Words: Mark Perkins
Photography: Anthony Harrison
I Am Kloot produced some of my favourite music of the past 20 years, and I never tired of seeing them play live. In reality, the group served as a showcase for the songwriting genius of John Bramwell. The last time I saw him was at a solo show at the Greystones in 2017, and I realised then that his future lay elsewhere.
Apart from a solitary solo album from that period, I hadn’t heard much from him – until this year. In February, he released The Light Fantastic, a beautiful album featuring his new band, The Full Harmonic Convergence, which sounds so different from his ‘old sound’.
Ahead of his show at the Foundry, I caught up with him on his way to rehearsals.
It’s been some time since we heard anything from you. What’s been happening in the meantime?
Really, I’ve just been gigging and gigging. I’ve actually been away 130 nights so far this year. I don’t just play live, as I’m sure you know. I try to tell stories and entertain that way as well. It’s all been very good. It’s been a busy year so far. I did a full band tour at the start of the year, then went on to do about 60 solo shows, and now I’ve got these gigs coming up as the year ends, including one at the Foundry. In fact, I’m just about to drive to Chinley right now, where I’ve rented a house for us to go and rehearse in.
I’m assuming that the I Am Kloot era is now over?
We did 16 years of I Am Kloot and played about 90 gigs every year. I had some really great times, but I got to the age of 50 and thought, I want some of my own life back, and I want to do more things musically. As my life and music are intertwined anyway, I thought, if I’m ever going to do anything else, it has to be now. I felt we’d explored the music we played in that genre, and after all that time, my heart just wasn’t in it.
And so much has changed. It’s like we’re living on a different planet. Lockdown was a really hard time for me. My accountant told me at one point I was about a week from being bankrupt. I couldn’t afford to live where I was living, so I managed to get a canal boat to live on. It’s good living on a boat, but it’s not as romantic as everyone thinks!
The new album does have a different feel and sound to your I Am Kloot songs.
I wrote an album of songs that was intended to lift myself up more than anything, but I also wanted to write material for my new band. They’re so good at adding harmonies to my songs, which hasn’t ever been a feature of my music before. When we play songs from it live, it feels like it sits so easily with my older, more edgy, detailed stuff.
In my solo shows, I really worked on becoming a good finger-style guitar performer. Now, when we do live shows, I play solo stuff that is just me and a flamenco style of guitar, but then we’ve got this more uplifting stuff to go with it. As well as that, though, I’m still enjoying performing songs I wrote for Kloot. The audiences seem quite happy to hear both. I should warn people, though, that I do go on stage at 8 o’clock these days. People need to get there early, as there won’t be a support act. It’s me! I’ve been playing some stuff from really early on in my career, pre-I Am Kloot.
How did the band come together?
I was at the Manchester Food and Drink Festival, fully enjoying the food and drink, and I watched a guy called Dave Fidler playing in a marquee. I thought he was brilliant, went up to him afterwards, and said, I know it’s late notice, but I’m just about to tour Germany, do you fancy coming with me? And he said yes! I found out not only was he a bit of a Kloot fan, but we went to the same school – although years apart, as I’m a bit older. We grew up within a mile of each other.
We recruited his brother Andy on cajon and brought in Alan Lowes, who ran Airtight Studio, where we recorded with I Am Kloot. He was the keyboard player for our live gigs back in the Kloot days. When we were recording there years ago, we also met Harriet Bradshaw, a shy young cello player, and she’s in the band too. They are all multi-instrumentalists, so there’s a lot of swapping around. The unifying thing is the way they can all sing in harmony.
What’s interesting is that as soon as I started playing with different people, I started writing differently. It’s not a conscious thing, but when I was making this latest record, I just wrote stuff that I knew, when I performed it, would make me feel bloody good.
And so much has changed. It’s like we’re living on a different planet. Lockdown was a really hard time for me. My accountant told me at one point I was about a week from being bankrupt. I couldn’t afford to live where I was living, so I managed to get a canal boat to live on.
What can we expect in the future?
I’ve recorded a live album of just me and the guitar at The Ballroom in Totnes. I was listening to it the other day and thought, I don’t really need to go into a studio, I’ve totally got it there. Live recordings these days are equally as good quality, apart from an audience being there.
I’ve always been a fan of leaving space in music – not filling up every available bit. There’s a new song called Leave Alone The Empty Spaces, which is about just that. We’ve got some festivals planned in the future too. I really do have so much material that I enjoy performing. My solo shows are quite different from the band performances, and if I did everything in one night, it would be a three-and-a-half-hour show – although I’m not sure anyone’s ready for the Springsteen version of me just yet.
John Bramwell & The Full Harmonic Convergence play the Foundry Sheffield on Saturday 23 November. Tickets (£25+bf) and more info available here.
