Artist Of The Week #332 - Henry Coke
This week's Artist of the Week is South London musician and producer Henry Coke - who has just shared his debut album 'Let It Set Us Alight' by 5dB Records.
Henry Coke’s story begins as a teenager, where faith starts to fracture. Since then, the 24-year-old’s vision of the world around him has come sharper into focus just as readily as it has changed - a paradigm of possibility that shapes the London artist’s burgeoning musical output. In recent years the songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer has been honing his craft on stage across London’s premier indie haunts including The Windmill and The George Tavern, playing shows alongside the likes of Dove Ellis, 1000 Rabbits and more.
Born into a lineage of vicars and church leaders, Henry drifted from the constraints of the church to wrestle with faith and God out in the open, finding reflections of his songs in the works of Bob Dylan, Young Fathers and Low, his own music oscillating between desolation, distortion, beauty, and rage. A work of intoxicating depth and intense, blowtorch emotion, the 11 songs of Let It Set Us Alight pulse with urgency as they hurtle straight toward the heart. The lyrics are self-questioning and delivered in an elegiac voice that floats hauntingly above the music: layered choral harmonies, crushing guitars, soaring brass, slow-burning arrangements and gritty, epic production flourishes.
“It's about finding peace in the chaos,” Henry says of the album, which he recorded and self-produced in a student house in Lewisham. “The music is based around my own questioning. It details losing the faith that has also been the bedrock of my entire life, and what it means to walk away from that. It’s about me really trying to figure out where I stand.”
He took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Henry, how are you? So your album is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?
I’m good thanks! It feels great. This is new ground for me: my first time releasing a full project!
It is called 'Let It Set Us Alight' – what is the meaning behind that?
There’s this overarching imagery of fire throughout the album, in a destructive way.
Things burning away so much that you can no longer tell what they were. But there are also a lot of I wont’s and I cant’s throughout the album, until the final song - ‘Let It’ - which is about letting feelings just wash over you and letting whatever be, be. So it felt right to let the fire burn whatever it burns. Let it set us alight.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
It was mainly recorded in my old living room, in a dingy old house in Lewisham. I lived with a couple friends (also musicians) who eventually became my live band. We put all our gear together to create a home studio, which was great. It was packed with loads of random instruments and gear. We had a didgeridoo in there (which didn’t make it on the album), many guitars, random objects that became percussion, strange old mics, the lot. There was a garden at the back and a cat would always come down and look into the living room whenever I’d play the piano. It once managed to get in and came right up to the piano and looked into the varnish and saw it’s own reflection which startled it, and it ran out of the house, never to be seen again. Lots of Lewisham wildlife liked listening to the music, you can hear birds tweeting along in the background of quite a few songs.
What are the key influences behind the album?
In a non-music sense, the whole album is influenced by trying to find meaning in the word “faith”. I was brought up in the church, so for me that means God, and finding where I stand on that. But it can also generally mean finding peace in the chaos that is understanding why we are here. Musically, choral music was quite a big influence on the album - particularly in the backing vocals, similar harmonies and reverbs.
If the album could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
Tarkovsky was a big influence on the visuals for the album, I love his films, particularly the shots of lonely figures in these huge spaces. They look like paintings that could be picked out and be a piece in itself. He has a huge theme of spirituality throughout his films too, which really connect to what I write about. It feels a bit sacrilegious to say my album could be a soundtrack to a Tarkovsky film though. Maybe something more coming-of-age or musically driven, like Her or Let The Right One In.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
There’s an old man waiting proudly for me to understand your love. Come to me sums up a lot of the album. Coming to terms of what will be will be, and that there’s a probably an older version of me looking back at this time, at peace with the unknown. You’ll always move on. There’s an upcoming film that will accompany the album which was born out of that line.
Now the album is out there – what next for you?
I’m onto the next one! Other than continuing to write music, I’m aiming to play live as much as possible. I want to make the live version of the album a whole experience in itself.
