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 28 August 2008 12:43 BST

Ruarri Joseph: Family's the key

Tuesday, 27 Nov 2007 12:01
Ruarri Joseph: A fan of "the smaller things in life".
Routinely compared with the likes of Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Elliott Smith, Cornish singer/songwriter Ruarri Joseph is building a steady buzz in the UK's burgeoning folk market.

Joseph had put music on hold after John Lennon's aphorism about life happening "while you're making other plans" came true, finding himself back in Cornwall after spells in New Zealand and London and aged just 19, working in a pub to support a daughter and stepson.

But after beginning to play in jazz cabaret band the Rhythm Kings in pubs around the south-west, he rediscovered his love for performing and after a management company discovered his MySpace page (in just how many articles has that phrase now been used?), he recorded his debut album Tales of Grime and Grit - at a rather bizarre locations.

He talked to inthenews.co.uk's Lewis Bazley about music, family and hangovers.

Why did you choose to record the album at the all-but-abandoned Airfield studios?

I recorded half of it at Airfield and half of it in my bedroom. But going to Airfield was wonderful 'cos there is only one person in the world who knows how to use it who happened to be someone that I knew. So it seemed like the right place to go and plus the haunted army camp thing was quite nice because it wasn't intimidating, it was ideal.

So you do think that gives the record its uniquely homemade feel?

The songs are about small reality so if you record with one microphone in your bedroom its closer to reality than spending thousands and thousands in a massive studio recording.

In terms of home – Family's clearly a very important concern to your music, would you agree with that?

Yeah, I spend a lot of time thinking about family. It's where you are and essentially where you live so you have to think about it. Rather than write a fantastical song about a girl that I fell in love with. It's nonsense, it's completely fictional. That sort of thing doesn't interest me so much as the smaller things in life, like a drawing that your daughter does of you or your best friend getting divorced. That's life.

And what about other slices of inspiration? Is the single Early Morning Remedy inspired by an especially awful hangover?

Well, yeah, it's inspired by one in particular. I went to see a mate and he was lying on the sofa, he was sick, he looked really sick and then he told me he just had a hangover and I thought, you're an idiot, don't expect to get my sympathy for that. So, it's sort of a fictional story based on something that's completely true. It's that kind of thing, you can't expect sympathy when you've done it yourself, you just don't do that.

What's the inspiration for Perfect Man is a Woman then? It seems to be about a mother telling her daughter to become a lesbian.

It's inspired by your mother's advice - no matter how bonkers it is, you always listen to it. It's not that my mother told me to go and become a lesbian though! I'm just inspired by the whole sort of parent-child relationship. Kids are hilarious and parents are even more hilarious 'cos they don't know what they are doing. So it's more about motherly advice as opposed to an actual story about the lesbian thing. That's the vehicle for the story

You had responsibility thrust upon you at a very young age – were you able to reconcile your musical interests with that?

No, it really stalled it. I stopped playing music for a bit, it was doing my nut in. Then I happened to fall into the Rhythm Doctors and it just reminded me just how much music meant to me.

But responsibility had initially changed that?

When you become a father, you're not number one anymore, your life changes. Essentially when you have a child, your desires, all your hopes and dreams are put on hold and you shouldn’t have an issue with doing that. You suddenly realise that being a selfish person is absolutely pointless. It wasn’t like 'Oh no, I don’t want to play music anymore' but more like 'I don’t want to play it because it's not appropriate'.

It must be hard being away from such a young family for so long a time – is it something you've had to struggle for?

No, not at all. I would never have done it without their full support. It was never a thing of 'I'm doing this and I don't care what you think'. We talked about it and I said I have an opportunity to do something, this is something that I should do. You know if you support me then cool, we should do this, and that was the case. But yeah it was hard. But we get through it.

Even so – chances to go home, such as to play the Unleashed festival in Newquay – must be great?

That was the highlight of the year that one.

You played with Paolo Nutini during his encore – it certainly looked like everyone was having a fantastic time, would I be right in thinking that?

You would, that was great, it was really cool. We were gonna try something, cos I had met Paolo a couple of times and we had always talked about doing a song together cos we were fans of each other's music. We couldn't organise our way out of a paper bag so in the end we just played the song and Newton [Faulkner] just happened to be there and said that 'I'll just bang my guitar' and we were like 'Yeah ,that sounds great'. It was kind of thrown together, it was just fun it was really cool.

In terms of influences - how important is Tom Waits? Album opener Patience has a very Tom Waits vibe to it

Tom Waits is genius. He's an absolute genius, I love Tom Waits. It's difficult for his influence not to come out in something that I do. I just adore him so much. His whole ethos, not necessarily his sound, but his whole ethos. The understanding of him is very enviable. The thing is when I first started getting into music it was very heavy stuff, it was all Nirvana and Pearl Jam and stuff. You know the grungier stuff, Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones, it was well into my head this stuff and then it just came to a point where I had enough of playing the electric guitar and I was rubbish without a band so I switched to the acoustic. I like to think that I still have a bit of that influence floating around but it's played on a different set of instruments.

You're compared to a lot of artists, especially Waits, Bob Dylan, Jack Johnson and Cat Stevens - are these flattering? Is there one album about which you could say 'That changed my life'?

When I was a child, my dad used to play Bob Dylan around the house and Joni Mitchell and that kind of acoustic-y stuff. Never Cat Stevens though, me compared to him is very strange. There isn't one album that I can say changed my life really though.

And finally, what are your plans for the future?

I'm going on holiday for Christmas and when I come back things will get very busy and exciting. There will be a tour in January or February and there will be a single release at the end of January. Not sure if I can tell you what it is but there will be one.

(Laughs) The thing that I want to concentrate in most is the holiday.End of story


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