Name: Billy Fuller
Nationality: British
Occupation: Producer, composer, songwriter, bassist
Current Release: Billy Fuller's new debut solo album Fragments is out via Invada. Billy is also about to embark on a tour in support of the release. Catch him perform live at one of these dates:

Thursday 11th June - Brighton, Dust
Saturday 13th June - Rennes, PIes Pala Pop
Tuesday 16th June - London, Lexington
Thursday 18th June - Glasgow, Hug & Pint
Friday 19th June - Leeds, Brudenell
Thursday 25th June - Bristol, Strange Brew

Recommendations for Bristol, UK: Clifton suspension bridge

If you enjoyed this Billy Fuller interview and would like to know more about his music and upcoming live dates, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram. For more on Beak>, head over to their Instagram.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

The impulse to create a song or piece of music can come from anything or at any time of day.

It’s more of a basic need for me, like cooking and eating a meal. Sometimes you cook a tasty meal for your family and sometimes you cook one and it tastes like shit, but you have to do it.

More often than not the meals I cook taste like shit!

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

Everything is chance.

The thought of planning to write / create a specific type of song doesn’t fill me with much joy. And if I had to do that it would almost definitely come out sounding like crap.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

I’m very fortunate to have a space in my house that I can use as a studio and to create in. Everything I need to make and record music in that room, albeit quite primitively.

That primitive element of working has always been how I prefer it. From very little you can create something quite quickly, the more equipment you have the more distracted you get and the process of writing can then be stifled by that.

Less is more sometimes.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating?  

No!

For Fragments , what did you start with? If there were conceptual considerations, what were they?

The only concept I had for my solo album was going through all my old demos from the last decade or so and finding a set of songs that could live together as an album, regardless of when they were made / recorded. Hence the title of the album, ‘Fragments’.

The pieces of music are fragments of me creating alone, writing, playing and recording, with nothing in mind than to just create.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

This depends on how the music or song wants to be made.

Sometimes it just happens without you even being conscious that it’s being made and sometimes the only way you can get it finished is through pure pain and frustration!

They’re a bit like people, some are lovely and easy to get along with and some are total pricks.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

I don’t see myself as a spiritual person in any way, but I do think there is a meditative level you can reach when you’re making music, especially on your own.

For example, when I mentioned earlier about the music or song writing itself without you even being aware that it’s being written - that’s it right there.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

It’s massively important to let a piece lie down for a bit before you go back to it. You need to rest your ears and yourself and come back to it fresh on another day.

The music will then present itself to you for what it really is … is it worth perusing or does it need to go in the bin!

How do you think the meaning, or effect of an individual piece is enhanced, clarified or possibly contrasted by the EPs, or albums it is part of? Does each piece, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

Getting the correct running order for Fragments was essential. As essential as writing a song in fact. I wanted it to be a full journey from beginning to end, like a proper album.

It took many different goes at getting it right, it took me weeks. But when I did get it right, for me it elevated the album.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (performance)?

This was something I was only half interested in for quite some time in my career as a musician. I always thought to myself, ‘at some point a grown up is going to come along and make this music sound really good for me’!

Working with Geoff Barrow in Beak> made me realise how important the recording and production side of making music was, especially the recording. To get the best sounding recording of an instrument at its rawest state, so it doesn’t need much post production or eq, that really opened up my mind.

Music and the accompanying artwork are often closely related. Can you talk about this a little bit for your current project and the relationship that images and sounds have for you in general?

As I’m the only person on this album, it truly is a solo album. So the picture on the front cover of me in a solitary state in the snow made sense to me, and the predominantly cold sound of the record!

The back cover is me aged 9 with my Mum and our pet fox sitting on a sofa. All the colours in the photo are different shades of brown and it has my Mum in it, whom I’m indebted to for making me the person I am. She showed me the way when life was quite hard and we didn’t have very much money.

That picture means a lot to me.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I didn’t feel empty at all!

The day it was released I began to get scared! Like, ‘F*ck what have I done? People are going to laugh at me!’, or something like that. I’ve spent most of my life being IN bands, I’ve never been the main focus, or as Robert Plant would say to me, ‘being at the sharp end’.

I’m not putting myself in the shoes of Robert Plant of course! But it is totally different, and I’m still not sure about that aspect of it, the ego bit.

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about or the impact it had on them – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

I’ve had predominantly really positive feedback about my album, which has been really nice. Some people have said it’s a bit short?! Well, imagine if it was too f*cking long!!!

My friend Skin who’s a brilliant guitarist I worked with in Roberts' band and took the front cover photo in Chicago, said to me it felt like he was walking around an art gallery. I absolutely loved that.

Some people have mentioned I could’ve sang some more on it, and in hindsight I agree with them. But then it wouldn’t be the album it is now, so I’ll save that up for the next time.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I hate coffee, gives me panic attacks.