Singer-songwriter Van Walker has just released his first solo album in a decade. Tomatrax caught up with Van to talk about his latest work.
You're just about to release your latest album, how does it feel to have it finished?
A mix of relief and apprehension, like any release, but maybe more so with this, the subject being so personal and the project taking a long time to finish.
It's been a decade since your last solo album, what made you decide now was the time to go solo again?
I think it being a decade made me realise I needed to do one, though it was only half that time when I started!
Where did the title Ghosting come from?
Ghosting is the term for leaving without saying goodbye, which was the obvious title for this collection of songs. Naming an album is often difficult because one can't pocket a group of songs, but this title was almost the only option I had.
Being in lockdown I didn't have a lot of options, so I simply worked with the limited options I had and tried to make the visuals fit the narrative of the song.
You sighted DH Lawrence as a major influence, how did his work influence the music in your latest record, and have you ever considered setting any of his work to music?
I haven't but I love Lawrence's prose and poetry, and philosophy, and I think his work would be wonderful with music, tho I certainly don't think it needs it. Lawrence was all about human individuation through "Full, bitter, conscious realisation" of our existence, and that involves constantly tearing away the veil of a certain civilized delusion and accepting our true nature.
You have also performed in front of the Livingstone Daisies, how does performing solo compare with being in a band?
It can be a little lonely playing solo, as music is such a fun group activity, however solo can be far more free and cohesive.
Do you ever listen to your own music?
Making an album requires so much work listening that by the time it's ready for the public, I'm finished with listening to it for a good while. But I think albums work as a record of a certain time, and they really come alive and make more sense in hindsight.
What other music do you listen to?
I enjoy blues, country, rocknroll and pop. So much it's impossible to group. But often I won't listen to music when I'm writing and working on my own. Silence breeds new music.
What do you have planned once the album is out?
Hopefully I'll soon be able to perform the album in front of live audience again and get around the country and see all my friends again, but until then it'll be live streaming and online clips. One of my many bands, The Swedish Magazines, has a Best Of coming out next, and then an album I've produced by Mitch Dillon.