Leeds indie newcomer Big Warm Bed (Jacob Andrews) has announced his debut EP ‘Shores I’m Swimming In’ due for release on the 26th of September via Dance To The Radio (Ellur, Far Caspian, Low Hummer, Youth Sector). His new single ‘Can’t Quit’ is out now, following his debut single ‘Should’ve Seen it Coming‘, which was released earlier this summer.
Having toured the globe as part of Far Caspian’s backing band, Big Warm Bed navigates universal themes of friendship and loss through a tasteful retro-rock lens akin to Kevin Morby and Willie J Healey; with the musician set to take his live show on the road this autumn (following previous supports with Sam Evian and Cut Worms), including a debut headliner at Leeds’ Hyde Park Book Club, and festival slot at Left Of The Dial following his debut EP release.
Give us a potted history of yourself
My first memory of writing a ‘song’ is from before I could play any instruments, I used to write silly little 20-second love songs purely for myself. I distinctly remember a family friend catching me once and asking ‘What are you writing?’ I got all embarrassed and hid the paper and said ‘nothing’ and ran out of the room with my tail between my legs. I find this funny because it’s similar to how I react when someone asks me to show them what I’ve been working on now.
I have been writing songs seriously since I was 17/18, so over 10 years now in various projects. I have been writing as a solo artist for around 7 years now with Big Warm Bed operating as it is for just over a year.
My current state of play is dropping singles and gearing up for the release of my debut EP and playing shows! I’m lucky enough to have supported artists I am truly inspired by so far, artists like Sam Evian, Cut Worms and Sylvie. It’s cool to play on the same bill as artists you look up to.
Who inspired you to start making music
I first picked up an instrument because of my oldest brother Dan, he’s a guitarist and a drummer so they were set up around the house growing up, I remember gravitating towards guitar and learning songs with friends when I was 9 or 10. And of course, The Beatles, I feel like that is probably a lot of people’s answer for starting to write their own music. They just had a way of inspiring people to create music, they had
the sauce and the world knows it!
And the one or maybe two records that inspired you artistically
The first would be George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. It is easily one of my favourite records of all time and one that I lean into when looking for inspiration artistically. It’s got everything I love about music in a record – Big riffs, Big grooves and George Harrison!
The second is Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix. This may be my number-one album of all time. I have been completely obsessed with it since it came out in 2009 and it has been inspiring my writing a lot recently in terms of synth sounds. I bought a Yamaha PSS-480 after years of reading about them on forums on the internet; it’s just a cheap keyboard from the 80s that has very basic FM synthesis built into it, but it is a really interesting tool as you can change the parameters of the pre-sets to create really cool sounds. It’s become a huge tool in the songs I have been writing recently.
If you’re trying to explain whom you sound like to someone who’s never heard you, what do you say
I struggle with this question when I get asked as I never know what to say. It’s something I don’t tend to think about, you know, ‘how I sound.’ My go-to response is just laid-back guitar music. So I’m going to go with that. Laid-back Guitar Music!
Tell us about your new single
My latest single is called ‘Can’t Quit’, it was released on the 18th of July via Dance To The Radio. ‘Can’t Quit’ is essentially about struggling to quit smoking cigarettes, I go in and out of phases of trying, then I get a little stressed about something and the old habits come back knocking. I’m still trying to quit, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t love it.
I recorded it with my very good friend Harry Jordan at the old location of his studio Bam Bam Studios in Pudsey, Leeds. He has since moved into an amazing new space down in Norfolk, which is a really special place.
We used a lot of really cool gear recording this body of work. Everything ran through a Neve 1073 pre-amp or Neve OPX using either Coles 4038s, Neumann TLM 103 or trusty old SM57s as the microphones. To compress things going in I seem to remember using a Black Lion Audio Seventeen or a DBX 160A. Everything was recorded into the DAW and then I ran some select takes through my friend Joel Johnston (who mixed the track/EP)’s Tascam 244 to get that tape-y saturation and squeeze.
The chimey acoustic you can hear is my friend Jack’s gorgeous Collings OM1 which he was kind enough to let me use to record with. One of the main instruments you can hear throughout the song (and the upcoming EP) is my really cheap but really cool Recording King Acoustic, which is now sadly broken. It has a Fishman pickup in it. I like the sound of putting a sponge in the bridge and micing the guitar directly then micing up the amp and blending the two of them, when added to the mix adds a nice percussive driving feel to songs. I used this on every song we recorded at Bam Bam Studios. The amp we used most on this recording was Harry’s Fender Princeton Chris Stapleton Edition, a really nice amp.
The drums we used on this recording were Harry’s incredible 60s Ludwig Jazz Festival Kit paired with the Ludwig Jazz Festival Snare. They were played by Joel and he eventually used a snare sample underneath in the mix (I think it’s a Ludwig Supraphonic sample) to give it that extra bit of body. These drums sound amazing, we used a mono overhead (Coles) with an Electro-Voice RE-20 on the kick, a Shure
SM57 on the Snare and a matched pair of Cascade Fat Heads as room mics.
The electric guitars are a combination of my Gibson Les Paul Double Cut and Harry’s Gibson SG. Both have P90’s on them (which in my honest opinion, are the nicest sounding pickups). I also used a Fender Telecaster, which was tuned to Nashville Tuning, which I added as an afterthought to double up the lead part in the verses and chorus. We used a wide array of pedals in the recording, but I think the main bulk of the tone came from a Fairfield Barbershop Overdrive paired with a Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water, which is really the base of my guitar tone most of the time.
The bass is just a Hofner Violin Bass DI’d into the Neve 1073, simple yet effective.
The sax was played by Tom Kettleton and we recorded it in his bedroom using a direct mic and a mic out in the hallway to pick up the sound of the hallway as he played. I can’t remember exactly what mics we used but we ran one mic through a JHS Colour Box and took the signal out through my guitar pedals to give it a little warble and saturation. Then the hallway mic was just recorded straight into the DAW. The sax sound you hear is all of that blended together. There is also a sample from the saxophone Tom wrote for the Demo that kicks in halfway through the second verse. I bounced it all out together and put the Arturia Tape MELLO-FI plug-in to make it sound like a mellotron. Joel and I then also added some reverse and delay to the Saxophone solo in the bridge section to add to the whacked-out trippy feeling of the section.
There is a keyboard pad underneath the whole track that was just my old housemate’s cheap Yamaha keyboard, I can’t remember exactly which one, but I just ran that through my guitar pedals and into the Neve 1073.
Where can we get hold of it?
You can find it on all streaming platforms and YouTube via this link
Tell us how you write
I mostly always write using an Acoustic guitar, up until recently where a lot of ideas have come from my Yamaha PSS-480. Which is a new way of writing for me. It has always come from sitting on the sofa messing around on an acoustic guitar. And mostly always I will record that simple idea into logic and build the song from there. I also mostly add lyrics right at the very end, much to people’s annoyance because when I show them a demo there is rarely an audible vocal take. I’m trying to grow out of that though. However, I am always writing phrases and the odd poem in my notes on my phone to pluck out whenever I need lyrics for a song.
Tell us about your live show. What would be your dream gig
The live show most of the time is made up of two guitars, bass and drums. We have myself, Chris Aitchison on Guitar and Jacob Cracknell on Bass, both of whom are in the incredible band Green Gardens. And then Niall Summerton on Drums, who has his own project that Jacob C and I play in, who is also an incredible songwriter and musician.
The reason there are only four most of the time is purely because it’s easier to round up and take four people to a show than it is to take 6 or 7. The live band in its full form consists of 7 people. The usual four plus Megan Lama on keys, a third guitar and Tom Kettleton on Saxophone. If you are around in Leeds on the 8th of October, that is where you will find us in our full form!
My dream gig would be the full 7 piece with a string quartet involved. Maybe an extra Saxophone. Just to have that big full sound, maybe in somewhere like the Royal Albert Hall or something, if only ey?!
What can we expect from you in the near future
I am releasing my debut EP this year titled Shores I’m Swimming In on the 26th of September. There is another single yet to come from the EP, more on that later though! Pre order the EP here
In the diary, there is the Leeds headline on the 8th of October and Left of the Dial Festival in Rotterdam on the 17th, 18th and 19th of October. More dates are yet to be announced, so keep your eyes peeled for those!
Tell us your favourite records that are rocking your headphones/tour bus/stereo
Luke Temple and The Cascading Moms – Certain Limitations has been on constant repeat since its release at the beginning of this month. I have been a big fan of Luke Temple’s music for a while now and this record is another huge drop in the vast ocean of his work. If you like that record I can guarantee you’ll like his other releases.
Another artist I’m loving currently is Alex Izenberg, who has a record out on the 26th of July. Again I am a big fan of his records so I am very excited about his upcoming release, the song Only the Moon Knows is a recent favourite. I’m really excited for Alex Izenberg and the Exiles.
Go on then, one more! The recent Chris Cohen record Paint A Room is just so so good. Another artist who I am a huge fan of who I look to for inspiration with my work!
Check out the single Can’t Quit, below:
Pre order the EP here
[…] Read our interview with Jacob Andrews here […]