num

Compared to the likes of Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, and Elliott Smith, num's first release "The Small Rocket EP" was made single of the week by Lauren Laverne at XFM, played by Zane Lowe among others on Radio 1, well received by regional radio from Bristol to Oban, played on MTV2's 120 minutes, etc, etc. Since then num has been on a generally hellish roller coaster ride through horrendous music industry contracts, personal disasters, depression, alcoholism, and even temporary homelessness... but here he is at the other side of it with his cathartic debut album "Life, Death, and the Absurdity of Being". "I think it's all been worth it..." he says... Everything he writes is either written on a bus or a train; he says "...all the best songs and poems were written by people moving from one place to the next, it's like everything is more poignant and loaded with emotion when you're either leaving somewhere or anticipating arrival some place else. By writing on the move you get to write from that pregnant space in your mind". He records alone; he says "when other people get involved with the recording process you inevitably end up compromising your original ideas. When I hear a song in my head I hear all the parts as clear as day so when somebody says "you could play that bit like this", you know that you're about to agree with them and then it's too late, you've started unravelling the knitted bag your idea was kept in. You won't know why the song doesn't work anymore you'll just know it doesn't." This single mindedness has caused him numerous setbacks along the way such as... He knocked back a five-album deal and has had to start up his own record label to get his music out without it being "fiddled with by moneymen"... Then, he sold all his possessions on ebay to raise money for recording equipment he didn't know how to use, and had to spend months figuring out how it all worked... but he still insists it was the only way to go "you don't really have a choice when it comes to these matters, the moneymen want to expand whatever commercial element your music has without a thought for meaning or integrity resulting in bland, pacifying, pleasant, inoffensive, background muzak. Droves of people respond to the "Must have CD of the moment" adverts in the middle of Coronation Street, but I don't think many people really, passionately love background music. I would be happy if 99% of people hated my music knowing that the 1% of people who did like it, really liked it. That would be more important than any money." It's been a year or so since num released "The Small Rocket EP" and the road to "Life, Death, and the Absurdity of Being" has been anything but smooth. The building he lives in was at the centre of a race riot and he was made temporarily homeless due to the threat of arson; one of his oldest friends died suddenly leaving a huge gap; and, as he puts it "too many minor personal disasters to mention" have shaped the landscape of "Life, Death, and the Absurdity of Being", the release of which marks in his mind "...the end of a very strange chapter". Personally, he seems to exist on another plane altogether, drifting from one scene to another, never actually taking part but hovering around the edges, "soaking up the seconds everyone else is busy throwing away", always taking notes, always taking pictures. He is constantly writing, recording or making videos and when asked about touring replied mysteriously "I know something terrible will happen while I'm on tour so I'm waiting for a sign to let me know the time's right" (???) He is however planning podcasts of live material from his house and is already working on the next album "bands like the Beatles used to release two albums a year so why should they have such big gaps now? Didn't technology make everything quicker? Too much is governed by the moneymen, scared of flooding the market, keeping bands tied to the road for nine months out of twelve. How will music progress if you enslave and burn out the people who make it? The Beatles totally changed popular music but the real progress was made when they gave up touring, they had time to experiment, what gets me now is the waste of talented people, dragged into a horrible corporate machine, juiced completely, then spat out the other side. They should make a "How it's made" for wrecked pop stars then we'd all see just how contrived it really is" ...and breathe. (bloody hell) To sum up, the superstitious, super cynical, over emotional, and over wrought num is always there, on the train or on the bus, writing about all of our sad expressions, our repressed desires, and our quietest dreams, in an age where things move and change so fast none of us know who we really are or what we really want anymore. num pulls us aside and says, "It's okay to stop running". Robert James, The Lead Balloon