Seth Lakeman released his latest album Poor Mans Heaven in June 2008. You can see from our review of it that we think its something special, in fact 'an album of passion and boiling energy'. We spoke to him the day before his Glastonbury appearance...
Hi Seth, all ready for Glastonbury?
We hung out there yesterday actually, en route to a gig we're doing in Crawley tonight.
Was the smoke bad from that scrap-yard fire that broke out?!
It was quite smokey yeah, the scrapyard fire that was going on was smothering all the caravans, I wouldn't want to be in one of them! But it was good, wandering around, hanging out....no music going on, apart from The Levelllers at about 11 o'clock last night, but all the music starts today.
We've just reviewed your new album, which is very good....you must be very pleased with it?
Yes, we're very happy...it's been a long awaited record, and we've been quite bold with it, but it's the best representation of a live sound that we've done so far.
I'd agree with that. It sounds like a very logical continuation of where you'd been going, I know with a big record deal there's often a lot of expectation and questions and all sorts of things, but it's worked. Although you can hear that you didn't record this one in someone's kitchen!
We had the luxury of doing it in a decent studio, but we kept far enough away from the label and that sort of heavy influence, so we've kept it very much controlled, and a vision that still carries on from Freedom Fields I think.
You are so rooted in the locale where you're from, the South West, but it isn't just that you write songs about it, it seems the whole rhythm of your voice, and the percussion and everything through it embodies the ruggedness of that area to a degree. How do you think you have changed as a songwriter since The Punchbowl right through to where you are now?
I think it's just been natural steps, like rungs on a ladder. I've felt I've grown in confidence and Poor Man's Heaven is a much brighter record, there's a lot of colour in the album, and I think after a few listens you become aware of all the stuff that's going on in the background which we spent ages on....
Yes, you must have spent a lot time mixing it, because there's a lot of layers
It's busy, the sound, but there's a lot of colour, you have some hurdy gurdys in there, the subtle backing vocals of the lovely Kathryn Roberts, also harmonica, which you hear on a Crimson Dawn, those heavy tribal drums at the start that leap out at you....
The rhythm and the pace of the album is very up with that all the way through...
Yes, it builds, and until you get to Solomon Browne which is a more poignant song, and it can breathe a bit, it's quite intense.
How do you go about writing your songs, do you start with the melody, the words, the story?
I would always start off with the melody, and something that suits my voice that has some sort of rhythm that I can really get into because obviously I'm quite a rhythmical singer. Then, depending on what key it is, and whether it's a minor, and depending on the hook, I would start with the chorus and work my way into a story and try and build it up fom there really....
You've done two or three songs with Steve Knightley on this album, again, he's very tied to the West Country and it's interesting to hear those sort of collaborations going on. You, I think more than anyone are saddled with this thing of being part of the 'Folk revival' which is a term that drives me round the bend really because a) folk has always been there and b) would you actually describe yourself as a folk musician? Eliza Carthy describes herself now as a 'Modern British Musician' rather than being a Folk Musician...
It's difficult, I think it's sometimes better for other people to label you rather than to label yourself, and just keep your sights firmly on what you believe in.
The fact is I do play the fiddle and I stomp my foot and I write songs, stories about people celebrating them past and present, and I'm very firmly rooted in the West Country, born and bred, so there's a heritage to that and I've grown up in the tradition. I would class myself as a folk musician, but I guess I'm not working on old folk songs necessarily and bringing them forward, I'm writing new versions of maybe some older stories....but I also sit in Eliza Carthy's camp as a Modern British Musician.
And it's in the family too, with Sam married to Cara Dillon, and Sean producing and in the band...
Absolutely, my father's still playing all the time, he's got a gig tonight, he goes down to the Folk Club every week on Dartmoor. It's still very much part of the family and always has been. My first performances were with my old man and the brothers, that really spurred us on, the competition of three brothers playing, who were all quite ambitious anyway!
Sean produces all of your albums, with you co-producing this one?
We kind of co-produce everything really, it's a hard thing to classify when you're there, we spark off each other really well, because we've always worked together since we were so young, but you get some arguments as well!
And you've got a heck of a lot of festivals lined up this year by the look of it?
We've got Glastonbury, we're in Crawley at the moment playing a festival here, off to Prague actually on Thursday to a rock festival there, alongside The Kaiser Chiefs, which should be fun! To be honest, they love fiddle-based music over there, and we've done a lot of work there so we might even draw a bigger crowd than The Kaisers!
Why not! The record deal hopefully has afforded you more time to explore what you want to achieve musically, and also I guess it allows you to spread your appeal overseas to some degree?
Yes, it definitely is going to help internationally, and I think this record has a broader appeal in other territories, which I couldn't reach myself, so that's quite exciting. Also having the luxury of a recording studio which I couldn't really afford, those amazing live sounding drums I recorded down in Cornwall in a place called Airfield Studios, which the record company paid for. And also the big marketing machine...to get onto radio, and get plugs and that sort of stuff, it's an important vehicle to have or be a part of...
Does it get a bit wearing for you sometimes, doing all these interviews?
It does sometimes yeah, but I guess I know it's a intriguing job that I do and I can understand why people might want to know a bit more about it. It drains me sometimes with the pressure from the record label, when they might want to interfere artistically though....
The Mercury nomination, the folk awards, they are huge things for someone's career because they build a profile and recognition, but do the awards have an artistic payback as well?
I think you've really hit the nail on the head there, awards can really build the foundations for your career. The Mercury award was the break for me, I realised I could go out there as a solo artist and pay the boys who had been doing it for nothing. It's obviously very flattering if you get an award but at the end of the day, it's just a few people's take on a record. I don't know how seriously it should affect the way you write or who you write for, some people sometimes do that, which is a danger. People do actually write records with that in the back of their mind.
For the live performances do you think your previous material will be brought up to the same level of speed as this album?
I think really the thing that has changed is the inclusion in the band of Andy Tween who is a great drummer and really intrinsic to Poor Man's Heaven, he's like the engine room, him and Ben, the double bass player. They provide this really heavy rhythmic sound, driving along, that really has changed a lot of the older material as well, songs like The Colliers, which we wouldn't normally have had the drums on. So that is more exciting definitely, working with Andy. It's changed the way I'm singing and working, and We're more of a united front, the band.
You are first and foremost a live performer, and you've resisted the tempatation of going mad in the studio, you have produced an album that you can do justice to in a live performance...
Yes, we can recreate it. It's something that we can take out there and we'd actually playing a lot of these songs the way they were, and we've been getting reactions from people so I think that gives you more confidence to take it into a studio, and really record it well and be confident about your playing. So I think that's a big step for us as a band and we've kind of moved forward without a doubt.
Will you be touring in the autumn?
Yes, we'll be out in the autumn actually for a good three week tour all round the country and a bit of Ireland as well, so all sorts going on to back up this record.
You'll be knackered!
Yes, I've got quite a full on promotional schedule that they're throwing at me! But if it gets the music out there it's all worth it
Yes, what it's doing for accoustic roots music is all good isn't it? And I think you got to the root of it when you said in one of your interviews that actually it's just entertainment...it's about making people happy, that's fundamentally it....
Thanks for your time Seth
Iain Hazlewood
PROFILE | OFFICIAL SITE | MYSPACE
Other interviews
Latest Headlines