Big warm bed
I spoke to Jacob Andrews, creator and songwriter behind retrograde pop outfit Big Warm Bed, ahead of his debut EP release and headline show at Hyde Park Book Club next month. Jacob is a candid and honest communicator; he makes my job easy. He picks up the chalk: friendship and the mutability of recent years are his equation: “this body of work is a sort of timestamp of the last few years of my life and how I’ve tried to create something out of [those] feelings…: friendships, loss and the rigmarole of trying to quit smoking”. It had certainly crossed my mind! Andrew’s latest single I Can’t Quit evokes the guilty, cloudy melancholy, the culpable urges and self-loathing of your twenties. Fans of Andy Shauf, Chris Cohen and Sam Evian; congregate around the pillow-clad drum kit! It has a muted, twinkle-in-the-eye sort of sound. As with Jacob’s last project Honey Guide these new tracks still luxuriate in all the right psychedelic pointers, slide guitars and synths. Yet the new EP, Shores I’m Swimming In, brings these elements together in high relief with more of a sense of sharpness and urgency. Less of a bedroom-pop blanket, Shores I’m Swimming In is a spacey pillow fight.
The tunes reel in the popular sounds that are growing in Jacob’s native Leeds right now, a sonic souvenir of work and show-billy since graduating from Leeds Conservatoire. “The great thing about being born in Leeds and growing up around its rich music scene my whole life is being in close proximity to such wonderful people and musicians”. Certainly, the success of these early singles has been helped by Jacob’s relationships to a solid class of Leeds-based musicians; bands that are now seeing success beyond the North-East. He talks of artists Jacob Cracknell of Green Gardens, and the members of Van Houton whom Jacob shared a house with: “They are all just amazing in their own right as musicians and together they really are a force to be reckoned with, I love them all like brothers and I’m endlessly proud of what they do”. The same goes for Niall Summerton, another bed-fellow and house-share musician of Jacob’s. Playing and growing with Jacob since they met. Their time touring with Joel Johnston’s break-out project Far Caspian at the beginning of last year has proven a valuable goad for this new project: “We both play in each other’s projects… and I couldn’t think of a better musical compadre to share this musical soup with!”.
This affable professionalism is certainly present on the new tracks. And whilst Jacob is keen to talk of the exciting projects he’s taken part in it seems harder to pin-down how this has shaped the musician. “Playing in the live band for Far Caspian has I guess, enriched my musical trajectory? I’m trying not to sound too wanky there. I’ve been lucky enough to do some amazing tours over the past few years…playing those shows and touring America…just being on the road with them guys, who I can honestly say are my bezzie pals 4 lyf, has given me a different outlook and drive on how to approach creating my own art”. In no way a solitary effort, Big Warm Bed bears the juicy fruits of personal development and damn-sure adult adoration, and the results are Cox apple crisp.
A real tour-de-force via boon companions then, raised to the ceiling with production from long-time friend and collaborator Harry Jordan. Again, Jacob is keen to stress the trust that has afforded a comfortability and warmth in these songs. “We always knew we’d continue working with each other because we just have real good fun when we’re making things together…He’s just a really good friend and I love him dearly… One of the good one’s who’s definitely got the secret sauce”. Ever weary of over analysis, he spares me a clap round the head with the Cookbook of Creativity. Blithe and charmingly to-the-point; Jacob does a disarmingly efficient job of letting on that the main ingredient in this project has always been a large pinch of don’t-take-yourself-too-serious. Recorded at Harry’s own Bam Bam Studios in rural Norfolk, of his time there he says: “I just look back at it as a real nice week hanging out with one of my best friends making tunes to be honest with you HaHa. I stayed at his house for the week… Harry and his now wife Sophie are so accommodating and lovely to be around so it’s just fond memories with friends. There were a lot of late nights taking breaks to watch Married At First Sight Australia and coming back to it after getting a little too stoned and just having some fun with it…it was a lot of creating ideas in the wee small hours”
Shores I’m Swimming In is released via Dance To The Radio on September 26th.
Jules Lenehan