Chris Brain: 'I feel like writing songs my calling'

“Last December I went round with my friend (Will Killen) who’s a videographer, it was 1C, which was a bit of a nightmare, but we recorded in all different spots in this area of Leeds and Yorkshire,” he he says. “There was one (video) just outside Otley where the two rivers meet, one at Harewood House, and one where I’ve got an allotment. When I was biking over lockdown I used to bike around Eccup and sit on this hill, so I’ve got one on this hill with a view of Almscliffe, which is really nice.”

Having “exceeded expectations” with his first album, Bound To Rise, which came out last year and has generated hundreds of orders from as far afield as Japan, Brain was keen to capitalise on the momentum it generated. Hence he’s wasted no time on a follow-up. Steady Away is out on Friday. “I just thought, ‘Right, I’m addicted, I just want to keep on making albums every year’,” he chuckles. “I was still writing songs every day and I wanted to record them.”

He finds regularly crafting songs a good discipline, but equally, he says: “The thing is with me, I just don’t know what else to do with my life. I feel like that’s my calling. I’m on the road and I can see in the distance what I want and I’m just walking towards it ever so slowly.”

While musically Steady Away might continue in the warm, finger-picking style of Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, Roy Harper and John Martyn, its subject matter is more self-reflective. “I think these ones are more personal and self-reflective just because I feel a bit more mature with my music and ready to talk about that,” Brain says. “Whereas those songs on Bound To Rise were an accumulation of three or four years of writing, this one is all one period of time, it was written over a couple of months, so I guess the theme is strongly connected because of that timeframe, and in terms of it being personal, I just wanted to share more of myself.

“All the songs that have really touched me have got a personal element to them, whether it be pain or joy or whatever, so I just wanted to try my hand at that as well, to try and make my songs touching in some sort of way.”

The album’s opening track Golden Days is about “not taking life for granted”. Brain says: “I played that to my partner and she started crying – that’s the first time I’ve ever had that reaction, so I was like, ‘Right, I’ve got a good one here’.”

But Curse is “probably the most personal” song on the record, he adds. “That’s about when I tried drugs for the first time and ended up in hospital for a long time. I had to get over this deep depression and anxiety, it just switched something in my brain – and that was when I was 20 so it was 10 years ago and I feel right as rain now, but it certainly gave me a different outlook on life. I’d always wanted to write a song about that, and it was hard to write because it was so personal, but it feels good to finally have it out in the air.”

The album, which was recorded at The Nave studio in Leeds, features Leeds-based pianist Simeon Walker and his wife Mary Jane, a violinist, as well as Alice Phelps on double bass. Brain says: “The difference this time was I had support from the Bert Jansch Foundation and Help Musicians, they gave me big financial backing to record it, and it meant that I could record it all in The Nave. It’s a beautiful studio which was an old church that’s been redone.

“Before (on Bound To Rise), I did all my parts in The Nave and everything else was in someone’s house, so it didn’t have that feeling of being in the same room and it wasn’t as good quality as it possibly could. Now I’ve thrown absolutely everything at it that I possibly could. Everything’s more layered but it’s also more clear because of the recordings. I’m very happy with what Tom (Orrell) has done.”

Whilst continuining to juggle running two folk clubs, Brain is heading out on a national tour, which includes eight dates across Yorkshire. The album’s launch night will be in the main room at the Brudenell Social Club on October 9, which, Brain says, “is grand”. He adds: “The first one I did it at (Hyde Park) Book Club and I sold it out, so I needed a bigger room. I’m deeply thankful that I have that opportunity and people want to support me. I get to play the songs live, which is a dream, really.”

Steady Away is out on Friday October 6. Chris Brain’s tour starts at Northern Quarter, Huddersfield on October 8. https://chrisbrainmusic.com/