With his fourth studio album, ‘Studio Zoo’ all set for release, British king of the dreads and guitar master, Newton Faulkner is looking likely to get a massive reaction after live-streaming the entire recording process from his home studio.
I caught up with Newton just before the release of this fantastic album.
Hi Newton, how are you?
I’m good thanks, how are you?
Not too bad! Your fourth studio album is set to be released in 5 days- you must be feeling pretty fantastic?
Yeah, it’s so close now!
Quite a cool thing you did was live-stream the entire process 24/7 for 5 weeks, and just really allowed fans to interact with it all. How was that experience?
Yeah that was intense- really intense! But really good. The more we thought about it once we started, the better idea it became. It did so many things that we needed to do for a long time. It kind of just glued everything together in a way I don’t think anything else could have done.
Yeah, I find a lot of bands and artists try keep everything really secret before a release and sort of maximise the “chill effect” when it does come out, but this must have given you a real feel for how the reaction will be?
Yeah and also, just being able to get feedback while you’re doing it. To be able to do a guitar take and just be like “guys, what do you think? Is that cool?”- I was getting a bunch of people being like “yeah, that was wicked!”. But there was genuine criticism and stuff the whole time. It put me in a pretty unique position as an artist. Especially with the vocals- to have people watching you doing vocal takes very strange.
A few of your albums- especially the first two, have quite unusual names. How did you come up with them?
(laughs) ‘Handbuilt By Robots’, I’m trying to think! It was a phrase that popped into my head. Actually, I remember it exactly- on a VHS of Star Wars that was recorded off television and I used to watch as a child, there was a FIAT advert and it was trying to make the robotic building of cars into like, a beautiful ballet and then at the end it went “FIAT Punto- handbuilt by robots”, and the phrase just stuck in my head as an interesting thing. Then, the more I thought about it the more stuff you can attach to it. ‘Cause obviously, it’s acoustic music but it’s very much influenced by all kinds of things. And also, it’s impossible to record things without going to a computer. So that was that, and then ‘Rebuilt By Humans’ was completely my dad’s idea! My dad must have sent me hundreds and hundreds of album titles- I don’t know why, he just really got into it as like a pasttime and I’d get at least one an hour! And some were terrible, and even that one I was like “Dad, that’s embarrassingly bad!”, and then I thought about it a bit more and just thought “Oh shit! That’s really good!”, so yeah I should give him credit.
You’ve just announced a UK and Ireland tour- are you excited for that?
Very, I need a tour! I’m losing my mind! I’m not meant to be in one place for any length of time- I can’t wait!
Yeah, performing is something you obviously love doing, and you’ve played a hell of a lot of venues and quite a variety of gigs, including one on a hot air balloon!? Talk me through that experience- how did it come about?
Yeah, hot air balloons, pilots, all sorts of things! That was a Virgin Radio promotional thing, and they were amazing for the first album. They asked me if I wanted to broadcast a couple of songs from a hot air balloon and I was like, “yeah, that sounds hilarious”! It was such a ridiculous day ’cause it was on my birthday, so I was in a pretty good mood anyway, and then I go up in a hot air balloon to do a song, land and get given a double platinum disc, and then I end up in some club halfway up a mountain, really drunk! It was a good day on every level!
Depending on the venue or the setting, you’d mainly play on your own, but then sometimes with a few people or a full band-do you have a preference?
Yeah, I’ve been on my own for a while now! I played a few shows with a full band- a full band for me is like, two people- I had a bass player and a drummer out, and it was brilliant but people basically said they preferred it on my own and that was what they wanted from me, so I got into that. It was weird ’cause at the same time I was under a lot of pressure to make the second album sound more like ‘Dream Catch Me’ because that had done what it did, which was amazing! So it was weird- both things went in different directions at the same time. When I became more acoustic live, I became more produced! It was confusing for everyone, but I think with this record, I’ve gone back beyond my roots and before the first album and back to what I was doing which got me noticed in the first place.
Talking about performing, and all the different experiences you’ve in this job- what’s your favourite aspect of being a musician?
There’s nothing about it I don’t like. It’s almost like I was made in a test tube just to be a touring artist! Because, I meet a lot of people on the road and a lot of people complain and say “oh I don’t like this, I don’t like that, I can’t sleep on a bus”- I sleep better on a bus than I do in a bed. I love bus! [Yeah, a lot of musicians I talk to say they don’t like the continuous attention from fans?] Well, I think the level that I’m at is just really nice. It’s pleasantly chilled. And also, I think the way that I am with fans is I generally take down every barrier and I think that means people are generally a bit more relaxed. I meet people all the time and it’s just like “what you drinking? Aw, I’ll buy you a drink next time, why not”! It’s always just really relaxed and so nice. [I think fans just really appreciate a down-to-earth artist who isn’t completely separated.] Definitely. It’ll be really weird meeting people that watched the whole album process. They will actually properly know me quite well. You can’t really keep up any protection for that long. Not every second of every day, which is what it was. I didn’t cover up anything- I got angry, I shouted at people, I threw my phone down a couple of times, I got very angry with my mouse on a lot of occasions-a lot of computer based anger. I cried. It’s a very emotionally intense thing, making an album. Especially doing the vocals. Doing the vocals when you’re really tired as well. It was Nick Harper’s playing that made me cry actually! Nick Harper played on one of the tracks and and there was just something about it, it was very emotionally rich and there was a part that just really broke my heart a little bit. And then when the strings went down on ‘Don’t Let Me Go’, that really got to me as well. It’s the first album I’ve ever produced and engineered and it had such beautiful strings, and to engineer them and get them sounding just right is amazing. Like, I’ve experienced it a little bit before when people come into the studio and it’s got a producer, an engineer, and they kind of tweak it and stuff, but to actually do it all myself and hear it come together was amazing. It’s like watching a child grow up and leave home- it’s a very emotional thing.
You’re so passionate, it’s amazing! You obviously have a few musicians who’ve influenced and shaped your sound and the way you think in terms of your music, but if you’re just kickin’ back and chillin’, who do you like to listen to?
I listen to all kinds of stuff. My favourite thing to listen to at the moment is an album called ‘Thought For Food’ by The Books. It’s really weird but really good. Because I do music all the time, I find with stuff that’s even vaguely normal, I tend to analyse it. There’s a lot of things, like classics of even new stuff that’s good, that make me kind of switch of, but then there’s other things that I just analyse and be like “oh A minor there, I was expecting a B”! It’s just a whole different mindset. But then if I listen to completely weird stuff, I find it really relaxing. If it makes absolutely no sense- like the weirdest ends of Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart and then the really weird electronic stuff like The Books- I kind of started listening to that quite a while back.
Sweet! Well, thanks a million for that interview and best of luck with the album release.
My pleasure!
You can Pre-Order ‘Studio Zoo’ HERE.
Check out the Official Music Video for the first single off the album- ‘Losing Ground’ below: