The sounds of the suburbs:
Even though he looks the part today, sipping Maker’s Mark over ice in a surplus German army coat, in a lot of ways Joseph Coward is anything but your average indie rocker. Sitting across from me in Bardens on a cold February afternoon, I can’t help but feel that this is a guy who could recite Wordsworth and explain the philosophy of Nietzsche if I asked him to, and it’s been a super long time since I’ve met a musician who could do that.
Softly spoken and strikingly handsome, Coward comes across like a person out of time in some ways. Still only 21, he has the cynical outlook of most 35-year-olds and the musical chops of most 50-year-olds. Emerging back in 2010 at the tender age of 18, he surprised a lot of people with a mature blend of baritone vocals and layered guitars that made up his first EP ‘Animal Sweethearts’.
Roll on two and a bit years and if anything his sound has become even more poetic and dark. Having released a couple of well-received singles on Tim Burgess’s O Genesis label, his forthcoming single ‘Children’s Bones’ for Blank Editions have kicked things on even further. Allying a driving, Soft Moon-esque bassline to rich feeling, honey toned vocals; it comes across like a brooding hybrid of Arthur Russell and Sisters of Mercy. With music like that, I’m pretty sure he’s due a successful year.
Joseph Coward - Children's Bones from Joseph Coward on Vimeo.>
So you get compared to Morrissey a lot.
Yeah, it happens. I’m obviously a fan of his, but I think we have vastly different singing voices, and my music has quite a different message to his. It’s not something I like to draw attention to really, I would like to think that my sound was a lot more similar to Arthur Russell than Morrissey, so whilst it’s pretty obvious comparison to make, it’s not a particular accurate one.
That’s music journalists for you though; always looking for the easy analogy…
Yeah it’s an easy thing to say, but it doesn’t make much sense to me.
It must be pretty flattering, though?Yeah, some people sort of say it as a derisory comment, but it’s totally fine with me. If that’s the worst thing people can come up with then I’ll take it.
You’ve been at this from quite a young age. Have you always wanted to make music?
Not really. I thought I was going to be a fiction writer. I mean I was still quite young, like 15 or something, but as soon as I got into bands and started doing them properly I quickly realized that I couldn’t really do much else. I felt made to make music.
What was your first few bands like?
Oh god…
They’re always embarrassing…
I went through a whole range really. I was quite into heavy stuff, so I was in a few metal bands, then I got into punk and did a few noise bands. Totally different to the stuff I’m doing now.
Do you still listen to your old demos?
Oh god no. They’ll remain buried.
You moved to London when you were 17; has it widened your horizons musically?
Well I moved back in with my father in Brentwood a year ago. I mean I wouldn’t say living here has changed my music taste that much. I mean living in a big city has meant that I’ve got to see more bands than I ever would of if I’d stayed in Brentwood, but I pretty much listen to the same things I’ve always have if I’m being honest about it.
I think the suburbs can be great laboratories for music. There’s no pressure to keep up with the hundreds of scenes you find down here.
Yeah, living in Brentwood is sort of an encouragement to do something in a way. It’s like ‘you’d better do something with your life or you’re going to be fucking stuck here’. I don’t want the existence that a lot of people have in my town, so it really makes me strive to crawl out of the pit.
What do people say when you tell them what you do in Brentwood?
I used to get duffed up quite a lot because of the way I dressed. Just this Christmas I was walking a friend to the train station and two kids spat on me, and when I tell people that I’m an artist or musician they look me like I’m absolutely mad. There’s this sort of inverted snobbery in my town, that if you want to do something or strive above your station then you’re an idiot. You should just know your place and want to stay there.
You’ve been described as a bit of a crooner, is that something you can relate to?
Yeah that’s fine. That’s the kind of singer I am really, so as long as I’ve got something to say and it’s coming out intelligently, then I don’t really mind how people describe me.
So you wouldn’t mind people saying you were a romantic?
No. Not at all. You can romanticise everything really. I mean the idea of being a drunk is very romantic for example, everyone tends to think of a drunken Oliver Reed rather than someone throwing up in an alley way. I try to do that with my music, take everyday things and try to romanticise them a bit. It’s the majesty of the mundane I suppose.
Joseph Coward is playing the Old Blue Last on the 26th February. His new single 'Children Bones' is out on the 25th.
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