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Skint poet gives music a Yorkshire accent
As one half of the music outfit, Skint & Demoralised, Matt Abbott tells Richard Ashton why he's more than happy to be a poet for a lost generation.
Yorkshire has had its fair share of talented poets over the years: William Empson, Ted Hughes, Simon Armitage, Matt Abbott... Matt who?
Better known as half of new music act Skint & Demoralised, the 20-year-old Wakefield wordsmith is bringing poetry to a new generation, and most of them don't even know it yet.
"All lyrics are poetry," says Abbott. "When you're being forced to read it at school, there's such a stigma attached to it that people get turned off straight away. I always liked reading poetry, although I didn't let on at the time. I hope I can help to change people's perceptions."
Abbott started out performing in pubs and indie venues in Wakefield and Sheffield. "When people realised I was a poet, ninety-nine per cent of
the crowd looked at me with an expression that said, 'What on earth is this?' Promoters were reluctant to give me a spot, so I ended up being shoehorned into my mates' gigs."
His big break came in 2007 when Sheffield-based mystery music mogul MiNI dOG chanced upon his MySpace site.
"We work quite separately, apart from final tweaks in the studio; I provide the lyrics and he sets them to music." The enigmatic MiNI dOG has been in the music industry for 20 years, and according to Abbott has fronted some successful bands, but for this project he is keeping his identity secret.
"He wants his songwriting to be judged on its own merits, without preconceptions," he says.
Having secured a deal with Universal Music's Mercury label, Skint & Demoralised needed to find a session band. And the best session players around at the time? The Dap-Kings, who helped to craft Amy Winehouse's bestselling Back to Black album. So off they went to New York.
"We just thought, let's come up with the most extravagant idea we can think of and see what happens. I never thought it would actually come off, but 10 days before we were due to start recording, Universal announced it was all set."
With three singles out and a champion in the form of Radio One's Steve Lamacq, Skint & Demoralised are already being likened to Just Jack, Arctic Monkeys and The Streets. "I'm not insulted by the comparisons," says Abbott. "I guess it helps people to get some idea of the kind of music we make, but it is frustrating, too. We deserve to be credited with our own style. I don't think we're better than those bands – just different. Our music is influenced by northern soul and Motown records and, in terms of lyrics, I would say I'm much closer to Morrissey than to Mike Skinner."
An influence that Abbott readily acknowledges is Mancunian punk performance poet John Cooper Clarke, who rose to prominence in the late 1970s supporting acts such as the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks and Elvis Costello. "At first my work was very derivative of Clarke's," says Abbott. "I'm not a natural singer myself, so when I first saw him perform it was an inspiration. He showed me that poetry could be uncouth, edgy, funny – and that there was a way of getting my poems out there."
Abbott's lyrics draw on his own life, with an emphasis on love and emotions.
"I take experiences that are personal to me, like a situation with a girlfriend, and deal with them by writing. It's a kind of therapy, I suppose. But also I try to write about things that others can relate to."
One subject he avoids is politics, despite having taken an active interest when he was a teenager. But, prompted by the anti-racism lyrics of Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, Abbott has experimented with writing about the BNP.
"It works well as spoken word, but set it to music and I sound like an alarmist hippy. It's the opposite with something like a heartfelt love song: without the music it would be ridiculed."
In 2008 he performed to 4,000 people at the Love Music Hate Racism concert in Rotherham, but claims big crowds don't faze him.
"It's 10 times scarier with only 10 people – you can look into their eyes and read every expression."
Next month he's coming to Leeds. "It's great to be performing in Yorkshire. After I moved to London there was a certain amount of, 'Who does he think he is?' back home, but I think being hated in your home town is usually a good sign. My best mates have been supportive and keep me down to earth. It's easy to get distracted by the showbiz lifestyle, but I've not turned into some sociopathic idiot snorting coke in Camden every night. I'm still Matt from Wakey."
A second album is already underway, although the debut album is not released until October 5, and Abbott says he is excited to be on the verge of what could be his commercial breakthrough.
"Chart success is not what I'm after," says Abbott. "It's making music that's relevant. Then again, a top 20 hit would be amazing."
Skint & Demoralised will be playing the Leeds Festival on Aug 28, and headlining at The Cockpit in Leeds in October.
Five years is a long time...
2005: Matt Abbott gives his first spoken word performances.
2006: He starts writing with Sheffield's MiNI dOG, setting his verses to music.
2007: Steve Lamacq plays the first Skint & Demoralised tracks on Radio 1.
2008: The pair are signed to Mercury Records. They record with the Dap-Kings in New York and their first single, The Thrill of Thirty Seconds, is released.
2009: After supporting John Cooper Clarke in York, Skint & Demoralised release the single Red Lipstick
and line up a number
of high-profile gigs. Following the summer festival season, their
debut album, Love, And Other Catastrophes, is
due out in October.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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