When I walk in to Bar Chocolat I glance around before ordering my drink. I’m a bit early, and can’t see Shu in the almost empty cafe – not that I really know what she looks like as all I’ve really seen of her is a close-up photo of her eyes in a cropped Facebook pic . A few moments pass and there’s still no sign of her. I take my drink and look for a quiet spot in the corner of the room, and that’s when I spy her.
Grungy in appearance, she’s sitting alone at a table behind a book case. She’s wearing an oversized khaki-green jumper riddled with holes and a black woollen hat pulled over her blonde hair. Despite her casual ‘comfy’ look, she’s very attractive with sharp blue eyes set beneath dark eyebrows. There’s more than just a little hint of the performer in her appearance; as we sit and talk she seems instantly at ease and confident as she speaks.
‘My name is Aleksandra’ she tells me taking a sip of her latte, ‘my mother is Russian – she’s an actress. Shura is the Russian abbreviation of my name. I started off as a solo artist before Paddy joined and we decided to keep it’. Shu’s been recording since she was 16, but it wasn’t until she went off to University that she thought about starting a band. ‘I thought it’d be really easy, that I’d meet loads of people and would form a band organically.’ As it happened, it was a lot more difficult than she thought: ‘I felt stupid putting up a silly flyer saying “do you wanna be in my band?!” So it just didn’t happen, it was just me on my own still.
Instead, Shura came about as a by-product of another of Shu’s interests. She met guitarist Patrick Duncomb at their University theatre company whilst writing music for the productions, and the pair began collaborating on their own projects, jamming and writing.
And whilst they intended to find other band members… it never really happened.
Instead they continued as a duo, laying out tracks and writing the song that would go on to become their debut single ‘River’, although it too came in a form very different from the one that they started out with. ‘Our music was very folk sounding, but from the single you’ll hear it’s more of an ambient-electro now…’ The ‘folkiness’ was a point of contention for Shu: disinterested in putting out something that (in her own words) has been done better by the other musicians (‘Laura Marling is smackin’ it right now with the female-folk thing’), the pair began casting glances elsewhere for inspiration. But the final evolution of their sound came as the result of a collaboration with a completely foreign and unexpected source.
Enter the third mysterious strand of Shura, producer and DJ Cyrus Shardad a.k.a Haitus. ‘Haitus turned out to watch us play and he was enamoured with the set. Next thing he was asking if he could do a remix of our song ‘River’ – we were like, “sure you can!” It was so nice someone appreciated our music’. So whilst Haitus went away for a few weeks to work on the track, Paddy and Shu carried on playing their brand of acoustic-folk.
‘Then Haitus came back with the remix of ‘River’. And it was fucking weird’ she laughs. ‘I mean, really fucking weird; I had to listen to it about 5 times, and then I was like, “this is brilliant”.’ After five listens, the original sounded strange to them. They were hooked on their new sound.
The three decided to collaborate on an E.P. which Haitus gave them three weeks to write. But with such a tight creative schedule, it wasn’t all plain sailing… ‘Two weeks before we were due to record, I was struggling a little bit… Then I had one of those moments of inspiration when I was listening to Des’ree’s ‘Kissing You’ (cringe I know) and decided to create verses around a chorus sampling that’. This willingness to sample and experiment has come as a result of working directly with a producer. ‘I think it sounds brilliant and I wouldn’t have done that before, I guess now I can reference influences more openly’.
Shura’s influences aren’t all as cringe-worthy. ‘Patrick and I are both from Manchester, so of course we both grew up listening to the Smiths’. Maybe that’s where they got their love of overly-long song titles from? Certainly Shu at least has a love of experimental electronica that builds from an appreciation of PJ Harvey; ‘it’s really exciting when a woman can have a guitar, but at the same time not be afraid to put it down’. Hence her affection for French beat-box artist Camille and her London scene contemporaries Kal Lavelle, Tabitha Benjamin and Kerry Leatham. ‘You know it’s nice to know that success can happen to real life people’, she says, nodding to another of her circuit associates, Romy Madley-Croft of Mercury prize winning band The xx.
Currently in talks to sign a release deal for their E.P. with a major label, the video for their new single River was unveiled last week. Because ‘we friggin’ love nature’ it sees Patrick and Shu in a forest, drowned in natural light and setting off Chinese lanterns as darkness falls.
Shura are set to play Soundwave festival in Croatia later this summer, the details of which can be found here. The ‘River’ E.P by Haitus & Shura is due for launch in August and the band are playing a gig at the Proud Gallery in London.
Illustration by the wonderfully talented Jamila Walker.
We’d also like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Shu from all at Creature.
Continuing our series exploring the nuances of a single track, this week we talk to folk artist Ben Howard about his song ‘Old Pine’, taken from his current E.P. of the same title.
Hey Ben! What track have you chosen for us and why?
My favourite track that’s out and about at the moment is probably the ‘Old Pine’ single from the Ep. It’s a song about a really good time in my life and has a lot of fond memories woven into it.
Is there a story behind the song? What led you to writing it?
Yeah there’s a little story to it… It’s from a trip I went on with a bunch a friends when I was 16. We were camped out in the woods in the South of France for six weeks and it was one of the best times in my life in many ways. A poignant moment of that summer came when a big thunderstorm caused mass carnage. We were persuaded to move our tents out from under a massive pine tree that looked ready to go… It actually fell two days later and I remember how we all stood there in the morning feeling like we cheated death. That summer was unreal and I’m glad to finally get it down in words to some extent.
What was the song writing process like for you? Did you write the music first then lay out lyrics or vice versa?
I write mostly at home and I remember I put the words down over a week long stint in the autumn. The guitar part I’d had for a fair while as I remember being out in Ibiza playing it and out in France with the melody in my head. I’m pretty loose with song writing; sometimes I’ll put something together in a day, other times it’ll be a dormant riff that gets revisited months later. It had a long old brew this one. Sometimes that’s a good thing. Sometimes that kills a song for me, but the track still feels right now and I guess that’s what counts.
What influences went in to the track from external a source; i.e. is it influenced by your love of a particular sound, a recording artists you admire or cultural references etc?
I like double tracked vocals. Iron and Wine and Jose Gonzales are big on that and I listen to a lot of their stuff. Otherwise I’m not sure what else… My subconscious is a wondering beast and all sorts gets in there for sure! It’s open to interpretation…
Finally, is there a big difference for you between a live performance of ’Old Pine’ and the studio recording of the song? If so, is this related to your enjoyment of performing the song?
The band is a three piece so live is pretty different from the record a lot of the time, there’s more focus on the subtleties. The ending often deteriorates into something interesting; I think it’s a track that brings out the joy of playing live for all of us…
Ben is currently on tour around the UK; check his website for details of where you can see him play, or listen to more of his tracks here.
Back in April we featured a room-splitting track by Salisbury folk artist Dan Shaw. The song (entitled ‘Penzance’) had some of us swinging from the rafters in praise of its psuedo-lyrical ballad couplets, delicate picking and traditional narrative. For others, the sharp-edged vocals were a bridge too far. But even they had to admit there was something distinctly enigmatic about the singer-songwriter behind it, and here at Creature we were keen to find out more about the mental trappings of Dan Shaw…
Dan Shaw 'Penzance' by Sam Parr
Who is Dan Shaw? Can you tell us about yourself?
Well…I’m a thinker not a doer-
I started out as an illustrator, I did a degree in fine art and painting although I personally get quite pedantic about what an artist is; we’re all artists. Some of us discover it early and some don’t until later. I don’t know how I became a song writer except when you’re young you want to imitate; you don’t ever grow out of that but you do get an idea about what your identity is…
I didn’t take to the guitar until I was 16 which is when I did my first gig covering Neil young songs and just getting up there and doing it. When I was 19 I started gigging regularly due to a bit of Dutch courage…That was in Canterbury. I’m a bit awkward, and I think it’s hard to be charismatic on queue- it’s all about intuition when you’re performing. If I stopped to think I’d stop and never start again, I’d leave the stage… I perform with my eyes closed, that way I focus on myself and not the people looking back at me.
Since uni I’ve been doing a whole set of menial jobs (van driver, warehouse man, call centre jobs, data inputting- horrible jobs really)… Given that we all start out with time on our side- we all expect to improve- I thought that given time my voice would settle and that it’d become acceptable to a wider audience but I think that my role might be shifting now into that of a local performer. In some ways I’m happy to enhance the enjoyment of the local pub scene, but I suppose there’s always a yearning to be more widely accepted.
Are you classically trained or self-taught? How has this informed the way you approach song-writing and performing?
The ideas come and the inspiration comes when you meet likeminded people that fire you up and you might hear a song that inspires you. Matt Witt and I grew up as songwriters together and it wasn’t so much that we influenced each other as cajoled each other along… We both have a non-mainstream sound, but if I could really appreciate Matt he could appreciate me and if we could then there’d be other people who’d enjoy it too.
The skeleton of writing tends to be less about inspiration from nothing and more about something I’ve come out with on a guitar… I try and empty my mind and see what happens naturally in my mind’s eye. The music almost writes itself, it’s not reformulated and I think there’s a need to be enigmatic- I try to surprise myself… everything needs to be a surprise else it doesn’t explain my state of mind. The modern human condition is confusion.
Your songs are beautifully layered with delicate and very clever guitar pickings. But the most distinctive thing about your songs for me is listening to your vocals- is your vocal sound something you’ve actively cultivated or something you’re more self-conscious of?
Now I belt it out more than I’ve ever done before, but I do that in the knowledge that when I hear it back recorded it makes me cringe- it cuts through everything. That’s why I sang like that in the beginning (like Leonard Cohen- I can’t sing low for a start). I thought I’d go high where I naturally feel most comfortable but it’s difficult to ascertain whether that was me from the beginning or if I learned it. But now chain-smoking, drinking and not getting enough sleep has made it difficult to sing in-tune and hit the high notes!
I wanted to get to the point where I could go and play in any part of the country and I could get up and play songs-you know, not be shy. It’d be nice to be an entertainer!
Your lyrics are likewise very interesting and follow a traditional ‘story-telling’ format bordering on lyrical ballad status- what inspirations and technique do you follow for generating them?
Lyrically there’s lots of tweaking that goes on- the feeling is the important bit, not necessarily the words. People might not understand the rhyming couplets but the feelings are there- the meaning of the song comes later on. It’s a desire of mine to be able to write songs about events or things where people can instantly understand, but I think that’s beyond me. My talent comes from being able to express my state of mind (whatever that might be). Penzance for example started out not so much about the place; the first verse I wrote a couple of years before I wrote the song.
I was listening to Joanna Newsom and tried to play one of her songs and couldn’t- I tweaked what I could play and fit it around the first verse. I sing it now though and it’s about the journey through life being the most important thing rather than the destination; the chap in the song falls asleep on the journey and wakes up having missed the adventure.
How about recording? Do you collaborate in studios or do you record DIY-style?
Penzance recording was done down in Devon with a musician friend of mine- he’s an amateur producer. Everything else I’ve done is on an 8 track or a cassette recorder- I record everything live because for me to sit down and play everything through and sing over the top of it I don’t think I could give a full flight performance. When I record in one go, I know I’m giving my full.
What’s next for you then Dan?
I’m hoping to lay down some more recordings soon; the tracks on my Myspace feel like they’re a generation ago. I’ve written a couple of tracks recently that feel like they’re a step in the right direction, and I’d like to start a band at some point in the future and I’m hoping to move to London in the next 6 months…I’m currently living in Salisbury but there’s nothing more to write about there anymore- there’s no purpose in the air, no sense of things happening. Salisbury music scene was good when I was young but it all comes in waves. It’s all gone a bit flat now so I can feel the bright lights of London tugging at me. That’s up next.
Thanks for talking to us Dan!
Thanks to Sam Parr for the wonderful illustration. Sam’s current exhibition ‘The Art of Illustration’ is currently on down the Old Pinstone Street shops in Sheffield from today until the beginning of July. Details can be found here.
You know, where you’ve been mistaken for someone else? Perhaps someone with a similar name or a similar build or a similar face? I get mistaken all the time for Haley Williams (honestly I do) when I’m wandering around Newcastle…
I know what it’s like to disappoint people by pointing out you’re *not* actually the person they thought you were. I know the look they get when their little hamster hearts crumple with the realisation you’re just another person like them, down Tesco shopping for tea bags toothpaste and a bottle of shampoo… I know what it’s like to shatter (small) dreams and be the bearer of bad news.
Put that shoe on the other foot for a moment, and think, what about if you were mistaken for someone else because you are that someone else. Only… you’re not. You share the same name and profession with the person you’re being mistaken for, but you’re not actually them… Because here is my confession, dear readers- I, Betty Wood accidentally mistook the one and only Daniel Shaw for the wrongDaniel Shaw.
Daniel Shaw is a musician. I’ve been harking on to all who’ll listen for the last few months about this upcoming ‘exclusive’ with Daniel Shaw, folk extraordinaire and Penzance loving acoustic mastermind. And following a few in-house delays, I was literally hopping in my pants with excitement when I hit the final full-stop on the article and got ready to press ‘schedule’…
Only, as I scanned the text I’d written and looked at the photos I was to include, I got a sinking feeling (not unlike the one you get when you fail your driving test for the ninth time)… Something was awry.
You see gentle readers, I’d gone an made the schoolboy error of interviewing the *wrong* Daniel Shaw.
This Daniel Shaw was a musician all right, a native of the South of England. He likewise had a love for folk, a myspace page and some excellent anecdotal tales about his life and career. Gosh darn it, this Daniel Shaw was a fantastic interview- he’d sung into Elvis’ microphone, played in Tennessee and taught music at a local college. But he was the wrong Dan. He was a Christian who used his music to explore his faith whilst the real Dan Shaw, our Dan Shaw, was a confirmed Atheist…
Would the real Dan Shaw please stand up?
Our Dan (Danny, Danno!) was also an interesting fella of varying colour and wit, the type of which he brought us with our Mixtape . He’s a van-man, a jaded poet, a generation Y-er with a quick tongue and a quicker mind. And he needed his voice too.
So, Creature faithful, this week, as a special ‘one off’ series, we’re going to be bringing you exclusive interviews with not one but TWO Daniel Shaws as well as sharing with you the music of as many Dan Shaws as we can find…
Take a look at what our google search unearthed in our ‘Dan Shaw top 5′: 1) Dan Shaw is a lyrical pop-rocker based in Los Angeles (though like our fellas, he’s a UK native). Dan relocated to L.A. two years ago and has now released his new L.P ‘I make the rules’ on itunes. Influenced by Bill Withers and Phil Collins, Dan’s myspace features lots of images of him taken in black and white, guitar-driven tracks and lyrics such as ‘into my life you came just like a hurricane’. Here’s one we like (even though we think it sounds a bit like that song off High School Musical. You’ll get what we mean.)
2) Daniel Shaw is an ambitious 13 year old who shares a home with two ponies and a jack Russell. A grade 5 in piano, he lives in Melbourne Australia and is a regular on the buskers’ scene despite being a wee nipper… We’re guessing from this track that he’s a big James Cameron fan… And he likes hats.
3) Daniel J Shaw is one of our guys. A nature loving folk artist, Daniel J Shaw was musician in-residence at the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre in Taunton for 5 years, and has performed across the globe. He currently teaches level three BTEC Music Students at Strode College, Street as a Music Lecturer. You can listen to his music here and read our interview with him on Thursday.
4) Here at Creature we’re pretty open-minded, so when this Daniel Shaw came up in our google search, we decided to include him despite his rather tenous credentials… This Dan Shaw is a New York based Psychoanalyst who was apparently once a musician during his time studying Theatre Studies at NorthWestern University, Illinois. We don’t think he plays professionally any more, but we were running out of musicians so thought we’d bung him in there to make up numbers.
5) The Dan Shaw. Elusive as a candle-stick during a powercut, w’or Dan (as they say up north) dosesn’t have a myspace. He has got a facebook, but we’re not sharing that with you all on account you might creep him. What we will say is that he’s an interesting fella and a whizz on the old strings. Catch our interview with him on Friday this week and in the meantime, go back to our April Mix Tape and press repeat a million times on his track Penzance…
You might be thinking “Lilies on what-now?” – but you heard right, and this London 3-piece have been making waves on the capital’s music scene (quite literally) for years now. As they release their second UK album entitled I wish You Were a Pony we took the chance to speak with Lisa and Marina from the band about the evolution of their sound, Eliot Smith and how they’ve coped with independence during the recession…
Hi ladies! Thanks for taking the time to speak to us, especially when the weather’s so nice out and we’re keeping you inside on the phone… For our readers out there who might not be so familiar with your music, you’ve been around as a band/duo since 2008, but can you tell us a little bit about Lilies on Mars and how you guys came into being?
Marina: Lisa and I met playing in another band which split in 2008 and we decided to start a new project with just the two of us. It was just for fun We recorded 11 songs in a month in our studio and released the album straight away. I suppose how we did it was a bit unusual in that we started writing and releasing songs before we eventually began to play gigs…
For the best part of 2 years, it was just Lisa and I, then we met our drummer Matthew and in 2010 we became a three-piece. It’s been really great having him on board, he’s really brought something new to the band and we’re having a lot of fun.
Your previous band was signed to an independent label, but you chose a different path for Lilies on Mars… Was that a conscious decision influenced by your previous experiences in the industry?
Marina: We (had a bad experience with our old band which eventually split) so we when started up Lilies on Mars, we consciously decided to be independent. We wanted to record the songs just the way we like them- so that’s what we did. When we laid out our first album, it was just me and Lisa recording the instruments- a drummer came and collaborated on 3 songs but everything else we did ourselves.
We were very relaxed about the whole thing; it was very natural and spontaneous. We started from scratch and because we were so inspired we were just writing and writing… Because we didn’t want to wait to release it for others to hear we just went “Okay, we have this record, we’ll put it out ourselves.”
You’re generally described as shoegazer ambient indie-pop and with vocal melodies being paramount over intelligible lyrics, it seems that’d be a fair estimation to outside ears. But how do you guys see your own sound and how comfortable are you with the labels you’ve been plastered with?
Marina: It’s difficult to explain really- I really like that people consider our music shoe gaze, we love My Bloody Valentine, Sonic youth etc, so it’s fascinating for us that people see those influences. But we don’t like to categorise our music too much. You can spot the dream-pop and shoe-gaze influences, but our songs are also very different- we’re not a typical shoe gazer bands because we we experiment with sound for every song and give it a particular character.
Lisa: We like the dreamy element of our music- all the songs have that in common. Especially from the vocals- they vocals are floaty with lots of reverb and delays. That’s probably the ‘signature’ of our music that carries across throughout.
Yeah I’d definitely agree with that statement, and from an outside perspective the vocals provide the real signature sound of the band. Moving on from your own music, which artists do you draw personal influence from?
Marina: On my iPod I tend to listen to a lot of new music- I literally update my iPod all the time so I keep up with all the new releases and in that sense have quite a varied play list! But albums I always have on there? Elliot smith; he’s one of the most inspiring artists ever. I have his entire back catalogue on my iPod permanently. I also really like Blonde Redhead and Deer Hoof.
Our drummer Matthew lovesGrizzly Bear, in fact I actually met Matthew at a Grizzly Bear gig last year! I guess you could say they helped bring the band together. We also really love Broadcast and Pink Floyd; we listen to all sorts of music. I love the psychedelic electronic element in their music…
Lisa: At the moment I am love, love, loving [Brighton outfit] Zun Zun Egui.
by Emma Jardine - www.emmajardine.co.uk
I can totally see how Broadcast and Pink Floyd feed into your sound. I guess by being so DIY, you can tease out the individual elements of artists that you like and play about with them within your own music… Speaking of, you guys are really noted for your DIY ethos- how much of this was poured into producing your new album Wish you were a Pony? How does this tie in with the label you’re signed to, Elsewhere Factory?
Marina: We followed on from our first album really and did it our own way- we didn’t see the point in finding a label (we didn’t really want other people telling us what we needed to do)- so we released it through our own label the Elsewhere Factory Project.
EFP is a collective based originally in Rome although we work a lot in London. It’s a project that has essentially grown- it’s a club night, a record label and although at the moment we are just releasing our own albums, in the future we might release some other artists on the label. I guess we’ll see what happens, whether people want to come on board with that.
Next I think we’d love to release in Europe and the States and see if we can find a likeminded independent label that can help us with that.
Things are tight out there in the wake of the recession, and with all of the funding for the arts being slashed, London’s creative scene is starting to feel the pinch. How about you guys? Are you managing to support yourselves as full time independent musicians, or are you working on other projects?
Marina: We are full time musicians. Yes, we do little jobs to pay rent etc, but mostly we want to do is music. And I guess we are lucky that our friends have helped us out with this too, so we can afford to do it. Our friend Lunarial (Do It for the Monsters) makes all of our videos. Our record is totally DIY- we wrote it, recorded it, played the instruments….
However we asked New York producer Dan B to mix it. He’s collaborated with Kathy King, he plays for her and is her co-writer.
Lisa: We met him a few years ago when we went to tour in the states and since then we kept in contact. He was always asking “when are you doing the new record? I want to mix it!”
So after so long recording alone, how did you find the experience of bringing in someone from outside in to work with you?
Lisa: Well, Dan was totally in tune vision wise with us- he mixed the album exactly like we wanted and he did an amazing job… We were absolutely thrilled with what he produced for us!
Marina: Exactly. The first album we did literally everything so for the second album we really knew what we wanted… Inititally we were hesitant about an outsider coming in, but working with Dan was different- we were waiting every night for the mixes to be sent to us and we were so excited to hear them! It totally achieved everything we’d hoped, and it was lovely to hear his interpretation of our sounds.
The first album’s signature sound definitely carries across onto the new album… What’s next for you now it’s all recorded and ready to push? Are you playing any festivals this summer?
We’ve got some gigs lined up in London, the first being 25May in Camden. A full list of our upcoming gig is available on our web site.
Catch Lilies on Mars at the end of this month and into the summer across London. Listen to their new album here.
Thank you to Emma Jardine and Chris Rossfor the incredible illustrations for this feature!
Creature writer Andy Rawson is part of Newcastle broadcast collective Boom Town Radio, and their special podcast this week features an artist we’d like to bring to your attention…
Folk artist Craig Wosahlo is a favourite on the north-east circuit, and played his first gig at Camden’s Lock Tavern as part of Young & Lost Club’s Acoustic session night. Currently in the studio recording his new E.P. from tomorrow we’ll be starting a unique and exciting music project featuring Craig…. We don’t want to give away too much right now, but give this podcast a listen and check back tomorrow, when we unveil our big summer project!
Creaturemag regular Lauren Archer talks to Manchester based folk-artist Joel Nicholson a.k.a Butcher the Bar about his influences and experiences ahead of the release of his new album For each a Future Tethered on indie label Morr Music June 2011. He fills us in on his dream collaborations, tour plans and his song writing process…
Noted for his minimalist arrangements and earnest vocals Butcher the Bar is a serious candidate for the ‘one-to-watch’ title. Akin to twee-poppers The Boy Least Likely To, Joel’s strength as a performer comes from his ability to convey emotions with sense of integrity through his guitar driven melodies, producing some of the most charming Americana folk-based independent music on the UK folk scene.
illustration by Alex Rolfe
Hey Joel! We were really excited to feature your track ‘Bobby’ on our Mix Tape last month. How long have you been on the music scene?
JOEL: Well I started writing songs for what would eventually appear on the first album in 2007, so since then really. I’d been in a couple of bands before then with friends at school and at university but nothing that had ever gotten really serious. Even when I was in bands I always wrote songs on my own so (maybe) you could argue that I’ve been developing this solo project for years, just VERY gradually finding a style I feel comfortable with.
You’ve definitely nailed your ‘style’; we really like the confessional vocal arrangements and the simplistic instrumental layering. Tell us, where are you hoping to take this project? Any exciting plans for 2011?
I don’t have a specific direction [in mind], I’d just like to keep writing. As
I develop and grow as a musician maybe the music will take a different direction. I cant see myself ever making a considered decision to purposefully ‘change’ direction, I’d prefer for that to happen naturally. As for 2011, the new record will be released in June, then we’re planning to play shows throughout the UK and Europe in Autumn/Winter.
illustration by Kathryn Corlett
What’s been the highlight of your career so far?
The whole thing has been great. Just being able to write music and release it is enough, and heading overseas to play shows out of England is lovely. The tours in Portugal, Italy and Germany were a definite highlight and having Seasick Steve play on the new record (and the way in which we found him) was another.
What about the new album For Each a Future Tethered? What’s your favourite track off the new album?
That’s hard. I think Bobby might be my favourite from this record, it’s a relatively simple song and the lyrical topic isn’t very pleasant (one of my room mates at uni was wrongly accused of a sexual assault) but I like the dynamics [of the track] and over the recording process it really evolved.
Speaking of recording, whose been an influence on you in terms of your sound?
Mark Kozelek is big hero of mine and the way he plays guitar really opened my eyes to new ways of writing. Paul Westerberg is quite a recent influence, but maybe not for this project really… When I listen to The Replacements it just makes me want to form a loud scratchy rock band!
My friends and family have been great. Their support and encouragement is incredibly helpful when writing songs especially as I don’t have other band members to bounce ideas off or stop me from going down the wrong path. Any genuine enthusiasm for something you’ve created, or are proud of, is usually infectious and motivating, Barney was really helpful with that.
illustration by Emma Jardine
What about the lyrical process; where do you take your inspiration from?
It really depends… some lyrics come before the music, in which case the tone or topic would be more specific, but if the melody comes first or guitar parts, the lyrics as a whole can feel more like a collage of thoughts or ideas. But generally speaking I take most inspiration from people around me and situations that I’ve been in, whether they’re trivial or life-altering experiences. All is open to be scrutinised or exposed artistically.
What has been your biggest challenge as an artist?
The making of the new record was a challenging experience, as it involved a lot of patience. I live in Manchester and we did all the recording at Barney’s (producer) place in Richmond, London, meaning we could only work on average one weekend a month. In hindsight the time in between sessions was actually very beneficial as we could utilise the time apart to pick apart the material we’d recorded or songs we’d yet to record, allowing us time to change any details we weren’t entirely happy with, or fix parts that didn’t work. It would have been awful to release a record with tiny faults that we didn’t give ourselves time to consider, so for that reason im glad it took a year. It was just hard earlier on in the process as it was often hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel [but ultimately beneficial].
If we were to say “Who’d be your dream collaboration”, what would you say? Who’s the ultimate artist you’d love to record with?
Prince.
illustration by Kerri-Ann Hulme
Ha! We’re Prince fans too (as a side note, it’s really interesting just how many folk-musicians out there really bow down to Prince an artist who you wouldn’t necessarily associate with the genre!) But from a musician’s perspective, you do play quite a few instruments, many of which are bought second-hand from flea-markets and the like… Were you encouraged to take up music as a kid or was it something you came to later in life?
I started listening to music form a relatively young age through my older brother, then in my early/mid teens I started listening to bands like Weezer, Smashing Pumkins, Idlewild etc which encouraged me to want to learn to play guitar. My older brother Adam taught me my first few chords , so I’d say he was the first person to get me interested in playing. Since then I have picked up a couple of other instruments, mainly stringed, and I’m currently learning the piano. (I just recently moved into a house with one in the spare room, so I have no excuses now!)[Professionally speaking]I actually studied Media Production at University which involved a lot of script writing and film making, which at the time was all I wanted to do. After Uni I went down to London and worked for a bunch of post-production companies, but it didn’t really work out. I think I felt obligated to at least try and pursue it. I often get ideas for film projects and scripts, and SOMETIMES I’ll spend time developing the ideas but making music is certainly the main creative outlet in my life, and most comfortable with.
Joel’s new album For Each a Future Tethered will be released in June on Morr Music and the band are are currently planning a European tour for Autumn this year.
A HUGE thank you to our illustrators Kathryn Corlett, Emma Jardine, Kerri-Ann Hulme and Alexandra Rolfe for their amazing illustrations. Please please take the time to visit their websites and check out more of their wonderful and whimsical artwork!
NEXT UP? We talk to DIY London-based shoegazer dream-pop outfit Lilies on Mars. Interested in illustrating this? Tweet us @ Creaturemag or BettyHammer
Creature has made a new friend…. Siobhan Leddy is Editor of new arts, music and culture publication Flamingo Magazine. She kindly took the time to answer our questions. Cover above illustrated by Emily Sams and designed by Isabel Wharton.
Who’s behind Flamingo?
I’m Siobhan, and I’m the editor and founder of Flamingo. Working alongside me are the talented Izzy and Grashina, who do art direction and features editing respectively and Flamingo is very much a collective effort. As well as the three of us, we have a great group of writers, illustrators and photographers who contribute regularly.
Image above: Siobhan Leddy by Laura Callaghan
When did you start the mag?
It started last year, around April, in a completely different incarnation. Originally we had some half-baked cabinet of curiosities idea, which is why we have the seemingly random name. The idea was to have pages of strange Victorian ephemera, with the monocled flamingo looking over it all. That isn’t even close to Flamingo now, and he’s much less snooty. Although he does still wear a top hat.
Either way, Flamingos are quite good regardless of context. I have a plastic one blue-tacked to my wall.
What’s it about and what’s the ethos behind it?
The phrase is a bit overused, but I’ve always been interested in the idea of doing-it-yourself. I mean, not in the home improvement sense, obviously, but in the sense of not needing buckets of cash and connections to start a creative project that people like. Because of this, Flamingo has evolved into a creative guide as much as a magazine, and we interview people from the creative industries to find out how they’ve set up their record label or drawn their latest illustration.
Illustration is a massive part of Flamingo too. We regularly interview some amazing illustrators about their doodling process, as well as provide a platform for them to showcase their work. The thing I love about illustration is that there’s no pretense to it – it can be silly or serious, or both.
Who is it for?
Flamingo is for anyone who wants to create something from nothing.
You are releasing your first printed edition soon, please tell us more.
Yeah, it’s all pretty exciting. Issue 1 is available from the start of March from www.flamingomagazine.com. I’ve always imagined Flamingo as a print magazine, and it’s finally hitting newsagents and art bookshops in March. It’s looking amazing as well, so I can’t wait to see it on the shelves. The launch party should be pretty good too – any excuse for a piss-up.
How did you get on in the interview with Yeasayer?
People are pretty nice. If you start talking to them, they’ll generally talk back. Although saying that, my chat with Yeasayer was over the phone, which makes everything infinitely more stressful. My phone has a habit of cutting out, so I should’ve just popped over to New York really.
Where do you want to take Flamingo?
I’ve got loads of plans, including an illustration exhibition and a pipe-dream plan to open a bar – although the dream is to make it a part of a nice collective thing, where everyone’s doing something different. How awesome would it be to just hang out with your friends all day making stuff?
Thanks Siobhan for these insights into setting up and running a new creative magazine. If you would like your work published in Flamingo then check out www.flamingomagazine.com and get in touch with them.
Buy Flamingo Magazine
You can buy issue one from the start of March for £4.95 from www.flamingomagazine.com. Other stockists that are yet to be confirmed. You can follow Flamingo Magazine on twitter: @flamingomag
For those who do not know you please describe what you do?
I play songs. I feel lucky you came across them.
What artists/ musicians/ things in general, are the main influences on your song writing?
Really good people are influential. Kind folks going about their ways. Family, friends, travels, the sea, the moon, a sweetheart – quite a few things are precious and influential. Music wise : some very beautiful music is made over in Omaha (where the album was recorded) – Neva Dinova, McCarthy Trenching, Thunder Power, Son, Ambulance – to name a few and they are inspiring in their own ways. Of late I’ve been writing quite a bit and listening to Patti Smith and Sam Cooke – and a song by Burnett & Rutherford called ‘All Night Long Blues’.. it’s such a good one! Listen to your Nana and Grandad – they’ll tell it like it is.
4) Here at Creature we’re pretty open-minded, so when this 
