On the up: Findlay Brown
Findlay Brown’s a lover not a fighter - though he’s had a crack at both. Formerly into ‘electronics, noise and grooves’ with Boedekka, he’s found his niche composing heartbreak folk ballads desgined to get back in his girlfriend’s good books.
Though not your traditional singer-songwriter, he does have a muse
When the band split up I started demoing some tunes that I wanted to write for my girlfriend. She was living in Copenhagen and I was living in London and she wasa bit upset with me. So l started sending these songs over with some crushed flowers, all that romantic shit. It pretty much patched up our relationship because it showed her how much I cared. I hadn’t showed her I cared for about two years; I was out drinking every night and wetting the bed. The first tune I sent was a song called ‘Tonight Won’t Wait’. She was living with these models and she called me up and said how she’d played it for the whole house - all these fit birds - and a couple of the girls were in tears and had said, “That is what we want to hear from a man.” I knew I was on to a winner. I was like: “Right, where’s my guitar?”
His hero is unsung US folkie Jackson C Frank
I listened to Nick Drake and Tim Hardin and Bob Dylan but it was just great stuff; it never made me go and write stuff. But with Jackson C Frank, I heard him and thought: ‘Fuck, I need to do exactly that’; write something really personal and stripped-down.
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He had to think before selling out to Mastercard for, ooh, a minute
Not even a minute! I worked in chocolate factories before I moved to London - Nestlés and Terrys. I was working for the man doing that for £150 a week. I’d rather give a song to an advert and get a shitload more for doing it on my terms. And I don’t have to wear a hair net!
He used to be a bit tasty as a youth
My mate’s dad used to be a blacksmith who used to work for local gypsies near York. There was an old World War Il airfield on the outskirts of our village and 11 months out of 12 there were gypsies there. I had about two proper bare-knuckle fights when I was about 12 years old. I won both; I was a right tough little cunt.
…but he makes life as a teen in York sound positively bohemian
My ex-girlfriend is married to Rick Witter and my sister used to hang out with The Seahorses. I would go around to all these house parties and be a right cocky little shit, ’cos I was more of a Kev and they were the music boys. They’d all be playing gutars, singing Beatles songs and I would come in with the harmony right away. Someone gave me a microdot at a party when I was 15, 16, and they had ‘Electric Ladyland’ on repeat. There was all these guys just lying about on beanbags. I kept going back in, thinking: “Fuck, this is wicked!” I didn’t know the beginning or the end of the record. It sounds clichéd but it was like a journey. My mum picked me up the next morning in her Metro and she had ‘Abbey Road’ on. I was looking out of the window at the trees with the sunshine coming through, hearing ‘Here Comes The Sun’? I was like: ‘Whoa, this is so cool’
He likes to think that TV’s Fearne Cotton is stalking him
Doing TOTP2 was fucking mint. We went on after Westlife. And there was also The View there, The Feeling and Corrine Bailey Rae; they film a load of you all in one day. I was with The Feeling in the Green Room but I wasn’t feeling The Feeling. I was more hoping to get a hold of Ferne Cotton! She’s been sending me messages on MySpace saying she’s a big fan. It just says “Fearne” but I can tell it’s her. She sent me a message saying, “A friend told me about you, she was way right” The whole message was totally the way she speaks.’ Martin Horsfield
First published in Time Out, February 2007
Footnote
Despite his references to “fit birds”and unhealthy obsession with Fearne Colton, I really liked Findlay Brown - both his records and as an interviewee - although sadly he could never be described as On the Up. This was a new acts column, and given it was published 52 weeks a year, I’d guess its strike rate was quite hit and miss. Actually, that reminds me: I did one these with The Boy Least Likely To as well - another act that were never particularly On the Up.
