95 / 97
stack.net.au
2 1
songs. I also think I’ve matured quite a lot
as a songwriter and musician. When I was
younger, the easy songs to write were the
sadder songs. Also, they kind of gave me
a sort of therapy. There are still very quiet
moments in this album - there’s a song
which is just one take of me and a guitar.
There’s a song at the end of the album,
just me and a piano. There are still very
intimate moments, but you’re right, I think
it’s just the way it happened.
The imagery within your lyrics is
striking, specifically in
Deep TheWate
r
with “When your hair spills light on my
shoulders” and in
Little Light
, “I was
longing for the rain, you were the flood
that made me overflow.” Does it take
you a while to get them the way you
would like them to be?
The lyrics are extremely important to
me, so it’s great that you’ve picked up
on that. Yeah, they take me a long time
to write. I want to get them right. And
hopefully I’ll be singing these songs for
the rest of my life, and so [I want to]
always live in that moment. It takes me
much longer to write the songs, but I
think that’s a much better payoff at the
end.
How did the idea for your 360 music
video for
Little Light
come about?
I’d done a show in London earlier in
the year with the band, and this company
[called Melody VR] approached us and
said they’d really like to record the gig in
virtual reality, and have people be able to
plug in and be in the middle of the crowd,
and be on stage, with their headsets...
[It was] something I just found extremely
interesting. It worked out they found it
would be easier if we were in [an] open
space with natural light, so my manager
[...] found this place in East London. We
all got up on this roof and played the track
through to a kind of futuristic camera, and
it came out really well.
Why was that specific roof chosen
when it seemed like there were a lot
of pallets and planks of wood lying
around - was it in construction?
It was being refurbed at the time, but
I really liked that look of it being quite
derelict, and not pristine. Actually, it’s
funny, the guys working on it had said we
couldn’t walk past a certain line because
we’d just fall through the roof and die,
really. So we set up far away from that
and just played the song. But yeah, it
just had a good look. It wasn’t perfect. It
wasn’t pristine. That was something that
excited me.
You had over 90 songs when you went
to write
The Morning
.Was it a similar
situation with
midnight
?
I think there were 95 songs. Yeah, they
certainly weren’t all album material. My
manager and myself have a songwriting
folder where all of the songs are, and
we just kind of looked through that and
made sure there weren’t any songs that
were getting overlooked. There are a lot of
demos to pick from. On this trip to Sydney
we were looking through the folder again
and listening to demos, and [we’ve] picked
a few already for the next album. It’s a
good problem to have, too many songs.
You’re known for your stripped-back,
acoustic versions of songs, especially
on some of your older YouTube clips.
How do you bring that style to live
shows whilst still giving an energetic
performance?
When we do a live show with the
band, I’ll take a third of the gig and do
it by myself and play the more intimate
songs. I like to get into the crowd a lot,
and play and have them sing along and
get them involved. The bigger songs are
very personal to me and I feel like I get
quite self-indulgent on stage, which I don’t
think is a bad thing. I just reach inside and
sing new songs, and hopefully that comes
across.
Being a punter at my show... it’s
something I’ll never be able to go through.
I think even with the bigger-sounding
songs, it’s still very close and very
personal. Whenever I go to a gig, that’s
what I’m after. I can [get a] snapshot of
how that artist is feeling, and the array
of their emotions. That’s what I try and
replicate for people coming to my gig.
Lewis Watson is touring the land Down
Under in June on the following dates;
15th Jun @
The Factory Theatre, Sydney
16th Jun @
The Triffid, Brisbane
17th Jun @
The Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne (18+)
18th Jun @
The Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne
21st Jun @
Fowlers Live, Adelaide
22nd Jun @
Astor Theatre, Perth
midnight
is out now via Cooking Vinyl.