My New Band Believe’s debut pushes against “stale and predictable” singer-songwriter music

Cameron Picton on starting his new project, My New Band Believe, and adapting its 20-plus-musician debut for the stage.

According to Cameron Picton, the most adventurous moment on My New Band Believe’s sprawling debut is also its most stripped back.

On album closer, One Night, plaintive vocals shift over hushed, finger-picked guitar, tracing the vertigo of unexpected love; ‘Babe you’ve got me stung / I was only looking for some fun.’ It is not the only folk-indebted love song, but it sits in contrast to the cacophonous, clattering opening of In A Blink Of An Eye, or the eight-and-a-half-minute odyssey of Heart of Darkness with its eerie, trembling outro. Picton describes it as “a curveball in its simplicity.” 

After bringing together more than 20 different musicians and singers to play on the project, it’s surprising that simplicity is even in the former black midi vocalist and bassist’s vocabulary. Initially envisioned as a full collaboration with experimental folk eight-piece, caroline, Picton planned to release a series of albums, each recorded in collaboration with a different band. Life, however, got in the way.

“They were working on their second album, and I went on tour with Black Country, New Road,” he says. “I ended up finishing a lot of the songs myself, and there wasn’t really space for that level of collaboration anymore.” Even so, seven of caroline’s eight members ended up contributing to the album, helping shape its expansive, off-kilter sound.

When we speak, Picton is on the bus back from rehearsals for his performance at Rewire festival, where he has been experimenting with how the songs will exist when played by fewer members. The show will feature just three musicians, plus Picton. “We don’t really rehearse much,” he notes, “and these are quite complicated songs, so there’s a lot of listening and reacting required.” 

Ahead of the band’s set this weekend, we caught up with the artist to talk about bringing the album to life on stage and pushing his sound to the outer limits of singer-songwriter music.

You first wrote down the phrase My New Band Believe in a delirious state after getting food poisoning on tour with black midi. Do you remember what else you wrote down that night?

Let me look at my notes app. One of them was, “Let’s name the devil to his face,” and then the other one was, “Brilliant, thank you hubcap.” Neither of them have been used. 

How do you feel in the lead-up to the release of this album compared to the last album released with black midi?

I’m apprehensive about how people will receive it, but also, I’m happy with it. It’s been less of an intense process than with black midi because usually we were touring when an album came out. 

Does this project feel more personal than other work you’ve released?

I wrote nearly all the songs and lyrics on my own, so naturally it is, but the lyrics are not meant to be personal. The songs are like recited conversations. I’m not inhabiting the character. I’m reciting a disembodied conversation. They’re meant to be something that anyone can relate to really easily, as if it’s their own experience. I’m interested in perspective shifting and how, as one singer, you can obscure that. 

You’ve said that this record was a reaction to your frustration with the landscape of singer-songwriter music. What was it exactly that made you feel frustrated?

Love Story is in the most similar vein to a lot of that music, but there were certain things that I did that were different. There was a lot of music coming out when I said that that was negatively influenced by Elliott Smith and took the wrong things. I think there’s just quite a stale and predictable production style, and I wanted to try and do something different because I thought that there’s a lot of scope for what could be done within singer-songwriter music. 

Do you think that bringing in so many different musicians in a rotating band helps separate you from that in a way?

I just wanted to get to play with my mates, or to have an opportunity to play with people that I didn’t know that I thought were really good musicians, but I just hadn’t had a chance to play with them because I was touring so much with the band.

Which singer-songwriters have had the greatest influence on you and on this album in particular?

When I started making a record, I was listening to all the Judee Sill albums and then all the bootleg and official live recordings. And then On The Radio is something else that was more modern. I listened to Judee Sill a lot. Then also Tim Buckley and Paul McCartney, all that kind of thing.

Seven members of caroline were involved the making of the record. How did that come about?

Initially, I spoke to them about making a fully collaborative record. I already had fragments of what the songs on the album ended up being, but I hadn’t finished them yet. I’d intentionally left gaps for another band to fill. I was interested in the idea of working with another already existing band. Then I wanted to go on and do the same thing with another already existing band, tour with them and do the arrangements of the same songs from the previous band and see what happened after three. We started working on that idea for a bit, but because they were working on their second album and I went on tour with Black Country, New Road, I ended up finishing a lot of the songs myself and there wasn’t really space for that level of collaboration anymore.

What would you say is the most adventurous moment on the album, either sonically or something that happened during its creation?

I think the last track, One Night, because it’s the simplest and it’s not something that I usually go for. The obvious answer would probably be the end of Heart of Darkness, but actually, it’s the last track. It’s a slight curveball in its simplicity.

There are two songs that are over eight minutes long. What does the length of these songs give you space to do that you wouldn’t have space for in shorter tracks?

When I was writing them, I just kept having ideas. I whittled it down and felt that each idea contributed to the whole in an integral way. I think that Heart of Darkness would have been shorter if it weren’t for the whole harmonic outro. I recorded that being that long just to give myself the option to have it faded out or shortened, but in the end, I thought that the whole thing sounded good. The outro could just be its own track.

The album’s opening line has a closed-off quality to it: “I’ve got plans that I’ll never share with you.” How has your relationship with the idea of fame changed since you were starting out? Did you want to be famous when you were a teenager?

No, I always wanted to just make music. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a producer, which is kind of a strange thing for a teenager to want to do. Then I ended up being in the band. I went to Brit, so a lot of people I went to school with are really famous. I was in the same year as Olivia Dean. It’s interesting seeing your friend that you grew up with on a billboard, and they don’t seem any different. 

What kind of music were you making as a teenager, pre-black midi?

Some of it is quite similar to this. There are some terrible ten-minute acoustic guitar tracks on my Google Drive from when I was 17. Then, when black midi was touring, I made a lot of electronic music because it was something I could easily do in the van on my laptop with headphones in. I don’t think any of what I did was good, but I learned a lot about audio editing and sound design from it.

You’re playing Rewire this month, which describes itself as a festival for “adventurous music”. I was wondering how you see the project fitting within that description.

It’s about pushing yourself and the people in the room, both the people on stage with you and the crowd. We don’t really rehearse much, and these are quite complicated songs, so there’s a lot of listening and reacting required. There are quite a lot of new songs that we do, which are in flux as they’re being performed. It’s improvisational, but within set structures.

Rewire champions a lot of experimental music, so the crowd knows to expect something different. Does the kind of environment that you play in change the way you perform?

I don’t think it’s something that you should contrive. I think you just have to see what happens on the day. Sometimes with Black Midi, we played jazz festivals, and then we were like, ‘Should we do a fully improvised set or should we just play our songs straightforward like we normally do?’ You just have to see what happens in the moment. There are a lot of sections in each track that can be looped. It’s super malleable. So, who knows?