is it a hard line to traverse, or do you try and ignore it all? Well it’s a difficult one because people are very passionate about it and purists like to keep things in a place that it’s comfortable for them and they don’t like the way that music can be influenced by other genres, so sometimes yeah, it’s a difficult tightrope to tread, but I think in a way, it’s something you’ve got to ignore as well, because it can influence what you’re doing too much. You’ve got to evolve; that’s the most important thing about any musical genre, you’ve got to evolve.
With the new album, ‘Tales from the Barrel House’, I think what’s good is that sometimes you live in an area and forget to look at its history and legacies because you’re too close to it, but you’ve managed to delve into the area again and unlock its secrets – was that your aim? Yeah, exactly, the concept was to explore all these forgotten trades and forgotten secrets, exactly – accounts of people working and how that reflected the surrounding area. I think there’s a certain passion for that, that’s sometimes forgotten. It was also about stepping back and in a way, combining the sound with the subject, you know, in terms of the way it was recorded, and the treatment, exactly as you’re saying. Usually, traditional records aren’t really made for that treatment, so I don’t know if a lot of them get it, because it’s quite an indie, leftfield record. Some people have said to me, ‘was that recorded on a Dictaphone?!’ but I don’t think they quite understood what I was trying to do. It was capturing the environment and the atmosphere, the sounds of ghosts of the past.
Lots of people have picked up on the fact that you recorded ‘More than Money’ in a coal chamber, and it’s not like it was a converted space that was now a studio – it was a coal chamber! Were there elements of your space that you had to adapt for? Yeah, recording that harsh, edgy sound that you can hear from the start of the record, worked very well. We were incredibly lucky with the sound all the way through the album on the whole of ‘…Barrel House’. Myself and the engineer, when we finally got back to the studio to hear it on proper speakers – ‘cause when you’re there you’re just hearing it through headphones so you
don’t know what you’re collecting – it was almost like field recordings, it was similar to that. Yeah, we were quite surprised how things were sounding and the banjo was the thing that was reflecting off the walls the best. It just seemed to sound alive, it was incredible.
So I saw the picture of the Honour Oak Tree on Facebook and I’m assuming that’s where you got the name for the record label. Tat’s quintessential of your work then, unearthing and bringing back to life these forgotten fables – is that fair to say? Yeah and it’s a tree right next to where we live now; we moved and it was like a turning, a new direction in what we were trying to achieve and going back to roots, reflecting roots, yeah.
You’ve managed to keep your releases pretty frequent; what do you attribute to your constant creativity, or is it actually harder than it appears to maintain? Oh, it’s incredibly hard all the time! Like today, I give up a lot of stuff to write and it’s my only hobby – well it’s my job – but I do enjoy the process. In a way it’s likean obsession when you’re creating something from just the thread of an idea, then you’re right at the point where it’s on a record or it’s being performed live something – it’s a buzz.
Te idea of what the end result might be, does that give you enough self-
When we went to Libya, I was inspired by the rhythms and a song that I wrote about 2 or 3 years ago called ‘Blood Red Sky’
Seth Lakeman heads the bill for the brilliant first edition of the Folk East Festival, which runs for 3 days over 24th-26th August at Somerleyton Hall. For tickets and more info, go to
www.folkeast.co.uk
outlineonline.co.uk / August 2012/ 17
motivation, and are you good at sticking to that? Yeah, pretty much, sticking to that process yeah. Especially as I’m a few records in, you’re used to the process and about now’s the time I start to knuckle down. At the moment I’m writing a new idea about word of mouth, collecting aural history about people who are talking, at this moment in time, about what they’re doing. So yeah, you kind of get your head into whatever space is needed for that moment… It’s an interesting career to be part of in that way!
When you were signed to Virgin, you probably didn’t even realise the shackles that were being placed upon you, but inevitably with a major there are. Now you’re not with them, what are you enjoying most about your freedom? Well, being able to write and being able to sing in the way you want to do it; they never really controlled my performance but there was certainly a lot of guidance and suggestion in terms of writing. I think records have a certain… well, they sound contrived sometimes because of that, so now artistically, being able to make something that I wanted to make… It’s far more liberating now, being able to work on my own label and write what I want to write. It’s freedom and a breath of fresh air.
Emma Garwood
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