Oui Shall OvercomE

Having cancelled his Hot Press interview backstage at prestigious Paris venue La Zenith two days previously, Charlie Winston is full of apologies over the phone. “I’m really sorry, man,” the 31-year-old English singer says.
“I know you’d flown over especially, but there was so much going on. It was one of those days when everything took a little longer than it should have. There’s something wrong with my neck and I’ve got a physiotherapist on tour with me at the moment. So it’s really important that I get treated before going on stage. Anyway, at least you got a trip to France out of it!”

True enough. Hot Press also got to witness Winston – who has sold almost 400,000 copies of his second album Hobo in France alone - playing his own gypsy blend of pop, rock, hip-hop and soul to an absolutely adoring crowd. Is he surprised that the French have taken to him so enthusiastically?
“I’m not surprised, really, because I’ve been travelling a lot these past few years and every time I came through France they totally warmed to my music. I’m very much a performer onstage and I’m very much an entertainer, and the show is quite theatrical, so I think they like that. That coupled with my style of clothing as well. They like classic things. I think generally the French are more interested in being classic and classy and that kind of stuff than they are in new and rough-edged and what’s on the cutting edge and stuff – unlike the UK. They’re more into substance.”
Born in Cornwall in 1978, Charlie and his siblings grew up in Suffolk, where his parents owned the King’s Head Hotel. “It was very like Fawlty Towers. My family used to watch that programme and while it was funny for us, it was all very close to reality – watching John Cleese going apeshit all the time. We had a pretty crazy family life. But I wouldn’t have asked for anything else, really. I think it gave us a lot of food for creativity.”
Before they got into the hospitality industry, his mother and father had been touring folk musicians. Needless to say, an endless procession of itinerant artists, musicians, orchestras and actors passed through the hotel, and his parents always encouraged their children’s musical creativity. “Both our parents knew the freedom you can get from being creative in some kind of way," he says. "They were very much entertainers and I think they liked the idea of us being entertainers and being on stage. So it kind of gave us some signposts really.”
Charlie’s sister Vashti Anna performs with him on tour, and his older brother is acclaimed singer-songwriter Tom Baxter (although their surname is Gleave, all three use their middle-name as stage surnames). As an occasional member of Tom’s live band, he got to witness his brother’s career fluctuations when Sony merged with BMG halfway through the release of his album.
“Tom got a short straw really. I was like a fly on the wall. It was a very good learning apprenticeship being involved in the whole thing, seeing the industry from the inside and how it worked and what their priorities are. I’d always been very apprehensive of the whole thing with major labels anyway, because when you’re in a big corporation there are certain things that can get put by the wayside.
“I’m not completely anti-major record labels because they serve a purpose and there’s good people in them as well, but because it’s such a machine when something like a merge comes everyone’s frightened about losing their jobs and they don’t want to take risks. And because the record industry is so rubbish at the moment, and record sales are so low, they haven’t got a clue what they’re doing. They’re like a big frightened animal and don’t know which way to move. So I’m steering clear of that.”
It was through Tom that Charlie first met Peter Gabriel (Hobo was released on Gabriel’s Real World label). “The biggest help he’s been to me is his willingness to put his name next to mine and saying he supports what I do. Because at the end of the day people are interested in association – and being able to say that Peter Gabriel’s signed me to his record label really pricks people’s ears.”
The first cut from the album, ‘Like A Hobo’ topped the French charts last April. Although Charlie has spent many years travelling around India and Europe, he insists that he was using artistic license when writing the song.
“I’ve never been a hobo in its extreme form. I mean, I’ve never had a day job, I’ve never done a nine-to-five or anything like that. It’s always been music for me. I’ve been totally broke at times, but I’ve never really worried about it. I understand when you mention the word ‘hobo’, there’s a much harsher reality to what I’ve truly experienced. But I’m an artist so I don’t have to prove anything. I’m using it as a symbol for personal and mental freedom. It’s a symbol of liberty rather than the opposite – a waster or a loser.”
Although Hobo was recorded well over a year ago, he maintains it’ll be a while before he finds time to record album number three. “I’ve written quite a lot of songs over the last year despite being stupidly busy,” he says. “But this album is still taking up quite a lot of time. Canada’s taken a massive interest, they’re really, really excited. I’ve got two sold-out shows over there and we haven’t even released anything yet. It’s looking like England’s possibly picking up a little bit, but I can’t take that seriously. There’s Ireland as well, Germany – it’s still growing really.”

Hobo is out now on Real World Records. Charlie Winston plays the Village, Dublin on February 18.