Andy Crofts: ‘This album is super sweet and very melodic’

“As a kid I always felt like I looked at pictures differently, and when I was watching films I felt like I could see them differently,” says 43-year-old Crofts, explaining his interest in photography. “That turned out to be my creative eye, I guess, but when I was younger I didn’t know what that was.”

He acquired a second-hand SLR camera in his teens. “I remember walking out of the shop and I put it up to my eye and it was just like, wow,” he recalls. “I couldn’t believe I could focus and the depth of field. So that was it, I felt like I could finally see.”

Among his photographic inspirations are David Bailey, Don McCullen and Ansel Adams, but, he says: “The one I always seem to refer to his Henri Cartier-Bresson. His documentary, real-life style of photography is what I feel closest to.”

When he joined Weller’s band, he says the first thing he did was bring a camera with me. “Whatever I was doing, I was just snapping away. Whether it was as simple as on my phone, a digital camera or an analogue camera. I never intended to do anything else with them...but it got to the point after a few years where my photos were starting to feel a bit more legit, so one day I said to Paul, ‘Do you mind if I take photos of you whenever I want?’ and he was good about it. Obviously I respected his privacy but in general it was a case of I would take them and then one day he said, ‘You should do a book’. I don’t think he meant do a Paul Weller book, I think he meant to do a book of my photography maybe including him in it.

“I tried mixing the photos up a little bit but it didn’t work for me. I couldn’t have a Paul Weller book half-hearted, it has to be Paul. So I simply called it Paul. I like the idea of downplaying it. I could easily go ‘The Modfather’ but I don’t like that. I wanted to keep it really simple.”

Crofts found Weller a willing subject. “Let’s not forget he’s a super famous star with a fantastic career so I’ve already got a good subject there,” he says. “He is an interesting person but he’s also normal, he’s just like the rest of us, so the only thing is...I think it’s the only time a book has been released by a band member so a lot of the photographs are backstage, in dressing rooms or boarding a plane, things like that. Most of the photos aren’t want I would say was brilliant photography...it’s more about observations.

“My idea of photography isn’t about taking photos of somebody loads of times, it’s just me observing their life.”

In recent years, Crofts has shot a couple of Weller’s music videos – most notably, She Moves Through the Fayre, which included his own daughter, Luna – as well as a documentary film. “It’s called One and it’s an hour-long, around-the-world, arty documentary. It’s always been an underground film which is floating around the internet, which is cool.”

Next month sees the return of Crofts’ band The Moons. Pocket Melodies is their first album in six years. “Life got in the way – having two girls, my Paul Weller work, if he says we’re going on tour for a year, I go on tour for a year, things like that have happened. I went through a lot of issues in my own mind thinking about it, should I carry on or should I sack it off? Then I got to the point where I looked through my demos and I thought, I’ve got an album’s worth of songs here so why don’t we try and do something with them?

“So we went into Abbey Road and had one day in there, we cut the album 90 per cent live. We had one day with a string quartet, all in the same room, Studio 2, The Beatles’ room. We cut 14 songs live and did a few finishing touches at Paul Weller’s studio (Black Barn), just double-tracking vocals and a few extra sounds.

“It’s been a long time but I also think we’re not a band that’s in demand in the slightest. We’re very underground, so we can do that and I don’t think it affects anybody.”

The influence of The Kinks and 60s psychedelia is noticeable. Crofts says: “All of my influences are that kind of thing – 50s, 60s, 70s in different things, but the major influences are The Kinks and the Small Faces, The Beatles and Motown, psychedelia and 60s garage. I feel like I’ve had a good training.

“Obviously I love other stuff as well, like the 70s punk movement, but the more melodic side, like the Buzzcocks. I grew up listening to that stuff, and Buddy Holly, and it all went into my head and subconsciously taught me how to write songs. When I started first playing I guess I had a strong ear for melody and this album, I have to admit, is super sweet and very melodic, more than I would normally do, but I just allowed myself to be completely free. I said to myself, ‘If I want these songs to be completely natural then don’t alter them, let them be as poppy and sweet as they are’, and that’s what I’ve done. All of those influences have come into one and I’ve made a really poppy album.”

As well as a song inspired by his old home town, Northampton (The Old Brigade) and his friend Bradley Wiggins, winner of the Tour de France (Riding Man), Pocket Melodies includes Tunnel of Time, which was co-written with Paul Weller.

“Originally Paul sent me a text message, a little voice recording, and he went, ‘Listen to this, I’ve got this little idea’. It was a very rough version and he said, ‘If you ever want to do anything with it...’, basically saying, ‘have a go’. I started playing around with it and nothing very much happened but then we went on tour in America and all around Europe in dressing rooms here and there I’d go in his room and we’d get the guitars out and play it roughly. Not a Lennon and McCartney type of thing, just jamming, and he’d go, ‘what about these chords?’ and likewise.

“On the tour bus I remember I’d written all the lyrics but I’d left the chorus free for him, so I wrote the verses and he wrote the choruses lyrically. It was a 50-50 split, my first ever co-write with Paul, and I’m honoured, it’s a nice little song. Like I said, the album was recorded live, so it’s got a very ambient feel because you’ve got all the instruments going in the string quartet’s mics, but if we were to re-record it one day, we’d maybe do a studio version of it, bigger-sounding.”

Crofts has reactivated his old label Colorama for the album’s release. He’s also working with another artist, Teenage Waitress. “They’ve got an album coming out on October 2 called Love and Chemicals, we’re putting out 300 coloured vinyls and downloads of the album. It’s just a little thing but it’s nice to be able to do that for someone else. And I’m always looking for other people but I’m very picky as well because I haven’t got any money but I still want to enjoy putting something out. So for me it has to be very melodic, very good songs probably similar to The Moons’ style, psychedelic stuff.”

Paul is out on This Day In Music Books, priced £39.99. thisdayinmusicbooks.com/product/paul-weller/. The Moons’ album Pocket Melodies is out on October 23. www.themoons.co.uk