The indie-pop songwriting duo is composed of Jamie Wortley (guitar, keys, lead vocals) and Michael Brown (bass, keys, brass, vocals). They finally released their debut album on 26th January nearly three decades from when they wrote it. We got to chat with them about their artistry, new release and upcoming plans.
– Congratulations on the release of your debut album, “Songs For The Small Places”! How does it feel to finally have this album out after nearly three decades since it was recorded?
J: With mixed emotions. On the one hand, we’re excited to see how it will be received, and on the other, we’re intimidated by what that reaction might be.
M: We’re accepting of the idea that it could be met with complete indifference – as an anachronism. But what we’re really hoping for is the exact opposite – as a work that deserves to be heard, and to be loved.
J: It’s been a long journey to get it here – there’s a strong sense of closure – this has been unfinished business for both of us.
– Can you share with us the journey behind bringing this album to light after all these years? What were some of the challenges you faced along the way?
M: Our story starts with a dream – of making it in music. We spent our late teens and throughout our twenties in the back of a van, on the road, in studios and on stages – we achieved two major recording deals. We experienced many of the things we aspired to as young musician starting out…
J: Doing TV, playing festivals, hearing your songs on the radio, meeting your musical heroes. We’ve played Glastonbury, we’ve been on Saturday Morning TV shows, we’ve toured with Blur, Squeeze, Nick Heyward – we were even given away as a sticker in Smash Hits back in the day. Mike’s mum still has that sticker on the back of her toilet door.
M: Ha yes, it’s true. As good as all this was though, ultimately, though, we got dumped by our label for not selling enough music. Or ‘units’ as the music business preferred to refer to it – a commoditised approach to artistic expression. And that happened to us, not once but twice.
J: This was in an era with an unrecognisably different business model to that which exists today – back then, the expectation for any artist on a major label was to sell 100s of 000s of physical product in their first releases.
M: So, when that happens twice, you begin to think that maybe fate is trying to tell you something. There’s an undermining of your confidence as artists, and an evaluation – we were still young, but not that young by music industry standards – let’s face it, it’s an ageist business – did we want to stick around tragically trying to preserve our youth, or did we want to grow as people?
J: And that became our biggest challenge – we still loved writing music, but it felt like the platform to continue to do that was closed to us. In the end, even though we’ have some great memories, we were bruised by our experience of the business. We went away for a period of reflection, did other things outside the bubble that is music, we became more human in a way.
M: At risk of over romanticising it, our journey to bring Songs for the Small Places into the light has been in reclaiming our artistic self believe, and then there was the matter of reclaiming our material that had been buried within the complexities of the music business – extracting the rights to our work.
J: Not only that, we’ve gone on to have complex lives – just like any other human, and life stuff takes you off on other journeys.
– The album’s title, “Songs For The Small Places” seems to evoke a sense of intimacy and connection. Could you tell us more about the inspiration behind the title and the themes explored in the album?
M:. It’s a celebration of how the place you come from shapes your outlook on life – for good and bad. And also how you always carry a little bit of that place with you, no matter how far you travel, or grow as a person. Songs for the Small Places is about the person you might evolve into, your future potential so to speak, while celebrating the person you used to be.
J: Which is what some of the reviews are picking up on – Louder Than War referred to it as a kind of nostalgia for the future. It’s about loving who you are and where you’re from. But also, to not be confined by those things. Which we feel is a journey that’s universal to everyone.
M: Exactly, whether that’s Bournemouth, Bristol, Beijing or Bangalore. Songs for the Small Places contains a lot about the passage to adulthood and really importantly for both of us, how failure is more likely than success. Actually there’s something that happened to us that kind of underlines the idea that the spectre of failure is always lurking – remember the Capital Radio Roadshows Jamie? The one when Boyzone were on too?
J: How could I forget – at the hilariously un-rock n roll backdrop of Chessington World of Adventure.
M: Our record label sent a Limo to take us to the show – the one and only time that happened to us. When we arrived at the back of the compound to slowly drive into the backstage area, it was full of screaming teens, who saw the Limo with its blacked-out windows and drew one conclusion – Boyzone were inside.
J: It turned into chaos as fans started prostrating themselves on the bonnet and the roof of the motor.
M: We got to appreciate, all be it very briefly and under false pretences, what it was like to be the subject of mass adulation…
J: But then we had to get out of the Limo! When we did, the deafening roar turned instantly to pin-drop silence, and after a couple of seconds, as we stood looking at the gathered multitude and they at us, a lone, adolescent voice enquired… who the f**k is that!?
M: It was kind of like a higher power popping up at a time when we might have been a bit smug about ourselves – to remind us of our true position in life.
– It’s inspiring to hear that a portion of the sales from the album will go to the suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably. Can you elaborate on why you chose this charity and the importance of supporting mental health awareness through your music?
M: Poor mental health is often an unwanted bedfellow with creative people. Look at what happened with Lewis Capaldi for instance. If people who need help, don’t get the right signposting, or counselling, then that is potentially fatal. 1 in 5 of us will harbour suicidal thoughts over the course of a lifetime – this is a societal issue we’ve all been touched by, which makes Campaign Against Living Miserably and their mission in suicide prevention something everybody should support.
– With the resurgence of interest in 90s music, how do you think “Songs For The Small Places” fits into the current music landscape, and what do you hope listeners take away from the album?
M: Undoubtedly, the 90s’ sound is back in favour – you can hear it’s influences in the present-day music scene. At the same time, we’re big believers in the power of the song – the words, the melody and its combined emotive pull should rise above the way the song is produced, whatever production techniques and technology were fashionable at the time a song was written or recorded.
J: Sure, the sound may reflect an identifiable era, but we believe a good song will always be recognised as that. We think the messages in the album, and the melodies that deliver the emotive pull are timeless; but we don’t want anyone to take our word for it. All we’re hopeful for, is that these songs will reach the ears of the discerning listener and be given a fair chance to be loved, or otherwise, on their artistic merit alone.
– Looking ahead, what are your plans for promoting the album and any future projects in the pipeline for Giant Killers?
M: We have to work the album first – we’re currently engaged in getting some good reviews at press, and music blogs sites.
J: There are two singles from the album in pipeline before the year is out and – we’re hopeful of leveraging the critical acclaim to maximise our potential to get on some radio playlists.
M: We have more material to bring to the world – after Songs for the Small Places, we set off on a quest to write a collection of new ways of looking at the subject of Love – which is interesting as a writer as it’s the most common thematic in popular music
J: Which makes it ripe for a bit of shaking up. We’re looking forwards to bringing that collection out into the light in the future.
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