2021

I wondered if you could tell me when you guys first met?  Dave: We started singing together nine and a half years ago now. We were all friends before we started as a band, we’ve known each other around fifteen years.  Do you remember the first time you all sang together and did you know how special it was?   JD: It was a strange set of circumstances. We were just chatting about what music we’d been listening to and we’d all just happened to have listened to sea shanties at the same time. So we thought we’d give it a go, we knew all the words and thought it’d be easy to pick up so we sung one at a party we were at. It sounded alright so we sorted out, I’ll do the low bit, you can do the high bit and it’s kind of gone from there. We sang it at an open mic night that night, and that was the start of everything. We recorded some videos in one of our ex members kitchens at the time, stuck one on YouTube a week later and that was the start of the band. We just love the sound and the feel of the music so decided to crack on and keep finding more and learning more and having a great time with it.  You have a nice mix of traditional and originals, what’s the writing process like for you?  Dave: Sometimes it comes from something from history that I can discover or get interested in. I listen to a couple of podcasts that kind of talk about interesting things from history that people might not know – there’s a lot of inspiration there. Sometimes it’s trying to relate personal experience into the genre. Obviously, using a lot of metaphors, because none of us are actual sailors or anything like that.  Tell me about the attention you received on TikTok, did that take you by surprise?  JD: It had been taking us by surprise for about a year and a half by the time that happened, weirdly enough, because we released the song ‘Wellerman’ back in 2018. It was just like any other song we’d done at that point. We did a video on YouTube which is one of the first videos we did. We used ‘Wellerman’ in the first video we did, we were playing the game Sea of Thieves. We played the game being pirates, but instead of fighting people, we went in and sung at people instead and made friends. That video did really, really well and every couple of months, it seemed like it would suddenly go viral again on a new platform. So it had a moment in the sun on Reddit and Tumblr. It started to gain its own life and traction from then. Every now and then our listeners on Spotify would have suddenly doubled. So we’ve been in this constant state of oh, this is amazing, I can’t believe this has happened. When January happened, we’re like, oh, this happened again. Then suddenly, the phone started ringing all the time. It was all these major record labels and agencies and media outlets, trying to find out what was going on. We realised something different happened here.   What made you decide on the single ‘Hard Times Come Again No More’?  Andy: It’s a popular American traditional song, we really liked the lyrics and melody and I think it’s quite apt for today as it’s all about overcoming problems and looking for the joy in things.  What’s the strangest thing you guys have ever written a song about?  Robbie: Well Dave’s got a pretty strange one about a giant duck.  Dave: Yes that was definitely a title first and song after kind of write, it’s called ‘Moby Duck’.  When you’re on stage and you’re all performing are you completely focused or do you let your mind wander?  Robbie: The mind wanders terribly. It’s almost not a Longest John’s gig if it doesn’t. We’ve got very good at digging ourselves out of holes like forgetting lyrics. We like to take it professionally now but there was a fair few years where a decent amount of alcohol would be imbibed before a show and some shows would be great, sometimes they wouldn’t be so great.  JD: If you don’t let your mind wander it’s harder to remember the words, you overthink it and think what have I been singing all these years. You’ve just got to relax and enjoy it, it’s more fun that way.  If you were to describe your personalities as a flavour of crisp what flavour would you all be?  Robbie: JD is cheese and onion because he’s a vegetarian but you’re also a solid British staple and a bit cheesy.  Dave: Robbie’s a pickled onion monster munch.  JD: Andy’s a smokey bacon, just really great and a bit mysterious. Dave is salt and vinegar.  Robbie: No he’s a weird one like sage and turkey that only comes round at Christmas.  Finally, you’ve got the album coming out but what’s next for you guys?  JD: There’s a lot of interesting singles coming out from the album but a lot of the things we have planned are built around the pre-order campaign for the album. It’s custom built from the ground up with loads of interesting things, so the more people take part in different activities on the website  the more things can happen and unlock, which is very exciting.  ‘Smoke and Oakum’ comes out January 28th.

The Last Inklings have just released their debut album ‘The Impossible Wild’. Themes of folklore, myths and legends  dominate the record whilst sonically the Cello and Mandolin take centre stage.   Though it may be the pair’s first release they have been playing together for a while now. “We started off with like a covers band with lots of different members,” Leonardo begins. “One day just a few of us showed up for practice and we were trying to decide what to play. We had a shared interest in storytelling and folklore, certain books which we’d all read like Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Tolkien, that informed our own songwriting and then we kind of grew from there as a duo.” Musically the pair have eclectic tastes but meet somewhere in the middle, sharing a love of singer-songwriters and composers. “I first got into music through people like Damien Rice. He had a cellist and a good friend of mine was a guitarist, so we could do covers of his songs. I’ve got a classical background too, we kind of meet in the middle with composers like Max Richter,” Leonardo says.  When it came to writing for this record the pair began searching for stories, “We start off with a story and make the song serve that story instead of coming up with a riff and trying to make things fit that music” David says. “Sometimes we come up with short stories or poetry and we try and match it with a piece of music that we’ve written, that complements the theme of that story.”  One such song that began as a piece of poetry was ‘Sleeping Giants’, “They were sort of based on the theme of using an extended metaphor to describe an emotion and that particular emotion was one of grief. The metaphors were forest creatures. A newborn mouse has very distinct connotations of being fragile. It brought these feelings forward that I wouldn’t be comfortable talking about in real terms. Then we matched that with a mandolin riff we had that was delicate, a little bit whimsical before adding the moving cello parts underneath.” David explains. “ It does fit the the undercurrent for the album, which is kind of one of environmentalism or conservation.”  A stand out track on the album comes from ‘The Unkindness of Ravens’ which perhaps shines a spotlight on their clever lyricism. Leonardo’s face lights up as he begins to tell the story behind that track. “There’s a hill fort near where we live called Badbury Rings, there’s a national trust property nearby and what connects the two is an avenue of beech trees,” he enthuses. “There’s lots of local legends as to why there are a certain number of trees, what might happen if you count them correctly on a certain night of the year and the song is the tale of what might happen if you stumble upon the right night of the year and you managed to count the trees. Live we’ve got two versions of it one where the ending is very happy or the second one they get cursed and they get turned into a raven. A group of ravens is called an unkindness.” David adds with a grin, “We like to stoke the fires of these local legends to keep them alive.”  Their songs are well thought out sonically, with the textures of each track unique. Leonardo – who has crafted some of those interesting, moving Cello parts, explains his influence on that, “I spent a lot of time in lockdown burying myself in new kinds of music theory, getting some jazz under my belt. Quite a lot of the melodies are born out of the chord sequences. If David’s written a chord progression, quite often I’m feeling my way through those chords. As you start to connect those notes up, the melodies sort of come from that. Then they’re mimicking bits of maybe the vocal melodies as well. They’re almost in a gypsy jazz way embedded in to what we’re playing.” David adds, “Almost exclusively, the songs are written with mandolin and cello, and then layered up from there.”  Since their first EP came out just before lockdown, The Last Inklings now have a lot of music to get out and tour with and with the world opening up they’re getting the chance to take this unique record out on the road! 

Can you recall the first moment you knew you wanted to pursue music?  I don’t have a recollection of the exact moment I knew I wanted to pursue music as a career, all I can say is there are unlimited hours of family video footage of me singing and dancing to my own little songs. I’ve always been musical, and I’ve always known it would play a significant role in my life. I just didn’t know how significant. To answer your question though, I knew I wanted to pursue it after I wrote my first song on guitar—I knew I needed to continue on the path of writing, in whatever capacity.   What music did your parents play to you growing up and what are you choosing to listen to now?  When I was around 10 my parents gave me a stack of their vinyl and a little suitcase turntable. In the stack was: Stevie Wonder’s “Song’s In The Key of Life”, Phoebe Snow’s “Self-Titled”, Bob Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline”, The Beatles “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Magical Mystery Tour”…there was a few more but those were the albums I distinctly remember. I have wildly vivid memories sitting in front of that record player reading the lyric inserts and singing every word.   Around the house my parent’s always had music blasting though, they listened to a lot of Folk, old R&B, and stuff off Motown records. It seemed like they were always up on current music as well, like I remember my mom had a huge Erykah Badu and India Arie phase. She also loved Etta James and Sharon Jones—those are the woman who really taught me how to sing.   I listen to everything, I really do. If it makes me feel something I’ll listen on repeat, I’ll absolutely wear it out. My playlist can go from Western Swing to Mexican Ballads in two songs— I study up on it all, because I hold a deep appreciation for music as a whole. I’m fascinated by who’s making what, where, and how. When it comes down to it, I’m just a huge nerd for all songwriting and sounds.    When it comes to your own songwriting do you mainly draw from personal experience? What comes first, lyrics or melody or is it different every time?  I predominantly draw from personal experience, though I have written some new songs that are based in fiction. I suppose those songs are still drawing from my personal well of emotion and seen through the lens of a made up character.   I immediately want to say that when i’m writing a song the lyrics always come first, but when I think about my process that really isn’t true. It’s a very fluid process, always changing in one way or another. Sometimes I’ll write the guitar and lyrics at the same time, through some stream of conscience channel. Other times I’ll be diddling around on the guitar and think, “hey that’s a pretty cool chord progression, I’m gonna remember that”. I can recall the process for every song i’ve written, though I can never predict that process for future songs.    I really like your version of ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ what does that song mean to you and what made you decide to put it on the record?  During the time period I was writing this album I became obsessed with a video performance I found on YouTube. It was Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge performing ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1972. The way Rita sings her parts are what initially fascinated me. Then I learned that Sammi Smith’s performance of the song is what gained it mainstream popularity, while also ostracizing her from the Nashville country music scene. I guess folks thought that song was too “suggestive” for a woman to be singing, so she found her way into the Outlaw music world because of that. Anyway, I just love Kris Kristofferson’s writing, and this song specifically is so simplistic and leaves a lot of room for listener interpretation. It made it onto my record because it fits the album’s sentiment completely.  My favourite song on the record is ‘Barbed Wire’ can you tell me the story behind that song please?  ‘Barbed Wire’ is about the trope of the American cowboy. Lonely, isolated, continually heartbroken—but distracted from their hardship with a never ending amount of hardwork.  When you perform are you completely focused or do you let your mind wander, we call it your mid-gig thoughts?  I am completely focused when I’m performing, I have to be or else I stumble. I try to transport myself back to the emotion I felt when I wrote the song, it’s a bit like acting in a sense. I think the day I start writing a mental grocery list during my performance is the day I’ll be reassessing my relationship to my material.    What’s next for you?    A lot of touring is in my future! When I’m not on the road I’ll be at my place in Montana writing a new album and enjoying the mountains.