Two years on from the runaway success of his debut album Magpie, troubadour Stephen Fretwell is back with a new EP, a UK tour and a new album due later this year. With warm praise coming in for his live appearances in Birmingham, London and Scotland, fans of the man can see him live at Liverpool’s Barfly on 24th May. This is your first new material in 2 years. Was there a period of recharging your batteries songwriting-wise?Yeah, there was a lot of promotion on the last album and then I didn’t really feel like writing any songs for a while. There just seemed to be more important things to do in life. Then I suddenly got a load of songs and before I knew it I had a new album. You spent some time in New York too?Yeah, I was kind of living there for a bit, bumming around. Then I met a guy called Eli Janney, we struck up a friendship and I played him a load of songs. He was keen to record some so we ended up making an album really quickly. We did it in about 2 weeks. So, the EP is kind of out-takes from the album. The EP has a nice, stripped-down sound, is that his influence? No, that’s really mine. The album’s not that stripped down. With the EP, I was just trying to get back to how I started, with just a guitar and put songs across that way. I think I had clouded a lot of things up and I didn’t really know what was going on. It sounds positive and uplifting.Really? That’s nice because a few people have said that it sounds like I’ve got a lot of heavy stuff going on. I don’t see it that way, I think it’s quite upbeat for me. Is that a direct result of how your life is going? | | Fretwell: Man on the Roof. |
Yeah, I’d say so. It’s a funny one because I’m never sure how closely linked the two are, but maybe it is because I am pretty happy at the moment. It seems silly to go on about whether it reflects your life. It’s just music at the end of the day and there are so many more important things in life than whether some guy is happy at the moment, do you know what I mean? What’s the significance of the title of the album, Man on the Roof?I was trying to come up with a title and I just couldn’t do it. I went to see my mate who lives in Toronto and he said ‘you should call it Man on the Roof’ and I said ‘nah, that’s terible.’ But he said, ‘no, my Dad has it engraved on a bracelet.' It’s the idea that in cowboy films, there’s always that guy on the roof that’s either the last one to get shot, or you don’t see him and he shoots you. I mentioned it to the label and they said ‘oh it’s brilliant, let’s use it!’ What else can we expect from the full album?There are a lot of colours and sounds to it. It’s more avant-garde than the last one and quite upbeat. It won’t get played in clubs but it’s not as miserable as the last one! How have the tour dates been? Are you looking forward to coming to Liverpool?It’s been really good. Liverpool is always great. It’s the home stretch, so I hope it will be pretty wild. Should be fun. Do you feel pressure from the audience in terms of the follow-up?| "It’s just music at the end of the day and there are so many more important things in life." | | Stephen Fretwell |
The first night in Birmingham, I was a bit worried. I’ve been playing all the new songs at the beginning to test them out and people seem to be buzzing from it. That might be just because it’s live music and they are terrible songs, I don’t know. I stopped worrying after the first night. You seem to have some admirers in the movie biz now like director Cameron Crowe. Will we see you on the big screen any time soon?Nah, I wouldn’t mind doing a soundtrack though, I’d love to do that. You still have ambitions musically then?Definitely, yeah. I have a lot of ambition in what I want to do. I have June off, so I’m hoping to do a new album. The only thing I’m not ambitious about is working too hard! Are you a big listener of music? Who are the artists that influence you?Of course I am, yeah. My top three songs would be ‘The Night’ by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, ‘To Love Somebody’ by Nina Simone and ‘Saturday Sun’ by Nick Drake. I like that new LCD Soundsystem record. James Blunt, Damien Rice and James Morrison, I should mention them. Stephen Fretwell performs at Liverpool’s Barfly on 24th May. | 
