He goes into what it was like living and working with Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and how he regrets turning down a £1million offer to make his own Arctic Monkeys-style album o? the back of their debut in 2004.
Welcome to the podcast, Jon, from Reverend and the Makers. How are you?
I’m very well, thanks for having me.
So, on the A side, before your career in music, you were a poet. What made you want to write poetry?
I worked at a place called the Boardwalk, or the Mucky Duck, to be more specific to Sheffielders. And this is a legendary music venue that once had the Clash and the Pistols play at the same time. One of the rare occasions they played the same gig, right? Really old classic venue. I worked on a bar and we used to get people like John Cooper Clarke and such like coming through and I saw Cooper Clarke when I was a kid working on the bar and I was like, that’s what I want to do.
Why did you make the change from poetry to music?
Probably better way to impress girls. Do you know what I mean? There’s a bit of that thing like you know when you’re doing poetry and everyone’s like ‘oh great man, cool’. You know what I mean? But like moment you start singing it we’re like a rock and roll band or whatever like suddenly girls are interested and I think there’s probably a little subconscious part of my brain that were like, you’ll fancy me if I sing it won’t you?
That’s a great motivation. And how did Reverend and the Makers originally come together back in 2002?
Well we’d had a band called Judan Suki which were me and our guitarist and Laura who subsequently become my wife but wasn’t at the time. Essentially it was like us and Arctic monkey all in one band and then that split up. I wanted to be the gaffer, right? So I set up my own little thing called Reverend and then I never had a band. It was just a studio project and subsequently when I needed a band to play it, me and our old drummer were really off our nuts one night. And we were watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and there’s a bit when Gene Wilder says we’re a music makers we’re the Dreamers of Dreams. And I thought, oh yeah, the makers, it seemed good. I also like Bob and the Whalers, Sly and the Family Stone.
So where did Reverend come from?
Because the old bass player of Arctic Monkeys is a lad called Andy Nicholson. He said, you’re always telling people how it is, aren’t you, always preaching to people? He was saying this in a sort of slightly disparaging way ‘but you just do my head in you, you’re like a reverend’ and then the reverend just stuck and, and everybody started calling me the rev
So you mentioned the Arctic Monkeys there. Now, they released their debut album in 2005. Is it true you got approached by a lot of big record labels, but you turned them all down. What’s the story behind that?
So they wanted Arctic Monkeys Mark Two, right? Because I were involved in Arctic monkeys. I’ve wrote songs with Arctic Monkeys. They’ve wrote songs with me, and they wanted me to do a Monkeys style album and that weren’t really where they wanted to be. I was somewhere in between Pulp and The Human League. There were synths in our music and I wanted to do that. They offered me a million pounds. I said, no. I’m not gonna lie, now I’m older. I think a million pounds would have been nice, wouldn’t it?
Do you regret that decision?
A little bit? Yeah. And they also, they asked me to be on the front cover, right? And it was the first record and I’m thinking, why am I going to be up front cover of your record then release my own record a few weeks later? So my brother will do it. So, the guy with the cigarette is my brother Chris.
Do you regret that a bit as well?
No, I’m glad about that. But no, I don’t regret anything really. I think it’s all part of life’s tapestry and I’m still here. I’m still doing it. I’m doing it on my own terms. I’ve always done it on my own terms. Made some weird records, made some political records, made some pop records. I’m always just doing what I want and I kind of think there’s something to be said for that.
Yes, because you sort of don’t fit into any one genre, do you?
No I switch around a lot. I mean, first album, like I said is a cross between maybe Sheffield Indie and Sheffield Electro. Then I’ve been on this Soul Trip for the last album and this single I’ve got out now, it sounds like Elvis in Vegas. So I’ve been all over place. Yeah.
So who are your influences then? Because it’s so varied
When I started, when I very first started being into guitar music, it were brit pop, right? But then around the first album I got into Cooper Clark, Gang of Four, Ian jury and the blockheads. Currently, I’m channeling my mum and dad’s record collection. So I’m talking now about Marvin Gay, Curtis Mayfield. I move, you know what I mean? I’ve been on loads of mad journeys in Africa and all with Damon Albarn. I’ve been in Nigeria before. Like, I’ve got a ADHD, right. So I get hyper focus. I’m like, for six months, I’m going to get obsessed with Nigerian music. That’s the vibe.
So we sort of reap the benefit of that. Now, you’ve got this new charity single called late night phone call. What’s that all about?
So, it doesn’t mention Christmas and it hasn’t got a chorus but during writing it, me and my mate Danny were like, is this a Christmas song? He’s like, ‘it is innit’. And I had this whole concept for the video end to end. I’ve never really directed or story boarded a video before. I closed off a terraced street in London, got my friend Jonathan Buttrall to exec produce it, who did ‘Everybody’s talking about Jamie’ musical and he brought Shiv who does ‘Hamilton’ and they done this mad Busby Burkeley dance thing in street. And it’s just gone nuts like the whole reaction online. I don’t want to say it’s gone viral but that kind of thing.
So let me get this straight. It doesn’t mention Christmas. It didn’t start out as a Christmas song. But now it is?
When you hear it and you see the video, you’re like, oh yeah, this is Christmas, it just feels like Christmas. I don’t know what else to say it really. And then the Samaritan side of it. I’ve lost my uncle, my aunt and my cousin, my dad’s best mate, one of my mum’s mates, a lot of mates of mine to suicide. Christmas is great. Have a good time by all means, but there’s a lot of people that are struggling, they’re on their own. Samaritans is there 365 days a year, 24-7, pick up the phone if you’re struggling, you don’t need to be alone. And I just kind of wanted to do something for them people because I lost my dad earlier on this year. It’s going to be a bit of a weird time for me and I’ve got people around me. So if I didn’t have people around me, where would I be? You know what I mean? And I think Samaritans – big up them, they’re great people and I think they’re saving people’s lives, actually.
Listen to the full B side and first 3 episodes of The Leona Graham Podcast which are available to stream now free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. The next episode is due out on Tuesday 14th January.
