Moon & Back Music

American singer-songwriter Sean Rowe recently supported Noah & The Whale on their UK tour. On the back of this, he released his debut album ‘Magic’ to the UK. Moon & Back Music caught up with him for a quick chat

Sean Rowe: Hey man, no worries.

M&B: How long you enjoying the sunny UK weather for?

SR: About two weeks; the bulk of it is in London and Brighton, then I’m off to Paris.

M&B: The tour going good then?

SR: Yea yea, we’ve played [Brighton's] Great Escape festival. That reminded me of South by South West, it was cool. Then I’ve got an um, instore tomorrow which I’m looking forward to at Pure Groove Records aswell.

M&B: And Paris?

SR: Well Paris is um, really interesting actually. I’m performing for the release of ‘Magic’ at l’INTERNATIONAL which I’m looking forward to.

M&B: I bet that’ll be pretty awesome. You opened for Noah & The Whale for their UK tour recently, how did that go?

SR: It was amazing, amazing: the audience were really receptive to my songs, it was just, um, surprising for me to play overseas to such an audience. And with Noah and that, we became great friends and they’re great people to know. So yea, it was a good time.

M&B: How did that come about? They …. ‘spotted’ you didn’t they?

SR: Yeah; well it was very unplanned and what happened was, my um, my CD [Magic] got into the hands of Noah’s booking agent. So he, he had a listen to my songs and essentially I had about four days notice that I was coming to England. Clearly I wasn’t going to turn that down. Totally unplanned.

M&B: Awesome, so totally in promptu then.

SR: Yea yea very.

M&B: Now, I’ve been asked by a lot of people to…describe your sound, and the best I could come up with was a cross between Bonnie Prince Billy and Tom Waits. Would you tend to agree?

SR: Well, I haven’t heard of Bonnie Prince Billy, but definitely the Tom Waits bit. When I was a kid growing up, I wasn’t really listening to the same genres as my peers were. I was more into old blues, like John Lee Hooker and Robert Johnson and ya know, soul singers like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin and…at the same time I was getting into Iggy Pop and The Velvet Underground and of course Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash. They all came in at the same time so, ya yknow. I’m influenced by a lot of musical character I guess. But um, I also draw from things that are coming out now. But what it comes down to for me is, is music that has a real quality to it ya know, a rawness. It’s not in everything you hear.

M&B: What are you listening to at the moment?

SR: Yea, in terms of music that’s coming, I’m  a big fan of Regina Spektor and um, Feist and…there’s alot of music coming out in the genre of alternative-folk, which seems to me a very….loosely descriptive term really. Like, Fleet Foxes; I’ve been listening to them since their first record. But, I never tire of my Leonard Cohen records or Ray Charles though really.

M&B: How was the recording of ‘Magic’?

SR: Yea it was good: the studio that it was recorded in was essentially an, *laughs* an old beauty school building that had been for years closed down; it was very old by American standards at least not European. We recorded the record in this room that wasn’t designed for recording it was essentially a room with paint pealing off the walls and pigeons and all sorts of craziness going on there. But I suppose that added a rustic simpleness to the record.

M&B: Tell us about your naturalistic and edible-plant side.

SR: *laughs* Well, there’s been sort of, um, a duality in my life with music and wilderness living. But that sort of parallels my musical learning ya know, as a kid I was always in the woods and I grew up around the mountains. I was constantly outside and getting into trouble. I’m very interested in the, the original inhabitants of the land, the way they eked a life. It’s an interesting paradox, performing up against a thousand people, ya know in cities like London.

Sean Rowe’s debut album ‘Magic’ is available to buy from his website, www.seanrowe.net