Music > Interviews

Interview with Lee Vann

05/01/12

Jack of all trades, master of none wouldn’t be a fair assumption to place on Lee Vann, winner of our Riverside Music Weekend 2011 competition – it would imply that he wasn’t entirely brilliant at the things he does, and he’s constantly proving that he is. Teacher by day, and one of the hardest working local talents by night, Lee shows us that mastery of his talents is only the starting point…

You broke up on Friday, Lee… I did, yeah.

I’d love that official end of term feeling, which you don’t generally get as an adult – but I guess you do feel that? Yeah, there’s nothing like finishing on Friday and thinking you don’t have to go back to work for two weeks!

So you spend your days as a teacher Lee… Yeah, I teach a lot of different subjects; I coordinate an alternative curriculum, so I teach boxing, first aid, work skills – loads of different bits and pieces. All short courses for kids that don’t necessarily have a leaning towards more academic subjects.

Where do you do that? City Academy, Norwich, which was previously Earlham High School. I’ve been there about seven years, so I’ve seen all of the changes and how it used to be, and now it’s amazing. Everyone’s worked really hard to get to the standard we’re at and we’re on the verge of hitting an outstanding target, which makes me proud.

I have to ask about something on your Facebook page, Lee; someone called Jane became teary because apparently you gave her a very special night last night. Would you like to elaborate on that…?! Haha, yeah, I got asked to play somebody’s birthday party and I was her surprise. As I turned up she burst into tears and ran up to her Dad to thank him for getting Lee Vann for her birthday, so that was an amazing gig!

Is that the first time you’ve been someone’s birthday present? No, I’ve done it quite a few times now actually, and I’ve also played a wedding earlier this year. They kept it a secret that I was playing the whole time, and kept it going the whole day, then as they finished their dinner I started playing and they went crazy because they’d been telling their friends about me, that they’d heard me playing, so I felt a little bit famous for a moment!

I don’t think I could present myself as a Christmas present – no-one would be very pleased I don’t think; I don’t quite have that much power! I felt a bit strange about it all, but it was nice!

Lee, you’re a solo artist, but have you ever had the back up of a band? Yeah, I used to play in loads of bands. I played drums in a band since I was seventeen and I played guitar in different bands, you name it, but then I went solo a couple of years ago and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. So mostly I play by myself now and have a couple of session musicians who play with me when I do the bigger gigs.

So you don’t miss that back-up then, having someone else to blame? Oh don’t get me wrong, I used to love sitting behind a drum kit not having to worry about anything else like speaking to the audience, or interacting that way. I used to feel safe behind the drums, just finishing a gig that way, but I’ve made the transition and I’m trying to learn to engage more with the audience, because it’s a lot more than just singing, isn’t it? It’s something I’ve definitely got better at over the years. I have a lot of banter with people that come to watch me now, which is good because people feel a bit more involved.

Your influences, as listed on Facebook are predominantly of a bygone generation, but what’s your attitude towards new music? I appreciate the talent of a lot of artists and I wouldn’t say that I like every type of music – like I’m not a massive fan of hip hop or R’n’B, but I appreciate where it comes from. I certainly take influence from that and there are loads of amazing artists out there at the moment, so it’s good to see how they’ve changed things, and how music has changed. I’ve taken a step back in terms of genres of music and I keep my eye on what’s happening in the music industry without having to be a part of it all.

Listening to some of your tracks, I can hear a funk rhythm running through a few of them, and you list blues, funk and rock as big influences on you – does this come from your childhood listening experiences? Yeah, I think mainly from being a drummer and trying to experience as many different types of drumming as possible and the way it switches for different bands. 

Being a multi-instrumentalist, what’s the songwriting process like for you? Is it drums first, if that’s a more natural element for you? Erm, it varies for me really. A lot of people can say, ‘I write the lyrics, then I come up with the melody, come up with the guitar part’, and so on and so forth, but I change every single time I write a song. Sometimes I’ll knock out about four or five different tracks off the bat, then I might have five or six months where I don’t write anything, so it just depends. I’m not a lyrics man first – I couldn’t sit there with a pad and just write lyrics out, I’m not that type of person, but I can come up with the guitar part, then add some lyrics, then I’ll hear the drums and the bass and all that come in.

And these lyrics, are they something that floats round your outer consciousness anyway, then they filter through, or do you think, ‘right, I know I’ve got a topic I want to talk about…’? I think depending on the music that comes first, that will guide me in the way that I want the songs to write, but they’re generally all about past experiences – things that I’ve seen or heard. I’ve got some really intricate lyrics that people really have to listen to, to hear the double meaning.

I read actually that you were thinking about incorporating some of your lyrics into your full sleeve tattoo – did you decide what to have? Yeah, well the whole arm is based on my songs and this [showing his tattoo] was the first song I was quite proud of. One of my lyrics is ‘pockets of queens’, here’s a wave for the song, ‘Broken Waves’, so there’s lots of different bits really. I love personal tattoos; a lot of people have generic tattoos, but nobody else in the world can say they’ve got this.

It’s an exciting time for you, because you’ve got your EP Launch in January – have you been sitting on this material for quite a while? As I say, I’ve been a solo artist for the last couple of years, and I’ve had a couple of songs – well I’ve got a handful of songs, but I went for a couple that I had, then tried to make enough for an EP and as soon as they were ready, I wanted to get them out, recorded to a decent enough standard, and get them out there.

Have you spent a lot of time in the studio before? Mainly session drumming, but not a hell of a lot… not enough to make it a really fast, easy, enjoyable experience! When I recorded it, I played everything myself, which was a completely brand new experience for me. I hadn’t even worked out all the parts until I got in there!

That’s a daunting experience then, when you’ve paid for your time, and you’re working with professionals – how did you approach your time in there? I had in my head the basic idea of exactly what I wanted to do, so I thought I’d go in there – I’d already recorded a couple of guide tracks on the guitar so that I had something to play to on the drums, so as soon as that was done, I tried to do each instrument individually, then give myself a bit of time for tweaking. It was a fantastic experience; I put a lot of pressure on myself to be a perfectionist, but I was happy with what came out of it.

Are you excited about getting in there again? Are there plans for an album? Yeah, well I’ve just been writing some more material, so as soon as I’ve launched the EP and that’s circulating, I’ll perhaps look at recording some singles and getting them out there – then perhaps another EP and I’m looking at working on an album, perhaps in the next year.

Are you putting your EP out through anybody? Do you have ties with Tilting Sky? I’ve no ties, but they helped me promote this event and Craig has been fantastic with doing that, but I’m releasing the EP through a friend who’s got a label. He’s in the band Chasing Tigers, and he’s helped me out quite a lot.

Being a multi-instrumentalist, where does the proficiency come from? You’re not one of these enviable people who says, ‘I just picked it up’, are you? Yeah, it was a little bit of that, yeah! One year I asked for a drum kit for Christmas, then the next year I wanted a guitar, so taught myself that as well, then it was a similar thing with bass, violin…

Starting with drums though, you must’ve had supportive parents. You might not have started your musical journey at all if they hadn’t said yes to the drums! Yeah, it was a whole year of me badgering my Mum saying, ‘you need to get me this, Mum!’

You jumped in at the last minute to play the Riverside Music Weekend before winning it – that shows a strong work ethic, is that important to you? Yes, very much so; you’ll always see my name around in Norwich and I’m constantly advertising things on Facebook because I’m always trying to play anywhere and everywhere… much to the disappointment of my missus! She fought it – I wasn’t allowed to play that day, but we went down to Riverside for some food and to watch anyway, then I was approached, so I played! I’ll take any gig; I try to play as much as I can because you don’t get anywhere sitting on your backside.

You promote events as well, and regularly do well attended events down at The Rivergarden, so you’ve obviously got a good feeling towards the Norwich music scene… I love the scene; I think it’s so fantastic. I think there are so many talented people that I wouldn’t be surprised if any of them were snapped up. With The Rivergarden thing, I always try to get acts that I’ve seen, or heard of who are talented, and through that they get a lot of promotion.

Did you feel like your Riverside Music Weekend gig was a winning performance? It was a bit of a blur for me really, because I literally had about half an hour to set up, play, then I’d finished! I got a fantastic response from the people who stayed and watched, so yeah, it went well. I saw a few of the other bands and they played really well.

Looking forward, is there any artist’s career – not their sound – but their career that you’d like to emulate? I don’t want to jump on the Ed Sheeran bandwagon, but I feel I have to, because he’s not someone who’s a karaoke singer, he’s not someone talented who quickly made it big, you know, he worked his backside off touring as much as possible, released a bit of material, he did collaborations – he did everything properly. If I got rewarded for my hard work, I’d be really happy with that. I used to play some of his stuff in my lessons and I’d say, ‘you’ll enjoy this!’ because he covers all genres, then they started saying, ‘Sir, have you heard this guy Ed Sheeran?!’ I’d say, ‘Yeah!’

How do your students feel about you playing music? Are they supportive? Yeah, they are, yeah; I did the Chapelfield Lights switch on and some of them turned up for that – they’re really supportive actually. It’s a shame I work in schools really, because a tour in schools would’ve been a good thing to do.

2011 was a good year for you. I imagine playing a spot at Playfest was quite a highlight, but what else was going on? I think recording the EP was the best experience, then supporting The Barlights at the Waterfront was a really good gig. Generally though, I’ve met some amazing people over the last year, that I really look forward to next year.

You’re starting off the gig in the right way, with the EP Launch, but what else have you got planned? Well I thought it was quite dangerous, doing the launch in January, but to have it sell out was crazy. I think hopefully to play more outside Norfolk is my biggest goal; I’ve got some gigs booked in Essex and Leeds and places like that, so hopefully I can take my music to other places some more.

Lee Vann’s EP Launch falls on 13th January at the NAC, the same date as its digital release on most major download sites. The gig sold out in four weeks, but keep your ears out for returns.