Musician in The Wood Burning Savages

Hand to Mouth is our second album. We were sitting on the album for quite a long time, longer than we thought we would but I’m really happy to have it out. Really happy to have it on vinyl as well.

There was a point there when we thought that it mightn’t come out so I’m just thankful that it’s out.

Your health’s your wealth and it takes precedence

After the COVID pandemic and we were allowed to be in the studio again, I became very, very ill and I was in hospital for a long time. I was having to go to clinics and go for tests and through that I learned that I’ve developed a chronic condition – not COVID related – which I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life.

We were all busting to get out on tour after COVID and so we did. I had a surgery before we had left for the tour and I was feeling really good and I was feeling better, but on the tour, I stopped having an appetite and I couldn’t eat which was a very strange sensation. I had other symptoms as well and for want of a better word I was wasting away. I went down to about 6 stone and I was running a crazy temperature. My body was basically starting to shut down.

That was the best tour on paper that we had done. We were selling out venues across England and Scotland and Wales, all as DIY as it gets. We were working with a small booking agent in England and we were playing some nice venues but physically I couldn’t lift a guitar so it was a struggle getting through the tour. We basically had to stop what we were doing.

Derry, where I’m from, is a small town. It’s a city on paper but everyone knows everyone as we all do on this island.

I was at the lowest of the low. Finally I got an appointment to see a consultant and he was looking at me the whole time saying, “I know I know you from somewhere.” With that patient-doctor confidentiality they’re sort of reticent to ask you stuff and I had a beard – I never grew a beard but I literally couldn’t do anything. I was really messy looking.

“Are you in a band? I’ve seen you at a festival. I was there with my partner… Do you do something else?” My day job is with youth and arts engagement. I teach workshops and a few different things. I teach young people songwriting skills and performance skills and event management so if I’m not teaching them about playing a gig I teach them about putting on a gig. It’s really fulfilling. I love it. I’ve been doing that for about 10 years.

He said, “I know I’ve seen you from performing but I know you from somewhere else as well”. He was a bit older than me. I said, “I don’t think it would be school…” and then he said,  “Oh, my kids go to your workshops. Right. We need to get you sorted out so you can get back doing what you do.”

I think I burst into tears when I left. It was a turning point. I had so many months feeling like I was in a spiral and just feeling like I was on the periphery. Telling friends and family, “No, I’ll be OK, I need to figure this out”, but at last there was a medical professional who understood not only what I was going through but also who I was and how I define myself as person; as a musician, as someone who’s always encouraging people to take up music.

That helped me feel ready to get this record over the line to get it out there and do something with it. Hearing those words and knowing it was a possibility… I’d never been hit with anything like that before in my life. I felt like things were getting better and were going to get better.

Your health’s your wealth and it takes precedence whether that’s mental or physical so sometimes you just have to stop what you’re doing and rest assured that there will be things to go back to and pieces of yourself that you can jump back into again.

Enjoy making things

Try not to worry about making things sound perfect. Just enjoy making things. Don’t worry about what people are going to think about. In 2 years, 5 years, 10 years the only person who has to be happy with the work is you.

The thing we tried to do was make an album as bonkers as possible and challenge ourselves. We know that we can put on a good live show so we wanted to up the ante a bit and see what we can add and what we can throw out on the record.

We cast a wide net in terms of what we listen to. I know it’s a cliché but all of us in the band listen to different things:

Elliot, our drummer is old school jazz, he literally went to Leeds School of Music which is a big jazz school. He’s a jazzer and loves soul and funk which put us in a  good place where we can experiment with what he brings.

Dan, our bass player, is a huge prog rock kind of guy.

I like country music like old 60s Gram Parsons stuff and I like a lot of psychedelic music.

Dave, our guitar player, is a wiz who plays in all sorts of different bands so he’s one of these people who can tip his hat to anything.

We were trying to think about how much fun we can have with this album. There’s a song on the record called Record of Achievement. It’s a really 80s weird Huey Lewis and the News-Talking Heads type of thing that’s informed just from loving electronic music. The track that closes the album is a big, folky ambient thing which is informed by our love of that.

We’re gonna have a couple of gigs around the album and hopefully do a couple of festivals too.

The album Hand to Mouth by Wood Burning Savages is out now.

 

If you’d like support wrapping your head around a chronic illness you’re living with, our counsellors are here to help. Call our free phone line anytime 24/7 and you can get up to 12 free counselling sessions to help you mentally stay on top of things.

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