Rhys Lewis Talks About His New EP "Bad Timing"
Hey guys! Happy Friday! Last week London's amazing singer/songwriter Rhys Lewis released his breathtakingly beautiful Bad Timing EP and now I've got the wonderful opportunity to talk to him about the EP and his musical inspirations.
Rhys has an undeniable gift to capture emotions that will strike a chord with anyone, and has already garnered
millions of fans in the UK as well as internationally. Now it's time for us to get to know him a bit more.
1. I’ve been a fan of your music since I listened to your debut single Waking Up Without You, back in 2016. Can you tell us what drew you to pursue a music career?
Thanks very much, I appreciate you supporting me since that first release! I guess the decision to pursue a career in music happened in stages for me. As soon as I picked up the guitar I knew I wanted to make music a big part of my life, so I got really into learning the instrument. As a teenager I just wanted to be a guitarist in bands and play live. Then when a lot of my friends and band mates left my hometown to study at university I took a year to work out what I wanted to do. And that was when I started writing my own songs, and found the idea of expressing myself lyrically a lot more fulfilling. So deciding to move to London to study music was probably when I felt like I really wanted to make a career out of it, either as a writer or an artist.
2. What are your musical inspirations and how do they influence the way you make your own music?
I’ve been inspired by so much music , old and new! But formatively I think when I first got into playing guitar I was most drawn to older bands and artists, Led Zep, Cream, Hendrix, all of which drew a lot of their musical inspiration from the blues. So I think there are traces of their sound/style in my music somewhere with the more guitar led tracks. My mum was hugely into soul and disco, the Motown era being a big part of that! So the likes of The Temptations, Supremes, Marvin Gaye caught my attention as a young musician, I loved the lyrical inventiveness and vocal delivery of all that music. So again I think some of that seeps into the way I write and sing.
3. Out of the songs you have written so far, which one is your favourite and why?
Ah that’s a very tough question!! I think it changes every other day haha. But I think of the songs that are now released, the one that means the most to me at the minute is probably Bad Timing. I think it’s the most direct and open I’ve ever been about a situation in my life, so for that reason it’s obviously important to me.
4. I like the confessional style of your lyrics. Reason To Hate You is without a doubt my favourite song of yours. Can you tell us a bit about the inspirations behind the songs of your new EP Bad Timing?
Thanks very much, yeah that would be my close second favourite of mine I think. Both Bad Timing and Reason To Hate You came from the same situation. I wrote Bad Timing when I was on tour and my and my girlfriend at the time hadn’t really had much chance to see each other properly and it was getting harder and harder to make a relationship work at the same time as my career. So it felt like I’d met the right person at the wrong time in my life. And I guess because of that, moving on was really hard. There was nothing wrong with what we had other than circumstance. So when we broke up I felt like I needed to fabricate some kind of negativity about the situation to give myself more of a reason to let her go. So that’s where Reason To Hate You came from. And the other 2 aren’t connected to the same situation, Bloodstains is about the bittersweet of falling for someone who has your wrapped around their little finger. The highs and lows of being with someone you can’t get enough of, and how cut up you can get from being picked up and put down all the time. And Don’t Wanna Believe It was one of the first songs I wrote. Lots of my songs come from real life experiences and emotions, so it’s one of the only times I’ve put myself in a situation and written as if I’m in it. Wondering what details I would notice if I sensed I was being cheated on, and how I’d probably want to deny it was happening for a while. The lyrics in the verse became quite sensory and cinematic cos I was essentially writing out these scene I was picturing in my head.
5. Who would be your dream collaboration?
Dream collaboration would be...well...it’s tricky...I guess I’m excited to work with lots of new artists at the moment. Would love to write with Jade Bird, her voice and her songwriting are both incredible. Lewis Capaldi again has such a unique voice, I would love to work with him on something at some point. And SG Lewis is someone I’m a big fan of. His production is always so fresh and exciting and the musicality of the records he makes for the genre/style of music he writes is quite unique. Would be cool to feature on one of his tracks as a vocalist. And if you ever interview Pharrell, put in a good word for me...!
6. You’ve just announced a European headline tour. What can fans expect from your shows?
I want the live show to have its own energy, so hopefully it’s a bit more raw and electric. I’m very lucky to have a great band that really enjoy mixing it up every night, keeps it fresh for me cos it can be tough finding enthusiasm for the songs after having played them hundreds of times before. The set feels quite dynamic now too which is nice, moments where it’s just me and a guitar and moments where we really go for it as a band. It’s a fun show to play so hopefully fun to watch too.
7. What was the first album you ever bought?
I think it was either The Strokes - ‘Is This It’ or Led Zeppelin’s first album.
8. If you were given the chance to pick one artist/band to tour with which one would it be and why?
Great question! I’m definitely not cool enough to go on tour with them, but I’m obsessed with Vulfpeck and they seem like a fun band as well as being amazing musicians! I reckon touring with them would be great.
9. What music are you currently listening to?
I’ve mentioned a few of them already, been listening recently to Lewis Capaldi, Jade Bird, Freya Riding, Bruno Major, Vulfpeck, Anderson Paak, Swan Levitt, Jackson Analogue, Nina Nesbit, Rex Orange County, Daniel Caesar, Billie Eilish, Sigrid, there are so many amazing new artists coming through at the minute. Lots of great music around!
10. If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life which one would it be and why?
Tough question...! There are too many. But I’m gonna say ‘Gossip In The Grain’ by Ray La Montagne, just cos it’s the first album I got really obsessed with as a songwriter.