Picture the scene: Newton Faulkner, sitting cross legged, cutting root ginger for the tea he’s making you, whilst you’re playing around on his iPad and chatting about radiohead… As in people who have radios for heads. This is the scene of my chat with Newton Faulkner before his gig at The Cockpit, Leeds, slouched in a backroom that, with its curved corrugated iron roof, felt more like a WW2 bomb shelter. It could not have been more surreal.
Nearing the end of his UK tour, Faulkner has proved that he is a master multi-tasker, entertaining crowds for two hours every night as a literal one-man band. One of the world’s most talented guitarists, he is famed for rewriting the rules of guitar playing, able to compose the bass, melody, harmony and rhythm of his songs single-handedly. The task however, of being interviewed whilst simultaneously making tea is clearly a challenge.
“Never has my life reflected my playing to this degree” he manages, as he leaps from the sofa to the counter attempting to track down some honey, a vital ingredient for the germ-repellent brew he’s concocting. “On the road, being ill’s the only thing that can make it not fun. It’s really weird – I can deal with literally any piece of equipment breaking, like we had the pedals go down a couple of nights ago and it just didn’t bother me. I was rearranging stuff as I went.”
This ability to adapt to whatever is thrown his way has served Faulkner well. Following the success of his debut album Handbuilt by Robots, recording on his second ground to a halt after he shattered his right hand just days before he was due in the studio. Rather than despairing, the Brit nominated acoustic virtuoso recovered whilst refining his material, eventually releasing Rebuilt by Humans three years ago.
However, for his newest album Write it on Your Skin (due to be released on July 6), Faulkner has developed an obstinate streak. “The last album was kind of written off the back of recorded success and it was basically trying to chase that because I felt I had to live up to a recorded thing. The radio thing…” he pauses, gesticulating pensively with ginger-chopping knife: “I don’t think it’s naturally where I sit – there’s some stuff that I’ve really had to fight for”.
Who, though, has he had to struggle against? “It’s not a comfortable relationship; the whole art and commerce thing is really tricky. The main difference between this album and any other album I’ve made really is that I’m not really bending on anything. I’ve been pretty brutal, got into a lot of trouble, but it’s good!” Faulkner’s easy laugh makes it hard to imagine him standing up to a Simon Cowell-esque figure, smoking a cigar behind an oak desk; but the passion with which he describes his music is as vibrant as his rusty red dreads. “I very much craft things. And it takes a long time, I’m quite a slow writer partly because of the playing style, which is so intricate that it kind of slows down the process but it’s part of what I do. I don’t want to write songs about nothing – if it’s not going to have any effect on someone other than “That sounds cool” – I don’t see the point. It has to mean something, or at least have the potential to mean something. It’s as much about communication as it is about music. Tea’s ready!”
Sipping the delicious concoction, I ask Faulkner for the recipe but he just shrugs modestly “There’s no real recipe, it’s just stuff!” Clearly, this man’s desire for the experimental extends even to the teapot. His music is famed for its unique sound achieved through a huge amount of experimentation with different playing-styles and instruments. When asked what instruments he’s used on this coming album, Faulkner’s face breaks into a grin.
“The Chinese Zither is my favourite. It’s REALLY cool.” Suddenly he’s like a seven-year-old describing an explosive action sequence from his favourite cartoon. “It’s this weird Asian instrument that goes ‘rrrriiiiingg!!’ and launches a whole section of ‘Longshot’” he gushes, eyes shining. “Then I noticed that the little ching bit of the zither was left open. So I chucked in the Allen key that you use to tune it, pushed it closed and it went BANG. And I was like…” He pauses, pointing over my shoulder with a manic grin “Yooooouu!!!” and that’s on there as well so it literally goes “Rrrrrrriiiiiiin-BANG!” It’s my favourite instrument used on the whole album, I just love it to bits.”
The result of all this experimentation is an album that erupts with creative impulse, an innovative medley of acoustic guitar and…. iPad? “The iPad is amazing.” He enthuses, “One app in particular, the B-bot, is on loads of stuff! You can use it so much more subtly than you can anything else. There’s a huge amount of it on the album in a number of different guises.” Pulling out his tablet, Faulkner proceeds to demonstrate the vast array of melodies the tiny robot on his screen can produce. From a strange, UFO-esque warble to the low hum of a hypnotic siren he creates a diapason of sound unlike anything else currently in the charts.
Far from being just a man and a guitar, Faulkner is the Willy Wonka of music, prepared to push the boundaries of innovation. He’s so absorbed by his craft it is difficult to pull him back to the conversation but he eventually admits: “I find keyboards really static somehow because you can’t mess around with them. Something like the iPad, where I can see the note, I can wiggle around it, I can come back on to it and I can open up filters and stuff manually is so useful. It’s so instant to my brain and just relates really well.”
The intensity of his rapture as his fingers slide across the screen is palpable. Handbuilt by Robots spent over 10 months inside the Top 40 Album Charts and became one of the Top 20 Biggest Selling UK digital albums of all time, and if his new album captures the passion he radiated in that moment then it will easily achieve such accolades. It has been hard, however, for Faulkner to find time in the midst of writing an album and heading a UK tour to indulge in his talent that made him famous.“I feel like I need to get back more into playing guitar,” he admits sadly. “I’m playing two hour gigs every night but it’s been a long time since I just sat in a room and played for me. When I am on my own, I need to check mixes and answer four hundred emails. Guitar’s what got me to where I am, but now I need a completely new set of skills to survive the challenges that are being thrown at me”
To deal with these struggles, Faulkner has built a tight support network of family. “I work with my brother, my sisters, my manager. It’s amazing, it’s so nice, because obviously you know that they’re not just interested in money.” It’s a unique dynamic that produces his unique sound, and is one that he is clearly happy with. “Musically I’ve actually never felt like this”, he smiles. “I listened through the track listing that I want the album to be and all the very close to final mixes. I’ve never been this proud of anything before. I’ve been fighting tooth and nail on this one. I won’t let it turn out any other way than I want it to.”
Write it on your walls, write it in the streets, write it in the sky: Write it on Your Skin is going to be the summer album of 2012. Newton Faulkner is back.