*Johnny Flynn Interview

We caught up with Johnny (and a few of his band mates) in their dressing room before their show at The Ruby Lounge in Manchester...


So I was just saying before the interview started that I’d seen you play at quite a few small London gigs
The Lock Tavern yeah.

So you’ve been a regular on the London gig scene for a while now, does it feel great to finally be on your headlining full UK tour?
Yeah it does, it’s our first headline tour. We did a couple of support tours last year with Jack Penate and Iron & Wine. But yeah it’s really nice, it’s nice having your own crowds and being able to get the sound right for us, those sort of technical things are great. It’s quite an exciting time, we’ve got an album that’s coming out really soon and it’s all about to happen, having spent loads of time together the songs are tighter than they have been so it’s good.

Were the crowds good at Jack Penate/Iron & Wine?
Yeah it was really good; I don’t think we had a bad gig. We didn’t feel like we were received badly at all but they were quite diverse and I wouldn’t even say that we were somewhere in the middle of those too because we’re sort of another thing all together.

So were you learning or performing with instruments from quite an early age?
Sort of yeah, I started learning the violin at 6 and then went to a music school and picked up the piano but now I’m also playing banjo and mandolin but I’m teaching myself.

So you’ve finished recording the full album now? Where did you record it?
Yeah it’s all finished now, we recorded in Seattle, well just outside of Seattle, in this amazing barn called Bear Creek studios. It’s run by this guy Ryan, and he’s been building up this studio over the last 30 years. We lived above the main recording room and just didn’t see daylight for about 5 or 6 weeks, we just lived in that space and got really into the music.

Was there anything in particular that made you not want to record it in the UK?
Not really, I guess I don’t really feel like I’m from anywhere. Our music has references from Britain and America and other places so it doesn’t feel like we have to stick here and make a ‘home-grown’ record. We met this guy who we really wanted to do it with, we did one song with him and we didn’t even feel like we got that song particularly right but I knew for me, he would be another creative entity within what we were. He didn’t try and mould our sound or change what we did he just knew how to technically record what we had already worked out, and make it the best that it could be. He had loads of really cool old mics and tube amps so it was great for that.

If you can narrow it down what would you say inspires your song writing most?
Sometimes its very specific situations or reactions and feelings, reading about some story that triggers some kind of recognition, some experience I’ve had or more just an overwhelming need to praise my friends, I feel like I learn a lot from the people I’m around. It’s so broad, it could be going to an art gallery, the need to create I think is in everyone and sometimes it just comes out. The most inspiring feeling is quite often writing the words, seeing it all come together, playing around with a riff or a melody.

So you tend to write lyric before melody?
Yeah, very rarely do I come up with what I think would be a very good tune and then thought well what does that mean for the words. Sometimes its just one phrase, or a chorus first, it tends to come more immediately than the melody. It’s really important to have strong and true lyrics, usually I have a few notebooks full of verse that I’ve written and if I find a good melody I can usually just piece together things from my writing.

Your music is more or less considered contemporary country/folk but do you think there is a lack of that kind of music within the British music scene?
No, I guess because we’re put on the bill with bands like that quite a lot it seems like there are loads of people doing it. I mean it can feel claustrophobic, like there are too many but there are actually only a few that I really rate…

Who are they?
There are different people that I like for different reasons, the anti-folk scene in America like Jeffrey Lewis.

Yeah I sold merch for him once in New York he’s great.
Yeah I really think he’s amazing, so true. I really like some of the English people too; Noah and The Whale are really good. There’s so many folkies and I actually feel that anyone who has attached themselves that scene as a named scene a few years ago did themselves a disservice because scenes go in and out of fashion and really music doesn’t deserve to be on that level, it is what it is and it changes. People should be allowed to do different things.

Are there other contemporary artists who people would maybe be surprised you listened to?
Yeah probably, I like some hip-hop and Joe who’s in the band and plays cello, makes and listens to a lot of electronic music and makes jungle so we’d go to drum and bass nights and stuff like that. I think Jamie T is pretty good, I don’t really see music in genres though which I feel is a healthy thing if I may say so. It's just people doing what’s right for them.

Queue lots of random irrelevant banter about Jeffrey Lewis…and then back to the interview...

So you’re playing south by south west in the states this year right?
I think we might not be anymore; it’s a sore subject! It’s a money issue mainly.

You’ve spent time in the states before, when you were discovering some of the New York anti-folk scene, were you living there?
No I wasn’t, my girlfriend was out there studying so I went to stay with her for a while, but I seemed to go there quite a few times in the last couple of years and then I was out there doing a play for a month and got to spend more time there.

Did you like it there?
Yeah, loved it… it’s pretty interesting.

I heard you came back and from that started a club night in London?
Yeah I actually started it with Adam’s (band mate) associate.

Associate? Sounds very formal…
Adam’s ex/girlfriend. I had to check what their current status was. Had to check on facebook. (To Adam) What’s she saying?

Adam: I don’t know! I haven’t checked it.

Is that not wrong that people know that from facebook, you find things out before people tell you!

(Johnny in a mock voice) Adam is now single! Broken Heart.. It’s so unbelievably wrong isn’t it?
But yeah so we only actually did a few nights but it was basically when I first moved to London, all three of us; me, Tom, and Emmy The Great basically set it up so we could play our songs and people would have to listen! We’d all been to New York and thought what was happening there was really cool and we wanted to see if people would respond to it here. We were all just obsessed with Anti-folk and those were my first gigs, it was the start of playing live for me. It was mainly only our friends who came though!

I know you’re also an actor and have travelled companies performing Shakespeare, do the skills you develop as an actor, do they help you as a musician or are they two very separate crafts for you?
They’re sort of abstractly linked in a way; all experience tends to bleed into other things. For me it’s like a sense of… stagecraft sounds contrived, but I mean just helping an atmosphere to create itself and helping you to relate to an audience. My firm belief has always been that good acting is not acting; it’s reacting, and so being in that place and being super aware can really help your music anyway because it’s all about communication.

Would you ever be able to choose between the two?
I often feel forced by situation to choose, it’s really difficult. Sometimes I feel a bit resentful, obviously if you start putting yourself up for work in the acting business you have to be available to do the work. If you turn a job down because you’ve got a gig then people get a bit turned off. When I want to do that again I’ll have to be completely available for like the next six months.