Stanley Welch

Releases new single ‘Earring’

Double-album Songs About Women and Songs About Women - The Musical for December 4th

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Glasgow based, Cornwall raised artist Stanley Welch releases new single ‘Earring’ - the second single taken from his ambitious double-album Songs About Women and Songs About Women - The Musical - out December 4th.

‘Earring’ floats along with languid anticipation - the shifting dynamics and tempo of the interplay between the guitar and drums laying a foundation for Stanley’s vocal style, at one moment lackadaisical, at the next soaring. Whilst quickly came to life in terms of recording,  across 24 hours with experimental singer-songwriter Otis Jordan on drums - the writing of the lyrics and music took a more winding path. As Stanley explains: “the main riff was written in a couple of minutes in a guitar shop during a stint as Cryogeyser's UK tour driver - it was a bit of a strange tour with a lot of heartbreak in the background, but they were playing a lot of American post-rock in the car which I hadn't heard. I wrote the song with Shawn's (Marom, Cryogeyser) voice in mind, then sang it myself because they were off on tour again by the time I needed it finished.

The  lyrics are impressionistic at best but the feeling is of having to take a look at yourself in your late twenties, and a sort of important lostness (but then again that's the whole album) - I started off trying to give it a story or an invented character but it didn't work, so I left it as blocks of small impressions that felt right. I probably wrote five pages of alternatives.”

Like the rest of the two works, music is sophisticated in its composition but is pulled away from abstraction by Welch’s innate pop-sensibility. What could become esoteric ends up with riffs and melodies pulled timelessly from the canon. In this way he falls in with contemporaries and forebears like Black Country New Road, Sufjan Stevens, Jerskin Fendrix, Nick Cave, Dove Ellis, Jeff Buckley, Cindy Lee.

The tension between forms is echoed in the thematic evolution of the lyrical and emotional themes of the music. Stanley initially set out to write a musical where each track was from the point of view of a different person leaving a house party - but soon found the lines blurring between writing for characters and for himself. As is often the case, real life bled into the process as well, and the release turned into a non-traditional breakup album. 

The result is two albums made up of sentimental fragments that range from direct truths, to semi-fiction, to complete fantasy. Songs About Women an introspective Jekyll to …The Musical’s spotlight-seeking Hyde.

ABOUT STANLEY WELCH

Stanley Welch is a songwriter. He’s currently based in Glasgow, and was raised in Cornwall. All the rest of his family are actors, and as a result of this his songs are quite theatrical. He went to a good art school (and creates all his own album/single art etc.), but after graduating decided he wanted to make music instead. He’s a self-taught multi-instrumentalist - his first instrument was the drums. His music’s been compared to Ivor Cutler, Nick Cave, and John Adams, and to date he’s self-released three EPs and an album, which have led to invitations to support a few different kinds of artists from around the UK including Bull, Gentle Stranger, KNATS and Black Country, New Road.

He has started attracting attention via association with Our Mutual Friend - London promoters operating at the cutting edge of community, delivering early shows and underplays recently for Westside Cowboy, My New Band Believe, Little Grandad, Truthpaste and many more.

Stanley Welch Online

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Live Dates

OCT 11  - The Mash House Piano Room, Edinburgh