Swim when you're winning

Adrian Crowley has been one to watch for some time. Older fogies (like myself) will remember his song ‘Capricorn’ as a regular on Uaneen Fitzsimons era No Disco in 1999.

He recorded an album with Steve Albini in his Electrical Audio studios, called When You Are Here You Are Family. He’s toured the US. And Ryan Adams is a fan. Indeed many flashy next-best-things with mouthy frontmen, and overzealous PR people, have tried and failed since Adrian released his first album (A Strange Kind) in 1999. But Adrian’s still here and with a supportive record label (Tin Angel), a publishing deal with Domino, and a new more expansive album (Long Distance Swimmer) beautifully recorded with engineer Stephen Shannon. This could be his year. So what box do you want to be put in, Adrian?
“I’m not consciously trying to emulate anyone,” he says. “But I remember two years ago (UK folk singer) Adem was running the Homefires festival and he asked me if I was to curate the festival who I’d ask to play. And I said I’d have Joanna Newsom and Nina Nastacia, and Bill Callaghan (from Smog) play and when I think about it, I’d relate to all those people. If someone really wanted to put me in a box, I’d want to be put into that box... It’d be good company.”
Last year Wired magazine declared it the “age of the niche”, but it really seems that there’s no better time to be an idiosyncratic and reflective singer-songwriter (rather than a strumming roaring singer-songwriter). And one way to keep your idiosyncratic, reflective singer-songwriter credentials pure, and not be lured away by fashionable haircuts and NME journalists, is to band together with other people you can relate to and respect.
“I went over to play a gig with the Fence Collective in Fife in Scotland,” he says. “That was the catalyst for a lot of what I’ve done since. Fence started ten years ago as a label doing CDR-only releases. They all refused to play in London, so they’d just play in Fife all the time and they started a festival there. They have a collective of about 20 artists who record together and most of them never leave Scotland. King Creosote and James Yorkston and this other chap called the Pictish Trail are the only three who travel. And there’s a girl called HMS Jennifer who’s really brilliant but doesn’t like to perform and King Creosote recorded some of her songs. When I went over there the first time I got a really nice feeling of being in the right kind of environment.”
It was this new association that led to Adrian touring the UK for the first time and to his surprise he found that not only are there plenty of interesting musicians out there, but there are also plenty of fans of interesting musicians.
“It turns out that there is an audience for my kind of music,” he enthuses. “I played the Green Man Festival and the Homefires Festival. And they just have the perfect audiences. You realise there’s this great scene, a huge thing you can tap into, and it can be quite organic.”
So Adrian kept touring the UK under his own steam and by the time he came to record the new album he found he was suddenly very comfortable with who he was musically.
“I think I’ve kind of surrendered to my voice. You just realise that what you have is your own and you have to let it do its thing. When I accepted that, the singing became almost as easy as talking. I think the songwriting was quite different as well. I used to ponder for a long time over songs, but most of this album was written in a couple of weeks over the summer.”
Adrian and Stephen spent quite a bit of time arranging the many musicians who’ve played on the record – including string players Kevin Murphy, Marja Tuhkanen and Scottish songwriter James Yorkston. They shaped and sculpted the music for the best part of a year, and the results are beautiful and strangely nautical.
“There are a lot of references to water and nautical things on the record,” Adrian concurs. “Not that it’s a sea shanty album. But those themes have been coming up totally unconsciously without me realising it. A few people have said ‘what’s this obsession with the sea?’ Well it’s not really an obsession... but it does keep coming back in my songs. This album’s also definitely got more storytelling at its core. I took more of an omniscient view of things. A lot of the subjects were half rooted in actual experiences and they just transformed into.... ‘fictition’ sorry I mean ‘fiction’. Actually ‘fictition’ is a much better word than ‘fiction’.”
This year Adrian plans more touring – in Ireland, the UK and possibly Europe, and he might do another album... possibly a live recording in the pared-down style of his performance on Other Voices... possibly a double album. One way or another, he’s done things on his own terms.
“It’s quite an oblique thing that I do,” he concludes. “My songs aren’t going to light a spark among anybody without smoking away for a while first.”