Unique Interview with the poet Brian Bilston and band The Catenary Wires: Amelia Fletcher & Rob Pursey, as they announce the discharge of their collaboration ‘Sounds Made By People’, a brand new album of song-poems on Skep Wax Data, out on 9 Could 2025.
The primary single, Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love? is on Bandcamp now and launched on all platforms on 7 March 2025
That is extremely thrilling information for each poetry fanatics and lovers of basic ‘indie-pop’ from the 80’s and 90’s. It’s a match made in heaven. Pop music for grown-ups with humour and pathos. It is a pop file the place the poetry and the music are equal companions: sounds made by people in good creative alignment.
Brian Bilston, ‘the Banksy of the Poetry World’ and unofficial Poet Laureate of social media, becoming a member of forces with the legendary founder members of the bands Talulah Gosh (Circa 1986), Heavenly (1989-96) in addition to extra just lately, the quietly subversive Swansea Sound (2020) and The Catenary Wires (2021). Skep Wax is their very own ‘cottage trade’ file label arrange just a few years again. You learn it right here first. Alexa… is the primary monitor to be made out there.
And that is from the press launch which sums up the collaboration fantastically.
The album isn’t a set of readings with musical backdrops: it’s a group of songs, the place phrases and music have turn into fully intertwined. There are verses, and there are choruses. In some ways, Brian’s poems are already like pop songs: temporary, direct, and witty; typically poignant, typically biting and political; however at all times economical, and at all times accessible.
Rob took 13 of Brian’s poems and created melodies and preparations, that are then performed by a full band, with Ian Button on drums and Fay Hallam on keyboard. Typically the phrases of the poems are sung by Amelia or Rob. Typically they’re spoken by Brian. Typically each these items occur directly. It is a pop file the place the poetry and the music are equal companions: sounds made by people in good creative alignment.
Seven tracks are about love, 5 are in listing type, others are about ‘loss’ or loneliness, recollections of youth and meditations on ageing. Some are simply concerning the banality of on a regular basis life and can make you snort out loud, others might convey a tear to your eye and just about all will make you smile and enhance your day.
The poem which might be Bilston’s most essential and well-known, Refugees, isn’t on the album, however for those who personal any of his books you can be accustomed to titles like: Each Music On The Radio Reminds Me Of You and 31 Guidelines For Midlife Insurrection, and these do characteristic on ‘Sounds Made By People’.
Rob Pursey and Brian Bilston spoke solely to Ged Babey concerning the collaboration. First up. Rob.
(GB) I assume you found Brian Bilston’s work on social media like the remainder of us?
(RP) Yeah, it was throughout lockdown that I began to note the poems, appreciated them, and appeared ahead to the subsequent one popping up. I didn’t have any notion of placing them to music at that time, however I did like the truth that Brian was working his poems into the tradition from an uncommon place. There was no writer concerned, and he wasn’t utilizing the conventional channels for promotion. He was simply doing it, like a DIY band would, with out ready for anybody to take ‘possession’ of the fabric. Round this time, we had been beginning Swansea Sound and I used to be questioning how we may launch a band with out a longtime label, and, cos of lockdown, with out the power to play gigs. We realised that DIY was (and at all times is) the reply – file it your self, make movies your self, get the music on the market and simply see what occurs. So I assumed we and Brian should be kindred spirits, ultimately.
How did you discover out he was a fan of Heavenly?
Someday later (one other Swansea Sound connection) Hue noticed Brian at a studying of his poems – it was at Laugharne Competition I believe – and seen that Brian was carrying a Heavenly T shirt. I suppose that was once I thought, hmmm that individual and I actually are on the identical web page. I can’t bear in mind precisely what occurred subsequent, I believe I obtained in contact and invited him to one in all our gigs, then we went to one in all his, we obtained on rather well, and in some unspecified time in the future, it appeared like an apparent factor to counsel a collaboration. I suppose we turned associates first after which, as soon as you are feeling you’ve gotten one another’s belief, it’s fairly pure to work on issues collectively.
How shortly did it happen to you that a few of his poems would work as songs?
I at all times felt that the poems had been already like pop songs – very direct, very accessible, typically very playful, however surprisingly highly effective of their capacity to maneuver you emotionally, or to make you snort. In a means, that makes them more durable to mix with music, as a result of they’re already so tightly constructed – you aren’t positive the place there’s house for music. However on the final Catenary Wires album I’d written a music (Cinematic) the place the lyrics are largely tailored from a poem by David Herd. So I had tried doing this train as soon as earlier than. David’s poetry may be very completely different to Brian’s – it’s darkish, elusive, dense: I think about individuals would describe it as ‘tough’. However it was very evocative, very atmospheric, and had a beautiful, inside rhythms, and that was the important thing to creating that one work.
It was barely completely different with Brian’s poems. They don’t attempt to immerse you in an ‘ambiance’. They deal with you very straight, with a disarming honesty, a vulnerability typically – after which they flip the tables on you. They are often sarcastic, sardonic, romantic, dystopian – however they keep away from being portentous, or taking themselves too critically. These are all nice qualities so far as I’m involved, so I began to assume that there could be an album’s value of fabric, with the music exploring the same number of tones and themes.
How simple was it discovering the ‘proper’ poems to supply music for? Or had been you simply spoilt for selection?
Brian despatched me a set of recordings of him studying a dozen of his poems. I assumed it was good if he chosen them, as he would have his personal intuition about this. Additionally, they wanted to be poems that he loved studying out loud. Very early on, I’d determined that the way in which to consider the song-poems was as duets. I shouldn’t attempt to duplicate what he’d already finished: I ought to attempt to flip them into conversations. I took Brian’s recordings and put them into Logic, labored out the most effective tempo for the music, and waited to see if tunes would come. They usually did, typically derived from the temper of the poem, typically from the rhythm of Brian’s studying. It’s fairly a wierd course of, I’ve by no means labored like this earlier than, however the tunes got here from someplace. As soon as a tough model of the music was recorded, I may chop the poems as much as create house the place I needed instrumental sections, or the place I needed me and Amelia to sing. Brian was very relaxed about me chopping his poems into items. Not all poets could be as tolerant.
Having heard demo variations Brian would often rewrite bits of the poems, and I might rewrite elements of the music – we’d carry on sending the demos backwards and forwards till we had been each completely happy. Lastly, we recorded all of it correctly, inasmuch as our spare room is a ‘correct’ place to file something. (Truly, the drums had been recorded correctly – at Huge Jelly in Ramsgate.)
There have been a few early efforts that didn’t work. There was one very humorous poem for which I created some music that was ultimately additionally ‘humorous’. The outcome was truly very annoying, in order that obtained ditched.
The way in which you’ve written the music – with load of various musical quotations /tropes is kind of good. There’s some nice Johnny Marr type guitar on one and even some Crass (navy) drumming on one, some textbook ‘shoegaze shimmer’, a little bit of Gang of 4, a Billy Infantile performs Ought to I Keep or Ought to I Go’… no two songs sound the identical. Have you ever stunned your self, simply how assorted it’s general?
Thanks, I actually recognize that. I’ve actually ventured into genres the place I wouldn’t usually go. I obtained bolder as the method went alongside. I in all probability began with the concept that these songs ought to all be fairly mild – I believe (music/poem referred to as) Compilation Cassette was the primary one I wrote. However as I despatched concepts to Brian, and listened to his responses, it turned clear that there was completely no motive why the song-poems shouldn’t get extraordinarily loud, the place the poem demanded it. There may be one (As I Develop Outdated I Will March Not Shuffle) the place I play guitar like I’m in a heavy steel band, which isn’t one thing I’ve ever finished earlier than.
I ought to say that every one this wouldn’t be potential with out Ian Button, whose drumming can effortlessly go to all these completely different locations, and whose intuition is uncanny, and Amelia, who can provide you with infinite quantities of lovely backing vocals and harmonies. I used to be additionally very fortunate that Fay Hallam was in a position to present keyboard elements which are far more skilful than something we may obtain.
Do you’ve gotten a favorite monitor? Personally the tip part of Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love? I discover very ‘emotional’.
I’m very eager on ‘Alexa’ too. I believe that was essentially the most difficult music to get proper, with uneven numbers of phrases and a fairly bold construction, however (hopefully) nonetheless with a pop accessibility. When Amelia requested what the vocal ought to really feel like, I mentioned ‘may you evoke the infinite inanity of the web’, which is a little bit of an bold observe, however someway, I believe that’s what we obtained. It’s a actually good poem this one, on many ranges. Brian may be very, excellent at killer endings, and this one will get me each time, so yeah, I discover it very emotional too.
Was there a temptation to make use of the Swansea Sound title, and even Heavenly quite than Catenary Wires?
It’s a bit perverse that we commerce below so many names, however Swansea Sound at all times has Hue because the lead singer, Heavenly at all times has Amelia in that function and The Catenary Wires at all times has each of us, so it appeared logical.
Within the Press Launch you say: It is a pop file the place the poetry and the music are equal companions: sounds made by people in good creative alignment. That’s a daring assertion – however very true. Thanks for making a fantastic piece of artwork.
That’s actually form of you and I’m genuinely relieved that you just prefer it. Hardly anybody else has heard it but and the truth that you’ve loved it makes me really feel we’ve finished one thing proper.
Rob agreed to place me in contact with Brian Bilston. My most popular technique of interview being in writing, to keep away from misquotes and having to transcribe rambling conversational tangents. I believe he accepted of the format.
I despatched him an mp3 of ‘Displaying Off to Impress the Ladies’ by Artwork Objects with the questions, saying the album jogged my memory instantly of it. ‘One of many Best Songs Ever written’ for my part.
(BB) I’m so happy you talked about that music, as a result of I’d half-forgotten it and hadn’t listened to it for ages, a state of affairs I’ve now remedied by taking part in it ten instances in a row. It’s magnificent and simply the kind of monitor I’ve had placed on a compilation cassette.
What was the primary band or music that excited you whenever you hit teenage? (First file to procure, first gig…?)
(BB) Relatively unoriginally, The Smiths had been the primary band I ever regarded as my very own. Up till that time, I’d borrowed most of my musical tastes off my massive brother (The Jam, Echo and the Bunnymen and so on). The primary gig I ever went to was Lloyd Cole and the Commotions on the Odeon in Birmingham, however even then, my brother beat me to it as he had Rattlesnakes and I solely had the follow-up, Simple Items (nonetheless a fantastic album). When it got here to The Smiths, although, I shortly turned obsessive and would bunk off faculty early each time a brand new single was popping out so I could possibly be among the many first to get it. I had the cardigan, t-shirt, ill-fitting denims and compulsory quiff. I will need to have learn the lyrics printed on the sleeve of my valuable gatefold version of Hatful of Hole greater than a thousand instances: I used to be in love with Morrissey’s wit and switch of phrase. My opinions about him now are maybe finest not recorded; certainly, Morrissey’s opinions are maybe finest not recorded both.
Once you reached ‘faculty’ years did you go to numerous gigs? Who made a long-lasting impression? Was there a band who ‘adopted’ religiously?
I did go to quite a lot of gigs. I went to college in Swansea and sadly not many bands appeared to make it that far alongside the south coast of Wales. However The Fall did, after all, and that was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with their music. One other good gig was seeing The Household Cat on the scholar union, however usually I’d have to go off to Cardiff or Newport or Bristol to see the bands I actually needed to see: Cocteau Twins, The Marriage ceremony Current, Trip, Lush. One very explicit pleasure was The Blue Aeroplanes, who I noticed quite a lot of instances again then: all whirling guitars and beat poetry. I went to see them once more final yr in London, and it was a really welcome reminder of what an thrilling and exhilarating band they’re to see dwell.
However extra than simply gig-going, I used to be shopping for numerous information right now: taking an opportunity on an album or a single as a result of I appreciated the title of a band, or there was one thing concerning the file sleeve which appealed to me. It was round then that I found Sarah Data; I can’t fairly bear in mind which was the primary single I purchased. I believe it was both The Area Mice or The Orchids, and hastily, I used to be introduced into a complete different sphere of indie guitar bands, of whom I knew nearly nothing about, aside from whichever music which was spinning gloriously on my turntable. The truth that none of my associates knew about these bands made me love their music much more: and, amongst them, one of the crucial beloved was Heavenly.
Any ambitions to be in a band your self again then?
I used to be in a band myself within the time (I performed bass), though we harboured no ambitions of doing something past getting by way of our gigs with out fully falling aside. We had been referred to as Mad Cow and we had been as soon as billed as Swansea’s reply to The Pleased Mondays, which I believe tells you all you want to know.
Did your curiosity in music wane when you hit 30 – as soon as all of your mates ‘settled down’ – or did you continue to take a eager curiosity within the ‘indie sector’ quite than the X Issue?
Probably not, though I do assume I’ve had completely different ‘phases’ by way of my musical pursuits. In my 30s, for example, with younger youngsters, I didn’t actually go to many gigs, however what I did do was play catch-up with a number of the music which had handed me by: both throughout my youthful years, or from earlier nonetheless. We are inclined to overlook, for example, how retro Bowie was for a superb chunk of time, throughout the 90s and 00s. I knew just a few of these nice 70s singles, after all, however I actually had no thought about Hunky Dory or Ziggy Stardust or Aladdin Sane. I performed related catch-up with Neil Younger and Bob Dylan, Scott Walker and Nick Drake, Speaking Heads and Tv.
However in more moderen instances, I’ve been going to as many gigs as I might have finished once I was in my 20s. For the final 10 years, for example, I’ve been a part of a small however devoted crack crew of gig-goers referred to as ‘27th Membership’. Our organising precept is easy: we go to see some dwell music (ideally in our residence city of Oxford) on 27th of every month. The idea is that it forces us to expertise completely different genres and subcultures every month, ones which we’d not ordinarily hunt down, thus increasing our musical horizons and hey, who is aware of, alongside the way in which we’d actually discover ourselves. The fact is that I’ve seen extra singer-songwriters and mediocre guitar bands than I ever care to – though there have been some true joys, too: Richard Dawson, Erland Cooper and Chas n’ Dave to call however three (or 4).
Did you fall for lots of the American Underground bands – Sonic Youth, Pixies > Eels, Grandaddy? – or retain a love of Morrissey, Cinerama, Richard Hawley – basic English indie? Or area of interest stuff like Lawrence (Felt), Artwork Brut and Heavenly/Swansea Sound?
The entire above actually – though it’s by no means simple. I actually love Pixies and Sonic Youth, for example, however by no means obtained on notably with Nirvana and the entire grunge factor. Equally, Radiohead have by no means finished a lot for me. I suppose the one fixed for me – usually no matter style or sound – has been the significance of lyrics. Ones that are humorous or poetic or arresting ultimately. One in every of my nice loves is The Magnetic Fields, for example; I believe Stephen Merritt is a lyrical genius. See additionally Paddy McAloon, Lloyd Cole, Jarvis Cocker, Patti Smith, Ivor Cutler, Joni Mitchell.
I’d guess you’re a 6-Music Dad sort of music shopper?
I discover that query very reductive.
Sure.
What are the final couple albums to procure?
‘Right here’ by The Mammoth Penguins, the most effective dwell bands on the market (I simply wished they’d tour extra usually!) and a stunning slice of indie pop within the type of En Attendant Ana’s ‘Principia’.
Once you used to go spherical somebody’s home for the primary time, did you at all times make a beeline to their file assortment, so you might have a fast flick via to attempt to suss out whether or not you’ll be ‘suitable’? (or is it simply me that used to do this?)
Sure! Typically it could have been higher if that they had no information in any respect. These days it’s a lot more durable as a result of it’s a must to attempt to get entry to their cellphone to ensure that you interrogate their Spotify behaviour.
Do you bear in mind / have you ever heard Lilly the Pink by The Scaffold (Roger McGough and the Liverpool Poets foray into ‘Pop’….? After all, there is no such thing as a comparability to be made with you and Catenary Wires…
Ha! I do do not forget that. Actually, I believe once I was about 4 or 5, I used to like that music. I’m undecided I’ve the stamina for it now. It is best to try Sir John Betjeman’s Banana Blush album, too; all of the poets had been at it again then.
So, a long-held love of articulate indie-pop different rock lyrics and your success as a poet – sounds prefer it was inevitable your poems could be set to music or tailored into songs in the future?
I’m undecided about inevitable. Just about every part which has ever occurred to me in my lifetime of Brian has struck me as being sudden and unlikely. Through the years, although, I’ve had loads of individuals on social media who’ve set my poems to music after which shared their outcomes. That is the primary time that I’ve actually needed it to occur.
… however to get the prospect with Amelia and Rob (the loveliest on a regular basis heroes you might meet…) was a pleasure or approached with some trepidation?
Bemusement, at first. I struggled to get my head round the truth that they may need to collaborate with me. It felt slightly like some elaborate April Idiot’s joke; a part of me remains to be anxious that it could be. However they’ve been an actual pleasure to work with. From the very starting, I believe we’ve had this shared understanding about what all of us need to obtain in placing the poems along with music – regardless of by no means actually articulating an finish purpose to ourselves at any level. It has appeared a really pure course of.
Did you blush the primary time you met Amelia? She was each teenage bookish boys heart-throb wasn’t she?
Look, I blushed the primary time I met Rob.
… did they attempt to get you to sing? Or are you tone deaf like me?
Fortuitously, no. That may not have ended too properly.
I actually just like the Press Launch – virtually a chunk of poetry in itself.
Rob wrote that. And I used to be delighted to see it. It’s fully how I noticed the venture, too. It actually didn’t really feel like a strategy of Rob merely ‘setting’ poems to music: the phrases and music are totally wrapped up in one another, as if the phrases have discovered their correct residence, quite than one merely on the printed web page.
I’ve to admit once I learn you have over half one million followers on social media – I assumed by way of “business potential” for the venture – have you considered gross sales forecasts and a advertising and marketing marketing campaign ?
Completely not. It’s at all times been one thing of a shock to me that anybody takes the difficulty to learn one in all my poems or comes alongside to a present: don’t individuals have higher issues to do? Just about all I’ve ever finished has sprung from fully egocentric causes ie will I take pleasure in doing the factor that I’m doing – whether or not that’s writing a poem, studying a poem on stage, or working with musicians whom I really like.
Significantly although I can’t consider higher, extra well-suited musical collaborators than Amelia and Rob….
I believe you’re proper. And that’s precisely why I’ve needed to disappoint so many different potential suitors through the years: Brian Eno, Mark Ronson, Kanye …
And also you’re planning some dwell dates for November! You appear a really shy on-stage performer – will the joyful anticipation of being onstage with Heavenly outweigh the nerves?
Sure, that was all quite sudden, too! We do not know the way it could be acquired – however within the curiosity of spending time doing belongings you love; the chance was too tempting to forego. It will likely be attention-grabbing to see how our respective audiences take to it – we don’t actually know the way massive that space could be within the intersection of our Venn diagram. As for being shy on stage, I don’t actually see myself as that (I’m far shyer off stage). The probabilities are that I gained’t be turning myself into Bono, although, for the November gigs.
Has Henry Regular been on the cellphone to Dave Gedge but, attempting to steal your thunder (or is it plunder?)
I believe he’s ready for a name from David Byrne.
……………………..
Brian Bilston is after all a nom de plume which a chap referred to as Paul hides behind. However it’s much less complicated to stay to calling him BB for the needs of this piece.
I couldn’t go away it there with out asking singer Amelia Fletcher what she considered the completed album?
I’m amazed at how properly it labored out. I anticipated it to be extra of an enthralling indie oddity for these (like me) who like that form of factor. However the album which emerged is a lot greater than that – with a lot wider potential attraction. All of Rob’s intensive beavering away paid off. I really like the way in which the music matches collectively so properly with Brian’s deadpan voice. I’m additionally impressed at how Brian’s poetry nonetheless feels contemporary, even after I’ve heard these 13 poems actually lots of of instances! The final strains of She’d Dance and Compilation Cassette nonetheless make me smile each time.
It’s in all probability the proudest second of my life as a music journalist, to be the primary individual outdoors of the band and the poets ‘internal circle’, to listen to Sounds Made By People and safe the primary interview.
It’s a fairly good, inspirational and just about distinctive album. Destined to be one in all, if not the, ‘Album of the Yr’ so far as an as-yet unknown variety of artwork, poetry & indie-pop lovers are involved.
Poems which have turn into Songs. Or Music/poems. About loneliness, love, loss, laughing at life’s absurdities… Songs which is able to make you smile, make you snort, make you cry and make you are feeling much less alone…. What extra are you able to ask for from sounds made by people?
Interview by Ged Babey for Louder Than Struggle. Photographs by Simon Robinson.
(C) Joint Copyright held by Louder Than Struggle and Skep Wax Data. Sections of this interview might solely be reproduced by different media shops following request and proof of a donation to Medical Support for Palestinians as agreed by the artists.
‘Sounds Made By People’ is out on Skep Wax Data 9 Could 2025, CD/DL/Vinyl
Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love? is on Bandcamp now and launched on all platforms on 7 March 2025
Brian Bilston web site
Skep Wax Web site
Henry Regular & Brian Bilston tour dates (poetry/spoken phrase solely)
Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires shall be performing song-poems at chosen UK venues in November 2025.
Skep Wax Data have introduced their London Weekender will happen July 17-20. The label will showcase 12 bands throughout 4 nights at The Islington Meeting Rooms and The Lexington in North London. Enjoying their solely UK present of 2025, Heavenly will headline on the Islington Meeting Corridor on Saturday July 19. The road-up is as follows:
17 July – Jeanines, Sassyhiya, Panic Pocket – The Lexington
18 July – Swansea Sound, The Orchids, Would-be-goods – The Lexington
19 July – Heavenly, Lightheaded, Crumbs – Islington Meeting Rooms
20 July – The Mild Spring, Particular Good friend, Marlody – The Lexington
What do you imply, ‘It’s too lengthy…?’
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