When I was about 8 or 9 my father, who before I was born had published a couple of novels, decided to pack in work and commit to writing novels. It wasn’t long before the house, the TV etc. got repossessed and then my father moved us all to a rented house in Lincolnshire, miles away from anywhere. For the next 8 or 9 years there was no TV or record player, there was a radio which I don’t think was ever tuned to music, so there was no music in the house. I recall there was a group of girls who slouched in the corner of the playground or in the back of the school bus with sheet music droning their way through the latest songs and sometimes there would be music at friends houses and at the youth club. When I was about 15 I managed to swap a small transistor radio from a friend, which I kept secret as I knew there would be an inquisition from my father if he knew, “where did you get that from?”, “why do you want a radio?” etc. I listened to John Peel under the bed sheets late at night…….Yes!!!
I left school at 16 and went to Lincoln Art College for 2 years. Also about that time we got a TV, ‘The old grey whistle test’ with Bob Harris became a favourite. At college and at the parties there was music and whilst I was there punk and new wave burst on the scene. It was a real transformation, people I knew as into Northern Soul switched overnight from oxford bags to skinny jeans and had safety pins in their ears and noses.
When I was 18 I went to Nottingham to study fine art. Although there was plenty of music around, I still didn’t get a record player. It seemed to me that although I had a grant and a bit more money, I was never going to have enough to actually buy records on a regular basis.
Much of this has developed my habits for life, I don’t really have a ‘music collection’, a stack of more or less random cds, somewhere I have a bin bag of tapes of things I recorded from the radio or from other people’s records. I have never owned a TV, though now there’s loads to watch on the internet. I do have a record player (left by a former girlfriend), but I don’t have any records.
With my music, I know what kind of sound I am looking for but I don’t know what influences that or where it comes from. I wouldn’t say there are any artists I have been unwaveringly passionate about, I think the closest there might be Neil Young, not just for his music but for what seems like an unfussed approach to music making, which I find good for me to take on board as I can easily become obsessive over detail. I was watching Miles Davis a lot a bit back, I think more than anything for his uncompromising commitment to his creative vision. I think the way I listen to music is a bit dysfunctional, usually I have to listen to a song on repeat all day or for days if I find something I like. I recall when I came across ‘Rockstar’ by Post Malone, I couldn’t go to bed for days because I had to be listening to the song, I daren’t listen to it now because I know it will set me off.
I sometimes think the reason I ended up with so many songs of my own was because I don’t really have lots of songs in my head from things I’ve listened to. When I feel like singing, it mostly ends up being something of my own.
Anphortas 