Introducing Interview: Gallery 47

With supporters including BBC Radio 2’s Bob Harris, 6Music’s Tom Robinson and The Guardian, and having supported the likes of the legendary Paul Weller, things are looking pretty positive for singer-songwriter Gallery 47.

With his third album due for release in November, we caught up Gallery 47 to find out more about the story behind the music…

Hi Gallery 47, welcome to Gigslutz! How are you today?
I’m alright, thanks.

Can you tell us a bit more about Gallery 47?
I am a 27 year old married man who lives in a small 1st floor flat in Bermondsey, South East London. I am a folk musician at heart but I’ve recently started working with more musicians, and I’m really enjoying it.

What’s the story behind your forthcoming album Clean?
I wrote Clean at the same time as I wrote Adversity Breeds but just after I wrote the yet unreleased Young World. After my first album, ages ago, in 2011, I got a bit down and didn’t do much for a few months – it was a bad time. So ever since then I’ve always wanted to prepare the next album before I released the “ready” one, to some extent, in order to make sure that I don’t end up relapsing into impotence like that again. If Young World is about a big political argument on a family holiday, and Adversity Breeds is almost a coded emotional explosion in response to that, well then Clean is the innocent one. It’s an album about trying to figure out your life when everything is up in the air – love, money, career, job etc.

I went to University, I tried to succeed in music, I released a few albums but realistically didn’t have much money. I applied to a bunch of administrator roles and didn’t get them, in fact I applied to a lot of jobs I never thought I would apply for, and which I didn’t really want – and still I couldn’t get them, I panicked in interview and besides my heart wasn’t in it. At the same time there were the pressures of growing up, parental pressures, social pressures, family pressures. I got married. I tried to get “Clean”. And by that, I don’t mean I’m a heroin addict or anything like that, because I’m not. I’m scared of needles. I mean that youth, young adulthood, has always seemed to me to be about being explorative and exciting, testing your mind, figuring out who you are, finding love – and then comes this steamroller bitch called adulthood telling you to go to bed at 10 and not drink caffeine after 7. I spent perhaps 3 months trying to live in that normal world before I went back to Amsterdam.

What’s the music scene like at the moment in your home town of Nottingham and who would you plug?
Right now I really like listening to Keto and Daudi Matsiko, but the list is endless. It’s difficult with these kind of questions because I just answer with whoever comes into my head at that moment, but sometimes it’s so easy to momentarily forget music that you love when under pressure!

What’s the next step for Gallery 47?
I’ve just moved to London and am looking in charity shops for a 2nd hand sofa. I’m caught between writing an MA dissertation on Julian Barnes and mixing my fourth album, Adversity Breeds. I really hope a label comes along but I’m also preparing for if I need to release these things myself, which would definitely mean finding a second job to pay for everything – it costs so much just to press a record (!).

Who are your top 3 favourite artists?
Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles.

Can you describe your sound in 5 words?
I don’t have the energy

Huge thanks to Gallery 47 for answering our questions!

Clean, the upcoming third album from Gallery 47, is out 11 November AWAL/Bad Production Records.