Undaunted, Alan used his trial-by-fire as a motivation to reappraise what he was doing with his music. In the meantime, he landed a publishing deal, and moved out of his family home to share a flat with Jay Jay Pistolet, and Mumford & Sons. He played gigs with numerous rising young acts, including Florence & The Machine, Jack Penate, Noah & The Whale, Laura Marling and Kid Harpoon. After signing up with Mercury Records, he went out on his second tour, supporting Mr Hudson, and was soon ready to start work on his album.
Alan had been feeling increasingly limited by the acoustic format, and his latest batch of songs were crying out for further arrangements, with a full band. “I’d been living in a very folky environment, and I wanted to do something else. I didn't want to be another ‘one man and his guitar’: I found it uninspiring. The same chords, the same formula, and the pursuit is really just the lyrics. I like folk music, I just don't feel there's much more to offer it”
Alan’s voice, indeed, dominates the record, at once antique, ageless and immediate, as he croons about the romantic entanglements in his lyrics. He says that, with his later batch of songs, he sought to write more openly, amalgamating experiences in the service of a compelling song. “I’ve never met a girl called Clara,” he says, “she’s made up of a number of people I’ve met”.
On top of Alan’s easy-rolling guitar style, his songs are fleshed out by a small, unfussy rhythm combo, plus occasional embellishments, such as violin (from Noah & The Whale’s Tom Hobden), brass or twinkly percussive instruments. “I wanted the album to be like a jazz festival in the 1940s in the south of France, but set in some dingy bar on a rainy day – like, it would have all those picturesque elements, but slightly twisted as well.”
There isn’t a single track aboard, which isn’t 100% irresistible, touched by magic. The whole thing tells the story of a quick-flowering natural talent, from the mournful folky beginnings of ‘Colourful Day’, right up to the fully orchestrated present. Mr Pownall himself is still busy, meanwhile, writing a song per day, hoping to squeeze a couple more brand new tunes on there, and setting his sights on Album No. 2.
More imminently, he’s to top the bill at Music Week’s Unearthed concert in the Elgar Room at the Royal Albert Hall, and continues a residency at Puregroove Record Shop in Spitalfields. Puregroove’s in-house label