| Soundwaves over the phone with NEWTON FAULKNER... |
| Written by Vicki Lin |
| Monday, 21 September 2009 10:57 |
 English singer-songwriter Sam Newton Battenberg Faulkner alias NEWTON FAULKNER, got up at 4AM this morning... and he's been doing interviews ever since. Despite being the hundredth person in waiting, Newton was fresh as ever; polite, passionate and quite the gentleman (which was no doubt furthered by his accent). Faulkner's debut 2007 album 'Hand Built By Robots'; which features a stripped down, almost raw version of Massive Attack's 'Teardrop', went platinum twice. Not bad for a first go! Now he's back with a follow up album 'Rebuilt By Humans'.
COUP DE MAIN: Let's talk about your new album, 'Rebuilt By Humans'... How would you describe it?
NEWTON FAULKNER: I think we just managed to move everything. I felt like the first one sat within a kind of bracket almost - like the loudest bits were only THAT loud, and the quietest bits were only THAT quiet... and I felt like this one pushed it further in every direction. The loudest bits are louder than anything I've done before. The other thing we did on this, and there isn't actually one single track that does it on the first one; we did some stuff with just a guitar and vocals. We did one track completely live actually! Thinking about it, it was just a mic on my mouth and a mic on my guitar and [I] just played it. In fact if I had done the whole album like that, I could have done it in a week!
CDM: Now I understand the album title was born from an accident you had whilst on holiday in France. What happened?
NEWTON: It was a family holiday, kind of Christmas and stuff, and my brother and sister were off skiing and snowboarding. Doing stuff I would have loved to have been doing but didn't, 'cause I couldn't afford to hurt myself, 'cause I went into the studio three days after we got back... and then I slipped over three feet from the front door! I landed really badly and basically broke my wrist - I fractured my radius and dislocated my whole hand.
CDM: Wow. And you're well known for being this amazing virtuoso-finger-picking-playing-beats-on-your-guitar-guitarist. How did the injury affect your performance?
NEWTON: *laughs* Well obviously I had to stop for a little bit, but if anything; I've managed to improve my technique. It definitely hasn't slowed me down which is lucky! I've got back full movement and the physio was amazed; 'cause it just doesn't happen. Really I'm like Wolverine... just really slow.
CDM: Hugh Jackman, watch out! What did you enjoy most about making this album?
NEWTON: There's no bit of it I didn't enjoy. I got on really well with Mike who I hadn't really worked with before, who produced 'Dream Catch Me'. He was the guy sent in by the record company and it was all a bit kind of odd. It was like; "hang on, who's this guy?". We went out a few times before just to have a chat, hang out, get to know each other and kind of work out what we wanted to do with this.
CDM: Who's idea was it with the interludes on the album? They're great interstices between the songs. Nice touch!!!
NEWTON: That was my idea. I really like albums that feel like whole things and am always looking for ways of doing that. It kind of just fills in the gaps; 'cause what I do is record a load of those - I think there were eight that we didn't use in the end - and then when we're sequencing the album, it's just a way of being able to put two songs together which you couldn't put together without something in between it. It's a transitional thing.
CDM: Your last album; 'Hand Built By Robots', reached number one on the charts in the UK and sold multi-platinum. Is there pressure for this one to do just as well?
NEWTON: I think there's meant to be? But I'm really not feeling it. I have different motivations. I want to be gigging and I want to be travelling in fifty years time. The whole 'chart success' thing - I think you have to accept that it's probably going to be fleeting, it's not going to be around forever. As long as it's just another step forward in my career, I'm not that...
CDM: Fussed?
NEWTON: Yeah. Well no; that sounds really bad! *laughs* I mean obviously when that happens, it's amazing. But it's not my main motivation for doing this.
CDM: Do you have a favourite song on the album?
NEWTON: For different moods; I think 'Let's Get Together' is my favourite happy one. Just 'cause it makes me smile every time. It's all on my iPod so when my iPod's on complete random, it does occasionally just chuck my own album back at me. I really like 'Resin On My Heart Strings' as well. It turned out almost exactly how I heard it in my head, if not better?! I think it sounds even better than I imagined it would.
CDM: What's the songwriting process like for you?
NEWTON: Ah... generally quite slow. I think I'm the slowest writer I've ever met! I just get really meticulous. I do co-write with people as well. Maybe so - I think I learn something everytime I do it. There are a couple of people I always get really good things with, like when I work with my brother. On 'Let's Get Together', is me and my brother messing around. Along with 'She's Got The Time 2' and a few songs [more]. You can usually spot the ones I do with my brother - they're usually the slightly stupid ones - apart from on this one! We managed to come up with 'I Took It Out On You', which is the ONLY serious one that me and my brother have ever written together!
CDM: What motivates you to keep going when you get stuck?
NEWTON: You have to step back every now and then. Probably the hardest song to write was 'So Much'. That took about four and a half years? 'Cause I was writing it before I started recording the first album. It's about Eric Roche, who had a massive influence on my playing. He had a massive influence on my whole approach to music as well.
CDM: Isn't it amazing when you meet people like that who influence you in such a way that you never expected?
NEWTON: I do think that my natural teachers are just amazing people. There aren't enough of them around.
 CDM: How has life changed for you since the release of your album?
NEWTON: Since the first one? It's gone a little bit mental!!
CDM: 'Cause I'd imagine you're quite an easy guy to spot?
NEWTON: Yeah, I'm kind of like a big ginger beacon! I've done more TV stuff in this hemisphere than I have in England, 'cause in England there's not that much to do - it's actually at an all time kind of low, there isn't that much music television.
CDM: Must be the recession?!
NEWTON: *laughs*
CDM: What do your family and friends think of your success?
NEWTON: I think they're all pretty happy. I wrote with my brother, so my success is kind of his success as well... My sister is now my P.A. and that works really well! My dad... My dad somehow, seems to almost tell the record company what's going on the internet! I don't know how he does it, but he apparently listens to EVERYTHING I do and watches EVERYTHING I do and will tell people about rumours! He's told Sony about loads of stuff; which is amazing!
CDM: Is there a message you want your listeners to take away from your songs?
NEWTON: Well there's a different message for every song I guess?! With this album, these songs are much more specific than anything on the first album. I think I've just had a lot more experience. Lots of years; I've done a lot and I've been to a lot of places. A lot's happened and there's been a lot to write about. CDM: Is it true what they say - that you've got a lifetime to write your first album and only a few months to write your second?
NEWTON: It's not true for me. To be honest, a lot of the stuff on the first album was written literally a few months before it came out. I was on a writing curve at that point, so when it got to the top, it was kind of while we were recording. There was one song which was finished five days before the album was mastered; I literally finished writing it, recorded it the next day, mixed it the day after that and it was mastered. So I felt like I didn't spend my whole life writing. I almost felt I had more time writing, this time round.
CDM: So tell us about your new single, 'If This Is It'.
NEWTON: 'If This Is It' is about gigging, which is really nice to sing about. Especially when you ARE gigging. It's a really strange kind of direct communication between you and the crowd, because you're basically talking to them. My favourite bit is - I think just at the end of the middle eight. There's a little chunk of lyric *singing* "again, oh please come back again..."; which is just talking directly to the crowd. It's really nice.
CDM: You're really down to earth! How do you manage to stay so grounded?
NEWTON: Oh thank you!
CDM: It's probably because you take your shoes off.
NEWTON: That does help! No, actually I have to take my shoes off - I'm playing another instrument with my feet these days.
CDM: Your feet?! We'll get to that later but first, talk to me about your hand-crafted guitars!
NEWTON: Oh they're beautiful! They're built by a guy called Nick Benjamin. It's really nice to just know they're built by a really nice man as well! I feel like the wood soaks up him a bit as well. He's such a dude!
CDM: Doesn't Eric Roche play one of his as well?
NEWTON: Yeah, that was when I was still at the ACM [Academy of Contemporary Music]; so still at college. Eric Roche came running up to me like an excited seven year old! He said "dude, dude, dude, dude! You've got to - you've got to...", and he opened his case and thrust this guitar at me which was a guitar that Nick Benjamin was building and was given to him.
CDM: Do you name your guitars?
NEWTON: They're kind of all old gay names, but the first Benjamin is just called the Benj.
CDM: Do you have a guitar that you bring out when company comes? A special-occasion-guitar?
NEWTON: I've got a baritone guitar which is MASSIVE and REALLY ridiculously low. We only used it on one track on the album. We used it on the first one. Hopefully it'll come out on the next tour, but it's not a track I'm doing yet. There are a few things that I'm basically saving for like the last piece of the 'live' puzzle, which is going to be REALLY interesting! I've already started with the instrument I'm playing with my feet - it's like the bass pedals off an organ, but nobody can see it - so nobody knew I was doing it! There was a guy who I think he'd been to twelve gigs [of mine] and I know him really well. We were walking somewhere and he was like; "oh by the way, you know the effects pedals that you use? How were they making the bass sounds?". I was like; "Dude, it's not an effects pedal! It's a keyboard! It's like another instrument." He was like; "Whoa! You're playing another instrument!". I was like; "Yeah, you've seen me like twelve times! Does no-one know what I'm doing?! What a complete waste of my time!". Now what we do is we put a camera on it and then it gets projected onto the back, so you see what I'm doing!
CDM: You're very co-ordinated.
NEWTON: I can't be a real man! All this multi-tasking...
CDM: Well here come the fun questions... the SWIFT SIX! Answer them as quickly as you can - As a kid, what did you want to be?
NEWTON: A superhero.
CDM: What is one song you WISHED you wrote?
NEWTON: There are loads of songs I wish I wrote! One I really wished I wrote at the moment is; 'I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You' by Colin Hay - he was the lead singer of Men At Work.
CDM: If you could share the stage with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
NEWTON: I think Louis Armstrong 'cause I think he'd just be really fun to hang out with. He has a happy face... a very happy face... probably the happiest face ever!
CDM: What's your most proudest achievement to date?
NEWTON: Umm... I have no idea?!! I'm trying to think! Learning how to skip! I've gotten really into skipping, like boxer styles!
CDM: Like Rocky?! Next. What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
NEWTON: It was actually a quote - I'm not quite sure where it originated - but it was 'music is a language, just make sure you have something to say'. It's brilliant. I can't argue with that.
CDM: Lucky last; which do you prefer? Red-head, ginger or strawberry blonde?
NEWTON: Oh I am definitely a ginger. I couldn't be more ginger if I tried!
Newton Faulkner is rumoured to be coming to our shores February/March 2010 and after spending two days in a bathroom, he reckons he's developed a cheap way of creating holograms and triggering them with his feet. What can I say? The man is talented. Check out his new album 'Rebuilt By Humans' available in-stores from September 21st.
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