Bespoke folk

Former punk bassist James Yorkston found his purpose when he rediscovered folk music. As he releases a collection of classics, he tells TONY CLAYTON-LEAabout flying the folkie flag

OH, DEAR – and you thought the two most relentless depressing topics of the moment were the recession and the new Lars von Trier movie? Well, then, here’s James Yorkston on songwriting: “Just don’t start. It’s a nightmare. Songwriting is like castrating lambs – it’s a horrible job and as soon as the first one’s laying on the floor bleating, there’s another queuing up to be done . . . I have no advice concerning songwriting other than don’t start. The bug may get you. It’s not fun, it’s rarely financially rewarding and it’s no way a proper job for a grown-up.”

Let it be said that Yorkston is a lovely bloke, and not the grouchy miserabilist that the above quote (taken from the sleeve notes of Rough Trade Shops – Singer Songwriter 1) may indicate. The Scottish singer-songwriter has been drifting under the commercial radar for almost 10 years now, but his perseverance in the face of indifference from X Factordevotees appears to be paying small but crucial dividends.

In tiny incremental steps, Yorkston is proving that where there’s a will there’s a way, particularly when it comes to showcasing his love of folk music and – in a characteristically subtle manner – furthering its longevity. Not that the genre and its many sub-divisions has any intention of disappearing, he reckons.

“I don’t think it’s gone away at all, and it’s not ever likely to, either,” says Yorkston from his home in East Neuk, a Scottish village in Fife, from where he plots world domination between writing forlorn acoustic-based songs and minding the baby.

“Folk music mutates and travels along on its own path,” he says. “It’s one of those genres that has got so many people desperate to keep the flame alive, you know, but it burns on in spite of them. People like me, who have absolutely nothing to do with the traditional folk world – we just borrow from it, and get on and do it ourselves.

“I think in Ireland there is a far more vibrant traditional music scene than there is in the UK, but that said, there is a lot of good stuff in the UK as well. Certainly, at the moment, there is no danger of it dying away, but then I’m not talking about it as a genre of music, but what it has evolved from, which was traditional songs being passed on from generation to generation in traditional ways.”

Yorkston's new album, Folk Songs, consists of just that: traditional songs culled from archives and recordings, mostly from the 1960s folk revival, but also some from the repertoire of famed UK folk singer Annie Briggs (who has come to be seen as a pivotal, influential figure by many of those involved in whatever folk music is called these days).

Yorkston has been a fan of hers for ages – when he first moved to Edinburgh, he and his brother went to a record library and listened to all sorts of music from around the world.

"I recall taking out her classic 1971 Anne Briggsalbum – purely because I thought she looked very pretty on the cover. I played it, though, and there was something about it that was great. I taped the album, saved up my pennies and bought an original copy. It was her singing at the time that made me change my outlook on music.

“I was singing then in an electro-punk band called Huckleberry, but her music had so much space and beauty in it, nothing rushed at all. And I thought, God, I have to be doing something more like that. For me, she has been one of the big musical influences in my life. If it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be singing, so you can blame her for that!”

It wouldn’t be the first time that a former member of a punk band has chosen to relinquish chaos for calm – or, indeed, cash for credibility. Huckleberry’s music, claims Yorkston, was primed to be part of a facile Instant Adoration Society.

“I was the bass player, and the band’s reason for living was to walk on stage and say, love me now. It was a lot of fun, yes, but towards the end, I just got sick of the whole thing. I was exploring all kinds of music, and when I got back into listening to traditional folk – which I hadn’t listened to for a long time – I just knew the punk band wasn’t for me. Now, I no longer feel like I’m pretending to be anything other than what and who I am.”

The material for Folk Songshad been laying around several years; the time to release it, says Yorkston, felt right, particularly following what he perceives as being the hollow triumph of his previous album, When the Haar Rolls In.

"I think When the Haar Rolls Inis my best album so far by a long way. It was released after two years of hard, hard graft. And it came out, got nice reviews, and sold more than any of my other albums, but effectively it did nothing – it was just another album out there.

“I needed to do something that would rekindle my love and desire for music – that’s always going to come back, of course, because you can’t get rid of that – but it’s a curse as much as a blessing, especially if you’re doing non-commercial music. I had to do something I was going to be enthusiastic about, so I thought about going back to the music I was working on before I got signed to Domino.

“Sometimes it can be a shackling thing to go back and try to recapture past successes, but there was none of that this time around. As a career move, it’s a bad one, but it was just what I wanted to do.”

Some might view Folk Songsas a minor flying-the-flag-for-folk album, but Yorkston doesn't seem like the fervent, torch-bearing kind. Rather, he sees the record as, perhaps, an introduction to traditional folk for his newer fans, who might not have previously heard of someone as influential as Annie Briggs.

“A lot of the songs are standards that have been recorded dozens of times. However, I’m sure that a lot of people, primarily people who buy my music, will not have heard of those songs. What will die-hard folkies make of it? I don’t know what the reaction will be from the folk world.

“There’s nothing I can do about that, and certainly when I was recording it, reactions were the last thing on my mind. I don’t think it will go down well, though, because those people keep the flame burning. Folk music is their thing.

“For me it’s just music, which I happen to love. The English folk singer and songwriter Martin Carthy – at least I’m fairly sure it was him – said that the only way to kill a song is not to sing it, and the only way to kill a tune is not to play it. If I was ever worried about what people might think, then those words will be my refuge.”

• Folk Songs, by James Yorkston the Big Eyes Family Players, is released through Domino on August 7th.