We talk to loacl rising stars, Bright Town, about their music, songwriting, production and plans for the future.
Liverpool Noise: When and where did you form?
Bright Town: We’d all been playing music together informally for years in nearly every possible different configuration, but it was during the lockdowns that we got our heads together properly and started incorporating more structure and purpose into the practice and writing. I’ve known Jay since I was about 12, I met Liam and Duffy at university and I first met Matt at a practice session in a mutual friend’s garage when we were about 16. I think that band lasted one day but me and Matt swapped numbers and we all came together during the writing of the first EP.
LN: Who is in the band? Name and instruments.
Tom Corfield – rhythm guitar and vocals
James Morris – lead guitar and vocals
Liam Doyle – lead guitar and vocals
Matt Phillips – drums and vocals (and cello when he feels like it) Duffy – bass
Things get very choral very quickly.
LN: Your bios states that you are all songwriters. Does that mean that you write collectively, or do you each bring songs to the table to be worked on?
Bright Town: It took a while for us to iron out the writing process into something that was productive and yet still collaborative and fun. I mentioned before that we’d played together for years without any structure, and during those times we’d always invariably end up with 4/5 heads all crowded round one sheet of paper trying to come up with different rhyming couplets and it just never went anywhere.
Nowadays, typically one of us will write the bare bones of a song – melody, chords, lyrics – and then bring that in to the rest. If the fundamentals are there, everyone just auditions different parts and ideas to each other and we each just take turns making suggestions or being honest about what we like and don’t like. We’ve been playing together for long enough now to have a bit of an instinct for what everyone else will play or like, and thankfully there’s very little ego when it comes to scrapping an idea or trying something different. Personally I’d say that, especially recently, our songwriting process is something I’ve been very happy with. Behind the closed practice room doors it’s felt like one long conveyor belt of great song to great song lately and it feels great. I feel a bit like a baseball player on a batting streak at the minute, I don’t want to shake up what I’m eating for breakfast or anything in case the magic disappears.
LN: The two tracks Ghosts and Something To are very diverse tracks to each other. The production of both tracks – especially Ghosts – is excellent. Where were they recorded, who produced etc?
Bright Town: We recorded both of those songs with our good friend Nat Cummings at Yawn Studios in West Kirby. I played keyboard in The Peach Fuzz with Nat for a few years, so the two of us already had a lot of that mutual understanding and experience working together that definitely helped a lot during the recording process. He’s made this chameleonic jump in the past few years from being one of the most exciting frontmen in the city to being one of the hardest working engineers and producers, so it’s nice to have had the chance to experience both sides of him.
I read in a PJ Harvey interview for Songs From The City that her mantra during the making of that record was “what if PJ Harvey made pop music?”, so I always just ask myself “what if Bright Town made pop music?”. That way it keeps productions focused and accessible but it also keeps in my head that it’s Bright Town and we should be doing things and making decisions on Bright Town’s terms. The 5 of us have our own preferences and areas we’re more comfortable with, but we definitely do all have a thing for pop music and pop production. Nat is really similar in that sense so he was a very easy fit into our workflow – it didn’t matter if any one of us was pulling influence from a country song or a jazz standard or whatever, we’d always try and run it through our little Bright Town Pop Filter before laying the idea down.
Before even hitting the studio, we will spend ages refining the demos so that usually they’re about 90% there from an arrangement and production side of things. It definitely helps when you’ve got X amount of time in the studio to have as clear an idea as possible about what you’re trying to achieve and how to go about doing that.
LN: It’s obvious that a lot of thought has gone into the lyrical content of both tracks, especially Something To which are both humorous and dark. What are your thoughts on your approach to lyrics?
Bright Town: Personally, for every 1 song I write where I’m happy with the lyrics, there’ll probably be about 10 other songs that don’t make the cut. I do genuinely think that today’s musicians have a harder job than ever of writing something that comes across as original yet sincere and genuine than ever before.
There’s been so much pop music in the past 60/70 years that have all echoed many of the same sentiments and ideas that actually finding something that you can proudly call your own feels like striking gold and I think it’s that feeling that continues to drive me to get there. I think all of us started out as musicians thinking “I’m a guitar player”, or “I’m a drummer”, and writing songs was a means to an end of just being able to play live.
We’ve definitely all shifted to thinking “I’m a writer” first and foremost lately, and basically the aim of the game in that mindset is to just fill your head with as much inspiration as possible. Every practice session someone’s taking about the Bergman film they’ve just watched or the DeLillo novel they’ve read or the 3rd century Roman saint they’ve been inexplicably researching. The more ideas that we’re exposed to, the better the results when it comes to putting pen to paper.
I’ve found, especially recently, that the approach that works best for me is to just spew out as many ideas and verses as I can on the first draft and to not be too judgemental about it at first. That way, I can get the gist of what I’m trying to do out and then listen back and live with it for a bit before going back in and editing/replacing. I bought a typewriter last year thinking it might spur me on to write in a more direct way, but the truth is I need the ability go back in and rewrite the song from 15 different angles before I’m happy with it.
Strangely though, most of the lyrics from Something To.. came out in one long sitting without any real changes after the fact. Sometimes you just have to say what you have to say, other times you have to spend a bit more time discovering what that is first. Either way, it’s an addictive process.
LN: Your bio states an eclectic range of influences. Can you be more specific on the artists that inspire you collectively?
Bright Town: Matt is a jazz drummer and classically trained cellist. Duffy can and will go syllable for syllable with MF DOOM and Dizzee Rascal on long journeys to gigs. Liam was raised in a Rory Gallagher-fearing household so keeps a lot of his guitars open tuned for blues and slide playing. Jay has asked probably in excess of 100 times for Talk Talk’s It’s My Life to be played at his funeral. I’m a barely closeted metalhead.
I think the range of stuff we listen to in our free time is what makes it so natural to write together. All of the ideas that I won’t naturally think of will come out with all 5 heads computing the same problem in their own unique ways. Collectively, Andy Shauf, Brian Wilson, Joni Mitchell and George Harrison would probably be the four faces on the Bright Town Mount Rushmore.
LN: When are you next playing live? What’s the plan for the next 12 months.
Bright Town: We’re headlining EBGBs on 22 December. Since Duffy joined as bassist, we’ve spent most of this year writing, recording, reevaluating the sound and basically taking everything to the next level in terms of polish and impact. 2024 will be the year we’re able to share that with everyone. It’s going to be fun.
Follow Bright Town on Facebook and Instagram for updates.
Sebastian Saint Morne
