The Far North | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Oh what a great track.

0:01 Speaker 2: That is Mountain Song from the Far North, and we

0:04 Speaker 2: have the man behind the Far North, Lee Wilding, on

0:07 Speaker 2: the line with us via WhatsApp.

0:08 Speaker 3: Hello Lee, Hello, that you all right?

0:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, welcome to the show. It's I love that so much.

0:15 Speaker 2: We've we played that recently and we played another one

0:17 Speaker 2: of your songs too, and that's that's just really really good.

0:20 Speaker 2: I love that song. I love the vocals and everything

0:23 Speaker 2: about it is just perfect.

0:25 Speaker 3: Oh that's really kind of you.

0:26 Speaker 1: Thank you so much, absolutely absolutely so. I really curious

0:30 Speaker 1: to know.

0:31 Speaker 2: So you you spent fifteen years as the lead guitarist

0:35 Speaker 2: and vocalist in The Fireflies.

0:36 Speaker 3: Correct, that is correct.

0:38 Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's a long time.

0:40 Speaker 2: So what what drove you to, you know, to kind

0:45 Speaker 2: of start fresh, because that's you know, obviously you put

0:47 Speaker 2: a lot of equity into that project and then you

0:50 Speaker 2: started you started The Far North in what was it

0:54 Speaker 2: twenty twenty, Yeah.

0:56 Speaker 3: Around twenty twenty.

0:57 Speaker 4: Yeah. It's funny you though, because I haven't considered it

1:00 Speaker 4: really so being you know, in the Fireflies we did

1:03 Speaker 4: like seven albums, and we did loads of tours and

1:06 Speaker 4: we did show a lot of supports, lots and a

1:08 Speaker 4: lot of headline shows and it was a pretty full

1:11 Speaker 4: time kind of gig. And towards the end of it,

1:14 Speaker 4: we did one last tour with Radio one's Coffee House

1:17 Speaker 4: Sessions in I think it was a summer of twenty nineteen,

1:20 Speaker 4: and there were six of us in the band, and

1:22 Speaker 4: I just thought, I don't want to do this anymore.

1:24 Speaker 3: I just want to, you know, be acoustic.

1:25 Speaker 4: I'm a huge fan of like City and Color and

1:28 Speaker 4: Neil Young and Uncle Tupelo and all those bands, and

1:30 Speaker 4: I thought, you know, I want to do some acoustic stuff.

1:33 Speaker 4: And it wasn't until halfway through recording the first album,

1:36 Speaker 4: Songs and Dental Souls, we had someone come in and

1:39 Speaker 4: do backing vocals for us, a wonderful friend of mine

1:42 Speaker 4: called Susie Potts, and she said, why have you like

1:46 Speaker 4: kind of discredited the Fireflies after fifteen years you're starting

1:49 Speaker 4: a fresh like, you know, you might not take any

1:52 Speaker 4: fans over with you. And it had never occurred to

1:54 Speaker 4: me until that moment. She said, I thought, it will

1:56 Speaker 4: be fine. All the Fireflies fans will still know it's me,

2:00 Speaker 4: you know, And of course they didn't, and it's not.

2:02 Speaker 4: It was very, very much the long way round and

2:05 Speaker 4: it had never occurred to me for like six months,

2:07 Speaker 4: and it was like February and February twenty one. I

2:10 Speaker 4: think it might have been on twenty twenty, okay, and

2:12 Speaker 4: she was like, she just was like, this might not transfer,

2:16 Speaker 4: and yeah, she was right.

2:17 Speaker 3: But you know, I've worked it up against it all good.

2:20 Speaker 2: So I'm curious too because so the Far North obviously

2:24 Speaker 2: you know, it sounds like the name of a band,

2:25 Speaker 2: but it's really your solo project, right.

2:28 Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty much.

2:29 Speaker 4: Yeah, I got you know, I rope in friends to

2:32 Speaker 4: help me out, and you know, very talented musicians from

2:34 Speaker 4: like the local area and stuff to play, you know,

2:37 Speaker 4: piano and percussion and fiddle and guitar.

2:39 Speaker 3: On my new album, a lot of it's me.

2:41 Speaker 4: A lot of the guitar and the bass, and you know,

2:44 Speaker 4: the how monica and a lot of it it is me.

2:46 Speaker 4: You know, obviously vocals backing vocals, but sometimes you just

2:49 Speaker 4: need a better help, you know.

2:50 Speaker 1: I guess I'm curious too, because you know, your friend said.

2:54 Speaker 2: To you, you know, and again I refer to it

2:56 Speaker 2: as the equity that you had in the fireflys. Yeah,

2:59 Speaker 2: headed A heard to you at any point to just

3:01 Speaker 2: because I think you probably would have had. I mean,

3:04 Speaker 2: it doesn't matter now because you're obviously having a lot

3:06 Speaker 2: of success with this, so it all works out. But yeah,

3:09 Speaker 2: if you had just used your name instead of calling

3:13 Speaker 2: it the Far North, you might have had a better

3:15 Speaker 2: shot at pulling those people over because obviously people who

3:17 Speaker 2: are big fans of the Far North, they probably knew

3:19 Speaker 2: your name. So I mean, I'm sorry, big fans of

3:21 Speaker 2: the Fireflies, rather, they probably knew their name.

3:24 Speaker 3: So curious think of that.

3:27 Speaker 4: Yeah, to think of that with me being such a

3:30 Speaker 4: Neil Young Springsteen and City and Color fan and no

3:33 Speaker 4: Gallagher fan, I just thought that, like, obviously those those

3:37 Speaker 4: bands all had you know, it was someone and Someone,

3:41 Speaker 4: so I didn't want it to be Lee Wilding in

3:42 Speaker 4: the Far North. But obviously with me being City in Color,

3:44 Speaker 4: it's like his name's Dallas Green obviously, so City and Color.

3:48 Speaker 4: So I just thought, what kind of evokes like, you know,

3:51 Speaker 4: a log cabin with a fire burning with acoustic tunes

3:54 Speaker 4: in the middle of nowhere.

3:55 Speaker 3: And I thought, you know, the Far North is a

3:57 Speaker 3: great a great you know, a ban tire. But yeah,

4:01 Speaker 3: I mean, looking back at it now.

4:02 Speaker 4: Maybe I should have done to me recently though, you know,

4:05 Speaker 4: like new fans of the bands that I picked fans

4:07 Speaker 4: up all around the UK and all around the world,

4:09 Speaker 4: and a lot of people say, why don't you just

4:11 Speaker 4: say Lee wilder Man, because like people knew who you

4:13 Speaker 4: were in the Fireflies.

4:14 Speaker 3: It's like, oh my goodness. So yeah, you know, that's

4:16 Speaker 3: not the first time I've actually heard that.

4:20 Speaker 2: Well, but it did work out, you know, I mean,

4:21 Speaker 2: your your instinct. Ultimately, I think it's proven correct and

4:24 Speaker 2: you're having success with this. So and this is the

4:29 Speaker 2: third album correct, Songs.

4:31 Speaker 3: For Wirtstorms, Yeah, that's right. Third album.

4:34 Speaker 4: Yeah, we did song for Healing Hearts about two years ago,

4:37 Speaker 4: and then Songs for Gentle Souls just in the peak

4:40 Speaker 4: of COVID. You know, we never obviously no one saw

4:42 Speaker 4: that coming. And if you have the time again, maybe

4:44 Speaker 4: we would have waited till it was kind of over

4:46 Speaker 4: a bit. But you know, it is what it is,

4:48 Speaker 4: and it did what it did, and I'm pretty happy

4:51 Speaker 4: with it all.

4:51 Speaker 3: Really.

4:51 Speaker 1: Yeah.

4:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, now, how is your approach different? So I will

4:55 Speaker 2: confess I have not gone back and listened to the Fireflies,

4:58 Speaker 2: although I will now because I am very curious. I mean,

5:00 Speaker 2: is your your approach in terms of songwriting, is it

5:03 Speaker 2: Is it different when it's just you or maybe you

5:06 Speaker 2: were the chief songwriter in the Fireflies.

5:08 Speaker 1: I don't know, but.

5:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, I was the only person that only ever wrote

5:12 Speaker 3: the song.

5:12 Speaker 4: So for me writing the songs in the Fireflies, they

5:15 Speaker 4: all I mean, some of the songs I've taken out,

5:17 Speaker 4: you know, I've taken with me and just kind of

5:19 Speaker 4: like rehask them, put a bit of, you know, a

5:20 Speaker 4: new look, a paint on them. But really my songwriting

5:23 Speaker 4: is so effortless. I don't know what it is, but

5:25 Speaker 4: they all just appear almost fully formed out of the sky.

5:28 Speaker 3: I put the guitar up and just I'll play G.

5:31 Speaker 4: And I've played a million g's, but one time it's

5:34 Speaker 4: like different, and then the G to the E is like,

5:36 Speaker 4: oh my god, I've never played this before this way,

5:39 Speaker 4: and then you know, the vocals just come out. I'm

5:42 Speaker 4: writing stuff for the new album now, for the next album,

5:44 Speaker 4: and it's just all comeing to me really really quickly.

5:46 Speaker 4: So I'm not sure whenever it will dry up. But

5:49 Speaker 4: I'm quite lucky at the moment because a lot of

5:51 Speaker 4: people ask how you know, how do you write songs?

5:53 Speaker 4: Or you know, can I maybe coach some of my

5:56 Speaker 4: friends to write songs or whatever? And it's like, the

5:58 Speaker 4: truth is, I don't really know I'm doing. I just

6:01 Speaker 4: write them and they and they happen.

6:02 Speaker 3: You know. That's kind of where I'm at with it,

6:04 Speaker 3: really a bit of a hack.

6:06 Speaker 2: But has it always been like that? Like was it

6:07 Speaker 2: like that throughout your tenure in the Fireflies or is

6:11 Speaker 2: this something that's come out more as you've done this

6:14 Speaker 2: on your own and have it, you know, having the freedom,

6:16 Speaker 2: the liberation to be able to do it on your own.

6:19 Speaker 3: Yeah.

6:19 Speaker 4: No, it was always like that, really, So whenever I

6:21 Speaker 4: wrote stuff for the Fireflies, I'd write it on acoustic

6:23 Speaker 4: guitar and take it into band practice and people would

6:27 Speaker 4: just kind of start playing their own thing. So I mean,

6:29 Speaker 4: obviously with this though, the songs, I don't deviate from

6:32 Speaker 4: the structure much because it's me, it's written it, and

6:34 Speaker 4: it's me it's going to play it. But with the

6:35 Speaker 4: Fireflies it was a bit more of a democracy really.

6:38 Speaker 1: Yeah.

6:38 Speaker 4: But but you know, the bare bones and the verse,

6:41 Speaker 4: chorus versa all be the same, and a lot of more,

6:44 Speaker 4: you know, lots more people will kind of getting on it, really,

6:46 Speaker 4: but now it's way more streamlined.

6:48 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, good good.

6:51 Speaker 2: Now did any of the material from the Fireflies make

6:54 Speaker 2: it into the new project?

6:55 Speaker 3: Yeah?

6:56 Speaker 1: You still play some of those?

6:57 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.

6:58 Speaker 4: So on the first track, I think first album, Sorry

7:01 Speaker 4: that like this House is Ours and I think Grace

7:03 Speaker 4: and My Heart and When we Were Young. The second

7:06 Speaker 4: album I think unplayed Guitar and hollow and this album. Yeah,

7:11 Speaker 4: if you haven't made it, there was Hummingbird, there was

7:13 Speaker 4: Sailor in the Sea, all the things you did. So yeah,

7:16 Speaker 4: there was maybe maybe two or three off each album

7:18 Speaker 4: was a Firefly song that was like a complete rock

7:21 Speaker 4: out really, you know. They were just pure rock songs

7:23 Speaker 4: or yah, you know, kind of big maybe psych songs,

7:26 Speaker 4: you know psych, you know. So with this stuff, I

7:28 Speaker 4: just wanted it to be like, just give those older

7:31 Speaker 4: songs a new liquor paint. But I'm writing the new

7:33 Speaker 4: album at the moment. I don't know when it could

7:35 Speaker 4: be out. It could be a year, could be two years.

7:37 Speaker 4: But I'm rescuing maybe three more Firefly songs. Wow, that's it. Then, yeah, okay,

7:43 Speaker 4: that'll be the Firefly songs done. Then I think the

7:45 Speaker 4: bag is empty at last, did.

7:47 Speaker 2: You uh was that when you started this project? Was

7:50 Speaker 2: that your intention from the beginning, because you know a

7:52 Speaker 2: lot of people they you know, if they have a project,

7:56 Speaker 2: you know, they're in a band, and then maybe they

7:58 Speaker 2: do their own thing. They don't want to necessarily you know,

8:01 Speaker 2: some artists they like to have like a clear delineation

8:04 Speaker 2: and they just want to uh not look back at

8:08 Speaker 2: older material.

8:09 Speaker 1: And some artists do, but a lot of artists don't.

8:12 Speaker 2: And and to me it's always been kind of like, wow,

8:14 Speaker 2: how do you just how do you just leave all

8:16 Speaker 2: that behind? If you had some great songs in your

8:18 Speaker 2: previous project, how do you just leave that behind?

8:20 Speaker 1: You know? But but some artists will do that.

8:22 Speaker 2: Was that a hard decision for you whether or not

8:24 Speaker 2: to revisit those songs?

8:27 Speaker 3: It was not really.

8:28 Speaker 4: I kind of like thought about it for a little bit,

8:30 Speaker 4: and I thought, is this going to be completely new?

8:31 Speaker 4: Because we had Nigel Stonia produced the first album, and

8:34 Speaker 4: we were like, you know, I don't know, I don't

8:37 Speaker 4: really know what approach and the heat. So I sent

8:39 Speaker 4: him a load of songs and he was like, some

8:41 Speaker 4: of the Firefly songs were greatly like we should definitely

8:43 Speaker 4: redo these. And I had a bit of reticence. At first,

8:46 Speaker 4: it was a bit quiet about it. I thought, I'm

8:47 Speaker 4: not sure, and then I thought, well, I wrote them,

8:49 Speaker 4: so you know, why not. So as long as they're

8:52 Speaker 4: acoustic and as long as they've got a lot of

8:54 Speaker 4: heart and soul, I kind of have no problem with it.

8:56 Speaker 3: And some of them are pretty.

8:58 Speaker 4: Much verbatim, you know, hold Me Birds pretty much the same.

9:01 Speaker 4: We just put a fiddle on it, and we've kind

9:03 Speaker 4: of really restructured like the Sailor in the Sea and

9:06 Speaker 4: all the things. You did, you know, they were completely

9:08 Speaker 4: different songs in the Fireflies.

9:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, but I just thought, you.

9:10 Speaker 4: Know, I wrote them, and I never really have writer's block,

9:14 Speaker 4: you know, I'm always writing, you know, as Bob Dylan said,

9:16 Speaker 4: you know, write ten songs a day and throw nine away.

9:18 Speaker 4: So I'm always you know, I'm always writing. But yeah,

9:22 Speaker 4: I didn't think about it too much. But I'm kind

9:23 Speaker 4: of glad I've carried you know, a lot of them over.

9:25 Speaker 2: I think, okay, excellent, excellent. So the album the newest

9:29 Speaker 2: one in our songs for weathering storms? What does that

9:31 Speaker 2: mean to you? And I assume, you know, in terms

9:33 Speaker 2: of weathering storms, And I assume and I did listen

9:37 Speaker 2: to the whole thing. I really like it, But is

9:39 Speaker 2: there a theme that you're presenting sort of a almost

9:43 Speaker 2: like it feels like there might be a story, but

9:47 Speaker 2: I'm not sure.

9:48 Speaker 3: Okay, it's I think it's a concept album.

9:51 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I wrote all the songs, you know,

9:54 Speaker 4: I obviously carried about three or four over and wrote

9:56 Speaker 4: the rest of the song kind of around the weathering

9:59 Speaker 4: storms kind of gam up really and it was like,

10:03 Speaker 4: I don't know, everyone's going through so much stuff right now,

10:06 Speaker 4: and I mean people always have, but I don't know

10:08 Speaker 4: if it's because of social media.

10:10 Speaker 3: It always seems very prevalent.

10:11 Speaker 4: It seems to be right at the surface right now

10:13 Speaker 4: that everyone just seems to be going through potentially the

10:16 Speaker 4: worst time of their lives. But yet life couldn't be

10:18 Speaker 4: any easier in a way, right, So it was just,

10:22 Speaker 4: you know, it was just about hold on, man, it'll

10:24 Speaker 4: be all right, Like everything will be okay, you know,

10:27 Speaker 4: in the end, and if it's not the end, then

10:28 Speaker 4: it'll be all right, you know.

10:30 Speaker 3: And it's like I just think you've just got to

10:32 Speaker 3: keep going.

10:32 Speaker 4: You've just got to have faith, you've just got to

10:34 Speaker 4: have hope, and pretty much every song is like formed

10:37 Speaker 4: in a bit of heartbreak.

10:38 Speaker 3: There's always about of heartbreak there.

10:40 Speaker 4: There's always a bit of loss, but ultimately everything's going

10:43 Speaker 4: to be all right. All you need to do is

10:44 Speaker 4: make it into tomorrow, you know, just take things day

10:46 Speaker 4: by day.

10:47 Speaker 3: It'll be fine.

10:47 Speaker 4: So it's kind of like my nine tracks of like

10:51 Speaker 4: It'll be okay. And I think there's a there's a

10:52 Speaker 4: song called release Repeat, which is obviously about animal rights

10:55 Speaker 4: and you know all that kind of thing as well,

10:57 Speaker 4: you know, But really the most of the song, the

11:00 Speaker 4: bulk of the songs on the album, like it is

11:03 Speaker 4: gonna be all right. And I know it's been done,

11:04 Speaker 4: and I know it's been done to death, but I

11:06 Speaker 4: guess it's not been done with these songs in my voice,

11:09 Speaker 4: you know, right right Yeah.

11:11 Speaker 1: Mountain song.

11:12 Speaker 2: I was reading that that was written about a particularly

11:15 Speaker 2: painful breakup, and it's it's pretty evident in the lyrics,

11:19 Speaker 2: you know, because obviously when you're a listener, you hear

11:23 Speaker 2: lyrics and it's it's somewhat subjective. Everyone's going to interpret

11:27 Speaker 2: things a little bit differently, but there's there's really no

11:31 Speaker 2: misinterpreting that one. To my mind, I'm listening to it

11:34 Speaker 2: and it's like, okay, you know, you know what it's about,

11:36 Speaker 2: and it does clearly describe a painful breakup.

11:42 Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a few really, there's a few on the

11:45 Speaker 4: on the album that kind of deal with that, and

11:46 Speaker 4: it is quite it is quite clear. And I don't know,

11:51 Speaker 4: I think writing about breakup and that breakup and particularly

11:54 Speaker 4: I always find the kind of catharticism with it.

11:57 Speaker 3: You know.

11:57 Speaker 4: It's always like it kind of gets the pain out

11:59 Speaker 4: that's there. It kind of rinses it, you know, like

12:01 Speaker 4: a like a towel, like a wet towel. It just

12:03 Speaker 4: rinses it all out and I can just kind of

12:05 Speaker 4: deal with it and kind of move on, you know.

12:07 Speaker 4: But you know, everyone's going to go through three or

12:09 Speaker 4: four heartbreaks in their life, you know, and this is

12:12 Speaker 4: basically my heartbreak opus, you know, and ultimately you know

12:16 Speaker 4: that that you know, we split up like what three

12:17 Speaker 4: years ago, and you know, everything was all right, but

12:21 Speaker 4: at the time, I was like, oh my goodness, I've

12:23 Speaker 4: never felt pain like this.

12:24 Speaker 3: This is awful.

12:26 Speaker 4: And you know, three three months down the line, you know,

12:28 Speaker 4: you kind of all right, six months you're like, hey,

12:31 Speaker 4: I'm healed. This is fine. So I was in a

12:33 Speaker 4: place where I could actually write a song about it,

12:35 Speaker 4: and it's very very real, Like the lyrics are lyrics

12:37 Speaker 4: that she would say, you know, things she said to

12:39 Speaker 4: me and things had said back and how I felt. So,

12:42 Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know if she's heard the song, really,

12:44 Speaker 4: I assume, so I haven't been in touch, but you know, I.

12:47 Speaker 1: Was going to ask you that if you know, if

12:49 Speaker 1: she's heard the song.

12:52 Speaker 4: I felt like texting me, you know, I just felt like,

12:54 Speaker 4: like when it came out on Halloween, you I was like,

12:56 Speaker 4: should I text her?

12:57 Speaker 1: Yeah?

12:57 Speaker 4: But I didn't obviously, and you know, knowing her though,

13:01 Speaker 4: maybe she's heard it.

13:02 Speaker 3: I don't know. He's not come at me though, So

13:04 Speaker 3: that's cool.

13:04 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, good?

13:08 Speaker 2: And what about So I'm really curious about the production

13:11 Speaker 2: and I'm a bit of a recording nerd, so uh so,

13:14 Speaker 2: so of course I am. But there's a so the

13:17 Speaker 2: lack of the lack of drums is really interesting. It's

13:21 Speaker 2: a very it's a very sort of a strip, stripped

13:24 Speaker 2: down sound, which I really like because I think a

13:27 Speaker 2: lot of things are are overproduced. Yeah, and I don't

13:31 Speaker 2: even mean just you know, in these times that we

13:33 Speaker 2: live in. I mean, just going all the way back

13:35 Speaker 2: to the eighties, there's a lot of things that I

13:37 Speaker 2: think are overproduced and sound sound you know, really a

13:40 Speaker 2: little too slick and polished, and you know, I like

13:43 Speaker 2: a certain rawness and I think you've captured that with

13:46 Speaker 2: this album.

13:47 Speaker 3: Yeh.

13:47 Speaker 2: But but I'm I'm curious about I mean, is that

13:50 Speaker 2: something that you're very intentional about or does that just

13:54 Speaker 2: sort of come naturally that approach or.

13:57 Speaker 4: I think, you know, being in the Five Flies, a

13:59 Speaker 4: lot of our albums were quite underproduced, really quite raw,

14:03 Speaker 4: and a lot of the reviews and a lot of

14:04 Speaker 4: people listening were like, oh, no, obviously this has been

14:06 Speaker 4: made in a budget blah blah blah, but it wasn't

14:08 Speaker 4: and we aimed it to sound like that. So with

14:10 Speaker 4: The Far North, I wanted a certain level of polish,

14:14 Speaker 4: but also that like the raw beauty of an acoustic.

14:17 Speaker 3: Guitar, you know. So my co producer John.

14:19 Speaker 4: O'tringen, like we in June twenty twenty four, we were like,

14:23 Speaker 4: sat in a local kind of place having breakfast and

14:26 Speaker 4: we were like, how do we make this album? Because

14:29 Speaker 4: like I did the second album with him, and it's

14:31 Speaker 4: a bit more rocky, a bit more college rot, a

14:33 Speaker 4: bit third eye blind, bit match Brooks twenty Yeah. You know,

14:36 Speaker 4: we kind of turned the guitars up on that album,

14:38 Speaker 4: and I found myself in like, you know, fireflies kind

14:41 Speaker 4: of territory again.

14:42 Speaker 3: I thought, I need to get away from this.

14:43 Speaker 4: I keep just going back to that tried and tested

14:46 Speaker 4: my favorite sound, you know, just being in a.

14:48 Speaker 3: Band, I guess, and we were like, how do we

14:51 Speaker 3: do this?

14:51 Speaker 4: So we just listened, like I say, to a lot

14:53 Speaker 4: of you know, December Rists and Uncle Tupelo City and Color,

14:57 Speaker 4: early early Neil Young like Harvest here and Young and

15:01 Speaker 4: then obviously Nebraska era Springsteen, and we're like, we need

15:05 Speaker 4: to we need to make you know. We it was

15:07 Speaker 4: a conscious decisions and not of the drums, and there's

15:09 Speaker 4: only based on one track and all that, and it

15:11 Speaker 4: was very it was very planned, but I think a

15:15 Speaker 4: lot of it was came out like a happy accident.

15:18 Speaker 3: You know.

15:18 Speaker 4: It was like, Okay, this sound sounds because the production's massive.

15:22 Speaker 4: It sounds like really well produced. It's hugely produced, yes,

15:25 Speaker 4: but the sounds are still quite sorry, the songs are

15:28 Speaker 4: still quite direct and quite you know, down that funnel

15:32 Speaker 4: of like you know, heartbreak and loneliness.

15:34 Speaker 3: They're not, you know.

15:35 Speaker 4: And it was funny because I had a review from

15:37 Speaker 4: someone and the reviewed Mountain Song, funnily enough, in a

15:41 Speaker 4: local magazine, and the reviews are usually pretty good, like

15:44 Speaker 4: I've been lucky this last like twenty years with reviews.

15:46 Speaker 4: And this guy was like, so, this guy who's from Newcastle,

15:50 Speaker 4: and he just said, oh, the fanals back again with

15:53 Speaker 4: another one of his massive anthems. And I was thinking, okay,

15:56 Speaker 4: and he goes, he's desperately trying to be Fleet Foxes.

16:00 Speaker 4: Comes right, and the thing is, I've never listened to

16:02 Speaker 4: Fleet Foxes. I've never They've never like turned up on

16:05 Speaker 4: my you know, my thoughts for ever.

16:07 Speaker 3: Really, I mean, maybe I should. And he goes he

16:10 Speaker 3: sounds desperately wanting to be Fleet Foxes, but.

16:13 Speaker 4: Comes across as the drunk old man in the corner

16:16 Speaker 4: hater walling a song on the karaoke.

16:19 Speaker 3: Right, That's what he said.

16:20 Speaker 4: Yeah, wow, So I like so and he was like

16:23 Speaker 4: and then he sent me a message personally and said,

16:25 Speaker 4: I'm really really sorry that that was like personal, but

16:28 Speaker 4: that's how I feel.

16:29 Speaker 3: About your music.

16:30 Speaker 4: And I was like, I was like that that's okay,

16:34 Speaker 4: but I've never listened to Fleet Foxes in my life.

16:36 Speaker 4: It's just one of those bands that, like, I don't

16:39 Speaker 4: even know who they are.

16:39 Speaker 3: I was like, what it was like, you.

16:41 Speaker 4: Know, so it's kind of funny really, but yeah, it's

16:44 Speaker 4: kind of it's annoying someone.

16:45 Speaker 2: I guess it's funny that he actually contacted you to

16:48 Speaker 2: tell you.

16:49 Speaker 1: You know, I'm sorry. Sorry I was mean, but here's

16:52 Speaker 1: why I was mean.

16:53 Speaker 3: Yea, literally, he thought I was like trying to The

16:56 Speaker 3: thing is as well.

16:56 Speaker 4: A few of the reviews have said like, and I've

16:58 Speaker 4: never listened to Month and some once right, I've never

17:01 Speaker 4: ever listened to them because I've heard a few tracks

17:03 Speaker 4: on radio and I'm like, it's not really my jam

17:05 Speaker 4: and everyone's like, oh my godly, like it's so muffing

17:08 Speaker 4: and sons it's so good, it's so commercial, and I'm like,

17:11 Speaker 4: h do you know what I mean? It's like I

17:12 Speaker 4: didn't really write it to be commercial. I write I

17:15 Speaker 4: wrote it for people to to just enjoy it.

17:18 Speaker 3: I guess just kind of you know, there's no plan here.

17:21 Speaker 3: I just kind of do you know, I.

17:23 Speaker 2: Can tell you so I've I've listened to Fleet Fleet Fox's.

17:28 Speaker 1: I don't know.

17:28 Speaker 2: I I've definitely heard a lot of Mumford and Sons

17:31 Speaker 2: is huge here in America, so I've heard a lot

17:33 Speaker 2: of Mumfort and Sons.

17:34 Speaker 1: I can tell you.

17:36 Speaker 2: I kind of understand why someone would hear that, but

17:39 Speaker 2: I don't hear it in the sense that because I

17:42 Speaker 2: really like the album, but I find Mumford and Sons

17:45 Speaker 2: kind of unbearable.

17:47 Speaker 3: So I did myself.

17:48 Speaker 2: Yeah, so I definitely uh so again, I can understand

17:53 Speaker 2: why someone would make that connection, I guess, but but

17:56 Speaker 2: I don't. I don't really hear it myself. I don't

17:58 Speaker 2: perceive it that way. Honestly, till you mentioned Mumford and Sons,

18:01 Speaker 2: it hadn't even occurred to me. Oh that's good then,

18:03 Speaker 2: north Fleet Foxes.

18:05 Speaker 1: To be honest with.

18:06 Speaker 4: You, yeah, I listened to them like they've got a

18:08 Speaker 4: few good songs, and you know Fleet Foxes, and they thought, oh,

18:11 Speaker 4: this is a band that actually they're actually good. I

18:12 Speaker 4: quite like this, but I thought I never sat down

18:14 Speaker 4: and sort of thought, you know what, I really want

18:16 Speaker 4: this to sound like a cross between Munford and Sons

18:18 Speaker 4: and Fleet Foxes.

18:19 Speaker 3: That it never occurred, like what right right now?

18:23 Speaker 1: What happens live.

18:25 Speaker 2: Is it do you have other musicians who perform with

18:27 Speaker 2: you live or is it just you?

18:29 Speaker 3: Or yeah, it's just me.

18:30 Speaker 4: I did an album launch here in Runcorn for the

18:33 Speaker 4: out of the day after the album came out, and

18:35 Speaker 4: it was just me on a stool and acoustic in

18:38 Speaker 4: this venue, and you know, there's a couple of hundred

18:39 Speaker 4: people that turned up, and it's just me, really, you know,

18:43 Speaker 4: And I don't know, it's like whenever I've seen City

18:45 Speaker 4: and Color, I've seen him. I used to live in Vancouver,

18:48 Speaker 4: so I saw him a few times in Vancouver on

18:50 Speaker 4: his own and that was when they sometimes and Bring

18:53 Speaker 4: Me a Love albums were out, and I never really thought, oh,

18:57 Speaker 4: you know, I hope that there's a full band, or

18:59 Speaker 4: I hope there's you know, I've always just been happy

19:01 Speaker 4: to hear that person in that voice. Really, so I

19:03 Speaker 4: think I've never really said to anyone when they do

19:06 Speaker 4: a gig, oh, it's just me. I don't know if

19:07 Speaker 4: people are ever kind of expecting a band.

19:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.

19:10 Speaker 4: No one's ever mentioned it, which is which is funny.

19:14 Speaker 4: Really well, it's it's just me with an acoustic guitar.

19:17 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, But It's cool that because you're you're performing

19:22 Speaker 2: something that that can, you know, lend itself Like if

19:24 Speaker 2: you wanted to put a band together, obviously you could,

19:27 Speaker 2: but this lends itself to any any configuration, right like

19:31 Speaker 2: you could it can just be you. Or if you

19:33 Speaker 2: wanted to bring another just another acoustic guitarists on stage

19:35 Speaker 2: with you, you could do that, or you could play

19:37 Speaker 2: with the band. You know, you could do whatever you

19:39 Speaker 2: wanted with these songs. And I've always been a little

19:41 Speaker 2: bit fascinated by that because so I'm a musician. I

19:45 Speaker 2: used to play. I don't play currently, but I used

19:46 Speaker 2: to play in a lot of bands. But every band

19:48 Speaker 2: I was ever in, it was like, Okay, it's me

19:50 Speaker 2: and three other guys, and it has to always be

19:53 Speaker 2: this configuration. It has to always be the four of us,

19:55 Speaker 2: because if you take any anything out, it's you know,

19:59 Speaker 2: it collaps. But you know, so I've always been fascinated

20:03 Speaker 2: by the concept of just doing something where you can

20:07 Speaker 2: do it in any covenfiguration you want, Like like with

20:09 Speaker 2: jam bands, you know you can you know, if the

20:12 Speaker 2: saxophone player shows up, great, if not, it doesn't matter

20:14 Speaker 2: who cares.

20:15 Speaker 1: You know, you can you can play.

20:16 Speaker 2: Any way you want to, Yeah, exactly, and there's a

20:20 Speaker 2: it seems like there's a freedom that comes with that.

20:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.

20:24 Speaker 1: What about is it ever or well, I'm sure it's

20:28 Speaker 1: not by this point, but at any point was it

20:30 Speaker 1: weird for you doing it that way after having played

20:33 Speaker 1: with a band for fifteen years?

20:36 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.

20:36 Speaker 4: It was really strange at first. So, like, my first

20:39 Speaker 4: gig as the Far North was at Old Trafford Stadium

20:42 Speaker 4: where Manchester United play. So that was about eight days

20:46 Speaker 4: before COVID hit funny enough, it was like early March

20:48 Speaker 4: twenty twenty. So I got up there and they had

20:51 Speaker 4: this huge event with like a few of the bands

20:54 Speaker 4: on big local bands from Manchester and it was a

20:58 Speaker 4: batch day. So you know, there's me on the big

21:00 Speaker 4: screens and I'm just sat there with my wow acoustic

21:03 Speaker 4: guitar playing to all these people, and it was I

21:06 Speaker 4: think that the thought of it was a bit strange

21:08 Speaker 4: because it was just me was kind of et up

21:11 Speaker 4: by the fact that I was like, holy cow, like

21:14 Speaker 4: what like there was so many people there. I was

21:16 Speaker 4: like okay, So I kind of like set my stall

21:18 Speaker 4: out super early with the Far North. I was like, okay,

21:21 Speaker 4: have guitar, will travel, you know. And I think I

21:24 Speaker 4: had a friend that sadly passed away on Christmas Day

21:27 Speaker 4: about eight years ago, called Paul Savage, and the first

21:29 Speaker 4: album is dedicated to him. And he used to come

21:32 Speaker 4: to all the Firefly shows and it's saying he used

21:34 Speaker 4: to say to me, your songwriting is so leans itself,

21:37 Speaker 4: so much to a just acoustic guitar voice and harmonica,

21:40 Speaker 4: you should really do that. And he sadly passed away

21:42 Speaker 4: before I got a chance to, you know, form the

21:45 Speaker 4: Far North. And he was right, you know, he was

21:47 Speaker 4: absolutely right that it was. It was so much easier

21:50 Speaker 4: as well, just me, you know, get my guitar in

21:53 Speaker 4: the car, away we go.

21:54 Speaker 3: It's just it's awesome.

21:56 Speaker 4: You know.

21:56 Speaker 3: I wouldn't trade it in for anything at this point.

21:58 Speaker 2: Yeah, oh that's fantastic. Do you ever do you keep

22:01 Speaker 2: in touch with any of the guys from the Far North?

22:03 Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sorry, from the Fireflies.

22:05 Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm going away with the basis. Tomorrow we're going

22:08 Speaker 4: to Poland. In the morning we'll go into the Outfits. Yeah,

22:11 Speaker 4: we're going to do the tour of outfits to pay

22:13 Speaker 4: our respect. Yeah, you know, because like my grandfather was

22:17 Speaker 4: a gunner in World War Two, and you know, everyone

22:20 Speaker 4: everyone's got family that was in World War two, you know.

22:23 Speaker 3: Yeah.

22:23 Speaker 4: So yeah, so me and Sam the basis. He was

22:25 Speaker 4: the basis in the Fireflies for many, many years. And yeah,

22:28 Speaker 4: so we're off to Poland in the morning. Yeah so

22:31 Speaker 4: some of the other guys, Yeah, we speak every now

22:33 Speaker 4: and then, and that you know, a few people from

22:36 Speaker 4: the band that haven't speaken spoken to since since the

22:40 Speaker 4: band broke up. You know, there was never any bad blood.

22:42 Speaker 4: I was just like, I can't really do this anymore,

22:45 Speaker 4: this thing, you know. And before that, I was in

22:48 Speaker 4: a band called Warped for like ten years and that

22:50 Speaker 4: was a full time as well, since when I was

22:52 Speaker 4: like fifteen. So yeah, for like twenty twenty five years,

22:55 Speaker 4: I've just been doing the full band thought.

22:57 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so now it's just I actually I love

23:00 Speaker 3: it now.

23:00 Speaker 4: But yeah, I keep in contact with a few of

23:02 Speaker 4: the guys and it's you know, it's all good.

23:03 Speaker 3: They come to the shows and stuff. Oh good, good,

23:05 Speaker 3: it's nice. Yeah, it's nice.

23:07 Speaker 1: Yeah. That's what I was wondering about, if if there

23:08 Speaker 1: was any acrimony there. But that's that's good.

23:11 Speaker 3: Old no, nothing now, nothing, that's all.

23:12 Speaker 1: No, that's good. That's that's very good. Now.

23:16 Speaker 2: So what's kind of the forward trajectory for you? I mean, obviously,

23:22 Speaker 2: I'm sure you're focused mainly on promoting the current album,

23:25 Speaker 2: but you strike me as someone too you're probably always writing, right,

23:28 Speaker 2: you were kind of alluded to that earlier, that you

23:29 Speaker 2: write a lot of songs. Uh, do you have a

23:33 Speaker 2: future recording plans in the in the near future or

23:36 Speaker 2: are you thinking about that yet?

23:38 Speaker 3: I think so.

23:38 Speaker 4: Yeah, I've got quite a few good shows coming up,

23:41 Speaker 4: you know, I got some really really good acoustic shows

23:45 Speaker 4: and I'm really looking forward to those. So yeah, there's

23:47 Speaker 4: one on the third third of January, and that's supporting

23:50 Speaker 4: the guy that was in the Seahorses, the guy who

23:52 Speaker 4: who formed a band with John Squire from the Stone Roses.

23:55 Speaker 3: That's quite nice.

23:55 Speaker 4: There's some some nice ones coming up well, because I've

23:58 Speaker 4: been writing so much. Yeah, I actually thought what once

24:01 Speaker 4: songs were general so sorry, songs for weather and Weathering

24:05 Speaker 4: Stones was finished.

24:06 Speaker 3: So we finished it.

24:06 Speaker 4: In like maybe maybe July, who was completely finished, and

24:10 Speaker 4: then the single was out in October and we worked

24:13 Speaker 4: for like fifty you know, eighteen months on it was

24:15 Speaker 4: like a year and a half and I thought, you

24:16 Speaker 4: know what, I'm never going to the studio again because

24:18 Speaker 4: it's just drained me completely. Like everything about this album

24:22 Speaker 4: has been like it was difficult to record in a

24:24 Speaker 4: not not a difficult logistically because like you know, me

24:27 Speaker 4: and John O produced it, and it was very easy

24:29 Speaker 4: that way.

24:30 Speaker 3: Yeah, but like every every.

24:32 Speaker 4: Fiber of who I am was put into it, do

24:34 Speaker 4: you know what I mean. I was so just just

24:36 Speaker 4: drained by the whole process because it was mainly me

24:39 Speaker 4: playing stuff over and over again. So and I thought

24:42 Speaker 4: I would I wouldn't be going to the studio again.

24:43 Speaker 4: But the way I feel at the moment, and I

24:45 Speaker 4: did say this to one of my friends, was before Christmas,

24:47 Speaker 4: I could probably see myself going back in to do

24:50 Speaker 4: a more acoustic album in like April or May, so

24:54 Speaker 4: maybe spend like three or four months just doing just

24:57 Speaker 4: fiddle and harmonica and acoustic. It's that is it. No piano,

25:02 Speaker 4: no percussion, nothing, just a very very low key album

25:06 Speaker 4: and maybe have that out by October. That's kind of

25:08 Speaker 4: the way I'm thinking, because I'm writing quite a lot

25:10 Speaker 4: of the moment, so yeah, yeah, But having said that,

25:12 Speaker 4: I'm a Gemini, So I might never release an album again.

25:15 Speaker 3: I don't know.

25:17 Speaker 1: No, I'm sure.

25:18 Speaker 2: I'm sure you will. No, that's that's fantastic. No, I

25:21 Speaker 2: can't wait to I can't wait to hear what comes

25:23 Speaker 2: out next.

25:25 Speaker 1: Thank you in a moment.

25:26 Speaker 2: Well, we'll let you go in a moment and we're

25:28 Speaker 2: gonna play Well, we'll end the segment with Sailor and

25:32 Speaker 2: the Sea.

25:33 Speaker 1: What should we know about this song?

25:36 Speaker 4: I'm glad you picked that one. That's my second favorite

25:38 Speaker 4: after Mountain Song.

25:39 Speaker 1: It's a good song.

25:40 Speaker 4: Yeah, like Sailor in the Sea is I think it's

25:45 Speaker 4: like again, it's about the same girl.

25:48 Speaker 3: It's not the same girl in Mountain Song.

25:50 Speaker 4: Yeah.

25:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, but then so so Mounting Song.

25:53 Speaker 4: Right, So you've got the first half of it where

25:55 Speaker 4: it's a little bit kind of like, you know, melancholy,

25:59 Speaker 4: I guess, and then it goes that when it goes

26:02 Speaker 4: into the jig da, that's the like me. That's me

26:05 Speaker 4: a few months later, realizing that the right decision had

26:08 Speaker 4: been made to break up. So that was me finding happiness.

26:11 Speaker 4: So Sailor in the Sea is almost like two songs

26:14 Speaker 4: bolted together again. So the first half of Sailor in

26:16 Speaker 4: the Sea is me feeling completely lost when she left.

26:19 Speaker 3: It was like how how will I ever lived? And

26:22 Speaker 3: do you know what I mean?

26:22 Speaker 4: It's like as a as a forty year old man,

26:25 Speaker 4: like you know what I mean, I'm like just feel

26:27 Speaker 4: like I'm like sixteen again and just lost and just

26:29 Speaker 4: like how will I ever cope without this person? And

26:32 Speaker 4: it's the stupidest thing that you think of. It's so silly,

26:35 Speaker 4: you know at the time, and you look back now

26:36 Speaker 4: and go, what will you.

26:37 Speaker 3: Pull yourself together for?

26:39 Speaker 2: Right?

26:39 Speaker 4: So now, So Sailor in the Sea is pretty much

26:42 Speaker 4: it's pretty much. The first half of it is that,

26:44 Speaker 4: and the second half of it is kind of an

26:45 Speaker 4: owed to the person I met, like you know recently,

26:49 Speaker 4: so like you know, so it's like all the lyrics

26:53 Speaker 4: and you know, do you have the heart to make

26:55 Speaker 4: it through you? And all that, and it's almost like

26:57 Speaker 4: I was like not saying saved by this person, but

27:00 Speaker 4: you know, when you find love again after a breakup,

27:02 Speaker 4: it's like almost everything's in color and it's wonderful and

27:05 Speaker 4: springs in bloom. So the second half of Selling the

27:08 Speaker 4: Sea is about the faith and hope that my girlfriend

27:11 Speaker 4: now gave me, you know, so it's so it's kind

27:14 Speaker 4: of yeah, so that that song, Yeah, it's nice.

27:17 Speaker 3: I bet really nice, hopeful chin.

27:19 Speaker 1: I bet she likes it too.

27:21 Speaker 3: Yeah.

27:21 Speaker 4: Yeah, she actually said to me, well, she came to

27:23 Speaker 4: one of my shows in York last year and she

27:26 Speaker 4: was like, you're going to have a song about me

27:29 Speaker 4: because these are all about your exits, like and then

27:33 Speaker 4: so there was the second half of that, and then

27:35 Speaker 4: a Ship of Bones, which is the last track on

27:37 Speaker 4: the album, was exclusively about her, you know, which is

27:40 Speaker 4: really nice.

27:41 Speaker 3: You know, so she's made up about that and so

27:43 Speaker 3: you know, so it's all good.

27:44 Speaker 1: Oh, good, good, very good. Well, so we'll play that

27:47 Speaker 1: in a moment.

27:47 Speaker 2: But before we let you goalie, what where should people

27:50 Speaker 2: go online? Where's the best place to go to keep

27:52 Speaker 2: up with everything that you're doing as the Far North?

27:54 Speaker 1: Where should people go?

27:55 Speaker 4: I'm more prevalent on Instagram than anything else. So I

27:58 Speaker 4: think that Instagram is the Far North music, and the

28:01 Speaker 4: likes of Twitter and Facebook and TikTok it's just the

28:04 Speaker 4: Far North music.

28:05 Speaker 3: And I'm on there.

28:05 Speaker 4: I post most days, you know, I always reply to people.

28:09 Speaker 4: There's been a massive kind of avalanche of people just

28:12 Speaker 4: getting in contact since the album came out, really, you

28:14 Speaker 4: know when obviously it hit like a couple of charts

28:17 Speaker 4: and stuff, and obviously it's found its way all you know,

28:20 Speaker 4: all the way over to the us of a your

28:22 Speaker 4: good self, you know. Yeah, so it stuns me really,

28:25 Speaker 4: I just kind of think, like, holy moldly, like what

28:27 Speaker 4: is happening here? So it's just great that people getting

28:31 Speaker 4: in contact. So anyone that want to wants to reach out,

28:34 Speaker 4: you know, they're more than welcome.

28:35 Speaker 1: I always reply excellent, excellent.

28:38 Speaker 2: Well we will let you go. We'll hit that track

28:40 Speaker 2: in a moment. But Lee Wilding of the Far North,

28:42 Speaker 2: thank you so much. We will definitely have to do

28:44 Speaker 2: this again in the future and really appreciate you joining

28:47 Speaker 2: us today.

28:48 Speaker 3: No, it's been my pleasure. Thank you very much for

28:50 Speaker 3: having me on. Mate. Thank you all.

28:52 Speaker 1: Right, you got to Lee. We'll talk to you soon,

28:53 Speaker 1: I'm sure, take care.

28:55 Speaker 3: Thanks mate, Bye bye, okay, bye bye. All right.

28:57 Speaker 2: That is Lee Wilding Is project is The Far North.

29:01 Speaker 2: And here's another great track from the new album. This

29:04 Speaker 2: is called Sailor and the Sea.

29:06 Speaker 1: The Far North