Newton Faulkner had a relatively quiet 2013 gig wise. This is down to the recording of his new album ‘Studio Zoo’ which in is own words “took the people in charge of organising stuff a little by surprise.” GoldenPlec caught up with him ahead of his concerts in Ireland.
Being on the look out for new ways to record an album really forced Newton Faulkner to break the mould with ‘Studio Zoo’. Over a five-week period he filmed the entire process and streamed it all online.
“[The idea] came from management initially,” he told Goldenplec. “I thought we wouldn’t be allowed to stream it because of pirating and licensing stuff. We took it to the label and they loved it. It took us by surprise.
“From there on it just got bigger and bigger. It was originally going to be like the streams you get from radio stations of one frame a second but it just grew and we ended up with four cameras for five weeks. I’d do it again in terms of emotional and mental toll because it was really fun. But it’s not a new idea anymore so my interest isn’t really there now.”
Having the eyes of thousands of people trained on him didn’t stop the creative juices flowing. “It actually kind of helped,” he said. “I really feed off the live scenario. This bridged the gap between sitting in a room by myself and playing to people. Each time I went to the mic I had lots of people listening instead of maybe an engineer so it forced me to speed up the process.”
Straying even further away from the traditional album recording Faulkner did not use a producer or engineer for ‘Studio Zoo’. Instead he took on the roles himself. “I had produced a few tracks on previous albums before and people had liked them so I was keen to do it again,” he said. “And when we decided to record on camera that solidified my decision because I couldn’t think of any producer or engineer who would be comfortable with being recorded 24 hours a day.”
The writing process for ‘Studio Zoo’ was as fun and varied as the recording was according to the Englishman. “I’ve purposefully not worked to any set formula when I’ve recorded albums to keep everything fresh. With ‘Studio Zoo’ we were under pressure for time so I had to come up with things very quickly,” he told us.
“I wrote all the guitar melodies touring Australia and when I was going around Europe I wrote the lyrics. I tend to sing melodies into my phone all the time, which gets me some pretty weird looks on public transport.”
One thing long time listeners will notice about ‘Studio Zoo’ is that it is a lot more restrained than previous offerings with most tracks comprising of just vocals and a single guitar track. “That was a conscious decision,” he says of this approach. “The main criticism of my stuff in the past was that it was to layered and polished. So for the people that liked the live show there was a massive gulf between what I was putting out on records and what was happening live. I think this helps to bridge the gap.”
The covers of Bohemian Rhapsody and the SpongeBob Square Pants theme have become real crowd pleasers in his set lists. This has left him the unique problem of trying to find something new to introduce. “It’s really hard to find something new because the stuff I’ve done has worked so well. I can’t just pick a song and force it into a set list,” he said. “It’s got to fit a bunch of very strange parameters. Everything I’ve done, from Teardrop to SpongeBob, have all ticked this kind of nostalgic box which not that many songs can do.”
With a playing style like Faulkner’s tabbing a cover song isn’t easy. “I had to tab Bohemian Rhapsody with a friend because I knew it was going to be a nightmare. We worked separately and then met up and pieced it all together. It took a long time to be able to play it. Then being able to play and sing and do it all well took even longer.”
These things take time. The beautiful guitar work on his song I Need Something is a prime example. “It’s probably the longest writing process I’ve had,” he told us. “I kind of constructed it in my head first to see how it would all fit together, and then it took me a year and a half to two years to play it. Because of the complexity of it all it’s almost mathematical and scientific. You really have to work and find a level where it is completely second nature.”
Away from music he has had an interesting few months. Work on a remake of the PlayStation 1 classic ‘Abe’s Oddysee’ came about thanks to Twitter. “To start with I was working on a character’s voice. As we kept talking they asked would I like to do some music,” he said.
“It was supposed to be the opening credits then the end credits and now I’m not really sure where it’s going. It was really fun. All the music on games like San Andreas and Vice City (two of the Grand Theft Auto games) actually introduced me to a lot of music I really love now so it was great to do something like this.“
With a hectic 2014 ahead Faulkner is looking forward to getting on the road. “It’s kind of a year of gigging really. Then festival season starts and then I’m straight into another tour. I’m not sure yet of an Irish festival date but I will know very soon. Once I know the fans will know straight away.”
Newton Faulker will play four dates in Ireland beginning on 6th of February. A full list of shows can be seen here.