Hey, everyone, good evening, and welcome to a special bonus episode of Midnight Chats, which falls between two series for us. Series eight is now finished and Series nine is something that we're currently recording and we'll start probably in March of next year. But we have this extra little bonus
episode which we've saved for now. This episode that you're about to hear was recorded live on stage at End of the Road Festival, a festival that we work with every year and genuinely love, and each year we go there and we record an episode live on stage. You might have heard some in our previous series because usually this would just be an episode that would just come out within a run of episodes for us, but we
kept this one separate for a few reasons. I mean, when we listen back to it, we realize how short it was compared to what we normally do. Part of that was because Kate Lebond, who is the guest on this episode, was very busy on that day at the festival and couldn't hang around too long and we were a bit late getting started, so that kind of shortened the time. But also the sound of this one is
perhaps not the best. We were in a little wooded glade in a beautiful setting of lamatory gardens where the festival takes place. But there were stages nearby and they were making noise. How dare they when we're trying to recall a podcast and I don't know. We listened back to it and we just didn't feel that it really sit with the rest of our last series, so we've saved it until now. So this is myself talking to
Kate just before the Mercury Prize was announced. As you're about to hear, Kate Lebond's album Reward was nominated for the award this year in twenty nineteen, so we talk a bit about that and the story behind the making of that record, involving Kate going away into the middle of nowhere and living alone and making furniture. If you are particularly missing my honking voice because the podcast is currently on a bit of a downtime, then can I please direct you into a new podcast that we have
made called Music Made Me Do It. You can find it on your podcast app, and it is myself try to work out and unpack all the different jobs within the music industry by talking to people who have created very successful careers for themselves, essentially by just making it up as they go along. I speak to songwriters and record label owners, producers and managers and all sorts of people who tell me exactly what it is that that job involves and how they made that job for themselves.
Doesn't that sound exciting? I think it does. That's running now. It's going to run for ten weeks. We're about three episodes in at this point. So music made me do it. On your podcast app please find that in the meantime, have an excellent Christmas, have an excellent New Year. We will be back with more midnight chats in twenty twenty or twenty twenty, as I should start calling things. Thank you to Kate for coming on. It was a hectic
day that day. She was going to play in the afternoon, so you know, I appreciate her taking the time to come and talk to me in a wooded glade. He hell, hey, so I wanted to first congratulate you on your Mercury nomination for reward on your album this podcast. By the time this is edited and put together and out there for the listeners that aren't here, will be posts to Mercury as they would have happened so speaking from the future.
Yeah, I had a great night.
Did you have a good time and he loved it? Was it good to win?
It was weird? Was it?
Yeah?
Unexpected?
Unexpected? Did you feel the speech went well?
No?
No, they never do. No? Okay? What what did you do to celebrate winning Mercury Price?
I was I was in bed by midnight? Okay? Yeah?
Yeah, chin back to back episodes of Special Victims Unit.
Okay, is that your current thing? That sounds good? What channels that? I bet it? Is it true or Alibi? One of those ones? Fi, it's one of the high ones, though I can't tell. Twenty four Yeah, god forbid that. We've got this prediction wrong and you didn't win. How did that night go for you? How? How did you commiserate not winning?
By twelve?
Okay? Watch specially? Okay? Great? So you had a good time?
I did?
It was great?
Okay. I think you might have had to have left the ceremony early to be home by twelve. That's what you're planning to do? Yeah?
Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. I don't really know much about what's how it works happening?
What's what happened? Did this is going to get complicated? Isn't it started down? I should have kept this simple? How did you find out about how does it work? That mercury thing? Like? How do you do you know before everyone else that? Do they tell you or do you find out when everyone finds out what's there?
They tell you about a week before I think, okay, and then tell you not to tell anyone.
How did you do with that? Did you tell everyone?
For my dad and then told and.
He told all his friends and they told all their friends.
I told the band. Yeah, it was. It's quite surreal thing to happen, you know, was there?
What was your initial reaction when you heard?
Uh? Truly just I just didn't expect. I just didn't expect it at all. So it's quite surreal, did you.
I mean, it's your fifth record. I thought maybe mag Museum would do it in that mercury world when that came out. What do you think it is about this one that that got you that nomination that the others didn't.
Honestly, I have no idea, but it worked.
Yeah, it's it's totally bonkers.
Do you have any in your mind preconceptions about what the nights it's gonna be? Like Slash was.
Like, I feel like it's gonna be like a really strange wedding.
Yeah, you have to perform, right, yeah, okay, okay, yeah, be fun. Yeah cool. Well, so the album is is Reward, which you recorded in ice. Well, you wrote Sorry in isolation whilst in the Lake District, also studying building furniture. Was it particularly chairs? Was it specifically chairs?
No, it was. It's a school.
It's like a year in tense course and you study master craftsmanship, so it's working with solid wood and you know, it's all joints and glue, no nails, right, So it's you just work through set projects to learn all your the skills you need and then you start designing and making your own furniture.
But I do love a chair.
Yeah, yeah, chairs your thing. Just before we came up here, Kate said to me, can I sit on the red chair? Specifically the red chair? And I should have known. I was like, of course, Kate likes chairs. I should have checked. Did you were you? I guess, like what made you? Kind of what was a typical day like then? Because you wrote the record in the evenings and in the day you were at school, so I get up.
It was not it was just lovely to have a routine, you know, because I haven't had that for a long time.
So I've been.
Touring for probably the best part of eight years. So I'd wake up and have a bath. I had two baths today, that's the dream. And then I listened to David Bowie. Right, I have a cup of coffee, and then I'd walk to school and I'd be at school from eight thirty to about six Were you.
What Bowie were you listening to? Would it change per day?
It was?
I start almost every day with ashes to ashes, Okay, because it's I guess it's quite nice. When you live by yourself, you can really do whatever you want. No one's gonna say again, stop playing that song please.
I got a water bill.
No, it's fixed water right in the late.
Okay, it all makes sense.
So it was.
It was a really kind of wholesome routine to be And then then i'd come home and the WiFi was pretty patchy where I was, so i'd do homework and then i'd go to the shed where I had my pian no and playing piano.
I'm playing music. It's lovely. How many people in your there were people in your class then and did that help you from going because you were living on your own and you were for a whole year, did that prevent you from going a bit stir crazing, a bit insane? No, No, okay, I.
Guess when you spend you know, I kind of accidentally changed the whole architecture of my life without really comprehending that that's what I was doing.
So I am.
You know, it's nice to have the time to catch up with things that you've maybe put off, but things also catch up with you and got a little spooky at times.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I So did you move there? Were you living in LA before you went there? Because I mean that it doesn't really get much more extreme from one to the other. What was it about your kind of routine or your typical world to kind of go to the complete other extreme and be like, I'm going to live on my own and I'm going to make chess.
Yeah, I guess again, you just you know, it's it's making decisions and yeah, without realizing what that's going to look like every day, and you know, it sounds really idyllic, and it it mostly was, you know, it was a wonderful year, and your whole economy changes when you, you know, do something like that. But but yeah, you know it's can you get a little strange?
Is it really frightening at night?
Uh?
No, that says more about me, isn't it the fact that I wouldn't want to be sleeping?
And yeah, it's just sometimes the whole weekend just by myself and realized I hadn't spoken to anyone, which is not you know, it's not unusual that it's it's kind of weird when you hear your voice for the first time on Monday morning, you.
Have to kind of check it still works. If I've worked at home or for a couple of days about seeing anyone, I kind of think I should check my voice still works. I've not spoken to.
You anyone, and there's a moment where you think.
It might not they might not come back. Yeah. So with the chairs particularly, I'm trying to imagine what a Kate Lebond chair looks like.
Yeah, Like it's not everyone's.
No, everyone's cup and sea. Well, because your your music is kind of both. It's there's some traditional there's some tradition in your music, sure, but it's also highly experimental in places. Is that reflected in your chairs. Do they have like ten legs or two seats?
I don't. I don't know, it's I guess I just got in. You know. It was just nice making things that.
I liked, and I think there were a lot of other people at the school who were making these really traditional, beautiful chairs who were.
A bit put off by the furniture.
What type of thing would you just?
I love. I love kind of brutal, ugly stuff. So yeah, that was my jam when it came to chairs.
Okay, are you still making them now?
It's kind of tricky to do on the road.
Yeah, but I'm trying to. I'm trying to build a shed so that I can have a little workshop.
Have you always been good at that? Because you grew up in a farmhouse? Right?
Yeah.
I wasn't a working fan, but it was in the middle of the country.
And yeah, was.
It quite a crafty a crafty upbringing of making things.
No, not really just checking my dad's not here. He dad would make a meal out of every di y.
Right.
So the house, even though they've lived in it for thirty plus years, still isn't finished, you know.
Okay, So yeah, it was we We would me and my sister were outdoor kids.
We had each other goat and the weekends were being kicked outside and we'd go and walk the goat.
What was your goat called besn So you had one age, Yeah, to.
Make sure you didn't fight over the goat.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And at weekends you am I right in saying that at weekends your your house rule was you could music was allowed, but there was no TV or TV.
Yeah, and you know it was Yeah, it was really kids got outside.
Yeah. Yeah, did that help you? Would that have helped you with this project and being kind of on your own and entertaining and you know, writing because everyone else contends, you know, it's we live in a world where you get home from working straight away you put the TV on.
But I suppose if you've grown up, if you grow up without that at the weekends, I don't know if that makes you then when you're an adult you just only want to watch TV, or if you're just used to like I've got I can do other things.
Yeah, I don't know.
It was, like I said, the Wi Fi was really patchy, so that was kind of that choice made for me, you know, up in the lakes. But I don't know it kind of I feel guilty about watching TV at times because I suppose when you are somewhat self employed and you should be, I've always got that feeling that there's something that I could be doing that is more worthwhile than watching back to back crime drama, you know.
But yeah, yeah, So how did you cope with that isolating feeling in the Lake district?
I mean people would come and visit, which was always, you know, really nice. And I joined a swimming club that would meet at seven am in the morning to swim in Lake Windermere, right, and we'd swim.
To a boy and back.
And I did that for a little bit to try and kind of reboot, you know, or kind of. Yeah, and that was nice. But I you know, I love I do love being alone, I really really do.
We're okay with it. Yeah, So how does that work? Because you, I mean, as someone who loves being alone, you're also are great collaborator. You collaborate with so many great artists, with Tim Presley and Drinks, and you played with everyone from like John Cale and all sorts of people.
How does that work going from doing something that is totally you and it's your thing and you can be alone to your heart's content to suddenly having to work with people in quite probably quite an intense environment where you're being creative.
And I suppose it's about just being selective and only doing things that you really want to do and only working with people that you feel that you're you know that.
It's nourishing to work with.
I suppose, yeah, is it? Do you find it easy to switch from the two? Do you prefer one over the other?
I guess once you've spent a lot of time by yourself and you've you know, you've it's nice to them feed off of someone else's energy and creativity.
I suppose.
Because one of the things you've recently, one of those collaborations was producing the new Deer Hunter record. What kind of producers are you? Uh?
I don't know.
It's a it's such a nebulous job title, you know changes day to day, sometimes hour to hour, you know, So I don't I don't know how to answer that.
You bossy shouting at people, You're not the specta kind of So no, you don't take guns into the recording. So you did feel like there were moments in the late dishup where you felt like you were going like a bit stir crazy. Yeah, does any of that come through? Are there any tracks on the record that have got that in them particularly?
Yeah, I think a few of them have. I don't think I was.
You know, you have a vision of how you're going to maybe make a record, and it never out that way. And I think because because it was such a kind of abrupt change, and I was in school all day and so, and I guess the whole point of going there was to take a time away from music to kind of readdress my motives and my relationship with it.
So it was nice when it became my hobby or like a nice cathartic outlet at the end of the day, and to kind of exist without this constant surveillance that I think was interrupting my relationship with it.
You know.
So I wrote most of the record without realizing I was writing a record, which was, you know, really nice when I realized that's cool.
Yeah, that's nice. I've made a record. Did you miss There must have been certain things that you that you missed, either as soon as you got there and thought hang on, or just because you were there for a whole year.
I mean, yeah, I was there for a year and a half living there.
What did you What was it that you missed from from LA life.
I don't honestly, I don't think there was. I think I was so into going to school every day. I absolutely loved it, you know, the school part that I didn't. I didn't really miss much in all honesty, other than
kind of having close friends nearby. And but it was, you know, it was a really welcome change from touring and you know, just constantly thinking about music and even even taking that time off, I was consuming music differently, you know, just the just the joy of listening to records without it being under this strange surveillance.
You know.
Yeah, did you? And afterwards did you? Where did you return to? So you've been there for a year and a half on your own, where did.
You go back to? Well? This is the problem. I haven't really haven't. No, I'm just floating around. Yeah, yeah, driving me mad.
Have you got any idea where you're going to?
I think Cardiff for a little bit, okay, Yeah? Yeah.
Did it feel hard adjusting back to kind of having been in that set routine back into the real world.
I guess I think I went straight from finishing school, I flew out to Marfa to work with Bradford and then work on the Day Hunter records. So it was like baptism of fire back into music. And then I made my record straight off the back of that, and then I went back into the Day Hunter record and then finished my record. So it was it's just like a switch immediately back to Yeah, but it was nice.
I was ready for it, and I was excited, you know, to make music again and work with people like Bradford, you know, and yeah.
Sure, what was it that drew you to LA in the first place.
I think at the time it was the weather had been so terrible in Cardiff. You know, it was really miserable, and if you don't have much money, there's not much you can.
Do really except stay in the house.
And you know, so the prospective, I mean, I was going out to write to record mug Museum out there, and and I'd been given a three year visa, and I just thought it was maybe a nice good time to kind of make a bit of a change and work with a different pool of musicians, and you know, so, yeah, and because we were touring so much as well, we were back and forth between LA and the UK, so it wasn't too yeah, too much of a removal.
You might as well have your base in the sunny one.
Of the yeah, where you can just you know, sit on the steps and it's really lovely.
Yeah, yeah, you know, yeah nice. So it's been ten years since your first album this year, right, How has how has the way you've made music changed in that in that time?
Oh? I mean it's I think it's.
You know, whenever you work in the studio, whether it's on your own record or with other people, it's.
It's just good.
To be poor accessibles and and learn from people that you're working with, you know, musicians that you're working with, and and you know, I like to I like to be a little bit scared when I'm in a studio and to have that element of risk and not feeling wholly comfortable. It's yeah, And I think probably taking that time out and then coming back to music is the biggest change that's happened during that whole ten years, you know, Yeah.
Is that? How do you see now? Obviously the thought of making another record now is probably nowhere in your mind.
No, I'm really want really yeah, yeah, I'm really I'm really positive it's.
Weird as unusual as it. Yeah, So how have you thought about how you're going to make that?
Yeah, I'm starting to think about it right now, just trying to block out some time. And I've finished the last record in Joshua Tree, just myself and summer, and that was a really wonderful place to kind of make and record music.
So I think maybe you might go back there, go there. Yeah.
Well, I know you've I know you're on the clock and you need to go. Can you just for listening? What's the rest of your year? Look after today? Is today your last of the festival run season?
It is? Yeah? Yeah?
And are you done on shows or do you not?
Let me go to America to do a couple of festivals.
And then Iceland and I think we've got an Australian tour, Singapore, I think, okay, the whole of Scandinavia. And we're playing some shows with d Hunter in the UK in November.
Should Yeah, it'd be great. I love playing with them.
Cool. And you've got the Mercury Prize to win in a couple of weeks. Yeah, Well, congratulations on winning the Mercury. Thank you for coming on the podcast. Please show your appreciation for Thank you
Anyway, good Night,