Interview With Badly Drawn Boy

Prior to my phone call with Damon Gough (better known as Badly Drawn Boy), I have asked the PR to forewarn him that I am home alone during lockdown with my 3 year old son due to my husband being a front line NHS worker. I am thankful that I did, for the moment I initially say hello, my son erupts in a tantrum. A few moments later, with a calmed son eating his lunch, our conversation manages to get under way and an empathetic Damon shed some light on his own lockdown experience, before we discuss his stunning new album Banana Skin Shoes...

Hello again, sorry about that. It's all calm now. You were saying you have a 3 year old as well...
Reuben's 3 tomorrow, so when people keep asking me about keeping busy in lockdown, just having him would be enough - but I am promoting this album as well.

My older kids are 19 and 18, so that's a big gap. Ultimately when Reuben came along, I was really just chuffed to be able to witness it again. Having a little baby again and watching him grow. He's so hilarious. That's the thing with kids, they are such a pain when they are not on form, but when they are on form, they are such a joy to have around. I wouldn't want it any other way. In a period like this, Reuben has been a good focus. It is hard right now to balance it, but Leanne, my wife has been amazing as I've done all manner of interviews, podcasts, radio, TV and virtual festivals. It's been the most mental period I can remember for a long while. For me it's been positive to have this to do, while being empathetic to what's going on in the world. It is a tough time for everyone.



It is quite a challenging time for everyone right now, it must be a strange time to release an album...
It seemed inevitable really quickly. The virus was one thing, but when the lockdown happened, you had to suddenly think about the impact on people's well-being and livelihoods. That is where we are at right now. That's a bigger issue than the virus on its own. I am by nature a worrier and a thinker, but if you thought it too much, it would drive you mad. You just have to stayed focused and hope for the best for your kids sake.

If I were on my own through this, I would crumble. To have other people to care for in life, it gives you motivation. It is one the reasons people want to have children, it is a basic human instinct. Its a desire or a need. We kind of want another, Leanne in particular, she's a bit younger than me, so she wants a companion for Reuben -  a brother or sister for him.

Companionship is the hardest part. The other challenge is not being able to just go out and clear your head over a coffee somewhere...

That's the abstract thing. When the government are trying to outline these rules, it is wishy washy to start. The hour a day of exercise is more about a change of scene, people need a change of scene to clear their head. As a writer you want to just walk around the block for a minute at the time you choose to do it. It just compromises everyone's basic freedom. I just wish they'd be clearer with it all.

The music industry has had to evolve quickly to cope with lockdown. How, as a musician, does it feel to balance your own lockdown experience with providing relief for your audience?

I'm glad you've asked in such a sympathetic way. I started doing a few gigs for this album in January, then I had a schedule of things that was going to happen to increase my online presence before lockdown was even a thing. I was doing some live streams and things. I found it challenging anyway, I'd never it before. Then lockdown happened and it shifted the reason for these. Psychologically I was thinking why am I doing this, I am promoting an album and I feel quite crass about it as people are actually lying out there dying. There are people being effected by this, why am I promoting an album?

I had to quickly adapt my thinking. I was only really broadcasting to people that were interested and they were logging onto whatever platform I was using. I was not trying to say, 'hey world, I've got a record'. I didn't want to be somebody on a sinking ship like the Titanic and still being Mr. Showbiz. I didn't want to think I was being important and telling people to watch me do this. I had to get my head around all of it. I had to conclude that I am helping people have an hour of respite in their week by playing online. It's something to look forward to.

Then it started to help me. Even though I am terrified each time before doing it, when I start, it is surprisingly similar to the feeling of doing a real gig. It doesn't replace it at all though, as you haven't got the shared experience of people in a room. Its been fascinating to discover it is as good as it can get in this situation as there is a direct connection to others with a sense of feedback.

A lot of artists have delayed record releases to a mixed reaction from audiences. Did you contemplate doing the same>

I am promoting a new record and that was decision I had to sit down and make with my management and label at the start of March, when this looked imminent. We weren't going to be able to do the tour, so should we still put the record out? It had been scheduled for a year. I, for one, couldn't see a reason to change it. The only reason to postpone it would be to wait for a more lucrative time, but you wouldn't be able to predict that. I'd been waiting long enough to put this record out. It doesn't become a record until other people have it. My core fanbase were really eager to have it.

Has lockdown had any other impact on you as an artist?

It has made me play my songs from my catalogue a lot more frequently than I would normally force myself to do. Its helped my grey matter. My hairs gone grey for a start! I've had to use my brain a bit more, which is only a good thing. I don't want to be smug and say I've enjoyed this. I've enjoyed moments, but the world is still a tough place and people are struggling. I just hope that my record helps people in a small way, even if its just one or two people.

It has been 8 years since your last album, Being Flynn. What prompted the decision to return with a new record?

As a writer, a day doesn't go by without me thinking about writing a song or another idea. Even an hour or a second. I am always thinking about music, unless I am occupied. The last 8 years has been pretty painful frustration that I haven't been able to compile a record. I've got thousands of ideas, I always add to them on a daily basis. There are songs that I started 25 years ago and those I started 10 years ago with those I wrote last week. They are nutshells of ideas that can one day become something when I finish them. In the last several years I was just waiting for the moment where I could finish enough of these to warrant an album.

The opportunity just wasn't coming as I had too many setbacks. The first problem was a break-up at the end of 2012. That knocked me for six. It took me a few years to find my feet, but I carried on drinking, which was one of the issues that caused the break-up. The drinking was caused by the job. Eight albums in twelve years, which was my output and touring the world every six months and two kids. That's what caused me to drink, to cope with all of that. Now, I've learnt to do it all without drink. It is not something I dwell on, but I am open to talk about it as it is my truth. 



How has the experience shaped your record?

This album is my truth. It is me trying to make sense of what happened to me and why it happened to me. I admit that most of it was my fault. I am fortunate to be in a better place now where I can make light of them, as I have come through it and I am still doing this. I am better for it and I have learnt from the mistakes.

It is my personal journey alongside the world itself being in a strange place. It almost parallels me. Mental health issues. The world itself has one en masse. I present this album as an antidote. I don't want to big it up too much, but it might at least be a bit of an antidote for the negative ill-feeling that has been permeating around planet Earth for the last five years - not least Brexit and climate change. The time that was wasted just bickering, especially now that coronavirus has just jumped into the picture and almost made a mockery of what we were all worrying about. It makes you wish you could just go back to that.

That's what this album is about too. In life we often wish to go back and change something, but we can't. There are a lot of references on the album to living in the moment and the future. We can't live in the past. The opening lines of the album are press play not stop or pause and not fast forward or rewind. You have to just live in the now and connect with your soul a bit more, think from your inner core. 

Banana Skin Shoes is a very different sounding record to your earlier work, was that a conscious decision?

I honestly never think what these songs are going to end up sounding like. If you look at The Beatles, as their career progressed they had no regard as to how they would play a record live. They were making music that was almost impossible to play live, so they gave up on that. As an artist I have no regard as to how I am playing the songs live. Somehow I manage to do it as I usually write the song on a piano or a guitar.

There are always so many options in production as to how you can flesh out that song. As a solo artist I have to rely on the producer. In this situation I was working with two producers, some with Youth and some with Pierce Stuart. I wasn't getting anywhere with those processes, I couldn't feel a finishing line coming any time soon, so I said to management I needed someone to take to bull by the horns, so I got Gethin in March last year and we finished the record.

Between me and Gethin we developed the sound. As a solo artist I have to rely on what he also brings to the table. I play some of the instruments - not all of them - and I write all the songs, and while I make all the final decisions on everything, but I also have to allow Gethin's personality in there. Some of the production is the way Gethin works. Some of these songs, if I had recorded them on the first album, they would have sounded like the first album. Banana Skin Shoes is actually a song idea from 25 years ago, so if I'd recorded that then, it would have sounded like my bedroom recordings from the mid-90s. You just want to make the best version of the song at the time you are recording it.



Banana Skin Shoes is available now