Together in electric dreams...
Ian M Hale is back. Or rather, he's back but in a different guise. The singer who brought you the incredible album 'Successor' has a new project in store – but he's giving nothing away. “Yep, Ian M Hale will go on the shelf for now. We're re-branding, but for the moment it's all under wraps. If people want to see us they can come and check out one of the preview shows.”
Basically, Ian has 'gone electric'. After a few years of playing acoustic guitar on the folk circuit, he has a new project, a new band, a new sound. With the new band – namely Nat Butler (drummer), Ady Acolatse (bassist) and Jo Silverston on cello – he is moving in a slightly heavier direction. “It's much more exciting for me to be playing in this kind of format,” he tells me. “I’m having loads of fun flooding the room with the telecaster. Loads of my heroes play this guitar – I love the sound.”
Hales' songs are not easy to categorise. There's rock influences, hints of folk, overtures of pop. Some of them, like 'Loss' and 'San Francisco', have the halcyon tones of old American song-writing. But, after finding himself pigeon-holed by playing on the folk circuit, he's eager to avoid classification: “I've always been labelled as a being a folk musician and not liked it. I got that label because I started out playing acoustic guitar on my own and playing folk circuits – but I rarely play traditional folky numbers. I don’t think songs like 'San Francisco' are folk songs. My heart has always been in pop music, in its various forms."
After cutting his teeth as an acoustic musician, he has strong views about the preconceptions people have about the acoustic guitar. “Irrationally, I think it automatically demands a different kind of respect – the electric guitar that is. It shouldn’t do, but it does. It's possibly because it has connotations of ambiguity and forward thinking – when you see someone with an acoustic guitar what’s your first reaction? They could be fantastic and change your mind but as they get up on stage you'll be thinking formula and routine: are they really going to be able to widen my eyes with what they're about to do?”
As well as the “fantastic energy” he is getting from the new band, Ian admits that it's not only the change of dynamic he's enjoying. “Playing on your own is something that I’ll always do and is an important thing to be doing, but it's a lonely business. And also the type of songs I write I can't always deliver them properly alone on an acoustic.”
They've got a single planned for the end of the year, with an EP to follow shortly after. On song-writing – something Hale is brilliant at – he downplays his abilities. “The initial idea comes from the accidental love for playing music. As soon as you know the aesthetic and story, completing the song becomes a puzzle with all these rules. It's the inexplicable thing of knowing when things are perfectly right."
Successor has a melancholy edge – is Ian M Hale going to cheer up now that he's rocking out? “Happy/sad love songs are beautiful things. That's the true art isn't it? In trying to find a new way to concisely get across one of the most basic emotions that's been spoken or sung about. That’s such a big challenge – to be able to sing about finding or losing somebody that you care about and to do it in a way that is interesting, and that people can relate to in an exciting way. That sentiment is never going to be irrelevant."
Ian M. Hale 'Desire' by Wax Recordings
You can catch Ian and the new band playing at Beatroot Rendez-Vous at the Old Queen's Head on 27th September.
Click here to read our review of 'Successor'.
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