BIOGRAPHY: I was born in the winter, during the ’70s. I was raised in a small village in Devon from the age of 3, overlooking the very beach that was to become the cover of Pink Floyds 1987 top 3 hit album ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’ (the one with all the beds on it). I spent my idyllic childhood here until the age of 11 when I was moved along with the rest of my family back to my birthplace of Southampton.
Up until this point I was a confident, cocky individual; headboy at school, lead in the school play. I had the voice of an angel; it would make the other kids and their jealous parents weep. However, moving to the big smoke transformed me. Other kids became suspicious and I kept myself to myself. I was a sure candidate to arrive at school one day with a grin, machine gun and a few grenades for good measure.
Music saved my life, or at the very least the lives of my ‘classmates’.
I was introduced to the Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers at the age of fourteen by my brother and from there it's all a bit of a blur. I formed my first band a few months later, forcing various freaks and victims to get their parents to buy them instruments, before sacking them and going solo. This started a trend that continues to this day.
I met like minded and easily moulded ‘alternative’ kids at an infamous nightclub on the mean streets of Southampton’s red light district, and this was where Black Nielson was born.
Over the years my music taste and personal sound has developed from my punk origins to a massive and incurable obsession with The Beach Boys, Townes Van Zandt, Gram Parsons, Bill Callahan, etc., etc. But I still have the voice of an angel.
In 2006, after the split of Black Nielson, I decided to come up with a catchy name for my solo project. I had the ‘co-’ but nothing to go with it until one day a vagrant that I had given some chewing gum started shouting over and over that I was ‘the pilgrim’. That’s a true story.
Soon after I embarked on a disastrous relationship with American folk singer Ilona V. I moved to New York, she joined co-pilgrim, we played one show and then she decided that she didn't want to marry me after all and so I was sent back to Southampton. She no longer takes my calls or acknowledges my emails but her music is great, you should check it out.
So I thought I'd try out Melbourne for a while. I quickly found a group of friends and a new bandmate in the shape of Alysia Manceau, but unfortunately this wasn't to last. My visa again ran out and I was forced to return once more to Southampton, from which I write this now.
Then to Belgium, to record this latest album. It's easy to get there on the 'chunnel' and my good friend and producer Julien Paschal invited his good friends to bring their respective instruments along to the studio, and as quickly as possible lay down their shit on top of mine. I'd heard that this was how Will Oldham recorded, so I thought I'd try. I think it worked.
Playing alongside ASH / SUPERGRASS /DAMO SUZUKI (CAN) / VIEUX FARKA TOURE / THE CANDYSKINS /RED LIGHT COMPANY / WINTERSLEEP / FANFARLO / HJALTALIN / ERRORS / YACHT / DJ FOOD & DK / TOTAL SCIENCE / T.E.E.D./WILD BEASTS / A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS / GRAMMATICS /THE JOY FORMIDABLE / THE XCERTS / PULLED APART BY HORSES/ BROKEN RECORDS / MARK OLSON & GARY LOURIS / PETE MOLINARI
plus...
and so i watch you from afar/ calories/ chew lips/ colour/ danny and the champions of the world/ data select party / detroit social club/ dive dive/ dusty & the dreaming spires/ house of brothers/ skylarkin/ sportsday megaphone / the candyskins/ the elysian quartet/ the ghost of a thousand / the relationships/ the xx/ this town needs guns/ thomas truax/ treetop flyers/ truckers of husk/ we were promised jet packs/white belt yellow tag
"I'm going to the country" is even better now than the version I previously had a "sneak prehearing" at ;-) WoooOooow... Can't wait to hear the whole thing after your next Sumo studio session :)
