How did you come up with the name for your new album “Night Circus”?
Some of the songs on this album have a very heavy and nostalgic quality to them and I felt like “Night Circus” really embodied feeling that I wanted the album to express. The name represents the fragility of dreams and how easily tainted they are. When I was a kid I used to make up stories about running away to the circus, becoming a huge star and making all my friends back at home jealous; it was my escapism and how I would cope with life when things got tough. For me the circus always had an inherently happy dream-like element to it, it was full of the promise of magic and mystery that I couldn’t find anywhere else and I revelled in it. The ‘night’ brings in a darker element to this concept however. We are taught, through movies and fairy tales, that bad things happen at night when all the lights go out; monsters follow us home to hide under our beds and we’re expected to fight them off all on our own. I felt like these two words together embodied what life and growing up is like; the excitement of the world begins to fade the more we live in it, kind of like how trips to the circus eventually become tedious, and the things that once fascinated us about life now terrify, like ageing and going out into the world on our own.
What is your favourite song to perform live off of the album?
When your performing songs live I think that kind of stuff just really depends on the type of reaction you’re getting from the audience, recently the crowd favourite has been “The Great Divide”. It’s one of the songs that most people in the audience like to sing along to and its one of my personal favourites I’ve written. I think I like it the most because reminds me of happier times like that feeling you get during long road trips with old friends singing along to good music in the backseat of some trashy minivan with the windows rolled down, the wind in your hair and a rarely felt sense of contentment in your chest. It’s just a feel good song that I feel that most people can relate to and its really great to see people reacting in such a good way to something you’re so proud of.
What inspires you the most during your song writing process?
I tend to draw inspiration from everyone and everything when writing. I like to focus on writing about past experiences a lot too, I find that music is the best kind of therapy and being able to capture the emotions I was feeling at a certain period in my life, be it good or bad, into a song really helps me to put life into perspective and see the bigger picture. Also the idea that someone that might be going through similar experience that I have would be able to listen to my music and possibly be able to relate to the lyrics I sing inspires me to keep writing.
If you had the opportunity to collaborate with any musician in the world who would it be?
Probably Julian Casablancas. I really like the unusual tone to his voice and raw quality it has which, I think, would blend pretty well with mine and I feel like he’d have some really creative input on how I can improve myself as an artist. ‘The Strokes’ were one of my first musical inspirations and they were partly the reason why I got into music in the first place so I feel like collaborating with him would just bring this whole surreal experience around full circle. Plus I find him oddly attractive.
What can your fans expect from you in the future?
I have some pretty exciting things lined up for the next few months that I can’t quite reveal yet but be ready you’re hopefully going to be seeing a lot from me this year.
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