Stereoboard Speak To Ocean Colour Scene's Simon Fowler (Interview)
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Written by Adam Holden
After nearly 20 years in the industry, it’s still refreshing to see that Simon Fowler is still as enthusiastic about the industry as he once was.
Located in the middle of nowhere (Teme Valley, Worcestershire), the Ocean Colour Scene lead singer was relaxed, humble and seemingly appreciating the ale on offer at the Bridge Bash festival before performing an small acoustic set with fellow band member Oscar Harrison.
In a humorous spirit, a tipsy Fowler joked and changed direction of a sentence in a second, maybe suggesting that tipsy was rather a scaled down choice of wording.
To convey Simon lives the Keith Moon rock star lifestyle would be false, however, the talented musician is still very much enjoying life on the road and seemed to struggle clarifying when his last tour was.
Fowler said: “Yeah, there is a difference in playing small acoustic sets like this than with Ocean Colour Scene. It just depends how it goes. Recently, the festival gigs we have been doing are really really good, and quite frankly we don’t rehearse. Obvious we rehearse for our tour, but can’t remember if that was this year or last. Think it was the beginning of this year,”
”Me and Oscar have been going off doing small duo things for over ten years. Oscar plays piano and bass, not drums and Andy Bennett is our other guitarist.”
“I love playing for the local crowds. We’ve always played all over the country and people love that about us. Think were almost seen as a folk band. But ye, I love to play in local events, I brought my dog from somewhere around here. Mrs Bishop’s farm I think!”
“But you can get a good rapport with the crowd (at small festivals), although, it depends on yourself, and how your feeling; and tonight I’m feeling relatively well." (Sipping his beer and smiling like a child at Christmas).
With a couple more festivals on the agenda this summer, Ocean Colour Scene will then tour before taking a step back whilst Simon embarks on a mission as a solo artist.
Fowler said: “Its only got drums, electric guitars and one a half tracks on it!”
Quietly smiling and beaming with sarcasm, he went on to discuss his new adventure.
He added: “The album is almost finished. It’s Just been mixed basically. I’m doing that with Dan Sealy our bass player, and a mate of mine from Stratford called Mike McNamara and John McCusker, probably the best folk musician in Britain.”
“It was meant to come out in October, but realised we didn’t know we were doing when it came to mixing. So we put it on hold, and it will come out in January next year.”
“The other reason why we put it back was because when it gets to November, there is no point releasing anything as you’ll get Beyonce singing Phil Spector Christmas carols and what not.”
“It’s not so much trying to compete in the charts; there is just no press space.”
“We plan to tour with it next year; that’s what we’ll be concentrating on. I don’t know about Ocean Colour Scene, we’ll probably do a handful of gigs, but we have no plans to record next year.”
I left Simon to finish his drink and make my way towards the stage to prepare for his acoustic set.
Top set and top guy!
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With a couple more festivals on the agenda this summer, Ocean Colour Scene will then tour before taking a step back whilst Simon embarks on a mission as a solo artist.
