It may seem hard to believe, but it’s been 14 years since Newton Faulkner burst onto the scene with his debut studio album, Hand Built By Robots, back in 2007.
The album was a smash hit, topping the UK charts and yielding singles including Dream Catch Me, which reached number seven. Since then Faulkner has released a further five albums and a greatest hits record, appeared in the musical American Idiot and performed to sold-out crowds and festival audiences around the world. Now he’s back with his latest record, ‘Interference (Of Light)’, which is his first new material since 2017 and features different tracklistings across the vinyl, CD and digital formats.
I recently caught up with Newton to discuss the album, the challenges of making a record in a pandemic, his experience of touring in a post-Covid world, plans to go back out on the road, the children’s album he worked on during lockdown and more.
We last spoke to you when you were releasing your greatest hits album. What have you been up to since then?
What have I been doing since then? I mean… Obviously everything went very weird quite shortly afterwards in some ways. Because the best of took us up to the end of the year before, what was that, 2019?
Yes…
Yeah, so the campaign ran to the end of that. And then there was the very beginning of that year and then we were into full pandemic after that. So a lot of it’s just been making the new album, really. I mean, I haven’t done that much else. Because there hasn’t been that much else to do! [laughs]
Speaking of the new record – can you tell us a bit more about that?
Yes, it is by far the longest I have ever spent making anything. You’re probably going to hear this from quite a few artists in the next few months [laughs] because everyone… the industry’s very fast, usually. And usually when I ask ‘when does this need to be finished?’ they’re like, ‘well you said it was going to be finished four weeks ago so you can just do it?’ [laughs] It’s always that kind of vibe. So then with this record it was the polar opposite. Like, ‘when does this need finishing?’ ‘it doesn’t really’. Because you don’t know when the record’s gonna come out, you don’t know when you’re touring. There wasn’t that usual amassing of patter and aligning timelines and all that sort of stuff.
So with that space and time and everything that goes with it, I’ve just had time to really explore and experiment, and learn as well. I learnt so much stuff that I would have palmed off if I was in a rush, especially instrument wise and a lot of production stuff and synth stuff. I was going to bed with manuals of things. I was like, ‘right, how the f*** do I do that?’ [laughs] Because I just kept hitting roadblocks. And all the people that I’d usually be like, ‘do you want to come in for a day and we can just bash everything out and dig in’ it just wasn’t possible. So instead I just put loads of time in.
And it’s put me in a really good position coming out, because I think for the first time I’ve produced a radio single. Not just on my own, I’ve had help finishing it off and it’s always great to bounce ideas off other people, but nothing’s ever come out of this room ready to go to that level. I’ve done loads of album tracks and I’ve obviously recorded all the parts for singles for radio stuff but then it’s gone off to someone and they’ve done loads of stuff to it and then it’s gone out. Whereas now I’ve got to the stage where it’s pretty much there before it leaves my studio, which is incredible considering how much work it’s taken [laughs].
It’s like a whole other skill set because obviously when I started out I was just playing guitar and singing. There were three things I was trying to achieve on the same level – I wanted to be as good a player as I was a singer as I was a writer. That was the challenge I set myself when I was 19. So I was comparing myself to someone like Joni Mitchell and it was a very short list of people at that level and I wanted to try and fight to get in that zone. So every time my playing leapt up a notch I put loads of time into my voice, and every time I felt my ability was not being met by my writing I dug into the science of writing a lot more and trying to get that better. But then what’s happened over the years is I’ve just added more things to that list. So instead of just those three there’s now engineering and production [laughs].
And also I played loads of drums on this record. That’s something that going back through time I’ve always outsourced. But with this record I was like, ‘OK, it needs drums. They’ve gotta be real drums, it can’t be programmed. I’m not in a rush, let’s put a click on and learn how to play drums’. That was how I spent my time. What I did underestimate was the challenges of engineering drums and recording drums and producing drums to a point where they’re ready to go. That is a technical challenge I wasn’t quite ready for.
One thing that stands out from the record is there’s a huge variety of sounds on it but it also has a very stripped back feel. Was that something you were aiming for when you were making the record or did it just evolve that way?
You know, a lot of it came out of the name of the album. So the album title came really early, and then the artwork with all the kind of bright colours for me set the tone for the record itself. Usually I do treat the Best Of as a line, and everything before that fitted into one space and everything after that, I wanted to get off that path and go somewhere a bit different. Obviously not completely different [laughs] but definitely I wanted you to be able to hear the difference. Like Leave Me Lonely and Four Leaf Clover don’t fit on any other record I’ve ever made. It’s a different type of animal. That was something I was very conscious of.
And then with these kind of bright flashes of colour, I was treating those as either genres or instrumentation. So something like Riding High, like the brass I think of as one of those colours. Or the choir at the end of Killing Time is another bold short thing that doesn’t happen again. There’s loads of things that kind of appear and disappear and genre wise I was very happy for it to feel like you don’t know what it’s going to do next, which is something I really wanted to set up with the first two tracks. Because I was thinking if I do something heavy and I do something else heavy, people will just be like, ‘oh it’s a heavy album’. Whereas I think in the first two tracks, which took a while to get the kind of movement between them right.
But you get Sinking Sand which is essentially just like a left rock song. And then to get into the next track, the intro for Cage is that little Sega, Nintendo Mega Drive thing. Because I had the melody in my head but I had no idea what to do instrumentation wise. I just wanted to get the idea down and remember that little bleepy-bleepy noise and just kind of built it out of those, just so I didn’t forget the melody. But I just fell in love with those sounds, so they became the intro. And I think going from the end of Sinking Sand, from kind of heavy rock to tiny little 8-bit bleep-bleepy noises into the full track of Cage – which again is kind of almost like a soul… is it a ballad or not? I don’t think it’s quite. It’s a mid tempo souly vibe. And I was really happy because I did think those two tracks let you know that everything in between them is gonna have its place on the album. And I think everything… yeah, I covered all the bases that I set out to cover.
It’s actually much longer than I originally thought it was going to be. But actually all the different mediums are different lengths. That was a weird idea but I think it’s kind of necessary these days. With the CD being different from the vinyl being different from the Spotify stuff, or streaming platform things. That was kind of a conscious decision that came out of going back over things and pulling things out my cupboard. I had friends round for dinner when friends were allowed that one week [laughs]. One of them just put on Hit The Ground Running on vinyl, which sounded really good technically because there’s one side that’s only got three tracks on it. But at the same time as it sounding good it was a total pain in the a***. Because you’d have two mouthfuls of whatever you were eating and then you’d have to get up and flip it. I mean it would be OK if you were just on headphones, but as an experience and as a shared experience which for me is what vinyl’s become, it just wasn’t very practical.
So the full 17 tracks would have had to go over two discs, or just sound really bad. Because obviously the more tracks you put on a side the less bass response you get and the less deeper the sounds are. And I wanted to avoid it sounding like that but I didn’t want it to be impractical. So what I did is I went back through loads of classic vinyl albums and I mapped out their tempo and feel trajectory. And then put the 17 tracks in front of me and was like, ‘OK, that’s kind of the same feel as that, that’s the same tempo as that, that’s the same vibe as that so let’s put those together’. And then I kind of superimposed the work I’d done over a bunch of classic albums to make a shape that kind of fits traditional vinyl vibes from start to finish. So it was a very fun exercise. It was definitely quite challenging at times.
Also the last two tracks are the other way round, which doesn’t really make sense [laughs]. And I definitely wrote Interference, the track, as the last track. It was like, ‘this feels like riding into the sunset so let’s get that vibe’. But then with the vinyl, they flip sides. With the CD, I wanted to make it closer to the first album which was obviously a very big CD medium album. It was kind of in the last year that CDs sold decent numbers and immediately after that things dropped off really fast. And so as a nod to the first album and to the CD medium as a whole I thought I’d put in a couple of interludes just to smooth the way it moves. Which obviously isn’t as much of a thing with Spotify, because with Spotify people can pick and choose what they want. They’ll put it in their own playlist, they’ll shuffle it, so the order I’m putting it in is less important. And with the vinyl it doesn’t really make sense to waste time. So they went on the CD.
But yeah, it was a weird idea but I do think it’ll make each thing work. I think if anyone only listens to one of them they’ll have one vibe and one kind of feeling, and then if they do come to a gig and buy a CD it’s a slightly different experience again, and then if they’ve got the vinyl that’s a very kind of bespoke, tailored thing.
You’ve touched on this a bit already but how did you find the experience of making an album in such unusual circumstances? And is there anything you’ve learned from this that you’ll apply to future projects?
100 per cent. There’s loads of things. Loads of technical stuff. So there’s some software called Audio Movements which the record would not have been able to be made without, really, or would have taken considerably longer. What it does is if someone’s mixing the record, which is where we first got into it, me and Darren have a streaming link, and on that link we listen to what the mix is doing in real time. And then we have Zoom or WhatsApp up on our phones and in between each listen through we talk about what’s working and what isn’t working well. It’s like, ‘this is good but the vocal’s not sitting quite right’, so you sit there making notes. And it’s very, very focused work, probably more focused than if we were in the same room. Because if you’re in the same room you’re watching all the little knobs and lights and you’re being distracted by all kinds of other things. But there’s no visual aspect at all, you’re just listening. And that’s really amazing.
So when I was recording the drums for the last track, I had Darren hearing my feed and like, ‘this is getting really close, just keep going’. And he was doing emails while I was doing drums and then it was like, ‘yeah that was it, that was the one, do that!’ That’s something I never would have really thought to do. I would have either asked someone to get on a train and come to me or gone… it was being mixed in Metropolis which is the other side of London, so I’m east and that’s west. Actually the first time I worked with the guy that mixed 90 per cent of this record, I got on trains for an hour and a half to go and hear this mix, sat down in the chair, hit go and was like, ‘…s***. I have no notes. That’s done’. That was it. So that was kind of three, four hours of solid travelling [laughs] to say nothing! So I’d like to avoid that in the future. But that was good.
It was also the first time I’d worked with Liam, and Liam is unbelievably good at what he does. Just astonishing. What he did with some of the tracks… the one that really caught me off guard was Rest Of Me. What I sent – in terms of my mixing abilities, something that sounded like a very indie mess. And it was nice, it worked and all the parts were good, but there was definitely a huge element of frequency gibberish going on. And what he did with that totally astonished me. I was not ready for what came back. As soon as you go into the second verse when all the other instruments came in, I really struggled to get that to sit. Especially what he did with the vocals was really modern, because it’s a very old school type of song. It’s a bit kind of Crosby, Stills and Nash, it’s got that kind of vibe. If we’d gone completely down that route at no point would you know when it was recorded. Which is something I always take into account when you’ve got something quite traditional, just signposting that it was made this year and not in the 70s. It’s a fun challenge. The only one I didn’t do that with was Here Tonight. I thought I’d let that be what it is.
You’ve played a few socially distanced live shows recently. How has it been getting back to that?
Oh, yeah. I mean there’s something very strange that happened just after the tour. There were people that hadn’t done a socially distanced tour or people that weren’t gigging people, always asked, ‘wasn’t it amazing to get back out? It must have been incredible’. And then anyone that had actually done one of the socially distanced tours was like, ‘are you all right? How was it?’ And it’s a totally different kind of mental thing.
Honestly it was incredible to get out and play, but it is tough. And it’s tough in all directions. When you’ve got 60 people, and not 60 people crammed in, 60 people massively spread out, they’re individuals and not a crowd. And they can feel that. I think it’s the only gig I’ve ever done where I’ve ever made eye contact with every single member of the audience at some point [laughs]. But yeah, I felt that there was a kind of… I get crowds to do quite a lot, it’s quite an interactive thing and I try and build things with them. With the very small, very spread out things, people just feel too exposed. Because they know that I can work out where anything’s coming from so if someone makes a noise I’m like, ‘you!’ [laughs].
It was interesting, and I’m very glad I did it. The gigs were all really fun, but there was occasionally this kind of lack of anonymity tension, with just the audience themselves feeling really exposed. Which is something I’ve never experienced before really. Or at least not for a good decade. So that’s an odd thing. But hearing people singing the new stuff back to me already, because there’s obviously bits that came out already and have been doing the rounds. I’ve actually been playing It’s Getting Late and for the first half of the tour we weren’t allowed to sing along, but humming was allowed. So I arranged the crowd into four sections and got them all humming different things and I was playing something else and singing something else. And they became this humming choir. At Clapham Grand I did cry a little bit, because when I came back off the mic and could hear what they were doing it was unbelievably beautiful.
You’ve got some shows coming up in the autumn as well. Is there anything you’re looking forward to playing from the new record then?
Leave Me Lonely is really fun. I’ve got… I mean, the set up for what I did in the socially distanced and what I’m planning later on – the socially distanced tour was a pedal board, some acoustics, done. That is not gonna be the case. The next one, I’ve got a lot of gear doing a lot of things. I’ve actually been working with companies, which is something I haven’t really done before. I’ve been like, ‘you built this thing. A – can I have one, it’s amazing? And B – can it do this? And if it can’t do this now is there anything we can do to make it do that?’ I’m talking to… I think it’s three different people that make these amazing things, and kind of making bespoke combinations of things. Apparently on the next update one of them is going to put something in just for me, because I’ve been like, ‘is there any way it could do this?’ and they’re like, ‘yes, here’s some options’. Sweet! This is amazing! So kind of bespoke audio live equipment. It’s gonna be really interesting.
One of your other lockdown projects was working on a children’s album with your sister. What was that like?
It was definitely a curveball, but I like a curveball every now and then. It’s why I did American Idiot. But it’s just really healthy to get out of your comfort zone and do something terrifying. American Idiot was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done. And I was in my pants which did not help in any way.
But yeah, the children’s album was definitely a curveball, but I’m really proud of it as a body of work. I’m constantly getting sent videos of friends’ kids dancing and singing along or in the back of the car singing along or doing things the songs are talking about. So there’s like a really fast getting dressed song, there’s a cleaning teeth song that kids can clean their teeth to that’s two minutes long which is like the government approved time you’re supposed to clean them for. So that’s in there. It was definitely a challenge.
I’m always kind of fighting against my sillier ideas, so I had a bunch of stuff that I was like, ‘I really like it but I can’t put it on my own album because it has to have a place’. And then all of it found a home, and it was me, my brother and Jimmy Sims who’s an incredible musician. He was in charge of getting as many songs on there as possible and he did a very good job. But with that, it’s just – anyone that knows about it listens to it and really likes it. And it’s just kind of getting it out of the circle and into the wider world. Genuinely, I do love it.
I wrote it for my son because there was nothing for his age group and there’s this strange little gulf. He actually got in trouble at school for singing a song that he’d heard in the background of a video recently. Which again is kind of part of the problem, especially with the way kids are watching and listening to things. You can watch the video and check the video doesn’t have anything dodgy in it but then you can’t listen to all the words of the song they’ve chosen to upload with it. It’s a tricky one. So actually having a body of work which is written about stuff that they can connect with and get into, I think it’s a really useful tool.
What does the next six months or so look like for you? Are the album and touring going to be the main focus?
I can show you exactly where I will be until then. I will be in this pile of stuff. [Newton turns the camera to show a stack of instruments and equipment] I’ll be in there, I’ll be on that chair and I’ll be poking all these buttons relentlessly and using that bleepy synth and that drum pad. Basically putting the show together piece by piece, sound by sound, sampling bits off the record, inputting them into things. I need some other bits of gear which are arriving next week. And then I’m gonna put them into this pile and I’m just gonna be in this pile relentlessly.
Newton Faulkner’s new album, ‘Interference (Of Light)’ will be released on 20th August 2021 on Battenberg Records, in vinyl, CD and digital formats.
See Newton on tour in the UK this autumn – tickets now on sale at https://www.newtonfaulkner.com/:
Friday 24 September – Chester Live Room, Chester
Saturday 25 September – Peak Cavern, Castleton
Sunday 26 September – Picture Dome, Holmfirth
Tuesday 30 September – The Apex, Bury St Edmunds
Friday 1 October – De Valence Pavilion, Tenby
Saturday 2 October – Patti Pavilion, Swansea
Monday 11 October – Galvanisers SWG3, Glasgow
Tuesday 12 October – Liquid Room, Edinburgh
Saturday 16 October – University, Newcastle
Monday 18 October – Asylum, Hull
Tuesday 19 October – Leadmill, Sheffield
Wednesday 20 October – O2 Ritz, Manchester
Friday 22 October – O2 Academy1, Liverpool
Saturday 23 October – Tramshed, Cardiff
Monday 25 October – O2 Institute1, Birmingham
Tuesday 26 October – Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Thursday 28 October – UEA, Norwich
Friday 29 October – O2 Academy1, Oxford
Saturday 30 October – Anson Rooms, Bristol
Sunday 31 October – The Foundry, Torquay
Tuesday 2 November – Academy, Dublin
