Hi Ed, could you introduce yourself and your music background to the Tiny Changes audience please?
My name’s Ed Tullett, I’m a songwriter, producer and artist based in Bristol. I make music as Lowswimmer, and in lots of collaborative projects including Hailaker, Lissom and Tolari, and also do a bunch of co-writing including most of Novo Amor (my close friend Ali)’s material.
You’ve released a number of cover versions this year, what initially inspired that idea?
I’ve always liked the idea of doing a covers record, but never got around to it. Just like anyone, there are so many songs I love, but wanted to try and hear them in different lights. It started out slightly daunting – I always end up wanting to make full records instead of just a few songs, and I had a huge list I whittled down. Most of it was stuff I loved as a kid, late 90’s and early 2000’s radio songs, but only some of them would actually fit in the style I wanted to produce. I really wanted to do Beautiful Stranger by Madonna, but couldn’t make it work! It was super fun in the end, making all of these songs fit in a cohesive style.
We were blown away by your Frightened Rabbit cover, how easy or difficult was it to make your version of the song?
It’s such a beautiful song, especially melodically, like all of Frightened Rabbit’s material. That makes it pretty easy to make sound nice – I knew I wanted to do something with lots of harmonies/a bit of vocoder as some of the other tracks I’d started working on had that as a base. I toyed with the idea of making it go super big at the end, but I think it’s really nice the way it kind of rattles around and threatens to open up, but always stays relatively close. Frightened Rabbit, and especially The Midnight Organ Fight, have been a huge influence on me as a songwriter, and I just tried to do the song justice.
What’s your own relationship with the song and the band?
I discovered The Midnight Organ Fight a month or two after it came out, I must have been around 14 or so, and fell in love with it immediately. I saw them live a couple of times, once at the Tunbridge Wells Forum which is a venue I used to play a ton of (terrible) gigs at when I was a teenager, which was special for me to see them play the same tiny stage as I had. I also remember winning a signed 7” of their Christmas single ‘It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop”, which I had pinned up on my wall – sadly I’m not sure where that is anymore! But yeah, an incredible band, and Scott’s song-writing is impeccable.
You’ve spoken recently about the effect that touring has had on your mental health, what do you think needs to change in the music industry?
It’s hard to say, given it’s case-by-case basis, though I doubt there’s anyone who just flat out loves touring and doesn’t have days where they’re completely exhausted. As for things that need to change, the first thing is probably having a more open, candid conversation about the realities of touring vs. fans’ expectations, and have people understand that ‘coming to Brazil’ etc isn’t an easy thing to do. Understanding that after 30 days on the road of a rinse and repeat touring schedule may mean someone might not be on their best form, be that performance-wise or having the energy to interact with people in the way they’d want.
It’s something I’m looking to explore next year with something I’ve been working on. Obviously, anyone who gets to tour is extremely lucky to do it, but like in any creative or public facing industry, a lot of the mental and physical health struggles are completely ignored – like when a footballer might have a bad game due to personal reasons. We’re all human.
Finally, what’s up next for you?
I have a new Lowswimmer record I’m readying for early next year, which I’m extremely excited about. I’ve also been working with Ali (Novo Amor) on a bunch of fun things, and Jem and I have started writing new Hailaker material.
