Luke Ritchie has had a fantastic 2012 with the release of his fantastic album The Water's Edge - the album that his new single Butterfly is taken from.
We caught up with the singer-songwriter to chat about the new single as well as the reaction to the new collection of tracks.
- Butterfly is your latest single so what can fans expect from the track?
It is a song that forced its way onto the record because it was a song that came to me quite quickly when I was in this intense writing phase - I was writing a song a week for a podcast.
It was just one of those songs that came to me on an escalator and I sang it into my phone and went away and wrote it. When I released it that week as the podcast it got a really nice response with people and people seemed to like it.
So it just kind of forced its way onto the record - a lot of the songs that I wrote during that phase made it on to the record because they were quite fresh and new. It is fun to hear all fully produced by Paul Savage and I was really happy with the end result.
- The track mixes folk with elements of pop so how would you describe the sound of the track and how does it fit into the rest of the album?
I suppose it is, as the title suggests, quite light and comes and goes quite quickly. Where it is on the record it is an important lift because it is one of the happier and most upbeat songs after the saddest songs.
I deliberately wanted it to lift the album at that point. I wrote it on a guitalele, which is half ukulele half guitar, and it is a really sweet instrument with a really sweet sound. I suppose it is one of the happier songs.
- You have mentioned the podcasts already and you were writing a song a week so where did the idea for that come from?
I was having real trouble finishing songs as I procrastinate a lot and I just thought ‘I need to get some new work finished’. I don’t know where I got the idea from but I just thought that it would be a good way of imposing a deadline on myself.
I didn’t know how long I would last so I just thought I would try it for a few weeks to see how it goes. But people really seemed to respond to it when I released it as a podcast as they would get a new one every week and it took over my life really.
I hit the six months mark and I thought that that would probably be a good time to stop - also it kind of generates an attention and it led to me being signed and recording the album as well.
It was a really good catalyst and it was also a real fun and intense few months. It was a really good experience.
- The track is the latest single to be taken from The Water's Edge so how have you found the response to the album so far - it seems to have gone down really well?
Overall how people have reacted has been really nice and there have been some really great reviews.
It is always weird putting it out there as I have been in bands before and you can kind of hide behind a band but when it is your own name out there and it is my first solo record it is quite nerve-wracking. So it is nice that it has had such a nice response so it has been great.
- Paul Savage was the producer on the record so how did that collaboration come about?
Basically I sent him a whole bunch of the podcasts and he really seemed to like them, he listened to about twenty demos, and we had a really long conversation and we had just hit it off.
I had always loved his production on Mogwai and Arab Strap stuff and I just thought that there is a really great and vibrant Scottish music scene.
I knew that I liked him but it was actually his personal response to the songs as he was really insightful about them and he really pushed for me to go for the newer songs. We just clicked and I think that there was just a really nice personal chemistry.
I went up to see him in Glasgow and we had a few beers and he sketched out the eleven tracks that he thought we should do and the album is pretty much as he foresaw it after that first meeting. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed it.
It was the first time that I had worked with a proper producer and taken time to actually work with someone and I was really happy with the results.
- He has worked with the likes of Franz Ferdinand so what did his experience bring to this record?
He has got an incredible amount of focus. He comes from a really interesting alternative music scene but he has a wide experience of producing all kinds of different sounds and so I thought that he brought quite an original and slightly left field approach to the songs.
All of that experience meant that he could move very quickly and it felt like a very creative process as he went because the songs were just acoustic templates. So we did a lot of creating on the go and we only really had two weeks of recording.
I put a lot of trust in him because I wanted it to be a partnership and I really trusted his judgement - some of the songs he really did play a big part in changing the feel of them; songs like Lighthouse and Lonely Seconds definitely changed as we were recording them.
So he brought a lot and I think it is key when you are working with a producer to trust them and trust… they have an outsider’s perspective on you and they can bring a fresh interpretation of your music that you might not see yourself. But it is a leap of faith and I am relieved that I am happy with the results.
You have just got to go with your gut and go with the flow and see what comes out because it is quite an intense few weeks. He was great.
- There is a very stripped back and acoustic sound to this record so how do you think this favours your voice and song writing style compared to something a little bit more produced?
I think my voice changed quite a lot while I was writing these songs because I had played in band and I had played a lot of rocky music but I just did a load of gigs with an acoustic guitar and my voice changed.
I think my voice it more honest now and I think that I have found my own voice a bit more - I am a bit happier with my voice than I have been.
So I suppose when you do a more acoustic record I suppose it is easier because there is less production work - you get a great sound in the room and you rely on that - and it is more honest you can’t wear as much makeup (laughs).
I liked that and that is one of the things that I like about Paul’s stuff as with artists such as Malcolm Middleton and Arab Strap there is a real naked honesty to a lot of their stuff.
- You have slightly touched on my next question as I was wondering did the inspiration for this sound come from? Is this the kind of music that you enjoy listening to?
It definitely is but I like a lot of people and I listen to a really wide range of music. I love anything from really stripped down acoustic albums from Bruce Springsteen and just really classic songwriters like Paul Simon or Nick Drake.
The other album that I really liked was PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake which I think was a really powerful album and does touch on themes that seem to come back in my own songs and lyrics. So those are the things that I like listening to of that nature but I also like listening to a lot of heavy music as well and all thing in between really.
Because this album started somewhere really acoustic I thought it would be fun to stick to acoustic instruments and do as much as we could with acoustic guitars.
With Lighthouse we were messing around with feedback on an acoustic guitar going through an amp and it started to sound like an air-raid siren and that worked really well with the theme of the song.
But I wouldn’t want to be rigid about this and with the next record I would be more than happy to do an electric album as I play a lot of electric guitar.
- As I said earlier you have had success with this album so are you going to tour it for a while or are you looking to get back into the studio?
I think I will probably do both to be honest because I still really enjoy plying those songs live and the band that I play with a re fantastic.
So I think we are just still trying to get the music out there and I would love to play some festivals next summer if the opportunity came up. But as we are not touring for a bit I am starting to write as I do have some new ideas.
I would like to get recording as well. For me I just want to keep writing and keep the ideas flowing. So I think I am just going to do both.
- Finally what is coming up for you leading into 2013?
I think it is just going to be busier. I also play in a band called the Golden Retrievers and we are just finishing a record and have done a bunch of support gigs with Rumour earlier on in the year. So I am looking forward to doing that.
I also play with a very talented lady called Nia Lynn and I have also been singing with my little sister. She is a great singer in her own right so we have been doing some songs together and that has been fun. So I will be writing, gigging and just playing as much as possible.
Luke Ritchie’s new single Butterfly is out now and it is taken from album The Water’s Edge which is also out now
Click here to download the track Butterfly
Click here to buy the album The Water's Edge
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw