Friday 2 October 2015

Ian Britt Q&A

Your name:
Ian Britt.

Where are you from? 
Sheffield... and Manchester.

Who else is in your band?
Just me. It's lonely but much simpler.

How would you describe yourselves? 
I'm an acoustic singer songwriter. I've been putting out music for around 10 years and it's been somewhat eclectic/schizophrenic. The main threads being strong melodic content, classic songwriting structures with honest, confessional lyrics and a decent bit of wit. I'm accessible yet unique. Your mum will like it, but also your cool twit mate will find something in there that he could tip his hat too if he pierced the surface (not that your cool twit mate will have the time).

Who are your main influences musically?
Early on it was things like Paul Simon Graceland, Randy Newman, Talking Heads. Now it's anything that catches my ear. From Elbow to Ezra. The Lumineers to Led Zeppelin. If it's good with a bit of a pop ethic, I'll lap it up. (I love face melting dub-step, but sadly it doesn't find it's way into my recordings).

What do you hope to achieve in music?
I hope that my achievements in music help me build my strength towards getting my Gold Swimming Certificate. 

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?
I've played South By South West and Radio One Live Weekend, which were amazing experiences. I toured in Holland extensively for around four years, supporting some big artists over there, doing national Dutch radio/TV and playing the mecca venue in Amsterdam, The Paradiso. I've also had a bunch of my music on TV and adverts. My music has been on Hollyoaks in excess of 100 times, so I'm king of Teenage Telly Boppers. I had a few huge breaks in the US and Canada on TV shows The Real L Word, The L Word and Parenthood with a song I recorded in a toilet in Manchester. As a result I gained a ton of new fans over night and the song in question has now had 6.6million hits on Spotify. Not bad for a fully independent artist. 

And what’s the moment you want to forget?
None of it. Every moment helped me learn something. I know that sounds totally tie-dye. But it's true. 

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?
The Shape Of Us. It shows my truest, most simplest expression of my music. It's from the base of a song like that, that everything else has come and been built on. I think that song is where I got that form the most perfect. My voice has changed a lot since then and I know more about recording than I did then. But it somehow managed to capture that magic (even if I was sitting in the toilet when we recorded it!).

Where can we listen to it?



Where can we find out more about your music? 


Anything else you’d like to say about your band/music that I forgot to ask?
I am releasing a new EP called "Guardians" on Nov 13th and will also be releasing 2 FREE acoustic versions of songs off the EP before then as a taster before the main course.
The first free song is available right now for free:
The next free song before the EP will be available on Oct 17th so join the mailing list today and don't miss out! 

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