Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, good evening, and welcome to a special bonus
Speaker 1: episode of Midnight Chats, which falls between two series for us.
Speaker 1: Series eight is now finished and Series nine is something
Speaker 1: that we're currently recording and we'll start probably in March
Speaker 1: of next year. But we have this extra little bonus
Speaker 1: episode which we've saved for now. This episode that you're
Speaker 1: about to hear was recorded live on stage at End
Speaker 1: of the Road Festival, a festival that we work with
Speaker 1: every year and genuinely love, and each year we go
Speaker 1: there and we record an episode live on stage. You
Speaker 1: might have heard some in our previous series because usually
Speaker 1: this would just be an episode that would just come
Speaker 1: out within a run of episodes for us, but we
Speaker 1: kept this one separate for a few reasons. I mean,
Speaker 1: when we listen back to it, we realize how short
Speaker 1: it was compared to what we normally do. Part of
Speaker 1: that was because Kate Lebond, who is the guest on
Speaker 1: this episode, was very busy on that day at the
Speaker 1: festival and couldn't hang around too long and we were
Speaker 1: a bit late getting started, so that kind of shortened
Speaker 1: the time. But also the sound of this one is
Speaker 1: perhaps not the best. We were in a little wooded
Speaker 1: glade in a beautiful setting of lamatory gardens where the
Speaker 1: festival takes place. But there were stages nearby and they
Speaker 1: were making noise. How dare they when we're trying to
Speaker 1: recall a podcast and I don't know. We listened back
Speaker 1: to it and we just didn't feel that it really
Speaker 1: sit with the rest of our last series, so we've
Speaker 1: saved it until now. So this is myself talking to
Speaker 1: Kate just before the Mercury Prize was announced. As you're
Speaker 1: about to hear, Kate Lebond's album Reward was nominated for
Speaker 1: the award this year in twenty nineteen, so we talk
Speaker 1: a bit about that and the story behind the making
Speaker 1: of that record, involving Kate going away into the middle
Speaker 1: of nowhere and living alone and making furniture. If you
Speaker 1: are particularly missing my honking voice because the podcast is
Speaker 1: currently on a bit of a downtime, then can I
Speaker 1: please direct you into a new podcast that we have
Speaker 1: made called Music Made Me Do It. You can find
Speaker 1: it on your podcast app, and it is myself try
Speaker 1: to work out and unpack all the different jobs within
Speaker 1: the music industry by talking to people who have created
Speaker 1: very successful careers for themselves, essentially by just making it
Speaker 1: up as they go along. I speak to songwriters and
Speaker 1: record label owners, producers and managers and all sorts of
Speaker 1: people who tell me exactly what it is that that
Speaker 1: job involves and how they made that job for themselves.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that sound exciting? I think it does. That's running now.
Speaker 1: It's going to run for ten weeks. We're about three
Speaker 1: episodes in at this point. So music made me do it.
Speaker 1: On your podcast app please find that in the meantime,
Speaker 1: have an excellent Christmas, have an excellent New Year. We
Speaker 1: will be back with more midnight chats in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: or twenty twenty, as I should start calling things. Thank
Speaker 1: you to Kate for coming on. It was a hectic
Speaker 1: day that day. She was going to play in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: so you know, I appreciate her taking the time to
Speaker 1: come and talk to me in a wooded glade. He hell, hey,
Speaker 1: so I wanted to first congratulate you on your Mercury
Speaker 1: nomination for reward on your album this podcast. By the
Speaker 1: time this is edited and put together and out there
Speaker 1: for the listeners that aren't here, will be posts to
Speaker 1: Mercury as they would have happened so speaking from the future.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a great night.
Speaker 1: Did you have a good time and he loved it?
Speaker 1: Was it good to win?
Speaker 2: It was weird? Was it?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Unexpected?
Speaker 1: Unexpected? Did you feel the speech went well?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: No, they never do. No? Okay? What what did you
Speaker 1: do to celebrate winning Mercury Price?
Speaker 2: I was I was in bed by midnight? Okay? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, chin back to back episodes of Special Victims Unit.
Speaker 1: Okay, is that your current thing? That sounds good? What
Speaker 1: channels that? I bet it? Is it true or Alibi?
Speaker 1: One of those ones? Fi, it's one of the high ones,
Speaker 1: though I can't tell. Twenty four Yeah, god forbid that.
Speaker 1: We've got this prediction wrong and you didn't win. How
Speaker 1: did that night go for you? How? How did you
Speaker 1: commiserate not winning?
Speaker 2: By twelve?
Speaker 1: Okay? Watch specially? Okay? Great? So you had a good time?
Speaker 2: I did?
Speaker 3: It was great?
Speaker 1: Okay. I think you might have had to have left
Speaker 1: the ceremony early to be home by twelve. That's what
Speaker 1: you're planning to do? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. I don't really know much
Speaker 2: about what's how it works happening?
Speaker 1: What's what happened? Did this is going to get complicated?
Speaker 1: Isn't it started down? I should have kept this simple?
Speaker 1: How did you find out about how does it work?
Speaker 1: That mercury thing? Like? How do you do you know
Speaker 1: before everyone else that? Do they tell you or do
Speaker 1: you find out when everyone finds out what's there?
Speaker 3: They tell you about a week before I think, okay,
Speaker 3: and then tell you not to tell anyone.
Speaker 1: How did you do with that? Did you tell everyone?
Speaker 2: For my dad and then told and.
Speaker 1: He told all his friends and they told all their friends.
Speaker 2: I told the band. Yeah, it was. It's quite surreal
Speaker 2: thing to happen, you know, was there?
Speaker 1: What was your initial reaction when you heard?
Speaker 2: Uh? Truly just I just didn't expect. I just didn't
Speaker 2: expect it at all. So it's quite surreal, did you.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's your fifth record. I thought maybe mag
Speaker 1: Museum would do it in that mercury world when that
Speaker 1: came out. What do you think it is about this
Speaker 1: one that that got you that nomination that the others didn't.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I have no idea, but it worked.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's totally bonkers.
Speaker 1: Do you have any in your mind preconceptions about what
Speaker 1: the nights it's gonna be? Like Slash was.
Speaker 3: Like, I feel like it's gonna be like a really
Speaker 3: strange wedding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to perform, right, yeah, okay, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: be fun. Yeah cool. Well, so the album is is Reward,
Speaker 1: which you recorded in ice. Well, you wrote Sorry in
Speaker 1: isolation whilst in the Lake District, also studying building furniture.
Speaker 1: Was it particularly chairs? Was it specifically chairs?
Speaker 2: No, it was. It's a school.
Speaker 3: It's like a year in tense course and you study
Speaker 3: master craftsmanship, so it's working with solid wood and you know,
Speaker 3: it's all joints and glue, no nails, right, So it's
Speaker 3: you just work through set projects to learn all your
Speaker 3: the skills you need and then you start designing and
Speaker 3: making your own furniture.
Speaker 2: But I do love a chair.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, chairs your thing. Just before we came up here,
Speaker 1: Kate said to me, can I sit on the red chair?
Speaker 1: Specifically the red chair? And I should have known. I
Speaker 1: was like, of course, Kate likes chairs. I should have checked.
Speaker 1: Did you were you? I guess, like what made you?
Speaker 1: Kind of what was a typical day like then? Because
Speaker 1: you wrote the record in the evenings and in the
Speaker 1: day you were at school, so I get up.
Speaker 3: It was not it was just lovely to have a routine,
Speaker 3: you know, because I haven't had that for a long time.
Speaker 2: So I've been.
Speaker 3: Touring for probably the best part of eight years. So
Speaker 3: I'd wake up and have a bath. I had two
Speaker 3: baths today, that's the dream. And then I listened to
Speaker 3: David Bowie. Right, I have a cup of coffee, and
Speaker 3: then I'd walk to school and I'd be at school
Speaker 3: from eight thirty to about six Were you.
Speaker 1: What Bowie were you listening to? Would it change per day?
Speaker 2: It was?
Speaker 3: I start almost every day with ashes to ashes, Okay,
Speaker 3: because it's I guess it's quite nice. When you live
Speaker 3: by yourself, you can really do whatever you want. No
Speaker 3: one's gonna say again, stop playing that song please.
Speaker 1: I got a water bill.
Speaker 2: No, it's fixed water right in the late.
Speaker 1: Okay, it all makes sense.
Speaker 2: So it was.
Speaker 3: It was a really kind of wholesome routine to be
Speaker 3: And then then i'd come home and the WiFi was
Speaker 3: pretty patchy where I was, so i'd do homework and
Speaker 3: then i'd go to the shed where I had my
Speaker 3: pian no and playing piano.
Speaker 1: I'm playing music. It's lovely. How many people in your
Speaker 1: there were people in your class then and did that
Speaker 1: help you from going because you were living on your
Speaker 1: own and you were for a whole year, did that
Speaker 1: prevent you from going a bit stir crazing, a bit insane? No, No, okay, I.
Speaker 3: Guess when you spend you know, I kind of accidentally
Speaker 3: changed the whole architecture of my life without really comprehending
Speaker 3: that that's what I was doing.
Speaker 2: So I am.
Speaker 3: You know, it's nice to have the time to catch
Speaker 3: up with things that you've maybe put off, but things
Speaker 3: also catch up with you and got a little spooky
Speaker 3: at times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I So did you move there? Were
Speaker 1: you living in LA before you went there? Because I
Speaker 1: mean that it doesn't really get much more extreme from
Speaker 1: one to the other. What was it about your kind
Speaker 1: of routine or your typical world to kind of go
Speaker 1: to the complete other extreme and be like, I'm going
Speaker 1: to live on my own and I'm going to make chess.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess again, you just you know, it's it's
Speaker 3: making decisions and yeah, without realizing what that's going to
Speaker 3: look like every day, and you know, it sounds really idyllic,
Speaker 3: and it it mostly was, you know, it was a
Speaker 3: wonderful year, and your whole economy changes when you, you know,
Speaker 3: do something like that. But but yeah, you know it's
Speaker 3: can you get a little strange?
Speaker 1: Is it really frightening at night?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: No, that says more about me, isn't it the fact
Speaker 1: that I wouldn't want to be sleeping?
Speaker 3: And yeah, it's just sometimes the whole weekend just by
Speaker 3: myself and realized I hadn't spoken to anyone, which is
Speaker 3: not you know, it's not unusual that it's it's kind
Speaker 3: of weird when you hear your voice for the first
Speaker 3: time on Monday morning, you.
Speaker 1: Have to kind of check it still works. If I've
Speaker 1: worked at home or for a couple of days about
Speaker 1: seeing anyone, I kind of think I should check my
Speaker 1: voice still works. I've not spoken to.
Speaker 2: You anyone, and there's a moment where you think.
Speaker 1: It might not they might not come back. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: with the chairs particularly, I'm trying to imagine what a
Speaker 1: Kate Lebond chair looks like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like it's not everyone's.
Speaker 1: No, everyone's cup and sea. Well, because your your music
Speaker 1: is kind of both. It's there's some traditional there's some
Speaker 1: tradition in your music, sure, but it's also highly experimental
Speaker 1: in places. Is that reflected in your chairs. Do they
Speaker 1: have like ten legs or two seats?
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't know, it's I guess I just
Speaker 2: got in. You know. It was just nice making things that.
Speaker 3: I liked, and I think there were a lot of
Speaker 3: other people at the school who were making these really traditional,
Speaker 3: beautiful chairs who were.
Speaker 2: A bit put off by the furniture.
Speaker 1: What type of thing would you just?
Speaker 2: I love. I love kind of brutal, ugly stuff. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that was my jam when it came to chairs.
Speaker 1: Okay, are you still making them now?
Speaker 2: It's kind of tricky to do on the road.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I'm trying to. I'm trying to build a
Speaker 3: shed so that I can have a little workshop.
Speaker 1: Have you always been good at that? Because you grew
Speaker 1: up in a farmhouse? Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I wasn't a working fan, but it was in the
Speaker 3: middle of the country.
Speaker 2: And yeah, was.
Speaker 1: It quite a crafty a crafty upbringing of making things.
Speaker 3: No, not really just checking my dad's not here. He
Speaker 3: dad would make a meal out of every di y.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: So the house, even though they've lived in it for
Speaker 3: thirty plus years, still isn't finished, you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, So yeah, it was we We would me and
Speaker 2: my sister were outdoor kids.
Speaker 3: We had each other goat and the weekends were being
Speaker 3: kicked outside and we'd go and walk the goat.
Speaker 2: What was your goat called besn So you had one age, Yeah, to.
Speaker 1: Make sure you didn't fight over the goat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: And at weekends you am I right in saying that
Speaker 1: at weekends your your house rule was you could music
Speaker 1: was allowed, but there was no TV or TV.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know it was Yeah, it was really
Speaker 3: kids got outside.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, did that help you? Would that have helped
Speaker 1: you with this project and being kind of on your
Speaker 1: own and entertaining and you know, writing because everyone else contends,
Speaker 1: you know, it's we live in a world where you
Speaker 1: get home from working straight away you put the TV on.
Speaker 1: But I suppose if you've grown up, if you grow
Speaker 1: up without that at the weekends, I don't know if
Speaker 1: that makes you then when you're an adult you just
Speaker 1: only want to watch TV, or if you're just used
Speaker 1: to like I've got I can do other things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: It was, like I said, the Wi Fi was really patchy,
Speaker 3: so that was kind of that choice made for me,
Speaker 3: you know, up in the lakes. But I don't know
Speaker 3: it kind of I feel guilty about watching TV at
Speaker 3: times because I suppose when you are somewhat self employed
Speaker 3: and you should be, I've always got that feeling that
Speaker 3: there's something that I could be doing that is more
Speaker 3: worthwhile than watching back to back crime drama, you know.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, So how did you cope with that
Speaker 1: isolating feeling in the Lake district?
Speaker 3: I mean people would come and visit, which was always,
Speaker 3: you know, really nice. And I joined a swimming club
Speaker 3: that would meet at seven am in the morning to
Speaker 3: swim in Lake Windermere, right, and we'd swim.
Speaker 2: To a boy and back.
Speaker 3: And I did that for a little bit to try
Speaker 3: and kind of reboot, you know, or kind of. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and that was nice. But I you know, I love
Speaker 3: I do love being alone, I really really do.
Speaker 1: We're okay with it. Yeah, So how does that work?
Speaker 1: Because you, I mean, as someone who loves being alone,
Speaker 1: you're also are great collaborator. You collaborate with so many
Speaker 1: great artists, with Tim Presley and Drinks, and you played
Speaker 1: with everyone from like John Cale and all sorts of people.
Speaker 1: How does that work going from doing something that is
Speaker 1: totally you and it's your thing and you can be
Speaker 1: alone to your heart's content to suddenly having to work
Speaker 1: with people in quite probably quite an intense environment where
Speaker 1: you're being creative.
Speaker 3: And I suppose it's about just being selective and only
Speaker 3: doing things that you really want to do and only
Speaker 3: working with people that you feel that you're you know that.
Speaker 2: It's nourishing to work with.
Speaker 1: I suppose, yeah, is it? Do you find it easy
Speaker 1: to switch from the two? Do you prefer one over
Speaker 1: the other?
Speaker 3: I guess once you've spent a lot of time by
Speaker 3: yourself and you've you know, you've it's nice to them
Speaker 3: feed off of someone else's energy and creativity.
Speaker 2: I suppose.
Speaker 1: Because one of the things you've recently, one of those
Speaker 1: collaborations was producing the new Deer Hunter record. What kind
Speaker 1: of producers are you? Uh?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's a it's such a nebulous job title, you know
Speaker 3: changes day to day, sometimes hour to hour, you know,
Speaker 3: So I don't I don't know how to answer that.
Speaker 1: You bossy shouting at people, You're not the specta kind
Speaker 1: of So no, you don't take guns into the recording.
Speaker 1: So you did feel like there were moments in the
Speaker 1: late dishup where you felt like you were going like
Speaker 1: a bit stir crazy. Yeah, does any of that come through?
Speaker 1: Are there any tracks on the record that have got
Speaker 1: that in them particularly?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think a few of them have. I don't
Speaker 2: think I was.
Speaker 3: You know, you have a vision of how you're going
Speaker 3: to maybe make a record, and it never out that way.
Speaker 3: And I think because because it was such a kind
Speaker 3: of abrupt change, and I was in school all day
Speaker 3: and so, and I guess the whole point of going
Speaker 3: there was to take a time away from music to
Speaker 3: kind of readdress my motives and my relationship with it.
Speaker 3: So it was nice when it became my hobby or
Speaker 3: like a nice cathartic outlet at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: and to kind of exist without this constant surveillance that
Speaker 3: I think was interrupting my relationship with it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: So I wrote most of the record without realizing I
Speaker 3: was writing a record, which was, you know, really nice
Speaker 3: when I realized that's cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's nice. I've made a record. Did you miss
Speaker 1: There must have been certain things that you that you missed,
Speaker 1: either as soon as you got there and thought hang on,
Speaker 1: or just because you were there for a whole year.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I was there for a year and
Speaker 2: a half living there.
Speaker 1: What did you What was it that you missed from
Speaker 1: from LA life.
Speaker 3: I don't honestly, I don't think there was. I think
Speaker 3: I was so into going to school every day. I
Speaker 3: absolutely loved it, you know, the school part that I didn't.
Speaker 3: I didn't really miss much in all honesty, other than
Speaker 3: kind of having close friends nearby. And but it was,
Speaker 3: you know, it was a really welcome change from touring
Speaker 3: and you know, just constantly thinking about music and even
Speaker 3: even taking that time off, I was consuming music differently,
Speaker 3: you know, just the just the joy of listening to
Speaker 3: records without it being under this strange surveillance.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you? And afterwards did you? Where did you
Speaker 1: return to? So you've been there for a year and
Speaker 1: a half on your own, where did.
Speaker 2: You go back to? Well? This is the problem. I
Speaker 2: haven't really haven't. No, I'm just floating around. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: driving me mad.
Speaker 1: Have you got any idea where you're going to?
Speaker 2: I think Cardiff for a little bit, okay, Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 1: Did it feel hard adjusting back to kind of having
Speaker 1: been in that set routine back into the real world.
Speaker 3: I guess I think I went straight from finishing school,
Speaker 3: I flew out to Marfa to work with Bradford and
Speaker 3: then work on the Day Hunter records. So it was
Speaker 3: like baptism of fire back into music. And then I
Speaker 3: made my record straight off the back of that, and
Speaker 3: then I went back into the Day Hunter record and
Speaker 3: then finished my record. So it was it's just like
Speaker 3: a switch immediately back to Yeah, but it was nice.
Speaker 3: I was ready for it, and I was excited, you know,
Speaker 3: to make music again and work with people like Bradford,
Speaker 3: you know, and yeah.
Speaker 1: Sure, what was it that drew you to LA in
Speaker 1: the first place.
Speaker 3: I think at the time it was the weather had
Speaker 3: been so terrible in Cardiff. You know, it was really miserable,
Speaker 3: and if you don't have much money, there's not much
Speaker 3: you can.
Speaker 2: Do really except stay in the house.
Speaker 3: And you know, so the prospective, I mean, I was
Speaker 3: going out to write to record mug Museum out there,
Speaker 3: and and I'd been given a three year visa, and
Speaker 3: I just thought it was maybe a nice good time
Speaker 3: to kind of make a bit of a change and
Speaker 3: work with a different pool of musicians, and you know, so, yeah,
Speaker 3: and because we were touring so much as well, we
Speaker 3: were back and forth between LA and the UK, so
Speaker 3: it wasn't too yeah, too much of a removal.
Speaker 1: You might as well have your base in the sunny one.
Speaker 3: Of the yeah, where you can just you know, sit
Speaker 3: on the steps and it's really lovely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, yeah nice. So it's been ten
Speaker 1: years since your first album this year, right, How has
Speaker 1: how has the way you've made music changed in that
Speaker 1: in that time?
Speaker 2: Oh? I mean it's I think it's.
Speaker 3: You know, whenever you work in the studio, whether it's
Speaker 3: on your own record or with other people, it's.
Speaker 2: It's just good.
Speaker 3: To be poor accessibles and and learn from people that
Speaker 3: you're working with, you know, musicians that you're working with,
Speaker 3: and and you know, I like to I like to
Speaker 3: be a little bit scared when I'm in a studio
Speaker 3: and to have that element of risk and not feeling
Speaker 3: wholly comfortable. It's yeah, And I think probably taking that
Speaker 3: time out and then coming back to music is the
Speaker 3: biggest change that's happened during that whole ten years, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Is that? How do you see now? Obviously the thought
Speaker 1: of making another record now is probably nowhere in your mind.
Speaker 3: No, I'm really want really yeah, yeah, I'm really I'm
Speaker 3: really positive it's.
Speaker 1: Weird as unusual as it. Yeah, So how have you
Speaker 1: thought about how you're going to make that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm starting to think about it right now, just
Speaker 3: trying to block out some time. And I've finished the
Speaker 3: last record in Joshua Tree, just myself and summer, and
Speaker 3: that was a really wonderful place to kind of make
Speaker 3: and record music.
Speaker 2: So I think maybe you might go back there, go there. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I know you've I know you're on the clock
Speaker 1: and you need to go. Can you just for listening?
Speaker 1: What's the rest of your year? Look after today? Is
Speaker 1: today your last of the festival run season?
Speaker 2: It is? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And are you done on shows or do you not?
Speaker 2: Let me go to America to do a couple of festivals.
Speaker 3: And then Iceland and I think we've got an Australian tour, Singapore,
Speaker 3: I think, okay, the whole of Scandinavia. And we're playing
Speaker 3: some shows with d Hunter in the UK in November.
Speaker 2: Should Yeah, it'd be great. I love playing with them.
Speaker 1: Cool. And you've got the Mercury Prize to win in
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. Yeah, Well, congratulations on winning the Mercury.
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on the podcast. Please show your
Speaker 1: appreciation for Thank you
Speaker 2: Anyway, good Night,