Jamie Lenman: Embracing The Darkness

JAMIE LENMAN has become an iconic figure in the UK alternative scene over the years and since in his solo endeavours, the adoration from his dedicated fan base has only gotten stronger. In 2019 he pushed the envelope even further and ventured into devising his own deconstructed and reimagined tributes to some of his favourite songs throughout his life which culminated in the album known as Shuffle.

“I was quite surprised by how favourable the reviews were because the feeling going into it was that we were taking a big risk,” admits Jamie. “I was preparing myself for a backlash really with people saying, ‘this is just a waste of time’ or ‘this is just a stopgap between proper albums, this is just what you do when you haven’t got any material of your own’. None of which was the case. I was keen for people to understand that this is actually something I was deeply passionate about. I think that came across either through various arguments I laid out in the press and the record itself and everyone were very kind about it. My fans enjoyed it and the press was very positive. I was very pleased.”

With the performance side of the music industry almost grinding to a complete halt it has provided the opportunity for many musicians to get stuck into writing new material. As is normally the case with someone as creative and inventive as LENMAN there is very rarely a moment of ‘down-time’ and an opportunity to forget about the current state of the world will soon present itself in the form of mini-album King Of Clubs. “I sort of went into it thinking it would be a standard JAMIE LENMAN record and then it came out really weird and bizarre, a lot of stuff I wasn’t expecting happened,” explains Jamie. “There is the old cliche of ‘expect the unexpected’ but I really do think it will be impossible for anyone to predict what it might sound like. The singles that have come out are the more standard JAMIE LENMAN stuff on this album but the rest is really stuff that I haven’t done before. That’s where all the real surprises lie and I’m excited for people to hear it. With this release me and Space (producer) did a track a day which was very exciting. It was very fast and very self-contained and because of this approach we were sort of working against the clock sometimes.”

King Of Clubs sees LENMAN delve into new territory with his lyrical content, exploring the darker side of the spectrum to create something which we haven’t experienced from him before. “The themes are really in the realms of negative emotions in terms of lyrical and musical content, feeling uncomfortable and I sort of want the record to make people feel uncomfortable in places,” discusses Jamie. “From the overtly political stuff, looking outwards with Summer Of Discontent and I Don’t Wanna Be Your Friend calling out aspects of society and behaviour that I’m not comfy with as well as aspects of myself that I’m not comfy with on Like Me Better which is about coming to terms with being uncomfortable and Kill Me which is about extreme self-loathing. It’s a really dark record, the music is dark, the artwork is dark. It’s the darkest record I’ve made. Certainly since Muscle Memory and it was only the first half of that which was dark, there were a lot of light elements to that.”

During the writing process LENMAN prefers to be a lone gunman but does utilise his recruited live band members as a soundboard to allow himself to scrutinise the songs in a live environment. “It’s one thing to do demos on your computer or playing in your study but until you hear what it sounds like as a band you can’t really hear it properly. As much as I do everything myself it is useful to hear it played with live musicians. I can hear what it sounds like then I can make adjustments in that room,” explains Jamie. “All ideas are my own but I hope whatever musicians I’m playing with enjoy it!”

Whilst preferring to use this approach he draws a lot of inspiration from experiencing live performances to assist in sparking his creativity. “I underestimated the importance of touring and how beneficial it can be for creativity. People fire records my way and I very rarely latch onto them, it’s only really when I see bands live which really inspires me. It also helps me to keep my finger on the pulse of the scene. I have lots of friends in the UK alternative music scene who are doing exciting things and I feel like I’m part of something.”

Whilst most of the music scene are still champing at the bit to get back to touring and live performances once again LENMAN had the privilege of returning to the stage for a short string of gigs arranged by Signature Brew. An opportunity which he was incredibly thankful for. “I’m very lucky, thankfully they thought of me as one of the handful of performers,” states Jamie. “I did three shows and it was up to them who they wanted to invite. Thank god we were already acquainted through Lenmania, I was a bit dumbstruck by it all as there was a lot of stuff going on at the time and my manager said I was asked to play so I just said yes without really thinking about it and it was only afterwards that I realised actually how significant that really was and I am really grateful to have been asked.”

King Of Clubs is out now via Big Scary Monsters.

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