Hiya Jeremy, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
Thanks for joining us today… Tell us a bit about where you are from and how you got into music?
I grew up on the south coast of England in the 1970s, which is probably not where you would expect a double album about grief, economics and plastic-eating bacteria to come from.
Music found me early – largely as a psychological crutch that carried me through a challenging childhood (it’s all in the album..). The first record I bought with my own money was Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which did set an unreasonably high bar for everything that followed!
There is a song on the album that specifically name checks Bowie about what it meant to be a teenager in a band in the mid-80s. But John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, The Clash, Randy Newman, Nick Drake – the whole album is a love letter to my heroes!
What’s the live music scene like in Banbury right now?
There is some good quality work but its mainly local pubs, bars, and social clubs around the Town Centre: weekend acoustic sets, rock covers, and local jam sessions.
Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
I have recently been enjoying South American music. Silvana Estrada and Mari Froes are lovely.
Do you think it’s easy to become a victim of our surroundings sometimes?
My work is studio based so not particularly affected by the local music scene. Having said that, we write about our environment and day-to-day experience so it’s important to widen that as far as possible to keep the material fresh and interesting.
What are your ambitions for the project?
I am making this music because I love doing it and feel I have something to say. My ambition is just that people will find some joy or inspiration from the work.
What’s your favourite social media platform to use and why?
Honestly, I struggle with the social media thing. If it were possible I’d go down the whole Milli Vanilli path and have a handsome rugged avatar posing moodily in shop windows!
We believe it’s essential to have a presence on Facebook, Instagram and X to introduce yourself to all the different types of audiences out there, what’s your thoughts on that?
I think you’re right, but it’s not a part of the business that comes naturally to me. I can’t promise too much but I’ll do my best!
What’s your view on the music industry today?
I think it’s a really exciting time for artists to be creating music. We have unprecedented opportunity in production and distribution – in fact that’s exactly what has made this project possible.
Any period of significant change is frightening and destabilising, but from a creative perspective this is the musical equivalent of the Cambrian Explosion.
What are your thoughts on AI generated music?
This album exists because of the availability of an AI session band – I guess that makes me either a perfect or a terrible person to answer the question!
The project was initially planned as a collaborative work but – for many of the usual reasons amongst musicians – it never quite came together. My original plan was to finalise some demos using an AI session band, but as I got further into it I found that something really quite special was happening.
My singing voice is adequate at best and certainly wouldn’t carry an album of this weight, so I used the AI like a prosthetic. The vocal character across this album has a specific quality – that slightly raspy, conversational, earnest delivery – and it belongs to these songs.
A hired singer, however talented, would bring their own instrument and their own interpretation. Some of that might be better in isolation, but this way I am using the AI to deliver my very personal emotions.
I believe the legitimacy in this music comes from the work, not the production method. I have created 24 tracks of original songwriting with genuine emotional depth, strong arrangements, and a coherent artistic vision that could not have happened without it.
What’s the biggest thing you have learned recently as you progress with your music?
Emotional authenticity and unconditional exposure sound good on vinyl!
What’s currently in your ears and on rotation at the moment?
I love listening to new music. IYAMAH is a brilliant artist, I like the work that Kelly Boesch is doing. I already mentioned Silvana Estrada and Mari Froes but should add the wonderful Laura Itandehui & Valeria Castro to the list. Eloise, Celeste and Souad Massi are always fabulous and Bia Ferreira is my current favourite.
What was your worst experience on stage? Any funny stories to share?
There are a couple I can share…
The first: we were playing in a venue where the DJ console was mounted at the front of the stage on a hydraulic platform. It sank into the floor before we played so the band could set up behind it. About two songs in, our keyboard player got a little carried away and his synth stand went over the edge, taking the Roland and a significant portion of the DJ’s equipment down into the pit with it. Thirty-minute hiatus. Neither the Roland nor the DJ console was ever quite the same again.
The second is more of a slow-motion disaster. I was in a very serious indie band based in Walthamstow in the 80s – think long coats, important opinions about Margaret Thatcher. We somehow got ourselves booked into a pub called the Tower, which had a clientele that was very old school Walthamstow. Think the Blues Brothers playing Rawhide. We ended up playing Hound Dog and Stand By Me from memory to an enthralled crowd. It went down so well that it became an every-Friday-night residency because we were all far too scared to say no.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
Scenes from a Well Worn Path is a 24-track double album releasing one side at a time across four months, starting 25th August (Side Two scheduled for the 25th September). It is the first music I have ever released under my own name.
The album moves through a lot of territory – grief, addiction, moral failure, economics, politics, plastic-eating bacteria. It’s an unflinching look at the world as it is – and my small part in it – without despair and without false comfort.
Side One is six tracks. “Be Me” is the featured track and a perfect opener to explain the mechanism behind my confidence to write, produce and release this album.
What was the recording process like?
Entirely solo, entirely independent, and entirely unlike anything I had done before.
I write all the music and lyrics and play all the acoustic guitars and bass. Drums and vocals are AI-assisted. The vocal model was trained on my own voice samples, which makes it feel genuinely mine rather than borrowed. The process is painstaking and iterative: recording stems, shaping them in Ableton Live, running them back through AI tools, adjusting, repeating.
My studio has taken on a role as rock ‘n’ roll confessional. Working alone meant there was nowhere to hide, which is exactly why the album sounds the way it does.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
Honestly? No. And that surprises me.
I am a natural second-guesser, but the album is what it needed to be. Every track went through enough iterations that by the time it was finished, it had found its form. The imperfections that remain are the ones that belong there – including some slightly pitchy fretless bass that I was talked out of correcting.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
Just this: the path is well worth walking.
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