Frontman of The Guillemots, Fyfe Dangerfield, released his solo album Fly Yellow Moon last week. Stripped back and full of lovely summer-sounds, it was interesting to see if the record could be pulled off live and melt the snow outside.  With technical problems rife, coupled with a slightly perturbed Dangerfield, the answer would be: not quite as well as could have been, but suitably impressive enough to justify the ski to the venue.

I’ve seen many bands get more than a little freaked-out at the intimacy of the Glee Club, and lets not beat about the bush: 200 silent & expectant people seated in front of you can hardly be a comfortable audience to play to. However, Dangerfield’s natural charm and confidence in himself and his music helped overcome this, with quips during minutes-long silences during problems with loop-pedals and what-not.

There were many strong moments throughout the show: lead-single When You Walk in the Room was brilliantly performed, Livewire and Firebird offered the biggest lovers of gentle acoustics something to smile about and a couple of Guillemots numbers adapted and thrown in for good measure went down very well. But somehow, the show overall was disjointed and not as smooth as either Dangerfield or the audience would have hoped. It wasn’t just the tech probs, it was the music in general: flitting from acoustic, electric and keyboards offered a little too much variety and whilst I applaud his talent and efforts, the overall result was somewhat inconsistent and stuttered.

A cover of Girls Aloud’s Call the Shots (Live Lounge material?) admittedly raised smiles from the audience as did the ukelele-based encore, but with the lull in Guillemots filled and Dangerfield’s gentle and simpler-side catered for, Dangerfield’s road is not one for him to take by himself but as part of the quartet of which he known for.

ND:     When’s the album out and what’s it called?

FD:      It’s out Monday [Monday 18^th] and it’s called Fly Yellow Moon.

ND:     I’ve heard that you’re playing a few gigs soon, when do they start?

FD:      It’s just one week.  I’ve just got four gigs starting next week [Monday 18^th]

ND:     Where are the gigs being played?

FD:      Playing, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and London. I’m looking forward playing all of them. Playing Scala in London is going to be quite exciting because I’ve played there with the Guillemots. Going back it’ll be exciting going there to play that one myself.

ND:     How do you feel about the album and the tour coming out, since it’s your first solo stuff?

FD:      It’s really exciting; you always get a kick out of being in a position where you have something that you can bring out. I’m just really excited.

ND:     Your solo stuff is a lot different from what your fans are used to hearing from you. What are your hopes for the success of the album?

FD:      I’ve not really thought about that too much, I’m just thinking about the next thing I want to do.  I just want people to hear it, you can’t worry too much about what you want a record to do. It’s coming out and that’s about as much as you can hope for really.

ND:     I know that you recorded a whole load of songs for the album and you had a bit of trouble narrowing it down to just 10 songs. Do you have a favourite song on the album?

FD:      I don’t really have a favourite. There’s a song called “So Brand New” which was one of the most fun. Most of them were very fun to record. I just remember that one being quite funny as we did it. The whole album was just really fun to record. It’s really hard to pick out just one track; it was really hard narrowing it down just for this one album. But I have this sort of special edition that’s coming out. It has the other extra tracks, another album of bonus tracks and other stuff as well; that will eventually come out online. The stuff will all find its way out eventually.

ND:     You recorded the album at Urchin Studios which is where you recorded the first Guillemots EP. Do you think that was a good way to start your solo career, where you started with The Guillemots?

FD:      Yeah, it was funny it was just down the corridor from the studio where we did our first EP. It’s a lovely, great little studio. It’s really, really cool there.

ND:     What made you decide on going solo?

FD:      It wasn’t really a big thought. It’s just something else to do, it’s not instead of Guillemots, we’re really busy in the band at the moment writing our next record.  It was just I had some songs that I had quite a good idea of what I wanted them to sound like. They were pretty acoustic and stripped down, well most of them were anyhow. They just didn’t seem like band records. Or something you would do with Guillemots. It’s nice to do something different anyway, it reinvigorates you for all the other stuff you do.

ND:     What do you think the biggest difference is between playing solo and with a band?

FD:      They’re both different kind of things, but you know I haven’t really played any gigs yet for this record. I’m still kind of finding out what it’s going to be like anyway.

ND:     You said earlier about recording Guillemots next album as well as doing Fly Yellow Moon, do you think you’ll be doing any tours or festivals this summer?

FD:      I’m not sure yet, hopefully I might do a few. I’m not sure whether we’ll be doing any in Guillemots or not this year; we’re just focusing on getting the next album ready. We’ll see.

Fly Yellow Moon is a strong solo album cementing Dangerfield’s reputation as an all-round experimentalist and fabulous musician, drawing on sounds from the Manic’s to Beirut and Nick Drake all mixed in with the quirkiness and uniqueness of Fyfe Dangerfield.

Opening the record is the first single, When You Walk in the Room: three minutes of summer sounding, festival-friendly pop. Not everybody’s taste though will be the outro but this is easily overlooked as So Brand New, the opening line giving the album it’s title, starts and Dangerfield exhibits a pitch-perfect, quintessentially English singer-songwriter sound reminiscent of the aforementioned Drake and John Martyn.

Barricades slows the tone down with delicate piano chords similar to very early Coldplay and conjures images of festivals and easy times. Mid-way through Dangerfield is accompanied by a selection of strings, demonstrating further his classical background, eventually tailing off to the sounds of children playing and thus the start of High on the Tide, after which the record (admittedly a little thankfully) picks up pace with Faster Than The Setting Sun.

Next is the record’s acoustic highlight: Livewire. A simple finger-pick of four chords and easy lyrics create a lovely late-summer’s evening tone; sadly, this pleasant feeling is changed by the heavier Firebird. Still, the musicianship and poetry is exceptional and despite previous lighter tones, the album still doesn’t drag or feel padded.

She Needs Me, Don’t Be Shy (listen and just try not to hear Three Hours) and Any Direction finish the album off neatly, if a little impersonally.

Overall Fly Yellow Moon is a strong, independent album that exhibits the adaptability of Dangerfield yet, despite vocals of a more delicate nature, still preserves his Guillemots edge. Older fans will appreciate the more fuller-sounding tracks (When You Walk In The Room, Faster Than The Setting Sun) whilst new fans will be treated to a variable-sounding record. Certainly a strong debut album that will certainly be kept playing through the year.

When You Walk in the Room is the first single to be taken from Fly Yellow Moon

TOUR DATES

Jan 18th 2010 Birmingham, Glee Club  £11/12 0871 472 0400 Click Here
Jan 19th 2010 Manchester Deaf Institute £12 0161 832 1111 Click Here
Jan 20th 2010 Glasgow ABC £13 0141 353 8000  Click Here
Jan 21st 2010 London Scala £12.50 08444 771 000 Click Here