Every Monday we will be bringing you interviews with unsigned UK or Ireland artists for Independent Music Monday. Recently we caught up with unsigned Horsham based singer MAILMAN to find out more…
Where are you from and how did you first get into music? Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
I’m originally from Whitstable in Kent, now based in Horsham, West Sussex. I grew up in the 80’s listening to Top 40 pop mainly but my folks were into classic 50’s, 60’s and
70’s, everything from Joan Baez, Buddy Holly and The Beatles to Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd. Our house was always full of music, my Mum sang (still does) and my Dad played blues and folk guitar, me, my brother and sister would often have sing-alongs with them. Or dance about like idiots to A-ha or whatever…
I was given a home keyboard for Christmas aged 7 and found I had a natural ability to work out how to play along with stuff on the radio or work out what was going on. In the 90’s I got hugely into drum ‘n bass, The Prodigy, bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, and got my first guitar aged 19. I’m a self taught pianist, guitarist and producer. It all just came naturally.
Nowadays, I’m definitely drawn to the more rock end of the spectrum, bands like Royal Blood and Wolf Alice. But I genuinely appreciate anything and everything of a certain calibre across multiple genres.
How would you describe your sound?
All of the above! Tricky to pin down, I’d say it’s definitely more rock than anything else. But I love a good pop song and I’m a singer-songwriter at heart. Whilst also being a ‘kitchen sink’ production geek who likes synths, ambience and dynamics. So it’s all that in a vocal led, guitar driven type way, I guess.
What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
I’ve been releasing the third Mailman album S3ASON (season three) one song a month since January. There’s 12 songs in total, all fairly poppy and radio friendly singles. It’s basically the opposite of the second album ‘Yang Yin’, which was a double concept album.
The October single ‘Soulsucker’ was out on 18th October and is an ode to rising above haters and letting them stew in their own juices while you leave them for dust.
There’s two more coming out this year, the November track ‘Rooting For Humanity’ is an upbeat track inspired by the birth of my daughter in September, it’ll be out on November 22nd.
The December track ‘A Thing Called Christmas’ will be out on December 13th, a charity record in aid of Shelter UK that I hope to get in the race for Christmas Number 1…
What’s your local music scene like?
It’s decent. I’m also a promoter, I’ve been putting on original showcases and open mics for nearly ten years now in my home town. There’s a huge amount of talent in the area. And with a couple of notable exceptions, it’s all pretty friendly and collaborative, as an artistic community should be.
What do you have planned for the next 12 months? Any albums or festivals?
Even though all the tracks will be out as singles, I’m planning to release S3ASON as a full length album with bonus tracks in March. I’m also looking to do a handful of hopefully high profile gigs, nothing confirmed yet but I’m working on it. Mainly though, I’ll be taking some well earned time out from writing and recording to spend time with my partner and our new arrival!
Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
Hell yeah! Eddie Vedder, Martin Gore, Roger Waters. In fact that’s a super group right there…
Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
Hmm… not so much in recent years. In my younger more reckless days, I did a load of shots backstage once at the Amersham Arms, New Cross with my old band Emporia just before stage time. As we were walking on I suddenly felt really sick and had to quickly reverse and throw up at the side of the stage – while the guys started the first song, totally oblivious. So I had to go straight on and crack on with the gig. No-one noticed, not even the rest of the band. Until afterwards… does that count?
Oh, and in another band, The Tandem, our late night impromptu set on one of the empty stages at Small World Festival one year basically evolved into a musical walkabout round the festival with crowd in tow. That counts!
What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
I say what I mean and mean what I say! Is that two things…?
You can find out more about MAILMAN on his website or via Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, Spotify or Twitter.
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