Passenger
Mike Rosenberg aka Passenger is set to return next month with new single Let Her Go, the latest track to be lifted off the fantastic album All The Little Lights.
I caught up with the singer/songwriter to chat about the new single, the tour he has just embarked on and what lies ahead for the rest of the year.
- You are about to release your new single Let Her Go so what can we expect from the new track?
In my mind the song has two meanings; the first is quite literal as I wrote it after a break up and it is about letting her go.
But then there is a bigger idea going on and is more about not really understanding and knowing what you have until it is gone and I think everyone can definitely relate to.
- The track is lifted off the album All The Little Lights for those who haven't heard the album how does this single introduce us to the rest of the record?
I think it is pretty good representation of the album actually as the record is quite a big sounding record - in the past I have done very low-fi, in a room with a guitar, live take albums.
This is a little bit bigger sounding as it has drums and bass and strings and brass and all sort of stuff going on. So I do think that Let Her Go is a good introduction to the record really.
- You have touched on my next question really the album does have a different sound to perhaps what we are use to so why did you decide to take you music down a slightly different path?
I think with every album that you make as a musician you want to challenge yourself as you don’t want to keep making the same record over and over again. In my mind I thought a lot of those songs could do with a bigger sound and a bit of a bigger space.
I think it is quite an ambitious record and I hope that most of it works; I think some of works better than other bits, obviously. It was just really fun trying to something slightly different.
- How have you found the response to the new single so far?
Completely mind-blowing, especially in Europe as it has gone to number one in Holland and Belgium and is doing really well in Sweden and Germany.
I have been an independent artist for the last five or six years and have been spending my time busking and playing in pubs and for a single to do so well is completely ridiculous and it’s blowing my mind. So I am very very happy about it.
- The album was released last year and that has done well as well so you must be thrilled at how it has been received?
I really am, I really am. I have been working really hard for almost ten years and you have some pretty dark moments when you are in a Travel Lodge somewhere and you are thinking ‘what the hell am I doing?’
So to see all of the hard work to start to pay off is a really wonderful feeling - it is lovely.
- Your debut album was released back in 2007 so how do you feel you have developed as both a musician and a songwriter between that album and this one?
Massively. I listen to the two and just wonder if it is the same person. I was in my early twenties back then and I don’t think I had such a definite vision of what I was trying to do.
I think I have just gone off and lived life, been travelling, met a lot of people and seen and felt a lot of things and that all goes into the pot as song writing goes and comes through in the songs. So there is definitely a more grown up sound now, I think.
- You have just come off the road with Ed Sheeran so how did those shows go?
It was amazing. Ed is just globally enormous. It is amazing to go out in front of thousands of people every night and have a chance to play to that many people as it is, possibly, a once in a lifetime opportunity. I loved every second of it really.
Me and Ed are really good mates and I loved everyone that we were travelling with. It was just a really lovely couple of months and I am very grateful as it has opened up my music to so many more people.
- How much do you enjoy the challenge of winning over a new audience as a support artist?
It is cool. You know that if you play well for half and hour in front of that many people you sort of get a fan base from that one gig - I am use to going to cities five or six times before you can get two hundred people down to a gig.
Sometimes supporting is difficult because a lot of people go a gig to see the main act and to have a beer and a chat with their mates so a lot of the time, even if you were John Lennon, would not listen to you.
I was amazed at how open-minded people were towards my stuff and how keen they were to listen - it was really lovely.
- You have just embarked on your own headline tour so what can fans with a ticket expect from those shows?
Just to be very bored and let down (laughs). It is a longer set to you can take you time and tell a few stories and a few jokes and sing songs that are a little more subtle and thoughtful. It is important to keep it light and a bit silly and a bit funny and not take it really seriously.
I think some sing-songwriter music can just be very serious - after an hour and a half of it you are exhausted - so I try and give it light and shade.
- You a handful of shows in so how have they gone?
They have gone really well and they have been fun. There is such a difference from going from the Ed Sheeran tour to this but I love playing the slightly smaller venues. You can see people and it is a lot easier to connect with people, I find. So I am absolutely loving it.
- The tour is also a sell out so you must be excited that people are keen to come out and see you play live?
It is amazing - it is like the single doing so well. After so many years of playing in little pub basements for free to think that there are now a few hundred people in all of these cities who have paid to come and see one of my gigs is lovely - it is really amazing.
- You have talked about how well the new single has been doing in Europe so do you have any plans to push your music overseas?
I have spent a lot of time out in Australia and so I have a good little fan base out there. The single and the album are doing ok in the States and Canada as well. We are actually Let Her Go to radio in the UK this month as well.
It is all really exciting and suddenly the whole world seems to have opened up. It is exciting and daunting and weird all at the same time.
- The album was only released last year but do you have plans to get back in the studio sometime this year? Or are you going to tour this record for a while?
I am going to do a lot more touring for this album but I have actually already recorded my next record. I had no idea that All The Little Lights was going to live this long and do this well and so the next record is ready to go - so it takes the pressure off as far as that goes.
I am also working on a bit of a project at the moment and so there are going to be some new Passenger songs and videos up online very soon. It is exciting.
- And so are we going to see the next record follow a similar sound or are you going to experiment further?
I think it will be slightly more stripped back and more like the live the performance so just guitar and vocal with little bits of other things coming in and out.
I don’t think it will be such as big sound as this album. I am really really excited about it as I think it is a good record - I am really looking forward to people hearing it.
- You have an ever growing fan base so for any of them reading this interview do you have a message for them?
Just thank you very much for listening. I still find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that the fan base is growing at such a rate and people seem to be really enjoying it. So I just want to say a massive thank you for giving it a listen and getting involved.
- Finally what is next for you over the next six months or so?
It’s just a load of touring around the UK and then Europe straight after. I am also heading to Australia for a couple of months and then probably the U.S. after that. It is just crazy at the moment and I am trying to be everywhere at once.
Passenger’s new single Let Her Go is released 18th February