Rupert Stroud has returned to the music scene with his new album Chasing The Night, which comes quite some time after this debut.
I caught up with him to talk about the new record, the different path he has taken his music down and what lies ahead for him for the rest of the year.
- You have just released your new album Chasing The Night so for those who haven't heard the album yet what can we expect from it?
I guess it is a varied album when it comes to genres and styles - as a song-writer and a music lover I listen to a lot of different types of music and styles from Blues to pop to alternative to rock.
So I think that there is definitely something for everyone on the album. I think what runs through the core of the album is my song-writing style and the stories that I tell. My voice is the one thing that always lets you know that it is a Rupert Stroud song.
- Well you have slightly touched on my next question really as the album showcases a range of different influences, moods and sounds so did you always plan such a varied album? And how does the record reflect your own musical taste?
Well I never really thought about having an album that varied as my first choice of genre I would say would be alternative rock because I love bands like Coldplay, Arcade Fire, Elbow and some band like Kings of Leon as well as Oasis, Nirvana and The Verve. I guess I mixed in my influences.
I recorded about twenty five songs and from these we chose my favourite thirteen, me and my producer Will Jackson, They all just seemed to go well with each other and there is a certain kind of theme of lost love, jealousy, betrayal and the dark sides of life. So it all kind of hung together well so that is what we went with.
- What does this album say about you as an artist?
That is an interesting question. I think that it is a bit more of an insight into me as a person, I do wear my heart on my sleeve sometimes but I also like to bottle things up.
I think a lot of song-writers will say that song-writing it like therapy as you are just putting your feelings out on paper and eventually singing it and putting it with other instruments. But there is definitely an insight to me as a person when you listen to the lyrics of the songs.
- Chasing The Night comes four years after your debut so how have you seen yourself develop as both a musician and a song-writer in that time?
I guess when I first released that debut it was part time really because I was working in bars and doing admin jobs.
But I think after the response from the debut I was fortunate enough to build a fan base in Hong Kong and China and I ended up doing a tour out there in some of the coolest venues that I have ever played. That was absolutely incredible.
I had built a fan base through MySpace and social media so when I turned up at these gigs I had lots of fans there and they were singing my songs when I was performing them. I was having pictures and signing autographs at the end - I will tell you that never happens in Leeds.
When I came back from that in 2009/10 I started writing a lot more because I really wanted to improve my song-writing and my voice, which I think is evident when you listen to the first album and the second album.
It’s like with any career or industry you can’t expect to be an expert at it at the start. You have to learn from your mistakes and it is a learning curve and you would hope that you get better as the days and months and years go on.
So when it came to Chasing The Night I just took a lot of time with it and I gigged around a lot, mainly in the Yorkshire region but I went to London a few times. But I just really sat down and thought about what I wanted to portray with my music.
Fortunately in the last eighteen months I got a band together - Mick Bedford who did all the session drums on the albums that I have produced so he was a perfect choice. And then Mike Pearson who does keyboard and guitars, I have known him for a few years so it was quite natural to ask him to join my project.
So I guess it was quite a long time coming but I think it has arrived and I think people are going to like.
- The album has been produced by Will Jackson so how did that come about and what were you looking for in your producer for this record?
With regards to Will Jackson I knew of the work that he had done previously with the Kaiser Chiefs and Embrace. I think by the time that I found him The Pigeon Detective’s debut album, which he had produced, had gone to number one.
I sent him my music and said ‘if you like my demos it would be great to work together’ and we went in with the idea of just recording a few tracks and we started to get on really well.
He is not just a producer he is a great friend I get on with him really well, I see him as an adoptive uncle. I think that is so important for a working relationship, especially with music, that we get on well and we are on the same wavelength when it comes to what we want to achieve.
I guess with the debut I was a bit young and naive and I do say that they were my tentative steps towards this album because there was much that I wanted and needed to learn about the recording process.
I think I learnt a lot about song-writing as well as recording from Will and I am extremely grateful and so proud to have worked with him and continue to work with him. I do hope to get into the studio with him again very soon.
- He has worked with the likes of The Kaiser Chiefs and Embrace so what does his experience bring to this record?
I guess the overall experience of production and he definitely inspired me and helped me with my song writing as he recommended quite a few bands to listen to like Arcade Fire and Elbow - I had heard of them but never thought that much of them before going into the studio with him.
He said ‘just listen to this album and that album’ and that was like opening the doors to my music education which is very important.
The most important thing about being a song-writer is you have got to listen to lots and lots of music and broaden your horizons and think outside the box and try and do something different.
So I think that is why the second album has that different flavour to it compared to the debut album. The debut album was quite singer-songwriter and quite acoustic driven and I didn’t really have it driven by rifts or drum beats and that is what I wanted to do with certain songs on Chasing The Night.
- There is a very personal feel to the album from a lyric point of view so what has influenced your song-writing this time around?
Writing a song is always going to be personal but I do try and put myself out of the situation so some songs are directly related to my personal experiences but some are about the experiences of my friends and family.
So with a few songs I will try and put myself in the shoes of the person who has been through a certain break-up or grievance or whatever it may be.
I guess the majority of the songs are very personal and it does put me in a position where people can make an assumption as to what kind of person that I am.
- And how have you found the response to the album so far?
It’s been fantastic actually. As an indie artist it is difficult to get your songs out there and in front of the right people but with BBC Introducing and this last album they have really taken a lot more notice of me, especially in the Yorkshire region.
Of course if the BBC is supporting you then I think that it does open the eyes and the ears of a lot of other people.
So the response has been great. I already had a fan base after the debut but it has increased and it is a lot more receptive to this album compared to the last one.
I mail out my CD’s to my fans in Australia, Italy, France and America and then there is the downloads and stuff. But I like to push the CD because I like people to have a product and I love the tangibility of a CD.
I love going down to the Post Office and saying ’I am sending this one to Australia’ and the post woman going ’oh gosh ok let’s get out the airmail stickers.’
It has been a good response but being an indie artist there is a lot of hard work that you have to do as you have always got to be trying to expand your fan base.
The ideal scenario is you want everyone to hear your music and some people are going to love you, some with think you are ok and some are going to hate you but that I just music it is subjective.
But at the moment I am just trying to get my music in front of people who I think are my target demographic and people I think are going to like it.
- So where did you love of music start and when was that defining moment where you decided that you wanted to do this as a career?
I have always loved music ever since I was a tiny baba. I use to sit in my mum’s car every weekend when she use to take us to see my grandparents and she use to play tapes of Simply Red, Tom Petty, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and all those great singer-songwriters and bands and apparently I always use to sing along.
Then when I was eight, nine or ten I use to love singing but I wouldn’t join the school choir because I didn’t think it was cool and thought it would damage my street cred.
When I was about fifteen years old I remember watching Nirvana on VH1 Unplugged in New York and it was the last gig that they ever did live for an MTV production, which is significant enough, it was a repeat as Kirk Cobain had passed away years before.
I remember listening to Nirvana through the walls of my brother’s room as he use to blare it out. The Nevermind album is still one of my favourite albums since I was a little kid.
Anyway I remember watching that live performance and watching Cobain performing these raw and acoustic versions of these massive rock hits that I had heard and I thought that was really interesting. He had taken these heavy grunge songs and put them into a different beauty and made them these acoustic versions and I think that that was an education for me.
I think that is probably why I have this close connection with the acoustic guitar, as opposed to the electric, because I like the availability and the freeness of the acoustic guitar as you don’t need to plug it into an amp and you don’t need electricity you just play it.
So yeah that was one of the defining moments and I went to my mum and dad and I said ‘I want to start learning guitar’ and I started getting lessons. So it went from there really.
- Finally what's coming up for you for the rest of the year and are we going to be seeing you play any shows this summer?
We have just been booked for Galtres Festival in York which is on the 24th August and we are really looking forward to that. We have already played Live At Leeds which was awesome and was great fun. And we hopefully have a couple more festivals lined up.
But we are trying to plan a tour around the UK towards the end of the summer so we are just trying to sort out the logistics for that.
Rupert Stroud’s album Chasing The Night is out now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw