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ON THE COUCH WITH: Alex Lloyd

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

Access All Areas.net.au: It’s been a little while since you have played to an Australian audience. How do you think the reaction will be to the new material?
Alex Lloyd: I can never really be sure of the reaction punters may have but I’ve been doing some shows at the Troubadour in London and people seem to really like the new songs so hopefully Australia will share a similar response.

Access All Areas.net.au: Is there a different vibe when you play for UK fans and Australian fans?
Alex Lloyd: Not really, although I think Aussies in London react differently to Aussies at home. I think it’s like anyone who goes on tour, it’s exciting to be in another country or to be out travelling the land so that definitely comes across after a few drinks.

Access All Areas.net.au: You have an Australian Tour starting May 6th, what can people expect from the show?
Alex Lloyd: Hopefully it will be something different for them. I’m currently working with my drummer Ian Jones who has been DJ-ing in Queenstown NZ and we both share a passion for electro beats so we will be trying to incorporate some of that in to the show. Kind of like an acoustic/electro layed back kind of thing. I thought it would be cool to try and present the songs in slightly different light, especially the older tunes.

Access All Areas.net.au: You have a new album, 'Good In The Face Of a Stranger'. Where did the name come from?
Alex Lloyd: I guess the title sums up the album for me, it is about people and my interpretation of how we all interact. It is also about what role love plays in our lives how society can be so nonchalant about certain things at certain times. God in the Face of a Stranger was the original title but I am agnostic so I thought it best to change god to good.

Access All Areas.net.au: Did you use any different writing techniques compared to your last albums?
Alex Lloyd: I think I used every writing technique in my vocabulary for this album. Being free from any contractual obligation I had more time to explore and go down every path

Access All Areas.net.au: When you purchase the album, you receive a 5 track bonus EP 'What We Started', Is it something extra you wanted to give your fans or are they songs that you liked but were unable to fit on the album
Alex Lloyd: I think this is one of the great things about being independent there are no restrictions as to when and what for. If I have music I can release it when I want to, this being the case with the EP.

Access All Areas.net.au: How would you describe your music?
Alex Lloyd: Kind of happy but it still feels sad kind of sane & a little mad.

Access All Areas.net.au: What band's/artists inspired you to do what you do now?
Alex Lloyd: Loads of bands and artist inspire me, loads of art and film also... too many to mention

Access All Areas.net.au: What was your plan B?
Alex Lloyd: Never really had a plan B but one day I would like to go back to school and do history and philosophy

Access All Areas.net.au: Is it hard being an Australian artist breaking out into the international music scene?
Alex Lloyd: It can be. It definitely used to be harder but these days with the web music is only as far as your computer and easy to see reach

Access All Areas.net.au: How would you describe your fans?
Alex Lloyd: Wonderful real down to earth people

Access All Areas.net.au: Main hobby other than music?
Alex Lloyd: Cooking is a passion of mine

Access All Areas.net.au: Proudest day of your life so far?
Alex Lloyd: Would have to be when my children were born, does not get much better

Access All Areas.net.au: Best piece of advice you have been given, but ignored?
Alex Lloyd: Loads of things, the main one don't believe your own hype

Access All Areas.net.au: What are you like to achieve for 2009?
A GOOD YEAR

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

"I’m not Alex Lloyd… I just grew up with him. Alex has lent me a desk so I can work on a film that I am writing. So here I sit in his studio in London. It’s in an old Victorian industrial street north Of Ladbroke Grove. Next door is a mechanic and across the way some Rastas are refinishing bathtubs. It is pitch-black outside and it has only just gone 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The studio isn’t flash, in fact it’s a sparse and almost rundown affair and freezing cold. It is 2 degrees outside and a nasty breeze is blowing in under the door… I can hear Alex singing in the next room. He obviously has headphones on and all I can hear is his lone voice singing a song which he is recording for his new album. The line “what will we do if Love is just another choice?” hangs in the air like icicles… It’s as bleak as the weather but heartbreakingly beautiful… 20 years on and his voice still moves me.

Alex moved to London in 2007 and I think that it has been good for him in a strange way. Only the odd Australian tourist recognises who he is. His multi-platinum history is a 12,000 mile plane ride away and no one in England gets married to his song Amazing like they do at home. Listening to his new music, I can hear him thriving in the anonymity. The novelty of rockstardom is nonexistent. The pressure from fans and indeed detractors alike is off. There is only the music, and deep in the music is where you will find the true Alex.
I can hear purity and honesty in the songs I am hearing but also a creativity that reminds me of when he was recording Black the Sun. It sounds as if he is absorbing the landscape of London in all its forms. I think perhaps the weather forces you inward… There must be a reason why this place has such a history of extraordinary creativity. It’s not the beaches.

It’s weird to sit here now, so far away and think about our youths spent stumbling around the Sydney suburb of Balmain. We were high on our musical discoveries of the Blues and The Rolling Stones and we spent the nights trying to crack the secrets of Lennon and McCartney.

As young as 16, we would smoke fags for Australia, eat less than healthily and listen to the latest 70’s gem that had been unearthed. Regardless of the space, there was always some kind of recording device in the corner, at least one guitar and strewn across the room were always 100’s of scraps of paper. On these scraps were the scrawled musings and observations of life and love that would eventually piece together as his lyrics. And here I sit again years later with those familiar scraps of paper on my desk, on the floor, on the beanbag, in the bathroom still. The musings perhaps more eloquent and poetic but they're still the same.

I didn’t witness the phenomenon of Alex’s career in Australia first hand as I moved to London just before his first Album came out. But I have seen the pile of ARIA awards that he has been given and I know there is a pile of gold records stacked out the back. I am aware of his sizeable success, but the distance has afforded me the luxury of knowing his music without the pollutants of celebrity and publicity that can taint an artist.

I have heard the evolution in all his albums from the experimentation of Black The Sun to the grandeur of last years Self Titled but there is one constant in them all…I can hear my friend. I can hear him exorcising his demons. I can hear him being painfully honest with himself. I can hear him able to communicate the pains and ills of life that so few of us have the necessary tools to do. I guess it’s kind of weird that these intimate disclosures are distributed for public appraisal but I’m glad he can do it for our sakes and indeed his own.

The singing from the booth seems to have stopped. For an hour or so I have heard him painstakingly perfecting his performance…The melody is already stuck in my head and I am still haunted by that line. Any minute now he will come and stand by my desk, open the door and light a cigarette and let the freezing air blast into the studio… We live on the other side of the world. We are older, we are smarter and we can pay for our meals.

”Want a coffee?” he will ask. But nothing has changed.

www.alexlloyd.com

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MY FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

British India
Adelaide Big Day Out. We were staying in the same hotel as other artists and I came downstaris to go to the after party and a big crowd was surrounding Aracde Fire and Bjork at the grand piano in the restaurant of the hotel. They were doing old show tunes and everyone was singing along. The lead singer of Arcade Fire was playing piano and everyone was singing along. I recall Buddy Holly's 'Everyday It's Getting Closer', a couple of ABBA songs and some John Lennon, it was very cool. Favourite festivals moments though are just when it's a good show with good reactions, where you don't have to think too much on stage and lose yourself.

Ideal Lineup?
I'd have bands that would never be seen on the same stage because they've long since broken up or died, I'd have Blur opening the festival followed by the Smiths who would reform for my music festival, and At The Drive In would finish the day just when I was drunk enough to dance like they can.

Fave artist you've seen at a Music Festival?
Rage Against The Machine. Also, Brand New who are a vastly under rated band from New York that played at Big Day Out. I saw them pretty much without fail at every Big Day Out and they were astounding, and to use the the cliche, quite inspiring. I've ripped off many of their moves since then!

Tips for attending Music Festivals
Don't break your neck. Don't worry too much about getting to the front for every band you want to see. It's probably better to pick 4 or so that you can really absorb as opposed to having cursory glances at every one. It's like any 'day out' it's best to pace yourself, don't go mental and try to see everything, relax and take it all in.