The Sheffield Scenester

Ian Britt had literally just jumped off the plane from Holland when we messaged him to arrange a chat about his impending album release as well as some other things.....so the following Sunday morning we headed off to his place.....

SS: So Ian....tell us about the new Album...we've had a sneak preview and thought it was brilliant...yet you've been to Holland to improve it!

IAN: Jesus! Where do I start?! It’s been a b*tch of a ride, there’s been times when I’ve actually head butted walls out of pure frustration, and times where I was extremely proud of myself for creating this beautiful monster all on my own, and I guess the ride is still not quite over!

I wanted to create an album for a number of reasons; I’d reached a bit of a ceiling in Holland working off only an EP called Big Light...so I needed it for progression over there. Also, I wanted to bosh out an album to say to Sheffield, “I am here and I’m f*cking serious about my music!” I’m still trying to get that message across to anyone who’ll pay me the attention, giving out free copies of the current print of the album....and to be fair there are people who already know and love the tunes...so I’m happy, well as happy as a Yorkshire man can be!

The album has been a long time coming and then a long time in the making, the second major reason for the album was that I needed to lay some of the songs on there to rest in a way...coz I’d been playing them out live for so long, they needed setting in stone so I could move on.

I have reached a really high standard with my recordings, which, to say I learnt how to record and produce and then did it all in about 18 months, is an achievement I’m very, very proud of! But there were a few niggling comments about “high end production values” that I was getting back from the industry when it was finished. Now, on one hand I could have chucked in the towel and 'spat my dummy out' at these comments....been precious about it and all that, but I took it like this; if these guys are thinking that....if I can get it to an even higher standard than where it is, then this thing has legs; if you’re gonna do it, do it right, right?!

When you take your work to 'the suits' or producers higher up in the game, they’re always going to ignore the art and the craft and the ingenuity of your second chorus and stick a mercenary pin in it. But those are the times we live in, you either sink or you swim, so I’m trying to swim! The album is not really being changed, just enhanced. I met this guy in Holland when I was supporting a rising star over there and we wanted to work together ever since. He just finished building a mega-amazing-studio over there and he put me in it without up front charges. BINGO! I was like 'a pig in sh*t' I tell you…! So, we’re working on two new tunes and also re-recording pianos, drums things like that, where on the album they are currently synths and midi-drums, so there will be an improvement with tone and sound quality, it’s just going to grow from being a super amazing demo to being this full frontal scenario. We’re also re-doing some of the vocals as this dude has much more than my two rubbish mikes! It’s not about changing the album, it’s about giving it the sound quality it could have had in the first place had I had finances other than those of a match maker.....!

SS: What's the recording experience been like for you?

IAN: Recording is always fun at the start and crap as it draws nearer the end on. It’s loads of fun chucking the ideas down and messing about being creative, but really frustrating when you have to keep going over one tiny section to get it just so. Yawn! I’ve even started a new side project called DOGZ to keep my creative spirits up while I do the arse end of recording on this Ian Britt album. You’ll see more of that over next 6 months but it does includes a cover of Violet May, as well as new tracks produced by me for Sara Mac and Jack Athey. It’s really exciting but still in studio at mo!

SS: Why do you record in Holland? tell us about your Dutch following....

IAN: I do have a modest bunch of fans over there, who cycle out to my shows when I’m over there touring. Largely because I have been touring there on and off for over three years I think, selling CDs and collecting emails. I can get paid to gig Holland and so I can afford to do it… here to tour off your own back is much harder. Plus the Dutchies seem to connect with my music straight away, maybe it’s because I look a little Dutch! I love it over there, they still have the original A Team on the TV… no subtitles, straight in English! And Magnum P.I! It’s like being me when I was 5 years old! Plus, I have to say, Dutch woman are really rather beautiful.

SS: Here at Scenester we think your lyrics are honest and sincere...where do you get your inspiration from?

IAN: I would agree! My lyrics are honest and sincere, and so it follows that I get them from the only place you could really get those kinds of lyrics; from myself and my honest feelings about real life experiences I have been through. I’m still quite insecure about my lyrics, when I hear someone like Guy Gurvey’s way with words I realise that my words are more like confessions than poetry.....but I do mi' best! A lot of people seem to connect with my words, which is top, I like that, makes me feel less of a freak. There’s a whole load of songs out there that say pretty much f*ck all to the listener....I hate that, I’m a very honest and open person, stick around and I might tell you what I last went to the doctors for!

SS: So...Where do you get the idea for the introduction to the song 'Back Home'?

IAN: I lived in Manchester for 7 years and became really good mates with a SKA-Punk-Hip Hop band called Sonic Boom 6, who featured on the album and whom everyone should go and check out. They are always using samples like this and I love it, they’re like my heroes in way, firstly because I love their tunes, but also because even in their pretty focused music circle, they follow their own creative path and have still managed to make a huge impact on that scene in this country. So, it was emulation I guess, I wanna be punk! I was browsing sites and found this sample from the 50’s about owning a house...and all that b*llocks and immediately read my ironic take into it, and that fitted snugly with the lyrics from back home, as in there being more important things in life than the modern day daily dirge of the acquisition of stuff and things....and more things...and that there is trouble for the soul in them there ownings of things! I’m no hippy and no I didn’t knit my own sandals, but there’s a truth to all that, we live locked up in these houses and yet often we don’t really feel at home or comfortable.

SS: Next week your doing a set at the Weston Park charity gig....how did you get involved in that?

IAN: I was asked. I’m good mates with Driftrun and they are the guys pushing for it. I’m thinking about organising something similar towards the end of the year at Crookes Working Men’s club! Def Leppard played there many years ago! How cool would that be!?

SS: Your music has also been well received in the USA...how did they get to hear about it?

IAN: I’d say my impact in the US is pretty tiny, I’ve played South by South West, which was fully mental and I had some tracks on TV over there, on stuff like Grey’s Anatomy and that. It’s a vast place the old U.S of A, I mean if Craig David can’t take a bite out there then how’s a man in a flat cap gonna do it?! I’d love to get out there and play again, I was supposed to do a two weeks tour after being accepted into the Canadian version of SXSW a year or so back, but then my manager had a heart attack and passed away....so unfortunately it all went to sh*t rather quickly! Anyway, if Borrell is correct in his observations, there’s panic in America......!

SS: You were also heard on CBeebies...how did that happen?

IAN: I’ve got a lot of irons in a lot of fires…to be honest I don’t know, maybe my publisher Sentric Music, maybe my record old label. My mates’ son flagged it up, he’s 8 months old but he’s got fine ears!

SS: So....who are you influenced by?

IAN: Booze. But also, anything going on in music that turns my ears on. Sheffield’s very own scene has its input into my creative veins, as does Holland when I’m over there. I’m a bit of a sl*g when it comes to influences, I started on a thing like Paul Simon's Graceland and Talking Heads and also Randy Newman a songwriter from the U.S. Those influences seem still to be present in my music. But I can be into Dizzee Rascal one day, Van Halen the next, Bob Marley on a Thursday and Nick Drake on a Friday. It’s a hard one to pin point. All that is good to my ears goes into the mix. I just love music.

SS: Whats your thoughts on the local music scene here in sheffield?

IAN: I think we should all petition together to have Aaron Procter banished to the hills! Nah, I love him really, heart of gold that kid, except when he’s had too many shandys!

I think we have a few tonnes of active musicians in this city most of which are really of an extremely high standard, I have my favourites and I also see a whole bunch of new blood coming through now too… which is ace, tough that might mean curtains for us stalwarts! All this music keeps the bar raised, it’d be easy to make sh*t music and have the locals tell you it was good if you lived in Luton or Solihull, but here you don’t get away with it. Keeping up standards, and to a certain extent saturating the pond! It’s a double edged sword, but on the whole it means I work harder at it, which in turns keeps me off the streets! The city was built on Dance music when I was a teenager, Gate Crasher and all that, we were leaders in the country for dance music culture… but we’ve always pumped out brilliant music, from Joe Cocker or Def Leppard to Human League or Pulp, Sir Richard Hawley, Moloko, the Artctics, Toddla T… I mean that’s some bloody heritage to live up to isn’t it?! Mike and the Mechanics, I mean come on!!!

SS: Who would you most like to gig with?

IAN: Maybe Jack White. That’d be something. Jimmy Page maybe. I’d like to play bass for Hendrix, but I think his fingers would be a bit stiff these days! I’d like to play drums for the Cartels one time and show my good pal Oliver how it’s done! (Don’t worry, we’re pals!)

SS: So to finish off....tell us about your usual day/daily routine....do you have another job...what time do you get up...? do you put out the rubbish on wednesday? are you a generally tidy person...whats your most worrying habit?

IAN: There is no such thing as routine in my life, I hate it. I’ve made swift departures from relationships as soon as I got a whiff of routine. I teach a guitar to get by (if anyone’s interested get in touch!), but being a travelling musician makes it hard to keep a normal job, thank f*ck. I have done a million different of jobs, most of which were sh*te, but they kept me focused on the music.....I’m extremely tidy, it’s one of the only ways I can control the world around me, when I’m stressed, my cupboards look properly amazing......My most worrying habit, err… music probably!