Interview with Later Youth 

I spoke to Jo Dudderidge AKA Later Youth over zoom during some well-deserved downtime in his recent hectic schedule of promoting and touring his new piece of golden Americana / classic Pop called Living History. He was holed up in his North London Studio catching up on a plethora of laptop admin, we chatted about the merits of a cup of tea on a hot day and whether the myth that it can in fact cool you down? Before launching into a more relevant discussion starting with a standout song on the new album: 

Return To Sound: “Having read through the Promo information emailed to me on yourself and Living History, the first thing that struck me reading through was the story that went with the single "Statuesque". The backstory to that immediately, piqued my interest. Yeah. 

It sounded pretty damn dramatic. If I could get you to fill in the gaps of what happened in Australia and how the song came together?” 

Jo Dudderidge: “Yeah, it goes back a way, because my brother used to live there. I went to visit him with my family. While I was there, I contracted meningitis either after stepping on a rat with bare feet, or high fiving about 10,000 people after the New Year's Eve celebrations. 

Um, it was probably one of the two. But, anyway, I ended up on death's door, then while I was recovering, it turned out to be viral meningitis. So, I was sleeping for 23 hours a day”. 

RTS: “Jeez”.  

Jo: “I managed to, kind of, crawl to the toilet to piss, and it was pretty grim, but in that, sort of, three-week period, I started having these crazy dreams. One of them was this mad dream where the music was just, like, in my head. 

And I think something changed with my brain because it's an infection in your brain, and it swells up, but it can't get past your skull. So, that's where the pain comes from”.  

RTS: “Wow”. 

Jo: “But I think something happened to me in that illness, because I started having these lucid dreams where I could dream the music and then remember it afterwards. And I can still do that now. 

At least a third of my songs come from dreams”. 

"I was dreaming,

but because I was

so tired, I couldn't wake,

I was in the

dream"

RTS: “So, let me get this straight, are you saying that, this didn't happen before the illness?” 

Jo: “No, definitely, definitely. This is, like, a, I don't know, an effect, or... after effect of having that viral meningitis. Yeah, basically, a form of, I don't know, brain damage or something. 

It happened the other night, but what was interesting, I was dreaming, but because I was so tired, I couldn't wake, I was in the dream, I was aware that I dreamed a song, then in the dream, I start telling myself to wake up so I can record the song!”. 

RTS: “That is fascinating. That's a story in itself” 

Jo: “Isn’t it? It’s a mad skill, but sometimes it works out. 

But in this case of "Statuesque", the music that came from it was a piano music that also had almost like a children's choir singing something else with it, and this stayed with me, I ended up writing this piano music that you hear in the song.  

That's what became the basis of "Statuesque", but then the melody that you hear in the song is actually from a poem that I had written about life from the perspective of a statue in a museum, which is like being in hospital, you're there, you can't really go anywhere. And stuff's happening around you. So sometimes with writing, you can have ideas that you've had knocking around for years, and you're just waiting for the moment for it to come together.  

It was recorded in the same sessions as other songs on the album, I nearly didn't put it on, there were a couple of songs that were a bit more out there, “The Wave” being one of them. When I say out there, a bit more energetic, a bit more fuzzy and psychedelic, with “The Wave” and “Statuesque", I had the choice whether to make it a slightly safer record, or a slightly more song-based thing.  

"Statuesque" isn't how I would really write normally at all. It does sound like it's come from somewhere else. Yeah but I'm glad it's on the record, and people really like it live as well, I mean, it only really works with the band, or solo piano. 

It's really hard to play and sing at the same time”.

RTS: “Do you plan on taking the album out with your full band?”

Jo: “Yeah, I've been playing with the band quite a bit already. The Manchester show was with the band, I did a gig in Eastbourne the other day with a three-piece, and some of the in stores have been with the band as well. So, wherever I can, wherever it's practical, and I can get the musicians, then I like to do it with the band because I think the music definitely suits it. But, yeah, it just depends on the opportunity, and I really hope to do my own tour at some point, but as you know, I think I mentioned I'm having a baby in a month, so…” 

RTS: “So, with a new member of the family, you're going to probably sit back for a while. Are you still producing music for other artists? Who do you see yourself as now? Are you a producer, or a musician, primarily?”

Jo: “I'd say production is an extension of being a musician, and, you know, I really enjoy writing songs. I think having a studio to produce is an extension of that, and if I can do that with other people, then it's great.  

What I actually really want to do is make records, whether they're mine or other people's, then perform them, and all the other stuff in between is part of it. So it's probably a bit of both, but depending on where life takes me. If it's anything like this year, I've been on tour since the start of April, it's been pretty savage the last few months, a lot of driving and a lot of performing. And it's been, with a combination of my stuff, with Lissie, with Lauren Halsey, with Altameda, with Joyeria, yeah, it's been busy, but ideally I'd be doing my own stuff, either the Later Youth thing or the Travelling Band, we'll just have to see how it goes and see what opportunities come up, really”. 

RTS: “The Travelling band, what is happening on that front?”

Jo: ”Yeah, I think the combination of just slowing down our activities, we didn't realise how busy we were being, then everyone else has been doing other things, my record's taken a lot longer than I thought, and then, everyone moves on a bit, but, yeah, we'll see what happens with that, you know. I think it's a lot easier for me to imagine a future where Later Youth is the focus, but it really depends what happens. I think there's a lot of people who want the band to still be a band, but we'll just see what it looks like when we start releasing music again.” 

RTS: “The new album you must be very pleased with how it sounds, was it all produced by yourself?”

Jo: “It's produced by myself and Adam Gorman out of the Travelling Band so it's very much still in the family we started.”

RTS: “Where was it recorded?”

Jo: “Some of it was recorded here in London, probably “Nuclear love ", some of the  strings were done here on “The Ballad of Charlie” but the bulk of it was recorded in Manchester at Pinhole Sound Studios which is where Adam works day to day. So we produced it together and he mixed it but I hear the bigger picture and he's more of a sculptor of the sounds. It's probably my favorite thing that we've done together, I love working with him it's it's great but it's definitely Later Youth as I am the front of it and I do most of the writing, 90 percent of it, there are some co-writers on a couple of the songs. There's so many people involved that make it what it is, it's not like I'm Mac Demarco sat in a bedroom doing it, it just isn't that kind of thing I really enjoy collaborating with people so I'm not really the loner type if you know what I mean. I like to have the energy of people in a room.”

"A line in “The Wave”

on the album

which is

“I miss those darling days,

my later youth's

not been

so brave”

RTS: “I get that and also you're getting constant input of what's good and bad?”

Jo: “In a way Later youth it's more about the buck stopping with me deciding what I think's good?  when you're in a band that's the different dynamic it's much more communal, whereas as a soloist you're the executive decision maker so that's the difference between the two”. 

RTS: “I was talking to a friend the other day, he's from Manchester way and I said I'd  been down to see someone play, he said who did you go see I said Later Youth and he said “Later Youth that's a northern saying” I said “really I’ll make sure to ask, so I thought I would check with you on his behalf?” 

Jo: “I wasn't aware of that, I took it from a lyric in my own song because I was looking for a moniker rather than using my own name because I don't know why I just didn't fancy calling my solo project by my name. There's a line in “The Wave” on the album which is “I miss those darling days, my later youth's not been so brave” and the lyric really stuck with me as I had this sense with this period of my life that I was reflecting and writing on with the album, the person that I was, was very much still anchored to a period of time in my 20s, my heart was still in that place and I hadn't really stopped. There was this sense of this later period of that time kind of dragging me towards the past but also this sense that because I was growing up there was a sense I couldn't quite move forward. Also you're saying goodbye to your youth but then the main part that I came around to after reflecting on it was that actually what I needed at that period of time in my life was a bit of a mantra to stay young at heart because I'd become by the end of the Travelling Band a little bit cynical, a little bit jaded, a little bit done with it all.

I'd forgotten about the enthusiasm a little bit, that’s why it took so long to release an album again. I'm just in my later youth, it was very much how do I keep that wide-eyed wonder about the world and about music and not just feel weighed down by perceived failure in myself or perceived difficulties in the world.

In terms of it being a northern phrase “On the missing” is a northern phrase, it is something that my wife's mum would say. she would be like “oh the boys are on the missing” you know like someone's on the missing, it means they went to the pub you know on Friday and they've not come back, you might not see them for a while haha…”

RTS: “What you've explained for the Later Youth name makes perfect sense, the song “On The Missing” is a great sounding Americana track, I love the pedal steel guitar on it and you managed to persuade Lissie to add vocals to it?”

Jo: “Her vocals were recorded literally just here (Jo points behind him in his studio) . I was producing an EP for her here in London and we discussed collaborating before. I asked her how she'd feel about singing on the album and she was up for it. I thought it'd be really nice to make the song a duet because there's this sense of tension and argument within it, her vocal is just amazing so I'm really happy.” 

RTS: “As I saw when I was at your in store performance in Gosport you brought along your vintage Wurlitzer, I had to ask you about it as it is very prominent on the album, as soon as you touched those keys it was like wow…?”

Jo: “When I make a record I just pick a few different sounds and try not to overextend the palette too much, maybe over the years especially in the Travelling Band I could get excited and wanted to have loads of different instruments involved. I started to realize the “whirly” was definitely to be at the core of the album, I mean there's songs that don't have it in for sure but you know I'd say probably nine out of eleven songs have it on. I always wanted one and then I took the plunge just before making this album. I just love the sound of it they're really lovely to play, there's a bit of rhodes too actually on “On the Missing”. But in terms of the influences yeah all that kind of Steely Dan stuff I love it. Even on the album cover with the Later Youth flowers resting on the keyboard I just wanted it to really have a central part.”

RTS: “It does lift the songs and is a major player on the album, maybe it should be added to the credits as a member of the band?”

Jo: “Yeah yeah, Jo Dudderidge played by the whirly, yeah fantastic.”

The website for Later Youth is HERE

Interviewed and photographed for Return To Sound by Dan Reddick