Musoings with Jeremy Warmsley

Jeremy Warmsley

Jeremy Warmsley is a bit of a Muso’s Guide favourite, at least round these parts. How We Became is such an inviting record, so full of sonic variation yet with this very real, wholesome core of honesty. So it was our pleasure to speak with its purveyor on the phone for this very interesting conversation on opinion and such like. It went a little like this:

What are your favourite albums?
The Dreaming by Kate Bush. It’s a great example of someone who’s moulded as a key pop artist, someone who’s really tried to make something completely confrontational and difficult, and in fact very beautiful. A lot of people would’ve written Kate Bush off. Another one would be Richard D. James by Aphex Twin. People got used to the idea that Aphex Twin was difficult, but then he came up with this album which is really melodically good. It’s just so simple and beautiful. Recently I’ve been playing the Fanfarlo record a lot – it’s produced by Peter Katis, one of my favourite producers, it’s got great songs, great arrangements. And I’m going to be joining them on guitar on the tour coming up. Another is John Martyn’s Grace and Danger.

When you’re trying to convince people to listen to your favourite music, how do you go about it?
Sometimes music is good not just because of the music, but because of the context. So for instance, take The Dreaming – it must’ve been incredibly exciting when it came out, because you thought you knew what to expect but then she came out with something so all over the place. It made it more exciting. I’m quite sad so I like to look at Wikipedia quite a lot and talk about that. It’s funny, because it should just be about music, shouldn’t it?

Do you think there’s a place for reviews, then?
People don’t read reviews and say “I want to know if it’s any good” so I’m going to see if it’s any good, it’s more like “I wonder what’s been reviewed this week”. Be Here Now by Oasis got great reviews… I think it’s strange but not a bad thing. It promotes awareness of new music and that’s the main point, it’s just a shame that this way of getting to the music comes with the whole “this is good” and “this is bad”. That’s the way a lot reviewers write, they’re really laying down the law about things, and that’s a shame.

And press releases?
Again, you need a reason to want to check out this band – you’ve got to have some way to be able to quickly judge it. You need to see things that’ll make you interested. Bands that get noticed often have a really interesting story behind them.

What’s your take on the long term – do artists need to broaden their sound to succeed or is the best way forward to stick with what you’re good at?
It depends on the artist, really. If someone really can only be one thing, then they should just do that. It’s strange that it makes more difference than the actual artistry. People say “ooh have you heard the new album, they’ve gone really prog”. But it’s not really important. Or “it’s not as good as the last one so I’m not going to bother”.

If we go back to when say, Leonard Cohen first started out… do you think people are now more impatient?
The difference between now and 40 years ago is the amount of time artists take between albums. But does it make it harder to progress? Maybe not, maybe it makes it easier to progress. When you take The Beatles’ first few albums, they’re all identical. They didn’t have any time to develop. But now you’ve got a lot more time to test songs, to get them out there. With my last record, I’d written all of the songs around two and a half years before it came out.

How and why did that happen?
Well I wrote all the songs before the first record came out, and then recorded and mixed them at the beginning of the year. Problems with the label meant that it took another nine months after the initial six for the album to come out. It’s quite common really. Look at Animal Collective – every time they release an album they then tour with the songs from the next album. That’s one of the biggest problems with the music industry at the moment.

What’s your favourite way to listen to music?
On headphones in the dark is the ultimate way.

Do you think the levels of accessibility would have changed your musical influences if you’d have grown up in 2009? What did you listen to in your younger years?
I didn’t really get into music until I was 16 or 17. And it was the standard “hey, have a listen to this music it’s amazing” way that I found about things. It’s a lot easier to get hold of music, but…

You still have to know what you’re looking for?
Exactly. Someone has to tell you. You still have to develop an ability. If it doesn’t sound different and raw, you can’t appreciate it.

Let’s get personal. Do you ever second-guess yourself lyrically? Do you worry that you aren’t going to get across what you want to say? That is, if you want to make people understand something…
You do always worry about people misinterpreting your lyrics, though I actually really enjoy it. It’s one of the joys of being a songwriter, giving your thoughts to the world.

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