a lovely guy named lewis watson was in town. we met him to talk about his new album and lots more.
interview typed down in lower case only, in respect of the artist. and let’s be honest, it’s prettier anyway.
you‘re currently on tour – how‘s it going?
really well thank you! these european tours are great because – apart from the really long drives – you get a real cross section of a country. we‘ve been in germany for a few days now, and it‘s so strange how different each city has been so far. in the uk you don‘t really get that, because everything‘s kinda close, you know? we drove over 7 hours the other day, from hamburg to frankfurt, and in the uk if you drive that far you‘re going from the very bottom to the very top. we‘re very lucky that in the uk everything‘s so close together, but on the other side that means every city is.. not the same, but you have lots of similarities. here, everything is sooo different! hamburg was a bit like playing in london, everyone‘s kind of reserved. and in berlin, the people seemed to be a bit less afraid to show it if they were enjoying it, ha.
so yeah i really love those european tours, everything is so different and exciting every time.
this is our first time in munich, so i‘m pretty excited for tonight!
have you had a favourite night so far?
i think rotterdam was my favourite! it was a really cool venue, and i feel like that allowed people to let go a bit. i had some friends at the show too, friends who have never seen me play before, so that was super cool.
amsterdam was amazing, too! with the german dates… probably hamburg! it was a tough crowd, they were lovely but just a bit reserved… and the venue was wonderful. we played at the prinzenbar. wonderful room.
you just released your second album. what‘s your favourite track on the album?
it changes all the time… at the moment it‘s track 3 which is called deep the water. as a song it means a great deal to me, it‘s a really personal song. and it sounds so big live, i love playing it together with my band every night. i used to play it on my own, and since i started playing it with the band it made me fall in love with the track over again.
i‘ve noticed all of your songs are written in lower case…
yeah! it‘s beautiful.
it is. i prefer lower case too.
i know right? it‘s just prettier.
the 1975 type in all caps and spaces and slashes everywhere and people think it‘s really cool, it‘s part of their image. as soon as i got an iphone i turned off auto-correct and auto-caps. it just looks so much prettier. it‘s something that i thought was stylisticly great and yeah.
the only thing is… now when i‘m doing an interview on my laptop or anything like that, i type in lower case. i feel so bad for the editors really. and every now and then, when we have to fill out forms to get songs on itunes and spotify and whatever, it autocorrects it. so sometimes, there are some songs written in caps and it drives me nuts. it looks so… official… and horrible, ha! i just love lower case. and i think it‘s okay to extend the art beyond the music and built up a stylistic way to present your songs.
also, the other day my friend justin, who is a photographer got in an e-mail conversation with justin vernon (bon iver) – who is one of my heroes. and afterwards he texted me and said “you know, the only two people i know who use lower case are you are bon iver.”
so how cool is that?
i heard you supported coldplay at a pub once? how did that come together?
it was a label thing, actually. the owner of the label sets up a pub show every year and gets a huge band or artist to play, and a new artist. we were not told who was playing till we got there… we were guessing it was coldplay, but our manager wouldn‘t tell if we were right or not.
and it was amazing. it was at a small pub in front of 100 people. we all had those wristbands and they lit up when they played certain songs… it was just beautiful. one of the top moments of my life as an artist.
you‘re from england and england is a wonderful place… what do you miss most when you‘re on tour?
usually when we‘re touring, we‘re touring in the summer or go to really sunny places, so i kinda miss the rain. to me rain is essentially british, and yeah, i know, we don‘t own the rain, but still – it rains more in england than everywhere else. so when i think of home, i think of wearing warm clothes inside while it rains outside and yeah… i don‘t know… for me, that‘s a really nice place to be.
i miss my dog a lot! and i miss my family, of course. i also miss my bed. my bed would be #1 on the list of things i miss.
who would you have to meet to be completely starstruck?
oh wow there are so many people! bon iver would be a big deal to me. well, i‘m not sure if i would want to meet him, cause i know i would say some stupid shit and he would probably hate me, ha. i met jack from bombay bicycle club and that was huge for me. in my golden years of discovering music i listened to a hell of a lot bombay bicycle club, so meeting jack was kind of a dream come true. i‘d also really like to meet kanye. i would love to find out if he is misunderstood or really that much of a mental puzzle as he seems to be. that‘d be super interesting.
what‘s your favourite album at the moment?
it changes all the time, but there is a band called microwave which i really love. they have an album called much love, and i‘m listening to that a lot atm.
cheese or chocolate?
cheese, 100%.
harry potter or star wars?
i‘m gonna say harry potter, but i think that‘s only because i watched it more as a child. but i love star wars as well.
when ‘the force awakens’ came out, i wanted to watch all 6 movies and then see the new one.
but then someone ruined it and told me about the ending… that‘s just… such a dicky thing to do really.
that kinda stuff happens far too often to me. i was watching breaking bad and someone ruined it for me while i was halfway through season 5… then i was like “what‘s the point of watching it, i know what‘s gonna happen anyway”. it‘s just so annoying. i honestly thing this should be illegal. spoilers. hate. it. so. much.
photo by lisa lovegood, © indie.vidualist