gonna be all right, you know, it's gonna be okay.
Speaker 2: What about the reception that mattered or received your second
Speaker 2: solo record, I mean that including a nomination for the
Speaker 2: Mercury prize? Did that matter? The things like that give
Speaker 2: you confidence? Do they? You know, does that a little
Speaker 2: bit of like well, I mean I've been doing it
Speaker 2: a long time, and I don't know how much it
Speaker 2: sort of matters in terms of if it's a sort
Speaker 2: of seeing of approval or anything like that. I don't know,
Speaker 2: Like it doesn't. It's not something that particularly drives me,
Speaker 2: but or you know, aids that drive particularly. But I
Speaker 2: guess it did? You know it did? It did give
Speaker 2: me confidence? So I think when anything you do is
Speaker 2: sort of somehow validated, I don't know in a way
Speaker 2: that I just I guess in a way that just
Speaker 2: people really like it. I think that that completely gave
Speaker 2: me confidence that more really that I try to do
Speaker 2: something really honest. That was I think the most sort
Speaker 2: of me that I'd ever done, sort of just letting
Speaker 2: letting myself kind of be as natural as possible in
Speaker 2: the studio and not try to make things sound like
Speaker 2: something else or just resist something so great it sounds
Speaker 2: really Bowie or great if it sounds you know, just
Speaker 2: resist all of that and just try and do something
Speaker 2: natural that's instinctive. And I guess so, yeah, it's sort
Speaker 2: of validating my instinct more than anything, and just the
Speaker 2: fact that I guess when I'm myself it kind of works,
Speaker 2: you know, And that was kind of quite a beautiful thing,
Speaker 2: I guess really just to feel that, yeah, you can
Speaker 2: be yourself and it's all right. Were there any other
Speaker 2: kind of major things that were on your mind that
Speaker 2: resurfacing this record. We talked about you haven't read Grays
Speaker 2: and Perry's, but the Descent of Man. We've talked a
Speaker 2: bit about Frank Ocean that you've listened to, and kind
Speaker 2: of absorbing those things and those things finding their way
Speaker 2: into the creation of the record that were there any
Speaker 2: Was there anything else that felt major this time? I
Speaker 2: don't know. I mean I was sort of moving around
Speaker 2: a lot during the recording, and I was moving from
Speaker 2: I did most of it in mind, but I also
Speaker 2: went over to another studio worked with Ian Davenport who
Speaker 2: who sort of helped me co produce this record, and
Speaker 2: that's sort of freshening the sessions. That was really cool.
Speaker 2: And also traveling a little bit still. I had about
Speaker 2: three or four visits over to California just to do
Speaker 2: some shows and you know, to maybe you know, to
Speaker 2: meet a few people meet a new label to get
Speaker 2: stuff going out there, and so I spent a bit
Speaker 2: of time in California during the writing period still, and
Speaker 2: so I was listening to the album in different settings,
Speaker 2: and however, Californian and Weed came in very possibly. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: there's a few references to a little bit of that
Speaker 2: at times, but yeah, you know, it's just that sort
Speaker 2: of warmth, you know, And I think I think that
Speaker 2: sort of warmth crept onto the record actually, like the
Speaker 2: quite physical warmth the sunshine and California and the colors,
Speaker 2: you know, and I think that's you know, it's what
Speaker 2: you see from the cover artwork. Just close up this
Speaker 2: gate there you go there, and yeah, and you know,
Speaker 2: I guess that warmth visually and the kind and the
Speaker 2: fact that I felt these songs, I guess these songs
Speaker 2: were had a bit more warmth to them the Matador
Speaker 2: in terms of yeah, just that sort of that color
Speaker 2: and kind of like a warm hug times, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So I think that that sort of crept into the
Speaker 2: record as well. They're sort of traveling and being in
Speaker 2: another in another country, just listening to the demos and
Speaker 2: they and looking at it in a different way, because
Speaker 2: you lived in California for a little while, is that
Speaker 2: right when you were Yeah? Quite, I was really young. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was about five six years old. So memories of
Speaker 2: that time, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. They're all pretty basic,
Speaker 2: you know, like sort of walking on hot pavement and
Speaker 2: bare feet and yeah, I guess I just went to
Speaker 2: like nursery school and you know, all kinds of things,
Speaker 2: you know, Muppet Show, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Are
Speaker 2: they actually nice? I've never tried one? Yeah, man, Yeah, yeah, yeah, Cono,
Speaker 2: I could still still get away with the odd little
Speaker 2: the cheeky PB and Jay. But yeah, it was. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's kind of a great time, man. You know, it's
Speaker 2: like late seventies, early eighties in California, and yeah, it
Speaker 2: was sun filled and warm and friendly. And there we go.
Speaker 2: He's got it. We are. So we're back back to
Speaker 2: the Witch's house back in Yeah, back in the bottom
Speaker 2: of the garden. Here here we are got a kind
Speaker 2: of slope that's leading up to the back of the house.
Speaker 2: The summer is the rotating summer house. Is that what
Speaker 2: it is? That is it's on his little track. Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 2: it looks quite quite appealing up there. I mean, you
Speaker 2: know the correct way to use it, you know, you
Speaker 2: you rotate it to the sun. That's right. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: that's far too organized for me. I just these are corseets,
Speaker 2: nice corsejets. I don't know if there's any corsets maybe yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: but we've got some onions over there, all sorts of
Speaker 2: good bits down there. Yeah, we should raid it later. Yeah,
Speaker 2: let's get the reins getting like a head. We've probably
Speaker 2: timed it just about right. Yeah. Absolutely, it's a bit
Speaker 2: sort of dilapidated. The somewhere else up the final steps
Speaker 2: back at base. Here we are and through the window,
Speaker 2: which is quite a nice way to finish. Is your
Speaker 2: back room stroke home studio. Correct, there's the recording desk, speakers,
Speaker 2: piano through there, and the new kitten. There's a new
Speaker 2: cats in there somewhere. You've got a cat that likes
Speaker 2: hiding in your harmonium. Yes, I see these little green
Speaker 2: eyes sort of peering at me through the pedals. Luckily, well,
Speaker 2: I have to check before I play it exactly. Start
Speaker 2: pumping the pumping the harmonium, and it's like this is
Speaker 2: making a weird noise. What tone is that? It sounds
Speaker 2: a lot like a cat's feeling. And there we are
Speaker 2: back at the front door, so gaz, well, there we go.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you so much for taking a stroll
Speaker 2: with us for this episode of Midnight Chat Man. I
Speaker 2: really enjoyed it, and you will have to come back
Speaker 2: to talk to the show because it's it's really nice
Speaker 2: thing it out here great. We're always welcome, always welcome
Speaker 2: to pop by. You know where I live now, He
Speaker 2: knows where I live now. Honestly, always welcome.
Speaker 1: Midnight Chats is a Loud and Quiet podcast production by
Speaker 1: Emma Snook Music courtesy of gold Panda. Search Midnight Chats
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Speaker 1: visit Loud and Quiet dot com.