#ruarri joseph

[onbeinganangel]

tagged by the most darling of all, @vivantesopales and was honestly a bit confused about how i was meant to curate this playlist but i tried my best with the rubbish letters available to me (yes i know i can only blame myself but STILL), i guess the vibe turned out very me in the end:

✨soft grief, screaming and slightly horny nostalgia:✨

Oh Comely - Neutral Milk Hotel

NFWMB - Hozier

Baby Finn -Ruarri Joseph

Every Man Has a Molly - Say Anything

I Hope Your Husband Dies - Amigo the Devil

Nobody - Mitski

Ganhar o Dia - Diabo na Cruz

A Handsome Stranger Called Death - Foe

No Choir - Florence + The Machine

Amar pelos Dois - Salvador Sobral

Nearer to Thee - Weyes Blood

Give ‘Em Hell, Kid - My Chemical Romance

El Dorado - Every Time I Die

Linda - Tokischa, Rosalía

i’m sorry i haven’t been around much so i don’t know who’s done this and who hasn’t, if this is a double tag i am sorry, if it isn’t 👉🏼 @shealwaysreads, @lettersbyelise, @pennygalleon, @oknowkiss, @slytherco, @pineau-noir and @whataboutmyfries tag, you’re it

[rockinnews]

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR de gira en mayo por España

William The Conqueror suenan como si Dylan y Tom Petty hubieran sido veinteañeros en los 90 y hubieran formado una banda en Seattle en pleno boom del grunge. Un estilo de influencias diversas que condensa los sonidos del indie rock alternativo con la semilla clásica del blues y las melodías del folk. Una maravillosa rareza que nos visita en tres únicas fechas.

9 DE MAYO. ROCK & BLUES, ZARAGOZA -10 DE MAYO. FACTORÍA, AVILÉS -11 DE MAYO. CLAMORES, MADRID

William the Conqueror son una joven banda inglesa que ha encontrado un brillante equilibrio entre la tradición y lo contemporáneo. Tras su debut en 2017, el aclamado por la prensa especializada británica ‘Proud Disturber of the Peace’, dieron un importante salto de calidad con su segundo disco ‘Bleeding on the Soundtrack’ (2019), producido por el aclamado Ethan Johns (Tom Jones, Crosby Stills & Nash, Ryan Adams, Kings Of Leon o Ray Lamontagne), que les ayudó a encajar su sonido en ese punto entre lo clásico y lo actual. ‘Maverick Thinker’ (2021)’, grabado en los legendarios Sound City Studios de Los Angeles sería la consagración de su estilo, aunque la pandemia lastraría su impacto.

En su cuarto trabajo, ‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’ (2023), William The Conqueror vuelven a canalizan las influencias del blues clásico y el rock de raíces a través de un filtro que recoge esencias del grunge y del indie-rock actual, enfrentándose a una delgada línea entre la creatividad y la locura. Lo mismo recorren los caminos más estándar del rock sureño como pasean por la americana más oscura o el folk desnudo, saltando por innumerables momentos en el devenir del rock desde los 60 hasta nuestros días. The Doors, Pearl Jam o los The Lemonheads son algunos de los nombres que vienen a la cabeza, pero diversos medios de renombre también han apuntado en la dirección del Neil Young más polvoriento, Tom Petty o el mismísimo Dylan, y les han comparado desde con tótems de los 90 como Buffalo Tom o Nirvana hasta con unos primerizos Kings Of Leon, ya entrados en el nuevo milenio. Y todo ello mostrando un talento natural y una personalidad compositiva con el guitarrista y cantante Ruarri Joseph al frente, con sus melodías semi habladas, su crujiente y pantanoso sonido de guitarra deudor del Seattle noventero, y esas canciones afiladas, impetuosas, de melodías tan matizadas como hímnicas. Junto a sus compañeros Naomi Holmes (bajo) and Harry Harding (batería) parecen destinado a definir el indie-rock de años venideros.

[noiselessmusic]

Descoberta da Semana: William the Conqueror

***Descoberta da Semana: @ProudDisturber (William the Conqueror)***

Nossa descoberta da semana é o som dos ingleses William the Conqueror. Composto por Ruarri Joseph, Naomi Holmes e Harry Harding, o trio nasceu em 2017 na Inglaterra, como projeto emcabeçado por Ruarri e tem um som folk com muita influência também de Americana. Com já três álbuns no currículo, Proud Disturber (2017), Bleeding on the Soundtrack (2019) e Maverick Thinker (2021) com muito som…

[senorboombastic]

William The Conqueror announce new album 'Maverick Thinker' - WATCH the new video for 'Quiet Life'

William The Conqueror announce new album ‘Maverick Thinker’ – WATCH the new video for ‘Quiet Life’

Words: Andy Hughes The enjoyment of certain songs really can sometimes boil down to a mood, a time, a place. Sure that noise-rock sounds good when you’ve had a few tins, but first thing in the morning when you’ve just opened your eyes? If it catches you at the exact moment though, it can sound exquisite. Such was the case when I initially heard ‘Quiet Life‘, the new single from William The…

[heilewelt]

‘Who cares what my story is?’ – An Interview Ruarri Joseph of William The Conqueror

There is no William in William The Conqueror. William The Conqueror is a band formed by Ruarri Joseph, Harry Harding and Naomi Holmes. However, William is set out to release three autobiographical album about the life of Ruarri Joseph. Well, that’s what I thought before talking to Ruarri about William. There’s nothing set in this project. So far they’ve released “Proud Disturber of the Peace” about the early years of Ruarri’s childhood and mid February ‘19 the teenage years summary “Bleeding On The Soundtrack” was released. 

Ruarri and I talked about the album and working with Ethan Johns who produced this album and his song writing technique. If you haven’t already, check out both albums, listen to them back to back but first click play below and read our interview. 

 I really like “Bleeding The Soundtrack” because in some songs there is some gruffness in the way you sing, the kind of gruffness you have when you’re a teenager. Was it on purpose? I didn’t hear it on the first album “Proud Disturber of The Peace”.

Ruarri Joseph: Not entirely consciously but I’m a big fan of Tom Waits and he’s one of those guys who uses his voice like an instrument. He’s got all these different sounds to it. For me it’s quite fun to sing in different ways. Some talk more than others and some sing more than others or whatever. If there is a gruffness there it’s probably because I was feeling rough. [laughs]

It sounds like it was on purpose.

Maybe. The whole idea of William is channeling the younger self which is all about feeling overly confident and pushing yourself which I strayed away from a little bit when I was a singer-songwriter solo artist. With William I feel a lot less inhibited and insecure. With William it’s easier to push yourself. I never a thought of it as being like a teenage gruffness, more an attitude maybe, but if that comes across gruff,  it’s cool.

It’s very fitting for me.

Because “Proud Disturber of the Peace” was an album about innocent and childhood, there was the idea to make it under these circumstances. So we made in my shed, not really knowing what we were doing and how it’s going to turn out. The second one with the adolescence thing it was about writing something before you caught yourself, before you start analyzing anything. Just get your head in the zone and dive in.

How difficult is it for your to put yourself in such a position when you start writing? To say I’m going to it this way and then follow the path?

It’s more difficult with certain songs or with certain subject matters. The songs on this record were the more tricky ones to channel because it’s not like I sit down and say something like I’ll write a song about… It’s more about letting your mind wander and see where it lands. […] You start fishing for these things that kind of add up and match in some strange disconnected way. I don’t know if it’s a difficult thing to do. You have to allow yourself this whole patience and time. I’ve certainly been a less present father and husband while I’ve been doing the writing side of things. Just because you have to let yourself go into it quite deep, writing about a past that you’d like to bury.

Is writing about your past some sort of therapy as well?

Absolutely but I don’t thing that was necessarily my intention.

I think afterwards you know what you did beforehand.

For sure. There is nothing more exciting to me than…. Music is like magic. There is nothing and then there is something. It’s a magical process. Songs are just really cool way of packaging up that beauty and presenting it to others. I love songs and I love writing songs. There is nothing more satisfying than not having any ideas in your head and then sitting down for 10 minutes and there is something there. I try not to analyze or pre-think what I’m going to do. In the process of doing that, in the middle of writing, it’s like ‘I’m in this this deep, I can’t just drop it now. I have to get through to the end.’ That became a kind of a slogan.

What happened to songs that didn’t fit the scheme of the three albums?

I haven’t been writing a great deal of songs that haven’t been relating. There are this three albums and there is this other kind of 4th album which is not part of the trilogy but ties into it. I’m writing a novel as well called William the Conqueror. There are still a lot of things and ideas I could write about song wise. I haven’t really been thinking about anything other than William the Conqueror in terms of writing anyway. It’s been quite fun. I’m in the deep end now.

You said the first album was recorded in your shed. I read it was by accident as you initially  booked a studio…

No, it was a black wedding. I didn’t know what William The Conqueror was. I was playing as William The Conqueror off the radar in between touring as myself, as a songwriter, because I recognized that I was losing that attachment to music that I had when I was a kid. When music becomes your job, some of that magic goes away because suddenly you have to consider all these other things: your fans, the label and who you’re trying to please. I kind of got pushed into the Folk/singer-songwriter world.

You’ve got the beard.

Yeah, I’ve got the beard, the red beard, and an acoustic guitar. It’s an easy fit but it didn’t necessarily feel like me. It felt like I was trying to please people but it was my job. William was a rest bank from that. It was just a chance to be completely creatively free. Along the way Harry and Naomi, who were my backing band as a solo artist, came along and were really into it as well. We would have so much fun doing it that we started recording randomly. We travelled up to the Isle of Lewis and spend a weekend in a hurricane recording. And we did other stuff with Neil Halstead of Slowdive who is a friend. We were just trying stuff out. The getting together in the garage thing….I don’t know, we just compelled to do it. There was no space and no plan. It were just lots of ideas and lots of songs. It was an accident in that respect. We recorded it and were like ‘this is way more fun than the other projects we’re doing. We should focus on this.’ And now William has become the job.

Why did you chose to go to a proper studio, Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, this time and didn’t just stay within your garage?

The first time we didn’t have any budget. But then all of a sudden we did have a budget and my publisher came along and he believed in our songs enough to help us to record it properly. It wasn’t a big budget but it was something. I just threw the name Ethan Johns out there, kind of whimsically, thinking that it won’t happen, so we would get the money ourselves, make the record and use the money. So, I said that and Ethan Johns got back to us and loved it. He was just really into it. Why should we turn that down? So, that was why that happened. It was brilliant.

How was it working with him? When I saw him playing live it looked like he’s always taking care that everyone is giving his best.

Oh yes, he’s all about the music. The coolest thing about working with Ethan is that he’s one of us. He has played in bands, he had toured around the country with his bands. He knows that you can play the same song every night for a week and it’ll be different every single time. He’s all about capture that one thing. It’s kind of a spiritual approach, not like a technical thing. Yet we had Dom Monks there who is an incredible engineer. He was floating around the studio without us really knowing – just setting mics up while we were jamming around with Ethan. Next thing we know is that we’ve played the song through and they were like ‘come and have a listen’. We didn’t even know he was recording. There are a few songs on the album that are exactly that. Dom hit record while we happen to rehearse the song.  That’s a great way of working because you really capture something that is now forced. That’s cool.

Someone once told me – it was a James Brown quote, I think – “first take is Jesus”. [we laugh] Is it something you would believe in, too? Or would you prefer to do it over and over again?

It’s easy to fall into this trap but then you get king of lost. That’s where Ethan is really good because recognizes when you’re doing that, even when you really believe yourself that you can do a better take. He can just spot something, he’ll spot some magic in whatever you were trying to do. We all live apart, we don’t have the opportunity to rehearse or anything like that. The gig that you saw the other day was the first time we’ve seen each other since November but we like that. We know the songs. That energy that we have whenever we get together and to have the opportunity to play, that keeps you on your toes a little bit. That’s what we’re looking for in William The Conqueror: the rough edges. We don’t want to sand off and make it smooth and slick.

I tend to find it quite boring when everything is too smooth.

Big time. I remember seeing The Strokes, who I love, but I felt like I might have stayed at home as well and just turn the stereo up with a photograph of them in front of it. It was so exactly to the record. Whereas my favorite gigs I ever been to like Tom Waits or Bob Dylan where you barely know what song it is when it starts. I like that.

I think that’s something Ethan Johns brings to the table. At least that was my impression when I saw him live – I didn’t know him before. I know him because of you and Ida Mae who also played earlier that day. That’s why I went to see him playing. The way he plays….I think it fits to what you said.

Yeah, it’s not improvised. But it’s from the heart, it’s from somewhere else. It’s not a practiced thing. Impressionist.

When you write your songs how do you start: melody or words first?

There is no real rule about that. As I said before songs were my preferred way to express myself ever since I was eleven when I started writing songs. I wrote lots and lots of terrible songs, knowing they were terrible but now caring. The process of starting a song and finishing the song – I love it. As a consequence for having done it for so long and so many times, I’ve got like a database of riffs, music, lyrics and things like that, all just flowing around. I couldn’t tell which one came first necessarily really. It’s just about when you get your head in the zone of that you’re going to write something, you try to let it kick in so that all comes together at the same time. You can only do that when you have a bank of stuff.

There is a song on this record, the title track “Bleeding On The Soundtrack”, where I didn’t have lyrics or I didn’t have the tune, I just had the idea that I need to write a song about the worst memories I had. It felt like I wasn’t doing it and I needed to do it because it was on my mind. I didn’t know how to articulate it or what the music should be or anything like that. Having that is good enough. It just bubbling a way in there and it took an event in my life, something that happened to me last year, and the next day I woke up and it was there. It was formulated from this.

What does it take to be added to this database? It sounds a bit like you’re very set in your head.

It’s not very set. It’s not like a filing cabinets that are labelled and alphabetized. The best way to characterize it is a caldron where you ever so often drop the ladle into and see what you get.

William The Conqueror is a new thing. It feels like it has a beginning, middle and end to it which is something I’ve not really done before. Because when I was a singer-songwriter before you just write about what’s in front of you. Something happens and you write a song – it’s an ongoing process. Going back in time and going over things that have already happened and tying it to the way you feel now. It’s a really different process. It’s quite consuming. It had to be done I suppose.

It feels like William The Conqueror is a limited project or you have to return to current problems at some point?

Possibly. It could easily be looked at like that. At the same time it ties more into the book idea. The book doesn’t wrap itself up and the ending is a happy ending. Life is open end. It has potential. It could go anywhere. People are asking what this is – is it a band, is it you, is it a character, what is it? The whole ethos behind William is that it can be whatever I want it to be at any given moment. Sometimes it’s me, sometimes it’s the band, sometimes it’s a fictional character that I hate and sometimes it’ll be friend that I really love. There could definitely be an ending but maybe I’ll get there and I decide that I don’t want it to end and have another idea. It’s open.

I’ve read that you had it was easier to write about yourself while being William The Conqueror. When a songwriter tells me all my songs about my friends etc, I sometimes have a hard time to believe him because I believe you’re always come from a personal perspective. [We laugh.]

Absolutely. There is something in removing my name that helped my insecurities or whatever. I’m definitely someone who cares to much about people think. Also not worrying about whether or not getting things right helped. It’ll be easy for someone like me to think that I don’t have a story that relevant. I’m not an unlucky or depressed person. I’ve been very fortunate with love and that sort of stuff in my life. So what’s my angle? Who cares what my story is? At a certain point you go with it doesn’t matter who cares what my story is. My story is my story and if I want to tell it, I should be able to tell it. So, I just did that.

Most of us feel like this.

I lived through my childhood and my teenage years and took them for what they were. I suppose living with addiction comes to it, being uprooted and moving to New Zealand for four years, moving back to London, living with a drug addict. The things that happened to me they just happened and I ended up landing on my feet fortunately. The lessons I had in my life meant that I was able to steer myself towards the right path even though it could have gone very much the other way. It wasn’t until I was reflecting on that, looking back and writing about it that I realized how much it had affected me without me really knowing. That was interesting to me.

But good you know now…

I think you need to know sometimes, even if it’s just for yourself. You might just find an answer to what was bothering you. Why I’m like this or why did I think that when this happened? You just unlock this little answers. It’s cool even if it’s hard work sometimes.

Most people can’t imagine that writing songs can be hard work.

My wife’s family are teachers and plumbers and builders, they work with their hands. Their running joke is that I sit around all day drinking cups of tea and playing guitar which is kind of true. But if you’re dedicated to your art, if you believe in what you’re doing and you’re not writing songs because you want to get a hit or you want to be rich or whatever - which isn’t what I’m doing - then it’s hard. It’s hard when your main focus is to do something original, at least in your eyes. It’s challenging on the mind, it’s not challenging on the body.

As you said beforehand, going into the zone, not giving as much attention to your wife and your kids as you probably should… That’s not easy and not everyone could do that and not everyone could relive what they’ve been through – whether it’s pain or whatever else. No everyone wants to do that. It can be very hard on your mind.

There’ve been times were I wanted to take a break from the writing thing. I’m lucky that I can. I mean I say that I’ve been a distant parent but my wife and my kids would say I’m still the same guy. In my head it’s different. It’s less focused on… I’ve spend many years as a singer-songwriter the other way round. My focus was my family and my home and my career was my career but I was never dedicated to the networking thing and the time away. When I finished a gig, I’d go home. Part of being a musician is the networking and selling yourself. I never really fell for this stuff. I don’t like it. But I knew with William it would be…my younger self attitude would have been ‘let’s go and throw yourself into this head first and don’t think about anything else’. I found a balance but mentally it’s certainly dominating.

What I liked about the song “Thank Me Later” is the line “Here’s To All The Mistakes That Came Good In The End”. For me it was a good reminder of not all mistakes are shit.

They make who you are. The whole purpose of this song is that if I ever did anybody any harm, I now feel like I probably did you a favor. I’m a very complicated person you’re probably better off without me in your life. It’s kind of a joke.

It’s not quite sounding like a joke but it sounds like you’re better off without me but I also like it as a general reminder for life. I tend to forget that mistakes may have done something good for you.

Big time. All the best things that have happened to me being the result of something quite stupid I did: leave home at 17 or diving at the deep end of this thing or break up with that person. The things that would be dangerously unadvised actually turn out to be awesome because of the lesson you learned.

How long did it take you to realize that it can be something good coming out from a stupid decision?

I don’t know. It’s ongoing process.

It’s a lesson you forget?

Yes, you’re human. I’m not going to willfully making mistakes, thinking ‘don’t worry that’ll all become good’. It’s more that you just have to live and do your best and try to make the right decisions. I suppose you can only realize that when you write about things that have happened. You realize the value of those mistakes.

I find it quite rare that a Folk musician starts to make music like you do, quite often I find it the other way round. I’ve seen a lot of former Punk or Rock musicians starting to be Folk musicians or Singer-Songwriters then the other way round.

I started with my first band when I was 14. We were pretty rocky, pretty heavy, grungy kind of outfit and then I was in a couple of punk bands. My roots were in the heavier stuff. I fell into the Folk thing accidently and I have respect for it as well. It kept me afloat for years. I felt like that if my younger self would look at me now, it would be kind of disappointed that I became a folk musician, sort of being annoyed that I didn’t live out the dreams that I had as a kid which was to turn the distortion up and sing about being a little bit different or whatever.

What do you take from the Folk music into what you do now?

The first thing I learned from the Folk scene is that I wasn’t a Folk musician. I sort of got called a storyteller but I don’t even tell stories in the same way folk musicians tell stories. I also learned that I’m really not a very good musician. You have to be damn good at what you do like John Smith for example. I toured with him, just me and him. I was watching him play every night and thought that he’s got the same amount of fingers as me, he’s got the same instrument but how does he make it sound like that and I can’t do that. I remember thinking on that tour that I’m trying to get my head in and become some kind of better musician, better technique or anything. I can do something else with this than strum chords and tell my stories and whatever. I was getting very bored of it. It taught me to value the potential of your fingers and the potential of your instrument. I’m just not a Folk musician. I have no traditional ethos behind what I do.

I mean for me a good beard is enough. [We laugh.]

You’re not wrong.

I believe men with beard make the better music.

Tom Waits never had a beard.

There are exceptions to every rule. [Ruarri’s phone rang and the next interviewer was waiting. We sadly had to stop.] Thank you for taking the time!

As I said before: “Bleeding On The Soundtrack” was released on the 15th of February 2019 and I urge you to check it out. It’s very good. They’ll be on tour in UK/Irland in April/May. Go to their website to check out the dates: 

williamtheconqueror.net

Thank you for reading,

Dörte

[campkeeper-archive]

@cherryhubs​ asked: hi!

send me "hi" and ill shuffle my music and give you my favorite line(s) of the song !!

Tales of Grime and Grit || Ruarri Joseph

“Wisdom waits for you to shine It's the hardest thing in life Chasing dreams but getting dust Stretching friendship stretching trust”

“Wisdom waits for you to shine It's the next thing on your mind Chasing dreams that will come true When you do the things you do

And I'll be with you to the last All the demons in our past Maybe then we'll stop and think Maybe then we'll have that drink”

[newsandmediarepublic]

One day, two bands (plus support!): Harbottle & Jonas plus William The Conqueror at Kingskerswell Parish Church

One day, two bands (plus support!): Harbottle & Jonas plus William The Conqueror at Kingskerswell Parish Church

A Saturday to stuff your ears with some of the finest music in the South West is a spring treat that Kingskerswell Parish Church is happy to indulge – it’s the day after St Patrick’s Day, after all. (more…)

[bringinbackpod]

Interview with William The Conqueror

Together with American Songwriter, we had the pleasure of interviewing William The Conqueror over Zoom video!

Acclaimed UK band William The Conqueror released their new album Maverick Thinker on March 5th through Chrysalis Records. The first single, "Quiet Life," is a charming, slow-building lament that broadens out like a rolling landscape with a fuzz and crunch that gets toned down for something altogether more reflective.

Of the new single, frontman Ruarri Joseph stated, "With 'Quiet Life,' we wanted to step outside the sound of the trio and build some walls, add some layers for this one. It's a trippy, fuzzy wander down someone else's memory lane, so we went cinematic."

Maverick Thinker was recorded out in LA (alongside producer Joseph Lorge) at the legendary Sound City Studios right ahead of last year's March lockdown, and put the band behind the glass and treading the same carpet as Nirvana, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, and Fleetwood Mac. A cursory listen to this new record suggests they might well have inhaled the spirit of them all. But to compare them with the greats does the West Country's William The Conqueror a disservice for they sound unlike any of the above. These are slinky, swampy rock 'n roll songs, razor sharp, dripping with the blues and an oft sardonic vocal delivery by Ruarri, the band's songwriter chief and lead vocalist. Written in the English countryside, it's made for sticky basement bar room stages where they dare to come alive with a vision of bigger rooms and broader stages. Taking that zest to tape has lost none of that fervour.

William The Conqueror first began teasing new music last year with “Wake Up,” a gorgeous slice of laissez-faire college rock that sits somewhere in a disorganized melee between Pavement, Speedy Ortiz, and Built to Spill. The Times named it an Essential Track and called it an “agreeably low-slung piece of alt-rock.” It was followed by their previous single “Jesus Died A Young Man,” a song the band described as a rejection of “bad teachers and good faith.” Clash Music called it “guitar pop of real depth and nuance.”

Across ten tracks, Maverick Thinker introduces this British band to a wider audience who crave something with a little darkness around the edges and melodies that reverberate for weeks. It's part three of a trilogy that really doesn't require prior knowledge of parts one and two, but should whet the whistle to investigate backwards into a tight back catalogue where the songs do all of the talking.

At the tail end of 2020, William The Conqueror also quietly launched a self-titled podcast series. Written and narrated by Ruarri, it's an audio book about a fictional, yet part autobiographical, musician trying to make ends meet, trying to be seen and to be acknowledged, and trying harder still not to care. It's funny, wise, daft, endearing, and often melancholy. Charmingly naïve and wincingly relatable, it's a fun listen, and whilst it's not devised as an accompaniment to the music (nor vice versa), it's a fine package by a fiercely creative group. New episodes are released weekly, listen to the podcast HERE.

We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com.

www.BringinitBackwards.com

#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod  #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork

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source https://bringin-it-backwards.simplecast.com/episodes/interview-with-william-the-conqueror-qSVwOPpz

[piasgermany]

[Album + Video] William The Conqueror neu bei Chrysalis!

Die britische Band William The Conqueror veröffentlichen am 05.03., digital, und am 02.04. physisch, ihr neues Album “Maverick Thinker” auf Chrysalis Records. Die vier zuvor ausgekoppelten Singles präsentieren einen Sound, der sowohl charmant, als auch elegant zwischen Folk, Rock und Pop balanciert. Dazu präsentiert sich Frontmann Ruarri Joseph als wunderbarer Geschichtenerzähler und schließt auf dieser Ebene den Kreis zum Bandnamen - keine königliche Attitüde, dafür große Stücke mit einnehmenden Texten über die eigene Unvollkommenheit, und dennoch immer wieder den eigenen Optimismus zu finden. Diese Antithese von Bandnamen und Musik zeigt, mit welch sympathischem Humor William The Conqueror zu verstehen ist.

Mal mit aufpeitschenden Gitarrenriffs wie in “Move On”, dann wieder mit luftigen, leichten Folk Melodien, z.B. in “Quiet Life”. Dabei immer mit einem besonderen Gefühl für bunte Arrangements und abwechslungsreiche Texte. Die Band selber nennt es “Southern rock with a British twist”.

Bevor der in Edinburgh geborene Ruarri die Band 2017 gründete und Harry Harding (Drums) and Naomi Holmes (Bass) dazu holte, hatte er bereits fünf Soloalben veröffentlicht und sich damit in eine Art kreatives Loch manövriert. Als neugeformtes Trio kam die Energie zurück, schnell folgten zwei Alben - “Proud Distributor of the Peace” in 2017 und “Bleeding on the Soundtrack” in 2019.

Die Stücke auf “Maverick Thinker” wurden allesamt in der Heimat der Band, dem englischen West Country, geschrieben – für die finalen Aufnahmen ging es dann jedoch in die legendären Sound City Studios in Los Angeles.

Tracklist Maverick Thinker: 1. Move On 2. The Deep End 3. Alive at Last 4. Jesus Died a Young Man 5. Quiet Life 6. Wake Up 7. Fiction 8. Suddenly Scared 9. Reasons 10. Maverick Thinker

Presse: meetz@pias.com Radio: mitja.bruch@pias.com (+Online) I soeren.heuer@pias.com Website Facebook Instagram

[thankfolkforthat]

New Release: William The Conqueror - Thank Me Later

New Release: William The Conqueror - Thank Me Later....

William The Conqueror today release their critically-acclaimed second album Bleeding On The Soundtrack and share the album’s lead track Thank Me Later, a cynical take on teenage romance, as songwriter Ruarri Joseph expands…

“Romance as a teenager was a good distraction to reality but I was pretty hopeless really. It’s good look back with a sense of humour and know that for any girl who’s heart…

[hemcountry]

William The Conqueror – Proud Disturber Of The Peace

This album which is due for release on the 4th August certainly ticks the “now for something completely different box”.

Cornish folk singer Ruarri Joseph`s new band William The Conqueror burst onto the music scene with their debut album which is far removed from Ruarri`s folk pedigree instead we are treated to an album full of edgy raw country tinged bluesy rock, just as Ruarri and the band intended.

The ten track album was recorded in Ruarri`s garage and it benefits from the experience to provide a taste of real raw music made by real musicians doing what they love.

In My Dreams – The opening track on the album sets the scene for the following tracks. It is well written and put together performed by the band in a well, practiced slick manner and would make a great single. Guitar driven this one cracks along at a foot tapping likeable pace.

Tend To The Thorns – the next track it has a good tempo and has enough catchy hooks to make it stand out. The backing music complements Ruarri`s voice well.

Did You Wrong – This tracks reminds me of an Eric Clapton style song. A raw guitar driven song with well-toned vocals and a pleasant tempo and a catchy beat. This one for me is the pick of the songs on the album.

Pedestals – This one once again starts with a mellow intro with a steady drum beat as the song unfolds the cleverly written lyrics tells a story well “Don`t build me up you can`t knock me down.” is the message in this song.

Sunny Is The Style – Guitar and harmonica form the intro to this offering another track with a gentle pace to it. Sunny Is The Style has been composed expertly, all of the songs elements fit well together to form another lovely sounding track that has an element of a countryish feel.

The Many Faces Of A Good Truth – A low key keyboard start then slow blues style guitar build the atmosphere on this moody atmospheric song. This song shows a different side to the band a simple gentle backing giving a raw edged sound.

Proud Disturber Of The Peace – The title track is another raw almost dirty sounding bluesy rock style track. Carrying on from the previous track in mood and style until it kicks in with a rapid change of pace and driven on by guitars it certainly does disturb the peace!

Cold Ontario – The band keeps the bluesy feel going on this one again this is well put together from the atmosphere, blended backing vocals and Ruarri`s rich tones.

Mind Keeps Changing – the guitars and a gentle beat carry this song along at a faster tempo than most of the tracks on the album. The catchy backing music makes this one my stand out song on the album.

Manawatu – the final offering starts off with a gentle guitar rhythm which is then joined by a harmonica and excellently toned vocals. A slow to medium tempo sets a gentle rhythm that carries the pleasant sounding song along to its conclusion. A fitting track to end the album with.

Making a move from an established path is a thing not for the faint hearted, but with artists of the calibre of Ruarri the quest for artistic freedom and to pursue a passion for a certain sound is a lure that has a too strong of a pull to be ignored.

William The Conqueror are a band that have sown a seed with this album who knows where they will go from here, maybe even they don`t know themselves.

William The Conqueror – Proud Disturber Of The Peace was originally published on HEM COUNTRY

[danielbase]

William the Conqueror at the Old Duke, 3/6/17 (one sentence review)

What might be an especially bony knee, or possibly a recklessly angled elbow, wedges into my back in the packed-out Old Duke in Bristol, an awkwardly-shaped pub where the jazz greats peer down from the frames on the wall to witness William the Conqueror doing their thing: a rootsy grunge-folk that significantly amps up the nagging melodies of singer/guitarist Ruarri Joseph's solo work and the pitch-perfect harmonies from bassist Naomi Holmes and drummer Harry Harding; meanwhile, I forgive the niggle of the personal space invasion as the elbow/knee's owner belts out Cold Ontario's call-and-response "So they say" in fine voice, and most of the crowd are joining in by the end (including the majority that had never heard the song before now), their cheers growing louder for highlights like Tend to the Thorns and new single In my Dreams; the end comes too soon (my unspoken request for their stunning Sunny is the Style remaining unfulfilled) through the crescendo of the title track from their forthcoming album, Proud Disturbers of the Peace: it's something of a mission statement for the band, whose raucous recent tunes blow the cobwebs from the sleepier venues they sometimes play, but in the boozy Old Duke tonight they're more like proud upholders of the ruckus.

[heilewelt]

“I like anything that’s good for me.” – An Interview with Orville Peck

Orville Peck is a good one. When we sat down in the lobby of his hotel it was easy to forget about the mask he was wearing – instantly I was caught by the glint in his eyes when he talks about his music. I love the idea of creating a new persona and starting fresh without the names of previous bands giving you an expectation of how the music should sound like. The debut album “Pony” is one of a kind – based in Country it opens up to so many more music genres like punk, Rock and even the huge singing style of musical. I’ve been in love with this beautiful dark voice since the first time I heard “Dead of Night” a couple of month ago, before I knew anything about him or the mask. We talked about his voice and that it wasn’t always this beautiful dark. If you want to know more about this and how everything came together, please enjoy our little conversation.  

The first thing I thought when I heard your music for the first time – I didn’t see a picture and I didn’t know anything about you – I had to think about Jandek. He makes a little weird music and for 40 years or so no one knew who he was. When I heard your voice, I thought about him and afterwards I learned about the mask and everything.

Orville Peck: That’s funny. I haven’t thought about that for a while.

Would it be something you’d like to accomplish – no one knowing your face for so many decades?

I don’t think it’s a goal of mine. This look is just part of who I am as Orville Peck. That’s not really a conscious decision to conceal anything. It’s just part of my face.

What was first: Having your very personal songs and then hiding or hiding and then say now I can write about myself?

I think it was a bit of both at the same time. Some of the lyrics I’ve been writing for quite a long time now. For example I’ve written the lyrics for “Turn To Hate” about 4 or 5 years ago, before I really knew what I was going to do with it. Growing up with the music I really liked, I was always into the lyrics. I remember when I got the CDs I always loved reading the lyrics in the CD pamphlet and things like that. For me lyrics are very, very important. I’m a big Patti Smith fan and I think her lyrics are so important, maybe even more important than the music. The music just adds to it. I’ve always looked at music like that. I’ve always liked the stories behind songs and I’ve always loved reading tour bios and things like that because I love hearing about what a song is about and who they were written about. That kind of stuff always intrigue me. I just like making music that has a story. I think it was something that was already in me and the mask just gave me the confidence to actually do that finally.

I’ve recently done an interview with William The Conqueror from England. Actually there is no William in the Band. The singer and songwriter Ruarri Joseph said that going away from his own name gave him the freedom to write about his own past and get really personal. It’s quite funny to meet you now.

Maybe something similar I guess. I used to think I’m a really open person with friends and everyone and a very easy person to talk with. Until this project and writing very personal stuff, I realized that the older I gotten that I’m a bit of closed person and it’s actually hard for me to talk about my feelings in a real way which is funny because I never actually thought I was like that. People would always say that to me. So, it’s been an interesting, cathartic thing for me to do this album. When I get to sing these songs on stage, it’s sometimes hard for me. It’s been very good for me as a person because it made a lot more open.

It’s a bit like therapy.

Totally. It’s really special to see other people in the audience getting emotional because relate to it or they know the lyrics for a particular song. That’s very cathartic as well because it definitely feels to me like I’m not alone in it.

I think what always happens to all of us at least once is that we think we are alone with a problem and because of that we don’t want to talk about it because we maybe don’t want to annoy someone with our stupid problem or the stuff we’re scared of.

Exactly. There is a song on the album that is very personal to me. It’s “Nothing Fades Like The Nights” which is actually about a heartbreak but a heartbreak in a different way. It’s not about somebody else, it’s very much about my own heartbreak and disappointment in myself. At the time I didn’t really understand it but now that I’m older I kind of understand it better. I went through a long period where I felt very numb emotionally and I couldn’t cry when I was sad and I didn’t know why. I’ve been in situations where people were feeling all these emotions and I didn’t feel anything. I thought something was really wrong with me. Ironically that was saddest times of my life, when I didn’t know how to feel sad.

I think it’s not always that easy to let sadness take over. It sometimes takes some courage to be just sad, especially when you have people around you who don’t expect you to be sad.

I’ve travelled my whole life. I’ve been living in so many different places, so I’ve formed a lot of quick friendships that are usually quite intense. Some of them were on a superficial level where I felt like we could just exist, travelling, crossing path and I never had to be a 100% real with anyone a lot of the time. It was an easy way for me to remain a little bit closed because I had all these friends all over the place.  I could travel and see them all and put the focus on them, their issues and tend to not address my own feelings for a long time. This album is very exposing in some ways because it’s dealing with topics I’ve been struggling with my whole adult life. It’s the first time I’ve put it into any kind of performance or art. The experience is a personal thing.

Was there an initial spark to do this?

Yeah, I played in bands for many years. Then I took about five years off making music after my last band stopped playing and touring. I went to focus on other things. I acted my whole life, was a dancer and many different things. I went and focused on other kinds of performance. I thought I was done making music and touring. I really felt jaded about it all. After a lot of time passed I felt like something was missing from my life. I made music since I was a very little child and realized I missed it so much that couldn’t really be without it. I wanted to do something new and totally different from what I’ve done before. I loved Country music my whole life and loved singing my whole life. I’ve never really been a front man that often. I’ve usually played other instruments in my previous bands. I knew I wanted to do it my way finally. A lot of different factors encouraged me to do this. Up until a few months ago when we started releasing singles, I wasn’t sure how people were going to react to it. I feel very proud of the music. I feel like it’s music I would listen to but I didn’t feel confident that people were gonna respond in the way it has been. It’s been really, really lovely for me as well.

It’s sort of old-school but fresh at the same time and it has sometimes this schmaltz which I love.

I grew up with a very diverse taste in music, art and film. I really genuinely love every type of music. I understand when people are genre purists but to me I just don’t know why I would want to deny myself. Why would you want to do that? I think some music sucks but it’s not by genre. I like anything that’s good for me. I knew I wanted to root this album in Country music. That’s the main influence, especially Outlaw Country from the 60ies and 70ies. I definitely wanted to add a little bit of flavor of different influences of mine – those range from Punk to New Wave to Classical Music to Musicals. There are a lot of things on this album that I purposely referenced and slit in in different places. When I listen to complex artists I really like knowing that there is something in there they’re referencing, something totally different. I love finding those things as a music fan. I love nerding out over that. So I wanted to put that in there for people to find it.

I think if you wouldn’t do that as an artist you would just copy pasting what has been there beforehand.

For me it’s not even necessarily about trying to stay authentic in myself and that…of course it’s that as well. For me, I think, it’s about artists sometimes not giving the listener enough credit and they think they have to spoon feed something or have to do something very one dimensional for someone to buy it, especially nowadays. I think people appreciate complexity a lot more than we give them credit for.

It’s maybe not what you find in the charts but it’s here for the long term.

It’s maybe paves you a way as an artist.

I’ve read that you’ve lived in a lot of places like Africa, US, UK… how did you treat the local scene and the folk scene from those places as it’s different from Country or Americana, especially in Africa.

Although people might not pick it up right away but there’s a lot of African influence in the songs that I make. The kind of African music I really love growing up is penny whistle jive and Miriam Makeba or Brenda Fassie. The thing that I really love from that time period is that it is has a really upbeat sound to it and the rhythms are very specific and the core progressions are very specific but the lyrics are sometimes so somber and so sad but you wouldn’t notice it right away. I think someone like Miriam Makeba was really amazing at that. Essentially she was the South African Nina Simone. All of her songs were very much about Civil Rights and race and oppression but from the sound you couldn’t tell it right away. I actually have a song that didn’t make it on Pony eventually which is specifically about the longest period I’ve been living in Africa. That probably be on the next album.

You recorded your album in British Columbia and then my head started spinning with the mask and everything and all of a sudden you became the lone ranger to me. [we laugh] In the wild west…well, not that wild. I looked it up and the studio is pretty remote on an island.

Definitely. It’s a very rural part of British Columbia, it’s a small island called Gabriola. It has a very small population of people. If you don’t have a car… you can’t walk around at night because it’s just pitch black. There are really incredible beaches there and phosphorescence in the water. It’s a really picturesque place to make an album like this. I spend a good amount of time living in the pacific northwest mountain region and wrote quite a few songs there like “Big Sky”. I think a lot of people associate cowboys with the desert and that very dry atmosphere and a lot of my songs have that setting. The sound I wanted to capture for “Big Sky” is a rainy, dark feel, maybe a campfire in the mountain with a rainy, kind of cold feeling - that pacific north west your socks are always wet kind of feeling.

When I looked at a map, Vancouver is just across the sea  - as if you could see it from there and I thought it’s a perfect setting for your music.

I think a lot of the things I sing about on this album were experiences that happened on the west coast of North America – from Vancouver all the way down to Los Angeles and Nevada. A big portions of the event in these songs take place along this coast.

You’ve got a big variety in landscapes just like in your music. My favorite song is “Buffalo Run”. It sounds very angry and aggressive but the words you chose always make me smile, too.

I’m a big fan of bluegrass which is a certain type of country. Bluegrass is famous for being really fast with the banjos and the mandolins with quite steady slow vocals on top of it. It gives the song a dichotomy. The thing I always love in is the key it is played in a lot of the time and the speed the banjo and mandolin are played at. It sound quite frightening to me, even though they are singing about some folky thing. The music sometimes sounds frantic and kind of scary to me. With Buffalo Run I wanted to make a song that brought that and also a little bit of my past of playing in punk bands. I wanted to combine these things and make a scary Orville Peck song. I also wanted it to feel like buffalos charging since it speeds up and has this stampede feel to it. That song is definitely going back to my old days of playing in Punk bands where when we played out every night I was getting to release a little bit of tension. [laughs]

It’s perfect for that. How long did it take you to find your voice? I love the tone of your voice.

I’ve been singing since I was very little. I always loved to sing as a child. I never was able to sing low at all, I used to sing in a high register. I did classical training as a tenor for most of my young adult life. When I moved to London about six years ago, I was doing this very intensive performance training and learned that I have this whole other two octaves to my voice that I never really knew about. For me, who sang very high my whole life, it was very exciting to find out something so drastically new about myself.

It doesn’t happen every day.

As a singer I was really excited to suddenly have a three octave range. I’ve always been such a fan of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and all these Country crooners who sing so low. I always wanted to make music like that and suddenly I was able to. I trained as a kid but this just happened by chance.

It’s so funny especially since you’ve been making music you whole life.

It’s bizarre. It’s like someone told me something like ‘you’re a tenor, you sing high’ and I was just like ‘yeah, ok’ and never even explored that other part of my voice for 20, 25 years or whatever.

To discover something that new that late, has it influenced the way you approach music nowadays?  

Definitely. In some respects it has opened a literal range but also an emotional range within me. Maybe it was what I had to do to unlock my feelings. For instance “Winds Change” is a song on the album I go from really, really low in my register to going really high in my register. For me to be able to perform that… it is something really indescribable to perform that song because it just moves through my entire range of emotion. It makes it a lot more fun and it makes it a lot more liberating in the creative sense. I don’t feel like I’m trapped in one part. I feel really grateful that I can do it now.

As far as I read you played most of the instruments yourself.

Yes, for the first three songs that I wrote and recorded for this album, which were “Dead of Night”, “Big Sky” and “Roses Are Falling”…and “Take It Back” actually. On those songs I played probably 95% of the stuff on them. And then the engineer who recorded my album – his name Jordan Koop and he lives on Gabriola Island – plays a couple of instruments in those songs. And then some of the others were a mix of different musicians I worked with on the east coast and on the west coast. There is a really fantastic banjo player named Tina Jones. I play banjo on one of the songs and she plays banjo on a couple of the other songs because I wanted a very particular sound and it’s not my first instrument. I got her to play on the album. It was really nice. It felt very much like I got to choose the right people to fill the roles were I knew I wanted them instead of me.

How do you know you’re not able to do it yourself? Try it first and then figure out that maybe you should take some who can actually play that part?

I think for instance for an instrument like banjo there’s bluegrass, there’s folk banjo, there are just so many different sounds. The way I approach playing banjo is just from the banjo stuff I mostly listen to - bluegrass, faster banjo. For “Big Sky” there is a really beautiful line that Tina wrote that clicks just underneath everything. She is more of a Folk banjo player. I knew I wanted to have someone who has a better ear for that. Even though I can see and hear it in my head I need someone to execute that. Same as my guitarist Duncan Jennings who plays in my live band. He helped me to write a few of the songs and arranged some of the songs because he definitely more of a technical skilled musician. All the instruments I taught myself. I never went to music classes or anything like that. I sometimes feel like I can hear something in my head or visualize it but I don’t know how to execute it because I don’t have the technical skill. It’s good to have someone like Duncan in the studio because then I can be like ‘I want it to sound like it’s 1980’s and it’s slow motion and it’s on the beach in Malibu but it’s raining and that it’s that kind of guitar sound’ - I don’t know how to describe it and he’ll be like ‘like this’ and it’s perfect.

That’s magic!

That’s literally how I described the sound of “Hope To Die”. I approach music from a visual point of view because I’m a visual learner and I don’t have the technic. Luckily I know people who can not only help interpret that crazy explanation but also can execute it. Sometimes it’s a lot of experimentation but we get there in the end. It was a really cool experience working on this album because I had such a clear vision what every song should sound like and what it should look like, what emotion I wanted the people who listen to it will feel. We worked really hard that it will come across. I’m very happy with the outcome.

How did you make sure that people feel what you want them to feel whilst you were writing and recording the songs?

I’m saying this in a way that I hope it does do it. As I said to you earlier – I just used to spend a lot of time taking the focus off my own feelings, listening to all of my friends problems and put the focus on them because I didn’t want to be open.  So, I think I’ve learned to be a really good listener and I understand other people very well. I think it’s actually the biggest skill that I have is to understand how to navigate all different types of people. It also comes from the fact that I’ve travelled so much and lived in so many different cultures, societies and class systems. I just understand that among all of us there is a common threat all the time and I know to access that with other people because I think it’s just about telling a story that everyone can relate to even if it has specific differences. It’s about knowing that we all have the same story. I think it has been really special for me with Orville Peck, or with “Pony” rather, that I sing about men a lot on this album, about men relationships.

I think it’s very good. I listen to a lot of music made by men who sing about women, so I usually have to switch the gender in my head.

I think the thing that is really interesting, that is so wonderful to me, is that a lot of people who are coming to my shows or messaging me are older middle age straight men with kids and a wife who say ‘man, that song is so beautiful. My wife and I are listening to it all of the time’. It’s so funny for me because it’s a song about two men and the fact that it doesn’t bother this person and that they connect to it regardless is so comforting for me as well. It’s funny because I feel like a lot of the songs on this album are about me feeling like such an outcast and such a loner in life and the fact that all these people love it so much and relate to it, suddenly I feel like I’ve so many people around me supporting me – it’s almost this ironic full circle where these songs are about my loneliness but now there are all these people around me. It’s a fascinating thing that has been happening to me with this whole album.

Thank you for the interview, Orville!

“Pony” has been released a couple of month ago and it’s been my favorite album of the year so far! He will be back beginning of November and be fast - the first concert is already sold out.

8.11. Nochtwache, Hamburg 09.11. Badehaus, Berlin - sold out 10.11. Folks! Club, München

Thank you for reading,

Dörte

[dammitrowan]

Hey guys, I performed a cover of Ruarri Joseph's 'Cuddles Are The Best Thing' at my youth club's Open Mic night, give it a watch :D

I'll be uploading more tomorrow, keep an eye out :)

[emily-keast]

I guess it's me who's got the issues after all And how I wished for something different Than something to repair Well now I got my share.

Got My Share - Ruarri Joseph